Author: CNN Newsource

By Paige Meyer

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    IONIA, Michigan (WXMI) — At the School of Missionary Aviation Technology in Ionia, a float plane is being restored and used to train future pilots. Soon, it will be sent overseas where it will help deliver life-saving care to some of the most remote villages in Papua New Guinea.

“Without Samaritan Aviation there, there is no other option for getting to the hospital faster,” said Case Visser with Samaritan Aviation.

Visser, a Grand Rapids native and former missionary pilot, says the organization uses float planes to reach communities in isolated regions where access to medical care can take days.

“The people we serve live 1 to 5 days from the hospital, down a 7 mile river,” Visser said.

In many cases, that distance can mean the difference between life and death. Visser says the non profit works to close that gap by dramatically cutting travel time for patients in need.

“We can fly out and we can change what is, on average, a 2 to 3 day trip to the hospital, to a one hour flight,” he said.

The nonprofit currently operates three float planes in Papua New Guinea. The aircraft being worked on in Ionia will soon join that fleet, supporting the group’s expanding mission.

“We’re adding a new base in Papua New Guinea as we speak, where people can’t get to a hospital,” Visser said. “Once that base is fully operational, they’re going to need this airplane.”

Over the next year, the plane will continue to be repaired and used for hands-on training before it is deployed overseas.

According to Visser, Samaritan Aviation transports roughly one patient per day. But for the former missionary pilot, the mission goes beyond the flights themselves.

“To be able to encourage students and people heading that way to make a lifestyle choice of service and missions aviation, I love being able to encourage them,” he said.

From an airport in Ionia County to remote villages across the globe, the impact of this work is far reaching.

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 Lily O’Shea Becker

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    LAWRENCE, Missouri (KSHB) — Grassroots efforts to revitalize Municipal Stadium at Hobbs Park in East Lawrence are energized by the community whose history lives there.

Neighbors, kickball players and community stakeholders are coming together to raise awareness and funds to repair the stadium that was built in 1947 at East 11th and Delaware streets. The goal is to get the stadium on the National Register of Historic Places and then use grants, tax credits and donations to renovate the deteriorating stadium.

From the Native Americans who first lived in the area to Langston Hughes’ upbringing and the baseball teams that played in town — a mural on the southeast corner of the stadium tells the history of Lawrence.

Andrew Stockmann works at the Watkins Museum of History in Lawrence. He lives near the stadium and has researched its history.

The Lawrence Colts were the first to break in the field for a semi-professional baseball game in July 1947. Over 30,000 people attended 55 games that season, according to the city of Lawrence.

“It’s had some real baseball history happen here; the Kansas City Monarchs played here in 1949,” said Stockmann, who noted National Baseball Hall of Famer Buck O’Neil managed the team at the time.

Although the stadium looked different back then, it was equipped with dugouts, a press box, locker rooms and a concession stand. Those amenities no longer exist, and rust along the field’s screen is spreading and the concrete stands show wear and tear.

Lawrence resident Lee Ice grew up in a house four blocks away from Municipal Stadium, but he says he really grew up on the field.

“I hung numbers on the manual scoreboard, I chased foul balls, I batboyed, and I was on the last (American Legion) team that played here in 1973,” Ice said.

Ice says his father, Al Ice, played for an American Legion team and coached in for the league for 25 years, many of those years at Municipal Stadium.

Al Ice’s legacy lives on at Holcomb Park, where a field is named after him and his brother, Tony. The city of Lawrence says Al and Tony Ice are two of the “main reasons the Legion baseball program has maintained its excellence throughout history.”

Once Ice was old enough, he played at Municipal Stadium for American Legion. He says his aunt and his mom ran the concession stand selling popcorn and hot dogs.

“This is what we did all summer, this was us,” Ice said.

He’s carried his love for baseball with him throughout his life. Ice said he went on to play ball for the University of Kansas and two years in the minor leagues with the Kansas City Royals. In total, Lee says he’s coached for 40 years across Lawrence’s two high schools, KU and for American Legion.

That’s why he understands how passionate Kaw Valley Kickball is about their league at Municipal Stadium.

“They put 800 people in the stadium in the game of the week on a Sunday night,” he said. “The barbecues, everything. It’s a community-type event at the same place we did 45, 50 years ago.”

Erin Adams grew up in the East Lawrence neighborhood and has played in the Kaw Valley Kickball league since 2003. During the summer season, the league meets twice a week for practice on Wednesdays and a game on Sundays, which typically fills at least half the stands.

“Some of the people who are here right now are trying to get picked up by teams because we have a cap of 36 teams in our league,” Adams said at practice on Wednesday. “We don’t have room for more teams. That’s more than the NFL has, so it’s kind of a big deal in this town.”

Adams said she met her best friends and husband playing with Kaw Valley Kickball. He later proposed to her on the field.

“Growing up, it was always full of little leaguers and Friday night adult baseball leagues, so it’s really sad to see it falling apart and not being used in its original capacity,” she said. “The only people who are really still using it are the kickball players.”

Kickball co-captain Arie Auxter also met her husband at Municipal Stadium. They got married at home plate in 2021.

“It’s like a part of my heart, a part of my home,” Auxter said. “I want to see it be here forever.”

The next step in the Municipal Stadium at Hobbs Park Legacy Project is to raise enough money for a historic structure report. The report would figure out a master plan for the site, cost estimates and identify needed repairs.

Long-term goals include restoring some of the amenities that once adorned the ballpark.

“It’s still a really cool field in my opinion,” Ice said. “The old dugouts are gone, the locker rooms are gone, concessions are gone. All of that’s still underneath, but still, to see it being utilized, we need to take it one step farther.”

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 Rae Daniel

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    KANSAS CITY (KSHB) — Two-year-old Hudson loves to play games with his sisters, Abigail and Evelyn, make silly faces and share a laugh that is contagious.

“He is one of the most curious kids that I’ve ever met,” Hudson’s mom, Hali Rauer said. “He does like his routines, but he wants to explore everything and anything.”

For Hudson, communication looks a bit different. He’s nonverbal and has level three autism.

“This is how he communicates,” Rauer said. “He is learning it quite a bit at Easterseals Midwest.”

Hudson uses his AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) device to communicate.

“He has learned colors and his name and family so if he’s missing family members , he can tell us,” Rauer said. “Usually, it’s ‘momma’ to go home.”

It’s one of the reasons why Rauer and Hudson’s sister, 10-year-old Abigail, testified in support of the Purple Alert bill, to be a voice for Hudson.

“Danielle posted in a group saying ‘I’m looking for volunteers, anyone with kids with autism’ so I wanted to go there and be his voice until he’s able to use his own voice with the AAC.

It’s similar to an Amber Alert, however it’s specifically designed to identify missing people with developmental disabilities.

Throughout the hearing in February, many families who testified used the word, ‘elopement.’

“Elopement happens when their nervous system goes into flight mode,” Rauer said. “It can be out of nowhere. So they can be with you, be engaged and then all of the sudden, they are off to the races and you don’t know where they’re going, you don’t know what triggered it and so they can be lost. They don’t know who to turn to because they don’t know danger so they will run towards danger. They really love water, they’re just drawn to it, so if there’s any ponds or lakes or anything around, that’s usually where they’ll go first.”

It’s what Rauer experienced with her son just a few weeks ago.

“I was actually outside with him, playing with a basketball. He was engaged with me, we were just playing and then all of a sudden what I think is he heard a car, because one of his hyper fixations is spinning wheels, he loves them, and then all of the sudden his nervous system went into flight and I feel like they go a lot faster when they’re in the flight response,” Rauer said. “I ran after him, I was able to lunge and grabbed his arm, I fell. Head hit the concrete and I was knocked out and when I came to, he was standing next to me. He really liked the blood on my face, so when I tried to stand up it started going down my face and I got a little dizzy and I started calling for help, and luckily a neighbor came out and knew about Hudson, knew about autism, so she didn’t go and grab him , she just tried to redirect him to go up to the house so I could try and stop the bleeding.”

She said the feeling was terrifying.

“There were two possibilities,” she said. “He could’ve been in front of the car, and it could’ve been the worst day of my life or it could be the second worst day of my life, the car would’ve passed, he would’ve ran, kept running and I don’t know if I would’ve come to in time and it could’ve been just word of mouth, just trying to find him and he wouldn’t of had his words.”

Rauer said without his device, he has no words.

“He can’t say my mom’s looking for me, my dad’s looking for me, I have a family, this is my address, none of that is in his vocabulary,” Rauer said. “He is completely alone.”

“It scares me every single time he runs away,” Hudson’s sister, Abigail said.

She says it’s why she uses her voice, when her brother can’t.

“He can’t stick up for himself so I want to stick up for him whenever I can,” Abigail said.

It’s one of many reasons they shared why they testified in support of the Purple Alert bill, saying it’s in hopes that Hudson and other children like him, are safe during times of elopement.

“I don’t want that for my children, but I also don’t want that for anyone, because we keep losing them. I feel like this needs to be in place as soon as possible, so that we can save these children instead of having a Facebook post that’s looking for them and then… ‘In memory of,'” Rauer said. “They need a voice, and if the public servants know how to interact with each one and get the information straight from the caregivers and the families, then those kids can be found before they’re a statistic with death.”

Right now, the Purple Alert bill, HB 1840, known as RJ’s Law, has cleared the Missouri House and now has Senate Committee approval.

It still needs full Senate approval before heading to the Governor’s desk.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on its progress.

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 Isabel Flores

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    TULSA, Oklahoma (KJRH) — Tulsa Public Schools parents partnered with the non-profit ImpactTulsa to spread the word about free preschool/childcare, especially to families in north and east Tulsa.

Rachel Walker said me she’s been a parent advocate with Impact Tulsa for a year now, and has loved every second of it.

“It makes me feel good to actually be able to help somebody with information that they don’t know about, because sharing information is really important when it comes to community building,” she said. “We can bring our community together by piecing in those missing puzzle pieces.”

In fact, Walker did start her own resource hub with other women in Tulsa known as Resource Accelerated to help bring resources for families all in one place.

Being a mom herself, she said enrolling her daughter into preschool was a great decision.

“It is very important for children to start learning, and those social skills are very important to build those at a young age,” said Walker. “I personally feel like my daughter, being the only child, putting her in Pre-K around other kids in that learning environment has helped her build her confidence.”

Ana Barros is the Director of Collaboration and Partnerships at ImpactTulsa.

She said the organization wanted parents to spread the message about preschool access since they’ve already been through the process and can vouch for it.

“Oklahoma is one of three states in the entire nation that has free, universal pre-K in every public school across the state, but people don’t necessarily know that.”

She also said ImpactTulsa created this website for parents as a “one-stop-shop” that gives parents more info on enrollment and eligibility.

“Pre-K Tulsa.com is the best place to find information on all school districts in Tulsa County, even CAP, even Educare, all of your options,” she said. “You put in your address, and it tells you what districts you’re eligible for.”

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 Adam Thompson

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    BALTIMORE COUNTY, Maryland (WJZ) — Baltimore County police are still holding out hope of solving the homicide investigation of Morgan State student Deborah Scott, who died 50 years ago.

Police believe they are closer than ever to identifying a potential suspect after new evidence was sent out for DNA testing.

On April 26, 1976, Scott, who was 18 years old, was found dead inside her family’s Woodlawn apartment. Police said a family member found Scott, who was unresponsive after she had been stabbed multiple times and suffered blunt force trauma to her body.

“I’m just hopeful that the DNA studies that are being conducted yield some sort of answer,” Tonya Pease, Scott’s God-sister, told police in an interview.

Family seeks closure in 50-year-old investigation Police said Scott was a Morgan State University student. She was supposed to attend class the day she was murdered, but she didn’t make it.

Witnesses recalled seeing a suspicious blue Chevy van with an “ILA” sticker parked outside of the home the morning of Scott’s murder.

“I was at work, and I got a call, and I went home. I remember I went in there and I found her,” Jean Hayes, Scott’s mother, told police in an interview. “She was just a good girl. She didn’t bother anybody.”

Hayes said she had never given up hope that the case would be solved.

“I’m always hopeful that something will break,” she said. “I’m just sorry that she’s gone and that she’s been gone so long.”

Anyone with information on the death of Deborah Scott is asked to call the police at (410) 887-3943 or text (443) 862-9426.

“It’s more important to me to help Jean get an answer to what happened to Deborah,” Pease said. “If you know something, say something. Just help us bring some closure. It’s been 50 years. Let us get the answers to this puzzle, to this mystery.”

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.