Author: CNN Newsource

By Jonathan Greco

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    JONES, Oklahoma (KOCO) — Authorities say a person was taken to a hospital after a fire started early Monday at a home in Jones.

The fire started shortly before 3 a.m. near Britton Road and Post Road. Firefighters told KOCO 5 that they were originally sent the wrong address, so they showed up late.

When they arrived, firefighters found an Oklahoma City police officer at the scene helping the homeowner put out the fire with a garden hose.

“There was an officer here, a staff sergeant, who arrived pretty early before any fire rigs got here,” Oklahoma City Fire Department Battalion Chief Lance Burnett said. “He grabbed a water hose and was pretty much able to knock down the majority of the fire with a water hose before we got here.”

Firefighters said one person was taken to a hospital for breathing in too much smoke. The cause of the fire is 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 Grace Rodriguez

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    HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina (WJCL) — A Hilton Head Island woman is speaking out exactly one year after two people attacked her and poured chemicals on her arm, chest and leg during a robbery on Dec. 20, 2024. The attack took place as she was heading home from a bank along Whooping Crane Way.

WJCL 22 News sat down with Maria Hernandez, where she recalled the incident in Spanish.

“I told the robbers, ‘Take my car, take my things, but leave me alone,'” Hernandez said. “That’s when they poured the chemicals on me. I was wearing two jackets that night, and they burned right through them. If I hadn’t put my hand up in defense, they would’ve burnt my face, too.”

Moments after the attack, she called her daughter.

“I told my daughter that I am dying. She screamed at her siblings: ‘Listen to what Mom says. I don’t know if she’s joking,'” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said she continues to face months of treatment and that she’s still searching for answers.

“Today marks one year that I was attacked by two people, and regrettably, no one has come forward and taken responsibility.”

She said the attack not only left her on medication for her wounds, but for depression and to help her sleep. She says it’s completely changed her lifestyle. Once a woman who loved to wear sleeveless dresses, it now pains her to look at them in her closet because of the scars on her arm.

“I feel embarrassed when people look at me, and I see they stare at me,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez says her injuries don’t compare to those suffered by Ashley Wasilewski, a woman attacked with chemicals near Forsyth Park in Savannah on Dec. 10.

“I can’t imagine what she is suffering through, especially since she was burnt more than me. I am angry more than anything else at the people who did this,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said she can’t celebrate the holidays with her family. All she wants this holiday season is for someone to come forward.

“I ask for justice. I asked the police to reopen my case again, that they investigate further. They told me they would look into satellite cell phone records, to see if there were anyone nearby that could have done this, but I don’t know what happened,” Hernandez said.

We reached out to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office for an update on Hernandez’s case and are waiting for 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 Maria Wilson

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    NASHUA, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A Nashua woman and her 16-year-old son were displaced Wednesday afternoon after a small plane crashed into their home.

Wendy Carlstrom said she was working remotely when she heard what she described as the loudest noise she had ever heard.

“I thought maybe a bomb went off. I had no idea what to think,” she told News 9 in an exclusive interview.

Carlstrom said the impact felt like she had fallen about six inches, similar to the sensation of an elevator dropping unexpectedly.

“I’m expecting to see a truck sticking out of my garage. I thought maybe somebody backed into my house somehow,” she said. “Instead, I look out the window, and I see the airplane upside down and on top of the car next to mine.”

Shortly after 2 p.m., a Velocity V-Twin plane that had taken off from Nashua Airport clipped the roof of her son’s bedroom, landing upside down near a parking lot.

She called 911 and frantically ran out of her house around the same time bystanders helped the pilot, who was the only person on board, get out of the plane. He was taken to the hospital.

Carlstrom said she is grateful that she and her son were not physically hurt, but the two are still trying to process how quickly their lives changed.

“It just seems unreal,” Carlstrom said. “It’s even that day, it felt like I was watching a movie of somebody else’s life. I actually said that more than once. I said, ‘I’m ready for this movie to be over. I’m ready to turn it off.’ It didn’t feel like I was living my life.”

Aside from the holes in the roof, the house has cracks and structural damage extending from the third floor down into the basement.

Carlstrom and her son are now staying with family because the home is too severely damaged to occupy.

“It’s really difficult. He lost his home. He lost all of his belongings. He, you know, his place to sleep, his place to hang out,” she told News 9.

The Nashua mother credits her time in the military for being able to remain calm under pressure.

“I’m an Army veteran, so I’ve been through some stuff myself before this,” she said. “I’m going to help my son. He needs me to be strong as much as anything else. So, I put one foot in front of the other, and drink water and drive on. We said that all the time. That’s it’s a military thing.”

Carlstrom said she was told it could take six months to a year before they are able to return.

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 Derrick Shaw & Jackie Guenther

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    FORT MYERS, Florida (WBBH) — Crews are intensifying their search for two men who went missing during a fishing trip. Their boat was found still running, with no one aboard, 70 miles off the coast of Fort Myers on Saturday.

U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies are actively searching for Randy Spivey, 57, and his nephew, Brandon Billmaier, 33, who went missing during the trip that began Friday morning.

Family members reported Spivey and Billmaier were missing after they left from their private dock in Iona early Friday morning and didn’t return before sundown.

The boat, a green 42-foot Freeman catamaran named “Unstoppable,” was found by the Coast Guard on Saturday morning running and drifting about 70 miles offshore from Fort Myers, with no one on board.

Officials emphasize that the operation remains a search-and-rescue effort, not a recovery mission.

The U.S. Coast Guard, leading the search from Miami, is joined by Collier and Lee County fire and law enforcement crews, with firefighters volunteering their time on the water. Volunteer pilots have also joined the search, taking private planes from Naples Airport to assist in locating the missing fishermen.

Randy Spivey’s boat was found by the U.S. Coast Guard 70 miles offshore, running with nobody on board. Search coordinators have renewed hope after learning that they may have been wearing blue and yellow auto-inflate life jackets, which could increase their chances of survival.

Scott Smith, a civilian rescue coordinator for the U.S. Coast Guard, said, “Randy was more likely wearing a life jacket and an auto-inflate life jacket, which gives everybody a little bit more hope that if they’re wearing life jackets.”

Despite more than 48 hours passing, crews continue to search aggressively, holding on to hope that Spivey and Billmaier can still be found and brought home. The search efforts are ongoing, with live updates expected from Fort Myers Beach.

Family members are also part of the Southwest Florida community for a large, coordinated volunteer search, which began early Sunday morning and continues on Monday.

In a message shared online, the family is calling on anyone with a boat capable of a 225-mile range to help.

The Coast Guard issued a new official search grid at 8 a.m., which is distributed to volunteers by text. Boats are departing from ports between Punta Gorda and Marco Island. Volunteers are asked to text message Paul at (239)634-3400 with the following information:

Departure port

Vessel name

Captain and first mate names and cell numbers

Vessel range

“Thank you for your help and prayers. Please pass this on,” the family said, expressing gratitude for the community’s support.

The U.S. Coast Guard says the active search area remains about 70 miles offshore, centered near 25-36N, 083-16W, spanning roughly 35 statute miles and reaching up to 5,000 feet in altitude.

A smaller cutter, multiple aircraft, and surface crews are involved. Air Force assets also assisted.

The Coast Guard advised all aircraft to maintain situational awareness and not to interfere with search-and-rescue crews.

They also urged monitoring of Channel 16 and reporting any important information to the U.S. Coast Guard.

If you have information, you can also contact the U.S. Coast Guard Sector St. Pete watchstanders at 866-881-1392.

Watcherstanders maintain a continuous watch and direct coordination with partner agencies to deploy Coast Guard assets at a moment’s notice for emergent search and rescue cases.

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 JoBeth Davis

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    STILWELL, Kansas (KMBC) — More than 4,000 holiday lights surround a home in Stilwell, Kansas.

Owner Tom Barnett is behind the stunning display, and it’s something he has been building on for the past 12 years

Check out the display in the video player above.

“I change it up each year to do something different just so that everybody can smile when they drive by the house,” Barnett said.

His lights have inspired his neighbors, and he has even lent a hand to the Arboretum, but Barnett said he learned this unusual lighting method from a friend.

“I learned from a guy in Mission Hills, a friend of ours,” Barnett said. “And I watched him shoot a potato gun … and I thought, ‘We can do that.'”

However, Barnett’s approach is a little different.

“So, a bow and arrow comes in really handy,” he said.

“I shoot an arrow over a limb with fishing line on it. I’ve weighted the head of the arrow so it drops down … and then I tie that to a rope or a string and pull it back over, so now you have two pieces on either side of the limb, and then you tie one of those pieces on to the lights.”

Barnett said he starts the process in September, putting ropes and lights up. He works through October and into November to get the display together.

“This is really fun,” he said. “I get a lot of joy out of doing this. It’s just something to do to make people smile.”

You can see Barnett’s display for yourself on Metcalf Avenue, just north of 191st Street in Stilwell, Kansas.

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 Justin Schecker & Dacia Johnson

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    ORLANDO (WESH) — The City of Orlando on Monday began to “carefully remove select artifacts” from Pulse nightclub as it works toward creating a permanent memorial at the site of the 2016 massacre that left 49 people dead.

Items being removed include the “chandeliers, bar top, posters and other interior items that have been carefully prepackaged inside of the building,” the city said.

“These items will then be transported to an environmentally controlled warehouse. While we have not finalized if these artifacts will be a part of the permanent memorial, we want to ensure their preservation during the design and construction phase,” the city said in a news release.

Full list:

– Two chandeliers

– Signage and posters

– Ornamental framed mirror

– Bar top

– Track lighting, including track

– Cash register

– Primary section of breach wall

– Portion of the sunburst wall inside the club

– Portion of the “Glitter” wall inside the club

– Wood floor (as much as possible)

– Rectangular ceiling pendent lights

– iPad

– The numbers on the outside of the building

– tiles from the outside patio bar

Additionally, some items that were part of the temporary memorial will be removed and preserved:

– An approximately 4’x8’ piece of the existing memorial fence

– Benches on existing memorial site

– Remembrance items left by family, friends and/or visitors

The city will begin the next phase of construction after the items are removed, which will include the removal of the Pulse sign and clearing the site.

Estimated timeline for construction:

February 2026: 30% design plans

March/April 2026: Site clearing begins

May 2026: 60% design plans

Early fall 2026: start of construction

Late 2027: Construction completed

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 Ben Simmoneau

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    BOSTON (WCVB) — Bonnie O’Connell has a long history of paying her bills on time.

“I tend to do the right thing,” she said. “If I get a bill, I pay it.”

But not this time.

When O’Connell received an $802 invoice for a package she received recently via FedEx, she knew something was wrong.

After all, the bill was for a Barbie doll that cost just $30.

“I just got a pain in the pit of my stomach,” O’Connell said. “I didn’t even know what to do or what to say.”

A veteran bargain shopper, O’Connell was thrilled when she first spotted a Barbie wearing a Professional Women’s Hockey League jersey with a Tim Horton’s logo.

It was a perfect holiday gift for her 4-year-old granddaughter, who just started skating and is enamored with Barbie dolls, so she asked her cousin in Nova Scotia to pick it up and ship it to her.

But with the United States adding a 35% tax — or tariff — on goods from Canada, that means filling out all sorts of new paperwork to ship them.

A clerk at the local FedEx told her cousin they would take care of it.

“They just did it for him,” O’Connell said. “What he didn’t notice — because there was a line behind them — is when they handed him the thing to sign, instead of putting $29.97, they had messed up the decimal point somehow.”

That decimal point had been moved two places to the right, meaning the $30 Barbie was now valued incorrectly at nearly $3,000 Canadian dollars.

“How many Barbies do you know that cost close to $3,000?” O’Connell asked with a laugh.

The exchange rate brought the price to about $2,100 U.S. dollars, but at a 35 percent tariff rate, the entry tax was $742, plus fees, which totaled $802.

FedEx delivered the Barbie first.

The tariff bill arrived weeks later.

“First of all, what are you doing giving me a package where I owe that kind of money to you?” O’Connell said.

“I love my granddaughter dearly, but none of my grandchildren get that kind of money spent! The budget for Christmas isn’t even close.” O’Connell’s ordeal underscores the new reality of gift-giving for cross-border families this holiday season.

The Trump Administration’s tariffs — as well as the elimination of the de minimis exemption, which allowed most products valued less than $800 to enter the country duty-free — mean added costs and complex paperwork.

When O’Connell emailed FedEx, the company told her it could take months to correct. Hoping to wrap up this problem a little quicker, she asked NewsCenter 5 to try working a little Christmas magic.

After we intervened, FedEx reversed course and removed the $802 charge from her account.

It’s a good reminder to look closely at any paperwork you sign.

The Canada Post Office says every package bound for the U.S. — even gifts under $100 in value — must be assessed for tariffs.

The tax is supposed to be paid before the package is sent.

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.