Author: CNN Newsource

By Olivia Young

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    DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colorado (KCNC) — Amid Colorado’s drought, researchers are hoping to make better use of the rain the state does get.

Coloradans may have heard about rain barrels that homeowners can use for yard irrigation, but the state has also authorized up to 10 pilot programs for large-scale rainwater harvesting.

One Douglas County community was the only one to apply to be a pilot site: Sterling Ranch. The community describes itself as the leader in water-conscious development in Colorado. Sterling Ranch was designed with efficient irrigation and xeriscaped landscapes featuring native plants.

But they’re not the only ones exploring how rainwater harvesting could help solve Colorado’s water problems.

Colorado State University professor Sybil Sharvelle is using the roof of the Hydro Building at CSU Spur to capture rainwater and water native plants outside.

“Water from those roof drains drains down into those black pipes, comes into this tank, then gravity flows over to the next tank and is then, from there, pumped outdoors,” said Sharvelle. “We so far have not had to use potable water to supplement the irrigation.”

She’s hoping to learn how much water can be saved this way and how to navigate challenges like contamination and downstream water rights.

“We’ve had to develop what’s called a water augmentation plan. What that does is ensure that downstream water users are not impaired by our use of the roof runoff at this building. So what we have to do is actually track all of the water that comes into our storage tanks and how much we use for irrigation. We then report that to the Colorado Department of Water Resources, and then they report that to Denver Water,” said Sharvelle. “So these projects have been really good for us to learn the processes for properly accounting for these water uses, so that we can be sure that we’re not impacting the downstream users.”

Sterling Ranch has been preparing to do the same thing on a neighborhood-wide scale for years.

“We’re sitting right above what will be Colorado’s very first rainwater harvesting basin,” said Britta Strother, director of planning for Dominion Water and Sanitation District, which serves Sterling Ranch.

In 2010, Sterling Ranch became the site of the first rainwater harvesting pilot project in Colorado. For the last 15 years, Dominion Water and Sanitation has studied rainfall, runoff, soil infiltration and vegetation use in Sterling Gulch.

“There is an actual physical berm that goes across, and that is it. That is where the water will flow,” said Strother.

Researchers determined that there is enough harvestable rainfall within the Sterling Gulch drainage to support a meaningful supplemental water supply. Now Dominion is in water court, seeking the green light to begin using that water for the irrigation of parks and common spaces in the community.

The pilot’s project manager says Dominion’s water court filing seeks authorization to harvest approximately 111 acre-feet of water annually.

“We’re hoping that someday, when it rains, so not this year, there could be upwards of 400 acre-feet of water stored that will be used for outdoor irrigation,” said Strother. “This is, or could be, one of the great solutions for the water supply shortage in Colorado.”

Since 2024, CU professor Aditi Bhaskar has been studying runoff from Sterling Ranch, testing quantities of potentially dangerous nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen to understand the impact of a largely xeriscaped community’s runoff on downstream users.

“Sterling Ranch is the only one that’s a neighborhood-wide thing, and I think that that’s really unique about the project, and it’s had a lot of impact because of that scale. I’d like to see a lot more projects at that scale start to come up, so that we can learn more about the potential,” said Sharvelle.

Sharvelle wants to keep studying rainwater harvesting so more communities can get the most out of every precious drop.

“This provides another source of water, other than our potable drinking water, and allows us to make use of local water sources as our supplies become more and more diminished,” said Sharvelle.

She says that, eventually, the practice may even be used to harvest drinking water. Right now, it is only legal to harvest rainwater for irrigation purposes.

“That is a first step, to use it for irrigation and maybe toilet flushing, like non-potable purposes. But I think there’s a lot of movement toward thinking about how we could make use of these water sources for potable applications,” said Sharvelle.

Unfortunately, the state’s rainwater harvesting pilot program sunset last year.

So, while Sterling Ranch can move forward, other communities would likely need legislative action extending that program before they could start their own programs.

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 Michael Abeyta

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    AURORA, Colorado (KCNC) — The first day of summer has yet to arrive, and already water in the City of Aurora is at a premium. Storage levels in their reservoirs are at 55%.

However, it’s not all bad news when it comes to conserving water in Aurora during Colorado’s drought so far.

“We have had a lot of people comply, and that’s been awesome,” said Shonnie Cline, Aurora Water’s Deputy Director of Internal and External Affairs.

She says most people have been doing their part and that this spring’s storms have helped in one aspect.

“It’s slowed up demand. So, people aren’t necessarily needing to water and they are turning off their sprinklers when they’re getting rain, which has been great,” said Cline.

But it’s not all good news, either. The storms didn’t increase reservoir levels.

“We will continue to see those storage levels decrease because, really runoff is for all intents and purposes, over,” said Cline.

Those levels are historically low this year.

“If you look at over a 10-year average, we’re normally sitting at about 74% of full at this time of year. So, we’re obviously down from where we were,” said Cline.

So, Aurora Water says the fight to save what water we have continues. They need residents to continue to follow Stage 1 water restrictions.

“Because what could push us into a Stage 2 restriction, which would take you down to one day a week of watering and even more in enforcement, is if people are not following the current Stage 1 water restrictions,” said Cline.

That means watering only two days a week and not during the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Aurora Water says they know it’s not easy, but it’s also necessary.

“Seeing your lawns turn yellow is very hard, and it’s going to be happening more as we get into the heat of summer,” said Cline.

Aurora Water says lots of people have asked them if data centers are contributing to the problem. They say the data centers that are in Aurora are low water usage by law.

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 Allie Ware

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    JACKSON, Mississippi (WAPT) — A Mississippi teenager is defying expectations after surviving a traumatic brain injury and multiple life-threatening injuries from a January accident.

On Jan. 3, 17-year-old Landyn Simmerman was accidentally hit by a vehicle while helping a friend who had wrecked. The accident left him with a traumatic brain injury and his family was preparing for the worst.

Simmerman suffered a broken pelvis, femur, hip, ribs, facial fractures, two collapsed lungs, and a stroke. Doctors performed a craniectomy, removing half of his skull to relieve pressure on his brain.

Simmerman was placed in an induced coma for two weeks before being moved to Atlanta for specialized inpatient physical therapy and weeks of medical treatment.

“It’s been a little scary. The surgeries are not fun at all,” Simmerman said.

Doctors warned that recovering from a traumatic brain injury would be a long road, but Simmerman applied his competitive nature to his recovery, amazing his doctors and family.

“He was very determined through this whole thing, even when he was hurting really bad, he was determined to keep going and get better,” his mother, Britney Parker, said.

“All the recovery times they gave us, I cut them in half,” Simmerman added.

As part of his recovery, Simmerman underwent multiple surgeries, including having a custom skull created to replace the part of his own that was removed.

“They made me a fake skull and put me to sleep and put it in and screwed it in,” he said.

Although Simmerman does not remember the accident or his time in the hospital, his progress has been remarkable.

“We don’t take a single breath for granted anymore,” Parker said.

Doctors have said it could take up to a year for his brain to fully heal, and Simmerman has learned that the effects of brain injuries are not always visible to others.

“It takes time for your brain to heal,” Parker said. “We have also learned that effects from brain injuries don’t always look visible to other people.”

This fall, Simmerman will start his senior year of high school and is looking forward to returning to normal teenage activities.

“Driving, playing baseball, and getting back to school and just being normal, normal life,” he said.

The scars remain, and so do some challenges, but Simmerman’s determination to keep going has been unwavering.

This month, Simmerman completed his outpatient physical therapy program and is now focusing on speech therapy to ensure his cognitive abilities are fully regained.

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 Sam Carter

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    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — The Louisville Slugger is as quintessentially Louisville as bourbon or the Hot Brown.

But did you know that, from 1974 through 1996, the iconic baseball bats were made in Jeffersonville, Indiana?

According to Jack Hillerich, president and CEO of Hillerich and Bradsby, it was a promise from then-Mayor Jerry Abramson that pushed him to bring Slugger home.

“[The mayor said] Don’t worry about it, Jack,” Hillerich recalled. “If you build it and you don’t like it, I will buy it back from you.”

For his part, Abramson, who grew up working at his family’s grocery store across the street from the original Slugger factory, views luring the bat maker back to Louisville as one of his most satisfying accomplishments during his 21 years as mayor.

“Personally, this might be one of the most successful projects I worked on, without a doubt,” Abramson said. “We brought it back to Louisville.”

In July, the Slugger Museum and Factory will celebrate 30 years since it opened. According to the museum, approximately 7 million people have walked through the building since it first opened. Hillerich, when asked if he ever expected to reach that number of visitors, got philosophical.

“The most important things are unknown and unknowable. I didn’t have a clue how many people would come; I just knew we had to do it because it had to be done,” Hillerich said.

On July 13, the Factory and Museum will begin a week of programming celebrating 30 years at its Main Street Location.

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 Chloe McCoy

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    GREENVILLE, South Carolina (WYFF) — A decades-old Greenville, South Carolina, murder case has led to an arrest after cold case investigators revisited the 1986 killing.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said on April 7, 1986, the body of 18-year-old Chelsie Yvonne Moss was found in the woods near Fair Street and Kerns Avenue. Her death was ruled a homicide after investigators determined foul play was a factor.

In 2023, the Greenville County Cold Case unit began investigating the unsolved death and, after over three years of work, were able to determine probable cause after forensic evidence was presented.

Investigators announced on Tuesday that the suspect, 64-year-old Ronnie Lee Williams, has been charged with murder.

Williams is currently in the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections on unrelated homicide charges from a murder conviction in 1989. He is awaiting a bond hearing on the new charges.

Deputies are still actively gathering information in the case. Officials say Chelsie was known to frequent the area of Pendleton St. and the West End in Greenville. If you knew Chelsie or encountered her, deputies encourage you to reach out. Officials emphasize that no detail is too small.

Anyone with information about Ronnie Lee Williams can anonymously reach out to Crime Stoppers of Greenville at 23-CRIME.

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 Jason McNabb

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    SANTA FE, New Mexico (KOAT) — The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a federal lawsuit against the New Mexico Supreme Court and the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners, accusing them of violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) by allegedly failing to recognize out-of-state law licenses for military members and their spouses.

The lawsuit claims that New Mexico’s requirements for transferring law licenses—including transcripts, test scores, references, and character evaluations—violate the federal statute.

“The Federal Department of Justice says, well, there’s a federal law that says military families shouldn’t have to reapply every time they’re transferred in the military to different states,” KOAT legal expert John Day said.

Day explained that the SCRA is intended to simplify employment transitions for service members and their families.

“The goal of that is to say, if we send you to an Air Force base in New Mexico, but you’ve been practicing law in Maryland, you ought to be able to pick up where you left off, so there’s no disadvantage, and you’re not, there’s not disability if you’re a military spouse,” he said.

Mark Baker, the attorney representing the New Mexico Supreme Court, defended the state’s actions, saying, “It’s not like this is bogging people down. It’s just ensuring that the background check, which the law allows states to do, is completed and is consistent across lawyers in the state.” Baker added, “I would think that the federal government and everybody in New Mexico would expect that lawyers would have to have a background check on their moral and ethics.”

Baker said the disagreement stems from differing interpretations of the SCRA.

“The Department of Justice is saying that, in its view, that doesn’t mean that you can check for the character and fitness evaluation to research morals and ethics. You only could do like a criminal background check is how they best described it,” he said.

He also noted that the New Mexico Supreme Court attempted to resolve the issue out of court by sending a letter to the Department of Justice seeking clarification on the statute and the allegations.

“Instead of getting a response to that, we got a letter giving the Supreme Court four days to agree to a sweeping consent decree that had six requirements,” Baker said.

When the court requested more time, the lawsuit was filed shortly after.

Day described the situation as unusual.

“You have a situation where the Department of Justice is suing a state Supreme Court, which you don’t see that every day,” he said. “You have to wonder if this thing could have been resolved in another way without tying up the courts.”

In a news release, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison highlighted the importance of license portability for military families.

“Spousal unemployment is a leading cause of service members leaving military service and is a significant readiness and retention issue. This lawsuit highlights the fact that license portability is a critical tool for our military spouses to be able to earn a living in the manner of their choosing,” Ellison said.

A federal judge will now decide whether New Mexico violated the SCRA. Target 7 reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico for comment but did not receive a response. The New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners also did not respond to inquiries.

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.