Author: CNN Newsource

By Stephanie Sierra

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A San Francisco homeowner is facing a series of fines totaling $50,000 for illegally trimming five trees believed to be on his property.

Trees located right outside his home.

But as the city explains, they’re not his, and he wasn’t authorized to do it.

Paul Dennes was trying to get his property in San Francisco’s Panhandle neighborhood insured.

“I got an email from my broker saying in order for you to qualify for insurance you need to trim the trees so many feet from the property,” Dennes said.

“You thought, OK?” Stephanie Sierra asked.

“Yeah! I’ll just take care of that,” Dennes said.

So Dennes trimmed down five trees in front of his unit that he says were touching the building and, in some cases, even power lines.

“You see that? I wanted to get them out of the power lines. I didn’t want to be responsible for that,” Dennes said.

Three trees in front…

“And on the other side,” Dennes said, there were two more.

His family has owned the home since 1988. Since then, Dennes always thought it was the property owner’s responsibility to trim.

“I’ve never seen the city trim these trees, never!” Dennes said.

Well, he learned the hard way, not in his case.

The trees aren’t his.

Two days before Christmas last year, Dennes got slapped with the first of several fines from the San Francisco Department of Public Works for illegal tree pruning.

In total, the city charged him $50,000.

“Whoa!” Dennes said. “Shocked. I’m like, are you kidding me? It’s just brutal, you know?”

“It feels like bullying,” he said. “I don’t want to start a big war!”

The city says a neighboring resident advised Dennes against his pruning method and suggested working with a certified arborist. Dennes says he did that. The city says the pruning was subsequently reported by a certified arborist.

The Bureau of Urban Forestry, which operates within the Operations division of San Francisco Public Works, is overseen by a superintendent who is a certified arborist.

Public Works told 7 On Your Side: “As stewards of San Francisco’s urban forest, it is our job to hold people accountable when they harm or damage a street tree… The necessary clearance was achievable without topping, which we demonstrated during the administrative hearing. Tree topping – the indiscriminate cutting of main branches back to stubs, often removing 50% to 100% of a tree’s canopy – can severely damage trees. This practice shocks the tree, limits its ability to produce energy, creates large wounds that invite decay, and often results in hazardous, structurally weak regrowth. In many cases, topping significantly shortens a tree’s lifespan and can increase liability when trees later fail.”

Public Works also added: “An initial Urban Forestry inspector determined the trees had been damaged to the point that removal would be necessary and recommended a fine of $10,000 per tree.”

“I know that the fines have been going up. $10,000 a tree seems like a lot of money,” said Christopher Campbell, a certified tree arborist and owner of CC Tree Design.

“Too high?” Stephanie Sierra asked.

“It seems pretty excessive,” Campbell said.

Campbell helps manage urban trees, offering services such as tree pruning and risk assessments.

“Do you see this tree confusion happen a lot?” Sierra asked.

“Yeah, actually, it’s pretty common. I think as time goes on, people are starting to learn. You know, the fines are really unfortunate,” Campbell said.

Tree trimming used to be under the homeowner’s purview. But the city assumed that responsibility for all public street trees in 2017 following implementation of the StreetTreeSF program approved by voters through Proposition E. The measure allocated more than $19 million annually from the city’s general fund to support street tree maintenance and sidewalk repairs related to tree root damage. The city first adopted pruning standards in 2006, which prohibited topping.

“People don’t realize, but the tree that grows in front of their home on the sidewalk in what we call a sidewalk basin, that’s actually city property. That’s the public right-of-way,” Campbell said.

And Campbell explains even certain trees on private property require a special permit for trimming.

“If there’s a tree that’s over 12 inches in trunk diameter, 20 feet in height or 15 feet in spread, that’s considered a ‘significant tree,’ and those are also protected,” Campbell said.

Public Works says it distributed flyers, door hangers and mailed postcards over the years alerting residents to the 2017 changes. But Dennes, who lives in Marin, says neither he nor his father ever received any notice.

“Kept in the dark!” said Dennes. “Why can’t they put that in with the tax bill?”

The city says “the municipal code doesn’t require” that.

Instead, Public Works refers property owners to its website, where information is posted about maintenance responsibilities, including a street tree map. But the primary owner at the time, Dennes’ father, was 94.

“He didn’t look at websites!” Dennes said. “So I think that’s not reasonable.”

Dennes tried to appeal the $50,000 fine, but he’s frustrated with the process.

“They’ve used photos where they’ve trimmed the trees after I’ve trimmed them,” Dennes said.

“What did they look like before?” Sierra asked.

“They were probably about four feet taller,” Dennes said.

Public Works acknowledges contracted arborists have been sent to Dennes’ street but denies any additional pruning was performed on the trees adjacent to his property.

As for his fine, Public Works told us: “After further review, a more senior inspector determined that the trees may recover, though with reduced lifespan and compromised structure. Based on that assessment, Public Works recommended reducing the fines to $12,950, or $2,590 per tree.”

“The information is out there,” Campbell said.

“I didn’t know. It doesn’t feel fair at all,” Dennes said.

SF Public Works told 7 On Your Side on Wednesday, they’ve lowered the $50,000 fine to $6,475, pending he follows through with a pruning plan.

“We will cut the reduced fine in half, to $6,475, if the property owner follows through with a pruning plan, requiring that the property owner brings in a certified arborist to properly prune the impacted trees over the next five years. The goal is to improve the condition of the trees to extend their life.”

As a general guideline, Public Works recommends that residents allow the Bureau of Urban Forestry to prune street trees located in the public right-of-way, such as on sidewalks.

If you want to arrange pruning outside the city’s maintenance schedule, you can submit a request by contacting Urban Forestry and working with a certified arborist. Requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

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 Rob McMillan

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    BIG BEAR LAKE, California (KABC) — Three sisters in Big Bear Lake are now facing the gut-wrenching possibility of losing both their mother and father in a matter of days.

Not only is their 43-year-old mother in hospice after battling stage 4 brain cancer, but their father was recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Armando Gonzalez, 49, is now facing deportation after living and working in the Big Bear community for more than 20 years.

“All I can say is he’s innocent,” said Adriana Gonzalez, 20. “He has no criminal record. He didn’t do anything.”

Adriana says her father works as a handyman and house cleaner, and was on his way to a job Tuesday morning when he was detained by ICE agents along Big Bear Boulevard.

By the end of the day, he was being held at the ICE detention center in Adelanto where Adriana was able to visit him for about 10 minutes.

Now she, and her two other sisters, are left alone with their mother. They say she likely only has days to live.

“He was the light of the family right now,” Adriana said about her father. “He would make sure we were OK; he would cheer us up. When he would walk into the room we felt reassured that everything is going to be OK.

“And now we don’t know how to go from here.”

Adriana said she has been trying to gain permanent residency for her father, who is an undocumented immigrant. She said a lawyer recently told her she has a good chance at success since her father has no criminal record.

However, as a U.S. citizen, she is required to be 21 years old to be able to apply for permanent residency for her father. Right now, she is only 20.

She is hoping by drawing attention to the situation, her father might be released before his wife passes away.

“We were barely starting to grieve my mom,” Adriana said. “She’s on her last few moments of life, and her time is so limited.

“Now it feels like we’re not just losing my mom but my father.”

Eyewitness News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment and are awaiting a response.

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 Matt Flener

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    CRAIG, Missouri (KMBC) — Just behind the Craig R-III School, beneath a bright orange construction barrier, a gray automatic monitor is testing wastewater coming from the school.

Craig became one of the first eight school districts in Missouri to install the monitoring device last April.

Now, around 50 school districts, including Craig, are part of a wider voluntary program from the Missouri Department of Public Safety to watch for signs of fentanyl and other drugs.

When someone washes their hands or flushes the toilet in the bathroom at the school, the DPS device is designed to detect signs of drugs like fentanyl and heroin in the wastewater. It cannot detect anyone’s identity, including students, staff or community members who come through the school.

But one surprising result started showing up in January, according to Matt Copeland, superintendent of the Craig R-III School District.

State leaders notified him of nitazenes coming from the school’s wastewater.

“And they’re like, this is new. It’s more dangerous than fentanyl,” he said. “As soon as they said that it caught my interest.”

School organizes ‘One Pill Can Kill’ education

Nitazenes are highly potent synthetic opioids. Some nitazenes can be 5-10 times more potent than fentanyl. They’ve been found in counterfeit pills, powders, unregulated cannabis products and vape liquids.

“We want to educate, not only our community, but all communities so that no one has to sit in an interview with you when they’ve lost a kid or their student because it’s going to happen,” Copeland said in an interview with KMBC 9 Investigates on Wednesday.

Once he heard the news about nitazenes, Copeland immediately organized a school assembly presented by Sgt. Shane Hux with the Missouri State Highway Patrol for students in grades 6-12.

“It should raise your awareness,” Hux said. “It’s important for parents to talk to their children about the dangers related to it as well.”

Hux said the main drug problem remains fentanyl in northwest Missouri. Law enforcement is just now starting to understand more about how nitazenes are showing up in synthetic drugs, he said.

“The main message is that I’m trying to get across these young people is, do not take any type of pills unless they are issued to you by a licensed pharmacist,” he said.

Copeland said he’s hopeful the message has worked from early testing results after the assembly.

“We have great kids. We have great parents. We have great community here,” Copeland said. “But I’m also not naive enough to know that there aren’t drugs somewhere.”

Copeland added, “I also know that this is an opportunity to be educational, to be proactive ahead of the curve so that we can do what’s best for our community.”

Additionally, the samples are only happening in the school’s wastewater. The water system both in the school and around town is completely safe to drink, according to Craig Mayor Diana Jones.

“It’s definitely a wake-up call, proving that it can be anywhere, even in small towns,” she said.

Fourteen people in Missouri overdosed and died from nitazenes in 2024, more than triple the number recorded between 2019 and 2023.

Symptoms of an opioid overdose can include slowed or stopped breathing, pinpoint pupils, unconsciousness and bluish skin or lips.

What can families, community leaders do to help?

Officials recommend several things:

Talk with children and teens about the risks of illicit and unregulated substances Understand that illicit and unregulated substances could contain nitazenes Have naloxone, or Narcan, and know how to use it Seek treatment or recovery support when needed

Resources

Resources are available for those who need help. Here are a few shared by Missouri health and safety officials.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988 for mental health, substance use or emotional distress support Substance use treatment locations Missouri Poison Center, 1-800-222-1222 Time2Act — Missouri opioid misuse prevention Free naloxone

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 Denise Dador

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    QUARTZ HILL, California (KABC) — Did you ever dream of being a doctor when you were a kid?

Many kids drop this idea because they didn’t get the proper guidance.

Now, one local community came up with a way to plant this seed early with a mini medical school.

Jumping while breathing through a straw shows these potential future medical professionals what it’s like to have an asthma attack.

“Part of your lungs starts to clog up, and it causes you to cough,” said Brayden Hess, a Quartz Hill fourth grader.

This nine-month “mini med” school at Quartz Hill Elementary is the first on the West Coast to introduce fourth graders to medical careers. The idea is to show these kids it’s okay to aim high.

“They’ve heard voices that have told them, ‘You’re not smart enough, you’re not good enough, or perhaps you don’t have enough money.’ So it’s about creating opportunities for our junior colleagues in the making,” said Dr. Mario Affinati with Palmdale Regional Medical Center.

Each of the 24 students is outfitted with scrubs and white coats.

“It’s a very visual approach, something you can feel, you can touch, you know, it gives you the vision of what it would be like,” said Nana Deeb, CEO of Palmdale Regional Medical Center.

Doctors teach the classes. The course will also include sheep organ dissections.

“What I’ll probably be is maybe a surgeon, if I get to dissecting soon,” said Hess.

“I’m really excited that I’m going to be learning about the anatomy of the body, and learning this will help me help people later in life,” said fourth grader Ruby Lewis.

This program comes at a time when healthcare is facing a growing shortage.

“Antelope Valley has over 500,000 people, and the ratio of providers to patients can go anywhere from one to 4,000 to one to 60,000,” said Affinati.

Plans are in the works to expand.

“We’re going to start with internal medicine. Then we’re going to go to family practice next. And we’re going to start bringing in a new school and a new group of kids every semester,” said Deeb.

Students say being a doctor is not just a job; it’s a calling.

“It’s not just because of the money. You’ve got to help people and check people and make sure they’re okay,” said fourth grader Patrick Hutchinson.

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 Fernanda Silva

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KSHB) — A Black-owned hifi lounge will no longer open at Current Landing in Kansas City, Missouri, after controversy over what the owner planned to name the lounge.

Sundown HiFi was announced on Friday as a sensory-driven audio bar.

But by Monday, owner Casio McCombs announced on Instagram the lounge would not be coming to the $1 billion riverfront district being built around CPKC Stadium.

“It’s a bummer,” McCombs said.

The KC Blue Crew, the official supporters group of the KC Current, reached out to KSHB 41 News about Sundown HiFi. The group called the name of the lounge racist and insensitive.

I requested an interview with the KC Blue Crew, but they referred me back to their statement. In text messages, they said their goal was simply for the name to be changed, not for the business to close.

In their statement, the group also called on KC Current leadership and Palmer Square Real Estate Management, Current Landing’s co-developers, to “take ownership of the mistake,” select a different name, and publicly acknowledge what they will do to highlight the “rich history and accomplishments of our city’s African American population.”

I reached out to Current Landing, but they declined to comment. The KC Current is not affiliated with the development.

McCombs, who’s also a DJ, said the name was chosen intentionally — not to ignore the history of sundown towns, but to confront it.

“During a certain time in American history, there were towns that forced Black people to not be out at night,” McCombs said. “While someone has used that term to push hate, violence and oppressive systems, I don’t think that always has to be the meaning of the word.”

McCombs said the concept of reclamation was misinterpreted.

“It wouldn’t make much sense for anyone to believe that a Black man opening a business has racist intentions toward Black people,” McCombs said.

McCombs expressed frustration with how quickly the backlash unfolded online.

“I think I’m a little disappointed,” he said. “I think they had good intentions in what they’re doing. However, I just think sometimes it’s in the internet’s nature to be rewarded for being quick and not thorough.”

When asked why he did not just change the name, McCombs pointed to the concept’s purpose.

“I think there’s a lot of intentionality behind the name,” McCombs said. “The discussion that everyone’s currently having was something I was hoping that we could have as part of the concept, but not be the sole entire focus of whether the concept is worth pursuing or not.”

Now, McCombs is deciding what comes next.

“I would love to open Sundown,” McCombs said. “Maybe it’s just not right now.”

Read the KC Blue Crew statement in full below:

In the year 2026, the history of America and its African American population is not unknown.

The use of the name “Sundown” for a dance club is not only racist, but incredibly insensitive to the history of the area in which this team resides. Missouri has had a particularly violent history of sundown towns so it is especially disturbing for a team located in Missouri to chose to name a night club establishment for people to gather at on its grounds, after dark, Sundown Lounge.

We ask that KC Current Leadership and Palmer Square Real Estate Management take ownership of their mistake and not only select a different name for the venue, but also publicly acknowledge what they will be doing as an organization to help bring to light the incredibly rich history and accomplishments of our city’s African American population instead of bringing attention to the city and state’s racist history. It is not lost on us that the name of this night club was announced just weeks after the team’s theme nights were released showing that they will not be highlighting Juneteenth this season.

Once again, Blue Crew rejects any and all racist efforts, not just in soccer, but in our society. We love our team, our city, and our neighbors too much to remain silent on this.

KC Blue Crew

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

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — An Omaha woman was arrested for allegedly stealing over $180,000 from her employer while working as the company’s financial controller.

According to court documents, an employee of an Omaha insulation business reported that the now former financial controller of the company had been “using the company credit card without authorization and also transferred funds from the company’s account without authorization.”

Court documents said the company was able to show documentation of out-of-state charges as well as a wire transfer to a bank account in October 2025.

The company also noted Angelique Edmonds, also known as Doneshia Edmonds, was getting married and had been absent from work in September and October of 2025, court documents said.

According to the affidavit, the company noted multiple charges made on its credit card in Hawaii, and it totaled all of its losses from the credit card and account at over $182,000.

Court documents revealed investigators then dug into the charges, getting subpoenas for DoorDash, Amazon, and Airbnb, as well as the credit card company. They found almost $300 in charges for the food delivery service to an account in Edmonds’ name using the company’s credit card, as well as almost $1,000 worth of Amazon purchases, which were delivered to “Edmonds Pettigrew,” or “Angelique Edmonds.” Court documents said Pettigrew was Edmonds’ married name.

The affidavit showed an Airbnb was rented with the company’s card in Hawaii in October 2025 for over $3,200.

Investigators continued to dive into charges as well as bank statements, which amounted to a total loss of $182,805.92, court documents said.

Edmonds was arrested for theft by unlawful taking of $5,000 or more, which is a felony.

She is expected to appear in court on Thursday.

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 Carson Zorn, Edward Franco

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    NORTH FORT MYERS, Florida (WBBH) — A man was arrested at a gas station in North Fort Myers after being accused of using a cloned credit card to steal more than $1,400 of diesel.

According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to the scene at a Love’s truck stop on Tuesday in response to a credit card fraud in progress.

Deputies found Antonio Miranda Fonte, 38, using a cloned credit card to steal 248 gallons of diesel worth $1,460.47, LCSO said.

“The way the gas prices and fuel prices are right now, people are resorting to, you know, the bottom of the barrel to, to get by,” said Michael Noland, a truck driver from Arcadia, Florida, who saw the scene.

The credit card belonged to a Tennessee company, which confirmed it was not being used in Florida and was with the driver in Illinois.

Deputies searched Fonte’s vehicle and found a device used to clone credit cards, according to LCSO.

“It just sucks because it gives truckers a real bad name. And that’s 95% of the industry is not like that,” said Noland.

Fonte was arrested and faces charges of grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card, and possession of an encoder with intent to defraud.

“Our suspect, previous criminal history, in 2010, he was already charged and convicted of using fraudulent credit cards,” said Carmine Marceno.

Experts say protecting yourself from credit card fraud starts with simple steps.

“Maybe you’re at a gas station and you think I might have used a skimmer, use the app and log into your account, and you can turn that card off,” said Carrie Kerskie, a fraud prevention expert.

For drivers on the road, it’s a reminder to stay alert.

“Be vigilant, be cautious out there, it’s your money,” said Noland.

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.