Month: September 2026

By Terry Camp

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    SAGINAW, Michigan (WJRT) — Two boys living in a Saginaw home have no school to attend as the new school year begins.

Sam Restifo says the children, now 14 and 12 years old, were dropped off at his home in February 2025 by a woman he did not know. He has been caring for them ever since in a home on Holland Avenue that currently has no running water or electricity.

“They have nobody, the mom is missing pretty much, they have no dads that are in their life, never had Christmas presents,” Restifo said.

The home was owned by a friend of Restifo’s who passed away five years ago. Restifo says he has been trying to save the home but faces challenges.

Restifo and his family members say they have reached out for help trying to get the two boys enrolled in school as the new year starts. They have been told without guardianship papers, they cannot get them enrolled in a district.

“I’m not a parent, I can’t do anything for it,” Restifo said.

He says the mother is not helping. The last time he spoke with her, she said she was working for a carnival.

Restifo believes the mother still lives in Michigan. He says the boys’ former principal from a Bay City school has had police check on the boys, and police have come, but nothing changes. Child Protective Services has been to the home as well.

“They ended up giving me a six month power of attorney, said I could get them into school with it, and the school said no,” Restifo said.

Restifo says he owns a gutter company, but times are tough. There has been no running water at the home for some time, and recently, the power was shut off. He is using a generator for now.

Restifo’s main goal now is to get the children into a school together.

“They are terrified of being separated, they have no one but each other, and me,” Restifo said.

Restifo and his family have been trying to get into the Carrollton or Bridgeport school districts, but so far have had no luck. ABC12 reached out to Child Protective Services about this situation but did not hear back.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Jack Mulvaney

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    HOLMEN, Wisconsin (WXOW) — Portions of the Black River along Highway 35 have dried up as the river naturally reroutes through Tank Creek.

The Black River flows nearly 200 miles before reaching the Mississippi River. But along Highway 35, part of that journey is changing as the river shifts its course through an area known as Tank Creek.

“We’re really watching history in the making here with this change,” said Meghan Jensen, a conservation warden in Trempealeau County.

Jensen said rivers naturally change course over time, and this shift has become increasingly visible in recent years. While much of the old channel is now exposed, it remains an active habitat.

“This is still a natural environment. It’s still habitat to many different animals, some we can see, some we can’t see,” Jensen said. “So, it’s very important that we do our part to protect that habitat.”

Visitors are welcome to explore the exposed riverbed on foot, but wardens say motor vehicles are prohibited.

“It’s illegal to operate a motor vehicle on the bed of a navigable waterway or its exposed bed,” said Trevor Tracey, a conservation warden in La Crosse County. “So, we’re seeing a lot of ATV, UTV vehicle traffic, and we’re trying to not have that occur.”

Tracey said wardens will continue patrolling the riverbed and enforcing the restriction. Violations can result in citations, and vehicles also risk becoming stuck in the exposed riverbed.

Wardens urge visitors to leave no trace, use caution around remaining pools of water and respect property lines, as the area includes both private and federally owned land.

If water does not regularly return to the old channel, Jensen said the landscape could continue to change as vegetation takes hold.

“Like we see on this sand bank now, we’re having vegetation start growing,” Jensen said. “If there’s an absence of water, we can just see that natural succession of maybe willow trees and other water, wetland types of trees and shrubs.”

The change does not extend across the entire Black River. Upstream along Highway 53, the river continues to flow normally. Along Highway 35, much of the water is simply taking a different route through Tank Creek.

For now, the exposed riverbed offers a unique look at a river naturally reshaping itself. Wardens say spring flooding typically brings water back into the channel, and they will be watching to see how the river changes next spring.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Luzdelia Caballero, Michele Gile

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    LONG BEACH, California (KCAL, KCBS) — The powerful waves from Hurricane Marie continued to push water and sand into Southern California’s beach communities.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Long Beach resident Heidi Buehler said.

Buehler said the high surf continuously chipped away at the seawall next to her neighborhood, pushing sand and water into the street.

“It flooded pretty bad. The sand came in through our street and just kept coming and coming and coming,” Buehler said. “The water came up this high last night. And so, we put sandbags here. I sandbagged my neighbor’s garage as well.

The sand also buried some cars in Kamila Svorobic’s neighborhood near the boardwalk.

“There were cars buried, so I was like, let’s go help the community,” she said.

Long Beach city staff said that 12 garages were inundated with water and two homes got water inside.

Svorobic and dozens of others stepped in to help their neighbors and add more protection to their homes.

“We’ve all been prepping and tryin to help the neighborhood from being out underwater,” she said. “It’s been pretty wild.”

The powerful waves also worsened erosion along Malibu’s coastline, with residents saying the high surf washed away about 30 feet of sand.

“Old-timers are looking at Westward Beach and saying, ‘We’ve never seen this.’ This is crazy,” said veteran journalist Hans Laetz, who has been covering Malibu and its environmental challenges for more than a decade.

Aerial footage showed waves clawing at the underbelly of Malibu’s portion of the Pacific Coast Highway. The area was left exposed after the Palisades Fire destroyed the homes and buildings that protected the roadway.

“On one hand, the PCH itself is the lifeblood of Malibu,” said Abe Roy, a developer and member of Malibu’s rebuilding commission. “If something happens, even a small section of PCH, even 10-20 foot section of PCH, if it goes down, then everything stops.”

In Orange County, Hurricane Marie delivered more big waves to beaches for the third straight day as hundreds came to the Balboa Peninsula to watch surfers.

Lifeguards said the conditions calmed down on Monday but still left behind dangerous conditions at the end of the Labor Day weekend. They said they gave out 7,200 warnings and rescued 190 people from the ocean.

“Since Saturday was one of the first times in recent memory I could recall having red flag conditions from one end of Newport Beach to the other end of Newport Beach,” Battalion Chief Adam Yacenda said.

Waves at Aliso Beach moved tons of sand into the parking lot, forcing it to close as crews cleared it out.

The storm surges also chipped away at the Giles family’s patio and yard in Laguna Beach, forcing inspectors to yellow-tag part of the property.

“A lot of deterioration,” Heather Giles said. “There is not a lot left behind the wall. The wall itself has several more cracks in it. Several more places where it has weakened. It’s still holding. That’s all we can say. It’s still holding.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Melissa May

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KOVR) — Each morning before most cars pull up to the Arco gas station on Sutterville Road in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood, Bobby Singh’s already been at work inside, rolling out a customer favorite.

His job starts early, already prepping for the day ahead by 5 a.m. While customers fill up on regular gas outside the store, ordering a regular inside means something else.

A regular frosted cinnamon roll here costs $6, while one with nuts or apples costs a bit more.

For three years, Singh enjoyed making dough at his job for all three kinds of the beloved Sutterville cinnamon rolls, made fresh daily at this Arco, formerly a 76 gas station.

“The dough is yeast, wheat flour, butter, cinnamon,” Singh said.

He knows the recipe by heart after three years. This location’s been offering fresh spinners cinnamon rolls with the same recipe for 30 years.

Even when owners or the gas station name changed, the recipe and rolls stayed. Customers kept coming.

Terry Maxwell is a longtime customer and says the rolls are “fantastic, one of the best in the area.”

“I came in here to get gas, saw cinnamon rolls, the rest is history,” Maxwell continued.

Singh remains modest about his efforts, preferring the spotlight be on the sweets.

The most sold in a day, he recalls, was 500 rolls at Thanksgiving. If you want to try one, get there before they sell out, which can sometimes be by 1 p.m.

While the cinnamon rolls are big sellers, the gas station bakery also offers muffins and cookies, too.

“It’s the same process, but cookies cook about 11-12 minutes,” Singh said.

The rolls can take an hour after the dough rises to roll out before slicing and baking.

Singh said he enjoys the work, and the neighborhood enjoys this station to fill up. While nearby landmarks like the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town may be more well known, customers say this spot is just as sweet.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.