2 fires at Maryland psychiatric hospital prompt arson investigation

CNN Newsource on April 26, 2026

By JT Moodee Lockman

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    SYKESVILLE, Maryland (WJZ) — Two fires at a psychiatric hospital in Sykesville, Maryland, prompted an arson investigation Saturday, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Firefighters from the Sykesville Freedom District and several surrounding fire departments were called to the Springfield Hospital Center around 8 a.m.

Once on the scene, crews found two separate buildings on fire, 1121 2nd Street and 1123 2nd Street.

Sykesville Fire officials said crews faced challenges due to several out-of-service fire hydrants, leading to a request for tankers to help with the second building and water supply. It took about three and a half hours for crews to extinguish the fires.

Officials said both buildings are vacant. The hospital belongs to the Maryland Department of Health.

The incident sparked an arson investigation, and anyone with information is asked to call 410-386-3050.

The regional psychiatric hospital is operated by Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Mental Hygiene Administration.

It originally opened in 1896 and still serves as a mental health care institution, providing clinical services for individuals with mental illnesses. According to the state’s website, patients can only be admitted through referrals from hospitals or state and local courts.

The hospital also serves as an educational institution for nearly 200 mental health professionals each year with internships, trainings, and other career opportunities, according to the state’s website.

In 2000, parts of the hospital’s women’s facility were added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Warfield Complex, Hubner, and T Buildings are considered a historic district.

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.

Police, fire departments honor Philadelphia teen who broke car window to help woman

CNN Newsource on April 25, 2026

By Liz Crawford

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A teenager from Philadelphia is being called a hero after helping a woman last month who appeared to be having a seizure behind the wheel.

On Friday, Jaheim Warner said he was nervous. The auditorium was full of his classmates, and he was being honored by first responders and officials for what he did last month when he was a lot more than just nervous.

Four weeks ago, when he was walking home from his baseball game, Warner said he noticed a bunch of frantic adults around a white pick-up truck. The woman in the driver’s seat of the truck appeared to be having a seizure and the truck kept inching toward the intersection of Tulip and Hellerman streets. The doors were locked and somebody needed to stop that truck.

“I went to go look in the trash can for like a pipe or something, and luckily I found the pipe,” Warner said.

Warner said he jumped in the bed of the truck and used the pipe to break the back window.

“Then I squeezed through that little, tiny window in the back,” he said.

Warner put the truck in park and stayed with the woman until an ambulance arrived.

“I just told her, ‘I’m not going to leave you, I got you,'” he said.

Fast forward to one month later and his high school, Tacony Academy Charter, hosted a presentation with the police and fire departments to recognize his actions. He was given gift certificates, awards and a roaring applause from the audience.

Out of everyone in the auditorium, perhaps the woman beaming from the front row was the most proud, his mom, Jaimee Warner, who said she’s so grateful to have him as a son.

“He’s always been like that since he was little, all the time, always wanted to help people out,” she said.

Warner said the woman he helped is still recovering.

On Saturday, he begins training with the Philadelphia Fire Explorers, a program for young people interested in firefighting and emergency medical services.

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Goats graze Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco as nature’s wildfire prevention

CNN Newsource on April 25, 2026

By Julie Sharp

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Around 600 goats are grazing the Arroyo Seco, helping to reduce fire-prone vegetation across 100 acres in Pasadena’s natural parkland.

The goats were released last weekend and will keep chomping through the area for the next couple of months, with electrified fencing in place to keep them contained.

The environmentally friendly wildfire remediation method is funded through the City of Pasadena and the nonprofit One Arroyo Foundation. The nonprofit’s Goat-Fund-Me efforts are still underway, where donors can name a goat or sponsor a full or half acre for “a safer Pasadena.”

“The landscape acts as a natural wind tunnel where fires can move quickly, contributing to its designation as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone,” One Arroyo Foundation wrote on its website.

The goats can reach areas that machinery can’t, cutting through brush and lower tree branches – and they return the nutrients to the soil.

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Wings Over Solano returns with debut of Pink Jet led by all-female crew

CNN Newsource on April 25, 2026

By Ashley Sharp

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KOVR) — This weekend, more than 100,000 people are expected to pack Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield for the Wings Over Solano Air Show, which only happens every two years.

The event features inspiring performances from groups like the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the Academy Wings of Blue. But what may end up being the most eye-catching performance is a first-time addition to the show: The Pink Jet.

The Pink Jet is an all-female flight crew on a mission as their bright pink Albatros fighter jet soars through the sky, spitting out pink smoke with pilots dressed in pink flight suits.

“It’s such an incredible aircraft, an incredible jet, and it displays so well,” said pilot and Aerial Angels The Pink Jet president, Stephanie Goetz.

It is a flight honoring the fight of millions of women who have battled and are battling breast cancer, in memory of the Aerial Angels founder and former president.

“We’re building on this legacy of Steve Oakley and his wife, Jamie, who really built this aircraft and built this vision and mission for breast cancer awareness, early detection, supporting survivors,” said Goetz.

As it races through the sky, the fighter jet is also meant to break barriers, helping young girls get inspired and interested in aviation.

“That gives them a chance to see that they too, can do it as well,” said Pink Jet pilot Olga Sannikova.

Before Stephanie Goetz took to the skies she was a news anchor, including for CBS stations.

“I got introduced to aviation when someone called me out of the blue to do a story on aviation. He was a flight instructor, 80 years old, and I went and did the story with him,” said Goetz.

From there, the sky was the limit.

Whether it is cancer or shattering glass ceilings, the message of The Pink Jet is simple.

“It is possible with a positive attitude, with working hard, with really pushing yourself past any barriers that you might have,” said Goetz.

For those attending the air show this year, there are some security changes to keep in mind. Attendees who do not have a real ID will be required to provide a second form of identification like a passport or a social security card to get onto the base. Visitors under 18 do not have to provide any ID.

The show is entirely free and open to the public on Saturday and Sunday.

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Rob and Michele Reiner’s son, Jake, speaks out about his parents’ deaths: “My world, as I knew it, had collapsed”

CNN Newsource on April 25, 2026

By Austin Turner

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Jake Reiner, son of Rob and Michele Reiner, spoke out on Friday for the first time since his parents were brutally killed in their Los Angeles home in December, detailing the moment he learned what happened.

In a post to Substack, Jake said he was at the celebration of life for one of his best friends when his sister, Romy, called to tell him that their father was dead. Moments later, he wrote, he found out his mother was also killed.

“My world, as I knew it, had collapsed. I was in a trance,” Jake said. “The only thing I could focus on was that I needed to get to my childhood home. I needed to get to my sister. I needed to figure out what the hell just happened.”

He said he then took a rideshare service from the funeral in downtown LA to his family’s Brentwood home, which he called “unendurable.”

“Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like to lose both parents instantly at the same time,” he wrote. “It’s too devastating to comprehend. I still wake up every morning having to convince myself that, no, it’s not a dream. This truly is my living nightmare.”

Rob and Michele were found dead with stab wounds on Dec. 14. Shortly after, their son, Nick, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Nick was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree in a Los Angeles courtroom in February. He pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Rob Reiner, director of iconic films such as “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally…” was 78. Michele Singer Reiner, an accomplished photographer and film producer, was 70.

Jake then wrote about his grief and described his relationship with his parents. He only alluded to his brother, not mentioning his name, at the end of the more than 1,600-word post.

“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable,” Jake wrote. “Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it. It’s almost too impossible to process. I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.”

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Orange County music therapy program gives neurodiverse students a musical and emotional platform

CNN Newsource on April 25, 2026

By Rina Nakano

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    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A group of musicians is shattering stereotypes and proving that neurological differences don’t stand in the way of rocking their stage.

Roberto is on the keys, Justin on Congas, Hunter on the sax, Robert on bass, Jesus on timbales, and Joanna on mic, and together they make the Magnet Ensemble, and every member is neurodiverse.

They’re diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, and for 20-year-old Roberto Reyes and his older brother Jesus, it’s autism. Their mother was desperate to find support when they were young.

“She came across an article saying how music can have a big impact,” Roberto said.

For Roberto, it has. He was 1 year old when he first came to the Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, or OCCTAC, for music therapy. The Santa Ana non-profit provides art and therapy programs to low-income and special needs families.

“Growing up, I was bullied for the way I acted,” Roberto said. He said making friends at school was difficult when he was younger, and he struggled with his physical coordination.

But when Roberto began taking piano lessons at OCCTAC at 7, things changed.

“Four words. You can do it.” Musical Coordinator Phoebe Stanciell said, noting that Roberto’s musical and emotional growth has been life-changing.

“Many times there is a stigma when they have a disability, but I feel like if you give them a platform and you actually hear the voice, not necessarily the voice, but the voice of their instrument or whatever skill that they have, it’s a power,” Stanciell said.

Five years ago, she gathered a group of neurodivergent students and launched the Magnet Ensemble. Since then, they’ve performed all over Orange County. Some members wear earplugs to limit noise. Others avoid eye contact. But Reyes says their performances speak for themselves.

Roberto said that what started as a simple therapeutic tool has turned into his passion.”It’s been amazing, to be honest. If I were never diagnosed, I would’ve never started my journey.”

It’s a journey he says he’ll continue for the rest of his life.

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AI robots are learning to do simple human tasks at a factory in Massachusetts

CNN Newsource on April 25, 2026

By Alyssa Andrews

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    BOSTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Artificial intelligence works when computers learn from data that is readily available. But there is no data to teach robots to do simple human tasks. It needs to be created.

That’s what MIT graduates Josh Gruenstein and Alon Kosowsky-Sachs are working to build. The pair co-founded Tutor Intelligence out of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

“Most people live their lives and never see a robot. That’s going to change really quickly,” said Gruenstein, co-Founder and CEO of Tutor.

Kindergarten for robots

They now host the largest robot data factory in the United States, located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Gruenstein describes it like a kindergarten for robots.

“These robots are doing really basic tasks. They’re picking up individual items, putting them into boxes, trying to fold laundry,” Gruenstein said.

The robots are in their early stages of development. So they mess up quite a bit. They certainly aren’t doing these tasks perfectly-at least not yet. That’s because the data for AI to learn a variety of physical human tasks doesn’t exist.

“The way that models like ChatGPT work is you read all of the books that have ever been written and all of Wikipedia and all of social media, and then you can engage in conversation like a human,” Gruenstein said. “For robotics, we don’t have that source of data. We have to go get it.”

But we know there are some robots doing pretty advanced stuff. So why are these ones in kindergarten class?

“It’s very easy to build a robot that does one job over and over again very well, right?” Gruenstein said. “If you think about a car factory … it’s robots that are doing the exact same motion every single day, because that car isn’t going to change day-to-day. But most physical work doesn’t look like that.”

Can robots learn new tricks? At the heart of this challenge is raising robots that can learn any behavior in any situation. Adapting – like a human would.

“For robots to do all of the jobs and kind of engage with our world in the same way that humans do, they have to be able to learn new skills on the fly, and kind of be general to any environment that they might learn in,” says Gruenstein.

Until then, they are literally creating the data that they will be trained on, alongside 100 of their closest robot friends.

And they won’t be clumsy kindergarteners forever.

“At the rate at which this technology’s advancing that’s going to charge really quickly,” Gruenstein said. “I think within the next five years, you won’t be able to go through your normal day-to-day life without seeing a robot. And I think that’s gonna be a really fascinating and exciting technological and social shift.”

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DOJ Drops Powell Investigation, Clearing Path for Warsh Nomination

CNN Newsource on April 24, 2026

By Tom LoBianco | Quincy News Correspondent

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    Washington (Quincy News) — The Justice Department announced Friday it was ending its investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, clearing a path for successor Kevin Warsh to win Senate confirmation.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, had been leading the investigation into whether Powell misled Congress about the cost of Federal Reserve office renovations, a case that became a flashpoint in the ongoing dispute between Powell and President Donald Trump. The effort stalled in court after a federal judge blocked their subpoenas last month.

Meanwhile, Trump’s nominee to replace Powell as Fed chair had been held up in Senate confirmation, as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) refused to support Warsh until the Justice Department dropped the criminal probe.

The Fed has maintained a target inflation rate of 2% in order to justify another interest rate cut since December’s quarter-point reduction to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. But key inflation markers have been trending up, even before the price hikes spurred by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and Powell maintained his position on rates throughout.

Friday’s announcement comes just weeks before Powell’s term as chair is set to expire, but Trump and other Republicans have signaled the possibility of additional investigations into Powell and the Fed.

Senate Banking Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) promised he would continue investigating the cost of the new Federal Reserve offices and would invite the Fed’s inspector general to brief the committee within 90 days.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, the American people deserve answers about the unacceptable cost overruns at the Federal Reserve. These serious concerns warrant scrutiny, and I’m pleased this matter is continuing to receive it,” Scott said in a statement.

Trump and Powell have been at odds over interest rates since the beginning of Trump’s second term, steadily escalating from a tense photo op last July in which Trump accused Powell of inflating the cost of the Fed’s multi-billion dollar renovation.

Pirro led the probe, but U.S. District Judge James Boasberg blocked the subpoenas regarding the renovation, finding insufficient evidence of a crime and raising concerns that the investigation lacked a proper legal basis.

Responding to the judge’s decision, Pirro said: “As a result, Jerome Powell today is now bathed in immunity, preventing my office from investigating the Federal Reserve. This is wrong, and it is without legal authority.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Banking Committee, referenced separate efforts by the administration to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook before her term expires in 2038.

“Anyone who believes Donald Trump’s corrupt scheme to take over the Fed is over is fooling themselves. The Senate should not proceed with the nomination of Kevin Warsh,” Warren said in her statement.

The announcement marks a victory for Tillis, the senior Senate Republican, who has increasingly broken with the White House since announcing he would not seek re-election in November.

Tillis did not respond to Friday’s announcement, according to Punchbowl News.

Earlier in the week during Warsh’s confirmation hearing, Tillis reaffirmed his opposition to any nominee until the investigation was dropped.

“Kevin Warsh is a great nominee to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and I look forward to supporting him out of committee once the DOJ drops their bogus investigation into Chairman Powell that threatens the independence of the Fed,” Tillis wrote on X after the hearing.

During his comments, staff held a sign behind Tillis quoting Warsh himself saying, “Independence in the conduct of monetary policy is at the core of advanced modern economies.”

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Dallas implements hiring freeze, overtime restrictions to help with budget woes

CNN Newsource on April 24, 2026

By Briauna Brown

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    DALLAS (KTVT) — The city of Dallas said Friday it is instituting a hiring freeze and overtime restrictions for the police and fire departments in order ease a budget shortfall.

The city said current data shows its expenses will exceed the budget by $16.4 million due to police and fire pay and overtime, as well as declining sales tax collections leading to reduced revenue. Officials said the city’s self-funded employee health benefit fund is also projected to exceed budget by $13.8 million due to an increase in medical and pharmacy claims.

To address these issues, the city is implementing the following actions immediately: a selective hiring freeze for non-uniformed positions, overtime restrictions, spending reductions and travel suspensions.

Non-essential spending will also be eliminated, which includes items that can be postponed without affecting the core operations of the department.

“As we navigate resource constraints, fiscal stewardship remains our top priority. We are committed to strengthening efficiency across all operations while ensuring that limited resources are focused on the City’s most critical needs,” Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said in a statement. “These measures are necessary to maintain essential services and uphold our fiscal responsibility to Dallas residents.”

The city said it will monitor how these cost-saving measures help and will discuss whether more changes need to be made in the future.

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Dashcam shows CSP trooper end dangerous chase near Cortez with PIT maneuver

CNN Newsource on April 24, 2026

By Robert Garrison

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    CORTEZ, Colorado (KMGH) — The Colorado State Patrol shared dashcam video Wednesday of an 81-year-old driver who allegedly led a trooper in a high-speed chase before a PIT maneuver put an end to the dangerous pursuit.

The driver was arrested for DUI, reckless driving, and eluding following the April 8 incident on US 160 near Cortez in the Four Corners area.

The video shows Trooper Mass conducting a separate traffic stop when he notices a Jeep Gladiator driving on the shoulder in the wrong direction. Other motorists point toward the Jeep to alert the trooper.

Trooper Mass immediately abandons his current stop, returns to his patrol car, and initiates the pursuit.

As Trooper Mass follows the Jeep, the vehicle speeds on the shoulder, drifts into oncoming traffic, and nearly causes multiple head-on crashes, according to the CSP.

Trooper Mass activates his lights and sirens and continues pursuing the driver, who does not respond.

With an active work zone ahead and the Jeep failing to stop, Trooper Mass uses a tactical vehicle intervention, sometimes called a PIT maneuver, to halt the vehicle before it enters the construction area, according to the CSP.

The unidentified suspect was booked into the Montezuma County Jail.

The agency released the video during National Work Zone Safety Week to highlight how impaired and reckless drivers can threaten the lives of roadway workers and the general public.

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