Author: CNN Newsource

By Frederick Sutton Sinclair, Eva Andersen, Joe Brandt

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    HARRISON TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (KYW) — Police have identified the two people killed when their car crashed into a Harrison Township, New Jersey, home on Saturday night, sparking a fire.

Driver Thomas Hengel, 72, and his passenger, 61-year-old Lisa Hengel, both of Mullica Hill, were killed in the crash on Banff Drive in Mullica Hill, the Harrison Township Police Department said in a news release.

Thomas Hengel was a track and cross-country coach within the Clearview Regional School District, according to teachers in the district. Coach Hengel was inducted into the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, according to a social media post by the organization. He was known as a “legendary Clearview Regional boys and girls cross country and track coach” who also coached several other sports in the district for 94 combined seasons.

Around 6:17 p.m., police were dispatched to Banff Drive after Hengel’s 2020 Hyundai Palisade SUV quickly accelerated for an unknown reason, hit a curb and drove across two front yards and through the exterior wall of a home.

The crash put the Hyundai in the living room of the home that was struck, and sparked a fire that engulfed the SUV and the home, police said.

No one inside the house was injured.

The crash remains under investigation by Harrison Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.

Members of the community say Thomas Hengel coached for decades and shaped generations of student-athletes.

Cassandra Kulik, a former state champion, credits every athletic achievement to her coach.”He was like a father figure to me,” Kulik said.

Though the Hengels never had children of their own, former athletes say Coach Tom filled that role for many.

Molly Mahoney, another Clearview runner, said the coach was “a second dad” for her, and his influence helped steer her life in a new direction.

“I wanted to be just like him. I wanted to be a track coach and a teacher because of the monumental impact that he put on my life,” Mahoney said.

Kulik remembered a chance her class had to thank both of the Hengels.

“My senior year, we decided to use all of our money … for a gift card for him to take his wife out because we know she just did the same amount of time of years, and all those hours that he did,” Kulik said.

Friends say Lisa Hengel spent more than 30 years designing landscapes across South Jersey and tended to a beautiful garden at her home. Neighbors say the couple poured the same care into their community.

“They were amazing neighbors, they were really good,” said Mike Misuraco, who lives across the street. “They loved each other.”

As the Hengel family prepares to lay their loved ones to rest, community members are rallying around the family who lives in the home where the crash happened, raising money for them as they figure out where they’ll live next.

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 Wakisha Bailey

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — In the summer of 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood outside the gates of Girard College to deliver a message that would become one of the most powerful civil rights moments in Philadelphia’s history.

“It’s a sad experience at this stage in the 20th century,” King told demonstrators in August 1965, “to have a kind of Berlin Wall to keep the colored children of God out.”

At the time, Girard College admitted only White orphaned boys. King’s visit brought national attention to a local fight already well underway, one fueled by young activists who had been marching long before he arrived.

Among them was Kenneth Salaam, also known as “Freedom Smitty.”

Salaam was just 15 years old when he joined the movement, marching alongside members of Cecil B. Moore’s Young Freedom Fighters. Girard College was his first march, one that would last seven months and 17 days.

Each morning before sunrise, hundreds of police officers surrounded the school. Salaam recalls violent confrontations — tear gas, beatings and even police motorcycles driven into crowds.

Despite the brutality, the movement only grew stronger.

The fight didn’t stop at Girard College.

Salaam continued marching for civil rights across the South, including in Mississippi, where his cousin was killed in a Ku Klux Klan ambush.

What the world often labels as civil unrest, Salaam experienced as a community. Families opened their homes. Strangers provided food, clothing and medicine. When the marches ended, supporters raised money to fly the activists back home to Philadelphia.

Over time, Salaam and King developed a personal bond. He remembers King not only as a global leader, but as a man, one he felt comfortable calling “Doc,” asking casually for a cigarette.

King’s words that day outside Girard College left a lasting imprint.

“Now is the time to straighten up Girard College,” King said.

He was fighting for children like Salaam, children who would one day walk through those gates and receive an education once denied to them.

Sixty years later, Salaam continues to share that message with Philadelphia’s youth.

“I did not benefit from what I was doing,” Salaam said. “When I talk to young people, I tell them, we loved you before we knew you.”

Salaam was jailed more times than he can count and was later honored to walk alongside King’s casket during the funeral procession.

Today, like King and Cecil B. Moore before him, Salaam is passing the torch, reminding the next generation that meaningful change has always been driven by the young.

“No great change in history has ever been done by old people,” 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 Monique John

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — Bianca Modo loves style and beauty. She is also a survivor of domestic violence. Modo says she has watched women in her family and in her broader community be affected by human trafficking.

One day, she decided to use her passion for fashion to help lift other survivors by helping them look and feel their best.

“I realized that the survivors I was encountering in domestic violence and human trafficking didn’t have confidence and didn’t have leadership skills,” Modo said. “So we wanted to pull in art and fashion, something Atlanta is known for, to get people excited.”

Modo has spent nearly a year preparing for her first-ever Unmasked Fashion Show and Gala through the Bianca Modo Foundation. The preparation has been challenging, but she says the mission behind the show makes it worth it.

About 20 models walked the runway, and all of them are survivors. Two of the models say they were inspired to take part because of the cause.

Bailee Wistisen-Kunkel lit up when asked about her favorite look in the show.

“It’s lace and black, and it’s really powerful,” she said. “It really makes me feel like that girl.”

Dreama Nguyen said she felt right at home during her fitting.

“I love it because it’s so flowy, and it’s also form-fitting,” Nguyen said. “It builds a lot of confidence.”

Several Atlanta boutiques are involved, donating some of the 50 pieces featured in the show.

“It was great that they wanted to be a part of this and share the vision we had,” Modo said. “They wanted the models to look amazing.”

Jazmine Frazier, executive director of Eternal Reign for Girls, is one of Modo’s colleagues and a survivor of human trafficking. She said trafficking can happen to anyone, anywhere.

“If you go into any group home or any place where victims are sharing their stories, you’ll hear that they were groomed and coerced,” Frazier said. “The trafficker targeted them, built trust and then exploited that.”

In addition to the fashion show, Modo’s foundation also showcased artwork at the event. The goal is to raise $50,000 to create leadership and career-readiness programs designed specifically for survivors.

Modo hopes that creating space for survivors in fashion is just the beginning.

The event was held Saturday night at the Smyrna Community Center, timed with Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

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 Logan Hall

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    MEDWAY, Massachusetts (WBZ) — For most families in the Boston area, rooting for the New England Patriots is a tradition passed down from generation to generation. For the Ambrosini family, it mostly stuck — except for one very vocal exception.

Jeff and Katie Ambrosini have raised four diehard Patriots fans in their Medway home.

Their son Lennon, however, has pledged his allegiance to the Houston Texans, creating a friendly rivalry inside the household.

“I kind of feel like a failure a little bit,” Jeff Ambrosini said with a laugh. “There’s definitely a sense of, ‘Why don’t they all root for the Pats?'”

Jeff’s son Lennon began rooting for the Texans not in Houston, but thanks to college football. He followed quarterback C.J. Stroud during his collegiate career and stayed loyal when Stroud entered the NFL with the Texans.

“I’ve got Texans pajamas, a Texans jersey, a Texans football,” Lennon said.

And now with the Patriots and Texans facing off in the playoffs, it is a house divided.

“We usually fight a lot,” Lennon’s brother Brittan said. “If the Texans score a touchdown or if the Patriots score a touchdown.”

The sibling rivalry can get intense enough that their parents have stepped in to lay down the law, instituting a strict no-fighting policy on game day. Even that may not be enough, according to the Ambrosini’s oldest son, Jackson.

“I think if the game is close, I don’t think they should be allowed in the same room,” Jackson said. “One should watch on the phone, one should watch on the TV. I don’t think they should be near each other.”

Despite being outnumbered, Lennon has no plans to tone things down. He’s already imagining the satisfaction of celebrating a Texans win at the expense of his Patriots-loving siblings.

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 Nate Eaton

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    BOISE (eastidahonews.com) — A staff member at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution was hospitalized Saturday after being violently attacked by an inmate who killed a man in the Madison County Jail four years ago.

Officials say Robert David Pompa “brutally assaulted” a 56-year-old corporal inside the Boise facility. The staff member was rushed to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, where they remain in stable condition.

“Idaho Maximum Security Institution staff immediately secured the crime scene with assistance from officers from the Idaho State Correctional Institution and the Idaho State Correctional Center. The IMSI facility returned to normal status earlier today,” a statement from the Idaho Department of Correction says.

Pompa is serving a minimum of 27 years in prison for multiple convictions. In 2021, he beat 62-year-old Eddie Blanie Stacey to death in the Madison County Jail. Months later, Pompa was charged with felony battery after he attacked a deputy in the jail.

Idaho State Police is investigating the prison attack.

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By Tiffany Tarpley

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    ELYRIA, Ohio (WEWS) — January is National Blood Donor Month. According to the American Red Cross, “only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly.” But those who do can be the difference between life and death.

Medina County wife, mother and farmer, Courtney Miller, shared her story with News 5’s Tiffany Tarpley to promote blood donor awareness. “If it helps one person then it’s worth it to me,” she said. “You never know who you’re going to be able to help.”

The now 32-year-old was diagnosed with autoimmune liver disease in 2014. Years later, Miller is grateful to have received a liver transplant thanks to a living donor, Kyle.

“In [2023], I was told that instead of one day you’ll have a transplant; you will not get out of your 30s without a liver transplant,” she said.

Discovering the potential for a match happened by chance. At the time, Kyle was dating Courtney’s friend (now fiancée) Brooke. They were at the opening day of the Lorain County Fair when Kyle noticed a mobile blood drive.

“We were walking around and he goes, my friend goes, ‘You know I don’t even know what my blood type is,’ so he walks up to the Vitalant blood mobile, and he asks, ‘Will you guys blood type me?’ They say, ‘Absolutely,’” said Miller.

He gave blood, and hours later, they found out Kyle was a match for her blood type. He went through additional screening.

“They even go through and see, do his veins and his ducts line up with where mine would be in the liver? It’s quite the extensive process that someone went through for me,” she said.

The liver regenerates, so Kyle was able to donate part of his in order to help Courtney. She spent 52 days in the hospital after the transplant in November 2024 and went through several procedures.

“One of my procedures ended up nicking something so it caused me to lose a lot of blood,” she said. Courtney needed two blood transfusions.

“There’s hope in what you’re going through and there’s light at the end of the tunnel because there was definitely dark days in my recovery,” she said.

She’s doing well today, a one-year transplant survivor.

“There was definitely points where I prayed hard, I thought hard, let me be there for my babies, let me be there for my husband,” she said.

Vitalant is one of the nation’s largest blood and bio-therapy health care organizations. There are three fixed locations in Northeast Ohio, but there are often mobile blood drives, too.

“There’s no substitute for human blood, making each donation that more vital,” said communications manager for Vitalant, Maya Santana.“We see some of the sharpest declines in the donor turnout throughout the holidays.”

Santana said that’s because of unpredictable weather, as well as winter viruses. “We’re urging donors who are healthy and eligible to give, to offset the decrease in donors coming out because of those conditions,” Santana 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 Shelly Garzon

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    HAYWOOD COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — The North Carolina Department of Transportation now expects repairs to the state’s section of I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge to cost nearly $2 billion following damage from Helene.

“We’re seeing about a 900-million-dollar cost increase on I-40 due to Helene,” said Chris Lee, deputy division engineer for NCDOT Division 14.

Initial estimates placed the cost of repairs at $1.1 billion but new information led to an increase.

“The main factor behind that is we have new subsurface information so the early estimates we just did not have that information so we’ve spent some time out there, we’ve worked closely with our contractor to determine those costs overtime,” Lee said.

Despite the increased cost, NCDOT officials say the timeline for reopening the interstate will not change.

“We’re going to have to go deeper into the ground but we’re not changing the scope of the project. That will remain the same and it will not change the timeline either. The project will still be completed. All lanes will be open in late 2028,” Lee said.

With I-40 operating below full capacity, local economic leaders say the limited access continues to impact the regional economy.

“Certainly, our travel tourism sector hasn’t recovered to the level that it was pre-Helene. Some of that is because perceptions outside of our area that this area is closed to visitors or that this area is not ready for visitors,” said Nathan Ramsey with the Land of Sky Regional Council.

Ramsey said transportation challenges are also affecting businesses that rely on timely shipping and delivery.

“Companies that need to transport their products in various ways, the fact that that corridor is a little less accessible today than it was is certainly a drag on them. Many companies have just in time inventory where they are needing that inventory as timely as possible so that’s certainly an impact,” Ramsey said.

Officials with the NCDOT say current traffic patterns will remain in place throughout construction.

The N.C. Department of Transportation says all costs associated with repairing the highway will be reimbursed by the Federal Highway Administration.

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 Evan Sery

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    DETROIT (WXYZ) — A professional basketball player from Detroit returned home Saturday after what she describes as a harrowing escape from Iran amid deadly violence and mass anti-government protests.

Taylor Jones, who has played for 17 different teams overseas since beginning her professional career in 2019, was playing for Abadan in Iran when the situation deteriorated rapidly.

“We had four more games until we transitioned into the playoffs,” Jones said.

Any hopes of a championship run ended when protests in the country escalated, and the Iranian government cut off all internet service on January 8.

“Our WiFi began acting very shaky. Iran is known for not having good service, but it had never been that bad,” Jones said.

Jones and her teammates, including other Americans, found themselves cut off from the outside world.

“I was shaking, my anxiety was at a thousand. I was trying to call my mom – it wouldn’t go through,” Jones said.

She eventually managed to get a signal because their hotel was close to the Iraqi border.

“I went to my other teammate’s room, who was American. She’s like, ‘I just figured out I have one bar,’ so I was like, ‘Maybe if I sit in the corner of the room my phone will also pick up,'” Jones said.

The phone finally connected after picking up a signal from Iraqi cell towers.

After reaching her mother, Jones focused on finding a way home. Initial attempts to escape through Iraq were unsuccessful after she was denied entry at the border.

A team agent helped secure a flight to Dubai, but it meant flying out of Tehran.

“When you arrived there… oh, I was frantic. I was frantic. Obviously, I don’t look like the rest. They’re looking at four, five Americans walking. Their eyes are just like… we kept hearing them say ‘Americans, Americans,'” Jones said.

Jones’s mother, Fawn Day, was relieved to have her daughter back home.

“When she first texted me, she just said ‘Mom,’ and I knew something was going on. That’s the code word for something is going on. I was just hoping what I was seeing on the news would not come her way,” Day said.

This isn’t the first time Jones has had to flee a dangerous situation. In January 2022, she was playing basketball in Ukraine when Russian troops began preparing for an invasion. She escaped just a day before the war started.

“I’m just really trying to find the words to process everything that I witnessed. Never gone through anything as traumatic as that. Obviously, I had to flee from Ukraine in 2022, but that experience was far easier going than this was, by far,” Jones said.

Jones’s professional career has taken her to Portugal, Bosnia, Puerto Rico, Ukraine, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Belarus before her most recent stint in Iran.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXYZ verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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 Ryan Gamboa

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    BELTON, Missouri (KSHB) — Six weeks after a devastating fire at Lily’s Play-and-Stay claimed the life of 17-year-old Gidget, the dog daycare is rebuilding with help from an unexpected source: local high school students.

The December fire broke out in a room at the Belton facility, forcing owner Amy Klein to confront every pet owner’s worst nightmare.

“It sucks. There’s no other way that I can put it,” Klein said. “Every range of emotions we could feel, we’ve felt it.”

As the initial shock wore off, community support began pouring in. Among those lending a hand is Connor Stookey, a senior in the Academies of Belton program.

The Belton School District program offers students specialized fields of study to prepare them for success after graduation.

Stookey is working in construction as part of the program, gaining hands-on experience while helping Klein rebuild her business.

“I think the more I do this, the better knowledge I get,” Stookey said.

The partnership addresses a critical need in the construction industry. According to the Associated General Contractors of America, over half of firms reported more than 70% of candidates in 2025 were unqualified for hire across seven key positions, including mechanics, iron workers, electricians, heavy equipment operators, superintendents, estimating personnel, and project managers or supervisors.

Scott Sisemore, who leads Belton’s Academies program, sees the collaboration as essential for student success.

“We need to provide a pathway of success for every one of our students,” Sisemore said. “We hope [we] will encourage them to stay here if they leave and come back, start a business and be a part of their community.”

The program is so committed to giving students real-world experience that senior video production intern Nazier Kinney helped shoot this story.

For Stookey, the work represents more than just gaining construction skills — it’s about helping a community member recover from tragedy.

“I think it’s a good feeling getting this place back and running again, after what happened,” Stookey said.

Klein said the outpouring of support has been overwhelming in the best possible way.

“I didn’t know we had [this] type of support behind us until something like this magnitude has happened,” Klein said.

The Academies of Belton program is looking to expand to elementary and middle school students.

According to Sisemore, elementary students will get more exposure to a multitude of industries to prepare them for a career selection one day. In middle school, they are working with nonprofits to learn more about how those organizations operate.

Belton Middle School was working with Lily’s Rescue Rehab, Klein’s nonprofit, before the fire hit her downtown business. That partnership is on hold for now.

The construction program also recently finished working on a new downtown business, Battle Axes on Main.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KSHB verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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.