South Georgia college student faces long recovery after rodeo accident

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Frank Sulkowski

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    DOUGLAS, Georgia (WJCL) — A South Georgia college student is beginning what his supporters describe as a life-changing recovery after he was seriously injured in a rodeo accident Saturday, Oct. 17.

Clayton Dover, 18, suffered shattered C6 and C7 vertebrae in the accident, according to an online fundraiser organized by Adam Baswell. Dover underwent a 6½-hour operation to stabilize his spine and is currently paralyzed in his lower body, the fundraiser says.

“Clayton and his family are now facing a long and uncertain road ahead, one filled with immense physical, emotional, and financial challenges,” Baswell wrote. “Through it all, Clayton’s strength, grit, and determination continue to carry him forward as he begins the hard work of recovery.”

The South Georgia State College Rodeo Team also asked the community to support Dover, sharing a message of prayer and encouragement on social media.

“In the rodeo world, we know how to stand together when times get tough,” the team wrote. “Today, we’re asking cowboys, cowgirls, friends, family, and the entire rodeo community to come together and surround Clayton with prayers, strength, and love.”

The post continued: “Every prayer, every word of encouragement, and every show of support matters. Strength in numbers. One rodeo family. One powerful community.”

A GoFundMe campaign titled “Support Clayton Dover’s Recovery” has been created to assist Dover and his family. As of Oct. 22, the campaign had received 70 donations totaling more than $7,100.

Organizers said contributions will help pay for Dover’s emergency surgery, specialized hospital care and continuing medical treatment. Funds are also expected to support inpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation, long-term physical therapy, mobility equipment, adaptive gear and home modifications intended to help him live more independently.

The campaign may also help cover travel and living expenses for Dover’s family as they remain near him during his treatment and rehabilitation. Organizers said both one-time and recurring contributions will assist with needs expected to continue for months.

Supporters are encouraging members of the community to donate, share the fundraiser and leave messages of encouragement for Dover and his family.

The rodeo team is using the hashtag #PrayForClayton to rally support.

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.

Aurora firefighters rescue trapped driver after crash

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Jennifer McRae

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    AURORA, Colorado (KCNC) — Firefighters in Aurora rescued a trapped driver after a crash early Thursday morning. The crash happened near the corner of Potomac Way and East Dakota Way.

Police said the SUV was traveling at a high rate of speed when the male driver drifted off the road. The vehicle struck signs in front of businesses before it stopped in a wooded area.

The driver suffered minor injuries.

What happened leading up to the crash is being investigated.

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.

$4.5 million settlement reached after teen’s death at Georgia youth detention center

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Kirsten Maselka, Graham Cawthon

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    WARE COUNTY, Georgia (WJCL) — The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice has agreed to pay $4.5 million to the parents of a 17-year-old who died after a fight at the Waycross Regional Youth Detention Center, according to the family’s attorneys.

Loyce Tucker died Aug. 11, 2022, two days after another juvenile struck him in the neck during what court documents described as a “fight game.”

Officer was arrested after GBI investigation The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said at the time that juvenile correctional officer Thomas Lee Hicks Jr. allowed juveniles to participate in a fight game in his presence Aug. 9, 2022.

Hicks was arrested Aug. 16, 2022, and booked into the Ware County Jail on charges of second-degree murder, two counts of cruelty to children and violation of his oath of office. The available records do not indicate how the criminal case was resolved.

Then-Department of Juvenile Justice Commissioner Tyrone Oliver announced Hicks’ termination after the GBI disclosed its findings.

“The actions of Mr. Hicks are deplorable and do not represent the core values of this agency,” Oliver said in a statement at the time. He also offered condolences to Tucker’s family and said the department took its responsibility to operate safe facilities seriously.

Tucker’s family told WJCL in 2022 that they welcomed the murder charge but believed there was more to the story. They also expressed concern for other juveniles at the facility.

Lawsuit alleged delayed medical care Tucker’s family later alleged that Hicks organized or encouraged the fight and took Tucker and another juvenile into a closet away from security cameras.

After Tucker lost consciousness, Hicks and other juveniles moved him to a shower, where Hicks splashed water on him and slapped his face in an attempt to revive him, according to the lawsuit. Another officer called 911 at least 10 minutes after Tucker lost consciousness, the family alleged.

Tucker was taken to a local hospital and later flown to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. A medical examiner determined he suffered a vertebral artery dissection caused by trauma to his neck, according to the complaint.

Family alleged broader pattern of fights Tucker’s parents, Ashlie Muncey and Jonathan Tucker, sued Hicks, detention center Director Jimmy Moore and the Department of Juvenile Justice in 2023. The lawsuit accused officials of failing to protect their son and delaying medical treatment that could have saved his life.

The complaint also alleged correctional officers routinely arranged, encouraged or allowed fights among detained juveniles. Some employees dismissed the encounters as “horseplay,” according to the Savannah law firm Savage, Turner, Pinckney, Savage, Sprouse & Gilluly.

“No amount of money is enough to replace the precious life of this young man,” the firm said in announcing the settlement. “The system failed this child and many others.”

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Sen. Susan Collins and Troy Jackson condemn use of attack ads in Maine’s Senate race

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Keenan Mills

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    AUGUSTA, Maine (WMTW) — Both candidates running for the U.S. Senate in Maine condemned attack ads against each other on Wednesday.

Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins spent Wednesday morning campaigning with former Sen. Joe Manchin, a longtime Democrat from West Virginia who became an independent just months before departing the Senate in January 2025.

“This is a United States senator who basically is a Maine senator,” Manchin said. “She’s not a Trump senator. She’s not a Republican senator or a Democrat senator. She’s an American senator.”

Collins was asked about a recent radio advertisement that was paid for by the Senate Leadership Fund PAC.

The ad was to the tune of a song and included lyrics such as: “If he screws his own family, he’ll screw yours too.”

“Well, first of all, I had nothing to do with that ad, and I said that it should be taken down,” Collins said.

Collins said that she cannot legally contact the PAC. She added that she had nothing to do with the advertisement.

Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996. She said this race has not been like one she’s ever been involved with before.

“This campaign has been unique in Maine’s history, in the number of personal attacks,” Collins said. “I’ve been accused of all sorts of things.”

In Augusta, several women, many of whom worked with Jackson in the Maine Legislature, gathered to host a “Women for Troy” event.

The speakers pointed toward the radio ad along with a separate anti-Jackson television ad. They said that ad portrayed the former lawmakers as “victims and villains.”

According to the group, this wasn’t their experience with Jackson in Augusta.

“He lifted up the voices of women,” said former Democratic state lawmaker Rebecca Millett. “He appointed them into leadership positions. He trusted us with the important work of leading powerful committees and our colleagues.”

Many members of the group also spoke on the unique style of attack ads in the Senate race. Some also said the level of the advertisements was at a level they’ve never seen before.

“They can’t defend Susan Collins’ record, so they are resorting to personal attacks,” Millett said. “This TV ad and the disgusting radio ad that goes along with it reek of desperation. And it says a lot more about Sen. Collins and her backers than it says about Troy.”

Jackson wasn’t in attendance for Wednesday’s event. His campaign spokesperson Dan Gottlieb provided a statement in response to the radio advertisement.

In part, Gottlieb said in his statement: “If Collins believes these attacks are wrong, she owes Troy’s family an apology for spreading them herself and must take responsibility for her allies pushing the same personal attack on his family on TV right now.”

Maine Women’s Lobby also spoke at the event, publicly endorsing Jackson. Members of the lobby mentioned Jackson’s voting record and their approval of his work in childcare and the state’s paid family and medical leave program.

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.

From WWII to the Super Bowl, the St. Paul Airport has served the Twin Cities for 100 years

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By John Lauritsen

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    ST. PAUL, Minnesota (WCCO) — The St. Paul Airport turns 100-years-old this month. In the last century, the airport helped with the war effort and also played a major role in Twin Cities flight.

“We’ve got California, Florida, Alaska. We’ve had international flights from Spain, Portugal,” said Jack Carroll, general manager of the St. Paul Flight Center.

At the St. Paul Airport, no two days are the same. Military and private aircraft bring in service members and celebrities. And when the Super Bowl was here, it was all hands on deck.

“It was the busiest day in the airport’s history. Literally, they shut down two of the three runways. There were airplanes parked on every available piece of laptop,” said Carroll.

It’s just part of the airport’s long runway of memories.

“Air mail. That’s the overriding story,” said Bruce Kitt, Northwest Airlines History Center.

Kitt said a century ago, Minneapolis and St. Paul were competing to be the air mail destination from Chicago to the Twin Cities.

“Neither one of them could agree so they both built up their airports, and like a ping pong ball, service bounced between each one. And then it eventually wound up at MSP,” said Kitt.

But St. Paul’s success was only slightly delayed. In 1930, Northwest Airways moved its fleet to the airport, which was also known as Holman Field — named after Charles “Speed” Holman. He was the first pilot hired by the airline and also doubled as a stunt pilot.

Sadly, Holman died in 1931 while performing a stunt at an airshow in Omaha, Nebraska. But his name lives on.

In 1939, the Holman terminal was built, and three years later the Riverside Hangars were added. The government took those over during World War II so they could modify B-24 bomber planes.

When it was really busy, they would run four lines of bombers. Two in each hangar. They modified over 3,300 B-24s during the war,” said Kitt.

Kitt says when the war ended, things changed. Legacy carriers were going to Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport because of the longer runways, while Holman Field attracted regional airlines.

Over the decades, St. Paul has proven resilient. More than once in the 1990’s, flooding temporarily grounded operations, but they always came back.

As a result, years ago they built a flood wall to keep the rising waters of the Mississippi River from getting on the runway.

It’s held up well. Kitt often wonders what might have been for Holman Field if history hadn’t gotten in the way.

“It would be interesting to speculate, what if the war never occurred? Then what would have the city rivalries have been?”

Like MSP, the St. Paul Airport is run by the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Each year there more than 40,000 takeoffs and landings happen in St. Paul.

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Breast cancer survivors, advocates to take to runway for Pink for a Purpose show

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Audrina Sinclair, Adam Harrington, Sue McCann

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Next week, the Pink for a Purpose runway show will feature breast caner survivors and advocates dressed to the nines.

The event supports City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago, part of a national cancer network, which provides cancer screenings, diagnosis and treatment, research and access to clinical trials.

City of Hope emphasized how important the event was both for those who have been touched by cancer and those who need to screen for it.

“One of the most exciting pieces of the event is it is going to highlight models that have been touched by cancer, whether it’s themselves or a loved one, and it’s really supporting the message of early detection and screening,” said City of Hope Chicago vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer Angelina Fakhoury. “Early detection and screening is one of the most important pieces of cancer care and outcomes, and early detection and screening accounts for 99% survival rates in the first five years of breast cancer diagnosis.”

Designer Barbara Bates is herself a breast cancer survivor of 18 years. Now, breast cancer patients and advocates will be on the runway wearing her designs.

“It’s just awe-inspiring,” Bates said. “I mean, it’s not just about the clothing and what they put on, but it seems to like instill that extra bit of confidence. Sometimes when you’re going through a certain type of cancer, you may lose your hair, you may lose weight, you may gain weight. You’re not really feeling yourself. You’re not feeling your best. So we all love putting on something beautiful, you know, just like extra-special, and just getting all that love and attention that day, it just means the world to the people that are wearing the garments, and to me.”

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Bates said it is absolutely important for her to be there with the survivors and advocates wearing her designs.

“It’s not just one organization that I’ve worked with. I’ve worked with a few organizations. And so when people put out the call, ‘Hey, can you help us out?’ then I definitely say yes,” Bates said, “because having sat in that seat myself, I know how important it is to have support, and sometimes it’s not just the medicine that brings you around, it’s the support system that you have that rallies you on so that you’re like feeling like, ‘I can do this, I can come through this.'”

The Pink for a Purpose: Beyond the Runway event was sold out as of Thursday morning, but there was a waitlist. The event will be held at Sarabande Chicago, at 2726 W. Roscoe St. in the Avondale neighborhood. CBS News Chicago’s Sabrina Franza is the host.

City of Hope Chicago also accepts donations and support on its website.

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Colorado shoplifting suspect arrested, officers discover modified Glock, high-capacity magazine

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Jennifer McRae

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    GLENDALE, Colorado (KCNC) — Glendale police officers arrested a shoplifting suspect and then discovered a more serious threat. According to investigators, the shoplifting suspect was armed with a Glock that had been modified to fire fully automatically.

The gun was also equipped with a 50-round drum magazine.

According to investigators, the weapon posed a serious threat to officers and the public.

Possessing a high-capacity magazine, one with more than 15 rounds, is illegal in Colorado unless the person has had possession of the magazine since July 1, 2013, before the law took effect.

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.

Women in the Minneapolis Rowing Club find challenge, camaraderie on the water

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Rowing is one of the first sports of the Olympic games, and it’s alive and thriving in Minneapolis.

It’s a sitting sport that takes standing endurance.

“It’s a lot. It’s a lot of legs, right? So, it’s the legs, and then your back and then your arms in that sequence,” Caitlyn Skinner with the Minneapolis Rowing Club said. “It’s just as important to control your body and your core and to move at the speed of the boat.”

Skinner started rowing in college. Now she’s on the Minneapolis Rowing Club’s competition team. She pushes her team forward by bringing up the rear while finding physical challenge and mental respite.

“There’s a sense of focus, right? So, I get a lot of focus time out on the water where I’m only thinking about how to move the boat faster, how to use my body to move the boat past a certain point,” Skinner said. “And having that time to focus on that endeavor kind of clears my brain out a little bit for the rest of the day and everything I’m doing on land.”

She later added, “It really is meditative and tough.”

The competition team is so strong that several rowers have competed on the world stage.

What started in 1877 as a strictly men’s club is now mostly women.

“We’re building this, just a beautiful community that’s really supportive of one another and our environment, too,” Skinner said.

Tina Lund with the Minneapolis Rowing Club told WCCO, “I took Learn to Row here when I was 40, in 1988.”

Lund added that she got into rowing because someone told her there were “good-looking men” in the club. The club didn’t yield a husband, but she got a different kind of lifelong companionship.

Lund is 78 years young. WCCO asked how she thinks rowing has come into play with her body being strong.

“I think it’s been super important. So, most of us, we will also lift weights a couple times a week. So, it’s just a whole culture of staying healthy and staying in shape … and we’re all friends, so we do it together. So, it’s really fun,” 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.

“This is me on a plate”: How one dish shows what a new Wisconsin restaurant is about

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Derek James

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    ST. CROIX FALLS, Wisconsin (WCCO) — Marlee Crave served a summer dish at Fiddlehead Kitchen made from her husband’s tomatoes and greens, her homemade sourdough bread and her family’s cheese.

“Here you go, this is me on a plate,” she said.

Crave and Sarah Mittelstadt call plates like that their “heart dishes.” The two women opened Fiddlehead Kitchen at the end of August in downtown St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, just across the border from Minnesota, with a menu built around local farms.

Local growers supply everything from beef and lamb to mushrooms, honey, cheese and vegetables. Crave and her husband established a vegetable farm in 2020, and it grows most of the vegetables the restaurant uses.

The menu changes with the seasons. Crave said that once something is no longer available from her farmers, it comes off the menu. That’s why the burger has no tomato right now, she said. The tomatoes “just died.”

Surprises from farmers shape the menu, too. When a farmer shows up with a “bumper crop of parsnips,” Mittelstadt said, that becomes inspiration for her and Crave.

Mittelstadt studied food systems at the University of Minnesota, then worked on a mushroom farm before cooking in Minnesota and Wisconsin kitchens. Crave grew up around her family’s Wisconsin dairy farm and cheese business. After working with chefs in the Twin Cities, she landed at the same restaurant as Mittelstadt, and the two bonded over local food.

When that restaurant closed, they kept cooking, doing pop-ups and working out of a smaller kitchen before opening Fiddlehead Kitchen.

For Mittelstadt, the payoff is seeing familiar and new faces gather around food grown close to home. Inviting people in and feeding them food from the area “fills me every time,” she said.

Fiddlehead Kitchen is open Wednesdays for Burger Night. It serves a full lunch and dinner menu Thursday through Saturday.

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Baby who had 50 seizures a day now seizure-free after surgery at Children’s Minnesota

CNN Newsource on October 22, 2026

By Joe Van Ryn

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    ST. PAUL, Minnesota (WCCO) — For two parents in St. Paul, Minnesota, the birth of their daughter was supposed to be one of the happiest moments in their lives. But soon after Loralei was born, Nkaujfuah and Jonathan knew something was wrong.

“The seizures progressively got worse,” Loralei’s mother Nkaujfuah said. “I felt scared. I didn’t know what was going on with her. I just knew something was wrong and I just needed to get her help.”

Lorelei was having up to 50 seizures a day. Medication wasn’t working.

“Seizures at that young age, especially five weeks of age, can be catastrophic in nature,” said Dr. Nitin Agarwal, a pediatric epileptologist at Minnesota Epilepsy Group.

Agarwal and a team of neurosurgeons at Children’s Minnesota got together to come up with a plan.

“We all sat down and had a discussion about the things and decided to proceed with this procedure called a hemispherectomy,” Agarwal said.

It’s a surgery where the neural pathways between the left and right hemisphere of the brain are separated. Lorelei would be one of the youngest patients to have it done. Something that worried her parents.

“She was just so young,” Nkaujfuah said. “I was just really scared of the outcome and the process.”

Doctors knew the surgery wasn’t going to be easy.

“It’s still one of the more challenging surgeries that we as neurosurgeons perform. But in a two-month-old it’s even more challenging,” Medical Director of Neurosciences at Children’s Minnesota Dr. Meysam Kebriaei said.

But the surgery proved to be a success. Lorelei has been seizure-free ever since. And at her three month post-op check in, she was all smiles.

“All the developmental milestones are catching up,” Agarwal said. “The family is very pleased, we are very pleased and we are very hopeful that she will have a very good outcome from here.”

“She’s dealing with normal baby stuff,” Kebriaei said. “She’s keeping her parents awake at night but not because of seizures.”

Lorelei’s parents look forward to her living a happy and healthy life.

“We made it out to the other side,” Nkaujfuah said. “It’s just amazing seeing her grow and seeing her smile.”

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