Author: CNN Newsource

By Francis Page Jr.

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    September 14, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — SomeTHING big is coming to movie theaters—and Houston families may want to hold onto their hats.

The Cat in the Hat bounds onto the big screen November 6, 2026, bringing Dr. Seuss’ wonderfully mischievous character into his first animated theatrical feature. Warner Bros. Pictures Animation is promising a whirlwind of imagination, comedy and colorful chaos designed to entertain children while giving parents and grandparents plenty to smile about.

This time, the Cat—voiced by Emmy-winning comedian Bill Hader—actually has a job. He works for the wonderfully ridiculous Institute for the Institution of Imagination and Inspiration, or I.I.I.I., and receives what could be his toughest assignment: helping siblings Gabby and Sebastian cope with moving to a new town.

photo (L-R) The Cat in the Hat voiced by Bill Hader, Gabby voiced by Xochitl Gomez, Sebastian voiced by Tiago Martinez, and Waffles voiced by Matt Berry in Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s “The Cat in the Hat,” a Warner Bros.

Naturally, when the Cat tries to make things better, “better” tends to become bigger, louder and considerably more complicated.

The newly released Main Trailer offers families a glimpse of a dazzling fantasy world filled with outrageous inventions, fast-moving adventure and the kind of rule-bending humor that has helped make Dr. Seuss a childhood favorite across generations.

Hader leads an impressive voice cast featuring Xochitl Gomez, Tiago Martinez, Quinta Brunson, Matt Berry, Giancarlo Esposito, America Ferrera, Bowen Yang, Paula Pell and Tituss Burgess. Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni direct the adventure.

photo (L-R) Sebastian voiced by Tiago Martinez, Waffles voice by Matt Berry, and Things 1 and 3 in Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s “The Cat in the Hat,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release

And the Cat apparently plans to arrive with his own soundtrack. A new theme written by Tim Minchin, performed by FITZ & Minchin featuring Hader, has already been released, with composer Lorne Balfe’s full movie soundtrack scheduled for October 30.

For Houston families looking for a cheerful fall movie outing, November 6 could become one very Seuss-sational Friday. The Cat In The Hat Is 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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
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By Ben Jealous

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    September 14, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — For almost as long as I can remember loving ice cream, I have loved Ben & Jerry’s for its boldness. Bold flavors. Bold crunch. And most uniquely, for boldly standing up for the values that define America’s highest aspirations: freedom, fairness, peace and love.

If you feel like it is slipping toward becoming just another soulless corporate product, you are not alone.

Prince lost control of his own name because a record company owned it. He fought for years and won it back. Ben and Jerry have their names on every pint, but they say illegal corporate decisions are gutting what those names stand for.

What is the value of Ben & Jerry’s without the values of Ben and of Jerry?

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened Ben & Jerry’s in an old Vermont gas station in 1978. Jerry stayed 47 years.

Then this time last year Jerry did the unthinkable and walked out, disappointed in where the company’s new owners were taking his and Ben’s namesake.

He did not leave over money. Standing up for justice and our shared humanity, he wrote, has never mattered more than it does right now. And yet Ben & Jerry’s had been “silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power.”

In 2000, Unilever offered more money than shareholders could refuse. They could not stop the sale. So they got key assurances in writing.

The deal created an independent board with the last word on the social mission, the ice cream, and the name. Only those directors could remove one of their own. The parent company could not remove anyone. The lawyers said it would last in perpetuity. That is lawyer talk for forever.

Forever lasted twenty-five years. In December 2025 Unilever spun its ice cream brands into a company called Magnum. By New Year’s Day, every independent director was gone.

They had already gone to federal court. They said a Black History Month post was blocked. They said it could not name President Trump on wages, health care, and climate. They said it could not call for a ceasefire in Gaza. They said chief executive David Stever was pushed out for listening to them.

Magnum, Ben says, has done this to “a brand that was built to speak.”

This summer Magnum cut the funding and took the offices of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, which has backed grassroots justice work since 1985. It has announced it will close this December unless the lawsuit succeeds.

Last month a judge threw out most of the directors’ claims. Two survive, over money Unilever promised and never paid. Magnum calls that charge nonsensical. It says the brand is thriving and points to three new directors.

Those directors, Ben says, “were added illegally.” A board can be full of good people and still have no say.

Frederick Douglass said it plain. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” A contract is only as strong as those who enforce it.

I led the NAACP for half a decade. We asked big box chains to hire people coming home from prison. Most said no, worried about image.

Walmart said yes. Its leadership said it was simply right. Executives told me the courage had been noticed. It was very good for business.

The charge is that Magnum made the other choice. They ignored Jerry’s warning, Ben says, and proved his point. Magnum is “on course to destroy the Ben & Jerry’s brand.”

Ben is seventy-five and determined that the company bearing their names stay true to their values. He asks three things of us.

He asks us to sign. More than 200,000 have signed at FreeBenAndJerrys.com, asking Magnum to sell to owners who will keep the promise and let it speak.

He asks us to pledge. Not against Ben & Jerry’s. He wants shoppers to skip Magnum’s other brands: Breyers, Klondike, Talenti, Yasso. Keep buying the good stuff. Ben and Jerry “plan on eventually owning it.”

He asks us to organize. Supporters are forming brigades in Vermont.

My family and I are Ben & Jerry’s people. Its boldness made the bold flavors taste better. Magnum’s heavy hand has added a bitterness to our favorite dessert that is hard to swallow.

Recently we added our family to the petition and ordered stickers for the refrigerator door. We are always down to help good people get their names back. And when dad needs to eat his feelings, he does not need a corporation giving him indigestion.

Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and the former national president and CEO of the NAACP. photo Ben Jealous

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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
3465287733

By Francis Page Jr.

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    September 14, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Houston has never been shy about building the future. From energy and medicine to aerospace, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing, this city likes its innovation supersized. Now, Houston City College is bringing that same ambition directly into the classroom.

Houston City College has been selected for the inaugural Workforce Futures Accelerator, a three-year national initiative led by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) with support from Google.org. HCC joins a select cohort of 15 community colleges from across the country working to rethink how students gain something employers consistently ask for: real-world experience before graduation.

photo

That last part matters.

Traditional education can teach students what they need to know. The Workforce Futures Accelerator is designed to give them opportunities to demonstrate what they can actually do.

Through the initiative, HCC will identify two workforce programs where virtual, employer-sponsored projects can be incorporated directly into coursework. Students will tackle genuine business challenges, develop portfolios, make professional connections and gain career experience without necessarily having to squeeze a traditional internship around jobs, childcare, transportation and other responsibilities.

For community-college students, that flexibility can be a game changer.

“Participation by HCC will strengthen how we provide students with career-connected learning experiences that complement their classroom education and align with the needs of employers,” said HCC Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher, Ed.D., emphasizing the College’s focus on “future forward” strategies.

And “future forward” is increasingly becoming HCC’s calling card.

The Accelerator complements a rapidly expanding HCC workforce ecosystem. The College recently received a $103,000 investment from NRG Energy to expand apprenticeship pathways in instrumentation and controls for the Texas energy workforce. HCC also has strengthened its partnership with Space Center Houston, connecting students to opportunities involving artificial intelligence, robotics, aerospace and emerging technologies. HCC now serves more than 100,000 students annually, giving initiatives like these potential impact at true Houston scale. Google.org Helps Bring Employers Into the Classroom The Google.org-supported Accelerator tackles a persistent workforce-development paradox: employers want experienced workers, but students often need employers to give them an opportunity before they can gain that experience.

Consider that résumé riddle officially challenged.

ACCT is partnering with Riipen, an experiential-learning platform connecting students and educators with employer projects, while Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Project-Based Learning will help participating faculty incorporate project-based learning strategies into workforce curricula.

That combination gives the initiative importance far beyond one classroom or one graduating class. Lessons developed by participating colleges are expected to help create publicly available tools, templates and implementation practices that other community colleges can eventually use.

HCC Board of Trustees Chair Eva Loredo called Houston City College a leader in creating opportunities for the region and welcomed the partnership with ACCT and Google.org.

HCC Trustee Pretta VanDible Stallworth, Ph.D., chair-elect of the ACCT Board of Directors, similarly connected the initiative to HCC’s mission of providing affordable education, workforce training and pathways toward economic security.

For Houston Style Magazine readers, the bigger story is unmistakable: workforce education is evolving from “learn it, then look for work” to “learn it while doing the work.”

That is a powerful distinction.

For Houston’s students, it means experience can begin before the diploma hits the frame. For employers, it creates another avenue to identify emerging talent. And for Houston City College, selection for the Workforce Futures Accelerator further positions the institution not merely as a place preparing students for the workforce of tomorrow — but as one helping design what tomorrow’s workforce education should look like.

In Houston, the future rarely waits politely at the door.

HCC appears determined to meet it on the way in.

National Workforce Futures Accelerator

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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
3465287733

By Briauna Brown

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    FORT WORTH, Texas (KTVT) — A car crashed through a fence into a Fort Worth backyard Sunday evening, narrowly missing a toddler and two other children who were playing, the family said.

According to the Fort Worth Police Department, at about 7 p.m. Sunday, officers were called to a major accident near the 1500 block of Heritage Trace. When officers arrived, they found a car had collided with a fence.

The family who lived in the home told CBS News Texas that their three children were playing in the pool when the crash happened, and the car almost hit their 2-year-old child.

The family’s surveillance video captured the moment, showing their 2-year-old walking away just seconds before debris flew in the toddler’s direction. The parents called it an “act of God” that their child wasn’t struck. They rushed to gather their children, and all three were okay. Then, the father went to check on the driver.

FWPD said there were two people inside the vehicle that crashed, the driver and one passenger. The passenger was transported to the hospital in an unknown condition.

Police said the driver, who hasn’t been identified, “was cited” for reckless driving.

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 Jamy Pombo Sesselman, Phil Tenser

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    NEEDHAM, Massachusetts (WCVB) — President Donald Trump responded Sunday to a request from Lindsay Clancy’s attorney for a pardon after a mistrial was declared in the case of the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three children in 2023.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington spoke on “Good Morning America” and said he planned to ask Trump to pardon his client.

“I’d like to say that perhaps Donald Trump, who felt compelled to speak out about this case, may very well … Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady, the type of person she is, what she has been through, and consider a pardon,” Reddington said.

Clancy is accused of murder in Massachusetts, but does not face federal charges. Trump’s power to pardon is strictly limited to federal offenses.

“It’s a very sad situation,” Trump said. “There is no winner there. There is no win no matter what you do. Three children are dead. So, I don’t know. It’s actually a state situation, you know, not a federal.”

A pardon is also not within the purview of Gov. Maura Healey at this point.

“I don’t have the authority to pardon,” Healey said Tuesday. “It’s in the middle of the court case, so there’s no existing conviction.”

The 75-year-old, Brockton-based attorney received national attention for his fiery defense during Clancy’s murder trial. She is accused of murder for the strangulation of her three children in 2023 and now faces a potential retrial as soon as this fall.

Retired judge Jim Barretto commented on Reddington’s appeal to Trump, saying, “Perhaps he’s seeking somehow to leverage the bully pulpit of the presidency itself.”

Clancy didn’t dispute that she killed the children, but Reddington argued that she should not be found criminally responsible because she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis at the time. Reddington said the jury, which had deliberated for seven days, was ultimately stuck at 11-1, with one juror holding out to convict.

Reddington said he respects the juror’s right to be a holdout; however, he believes the juror did not follow the law as it was laid out by Judge William Sullivan.

“(The juror) had agreed, according to the note from the forelady, that he had doubt but he would not apply the law of reasonable doubt as presented by the judge. That is not right,” Reddington said.

Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz has not indicated if he plans to retry the case; however, Reddington said he is hopeful they can avoid another trial.

“I hope, however, after sitting through this trial and seeing the evidence that was presented from the government, as well as from the defense, that he would revisit that issue and hopefully would be willing to work something out that would be acceptable to both sides,” Reddington said.

Clancy is scheduled to return to court later this month for a status hearing, trial assignment and a hearing on a rule that allows a judge to review a jury’s verdict. While a timeline for the case remains unclear, Reddington has previously said that he’s “ready to go” as early as next week, if need be.

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.