Author: CNN Newsource

By Michael Rosales

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    SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, California (KSBW) — Heavy rain and warm weather in Santa Cruz County are creating challenges for strawberry farmers, with mold, fruit splitting, and accelerated growth threatening their crops.

Strawberries are the top crop on the Central Coast, with Produce Business Magazine reporting that 90% of the country’s strawberries come from the area. However, heavy rain could prevent much of the fruit from reaching consumers.

“You got a lot of fruit out there already, and then the rains come in that can just knock those back,” said Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner David Sanford.

Mark Bolda, a farm advisor, described the impact of the recent rainfall.

“The fruit loss is going to be tremendous. Just this morning I measured an inch and a half of rain over the past two days. Usually berries start to break down after half an inch,” Bolda said.

Rain can cause mold and even make strawberries burst or split.

“The fruit, as we all know, have sugars in them. And then that gets drawn into the area of higher concentration. And subsequently that results in the fruit bursting,” Bolda said.

Farmers say hundreds, if not thousands, of strawberries could be wasted after heavy rain. At a strawberry field in Watsonville, piles of fallen strawberries were visible.

Rain isn’t the only concern for growers. Recent heat has accelerated the growing season by about three weeks, which initially helped reduce production costs. However, those benefits may be short-lived.

“All the sudden we were fruiting at the same time that Oxnard was, Baja California, and Santa Maria. So yes, prices will go up, but I think they’re going to go up from—they were pretty low because we had so much production,” Bolda said.

Sanford noted that the Central Coast agricultural industry is accustomed to challenges, pointing to the 2023 Pajaro floods as one of the most difficult events in recent memory.

“You have major losses in the field. You have tremendous flood loss with these kinds of rains in the spring. You know, they’re not entirely uncommon in terms of timing, of picking, slowing things down. Again, thinning of berries have been damaged. But the growers here in the Pajaro and Watsonville area [are] very resilient, very used to this. And I think, as Mark said, they’ll be back, picking fruit very quickly,” Sanford said.

Farmworkers in Watsonville were seen working to clean up the fields, facing the aftermath of the recent weather.

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 Kara Burnett

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    BALTIMORE COUNTY, Maryland (WMAR) — At Rock Steady Boxing Charm City, fighting back takes on a new meaning. It’s a free class helping people living with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological disorder that can cause tremors and slowed movement. But there’s another side that’s not always visible.

The disease can also impact dopamine levels, which may lead to anxiety and depression for some patients. For many in the class, the diagnosis can feel overwhelming at first.

“Because of the people I’ve met here, it’s very rewarding,” said Jim Czarnecki, who is living with Parkinson’s.

Czarnecki was diagnosed four years ago. He thought his symptoms were signs of a stroke.

“It was kind of relieving knowing what it was, but again, not knowing what it was. I did research, and it was scary.”

But Czarnecki and his family made the decision that he wouldn’t stop living a full life. He retired, traveled, and joined Rock Steady Boxing at Charm City, where he found a new kind of family.

“We go to trivia night together, we go to breakfast club. It’s a huge extension of your family, but it’s also an extension of people you can relate to because they understand what you’re going through,” he said.

The non-contact boxing program focuses on high-intensity workouts designed to improve strength, balance, and coordination.

“Finding a community like this definitely made a big difference because it can be a pretty lonely feeling when you first get that diagnosis,” said Mary Thomey, another member of the program.

According to the National Institute of Medicine, regular exercise may help improve brain function and manage symptoms of Parkinson’s. About 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with the condition, but experts say the true number is likely much higher, possibly closer to one million.

“When I graduated PT school back in the early 2000s, we were instructed that with Parkinson’s disease, there’s nothing that we could do, and you didn’t want to make folks exercise because you didn’t want to spend the rest of their dopamine. Turns out that’s false,” said Patricia Wessels, a physical therapist and head coach of Rock Steady Boxing.

Nine years ago, one of her longtime patients came to her. She thought it was a routine visit to treat his back pain, but instead, he told her he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

“I literally told him, ‘I don’t treat that, you need a different therapist.’ And he said, ‘No, I’m not going to another one, and they said I needed therapy.’”

So instead of turning him away, she came across the national organization Rock Steady Boxing and decided to bring the program to Baltimore.

“It’s really, really… it’s so meaningful. I could cry if I think about it too much, but one of the things I love so much about doing this work with this group of people is that even on their worst day, they bring 110%,” she said.

The class is free, funded by the Maryland Association for Parkinson Support, which offers exercise and support programs in 15 counties.

Each week, they reach more than 2,000 people across the state living with the condition.

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 Carli Petrus

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    DETROIT (WXYZ) — Thieves have destroyed nearly 75 fire hydrants on the west side of Detroit in the last 48 hours, stealing parts and putting lives at risk.

Crews with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department are racing to repair the broken hydrants along Southfield Road and across the west side after thieves tore through dozens in about two days.

“We think the number is about 75 so far,” DWSD Deputy Director Sam Smalley said.

The thieves are targeting metal nozzles and stems on top of the hydrants, which are worth about $600.

Executive Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms said the vandalism is a serious and unacceptable situation that puts lives at risk.

“No matter how fast we get to a fire, if we don’t have an operable fire hydrant, it takes seconds, sometimes even minutes away from maybe us saving lives,” Simms said.

Smalley noted the scale of the damage is the most alarming part.

“One hydrant here or there is manageable, but the problem is whoever’s doing this is doing multiple hydrants in a row. So when DFD shows up, they’re not going to have a hydrant within 600 or 900 feet, which put people’s lives at risk,” Smalley said.

City officials, including the Detroit Fire Department, Detroit Police Department and DWSD, came together Wednesday to address the issue. They are warning scrapyards not to accept the stolen parts.

“If we find you purchasing them, we’re going to take action to the fullest extent that we possibly can,” Smalley said.

Detroit police are working to track down whoever is responsible.

“This is a public safety issue. If my partners in blue are unable to respond to a fire properly, it can end lives or it can be the difference in saving lives,” Detroit Police Cmdr. Dietrich Lever said.

Meanwhile, crews are installing stronger, harder-to-remove parts to prevent future thefts.

“We’re putting in some specialized stems where we find that they’ve been taken. They’re not easily removable with ordinary tools. You have to have special tools to remove them a second time,” Smalley said.

Officials are asking the community to help stop the thefts.

“If you see anyone at all out here taking something from the hydrants please, call 911 because it is a theft and secondly, call the fire department or the water board and we’ll be right on top of it,” Simms said. ————— This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXYZ’s editorial team 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 Jolie Sherman

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    FERNDALE, Michigan (WXYZ) — Rats are a creepy, crawly and chronic problem for some residents in Ferndale, with the rodents appearing in yards and even inside vehicles.

To combat the issue, a local group known as the Ferndale Rat Patrol has been hitting the streets to help homeowners, and their plan is to do even more.

John Kraus, who moved to Ferndale in November 2019, said he noticed the rats right away. He said the rodents mostly come out at night, and he captured videos last year showing them scurrying across yard.

“One of our very first catches was a mature rat, and I would say that’s probably a good 12 inches in length,” Kraus said.

The clever rodents have also climbed into his family’s car.

“A rat did get into our tailpipe and had torn apart some of our leather seats and got into some of children’s car seats as well,” Kraus said.

Ferndale Mayor Pro Tem Laura Mikulski does not take the issue lightly. She co-founded the Ferndale Rat Patrol in 2016. What began as a group of 20 members has turned into an online network of more than 9,000 people.

“We’re one of the most active groups on Facebook. We post a ton of content. We have a ton of educational material out there,” Mikulski said.

The group teaches residents how to take action using humane methods such as traps, rather than poisonous chemicals that could harm other animals.

Mikulski recently helped longtime Ferndale resident Carol Jarvie bust a rat burrow using dry ice to create a CO2 chamber and euthanize the rats.

“We just scooped little pots into the dry ice and just kind of dumped it in there, and used sticks, which are plentiful here,” Jarvie said.

Jarvie said her next-door neighbor, who has a night camera, has noticed fewer rats since the group came out to her neighborhood last weekend.

The Ferndale Rat Patrol plans to ramp up its efforts this year by visiting more neighborhoods and launching an app to educate homeowners.

“If I have the knowledge to speak out about this and help people out, why wouldn’t I do this?” Mikulski said.

The city of Ferndale posted a rat reduction guide on their website.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXYZ’s editorial team 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 Catherine Ross

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    NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio (WEWS) — The trigonometric functions written on Jake Lord’s classroom whiteboard could easily look like a foreign language to the non-math-savvy among us.

“In this sense, we are in pre-calculus and so we’re getting towards calculus,” the Lake Ridge Academy math teacher explained.

Lord teaches both classes, along with AP statistics, at the private K-12 school in North Ridgeville. The equations on his whiteboard could be considered a warm-up for three students he said have displayed an extraordinary math aptitude.

“I’ve never had students like these three, where math is their favorite thing to do, even outside of school,” he said.

Kisen Yao, Shirley You and Eric Shin recently beat out thousands of other students to advance to the finals of an international math competition.

“They are way past me. I don’t know that I’d be able to come to the solutions that they did,” Lord laughed.

The three friends share a passion for math.

“I think I like that math always has an answer,” said Shin.

The Lake Ridge Academy senior is an exchange student from South Korea. You and Yao are also exchange students from China. All three have spent their high school careers at the private school in North Ridgeville.

They said the excitement of their recent competition has been a highlight of their time abroad.

“I think this is one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had, not just because of the uniqueness of the competition and the results,” said Yao, a high school junior. “But also, it was a really awesome experience to work with my teammates and communicate and work through those fantastic problems.”

As the president of the school’s math club, Yao had the idea to enter the MathWorks Math Modeling Competition and enlist You and Shin.

“I kind of wanted to explore how math can be related to real life,” said You, also a junior at the school.

The M3 Challenge is an international math modeling competition. The competition’s work time spans a continuous 14-hour period, at the end of which teams submit a solution paper explaining their work and conclusions.

This year’s 770 teams used provided data to explore the rise of online gambling and its impact in the U.S. and U.K.

“How the money they lose during the gambling might affect their whole household. It was a really interesting problem,” said Shin.

The team initially received word that it had been selected as semi-finalists.

“That was good enough,” said You.

Then, on spring break, they found out their solutions were impressive enough to be among the top six finalist teams.

You said, “I was so surprised.”

On Sunday, the students will be flying to New York City to present their findings to a panel of professional mathematicians. The winning team will receive a $20,000 scholarship.

“Something like this is huge for their future,” Lord said.

All three students hope to attend U.S. colleges. After Shin graduates this spring, he will attend the University of Southern California. You said she hopes to attend UCLA. Yao’s dream school is MIT.

All three plan to study math-related fields.

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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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) — Wednesday’s announcement that the Royals will build a new ballpark at Hallmark headquarters in Kansas City brought back fond memories for Judy Manning.

“He was just a poor boy from southern Indiana who grew up enjoying art,” she said of her husband.

Judy was married to her husband, Shannon Manning, for 62 years.

Shannon Manning passed away four years ago.

In 1967, he was recruited by Hallmark to work in its package design department, where he often worked with paper products and ornate decor.

She remembered a quiet and kind man that always had a knack for creation.

Her den studio in her senior living community is lined with his artwork.

“Any trip we’d take, he always had a sketchbook and a pencil or pen,” Manning said.

It was only a few years after her husband began his Hallmark job that the Kauffman family asked the company to have its designers create a lasting logo for the new team.

“They chose Shannon’s over 16, 20 people who designed emblems, but they chose Shannon’s. A wise decision, I thought,” she said.

Manning remembered the excitement and disbelief the Kauffman’s selected his work.

There were even perks that came with being selected, including season tickets for a year and complimentary tickets to some games after that first season.

It wasn’t about the prize to Shannon, but how he used his passion and creativity.

“It’s so clever, a lot of people don’t realize that the logo is a takeoff of home plate,” Manning explained. “Of course, the crown, Hallmark, the Royals, it’s all together. They’re family.”

At Wednesday’s press conference, where the Royals and Hallmark announced the downtown stadium project, Don Hall, Jr., executive chairman at Hallmark, mentioned Manning’s creation.

“There’s an interesting history the Royals and Hallmark share,” he said. “John [Sherman] alluded to it. When the Royals came to Kansas City, they adopted the crown. That has become one of Major League’s most enduring and unmistakably Kansas City icons. That crown was designed by a Hallmark artist. When a new Royals stadium opens here at Crown Center, it will return to the very neighborhood where it was created.”

Manning’s work was also featured in a stadium hype video shared at the announcement gathering and on social media.

“I almost broke down in tears, really,” Manning said. “I wanted that. I wanted that to be the case. I wanted them to hang onto that logo, and of course, the scoreboard. I always thought the scoreboard was wonderful when we were at the stadium.”

Manning spends much of her day in that den studio, surrounded by her husband’s artwork and working on pieces of her own.

“It’s comforting,” she said. “It makes me feel like he’s near. He’s got his arms around me every time I’m in that room.”

But there’s one piece of art she keeps near her, in her bedroom. It’s the final paper sculpture he created, an intricate image of Kauffman Stadium and the scoreboard that bears his design.

“The last piece he did, the last paper sculpture he did, was of the Royals stadium,” she explained. “I hope that the Royals will want it back, and put it in the Hall of Fame.”

There’s plenty of Royals memorabilia inside her home, a tribute to her husband and the team they love, coming home.

“I hope that it never fades, baseball will never fade,” Manning said. “Baseball is here to stay and we think that the emblem is here to stay too now. He would be ever so proud.”

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.