Month: October 2026

By Aki Nace, Adam Duxter

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    MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday accused 10 people who are not U.S. citizens of voter fraud offenses in Minnesota.

The charges include nine counts of illegal voting by a non-citizen and nine counts of making a false claim of citizenship to vote, according to Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Blanche made the announcement at a White House press conference. He said the 10 accused illegally voted in the general elections of 2022, 2024 and the August 2026 primary. The people charged are citizens of Brazil, Ghana, Bosnia, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, South Africa and Liberia.

“Voter fraud erodes a public’s trust in our electoral system and it’s vital to our democratic process that we do everything we can to restore that trust,” he said.

Since President Trump took office again in 2025, the Department of Justice has charged 90 people with voter-related fraud offenses, including 50 people in the last five weeks.

“In Minnesota, if you’re not a citizen, do not try to vote. We will prosecute you. If you’re convicted, you’ll face jail time and consequences,” said U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his office is currently investigating 1,600 cases of alleged voter fraud.

According to the DOJ, a conviction for falsely claiming citizenship in order to vote carries a maximum prison term of five years. Voting as a foreign national is a misdemeanor, and carries a maximum prison term of one year.

“Minnesota is widely known for outstanding voter participation, election security, and overall election administration. These indictments affirm the fact that noncitizen voting is a vanishingly rare crime. If these indictments result in convictions, that will amount to ten individuals over a period in which around 8.5 million votes were cast in Minnesota,” the Secretary of State’s Office said.

Also during the press conference, Blanche said his office filed a judicial misconduct complaint against federal judges in Minnesota who recently spoke to the New York Times about Operation Metro Surge and the Trump administration’s disregard for court orders.

Blanche said the claims in the article were “not even true and blatantly false,” and asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to conduct an investigation and said the judges should recuse themselves from any case involving the Department of Homeland Security.

Rebeccah Parks, the public information officer for the U.S. District Court, said the judges “were acting well within the ethical rules.”

Professor Richard Painter at the University of Minnesota Law School agrees, saying the judges will likely move forward with their caseload.

“There’s no grounds for an ethics complaint when a judge is not talking about a pending case,” Painter said. “These judges were simply speaking their minds about what they thought about the conduct of the U.S. government before their courts.”

Attorney General Keith Ellison said Blanche’s comments were a “desperate and dangerous attack on American judicial independence.”

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 Marissa Sulek

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    WONDER LAKE, Illinois (WBBM) — A $1,000 Homeowners Association fee hike could be coming to a McHenry County village.

While some residents say it’s too much, others say it’s necessary.

In Wonder Lake, people live there for all kinds of reasons, whether they were born there, are close to everything they need, or the affordability.

But whether they live right on the water or miles from it, there’s one thing these 5,500 lots have in common — they all pay a Master Property Owners Association fee — or MPOA — which helps maintain the lake and its dam.

Right now, that fee is $44 a year. The new proposal? Nearly $1,000.

For some homeowners, especially those who don’t live on the water, that’s a hard number to swallow.

Sue Rose and Melinda Boyle live blocks from the lake.

“And I have two lots, so it’s per lot. So it would cost me $2,000 for the privilege of being on a lake that I have no access to,” Rose said.

“It would cause us probably to move,” Boyle said.

Ann Freeman with the MPOA says this increase is long overdue.

“And shame on us, with the MPOA, with charging $44 all these years and not saying, ‘you know, that’s a mistake,'” she said. “We want them to understand that they live on a private lake in a beautiful area of Illinois and they haven’t been paying anything for it.”

She says the association should have been building up its reserves for years. The money would go toward things like dredging and eventually replacing the dam.

The MPOA says the life expectancy of the dam is 50 to 100 years. Theirs is 97 years old. They fear it could break down any day and they would have no money to pay for it and it costs a lot.

“We have rough estimates of $90 million truly to replace the entire thing,” Freeman said.

She says they only have $60,000 in reserves right now.

“I don’t want to force anythi­­­­ng on these people in my subdivision,” said David Crook.

Crook has the luxury of living on the private lake. He says he could front $1,000, but others in his subdivision don’t have that view and should pay less.

That’s the problem for Rose.

“I’ll do whatever I can to try and fight this. If we have to take it to court, that’s what we are going to do,” she said.

She, along with others, wonders whether they’ll be able to afford to stay.

The MPOA will vote on the proposal in two weeks.

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 Steve Pickett, Marvin Hurst

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    DALLAS, Texas (KTVT) — It’s the end of an era for Neiman Marcus, as the Dallas-founded fashion retailer closed the doors to its flagship location in the heart of downtown on Wednesday evening.

The store’s closing, however, drew in plenty of shoppers in for one last look around, one final peek at the window displays, and perhaps one more meal inside the store’s Zodiac room.

For more than 100 years, the flagship Neiman Marcus store has been Dallas’ diamond of glamor, high fashion, and cultural significance. Jay Johnson grew up visiting it.

“My grandparents started bringing me in the 1970’s,” he told CBS News Texas. “It’s sad for such an iconic store.”

For Candace Jenkins, one final visit was a must.

“It’s sad. This dynamic and monumental store is closing,” she said.

“It is Dallas,” Johnson echoed. “When you read the history of the Marcus family, it’s been in downtown all these years. It’s part of the fabric of Dallas.”

Woven into Dallas history Neiman Marcus is not leaving Dallas; it’s just closing down the Main Street location, where it’s been since 1914. The company’s NorthPark Center location remains open.

Michael Hazel, a Dallas historian, has chronicled much of the city’s history for decades. He said that, for much of the 20th century, the city embraced the work of the fashion staple’s leader, Stanley Marcus, credited for stitching and weaving in civic pride with high-fashion grace and style at the flagship store.

“It was always iconic in Dallas,” Hazel said. “Neiman was the last to stay, who stuck it out, who stayed downtown.”

“It was the reputation of Neiman Marcus,” Hazel added, “and at that time, the focus was on the downtown store, because it was the only one, it was.”

For years, the Downtown Dallas flagship has struggled. But beyond that, it was the image of Dallas taste and flair, a destination site for world visitors.

And on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, customers and admirers gave the downtown icon one final farewell.

“It’s a staple. It’s a staple of downtown Dallas,” Laura Ramirez said. “So to see it go, it saddens me.”

Inside, the history remained visible.

The building’s seven floors include architectural details preserved across generations, from its elevators and walls to Art Deco clocks.

Customer Jon McClellan said much of what made the flagship distinctive could easily be missed from the sidewalk.

“I think that this specific store has some architecture that, unless you go inside, you don’t get a chance to appreciate,” McClellan said.

Fashion filmmaker and historian Hayley Chow sees the store as something even larger — a piece of Dallas’ cultural identity.

“And so to me, this Neiman’s is our Tiffany’s to New York City,” Chow said.

Over the decades, the store was associated with fashion and Hollywood figures including Grace Kelly, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and Sophia Loren, she said.

Chow worries that history could disappear along with the store.

“My generation, I’m a millennial, doesn’t care enough,” she said. “And I feel like this is not public knowledge to my generation.”

Generations of Dallas memories For many customers, the loss is less about luxury retail than family tradition.

Amber Pickens remembers her mother bringing her downtown for the Neiman Marcus parade, visits with Santa, trips to the Zodiac Room and photographs in front of the Christmas tree.

“Definitely joy,” Pickens said.

Those experiences, she said, are part of a Dallas history worth preserving and passing on.

“Dallas loses a lot of history when we don’t keep these historic landmarks up,” Pickens said. “When we don’t keep it up and keep telling these stories, then the next generation doesn’t know.”

What happens to the Neiman Marcus building now? With the store closed, attention turns to what becomes of the historic downtown property.

The future of the seven-story building remains one of the biggest questions following the closure.

“To be honest, the whole time I was sitting in there, I was a little curious, what are they going to do with this?” McClellan said. “What do you go ahead and repurpose this for if it’s not going to be for a department store?”

For now, the building remains — along with more than a century of memories inside it.

On its final day, pipers played bagpipes and walked around the outside of the building as customers and employees made their way out one last time.

A black-tie crooner belted out “My Way,” and the store closed down after 6 p.m. This time, when the doors closed behind them, Neiman Marcus in Downtown Dallas was closed for good.

The changing fabric of downtown The closing of the flagship Neiman Marcus store is just one example of the season of change underway in Downtown Dallas, something observed by visitor Charlotte Jenkins.

“Sometimes, it’s just time to move,” she said. “Downtown has to move faster, be more competitive, so we can attract the next wave of growth.”

Downtown Dallas Inc. shared a status report on Wednesday morning, focusing on how the city’s center is being re-imagined. The organization promotes and pushes development downtown. Its vision for the urban core involves reinvesting in the soon-to-be-vacated AT&T headquarters as the telecom giant moves to a new campus in Plano.

The organization also says a mix of new life can be expected for buildings like the city’s highest skyscraper: the Bank of America building. Additionally, Downtown Dallas Inc. said there will be additions to the residential part of downtown, which should lead to more people living there. Chris Beynon, an urban planner, says these plans are about “ultimately doubling the downtown population”.

“Reimagining our downtown economy has to be in these spaces,” he said, “where we are thinking about the future, all of these things.”

Richard Marvin is one of the more than 100,000 or so people who work or live in the downtown area. He believes downtown is still a core asset for Dallas.

“I think as it becomes more of a residential area, with businesses moving in like Y’all Street, this is key infrastructure that will be used in ways,” he said.

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 Dave Carlin

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    NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — As crimes targeting older adults continue to rise across New York City, officials on Staten Island launched a new initiative Wednesday aimed at helping seniors recognize and avoid fraud.

The Richmond County District Attorney’s Office unveiled the “Scambassador Initiative” program, which is recruiting volunteers to educate older adults and their families about common schemes and warning signs.

Officials said criminals are increasingly targeting seniors through online schemes designed to gain access to their bank accounts.

Some suspects pose as friends or family members in need, asking victims to send money through cash transfers, gift cards or electronic payment services.

One victim, Leo Falk, said he was contacted online by someone claiming to be a friend experiencing an emergency.

“I didn’t know someone can take over the email,” Falk said. “So I sent money.”

Falk said he was unable to recover the funds.

Authorities also warned about a growing number of jewelry schemes in which strangers approach older adults and offer to inspect or clean necklaces, bracelets or other valuables. The suspects then steal the items or replace them with counterfeit jewelry.

“From the jewelry robberies to the scams, it continues to go on, and that’s why we need strong ambassadors,” Richmond County District Attorney Michael McMahon said.

Officials are also warning residents about “bank account compromised” schemes, in which fraudsters contact victims by phone, email or text message claiming their accounts have been hacked in order to convince victims to share sensitive information or transfer money.

Authorities said seniors should also remain vigilant during Medicare open enrollment season, when criminals often impersonate insurance representatives in an attempt to get their personal information.

Development Corp. “Don’t respond to those kinds of queries.”

Officials offered several reminders to help residents avoid becoming victims:

– Caller ID can be spoofed and should not be trusted on its own. – Wiring money is the equivalent of sending cash and is difficult to recover. – Requests for payment by gift card are a major red flag.

Scambassadors said anyone asking for payment through gift cards should be treated with suspicion.

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 Adi Guajardo, Elijah Westbrook

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    NEW YORK, New York (WCBS) — A man died Wednesday after he was stabbed on board a subway train in Queens, police say.

The NYPD said a 25-year-old man is in custody and is considered a person of interest.

It happened on a northbound J train around 5:30 p.m.

Police say the 59-year-old victim was stabbed multiple times in the neck and chest. Police sources initially said the attack appeared to be unprovoked, but police later said the victim was stabbed after getting into some kind of argument.

Officers were sent to the Woodhaven Boulevard subway station, where they found the victim unconscious and unresponsive. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity has not yet been released.

Crime scene tape, a knife and bloody clothing could be seen at the subway station as officers investigated.

Surveillance video taken around the time of the attack shows commuters rushing down the station stairs, appearing panicked. Then, a person wearing all black is seen walking down the stairs and crossing the street at a nearby corner.

Video shows a group of people appearing to point at the person walking away, then running to follow the individual.

Police have not shared a description of the person of interest who was taken into custody.

Police sources say the person appears to be emotionally disturbed.

“It’s shocking to me,” subway rider Trayvon Leonard said. “I was not expecting to come off the train to a stabbing.”

“It’s pretty crazy because, I mean, I ride this train every single day,” another rider said. “I don’t know if I’m going to have to, like, get something to defend myself, which is honestly kind of crazy to even have to think about.”

Police say the person of interest is being questioned, but charges have not yet been filed.

The victim’s name has not been released as officers work to notify his family. The investigation is ongoing.

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 Ricky Sayer

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    PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — A woman accused of taking a donation box filled with hundreds of dollars from a veterinary hospital in the South Hills last week was arrested.

Pleasant Hills police charged a Baldwin woman with theft by unlawful taking, officers told KDKA-TV on Wednesday night. The department said it could not yet share the individual’s name.

The donated funds totaled around $500, according to Dr. Ashley Smith-Miller, the owner and veterinarian at Pet Vet 365 South Hills. The money was for the Pet Vet 365 Daisy Fund, which helps pets that need financial assistance to receive medical care.

“Any robbery is bad, but just taking it from animals just seems so much worse,” Smith-Miller said.

Video shared with KDKA-TV shows a woman walking in, grabbing the donation box, putting it under a piece of clothing, then walking out last Friday.

“It felt almost like a violation, a gut punch, really, and just kind of disbelief because you want to believe that people are good. But you know in this day and age, I guess anything’s tempting,” Smith-Miller said.

The clinic shared the video on Facebook on Wednesday in the hopes of finding the person responsible. Unbeknownst to them, police had already located who they believe took the cash and made an arrest.

“I feel good,” Smith-Miller said. “It’s still sad, and it’s still sad that those funds are gone. My hope is that this will bring attention to the Daisy Fund, and we’ll be able to have more donations so we can help more pets.”

Asked whether she plans to make any changes in the future, she called the experience an awakening, adding that the vet hospital has learned a lesson in securing donations and not keeping the bulk of funds up front.

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 Stephanie Stahl and web staff

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    LANCASTER COUNTY, Pennsylvania (KYW) — An unvaccinated resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who tested positive for measles has died, state health officials said Wednesday.

This is the fifth measles-associated death in the state so far this year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

In 2026, Pennsylvania has reported a total of 943 cases across 39 counties. That includes 40 new cases reported since Monday.

Measles outbreak linked to dropping vaccination rates, doctor says Dr. Lawrence Livornese, an infectious disease specialist at Main Line Health, said the cases reflect decreasing vaccination rates in some areas.

In Philadelphia, where 94.5% of kindergarteners have received the MMR vaccination, which protects against measles, no cases of the disease have been reported. In Lancaster County, the vaccination rate is 85%. That county leads the state with 381 cases of measles in 2026.

“In a population where people are susceptible, about 9 in every 10 people who are susceptible and are exposed to someone with measles will develop measles,” Livornese said.

Pennsylvania now leads the nation with the highest number of measles cases so far this year.

“It’s not the kind of thing you want to be No. 1 in, that’s for sure,” Livornese said.

Livornese said hospitals are taking precautions, including educating front-line workers about the early symptoms of measles, which can be flu-like.

Measles vaccine The measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine is safe and remains the best way to protect against measles, health officials say. The measles outbreak has prompted a growing number of people to get vaccinated.

State healthcare centers have administered more than 5,500 MMR vaccinations since April in communities affected by the outbreak, and nurses have given more than 8,500 doses of the vaccine at pop-up clinics across Pennsylvania.

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 Tom Dougherty, Alicia Roberts

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — An 83-year-old woman is in the hospital after being struck by stray gunfire during a shooting in North Philadelphia, police said.

The victim was sitting on her porch when she was shot twice in the stomach around 5:30 p.m. in the 2300 block of North Gratz Street, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and placed in stable condition.

Small said the shooting involved two vehicles, including a stolen blue sedan. Police preliminarily believe it may have been a shootout between two people or two groups of people, Small said.

Cameras caught the entire incident, according to Small. He said video shows a blue sedan was driving eastbound on Dauphin Street before stopping at Gratz and Dauphin streets. A man got out of the vehicle and opened fire in the northbound direction, Small said. The alleged shooter then got back into the sedan and was last seen going eastbound toward 18th Street.

Police found an abandoned vehicle on the north side of the 2300 block of North Gratz Street with multiple bullet holes, Small said.

Small said a gun was found inside the vehicle.

Over 40 shots were fired during the shooting, Small said.

No arrests have been made.

The investigation remains active and ongoing, and police are asking anyone with information to contact them at 215-686-8477.

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 Gustavo Atencio Flores, Aaron Parseghian

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    FALL RIVER, Masschusetts (WBZ) — Hundreds of clergy members of the Worcester, Springfield and Fall River Catholic dioceses abused nearly 1,000 children over the course of decades, an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office found.

The investigation, beginning in 2019, detailed evidence that 270 clergy members abused nearly 1,000 children across all three dioceses for around 70 years, with some cases dating as far back as the 1950s, Attorney General Andrea Campbell said at a press conference Wednesday.

“For years, the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester knew that children were being abused by priests, and they did not do what they should have done to stop it,” Campbell said during the press conference. “Instead, too often they protected the reputation of the church, rather than protecting children.”

The report demonstrated repeated failure by church leadership to properly respond to allegations of child sexual abuse by their priests, in some cases transferring accused priests to other parishes and dioceses without disclosing the reason and failing to report allegations to police.

“Priests were deeply trusted in their communities, and offending priests took advantage of that trust,” Campbell said. “They used their authority and their access to children to abuse them.”

Massachusetts report on Catholic clergy members All three dioceses established offices dedicated to child protection and victim assistance and adopted new procedures for investigating allegations, following the exposure of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Diocese by The Boston Globe in 2002. According to the attorney general’s office, those procedures have not been consistently followed.

The attorney general’s office referred three of the cases to Worcester County, Hampden County and Bristol County district attorney’s offices for criminal prosecution. In the Worcester referral, criminal charges were filed in the district court, according to Campbell.

The remaining cases will not bring criminal charges due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, and, in some cases, the conduct identified was not illegal in Massachusetts at the time, Campbell said.

Campbell’s office is calling on the dioceses of Worcester, Springfield and Fall River to take additional steps to protect children and improve their response to survivors.

“We hope that these recommendations do not end with the Catholic dioceses, but are also utilized as a measurement for all groups, schools and youth organizations,” Bishop of Springfield William D. Byrne said in a statement Wednesday. “We are committed to working with the Attorney General’s Office, our local District Attorneys, and law enforcement to become a trusted ally in protecting all youth.”

The attorney general’s office also called for the Worcester Diocese to create and maintain a publicly accessible list of credibly accused clergy members, a practice followed in every other diocese in Massachusetts.

“We will study the AG’s report to identify any additional improvements that can be made to respond to victims of past abuse and to continue to strengthen efforts to keep children safe,” Bishop of Worcester Robert J. McManus said in a statement released Wednesday.

“It’s about time my story be told” Edna Wallace, a woman who said she was sexually abused as a 10-year-old orphan by a nun in Worcester, told WBZ-TV that she hopes this report will bring closure to victims.

“It’s going to give me some closure, because I am 67 now, and it’s about time my story be told,” Wallace said. “There needs to be a stop to it and if I can help it, I will help.”

Some are not content with the lack of named clergy members disclosed in the attorney general’s report. The leaders of Bishop Accountability, a group that tracks and names clergy members credibly accused of sexual abuse, told WBZ-TV that this is a strong step forward, but not enough.

“To know that they have found so many more and not identified them, not talked about those cases, is hugely disappointing to us and probably to the survivors aswell,” said Bishop Accountability co-director Terry McKiernan.

“We commend [Campbell] for urging Bishop McManus to release his list of accused priests. He is one of the only bishops in the United States to still be withholding this information,” added Bishop Accountability co-director Anne Barrett Doyle.

Why names weren’t included in report The attorney general’s office listed grand jury secrecy laws among the reasons why clergy members’ names were not included in the report.

During Wednesday’s press conference, Campbell shared that she is a victim of child sex abuse.

“I would be remiss, if I didn’t share personally, that I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. And it’s the first time I’ve ever shared that publicly, and I think that’s important,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for us to finally lead in Massachusetts in such a way that no child will ever be abused ever again.”

“It would be absolutely inauthentic, and inauthentic to my faith to not share that I am a survivor of childhood abuse, not at the hands of the church, but in the hands of a relative,” she continued.

Campbell also said that her office supports legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations and charitable immunity cap for civil claims involving childhood sexual abuse, and the establishment of an indefinite lookback period for such claims.

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.