Author: CNN Newsource

By Sam Harasimowicz

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    BATAVIA, Ohio (WCPO) — The Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office has a new team member, and he’s bringing a “cold nose and a warm heart.”

Germaine is a 2-year-old Labrador/retriever mix who’s found a new home at the prosecutor’s office in Batavia.

Prosecutor Mark Tekulve and Victim Advocate Allyson Ware brought Germaine onto their team through Canine Companions, which trains service dogs for all sorts of different duties.

Germaine is now a part of the Victim Assistance Program, which began in Clermont County in 1985 and has grown to include four full-time team members. Germaine brings that number up to five.

“He is able to really put, in particular, victims at ease,” Tekulve said.

I was there as Germaine traveled with Ware from the prosecutor’s office to the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office.

We went into what’s called a soft interview room, where Ware demonstrated how Germaine will provide comfort to victims during investigations and court proceedings.

“Some of his commands are providing deep pressure both on the lap while sitting and then also on the ground to assist with anxiety when it comes up,” Ware said.

Germaine practiced his “cover” command, where he rests on a person like a living, breathing heated blanket. Germaine practiced on Sgt. Yvonne Sheppard and me.

“Anything we can do as an office and as individuals to relieve some of the difficulty that these folks experience, we want to do,” Tekulve said.

In his first couple of weeks, Germaine has already been put to work, offering support in a recent case.

“We had a case; it was a domestic violence case, and I had previously met with the family, so they were already familiar with me,” Ware said. “When they saw him, they were just over the moon.”

Germaine is also being trained to sit and offer support inside the courtroom, where he’ll be present for victims who could be testifying for hours, according to Ware.

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 La’Tasha Givens

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    COLLEGE PARK, Georgia (WUPA) — Inside his College Park studio, Otis Damón gently wets and steams a piece of fabric known in the trade as a “hood,” preparing to shape it over a wooden block.

To the fashion world and Hollywood, Damón is a master milliner whose striking, bespoke designs crown icons such as Whoopi Goldberg, Patti LaBelle, and Ne-Yo, regularly appearing on the big screen.

For Damón, his shop is far more than a business. It is a lifeline.

“I call this place my sanctuary. It’s not just a studio,” Damón said. “I call this my art therapy.”

Damón’s journey to high fashion began during a period of deep isolation. Since he was 6 years old, he had carried an unnameable weight.

“Back then, I didn’t know what it was,” Damón said. “I didn’t know I was depressed or dealing with depression. As a grown-up in church, everything’s spirit, and I thought it was, you know, that.”

He turned to a teacher at school for help.

“I confided in her that I was contemplating suicide that summer before my 10th-grade year, and she instructed me to come to her class every day on my lunch, and she taught me how to sew, so I started making clothes first,” he said.

Sitting at the machine, the steady hum and physical rhythm began to quiet the darkness.

“It was the rhythm of using my hands and hearing the machine, putting things together,” he said. “It just gave me a peace. So some of my best works came out of my darkest times, honestly.”

Each of his head-turning headpieces takes nearly three days to complete, hand-shaped over traditional wooden molds to create one-of-a-kind silhouettes from towering, avant-garde crowns reminiscent of Erykah Badu’s signature style to reimagined, southern “church lady” hats.

While his craft transformed a silent battle into celebrated wearable art, Damon is open about the fact that healing is an ongoing journey. In addition to the therapeutic outlet of design, he receives medical treatment for depression.

“I still struggle,” Damon said. “I just learned how to life surf with it.”

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.

For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.

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 Dillon Thomas

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    GREELEY, Colorado (KCNC) — A Northern Colorado restaurant spent Monday giving away its entire menu for free as a way to give back to the community.

Tres Amigos in Downtown Greeley offered free food to anyone who dined in at the restaurant from opening until closing at 9 p.m. Alcohol was the only item not included in the giveaway.

“Today we are giving back to the community,” said Jonathan Iniguez, owner of Tres Amigos.

The restaurant’s giveaway is part of an effort by Iniguez and his team to return some of the support they say they have received from the Greeley community. Iniguez said the restaurant is celebrating its anniversary and has grown quickly, opening its third location within five years.

“We have been blessed,” Iniguez said.

Tres Amigos gave away about $50,000 worth of food during last year’s giveaway.

“Hopefully we beat that record this year,” Iniguez said.

For Iniguez, the giveaway is about more than the amount of food served. He said it is a chance to help people during a difficult time, even if the gesture makes a difference for just one person.

“It makes me happy. Times are tough right now. It is more about giving back and pitching in, ourselves. But sometimes it makes someone’s day,” Iniguez said.

He said seeing the community come together around the restaurant is personally rewarding.

“It just completes you and makes you feel whole,” Iniguez said.

Some visitors told CBS Colorado they loved the gesture, and the food, so much that they will now become return customers.

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 Gabriela Vidal

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    NORTHGLENN, Colorado (KCNC) — A remarkable discovery was recently made by a rather unlikely person.

“I’m still like in this dream that I’m going to wake up at any time,” said Colorado resident Kent Hups.

Hups is a science teacher at Northglenn High School, and a research associate with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In July 2025, he became the first person to ever identify a Tyrannosaurus rex trackway.

“I just kept looking and looking and looking, and then I eventually came around a corner, and I climbed up a little bit on this hill,” he said. “I looked and I saw what I thought was a track, and that to me was that’s when I got excited.”

Hups was among several volunteers who went with researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science on a summer trip to the badlands of southwestern North Dakota, in search of any discoveries they could find on the land.

“We’ve been very lucky over the last several years, where we found some pretty remarkable things that we brought back here to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; things like Teen Rex, this juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex that was found by these three kids. We found a large, beautiful Triceratops skull and partial skeleton that’s here at the museum,” Hups said.

“But usually, we find the bodies of these dinosaurs,” said Dr. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

It was on this mission, however, that Hups stumbled upon a formation of a T. rex track.

“In that process of getting excited and doing measurements, I looked behind and I said, ‘Oh my god, there’s another track back there, I think,'” said Hups.

“There’s never been a trackway of a Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. There have only ever been two isolated tracks of T. rex found, one in Montana and one in New Mexico,” said Lyson. “To find an entire trackway is certainly hitting the lottery.”

Four tracks were ultimately uncovered with Hups’ help. Each of them has now been visually preserved through a 3D digital model, helping researchers determine the T. rex’s size and speed.

“Seeing it was impressive, the scale of it. It’s a big area, and so it was awesome to see like the pattern,” said Evan Tamez-Galvan, Fossil Preparer at DMNS.

“They’re my babies. It’s my babies, you know. It’s like, you know, people go, ‘What are they? They’re my babies. I found them,'” said Hups.

Hups keeps one of those tracks close by with a 3D replica in his classroom, while the tracks he discovered will eventually be shipped over to DMNS in October, so visitors can watch as scientists cut through the tracks and uncover even more details about this epic predator.

“I’m really hopeful that there’s some skin impressions preserved. That’s my dream,” said Lyson. “It would provide us with an idea of what the foot actually looked like.”

For Hups and his students, this discovery fuels a ferocious passion for learning.

“I was so excited when I went home,” said Angela Aguirre, one of Hups’ students. “I was literally jumping up and down with joy.”

“It’s crazy to think that that was once a real animal that caused this, and now we’re like the first people to be messing with it,” said student Alayna McClurg.

It’s a one-of-a-kind discovery that Hups also hopes will inspire more people to get out and explore.

“There’s always amazing stuff to be discovered, and people find it all the time, but you have to be out looking for it,” said Hups.

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 Derek James

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    HUDSON, Wisconsin (WCCO) — In downtown Hudson, Wisconsin, a small gallery is making room for a lot of creativity.

From prints and jewelry to ceramics and acrylic paintings, the Cream of the Crop Artists Gallery is the latest chapter in an idea that took root at the Minnesota State Fair.

“The proposal was to have an art gallery at the fair and kitsch and called Cream of the Crop Artists Gallery. An art gallery that was really approachable to others, like anybody could come in,” said Genie Castro, owner and curator of the gallery.

Castro got into the fair over a decade ago. In 2023, she brought the same concept to downtown Hudson.

Forty artists are represented at both spaces.

Castro says part of the fun is not always knowing what’s going in.

“It’s fun to curate off the cuff when everyone brings things in. I know the kind of work they make but it’s fun to be in that setting and arrange it accordingly,” explained Castro.

For Hudson artist and UW-Stout junior Broden Decker, the gallery is about more than displaying art.

“Having people like Genie who curate an art space where you can show and present your work really gives artists an opportunity to have the incentive or have the push to make, express myself through this art that is a part of me and it heals me and it also heals other people,” said Decker.

That connection between artist and community is at the heart of it for everyone involved.

“When you’re walking or you’re here or maybe even at the fair. You’re seeing people pick up a piece and being like ‘I love this’ or ‘I have this’ or ‘I want this.’ It gives meaning to the work,” said Crystal Shawn, an emerging artist.

“Relationships are what this whole thing is about for me,” said Castro.

Cream of The Crop Artists Gallery is open weekends from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and other times by appointment.

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 Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Crews are about halfway through one of the biggest restorations the Twin Cities has ever seen. Every square inch of the country’s oldest basilica is being restored. Crews have started what is perhaps the most delicate day of the year-long project.

According to Johan van Parys, director of liturgy at the Basilica of St. Mary, things are moving along.

“The end of September is actually the halfway point, so it’s very exciting. We have accomplished a lot, but we also have a lot more to do. Things so far are on schedule, yes,” he said.

Excitement is building as they tear down every inch of this building that was constructed starting in 1908. The hope is that the $50 million in donations will make it last 120 more years.

The latest project: meticulously removing the trademark windows.

“There’s a horizontal story which tells the story of the life of Mary, both her private life and then her public life,” van Parys said.

After taking bids, they realized a company in New Jersey could restore them. But first, brothers Erik and Tommy Walther, with Northeast Stained Glass, who traveled for the job, had to very carefully remove them.

After a series of delicate and perilous pulls, they took the glass, which is dark without light behind it, down six floors of scaffolding to a safer place.

Erik Walther showed WCCO how they pack pieces into padded crates.

“The idea is to keep it so you don’t have a lot of movement in the panel; you also don’t want it too tight either,” he said.

“Thomas Gaytee, who created the windows, he speaks about the windows at the Basilica of St. Mary as the crown jewel of his work. And so we have really a treasure of windows here,” van Parys said.

Windows that are truly being handled with care. Van Parys says soon they will be “magnificent.”

Crews will pack and crate the windows for a trip to New Jersey, where artists will restore them.

This large project has a hard deadline of Palm Sunday 2027.

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 Delaney White

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    BELMONT, California (KGO) — Diesel prices are climbing to unprecedented levels in California, and Bay Area drivers are seeing some of the highest costs in the country.

According to AAA, California’s statewide average price for diesel has reached $8.21 per gallon, far above the national average of $6.26. In some parts of the Bay Area, prices are even higher.

At a 76 station in Belmont, diesel was selling for nearly $9 a gallon.

“Diesel has hit an all-time high. Yesterday was the record and then today it was broken again,” said Doug Johnson, spokesperson for AAA Northern California.

Johnson says ongoing instability in global oil markets is putting pressure on fuel prices.

“The global oil markets, there is obviously everything going on with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, but we also see that there’s another conflict in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels in Yemen,” Johnson said.

The price surge extends far beyond the pump.

Because diesel powers much of the nation’s transportation system, higher fuel costs affect trucking companies, agriculture, construction, and supply chains. Those increases are often passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices on everyday goods.

“We’re really in a bad spot for everybody, and it doesn’t mean just my business, it means everybody’s family,” said Mark Woods, vice president of Wildwood Express, a trucking company based in Fresno.

Woods says the rapid rise in fuel prices has dramatically increased his operating expenses.

“Three weeks ago we were probably between $25,000 and $30,000 for a load of fuel,” Woods said. “In the last two weeks, just last week, the last bill that I got was $54,000.”

According to Johnson, that nearly $30,000 increase was for roughly the same amount of fuel.

As costs continue to rise, Woods says businesses like his may have little choice but to charge customers more.

“I’ll probably have to do some speaking with them and figure out how they are going to pay me more for me to do what I’m supposed to do to stay in business,” he said.

Many drivers typically expect fuel prices to ease after Labor Day, when demand often begins to decline. However, AAA says this year has not followed the usual pattern.

“Typically we see a drop in demand, a drop in prices. That just hasn’t happened this year,” Johnson said. “Again, that’s in a typical year and this year has been far from typical.”

For now, experts recommend using fuel-price tracking apps like GasBuddy or AAA to compare prices and find the lowest-cost fuel stations nearby.

As diesel prices continue to set records, both businesses and consumers are bracing for the possibility that higher transportation costs could ripple through the economy in the weeks ahead.

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 Ross DiMattei

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is helping some Philadelphia students stay cool.

The Super Bowl MVP’s foundation is donating $600,000 to bring air conditioning to part of Northeast High School.

Hurts said he got the idea while watching the morning news a few years ago. He couldn’t believe Philadelphia schools had to cancel classes because of extreme heat and a lack of air conditioning.

Students at Northeast High welcomed the Eagles quarterback with a pep rally Tuesday morning, where he announced the donation to air-condition the high school’s sweltering auditorium.

“I’ve been in your guys’ shoes,” Hurts said. “I know the importance of having the support and having the backing to do and achieve whatever dreams you have. This project is especially personal to me because I know the talent and resilience and potential in this community, in this city.”

The air conditioning system is expected to be complete for the 2027-28 school year. According to a news release about the announcement, more than half of the School District of Philadelphia’s schools lack adequate cooling systems.

Dozens of Philadelphia schools were forced to dismiss early because of hot weather when school started earlier this month.

Hurts previously gave $200K for more than 300 air-conditioning units at 10 other schools.

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By Elijah Westbrook

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — New York lawmakers are set to announce a new bill Wednesday that would ban the sale of high-speed e-bikes.

State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Diana Moreno are targeting what are often called “e-motos.” These devices are being sold as e-bikes and e-scooters but can go much faster than what’s legal on city streets.

The bill would prohibit retailers from selling certain devices capable of going more than 20 mph. Sellers could face civil penalties of up to $1,000 for prohibited sales, according to the legislation.

The location of today’s 10 a.m. announcement is also significant. The press conference will happen on the Queens side of the Queensboro Bridge where two people were killed back in May.

The crash happened on the bridge’s bike lane with one person on a bicycle and the other on an electric scooter that police said could go more than 50 mph.

CBS News New York will stream the press conference live. It can be viewed in the live player on this page.

The new legislation comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also putting a new focus on micromobility as part of his 10-year Vision Zero Reimagined plan.

It includes reducing the speed limit to 15 mph near more schools, adding barriers at 1,000 intersections a year, and a crackdown on bad drivers who account for 40% of all traffic deaths, according to the mayor.

“I want to be very clear. If you are breaking the law repeatedly on our roads, you will not be allowed to drive in New York City,” Mamdani said at a news conference Tuesday.

It’s still unclear what actions the mayor is willing to take against the e-bikes, scooters and cyclists who clog the streets and sidewalks. In March, Mamdani stopped the NYPD from issuing them criminal summonses for low-level traffic offenses.

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.