Author: CNN Newsource

By Christopher Harris

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WUPA) — Day two of training camp gave a clearer look at what the Atlanta Dream are trying to build this season, and why expectations are rising.

Under new head coach Karl Smesko, the Dream are continuing to lean into a faster, more up-tempo style, focused on spacing the floor and creating easy scoring chances in transition. After opening camp Sunday with individual workouts, Monday’s session shifted to more team drills and live action as players began to build chemistry.

That process now includes one of the team’s biggest offseason additions, All-Star forward Angel Reese, who was acquired in a trade from the Chicago Sky earlier this month.

Reese was active throughout practice, showing off her defensive instincts with a steal that led to a fast-break opportunity alongside Allisha Gray.

After practice, Reese said she’s focused on growth and adjusting to her new environment.

“Continuing to get better every single day, that’s what coach talks about,” Reese said. “Being uncomfortable in ways that you haven’t been before. That’s something that I’m not used to. So just being able to be coached and really pushed every single day to get better.”

The Dream are coming off a franchise-best season and return a strong core that includes Gray, Jordin Canada and Rhyne Howard, along with Reese as a centerpiece of the revamped roster.

But there is already one early concern.

The team announced Monday that center Brionna Jones recently underwent right knee surgery at Emory Hospital, leaving her status uncertain for the start of the season. Jones suffered a meniscus tear in late January while playing for USK Prague in the Czech Women’s Basketball League.

The four-time All-Star was expected to anchor the frontcourt alongside Reese but did not participate in drills during Monday’s practice.

Even with that uncertainty, there were encouraging signs on the floor. Rookie Madina Okot worked in units with Reese, while guard Indya Nivar made several hustle plays in transition, fitting the high-energy style Smesko appears to be trying to install.

Smesko said he’s already seeing progress.

“I’m really excited about the start,” Smesko said. “The players have had great energy, great attitudes. I thought today we improved upon what we worked on yesterday, and that’s all you can ask.”

He added that the team is ahead of where it was at the same point last season.

“It’s just Day 2, but we are a lot further ahead than we were a year ago,” he said. “We have so many players who know the system, and they’re helping the younger players along. It’s not just the coaches, it’s the whole team trying to get things going fast.”

Atlanta opens the preseason April 29 on the road against the Chicago Sky.

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, Maryland (WJZ) — A 19-year-old is being held without bond after allegedly shooting himself in a Towson University residence hall while attempting to steal a student’s designer hat.

Gage Flood has been charged with armed robbery, first-degree assault, and other firearm offenses following his arrest on April 16.

Students witness police response at Towson dorm Police said Flood shot himself in the leg while in a struggle with a group of students in the stairwell of Tower C in the 150 block of Cross Campus Drive.

Flood allegedly attempted to steal a Celine hat, which is a designer hat, according to charging documents. No other injuries were reported.

Flood was taken to a hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, officials said. Police said Flood was not a student at Towson.

“I was standing over there around that pavilion, and I’m hearing somebody shot themselves and I’m like, ‘Huh?’ So I walked up the stairs and saw endless cop cars, endless ambulances, I didn’t know what was going on,” said Mack, a freshman student at Towson.

Students took a video that showed police responding to the campus dorm.

“It was just kind of scary because you don’t know what’s happening. All you know is shots are fired, someone got shot. And I’m like, oh my God, that’s actually insane,” said Edwardina Beeko, a junior at Towson.

Students told CBS News Baltimore that the dorm residents are required to swipe their Towson student ID card to get into the building, and any guests must be signed in by someone who lives there.

“It’s like dang, a random dude could just come in there with a gun, and you would never know. What if the dude wasn’t robbing someone but wanted to kill people, wanted to shoot the school up, or something? I don’t feel safe,” Mack 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 Harper Cook

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    COLUMBIA, Mo. (KOMU) — A man who led an Amish retreat in Cooper County is now facing additional charges, including involuntary manslaughter, in connection to allegations of abuse in the community.

Sam Shetler, 42, is now being charged with three counts of trafficking for the purposes of forced labor, one count of first-degree sodomy, four counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, according to court records.

Shetler was initially charged with two counts of trafficking for the purposes of forced labor and one count of first-degree sodomy.

The new charges follow interviews that the Cooper County Sheriff’s Office conducted with more people who had contact with Shetler, according to court documents. The interviews were conducted in the days following Shetler’s arrest, according to court documents.

The interviews revealed more allegations of sexual abuse by Shetler and an allegation that he misled people in the community into believing he had medical expertise, which led to the death of a 6-month-old, according to court documents.

Shetler owned and operated Mercy and Truth, a retreat for Amish and Mennonite community members, for years before his arrest on March 25, according to court documents. A probable cause statement written by a Cooper County Sheriff’s Office detective sergeant described the retreat as being for individuals who are “morally or mentally disabled and or in need of counseling or therapy services.”

The charges Shetler initially faced were filed in connection to alleged incidents dating back to 2022, and the new charges filed Monday are related to alleged incidents from 2014-2016, 2021 and 2022, according to court records. Shetler has pleaded not guilty to the original charges and has his next court appearance on Tuesday, where his attorney is expected to make a motion to reduce his bond. His bond is currently set at $100,000 cash or surety, according to court records.

Death of a baby A new probable cause statement filed Monday alleges that Shetler was involved in the death of a 6-month-old child in March 2025. The Cooper County detective sergeant investigating the case against Shetler interviewed someone who worked at Mercy and Truth on April 7, 2026, in which the investigator learned more information about the death of the child, according to the probable cause statement.

The child had been sick for about four days and was having issues breathing, even “turning blue” on several occasions, according to the probable cause statement, which cited testimony from the infant’s parents.

The child was taken to Shetler, who was known in the community as a practitioner and holistic doctor who had medical expertise, according to the probable cause statement.

Shetler allegedly provided a breathing treatment of lavender oil in a diffuser and gave instructions for how to use it on the infant, according to the statement. The child was put down for a nap on March 6, 2025, and about an hour later, he was found blue in color and unresponsive, according to the statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the statement.

An autopsy report from the Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office said the child died from pneumonia and had multiple viruses, including RSV and the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the probable cause statement.

“The negligence of Sam Shetler who identifies himself as a ‘practitioner’ and carries himself as one with medical knowledge was aware of this substantial and unjustifiable risk which constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would exercise in this situation involving any unwell or ill child,” the Cooper County detective sergeant who investigated the case wrote in the probable cause statement.

Kidnapping and sexual abuse charges Another new probable cause statement filed Monday alleges that Shetler made unwanted sexual contact with a woman and threatened her to prevent her from leaving the retreat. The woman told the Cooper County Sheriff’s Office that Shetler told her that if she tried to escape, he would kidnap her and hold her longer, according to the statement.

The statement also details the accounts of three other women who said they stayed at the retreat between 2014 and 2016 to learn how to belong in the Amish community. The women were between 19 and 20 years old at the time, according to the statement.

The women said that at the retreat, they witnessed Shetler pulling out the teeth of a young boy as punishment, and they said they each tried to escape at different times throughout their stays, according to the probable cause statement.

The women said that at the retreat, they were forced to take pills, up to 80 a day at one point, and were told they were “demon possessed” because they would not submit to Shetler, according to the probable cause statement.

One woman said she escaped but the other two did not and were allegedly sent to a different retreat in a different state until they would comply with Shetler’s orders, according to the statement. After returning to the retreat in Cooper County, the two women eventually escaped at separate times while Shetler was not present at the retreat, according to the probable cause statement.

The Cooper County Sheriff’s Office investigator interviewed the women on March 30 and 31, 2026, according to the statement.

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.

Jacob Richey
news@komu.com
5738846397

By Meghan Mosley

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    OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Survivors, families and community members gathered Sunday morning for the 31st annual remembrance ceremony to honor the 168 lives lost in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

“We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever,” said Laura Piatt, an Oklahoma City bombing survivor.

The ceremony featured prayer, reflection and a message from Chris Fleming of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

“May this ceremony and what these chairs represent continue guiding us toward a future defined not by the violence of that day, but rather the service, honor and kindness that grows in its aftermath,” Fleming said.

Richeal Thatcher attended the ceremony to honor her sister, who died in the bombing while seven months pregnant.

“She was just a beautiful soul,” Thatcher said. “Everybody loved her. She was in the credit union. She had been a longtime credit union employee. So, lost a lot of friends there, too.”

Others, like Arlene Blanchard, came to pay respects to coworkers lost inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

“The memories come back quickly, and it’s unbelievable to me that three decades have passed and that day is so vivid in my mind, it’s etched there,” said Blanchard, a survivor of the bombing.

Blanchard reflected on the bond she shared with her coworkers.

“The people that I worked with, it was, as I read, it’s family and friends,” she said.

The ceremony honored the 168 victims, each represented by an empty chair at the memorial.

“While we cannot change what happened, we can choose how we move forward,” Fleming said.

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By Emily Ashcraft, KSL

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    OREM, Utah (KSL) — Organizing Rubik’s cube competitions is something Cade Beck does frequently, but the “Puzzling for Awareness” competition last Saturday stands out.

The competition, which he has hosted each of the last five years, is a fundraiser for Friends of Giant Steps, which helps fund a local preschool for students with autism spectrum disorder. He hosts it in April, which is National Autism Acceptance Month.

“That’s a great way to put a spotlight on autism awareness, which thankfully it’s a lot better than it was … but there’s still a lot of work that we need to do,” Beck said.

He is the president of the Utah Cubing Association, as well as a member of Utah Valley University’s cubing club, where he is a civil engineering student. In middle school, Beck said he was intrigued by a friend’s 5×5 cube — so intrigued he mixed it up, which his friend was not happy about — and he’s been solving cubes ever since.

The cause is important to him personally. His mom has worked for the Giant Steps Autism Preschool since before he was born, and it has become a second home.

He said making sure autistic people are understood and finding ways to help them integrate makes a difference.

“Make sure that the world understands how they’re different, and don’t use that against them but help them live their lives,” he said.

Beck said he has seen less of a stigma around autism over the last few years and more opportunities for people with autism spectrum disorder. He said programs like Giant Steps are helping with this.

A lot of people in the cubing community have autism, so Beck said this competition has an added purpose of giving them recognition and helping them know they aren’t alone.

Solving Rubik’s cube is a niche hobby, he said, but they typically get around 100 competitors, sometimes up to 200, in their competitions around the state. Although they are technically competitions, Beck said it is primarily a social event for many of them.

“Most of our competitors are just there because they like to be there. It’s a fun place to be,” he said.

Beck said cubing competitions are always an open, friendly place — it would be hard to make one even more welcoming — but there is still a slight change to the atmosphere when there’s a cause associated.

“They’re really great people, and … that really shines through when we do our fundraiser events,” he said.

Those who might have walked by the competition, Beck said, may not even know it was a competition. But the times are still pretty impressive. During Saturday’s competition, the first-place winner for a typical 3×3 Rubik’s cube had an 8.53-second average over the five cubes. The winner of the one-handed competition had an average of 12.49 seconds. And the blindfolded competition had a 53.30-second solve.

There are 17 events which are officially recognized in cubing, and 13 were represented at the competition. Of those 17, 15 are related to how fast the puzzle can be solved with varying sizes and complexities, Beck said. The other two test strategy and memory — finding the most efficient way to solve the same cube and memorizing cubes and solving them blindfolded.

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 Amy Powell

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    TEMECULA, California (KABC) — Shocking video out of Riverside County shows the moment a hot air balloon landed in the backyard of a home. Now, the homeowners are speaking to Eyewitness News about their stunning experience.

It wasn’t the landing anyone expected, but somehow, a hot air balloon carrying 13 people landed in the backyard of a Temecula home on Saturday.

The homeowner was watching TV around 8:30 a.m. when a neighbor knocked on his door.

“I go and answer the door. This guy’s like, ‘They just landed in your backyard!!!'” said Hunter Perrin. “And I’m like, ‘What!?'”

Perrin and his wife, Jenna, who was in another room at the time, then went outside to see what had happened.

“I open the sliding glass door, and there’s a basket full of thirteen people in my backyard!” Perrin said. “The pilot, he was masterful. He got it right down inside, like directly into the backyard, where there was nothing. The balloon didn’t catch on anything. No one was injured.”

The homeowners say the hot air balloon pilot told them the wind died, forcing him to make an emergency landing.

“You can kind of see in the video of how they came in. He kind of plopped straight down and was moving very slowly,” Perrin said.

“And I run to the backyard, and there’s a whole group of people that are just waving at me,” Jenna said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my God. So the sound I heard was the flames?!’ And I’m like… hi!'”

Incredibly, there was no damage in the backyard and no one was injured.

Eyewitness News spoke to one of the passengers about the moments that led up to the emergency landing.

“At first I was like, ‘Oh my God! We’re in a backyard! This is crazy!'” said hot air balloon passenger Brianna Avalos.

Avalos and her husband were taking their first hot air balloon ride to celebrate their 10th anniversary. As they started approaching the neighborhood, Avalos says the pilot made an announcement.

“He said there’s not enough wind, because the wind kind of like, stopped a little bit. And he was like, ‘We’re going to land.’ And we only had a little bit of fuel left,” Avalos said.

Neighbors gathered in the street to watch.

“He was trying to get us to the street, but we couldn’t get to the street in time, so we landed in the people’s backyard safe and sound, like no one’s hurt, everyone’s great. He was an amazing pilot!” Avalos said.

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