Author: CNN Newsource

By Keith BieryGolick

Click here for updates on this story

    FAIRFIELD TWP., Ohio (WCPO) — Allias Harman opens his box of graphite pencils and begins drawing a self-portrait. He exaggerates the bags under his eyes and colors his face blue.

“I felt like that represents me,” Harman said. “I’m kind of a blue guy.”

The recent grad holds the sketch up to his face, telling me he emphasized a pimple on his cheek.

“I think it’s important to appreciate your flaws,” Harman said.

His friend laughs. They drove here together, to the Butler Tech School of the Arts, where the two students recently graduated after they say they never really fit in at their previous school.

“I just didn’t really have a passion for anything,” said Joey Smith. “When I got here, I just felt at home.”

Smith is showing me his own project now. It’s about the devastation of war, featuring burnt newspaper headlines and two bombs heading directly for each other.

This summer, work from both Smith and Harman will be featured at Elementz, a nonprofit social justice organization in Clifton. The organization was created after Cincinnati’s civil unrest in 2001. And now, a collaboration with Butler Tech includes a public gallery that gives students a chance to express themselves with pieces that reflect changes they’d like to see in the world around them.

“There’s lots of things going on right now that need fixing,” Harman said. “And art has always been a big part of that.”

Outside the school, he gives the principal a hug.

“Art is something that is already inside you — you just have to unlock it,” said Kimheart Moeung, Butler Tech’s principal and creative director. “Oftentimes art is seen as fun or a hobby, but here … we want art to be an identity.”

It’s an identity Harman embraces.

“At my old school, I felt like a weirdo kind of,” Harman said. “I was going through a lot of mental health stuff — getting high every day, getting drunk when I could. Skipping school to do those things.”

Now, he says he’s been sober for two years. And after he shows off his sketch, which he completed in about 30 minutes, Moeung gives him a fist bump.

“I don’t know if I have a purpose,” Harman said. “But if I did, it would be to create.”

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 Julie Salomone

Click here for updates on this story

    LARGO, Florida (WFTS) — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office upgraded its body-worn cameras to include a new feature to help deputies interpret different languages.

The Axon body-worn cameras may interpret up to 57 different languages.

Sgt. John Mullins said the tool allows them to communicate more effectively when there is a language barrier.

“Couple weeks ago, I had an individual who spoke Arabic that I was able to communicate effectively with him on the side of the road which significantly reduced the amount of time trying to find an Arabic speaker,” said Sgt. John Mullins.

Sgt. Mullins said the sheriff’s office ran a pilot program in November. The sheriff’s office received positive feedback about the additional tool.

Deputies press a button to put the camera in a translation mode. It uses artificial intelligence to interpret the conversation it hears.

“Our primary language that we use the most right now that makes up about 90%-95% of our contacts is Spanish,” he said.

Prior to the upgrade, deputies would rely on Google Translate or another deputy to arrive at the scene.

“We have a language line available that we would be able to call and use speakerphone to communicate back and forth through a third-party translator or we would rely on another deputy or anybody from the neighbor agency who spoke the language that we were looking for,” said Sgt. Mullins.

Bailiffs in the courthouses also have access to the technology, as well as personnel at the jail.

“Definitely makes communicating with our non-English speakers significantly easier,” said Sgt. Mullins.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the Tampa Police Department also use the same technology.

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 Anthony Sabella

Click here for updates on this story

    NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Virginia (WTKR) — The Navy’s Carrier Strike Group Two is another step closer to being combat ready with the return of its flagship from maintenance.

Rear Adm. P. Scott Miller took over as the strike group’s commanding officer Monday. The Change of Command ceremony was held aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which returned to Naval Station Norfolk after a year-and-a-half of maintenance.

“Soon we will have all of the elements joined and we will learn to operate as a single well-oiled machine,” Miller said during the ceremony.

The maintenance phase was mostly overseen by outgoing strike group commander Rear Adm. Dusty Rhodes, who noted the carrier wrapped up repairs ahead of schedule.

“Actually came out of the availability earlier by about a month than what was originally planned,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes acknowledged the Eisenhower’s return comes at a time when the Navy has been busy with operations around the world. The Lincoln and Bush carrier strike groups are still overseas as the U.S. hopes to end the war with Iran. The USS Gerald R. Ford returned last month after a historically long deployment.

“Certainly, you will leave on deployment thinking you know what you’re gonna do. But if you look at what happened with the Ford, they did a bunch of stuff they didn’t think they were gonna have to do, so you never really know, so you have to be ready for anything,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said the Eisenhower and the rest of the strike group will begin preparing for a deployment scheduled for next year.

“You start getting the team together. So you get all the ships, the aircraft carrier and the air wing. A crawl, walk, run mindset, where by the end of it, they’ll [get certified] to be able to deploy anywhere in the world to be able to take on any adversary,” Rhodes said, echoing what he told the audience earlier during the ceremony.

“A carrier strike group is one of the most versatile, lethal and powerful instruments of national influence on the globe.”

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 Jeffrey Lindblom

Click here for updates on this story

    MOUNT CLEMENS, Michigan (WXYZ) — Clinton Township teens got their prom night after a gun threat forced the cancellation of the original dance just one hour before it was set to begin.

Last Tuesday night, the junior-senior prom at Clintondale High School was canceled after Michigan State Police received a tip that a student might be bringing a firearm. With spirits low, the community came together at the steps of Anton Art Center to give students the night they had been waiting for.

“Kids creating memories that they will never forget,” DJ Britt said.

Kimberly Koltvedt’s daughter Brianna, a junior, was among the students who lost their original prom night.

“I want to walk away feeling good,” Brianna said. “We just thought it was a joke at first.”

Senior Shamer Riser-Pressley was already dressed for the occasion when the original event was called off.

“I kind of felt like it was a slap in the face,” Riser-Pressley said.

Still, he said the rescheduled night carried the same weight.

“Cause it’s something we’ve been waiting for our entire life basically,” Riser-Pressley said.

Clinton Township Trustee Shannon King, whose daughter attends Clintondale high as a junior, said she was devastated by the cancellation.

“You just want her to be a kid,” King said.

King said he refused to let the threat define the night.

“I wasn’t going to let us be held victim to a threat of gun violence,” King said.

He began making calls shortly after the cancellation and connected with Anton Art Center’s executive director, Matt Matthews, who moved quickly to make the event happen.

“I talked to Shannon Thursday of last week, and it’s Friday night and there’s a prom behind me,” the executive director said.

Youth advocate Marlan Collier said the community donated their time — and even chocolates — to pull the event together. Collier described prom as one of three moments that define a teenager’s life.

“Homecoming, prom, graduation,” Collier said. “We are building unity in our community.”

Additional security and on-site law enforcement were in place to ensure there were no disruptions to the night.

“And to have the community come together and make it happen is just a blessing,” Kimberly Koltvedt said.

Moe’s Mobile Sports Lounge was also on hand for the celebration.

“Everyone have a good time. Let’s party,” Moe said.

Matthews said the goal for the night was simple.

“I just want kids to dance and have a good time,” Matthews said.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXYZ 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 Carli Petrus

Click here for updates on this story

    SOUTHGATE, Michigan (WXYZ) — A 92-year-old Southgate woman lost nearly everything in a devastating apartment fire last October — including a treasured letter from former President Barack Obama sent on her 80th birthday. Now, thanks to a state lawmaker, she has it back.

Carrie Turner was among the dozens of seniors displaced when the American House in Southgate was engulfed in flames. Officials say the cause of the fire remains unknown.

“They rushed us out of the building and we were outside. It was really cold that night,” Turner said.

Turner escaped with only the clothes on her back.

“I lost everything but thankfully, I didn’t lose my life,” Turner said.

Among the irreplaceable items lost were photo albums, a Bible that belonged to her late son and the letter from Obama.

“I didn’t think I could get it back,” Turner said.

State Sen. Darrin Camilleri and his staff learned about the letter while helping residents in the aftermath of the fire. Camilleri decided to reach out to the former president’s office.

“I wanted to see if we could do anything about it and so, I’ve never met President Obama, but we figured it might not hurt to have a letter from a state senator requesting a copy,” Camilleri said.

Turner’s daughter, Jacquelyn Williams, described just how meaningful the original letter had been to her mother.

“Just getting that correspondence from the White House, from both the former president and first lady, both signed it, pictures of them both, it was special,” Williams said.

Months after Camilleri’s staff contacted Obama’s office, a package arrived. Inside was a replacement of the original letter, along with a new message celebrating Turner’s 90th birthday.

For Turner and Williams, the letters cannot replace everything lost in the fire. But they represent something the family has been rebuilding ever since — hope.

“Being able to get something that has been destroyed, that you think is irreplaceable, is just amazing,” Williams said.

Turner moved into a new apartment last week and says she is excited to hang the letters on the wall. She did notice one small detail, however — the letters address her as “Ms.” rather than “Mrs.”

“It’s really nice. The only thing I don’t like about it, they have Ms. I’m Mrs.,” Turner said.

When asked about the distinction, Turner was clear.

“Uh huh. I was married,” Turner said.

Despite that minor detail, Turner says the letters are still a gift she never expected to receive — a piece of her past, returned at a time when she is finally looking toward the future.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXYZ 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 Isabella Ledonne

Click here for updates on this story

    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) — Sunday morning’s plane crash in Butler, Missouri, that killed 11 skydivers and the plane’s pilot immediately sent ripple effects across Kansas City’s skydiving community.

The flight, operated by SkydiveKC, crashed just after takeoff late Sunday morning at Butler Memorial Airport, about an hour south of Kansas City.

News of the crash spread quickly to Falcon Skydiving, based in Parkville. By Sunday afternoon, skydivers there offered a reminder of how tight-knit the skydiving community is.

Charles Crinklaw has skydived thousands of times, sharing his passion with hundreds of first-timers in Kansas City.

“It is our passion; every one of us that does it,” Crinklaw said. “It’s the only time that I feel completely in control in an out-of-control world. When we leave the aircraft, we’re in control of everything.”

But his jumps on Sunday carry a heavier weight.

“Everybody on that plane was somebody that I know,” Crinklaw said. “I know four of them very, very well. They jumped with me [at Falcon Skydiving] on a regular basis.”

Many first-time jumpers offered up their support for the victims and their families.

“I did hear about that right before we came here, and I pray for their families,” skydiver Julie Webb said. “It kind of made me stop and pause and just think about it.”

Crinklaw is a regular skydiver and the central regional director of the United States Parachute Association (USPA). He said 10 of the crash victims were experienced jumpers, having logged 500+ jumps. The other two victims were the pilot and a tandem jumper.

“We lost a USPA member that actually works for USPA in Virginia,” Crinklaw said. “She was teaching new instructors how to be coaches. It shocked everybody. We just were walking around here numb for a while.”

Skydiving planes are required to get maintenance every 100 hours, and pilots require special training in addition to their regular aviation hours, according to Crinklaw. Both plane and skydiving equipment are regularly checked before each jump.

“For something to happen, it’s just rare,” Crinklaw said. “This is an unfortunate accident.”

Divers calculate the risks before each jump, but Crinklaw explained that takeoff and landing are the most dangerous parts.

“We know we’re taking risks, but we mitigate them by having the best stuff we possibly can, the best equipment, the best pilots and the best airplanes,” Crinklaw said.

While Crinklaw is reeling from the loss in the skydiving community, he’s remembering his friends in the way he knows best.

“Every single jump I’ve already done [today], I’ve told them I’m thinking about them,” Crinklaw said. “I’ll probably make another eight or nine more today, and then we’ll go sit with our friends tonight and sit around a bonfire and just hug and cry.”

The names and ages of the plane crash victims have not been released yet.

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

Click here for updates on this story

    LAWRENCE, Missouri (KSHB) — One hundred forty-four years after three Black men were lynched in Lawrence, the community gathered Wednesday to give them a proper memorial with headstones at Potter’s Field in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Isaac King, George Robertson and Peter Vinegar were lynched from the Kansas River Bridge on June 10, 1882, according to the Lawrence NAACP. Their three deaths are the only documented racially-motivated lynchings in Douglas County, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

With backing from KU Endowment, the Lawrence NAACP project also placed headstones for 27 others buried in Potter’s Field. The NAACP history committee says there’s 1,100 people buried in the field, most without headstones.

The community read their names, gathered in prayer, and placed flowers at the 30 headstones.

“We are promising these ancestors that their struggles were not in vain, that their lives mattered and their legacy is safe in our hands,” Lawrence NAACP president Ursula Minor said

The Lawrence NAACP history committee says cemetery records documented the plot number of everyone buried at Oak Hill, but the locations of those plots in Potter’s Field were unknown. With assistance from the city, Lawrence historian Jeanne Klein was able to survey Potter’s Field and locate 30 plots.

Klein also researched the history of those 30 people. From sick infants to a teenage boy who drowned in the Kansas River, Klein says their stories are stuck in her head, adding, “They’re memorable people.”

“The whole point is to raise awareness, to make more people know and remember that there are people buried here,” she said.

The NAACP chapter placed a headstone for Vinegar’s daughter, Margaret, next to him, even though her body was never found.

According to nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, King and Robertson were living with the Vinegar family when they protected Margaret, who was 14, from a white man who was sexually assaulting her.

Vinegar, Robertson and King were arrested after the white man’s body was found in the Kansas River, and a mob of about 100 white men dragged the three men to the middle of the Kansas River Bridge and hanged them, according to the nonprofit.

Margaret Vinegar was later sentenced to death and died from tuberculosis while imprisoned, per the Equal Justice Initiative.

“Just to be buried somewhere and not have a headstone or a story or anything about them, it’s like they didn’t exist,” Minor said.

Minor is a lifelong Lawrence resident, and says her family first moved to the Kansas city in the 1800s. Her father, James Barnes, was a historian of North Lawrence, documenting the Black families who lived there and their occupations.

“My family was in Lawrence since the 1800s, and they’ve been through a lot — racism, all kinds of things happened,” she said. “Hearing their stories made me really want to keep up with that history.”

Minor says she’s not stopping here. She wants to push for a sign to mark Potter’s Field from the road that runs alongside it.

“A history cannot be buried forever, and it cannot be erased when we chose to speak their names,” she 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 Sarah Plake

Click here for updates on this story

    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) — KSHB 41 got a tip that the Missouri Department of Transportation was cutting trees down in preparation for the World Cup.

That might sound a little jarring. But, we did some digging and it turns out, experts say it’s needed and necessary.

Since October, MoDOT has spent $2.6 million cutting down trees and removing shrubs.

“Basically, we’re just trying to catch up on deferred maintenance,” Greg Bolon, MoDOT District Engineer, said. “It’s all part of an effort just to kind of take our right-of-way back, but it doesn’t hurt that World Cup is coming.”

What MoDOT is cutting down is invasive overgrowth. It’s what you tend to see on the side of the highway, in the rights-of-way, and near entrance and exit ramps.

“Especially near roadsides, that’s all disturbed soil,” Chuck Conner, Community Forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said.

It’s overgrowth the state gets numerous complaints about.

“Anything we can do to suppress invasive species is good,” Conner said.

Conner said what MoDOT is targeting sounds on track with typical invasive species removal: bush honeysuckle, callery pear, ash, tree of heaven, white mulberry, and eastern red cedar.

“‘Cause even though they come back in time, once you go in and remove them, you’re allowing natives, for a period of time, to take over and keep that food web intact,” Conner said.

When invasive species take over native plants, Conner says they are breaking the food web because insects aren’t biologically adapted to eating and digesting those invasive plants. That results in a loss of insects.

“What they used to eat is gone and replaced by something they haven’t evolved the capacity to eat,” Conner said.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with ash trees – but they’re being removed due to the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle that’s slowly killing them.

Although red mulberry trees are native to our area, white mulberry trees are not. White mulberry trees are from Asia and have started to take over red mulberries, cross-breeding and creating hybrids.

Eastern Red Cedars are native to our area but are becoming aggressive because they aren’t being kept in check by fire. Conner explains with human habitation, we’ve taken fire control out of a traditional tall grass prairie ecosystem.

MoDOT says the tree and brush removal wasn’t an additional cost due to the World Cup but that the deferred maintenance schedule was adjusted in preparation for the World Cup.

“We’re hoping it will also help beautify, and as people can see that it’s mowed and looks more clean, that maybe we can reduce our litter problem as well,” Bolon said.

The city of Kansas City has been busy removing invasive overgrowth as well, saying they cut down 67 invasive trees since October.

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 Katrina Markel

Click here for updates on this story

    OMAHA, Nebraska (KMTV) — After a morning storm, local kids dried off their cars and geared up for the Omaha Soap Box Derby, an 88-year-old tradition held at Seymour Smith Park.

UPDATE: Local Champions — Lily Brand, Drew Brand and Brooke Hamilton — will compete in the world championship derby in Akron, Ohio.

Eleven-year-old Audrey, a runner-up at last year’s World Championships in Akron, Ohio, was in a competitive spirit.

“It’s really fun, especially when you beat people,” she said.

Her friend, Grace, was also feeling confident: “I think I’m going to do great. I’m excited to go down the hill and just have fun.”

For many families, the derby provides bonding time. Vixie described the effort her dad puts in behind the scenes.

“He works pretty hard because he has to like, fix the car and, like, he has to pick it up all the time to like, get it onto the truck and stuff,” she said.

One thing all of the kids said is that soap box derby has helped them make new friends.

“And like you get to meet new people that you never met before by racing,” said Lexi, who turns 11 next week.

“It feels pretty good to like, win. But then if I’m racing a friend I kind of feel bad for them,” said Vixie.

Parents say the lessons go beyond the racetrack. Chris Ivory’s 7-year-old son Kyndall was competing in his first derby.

“It’s teaching character skills. It helps him out with people skills. It also allows him to tinker and work on his own things and take pride in it,” Ivory said.

Lexi fundraised to get herself to the starting line: “I raised over a thousand dollars, actually, for my own stock car.”

Drew Brand summed up the sportsmanship the event encourages.

“Be a good sport. Like, don’t get mad at other people,” he said.

Omaha has produced multiple soap box derby champions and runners-up over the years. Fourteen-year-old Drew was a world champion last year.

“And now my car is hanging up in a museum right now in Akron, Ohio,” he said. “It feels great. I feels like everyone knows who you are now.”

Grace reflected on the feeling of being behind the wheel.

“It’s like this free feeling almost. It’s really good,” she said.

Winners from this year’s Omaha race will advance to the World Championships in July.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. KMTV 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.