Author: CNN Newsource

By Leondra Head

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — Severe weather across Metro Atlanta Monday morning brought down trees and power lines. One of them came through a home in Southwest Atlanta, almost hitting someone inside.

The Steave family says they are thankful to be alive after that massive tree ripped through the second floor of their home.

“I slept through the storms. Around 5:30, I heard a loud whomp,” Tonia Steave, a homeowner on Dale Lane, said.

Steave says the tree ripped through her closet and restroom on the second floor of the house.

“I heard metal breaking and glass breaking and jumped up. It took the whole back of the house off,” Steave said.

She says the tree landed just a few feet away from her bed. Her clothes and makeup were destroyed in the damage.

“The whole back section of the house and my dressing room, all my clothes. All I have is what I have on,” Steave said.

Steave told CBS News Atlanta that her granddaughter, who was visiting, and her mother were inside the home when the tree collapsed.

“Just 3 people,” Steave said.

Her husband Edward was working overnight and came home to the destruction.

“I was worried about my family. It just wasn’t a good feeling,” he said.

“My mother fell and bumped her head, and she went to the ER. She’s fine,” Steave said.

Steave’s 95-year-old mother was almost hit by the fallen tree.

“She got out just in time. She was in her bed, and something woke her up,” Steave said.

The home is no longer inhabitable, and the Steaves plan to live with family in the area. They say they do plan to rebuild after they make arrangements with their insurance company.

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 Ubah Ali

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    ST. PAUL, Minnesota (WCCO) — Minnesotans were still digging out Monday night after Sunday’s heavy, wet snow. While some people whip out the shovels and start clearing, others simply cannot.

It’s not uncommon to see Minnesotans lending a helping hand, but in some areas, neighbors can’t keep up with the demand.

In St. Paul, volunteers known as Saintly City Snow Angels are those who step in, clearing sidewalks and driveways. Melissa Wenzel is one of the administrators of the Facebook group and says the demand is hard to keep up with.

“If I could personally help everybody who needs help, I’d be busy for about a solid week,” Wenzel said. “The list is long right now, [a] lot of folks that need help.”

Many of the requests come from seniors and people recovering from an illness. Right now, Wenzel said 22 people are waiting for a volunteer to help dig them out.

Though the need is great after Sunday’s spring storm, Wenzel says 139 have been helped for a total of 262 times. She says it is incredible and that there’s always room for more volunteers.

Across the river in Minneapolis, Sophie Su and Zach Navaro are doing the same as Snow Angels in the Fulton neighborhood.

This volunteer-based group, in its first year and part of a program with Minneapolis Public Works, is offering free snow shoveling to help keep public sidewalks safer and more accessible this winter.

Through the partnership, the Minneapolis group received a $5,000 grant, which it used for safety equipment.

“We are meeting our demand but open to accepting more applicants,” Su said.

Su said in their first year, a team of 15 people volunteered their time to shovel 44 sidewalks, driveways and paths.

With more snow on the way, the need for volunteer shovelers isn’t ending. Organizers in both groups say they are always looking for volunteers and accepting applications from those who need the help.

Anyone who wants to volunteer as a Saintly City Snow Angel or add their sidewalk to the shovel list can connect with the organization’s Facebook page.

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 Monique John

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — A growing number of children across the U.S. are becoming published authors thanks to the help of a writing software startup in metro Atlanta.

Terri Asberry Jr. is really serious about baseball.

“It’s just always been my expertise, my peace,” Ashberry said. “You know, I mean, I feel like nobody can take that from me.”

That’s why baseball is mainly what he writes about, and what led Asberry to getting published at 14 years old.

Asberry met his writing coach and fellow baseball fanatic, Anthony Joiner, in a summer literacy program for young people two years ago. Joiner helped Asberry and more than 30 other children self-publish an anthology using Joiner’s book-writing software, Blooksy. Asberry and Joiner have been friends ever since.

“I started telling him stories about how I hit a game-winning homerun,” Asberry said. “You know, back for my little league team, my first home run. And we kind of elaborated on that. You know, put it in a haiku poem, different stuff like that.”

“We know that students constantly write about things that they’re not necessarily familiar with,” Joiner said. “So we write about Romeo, Juliet, all these things that they learn about. We focus on writing their own story.”

Asberry is one of 500 children and 1,400 adults whom Joiner says he has helped get published nationwide since 2023 on subjects they’re passionate about. A short story, poem, and haiku of Asberry’s are published in an anthology called “Through Our Eyes: Chapters from Teenage Minds,” alongside more than 30 other children’s works.

“[T]hat allows them to tap in, more creatively than they would with something they’re not familiar with,” Joiner said.

Dr. Rebecca Parshall is the deputy director for Learn4Life, an organization focused on improving literacy and overall academic performance among metro Atlanta children. She says there is a literacy crisis among children in Atlanta nationwide, noting that only 38% of third-graders in the metro are proficient in reading and writing their end-of-year state tests. She says poor access to early childhood education is one significant factor behind the problem. But she says prioritizing oral language education, reading comprehension, and encouraging children to write can help reverse the problem.

“Parents and educators can really cultivate a love of reading and writing. That’s the most important thing. That reading and writing doesn’t feel like a chore. Reading and writing are ways to build empathy. They are ways to build imagination. There are opportunities for us to step inside someone else’s shoes and really understand the perspective of a character in a book that you’re either reading or writing yourself,” Parshall said.

Asberry’s father, Terri Asberry Sr., says his son has performed well in school since he was small, and that he demonstrated a talent for writing by the time he was in the second grade. But Asberry Sr. says he’s thrilled that his son has poured into his writing now as a teenager. He enjoys reading his son’s words about the sport they both love. He says he hopes his son keeps writing and that he can see Jr.’s work being translated to the silver screen.

“How he expresses himself in writing is, I say, satisfying,” Asberry Sr. said. “It’s a gratification for us to know where he, you know, knows what he’s thinking, and to be able to see him illustrate that in words is amazing.”

As he holds a copy of “Through Our Eyes,” Asberry Jr. says seeing his name in print exhilarates him.

“My work, I feel like I definitely put my all into it, so I kind of do deserve it, he said. “But just to see myself in a book like that lets me know I can go out there and do more.”

The teen said he hopes this experience helps strengthen his essay-writing skills for when it’s time to apply to college. Maybe it will help him get on the bestseller’s list one day, too.

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 Louisa Moller

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — Flames glowed from the roof an old mill building in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood on Saturday. Fire officials report that flames were moving across the roof of 1 Westinghouse Plaza. A firefighter was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest.

Now, this Hyde Park fire is stoking an anger that has lived inside Kathy Crosby-Bell for over a decade. Crosby-Bell’s son, Boston Firefighter Michael Kennedy, and fellow firefighter Lt. Edward Walsh were both killed in a Back Bay blaze in 2014. The cause of the fire at a Beacon Street brownstone was determined to be sparks from unpermitted welding work on a windy day.

The cause of Saturday’s fire in Hyde Park is still under investigation but fire officials say welding was taking place at the building last weekend.

“I know a lot of fires begin because of hot works and nobody wants to track them,” Crosby-Bell said.

For years, Crosby-Bell and her non-profit, the Last Call Foundation, have advocated for legislation which would increase oversight and training for welders.

Right now, there are two proposed bills that would require welders to undergo training using a National Fire Protection Association program, impose fines on welders who do not take the training, and slap criminal penalties on welders who do not take training and have work that results in injury or death.

“There’s somebody to hold responsible. Not like what happened with Mike and Ed. Nobody was held responsible,” Crosby-Bell said.

The legislation also proposes a database of welders.

Different versions of the legislation have languished in the State House for a decade and Crosby-Bell wants to know why.

“On March 26, it will be 12 years since that fire happened. And the immediate aftermath was everyone wanted to help and do something. Well that faded so quickly with the politicians and we have to wonder why,” she said.

WBZ-TV reached out to the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, where the legislation currently sits, as well as the sponsor of the Senate and House versions of the bill and received no response.

WBZ-TV learned the welding work taking place at 1 Westinghouse Plaza was done with a proper permit. The firefighter who went to hospital remains there.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Chloe Godding, JoBeth Davis

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — A Kansas City mother charged in her 5-year-old son’s death has pleaded guilty to a new charge.

Corrinne O’Connor was initially charged with endangering the welfare of a child after her son’s death in 2023. That charge was amended Monday, and she pleaded guilty March 16, 2026, to first-degree involuntary manslaughter.

Grayson O’Connor, 5, fell from the 17th floor of an apartment building and died. Detectives said surveillance video shows the boy fell from his apartment. His body was discovered in an alley behind that building.

Neighbors told KMBC 9 News that they believed Grayson O’Connor’s death was preventable.

Documents revealed that the Missouri Department of Social Services had seven interactions with the family before Grayson’s death but did not separate him from his mother.

Videos shared with KMBC included O’Connor repeatedly cursing at Grayson, hitting him, and another fight. Neighbors reported problems to property managers and police.

KCPD and the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services even put Grayson in a neighbor’s care for several days after he was found wandering downtown alone at night. He was returned to his mother four days later.

O’Connor was sentenced March 16, 2026, to 10 years in prison with credit for time served.

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 Emma Benson

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    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSL) — At a time when owning a home seems out of reach for many, a group of friends is trying to make the American dream possible.

Sky Evans, along with his wife Lily and friend Sawyer Reidelbach, started what they call the Homerun Project. They are renovating a 1920s house in Salt Lake City and, once it’s finished, plan to give it away — no mortgage, no rent, just a fresh start, in a drawing.

“We cannot fix the housing crisis for everybody, it’s such a disaster. But we wanted to fix it for someone,” Lily Evans said.

Evans said they are renters themselves and even sold one of their investment properties to help make the renovation possible.

“That’s really how passionate we are about this — to be able to bring such a dream to somebody else,” Sky Evans said.

The transformation is already well underway.

“What’s cooler than being able to give away a house?” Reidelbach said. “Every day I wake up, it’s all I think about. I lay in bed, and I think about it — getting to work on this makes me so happy.”

Once the renovation is complete, they say the goal is simple.

“Somebody is going to get keys to a home, and that’s really the moment that this whole project is for,” Sky Evans said.

They hope to expand this project in the future, giving even more people a place to “run home” to.

“We love it. We’re so excited about it, and we think it will change someone’s life,” Lily Evans said.

The giveaway ends Aug. 23, and the winner will be randomly chosen after that. Each dollar spent on merchandise through their website counts as entries. For more details, visit TheHomerunProject.com. Updates on the renovation are also available on their Instagram page.

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 Alex Suckow

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    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WLKY) — The coroner has identified the woman who died after getting stuck on a float during Louisville’s big St. Patrick’s Day parade.

The annual parade takes place the Saturday before the holiday on Bardstown Road.

Police said that roughly an hour into Saturday’s parade, around 4 p.m., they were called because a woman who was walking next to a float got her foot caught in it, causing her to fall and get stuck under the vehicle.

That woman has been identified as Joan Pannuti Pottinger, 50.

Police said the vehicle stopped and Pottinger was given first aid. She was taken to a hospital, but died in the ER.

Her husband, Tony Pottinger, sent a photo.

He described what happened as “truly a freak accident.” He said she was marching with members of their church, St. Agnes, when she was caught under the rear wheels.

We’re told a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reserve deputy rushed in to help her.

“We appreciate the work of the crowd in lifting up the vehicle and the professionalism of the first responder,” Tony said.

He provided this statement about Joan’s character:

“Joan, like the saint for whom she was named, was fiercely loyal and faithful. She was (and remains) the light of our lives as a mom, wife, and friend. We are a military family and before settling in our forever home in Louisville, we made multiple moves. In every community, Joan has been a passionate force for good, volunteering her time and helping those in need, including in her most recent work fundraising for Best Buddies. We are blessed at the outpouring of community support as we mourn our loss,” he said.

The archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville released a statement on Monday, as well.

“I was saddened to learn about the death of Joan Pottinger, a parent of St. Agnes Catholic School and parishioner of St. Agnes Church, who was killed Saturday at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I want to express my condolences to her husband and her children as they deal with this profound loss.

“Furthermore, I want to extend my sympathy to the St. Agnes community who knew and loved Joan. Please know we are grieving with you.I invite the Archdiocese of Louisville to join me in praying for the repose of her soul, her family, and the St. Agnes School community.Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine about her. May her soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace,” Archbishop Shelton Fabre said.

Parade organizers, The Hibernian Cultural and Charitable Association, Inc, released a statement as well. It read, in part, “It is, however, deeply saddened by the tragic accident at this year’s parade. Its members’ hearts and prayers are with the family, and all impacted by the incident.”

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 Dennis Valera

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    BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A team of scientists at the University of Maryland (UMD) is gathering first-of-its-kind data through a device you put on your underwear.

Smart Underwear is able to track whenever a person farts. While it may sound silly, this information could be a big benefit to our health, according to the leading scientist behind the effort.

While the research started at UMD, people around the country are now helping collect this data.

Dr. Brantley Hall’s lab looks more like a factory these days, with multiple 3D printers running at all times.

The machines are working constantly to produce devices about the size of a nickel and it goes on your underwear.

“We thought, maybe we can advance our science by making a new type of wearable device that we can have people wear all day,” said Hall, who teaches in UMD’s cell biology and molecular genetics department.

Hall’s lab studies gut microbial metabolism, the process that causes people to produce flatus, which most people know as farting.

Right now, there is no scientific baseline on what constitutes a healthy amount of passing gas. Hall wants to change that.

“More than one-in-five people report experiencing excess intestinal gas, but right now there’s no objective measure of whether they’re telling the truth or not,” Hall said. “We obviously have physiological baselines for most measures, like blood glucose or cholesterol, but without one for flatus, it’s very hard to say when someone has excess flatus or not.”

Initially, Hall and his team conducted a smaller study with mostly UMD undergrad students.

Now, they’re going bigger, launching the Human Flatus Atlas. This is a national study where anyone in the country can participate.

When you sign up, a Smart Underwear device is sent to your home. You’ll have to wear the device for three days in a row.

Hall said they are looking for people across the spectrum to participate, including:

Those with high fiber diets who don’t fart a lot, which he calls Zen Digesters Those who do fart a lot, which he calls Hydrogen Hyperproducers Anyone else in between

“Our current maximum number [of farts] is about 175 times per day, and our current minimum number is four times per day. That’s a huge variation between people,” Hall said.

All Hall is really aiming to do is figure out something about our gut and to create a new healthy standard.

“We’re trying to understand how different fibers affect gas production and how people can eat a healthy, high-fiber diet without experiencing excess intestinal gas,” he said. “We need to go beyond patient perception and measure objectively. We’re in the unknown here, and it’s always an extremely exciting place to be.”

Hall is hoping to have results by the summer.

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 Tricia Kean

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    LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — In a city known for quick weddings and big romance, wedding officiant Maria Romano has had a front-row seat to thousands of couples finding love.

Romano has helped more than 7,000 couples say “I do” at the Chapel of Flowers in Las Vegas, where she performs weddings.

“I get to meet people from all over the world, all walks of life,” Romano said.

“And many of them live here and I always ask my first question is how did you meet? So definitely here in Las Vegas you can find love,” Romano said.

Romano is also the founder of True Love Knots, which works with couples from around the world to plan their wedding in Las Vegas. She says the city has long carried a reputation for neon lights and quick weddings, but that perception is changing.

“We were known for many years as a transient town. People would come, but they wouldn’t stay. But because we’re growing as a community, we have close to 3 million people where we are creating families. We’re building families, relationships, and real connections. So there’s an opportunity to definitely find love,” Romano said.

As a widow herself, Romano says she understands the vulnerability that comes with putting yourself back out there. That’s why she often encourages people, whether they meet through dating apps or everyday encounters, to stay open to connection.

Among the thousands of couples she has married, one story stands out.

“There was a couple I married not too long ago. They were both gamers online. He lived here in Las Vegas. She lived in Germany. So yes, they finally met 2 years later. I married them, as a matter of fact, right here in this chapel, so you never know where you’re going to find love,” Romano said.

After thousands of ceremonies, Romano says she has learned one thing — when people take that chance, love often finds a way.

“There are so many ways to find love in many different ways, and you know what? We’re real people. We’re out there making real connections and building real relationships, so love can happen anywhere. And why not get lucky in Las Vegas? Listen, it’s a sure bet,” Romano said.

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