Author: CNN Newsource

By Fisherman finds man’s body near Folsom in Lake Natoma

Click here for updates on this story

    SACRAMENTO COUNTY, California (KOVR) — Authorities are investigating after a fisherman found a body in Lake Natoma in the Folsom area Thursday afternoon.

A California State Parks spokesperson said the fisherman located a man’s body in the water just before 1 p.m., downstream from Black Miners Bar and reported it to authorities.

The Folsom Fire Department said crews responded and recovered the body from the water. Fire officials said it was unclear how long he had been in the water.

State Parks and the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office are leading the investigation.

The man has not yet been identified, and State Parks officials said the circumstances surrounding his death remain under investigation.

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 Darrielle Fair

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN QUENTIN, California (KOVR) — A California bill expanding organized sports programs in state prisons is set to take effect next year. How the state plans to do this across its more than 30 facilities with different security levels and functions is now the question.

CBS News Sacramento was given access to San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and its baseball team — the inspiration behind this measure — to hear directly from those incarcerated about how the sport has provided them a newfound community.

Players on the San Quentin Giants say camaraderie on their team has not only helped them to process trauma, grief and the time they’re currently serving, but it has also saved most of their lives.

Giants’ captain Carrington Russelle was a former college athlete. He’s now serving a sentence of 50 years to life.

“On June 24, 2007, I broke into the house of a couple and robbed them of their possessions,” he said. “I’m ashamed to admit that I sexually assaulted the woman and fled in one of their cars.”

Russelle said that during his initial years of being imprisoned, the only thing on his mind was what he had lost.

As captain, Russelle said he’s “humble and grateful” to be designated a team leader. But what was once his ticket to a better life is now the only thing helping him pass the time.

California’s oldest and most notorious prison, known today as San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, is now home to the only official and most notable organized baseball team across the state’s prison system.

“In the 1990s, it was about warehousing people. It was about bringing people to prison and locking them up for the rest of their lives,” inmate Steve Brooks said. “We’re not in that era no more.”

With more than 90% of inmates expected to return to their communities, the facility now offers hundreds of programs to rehabilitate and prepare inmates. Its baseball team has become an opportunity for a second chance.

State lawmakers are now hoping to introduce similar efforts across California’s 31 prisons.

Assembly Bill 2204 was authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), with Assemblymember Juan Alanis (R-Modesto) listed as a coauthor.

“I think we found something really special here,” Gabriel said.

The bill requires California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to create statewide organized sports programming, and participating inmates would be awarded credits for earlier release based on good behavior.

“I wish so many people in the public that see and feel and experience what we saw today,” Gabriel said on a recent visit to San Quentin.

Gabriel was among a group of state leaders who recently visited the prison as they prepare for its implementation.

It was there that CBS News Sacramento spoke with Brooks, who was an unlikely opponent of the measure.

“There’s a lot of logistics and a lot of concerns in the prisons that baseball batting gloves just can’t take care of. Can you really translate what’s happening at San Quentin to these other facilities?” Brooks said.

As for Russelle, he said that he’s excited to hear that his peers at other facilities may have the chance to experience the game that has given him a reason to smile again.

“I would say change is definitely possible, and it starts with understanding the impact of our actions,” Russelle 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 Sooji Nam

Click here for updates on this story

    DALY CITY, California (KPIX) — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and CBS News Bay Area is highlighting a three-time breast cancer survivor who is now giving back to the community.

“I’m still thinking positive. I have survived 39 years of breast cancer, and I’m still here. I’m very thankful to God that I’m alive,” Asuncion Balon, who lives in Daly City, told CBS News Bay Area.

“I felt a lump in my breast, and I went to the doctor. Actually, that lump was negative, but they found something else that was cancer,” she said.

After treatment, she said nine years later, the cancer returned. And then, 20 years since her first diagnosis, she said she had breast cancer on the right side.

Balon’s fight for good health is in part because of her lifelong career as a nurse, from 1971 until her retirement in 2012.

Balon has since been giving back to the American Cancer Society, as she said they have been tremendous in supporting in her own fight.

“I’m hoping that more people will get involved in all these activities, that the American Cancer Society has something to offer to everyone,” she said.

Balon is a Rich to Recovery volunteer, where she helps raise awareness, connects with those with breast cancer, and also helps with fundraising for cancer research.

“One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. One in eight women is still too many women. And that’s why making strides against breast cancer exists. To help lower that rate of diagnoses and provide a better life for those who have experienced breast cancer,” Olivia Catanio, American Cancer Society’s associate director of market events, told CBS News Bay Area.

She added that by holding annual stride walks is just one way for the community to come together.

“We have a lot of participation in October. But we know that this can’t be just an October event. Awareness is more than that, it’s year-round. And when we come together at making Strides Against Breast Cancer, it’s often a reminder for folks to get screened. If you’re at average risk of breast cancer, getting screened at 40 years old, might be right for you,” she said.

And Balon hopes to share this message for those fighting their fight.

“Breast cancer is just a diagnosis. It is not a life sentence, and you will live through it if you think positive. Positive way of thinking helps you to survive,” she said.

The American Cancer Society will be holding its annual walk at PayPal Park on Saturday. Registration is free and open. The event is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

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 Carlos E. Castañeda

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN FRANCISCO, California (KPIX) — A San Francisco resident has died after ingesting a semi-synthetic opioid sold in gas stations and smoke shops, the first such case in the city involving dihydro-7-hydroxymirtragynine, also known as MGM-15, health officials said.

The kratom-derived opioid, estimated to be up to 50 times more potent than morphine, is not approved for any medical use and was recently designated as a Schedule 1 drug by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The San Francisco Department of Public Health issued an alert to the public and health care providers on Wednesday about MGM-15, and said the person who ingested it died late last month.

Despite it being illegal for sale, MGM-15 has been found in products marketed as “uncaria tomentosa” or “cat’s claw,” and SFDPH said MGM-15 has also been identified in overdoses in Utah and Washington. The “Script botanicals x Maui labs” tablets the San Francisco decedent consumed do not list kratom or 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) in the packaging, SFDPH said, although the medical examiner’s office found MGM-15 in both the decedent and the product packaging.

It was the second time this year that San Francisco’s health department issued a public warning about a synthetic opioid. In April, SFDPH alerted about the drug cychlorphine following the overdose death of a 16-year-old boy. San Francisco police said cychlorphine, estimated to be 10 times estimated more powerful than fentanyl, can be found in counterfeit pills designed to look like Xanax, Adderall and Oxycontin.

Health officials recommend administering naloxone to anyone who appears to be overdosing and calling 911.

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 Nicole Comstock

Click here for updates on this story

    VICTORVILLE, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Wild weather, including a possible landspout, sent trash cans and other debris flying through Victorville on Thursday.

“Once it got closer, it was scary because it sounded like wooden boards,” witness Jolina Brody said. “A couple of them had hit my trunk after I turned the intersection.”

Brody got out of her car after a stoplight near Dos Palmas Road and the 395 Highway and started recording.

“I was like ‘Oh, this is not normal,'” she said. “At first, I was like, it’s a dust devil, but I’ve never seen them do that much damage.”

The National Weather Service said it is assessing the possible landspout, a type of short-lived tornado that forms from the ground up. It ripped a big chunk of a nearby wooden fence right out of the ground.

The possible landspout also ripped apart a metal shed, blew boxes into trees and snapped tree trunks in half.

“I looked outside and I said ‘Our fence is gone,'” witness Jayden Jameson said while chuckling about the entire ordeal.

Jameson said his handyman had put most of the fence back together before the day ended.

“He hasn’t even been here for like an hour,” Jameson said. “Ron is good!”

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 Sharp, Hunter Sowards

Click here for updates on this story

    LOS ANGELES, California (KCAL, KCBS) — After closing for good in March this year, the iconic downtown Los Angeles eatery Cole’s French Dip announced a comeback starting this November.

Before shuttering its doors, the Sixth Street establishment claimed to be the longest-running restaurant in the city, marking a 118-year streak.

Established by entrepreneur Harry Cole in 1908 and housed in the historic Pacific Electric Building on Sixth Street, Cole’s said it invented the French Dip sandwich. It had a simple menu, offering variations of its namesake sandwich, grilled cheese, and sides.

Cole’s French Dip had threatened to close several times, but long-time, loyal customers rallied, and the eatery stayed open.

Ownership cited the pandemic, crime in the surrounding area and rising rent and labor costs as reasons for its closure.

Now with an upgraded menu and construction nearly finished, the new owners said they wanted to blend classic and modern aesthetics as they welcome people back to their restaurant.

“The sooner we get the doors open, the better it is for the whole community,” managing partner Sean Maloney said.

Maloney said the new additions will include a semi-private seating area for large parties, a piano to set the mood, new cocktails and a revamped French dip recipe.

“The recipe is changing a little,” Maloney said. “The ingredients are going way up.”

Culinary historian George Geary says success is about honoring the art of what once was while marketing their new vision to a younger audience.

“Because our marketing nowadays is all internet, websites, things like that,” he said. “If you have things like that, I think it’ll work.”

Maloney said they are preserving the original stained glass, light fixtures and classic allure.

“I think the more and more, as we get so commercialized, and ‘private-equity-ized,’ I think this is what I crave,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s what everyone else craves.”

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

Click here for updates on this story

    CENTENNIAL, Colorado (KCNC) — A Colorado aerospace company thinks it may have found the solution to the country’s growing energy crisis surrounding data centers, and it involves natural gas and one of their engines.

Thursday Boom Supersonic in Centennial unveiled its jet engine core. It will eventually be for the supersonic airliner it wants to build.

“We want this airplane as soon as superhumanly possible,” founder/CEO Blake Scholl told CBS Colorado.

But, in the meantime, the aerospace company thinks it has found a new use for it — powering AI data centers. Scholl says it all started when he texted AI entrepreneur Sam Altman.

“And I remember texting him and saying, ‘Hey, Sam, this stuff I’m reading in the press about there being a power crisis, is that real? If we made a power turbine, would that be of relevance for AI?’ And he responded right away and basically said, ‘Yes, please, as many as you can, make as fast as you can,'” Scholl said.

Scholl says, by powering his turbines with natural gas on the back of flatbed trucks, the company will be able to generate enough power to run data centers, hospitals and other large electricity users. And he claims it will all be done without causing problems for data-center neighbors.

“So, the AI data center will be able to create its own electricity, do it completely waterless, and it’s also going to be quiet,” Scholl said. “Let’s remember this turbine was built by the same team that made Sonic Boom go away entirely.”

School says he already has customers lining up to purchase these generators. The only problem is they don’t have the staff to build them. So Boom is hiring 500 people as soon as possible to fulfill the mission.

“If 500 amazing people showed up at our front porch tomorrow, we would say welcome to all,” Scholl said.

Scholl says this allows Boom to not only provide energy to data centers but also will give the company an opportunity to test its engines in the real world, which brings Boom one step closer to building the planes it wants to build.

“Sometimes, you wait one to five, 10 years to get electricity that you really need right away,” Scholl said. “So we’re going to help solve that problem. And then that turns into the world’s most tested new jet engine.”

The first power generator is slated to be delivered in 2027. The company says it plans to have planes in 2030.

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 Joseph Buczek

Click here for updates on this story

    MOUNT CLEMENS, Michigan (WWJ) — One person is dead after a reported explosion at an industrial building in Mount Clemens on Thursday, according to the Macomb County Sheriff.

Authorities say the incident happened around 11:37 a.m. Thursday at an industrial building on Mary Street between Cass Avenue and Hubbard Street.

A 49-year-old Macomb Township man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities.

Additional details about the cause of the explosion have not been released.

“The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office extends its deepest sympathies to the individual’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office said.

An investigation is ongoing.

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 Jack Springgate

Click here for updates on this story

    TOLEDO, Ohio (WWJ) — Fumes from the chemical leak in Toledo have died down significantly since Wednesday.

The shelter-in-place order has been lifted, and the evacuation zone has been reduced to a quarter-mile radius around the hazmat site on Thursday morning.

City of Toledo health officials say exposure risks from the chemical leak are at their lowest points since the incident happened Tuesday night. Questions about future health impacts are still weighing on those who live here.

“It was almost like a battery acid smell. It was almost rancid, like a nasty plastic,” said Toledo resident Zach Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick lives just outside where the three-mile shelter-in-place zone used to be, but that didn’t stop him from feeling symptoms, he says, that came from chemical fumes.

“We were deep in it by 4 in the morning [Wednesday]. My throat is still irritated right now. My wife, she’s had a headache and migraines since about 2 that morning when it started,” he said.

Fitzpatrick says his biggest concern is how this incident will impact his family’s health down the line.

“The level in concentration that we just experienced, they don’t have any controlled setting that has ever happened,” he said.

The City of Toledo reported 57 hospitalizations due to the incident, seven of which are still in treatment. They say none were in serious condition.

“We understand the uneasiness and frustration that a lot of residents have,” said Toledo Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Santiago.

The EPA says they’re collecting air samples around the evacuation zone to determine how much of the chemical is still in the air.

“Unfortunately, this is something that takes time in monitoring changing conditions, and we want to make sure we do that the right way so when we do allow citizens to come back into that evacuation area, there’s no safety concern for them,” Santiago said.

Santiago says his crews didn’t notice any smoke or fumes still coming from the tank early Thursday afternoon; however, the quarter-mile evacuation zone was still in effect when he told CBS News Detroit that information, as they continue to monitor conditions around the site.

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 Frankie McLister, Jonah Kaplan and Web Staff

Click here for updates on this story

    ST PAUL, Minnesota (WCCO) — A bystander’s split-second decision saved a school bus driver and the kids on board Monday on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota.

It happened outside Ya Bricks Snacks and Tobacco off North Mendota Street and Fremont Avenue East in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood.

Surveillance camera footage from the store shows Ebro Ahmed sprint toward the bus. He had just seen the driver drop off some kids when the bus kept rolling forward with the doors still opened.

Ahmed saw the driver was having a medical issue, jumped inside and stopped the bus.

“It caught me by surprise because I was kind of confused about the door open,” Ahmed said. “So then I ran towards the bus and noticed he was having an emergency so I just hopped on there.”

Ahmed said that at first, he wasn’t able to stop the bus. He tried to throw it in park but then it went in reverse. After he was able to put the bus into stop, he looked behind him.

“I see all the kids kind of a little scared, crying, you know, with their phones out, getting ready to call the police,” he said.

Ahmed said he was in part inspired by “Grey’s Anatomy,” because the doctors are calm amid chaotic situations.

“It’s something you would never think would happen in real life,” the 27-year-old said.

A spokesperson with St. Paul Public Schools told WCCO Wednesday the driver was transporting students from Battle Creek Middle School, located about 3 miles southeast of the crash site. There were 19 students on the bus at the time.

“Another bus came to pick the students up to continue on their route home,” the spokesperson said. “Students were likely late arriving home, and some may have been upset at the situation.”

Ahmed said he was in part inspired by “Grey’s Anatomy,” because the doctors are calm amid chaotic situations.

“It’s something you would never think would happen in real life,” the 27-year-old said.

A spokesperson with St. Paul Public Schools told WCCO Wednesday the driver was transporting students from Battle Creek Middle School, located about 3 miles southeast of the crash site. There were 19 students on the bus at the time.

“Another bus came to pick the students up to continue on their route home,” the spokesperson said. “Students were likely late arriving home, and some may have been upset at the situation.”

St. Paul Public Schools said Wednesday evening that the driver has been released from the hospital and is resting at home.

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.