Author: CNN Newsource

By Marcus Aarsvold

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    HARTFORD, Wisconsin (WTMJ) — Two police officers turned a toilet paper prank back on the culprits at the Hartford Union High School homecoming football game.

School resource officers Adam Miller and Taylor Koenig used a confiscated leaf blower that was turned into a handmade toilet paper launcher to fire off toilet paper at the crowd, who had spent the night before trying to do the same to the school.

“We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve now too!” Miller said. “It was great! It brought back a lot of good memories, and we got a little payback.”

As is tradition, the seniors throw toilet paper around the school the night before the homecoming football game, then they’re caught and they clean it up. This year, the SROs took matters into their own hands after the fact.

Miller and Koenig re-watched their body camera footage from the prank. The two new SROs reflected on their idea and how they wanted to kick off the year on a high note.

“I wanted to do something fun for the kids and make a memory for them,” Koenig said. “Toilet papering is one thing, but when they actually need you for a serious situation in their life, they actually feel comfortable coming to you and speaking to you about something like that. It’s been great.”

Students had enthusiastic reactions:

“It was really funny,” McKenzie Murray said. “I could not stop laughing!”

“I thought it was fun seeing everyone scramble,” Everly Nelson said. “And be like, what the heck is he doing?”

“I was right in the front so I got hit in the face with it,” Ezra Markos said. “But it was fun.”

The school has allowed seniors to TP the school for years as as long as it’s not on private property, no other serious vandalism occurs and the kids clean it up.

“The highlight of being an SRO is making the kids laugh, showing them that a cop can be down to earth as well,” Miller said. “[And be] that big brother and big sister role model for them.”

The officers are already plotting to roll out another prank in the future.

“After being on night shift for the last three years and seeing what they’ve done to the high school, it was awesome and incredible. I felt like a big kid, and I was back in high school from 12 or 13 years ago,” Miller said. “Better luck next year!”

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WTMJ’s editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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By WLOS Staff

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — The owners of a local pawn shop in Asheville spread joy to children in the community on Tuesday with a free teddy bear giveaway.

Tonia and Alan Sheppard, the owners of Alan’s Jewelry and Pawn, visited Johnston Elementary School to gift each kindergarten student a teddy bear.

The Sheppards provided teddy bear T-shirts and fabric markers, allowing the children to dress and decorate their bears.

This initiative encourages students to read to their bears and engage in math lessons. Each child also received a smaller bear to take home for homework assistance with their parents.

“You’ve got to remember where you came from, and it doesn’t take a lot to do it – just to be part of the community and to see children being children is probably the best part,” Alan Sheppard said.

The Sheppards distributed 45 bears on Tuesday morning, continuing a tradition they have maintained for years with Johnston Elementary School.

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By Linnea Hoover

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    BALTIMORE (WMAR) — What began as a friendly wager between two captains has grown into a beloved Chesapeake Bay tradition that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for local nonprofits while celebrating the region’s maritime heritage.

The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race will launch Thursday from Baltimore, featuring 23 boats racing 118 nautical miles from where the Key Bridge once stood to Norfolk, Virginia.

“We’re just going to race down the bay, drag race. It’s going to be very epic,” said Kayden Lewis, who is crewing his first race aboard the Sultana.

The race traces its origins to a simple challenge between two ship captains 36 years ago.

“Father challenged the captain, Captain John Miles, to a race down the bay with the Norfolk Rebel and the Pride of Baltimore too. Winner had to buy a beer, and it was, you know, just a fun challenge,” said Stephen Briggs, whose father started the tradition.

That friendly competition has since raised over $350,000 for nonprofit organizations throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, including the Downtown Sailing Center, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and oyster recovery projects.

“Throughout the year it’s not just a one time a year event. There’s a lot of stuff going on throughout the year,” Briggs said.

Beyond fundraising, the race serves as a platform for sharing the love, history and tradition of Chesapeake Bay watercraft. Briggs said his father, who lived and worked on the water, was passionate about sail training and working with children.

“It started out as a fundraiser and then it morphed into more of an educational, an awareness of the Chesapeake and everything else,” Briggs said.

For Lewis, that educational mission resonates deeply. The Sultana holds special significance as the first schooner he ever sailed on as a fifth-grader.

“They taught us everything about the boat itself and the history of the Chesapeake and what the boat originally did,” Lewis said.

The race showcases traditional schooners like the Pride of Baltimore 2, connecting participants and spectators to the maritime heritage that has shaped the Chesapeake Bay region for centuries.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WMAR verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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By Joel Lopez

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    PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida (WPTV) — In a tumultuous turn of events at the School District of Palm Beach County, two protests emerged surrounding the controversial remarks made by School District of Palm Beach County School Board Member Edwin Ferguson about conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The situation reflects a growing nationwide divide over freedom of speech and its implications within educational settings.

On one side of the entrance to the school district headquarters, supporters waving flags, driving trucks, and rallying for Charlie Kirk have called for Edwin Ferguson’s removal from his position.

Conversely, a smaller group gathered with a sign reading “Freedom of Speech For All,” advocating for Ferguson’s right to express his views.

Members of the NAACP held a prayer outside the school board meeting chambers, emphasizing their support for Ferguson to maintain his job while advocating for the free speech rights of all educators.

“This is not a Democratic thing, a Republican thing, this is not party, this is a moral issue,” Pastor Rae Whitely from Faith in Florida stated.

The uproar stems from controversial comments made by Edwin Ferguson, who previously drew backlash for calling Kirk a racist bigot and comparing Charlie Kirk to Adolf Hitler.

In the school board meeting, Ferguson cautioned teachers regarding the public expression of their opinions about the conservative figure.

Supporters of Charlie Kirk are adamant that Ferguson should no longer hold his seat, insisting that he has a significant influence on students.

“I saw the video over and over again and I said, ‘I can’t believe what this man said,'” supporter Willy Guardiola said. “I don’t care if he’s black, white, purple, or if he’s my twin brother, the thing is nobody should be able to get away with something like that that’s just so vicious and despicable.”

Guardiola, along with other advocates for Kirk, has been attempting to connect with state leaders for the past month, demanding Ferguson’s removal but reports no response thus far.

“He thinks OK this is just going to be a little slap on the wrist. No. We need to either convert his heart or remove him,” Guardiola added.

When asked in an interview with WPTV last month about possible repercussions for his comments, Ferguson doubled down.

“I’m not racist. I don’t promote racist ideologies or anything like that so based on my understanding on the groundwork, the rules of the road I should say, no I’m not too worried about that,” he said.

He asserts that his track record on the board has been commendable.

“Being a racist is not a protected group of people,” he said.

Dedrick Straghn of the South Palm Beach County NAACP voiced the sentiment of many in support of Ferguson.

“We’re here today to let the school board know that not only are we not going to stand for it, but we’re going to challenge them to stand up and stand up with their fellow board member,” he said.

Ferguson plans to run for reelection as the District 7 board member.

The protests escalated when the Freedom of Speech for All activists confronted the Kirk supporters, which lead to yelling and shoving prompting police intervention to separate the groups.

WPTV documented a heated exchange as well as the moment Alfred Fields, president of the West Palm Beach NAACP, and Guardiola exchanged words.

“Do we all agree that the First Amendment applies to everyone that is legally in this country?” asked Fields.

“No doubt about it,” replied Guardiola.

Fields pressed further, asking if Ferguson does not have the right to express himself.

“Not to speak about somebody that was assassinated and he didn’t know anything about,” Guardiola responded.

Both factions have condemned threats of violence against Kirk and Ferguson acknowledging that Ferguson has faced threats following his remarks.

For the last month, WPTV has reached out to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office and the Florida Department of Education for further information regarding any potential consequences for Ferguson and has not gotten any comment.

The School District of Palm Beach County issued the following statement:

“The School District operates under the governance of the School Board as a whole. For this reason, it is the practice of the District not to comment on the statements of individual Board members. Our focus remains on our mission to educate, affirm, and inspire every student.”

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By Ricky Sayer

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    PERRYOPOLIS, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — The owner of a gym in Perryopolis says the smell from a neighboring smoke shop has made its way into the place where kids learn about gymnastics and cheer.

Parents say they smell marijuana inside ROCKNROLLS, which sits directly next to Tobacco Land.

“It smells like a skunk,” said one parent

“The only thing that separates us is about 3 inches of drywall,” said Jordan Adams, a coach and the gym’s co-owner. “A lot of the kids come up to me and say, ‘Coach, it stinks here in the gym, my head hurts a little bit, I don’t like it.'”

He describes the smell inside the cheer gym as that of “cigarettes, vape or marijuana.” On Wednesday, a KDKA crew went to the gym and could smell something inside it that smelled similar to the inside of the smoke shop, but not marijuana specifically.

Both parents and Adam said it was far more potent on Monday, with the smell dissipating since then

“We’ve had people take their kids home because they’re like, I don’t want my kid in this environment. And it’s terrible for business,” Adams said. “It’s terrible for us.”

“I think it’s completely inappropriate, not only for the little ones who really don’t understand it, but we have teenage girls in here. They know exactly what that is, and it’s not OK,” parent Amanda Cargill said.

Adams said he believes the owners and customers at the shop are smoking marijuana inside the store.

“Nobody’s smoking inside my facility,” Tobacco Land co-owner Sam Said told KDKA in a phone interview on Wednesday. “We don’t have delta-8 or delta-CBD. … You can search the store from the bottom to the top.”

Adams said he’s tried calling the police multiple times, but they haven’t been able to do anything.

“I literally feel trapped,” Adams said. “I feel terrorized in our own gym. We cannot do anything whatsoever.”

He’s now hoping local rules are changed with the intention of preventing businesses like the smoke shop from opening next to places like his gym, which is full of kids.

The building is at least partially owned by the smoke shop owners, they said, complicating things for the gym.

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By Lisa Rozner

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — The Bronx has one of the highest maternal mortality rates, and now, expecting moms in need of resources are getting access to outreach on wheels.

The “Womb Bus” is a mobile wellness clinic that brings the services of the Birthing Place Foundation to under-represented communities in the Bronx. It is not a birth center, but a place to connect the community with doulas.

Myla Flores is a doula, and founder of the Birthing Place and co-founder of the Womb Bus and the Maryam Reproductive Health and Wellness Clinic.

“It’s very well known that the Bronx is a maternal health care desert,” Flores said. “In New York, we have just a couple birth centers, and zero are midwifery- or BIPOC-led.”

New York City’s Health Department cites studies that show, compared to white and non-Hispanic women, Black women are four times more likely to die of pregnancy complications and six times more likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause, like postpartum suicide or overdose.

“One of the things that we know is that cultural congruent care helps make an impact on the outcomes,” Flores said.

Flores said she’s seen maternal health care inequities firsthand.

“It has been very much a part of our regular engagement, is with families who’ve experienced some type of hardship, be it actual loss,” she said.

The Womb Bus offers an opportunity for new and expecting moms to form a special bond.

Mom Rajhean Patterson found the support she was looking for thanks to the outreach.

“It’s my first time exclusively breastfeeding,” she said. “Definitely challenges as far as feeling like I’m not doing it good enough, and just having that affirmation that I am doing it good enough.”

Expecting mom Courtney Harris Burnett also stopped by the Womb Bus. She met Flores back in 2020 through virtual classes she held on how to prepare for giving birth.

“I feel fortunate enough to kind of break that generational cycle of traumatic births,” Harris Burnett said.

Flores said the Womb Bus is one of several innovative ways they’re trying to reach the community, but the goal is to have a birth center to reach even more people.

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By Ted Scouten

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    BROWARD COUNTY, Florida (WFOR) — Crime scene investigators returned to the Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood after two dogs attacked an man on Tuesday morning, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Surveillance video captured the dogs charging the victim, identified by BSO as Claude LaFort.

In the video, a deputy can be heard firing during the incident. Authorities said the deputy has been on the force for a year and a half.

“The police jumped out of the car and rushed to him, and must have fired something to frightening them away, the two dogs,” said Garfield Gordon, who witnessed the attack.

Photos obtained by CBS News Miami show one of the dogs appearing to be grazed. Broward County Animal Care said both animals were euthanized because of the severity of LaFort’s injuries.

As of Wednesday evening, the extent of LaFort’s injuries were not known.

Gordon told reporters he had encountered the same dogs before.

“I was coming and they lose just the same way and they rush me. I have to grab a stone and they stop,” he said.

Gordon added that when the dogs were out, he and his family were afraid to come outside.

“I spoke to him once before. I told him attacked me one night when I was coming in. I told him that they got to be careful. The dogs bite,” Gordon said.

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