Author: CNN Newsource

By John Lauritsen

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    MINNESOTA (WCCO) — So much coverage on immigration enforcement has focused on the Twin Cities, but rural Minnesotans are also following what’s happening.

“I think what’s happening is deplorable,” said Emma Wettstein of Litchfield, Minnesota.

On Thursday morning, Wettstein and her mom Christina Garcia had breakfast at Swan’s Café in Litchfield, one of the bigger communities in Meeker County. President Trump ran on immigration enforcement in 2024, and he won Meeker County, by 30% of the vote.

But for the mother-daughter pair, their minds were on Minneapolis and how federal agents have handled immigration enforcement.

“It makes me very sad,” said Garcia. “I can see getting rid of the criminals. I’m all for that. But there’s a right way and a wrong way and they’re doing it the wrong way and they need to leave.”

The women weren’t the only ones reacting to the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and the clashes between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protesters.

Brian Smith of Willmar said he’d like to see ICE back off. He said, along with Dean Rueckert of Grove City, that Mexican immigrants help fill labor voids in central Minnesota.

“Take them so they get licenses and everything else, so they can work here. Instead of throwing them in jail and kicking them out and everything else,” said Rueckert.

Further down the cafe counter, Mike Katleck mostly agreed.

“It’s just bullying people around. There is no apparent reason for it. You are almost looking for conflict rather than going the other way around,” said Katleck.

Across town at the new rec center, pickleball players Troy Weich and Linda Kuhl, both from Hutchinson, shared their thoughts.

“It’s really concerning. I don’t know if I’d say scared, but I’m really concerned because it escalates. It seems like it’s always escalating,” said Weich.

Kuhl said both Democrat and Republican leaders are to blame for the added tension.

“They don’t want to listen to each other. It’s my way or the highway. Kind of feels like that,” said Kuhl.

“I think it’s really an unfortunate situation,” said Dean Urdahl of Litchfield.

Urdahl was a Republican state representative for 22 years. He agrees that state and federal officials need to cooperate for the safety of Minnesotans.

“The ICE officers are trying to enforce federal law. I think most Minnesotans want to see the worst of the worst illegal immigrants taken back and deported,” said Urdahl.

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 Armas, Doug Myers, Amelia Mugavero, Briauna Brown

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    TEXAS (KTVT) — A North Texas mother is grieving the loss of three of her sons after they drowned Monday in a frozen pond near the home where the family had been staying, according to the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office.

Multiple state and local agencies responded to a call about three brothers who had fallen through the ice on a private pond off Rec Road #3, just outside Bonham, about 70 miles northeast of Dallas.

The pond sits about 100 feet from the house, separated by an embankment.

The mother of six, Cheyenne Hangaman, said she was outside with her children when they were playing and that “it all happened in an instant.” She said she had warned the boys to stay away from the water, but they didn’t listen.

Hangaman told investigators her youngest son tried to “ice skate” on the frozen pond and fell through.

His two older brothers jumped in to try to save him.

Mother describes frantic rescue attempt “I tried to pick one up and put them on the ice,” Hangaman told CBS News Texas. “It would just break and keep falling in.”

“There was three of them and only one of me,” she said. “That’s why I couldn’t save them.”

First responders and a neighbor pulled the two older boys, ages 8 and 9, from the water and began life‑saving measures before they were taken to a hospital, where they later died. The youngest child, age 6, did not resurface and was recovered after an extensive search.

Authorities did not release the children’s names, but family members identified them as 6‑year‑old Howard Doss, 8‑year‑old Kaleb Doss and 9‑year‑old EJ Doss. All three were students in Bonham ISD.

Community mourns three young brothers Hangaman said she realized something was wrong when her daughter ran to her yelling that the boys had gone into the water.

“When I seen them, they were struggling, and I know their bodies were already in shock,” she said. “The water was freezing cold.”

“I tried to fight for my kids’ life,” Hangaman said. “I had to watch them struggle and drown, and I couldn’t help them.”

She described her sons as full of personality – EJ dreamed of becoming a football star, Kaleb loved to dance and sing, and Howard “liked making people laugh.”

Bonham ISD said counselors would be available for students and staff this week.

“We are devastated by this unimaginable loss, and our thoughts are with the family, friends, and all who knew and loved these children,” the district said in a letter to families.

Good Samaritan recounts rescue effort A neighbor who heard the screams ran to help and was able to pull Hangaman from the water, she said.

Hangaman said she might have lost her life as well if it weren’t for a good Samaritan who pulled her from the water.

“He said he heard the screaming or the call for help and came running. My friend had a horse rope, and he pulled me out with it,” Hangaman said.

That good Samaritan – Bonham ISD’s athletic director and football coach, John Ramsey – declined an interview but shared a statement.

“Right now, all focus should be on supporting a family that is suffering unimaginable loss. They need privacy, prayers and support as they navigate this incredibly difficult time,” Ramsey said. “I’m asking the media and our community to direct all attention toward helping them.

“I was nearby helping a neighbor when I heard someone calling for help and went to assist. Any person in that situation would have done the same thing. I was simply close enough to help in a moment of crisis, doing what I hope anyone would do for someone in need.

“I will not be doing interviews at this time. Instead, I ask that we all come together to support this family however we can. Thank you for your understanding.”

Mother urges parents to stay vigilant As she prepares to bury her children, Hangaman said she hopes her tragedy serves as a warning to other parents.

“It can happen to you,” she said. “Make sure that you hold your kids tight. Always tell them that you love them.”

The family has created a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses.

The Fannin County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate. Authorities have not said whether any charges will be filed.

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 S.E. Jenkins, Bo Evans

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    TEXAS (KTVT) — The woman whose life was saved from the dangerous cold and the Fort Worth store manager who rescued her were reunited on Thursday.

Surveillance video captured the moment the manager of Evans Food Mart rushed to rescue his customer, Bobbi Burrell, out of the cold.

“I didn’t think anyone was going to help at first, or could hear me,” Burrell said.

Burrell says last Friday was her 50th birthday. She was trying to get to a warming shelter, but said it had closed.

She said she was out in the cold all night Friday into Saturday morning. Just before freezing rain and sleet started to fall, the manager at Evans Food Mart found her frozen on the street. He was the only one strong enough to lift her.

“So I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t walk,” said Burrell. “I started crawling through the ice to try to get some help, without my shoes on. I just couldn’t get them on. So I left my hands and feet, just my body frozen.”

That’s when Faris Hussain stepped in.

Fort Worth store manager helps save homeless woman found frozen outside Faris Hussain, a manager at the store, said another regular customer rushed in Thursday morning after spotting Burrell on the ground.

Hussein said Burrel is a regular, coming in every day for the past 5 years.

“When I heard her name, it was one of my good customers, so I instantly was like, ‘Hey man, no no no, there’s no way. We gotta go help her right now,'” Hussain said.

Hussain ran outside and lifted her himself.

“She felt like a rock, as stiff as a rock,” he said. “I mean, it was, when I picked her up, her entire body was just, it was like, no matter which way you picked her up, her body was going to stay the same form.”

The Fort Worth Fire Department confirmed crews responded and paramedics took Burrell to a hospital.

“Think about it,” said Hussein. “It’s like, God’s watching her. She’s been through a car accident just a few months before that; her birthday was the same, one night before it froze over. It’s kind of like God’s watching over you, like, ‘No, we’re gonna make sure you’re good.'”

Burrell said she’s thankful to everyone involved.

“Definitely with the prayers, you feel blessed that great things will happen,” said Burrell. “And live all your life, go back to work and be off the street, and a big turn of events. Hopefully, to inspire others to help, you know, if somebody is screaming for help, help them.

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 Megan De Mar

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — A Lake County woman has a warning for other homeowners, after she said a contractor took thousands of dollars, destroyed part of her home, and then vanished, even leaving his tools behind.

Linda Lange, of Waukegan, got police and the courts involved after her contractor left her high and dry, and yet, months later, the damage remains, and the contractor’s disappearing act continues.

A construction project frozen in time has over Lange’s home in Waukegan. Instead of the new toilet and shower she was promised, she has two holes in her floor.

Lange hired contractor Bob McEvers to do the work in August. He’s done a previous project in her home that she was very happy with.

“Every time he would ask me for money, not thinking – you know, he needs this, he needs that – you know, I wrote a check,” she said.

But the project was taking forever and the excuses kept rolling in when he would fail to show up, from claiming “I tweaked my ankle pretty badly” to saying he’d fallen asleep on his couch for five hours.

Meantime, Lange noticed there was hardly any progress on the job after paying $7,000 on an $8,900 project.

“With that, I said to him, I want all the receipts of everything you have bought for this project,” Lange said.

While Lange said he told her “okay,” she said that conversation was the last time she saw him.

“I mean, he’s like he fell off the face of the Earth. I have no clue,” she said.

When McEvers stopped returning her calls, she went to his home several times, even with North Chicago Police, but they weren’t able to make contact.

She filed a police report and had a lawyer send a letter. Eventually, she filed a civil claim against him, but she said they haven’t been able to find him to serve the summons.

As CBS News Chicago Legal Expert Irv Miller explained, even if a judge rules in her favor, she won’t necessarily get her money back right away.

“Even if they find the person, if there is a judgment, he has to have money or assets to pay the judgment, and a lot of the time that doesn’t happen,” Miller said.

Lange said she doesn’t know what it will cost to fix things in her home.

“I haven’t had anyone in here to give me an estimate,” she said.

Steve Bernas, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago, said it’s a usually warning sign when a contractor says they don’t have the money to pay for things they’ve been hired to do and ask you for the money.

Bernas suggested paying a third of the bill down at the beginning when hiring a contractor, a third in the middle of the job, and the rest at the end of the project, because once the money is paid, the consumer loses leverage.

He also said homeowners should file complaints with the state, leave reviews online, or whatever else they can to leave a paper trail.

“If you don’t find anything online about that person, that could be a sign, too, because they may not be established, they may have changed their name,” Bernas said.

CBS News Chicago couldn’t find McEvers, but did find his sister, who sent an email saying she has struggled to stay in contact as well.

“This is heartbreaking. If I hear from Bob, I will talk with him about reaching out to you and finding out a way to resolve the situation,” McEvers’ sister wrote.

Lange should know more about her civil complaint at the end of the month, but in the meantime, she hopes others will learn from her nightmare.

“At my age, it won’t happen again. It truly is a learning experience, and I don’t want him to be able to do this to anyone else,” she 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 James Taylor

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    SACRAMENTO (KOVR) — For the last six months, Tristin Endl’s home has been a temporary shelter. The 23-year-old had been homeless and living on Sacramento streets.

“It was terrifying because I didn’t know where I was going to sleep next,” he said.

Now, he’s one of 50 young adults between 18 and 24 staying in tiny homes at the First Step Communities shelter in north Sacramento.

“For a large number of the young people that come here, this is the first time they’ve ever had a room to themselves,” said Joseph Pacheco, executive director of the shelter.

Pacheco says many of the clients grew up in unstable living conditions.

“I’d say the majority of the young people who come to our site here are prior foster youth,” he said.

The facility gets the majority of its budget from the City of Sacramento. But now, First Step is asking community members to “adopt” individual cabins to help raise more money.

“We are seeking a donation level of $2,000 per cabin,” Pacheco said. “A lot of that money goes towards paying for us to have on-site therapists here at the shelter, eliminating any barrier for our clients getting that behavioral and mental health support that they need.”

Each cabin has a bed, with an air conditioner and electricity. Some tenants keep a small garden and lawn furniture out front. Residents share bathrooms, a game room, and a laundry room.

The program’s goal is to prepare people like Endl to get jobs and live on their own.

“They’re young, they haven’t been experiencing homelessness for a very long time, and they’re able to recover much faster,” Pacheco said. “We permanently housed 109 young adults from this site alone.”

Endl will be ending his stay in cabin 48 soon to join the U.S. Navy, and there’s a long wait list of other young people desperate to get off the streets and move in.

“Unfortunately, we’re always full,” Pacheco said.

The facility has been open for five years and was the first tiny home shelter in Sacramento.

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 Matthew Rodriguez, Zach Boetto

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department described Tuesday’s deadly explosion at a Bell Gardens apartment complex as a “tragic accident” caused by homemade explosives, possibly fireworks.

Investigators believe one of the half-brothers — Carlos Hernandez, 13 and Christopher Benitez, 23 — mixed energetic powders and may have pressurized the mixture, sparking the blast. Lt. Michael Modica said an example of energetic powders is gunpowder.

“We believe they were responsible for the explosion,” Modica said. “At this point, we believe it was a tragic accident.”

Detectives found pieces of plastic pipes at the scene along with energetic powders, which have been sent to their lab for testing.

“I keep saying that people just don’t understand how dangerous this stuff can be,” Bell Gardens Police Chief Paul Camacho said. “I think as a result of what we see behind us that is the consequence of not following the laws and not doing what you’re supposed to do.”

The explosion also hospitalized a young boy, who was in stable condition on Tuesday, according to the LA County Fire Department. The family said the boy was a relative of the half-brothers.

It caused significant damage to the apartment complex, destroying part of the second floor and the roof.

Camacho said about four to five families were displaced after inspectors red-tagged the building and marked it for demolition.

“I just don’t really know what’s going to happen to us,” neighbor Wendy Gutierrez said. “Where are we going to end up?”

The family said Hernandez was an altar server at his local church. Benitez served in the National Guard.

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 Jennifer McRae

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — Aurora Public Schools is among several schools in Colorado that canceled classes on Friday due to staff shortages. Several other schools announced a delayed start on Friday.

The staff shortages are happening on the same day as a nationwide protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where millions across the U.S. are expected to stay home from school and businesses are expected to remain closed.

In addition to Aurora Public Schools closure, Adams 14 School District and Pickens Technical College will remain closed on Friday.

Aurora Public Schools said there will be “grab-and-go” meals available at all schools in the district from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Friday.

With students not attending classes on Friday, they will have class next Friday, Feb. 6, which was originally supposed to be a day off for a professional release day.

Boulder Valley School District said nearly 500 teachers out of 2,000 called out sick for Friday but the district said classes will continue.

Denver Public Schools said it will have class, although some schools are operating on a delayed schedule.

All MI and AN Center Programs and Early Childhood Programs will be closed in DPS.

The following schools in DPS are on a two-hour delay:

George Washington High School North High School South High School East High School Joe Shoemaker Elementary McMeen Elementary Parents and students can view the School Closure list online.

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.