Author: CNN Newsource

By Stephanie Stahl

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — A family with a daughter receiving treatment at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia says this Thanksgiving, they have a lot to be grateful for.

Eleven-year-old Desa Kaiser, a young dancer who was paralyzed in an accident, is back on the dance floor thanks to some special ingenuity.

The sixth grader is paralyzed from the waist down after a car crash.

“I was sad, but I knew that I’ll have a lot of people around me to help me,” Desa said.

That help is at Shriners Children’s, where she gets physical therapy. The Shriners team even helped get Desa back on the dance floor in a specialized dancing wheelchair.

“It’s an amazing chair that’s different from others,” Desa said, “because you can be more free in it and you can express a lot more in it.”

Desa showed us how she could bend all the way back and touch the ground while staying in the chair.

With this help, she’s already returned to the stage.

“I do jazz, ballet, lyrical, and some funk, hip-hop sometimes,” Desa said.

Physical therapist Maggie Reilly says strength training helps Desa move more freely in the customized wheelchair.

“We wanted to bring her a chair that would allow her to dance and do what she loves,” Reilly said. “One thing that we strive most to do here at Shriners is letting children achieve their goals in whatever way that may be possible.”

Possibilities have blossomed since the accident three years ago, when the family spent that Thanksgiving at Shriners.

“Nobody wants to spend Thanksgiving in a hospital, but they make you feel as at home as they can make you,” Allyson Keiser, Desa’s mother, said.

Allyson Keiser says the family has a lot to be thankful for with Desa back on the dance floor.

“It is a huge sense of hope for her and it’s just a huge relief to be able to give her something that we thought she lost,” Allyson Keiser said.

Desa may have lost some mobility, but she’s found a new identity.

“It’s cool to be different from other people and more unique in different ways,” Desa said.

While she plans to keep up with dancing, Desa says because of her experience at Shriners, she’s also thinking about becoming a pediatric nurse.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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By Sean Coffey

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    RALEIGH, North Carolina (WTVD) — North Carolina is hosting two special guests this Thanksgiving: Gobble, the 2025 National Thanksgiving Turkey, and his alternate, Waddle.

After receiving a Presidential pardon, the two birds will retire at NC State University, marking the second time the university has provided a home for the National Thanksgiving Turkeys, following Chocolate and Chip in 2022.

Gobble and Waddle, both North Carolina natives, were raised on a farm in Wayne County.

“It’s amazing for the state of North Carolina,” said Garey Fox, the university’s dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “We are a major poultry producer within the nation. And it’s just awesome to have these turkeys at NC State and to be entrusted with these wonderful birds.”

The two birds will also serve as educational ambassadors in their retirement, creating opportunities for students, the turkey industry, and the public.

“They really do create a lot of opportunities with the students as well as with the Turkey industry and the public at large. That’s kind of a focus point. Everybody likes to talk about turkeys and Thanksgiving, and it just gives us an opportunity to branch out from there on a lot of subject matter,” said Jesse Grimes, an Extension Turkey Specialist with the university.

North Carolina leads the nation in turkey production by weight and ranks second in turkey headcount. The poultry industry contributes approximately $40 billion annually to the state’s economy.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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By Nick Caloway

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    NORWOOD, New Jersey (WCBS) — A Norwood, New Jersey couple is celebrating a big milestone: 75 years of marriage.

They say it all started with one little lie.

Stanley, 97, and Leatrice Dvoskin, 94, like to keep things light.

“Her favorite meal to make is reservations,” Stanley said. “You’ve got to laugh at some things, because things get rough at times. So a sense of humor helps.”

The two met at a dance at City College in Manhattan in 1949. Stanley, from Brooklyn, gave Leatrice a ride home to the Bronx.

“And I called and told him I lost a pair of earrings in his car, which was not true,” Leatrice said.

“It’s called entrapment,” Stanley said.

“So he said he’d look for the earrings and call me back. Then he called me back and said he didn’t find the earrings. And that was the beginning of our relationship,” Leatrice said.

A year later, they were married. They recently celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary.

They now live in an apartment building for seniors in North Jersey, where shelves and walls are filled with pictures of their three daughters, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Seventy fire years of marriage is an incredibly rare milestone to reach. So what’s their secret?

“We have happy hour every night at 5 p.m.,” Leatrice said.

“I’m the bartender,” Stanley said.

A little alone time doesn’t hurt either. Every day, Stanley heads out and goes for a drive. He takes his Pontiac on a 10-minute trip over the New York border to his favorite gym, where he’s the oldest member.

“They call me the mayor,” Stanley said.

“When he comes home, it’s something else to talk about. I don’t know them, but instead of just talking about this hurts and that hurts, it gives me something else to talk about with him,” Leatrice said.

After decades together, there are plenty of aches and pains, but more laughs to come.

“Listen to what they say, and then tell them where they’re wrong,” Stanley said.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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By Adi Guajardo

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Two 17-year-olds are trying to make it easier for New Yorkers to find affordable housing, a problem city leaders have long struggled to solve.

The innovative teens continue their work on a website called Realer Estate, which is designed to help make a difference for renters who feel priced out.

The website has consumed every moment outside of class for friends Beckett Zahedi and Derrick Webster Jr. Both say they gave up basketball and their last two summers to help tackle the city’s housing crisis.

“[It’s] a platform trying to make, you know, affordable units and rent-stabilized units more accessible to everyday New Yorkers,” Zahedi said.

The teens launched the site last summer, following countless hours of podcasts, YouTube videos, and AI consultations.

Realer Estate combines public data with real estate listings, and helps New York renters easily identify rent-stabilized apartments and units below market value.

The teens said their site streamlines a cumbersome and time-consuming process for renters.

“We had very little clue what we were doing at first, and with so little coding experience. And so, when I started, it took about two months just to get two neighborhoods on the platform. And every single time I just like write some code, it’d be like some syntax error and I just see a big red, like, crash deployment on my screen,” Zahedi said.

While Zahedi coded, Webster tackled increasing their outreach.

“I knew our site wasn’t enough, [so I] built an email automation that alerts users whenever our algorithm finds a property and matches with their preferences,” Webster said.

Zahedi said his parents’ divorce — and watching his dad move out — exposed him to the housing problem, and in their 11th grade economics class at Brooklyn Friends School, they learned about the gravity of the crisis.

“Through the process of trying to help him find, you know, a more affordable apartment, I just noticed how difficult the whole process was,” Zahedi said.

So far, the site has garnered 27,000 visitors, and the teens estimate between 4,000 and 5,000 state listings are on it.

The problem-solving teens say they’re exploring additional features, including government assistance programs for homeowners.

Every day brings a new challenge, but they say they’re focused on helping as many New Yorkers as they can.

“I’ve always loved helping people,” Webster said.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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By Anna McAllister

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — An argument between two women inside a restaurant on Northwest 119th Street ended in a stabbing on Wednesday afternoon, according to Miami-Dade deputies.

Miami-Dade deputies said the incident happened at Fritanga Pinolandia on Northwest 119th Street.

Investigators said the suspect approached the victim, asking for money. When the victim declined, the woman allegedly followed her inside, got physical, and stabbed her.

Video from inside the restaurant shows the confrontation that led to the stabbing. Aerial footage captured the scene shortly after the attack around 2:30 p.m.

The restaurant manager told CBS News Miami the women had been arguing outside for days before the fight moved inside, frightening staff and customers.

Bernardo Ruiz, the restaurant manager, said the women were arguing outside before entering the restaurant.

“One of the lady – the skinny white lady – she came with scissors in her hands, and she start to hurt the other lady four times on the head inside of my business. So all the customers and our staff was scared to see that, you know?” Ruiz said.

“They running out. They was scared to see the lady with the scissors and blood coming out,” he added.

Deputies said the suspect fled after the stabbing, leaving staff and customers terrified. They quickly captured her nearby. Both the restaurant and a portion of NW 118th Street were taped off as investigators searched for evidence.

Ruiz said the women had been fighting outside his business for days, and Wednesday’s violence forced the restaurant to close for about four hours.

“This is a problem that been happening in Miami-Dade. We have a huge problem with the homeless and the police doesn’t do anything. We need help. Our business is getting worse with the situation that we have in Florida,” Ruiz said.

Deputies said the victim was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition. Authorities have not released the identities of either woman.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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By Donald Fountain

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — Inside the Iron Palm Tattoo Studio, artist Marlon Blake says he lives by one simple rule: “Wake up every day and do exactly what you love to do.”

For Blake, that’s been true for the past 12 years.

“I literally get the opportunity to wake up, come to work, draw on people,” he said.

When he inks his passion onto others, he says the work never feels like work.

“That’s when the job becomes less of a job and more just fun.”

Blake has seen countless designs come across his station, but these were different.

“It absolutely blew me away,” he said.

The drawings appeared simple for an experienced artist. Especially coming from someone like Sage Williams.

“I’m only like 6 years old. I’m only still a kid,” Sage said.

“Yeah! He’s only 6 years old,” Blake added.

Blake discovered Sage through his annual tattoo drawing competition, where the winner’s design gets used in the shop. Sage was the clear standout.

“What he submitted was like, okay, this can’t be real,” Blake said.

Sage has a passion for painting, and one of his pieces now hangs proudly in the studio.

“I worked very hard for this,” Sage said. “You just have to practice a lot.”

His dad helps guide him, but Sage insists he brings something special.

“I’m just very intelligent,” he said.

The two artists share more similarities than expected.

“Around that age is when I realized that I had the talent as an artist,” Blake said. “Seeing that in that kid, I would like to be a part of his life.”

Or maybe, Blake admitted, it’s the other way around.

No one used Sage’s winning design, so Blake made the artwork a permanent part of his own life, tattooing it onto himself.

“This is me begging you, Sage, to take your art serious, follow through with it, don’t look nowhere else,” Blake told him.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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By Paul Drewes

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — An Oahu nurse ended up on the receiving end of CPR, after a near drowning in Kaneohe Bay last month.

On Wednesday, she had a heartwarming reunion with her rescuers.

It was supposed to be a fun October day on the water in Kaneohe Bay for Ahonui Kahoopii and Ezekiel Lee.

But at the sandbar they saw something was wrong.

“When we saw her in the water, just floating, it was just kind of like a shock,” said Lee.

That woman floating lifelessly in the water was Sherisee Domingo, who had gotten in over her head while out swimming after the tide came in at the sandbar.

“I think I panicked at the moment, and so I got so tired. I remembered, I was like, ‘This is it? I’m done, I’m tired.’ And I just remember I was swallowing a bunch of water,” stated Domingo.

But it just so happened that Lee and Kahoopii happened to be cruising by at just the right time.

“I hopped in the water, and swam to her, she was a little distance away. Then swam her back to the boat, and my cousin was here to grab her from me in the water,” said Kahoopii.

They immediately started CPR, something Kahoopii was familiar with.

“I just got certified, or re-certified, a week prior to this,” added Kahoopii.

That activity caught the attention of off duty ocean safety lifeguard Ryan Moniz, who just happened to be on the water on a jet ski with his four year old son Hunter.

“I jumped on, and just went into CPR mode, and it kept going on. It seemed like CPR on hard ground is not easy. While CPR on an unstable boat is that much harder,” said Moniz.

As emergency crews arrived on shore, the CPR efforts on the boat worked.

“A few minutes after that, I noticed she started to breathe. I watched in amazement. She took another breath. All the Good Samaritans and I checked for a pulse and she had a strong pulse,” added Moniz.

Domingo was taken to shore where a waiting ambulance rushed her to Castle Hospital, where personnel are used to dealing with dire effects in cardiac arrest patients.

“Our hearts also stop, because we know how difficult that’s going to be. And we know that most times, despite efforts, it is not a good result. So we prepared for the worse,” said Castle ER physician Dr. Sean Covant.

But because of the efforts of everyone along the way, Domingo survived and has been steadily recovering from her near drowning.

“Without you guys, I would not probably be here standing next to you, talking to you,” said Domingo.

All those involved in this rescue were honored by Honolulu’s Mayor Rick Blangiardi with certificates of recognition for their contributions.

“You’re very special when we come to moments like this, and I get a chance to recognize people like you for real heroism,” said Blangiardi.

But even more meaningful was the thanks Domingo was able to give each of her rescuers personally.

“I am forever grateful. You guys are true heroes, not just for me, but for the entire Hawaii community. Thank you from the bottom of my revived heart,” said Domingo.

After she recovers, the newly-licensed nurse hopes to start her healthcare career.

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