Author: CNN Newsource

By Elyssa Kaufman, Kris Habermehl

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — A freight train derailment in Chicago Ridge is impacting Metra SWS service on Wednesday morning.

According to Chicago Ridge police, the derailment took place near Ridgeland Avenue and Central Avenue. Police said there is no danger to the public, and emergency crews are working closely with railroad officials to assess the situation.

All Metra train service to and from Chicago Ridge has been suspended as the morning commute begins. According to Metra, the train derailment is impacting trains scheduled to leave Chicago from 6:30 a.m. to around 8:30 a.m.

Officials have reported the following road closures:

Ridgeland Avenue is closed between Southwest Highway and Washington Street. Central Avenue is closed at the railroad tracks between 107th Street and Pleasant. Commuters are encouraged to seek alternate routes.

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 Mike Castellucci

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    GUFFEY, Colorado (KMGH) — Dana Peters knows what community means.

“Ten years ago, my husband asked, ‘How you going to do it?’ I said, ‘One day at a time,” Peters explained, as she started rolling out the dough.

The winter season is slow for Peters. On this particular day when we caught up with her, she told Denver7 she would be making a grand total of six cinnamon rolls. And she hoped that one or two customers come in.

“That’s when our locals support us”, she said, adding her baked good keep the lights on at The Bakery, in Guffey — population 32.

She said people come from all over for the cinnamon rolls, even if they didn’t mean to.

“One lady, she was in a tizzy. She came in and asked where she was? I said, “It’s OK, you’re not lost.’ Three hours later, she drove in again and I said, ‘Oh no,’ thinking she was going in circles.”

As it turns out, the woman went to Cripple Creek, picked up her brother and brought him with her and said, “You gotta see this place!” Peters said.

For people who’ve never ventured out to this part of Park County, it might seem like you’re lost driving on your way to Guffey. From a Y in the road where it pointed one way — to Cañon City and the other to Guffey — Denver7 didn’t pass a single car for 14 miles.

The road into town doesn’t even have a center stripe.

“It’s just a road, but it’s paved!” Peters said.

The owner of the town’s bakery has more on her plate than just pastries and lunch.

“My husband has been raising cattle for 50 years; I’ve been at the ranch for 20, off the grid, 8 miles from here, 5 miles from a maintained road,” said Peters. “I’ve recently sold a third of the herd because I’m doing it myself. Since he was diagnosed with cancer a year ago, he hasn’t been at the ranch much. He’s on the mend though,” she said.

While Peters’ husband recovers from cancer, she raises cattle from the top of a mountain, and makes sure the cinnamon rolls rise down in town.

“I’m not going to make my millions in Guffey”, Peters said.

But the payoff here, she said, is the community she knows, which makes her as rich as her cinnamon rolls. “We get a lot of, ‘Wow, there’s a town.’ That’s the part I like, having a business here cause we’re part of the community. Sometimes we are the community,” Peters 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 Tony Peterson

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    MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — Food insecurities are a growing concern among many cultures. Many in the Twin Cities’ Muslim community have stopped working and leaving their homes due to Operation Metro Surge.

Ramadan is the holiest month in Islam. It’s a time for prayer, reflection, community and fasting.

Fartun Weli is a proud, first-generation Somali American who’s been in Minnesota for 26 years.

“[Ramadan] reminds us what being hungry looks like. It’s a devotion to our creator, our God,” Weli said. “This time of fasting, it’s also a time of family and feasts after sundown each day.”

Fifteen years ago, Weli started Isuroon, a nonprofit that provides assistance for immigrants and their families. It also provides culturally specific food, something most food shelves don’t.

“We’re getting people driving from 40 minutes to come to our food shelf because halal is very kosher,” Weli said.

Those foods include dates, rice and halal proteins.

“We ran out of flour and rice, but we’re ordering it,” she said.

Weli says they need help with financial donations and food to help feed the growing number of people who have lost their jobs and income.

She remains positive and surprised with the response from fellow Minnesotans.

“What happened was an opportunity to see how far trying to destroy one community can ignite the conscience of the larger society,” Weli said. “There’s so much goodness that this crisis has generated. It’s all spiritually great. It fills the soul.”

And hopefully it will fill the stomachs of those suffering from food insecurities, something Weli is proud to be helping with.

“The history is, Minnesota, you showed up, and now you’re a leader for the world,” Weli said.

Isuroon needs help both financially and supplies. Click here for more information.

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 Shardaa Gray

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    CHICAGO, Illinois (WBBM) — Students at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance in Chicago learned about the Tuskegee Airmen’s contribution to the profession during a ceremony honoring the legacy of the city’s chapter.

“I’m telling you, you gonna be good. I don’t care what color you are, you gonna be good. You want to be one of the best,” said Dr. Bill Winston.

Dr. Winston shared inspirational words and stories in the McKinley Park neighborhood on Tuesday morning.

“Bullets surrounded my airplane, and none of them hit me, and I thank the lord for that,” he said.

The campus honored the legacy of Chicago’s DODO chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen during Black History Month.

Melvin Knazze, 80, is a member of the chapter.

“I’m just elated about that acknowledgement because it’s a part of our history that was buried for so long,” Knazze said.

Sheila Webber said her father was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. She said carrying on his legacy means a lot to her.

“When I was growing up, it wasn’t talked about a whole lot back then,” she said.

Tuesday’s ceremony also spotlighted the next generation of aviation professionals being trained in Chicago, like 22-year-old AIM graduate Roman Carprue. He signed the tail of one plane.

“I’m officially airframe and powerplant rated, which gives me the authority to do maintenance on aircraft. Which is, you have to go through 18 months through AIM to achieve this,” Carprue said.

AIM senior instructor Victor Croswell said nearly 700 students have graduated since 2021 and came from all over Illinois, even out of state. Some are even at risk.

“What I try to preach to them and tell them on a continual basis, hey, we want to give you mentorship. We want to give you a positive direction to go in,” he 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 Sara Donchey

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — The bushes that surrounded global superstar Bad Bunny during his record-breaking Super Bowl halftime performance at Levi’s Stadium were indeed people in costume, and three Bay Area friends participated together after answering a vague casting call.

Humberto Martinez, who has experience working as a dancer, couldn’t resist the opportunity even though the casting call specified it was not a dancing role.

“I applied right away and I sent it to (my friend),” Martinez told CBS News Bay Area. “I sent it to the group chat. I sent it to hella people and said, ‘You need to do this.'”

This time, the plans left the group chat. Martinez, and his friends Ivan Pineda and Tara Lily, were cast into the roles. Strangely, however, landing the job itself did not turn out to be the biggest surprise.

The friends said they participated in multiple rehearsals before they were approached by members of the team and shown the costumes they would be wearing. They said the staff was recording them to capture their reactions, and when they emerged with a full-body bush costume, the friends said the staff was met with stunned silence.

“We were told that this would be talked about forever. And I was like, ‘Oh my God this is so exciting!’ We’re gonna be (dressed as) something that like that is so really crazy, like a movement. But it wasn’t,” Pineda said, laughing.

The bush, like much else in the performance, seemed to be a symbolic nod to sugarcane on the island of Puerto Rico where Bad Bunny grew up.

It turned out wearing the costume itself wasn’t easy. The friends estimate the item weighed between 45 and 50 pounds and said that many people were struggling to keep it on for hours at a time during dress rehearsals.

Still, they say the hardest part by far was keeping the performance and their role in it a secret from their other friends and family members until after the show was over. They even had to hand over their cell phones to keep the details of the show from getting out.

By the time the halftime performance was upon them, the friends said that the nerves were tempered by the fact that they had seen and practiced the show some 20 times.

Their focus was oftentimes on the crowd and watching their reaction as guests Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga emerged on stage.

Once the performance was over, viewers started posting about the halftime bushes, which suddenly seemed to sprout legs and shuffle off the field. Once the friends were able to share publicly, their social media posts documenting the experience instantly went viral.

They were stopped on the streets of San Francisco’s Castro several times Monday by viewers who recognized their grass-adorned arm pieces.

“They weren’t lying about us being talked about, but I didn’t expect to be like grass you know, but I would do it again,” Martinez said. “Put me back in.”

The bush performers said they were paid just under $19 an hour for their work, but said that the opportunity to participate meant more than money.

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 KABC Staff

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    LONG BEACH, California (KABC) — A Long Beach coffee shop is serving more than drinks.

At Reinne’s Place, owner Tommy Le believes each cup is an opportunity to help customers heal – and to honor the woman who inspired the café.

Le opened the shop in memory of his late girlfriend, Reinne Lim, who was killed in October 2022 in a wrong-way crash on the 5 Freeway in Tustin.

An alleged drunk driver struck their car head-on, leaving Le critically injured.

“These 30 seconds do matter,” Le said. “I’m sometimes someone’s first interaction for the day. How can I make an impact on their day – just that day – and continue to do that every single day.”

Reinne’s Place currently operates as a long-term coffee residency inside Open Gallery, located a few minutes from the brand’s flagship location.

Le still remembers the night of the crash vividly.

“I remember seeing the lights coming and I think in that moment, I think anyone almost freezes,” he said. “I think my first reaction was to just grab her.”

Though his physical injuries have healed in the three years since, Le said he continues to mourn the loss of Lim.

At the café, customers are encouraged to leave “Reinne Checks” – handwritten messages dedicated to loved ones who have passed away or who remain part of their lives.

“They all hold their own story, but I think it showed people when you’re looking at this whole wall of ‘Reinne Checks’ or you look at this whole stack of ‘Reinne Checks’ is that we all have a lot more in common than we think we do,” Le said.

The coffee shop has also become a hub for local causes.

Earlier this month, Reinne’s Place raised nearly $1,000 for Oralé, an organization advocating for immigration rights, during the ICE Out rallies.

“It was one of our busiest days on record,” Le said. “The community showed up that day. We were able to raise almost $1,000 for Oralé, which was a beautiful thing.”

Le hopes Reinne’s Place will eventually become a permanent community space.

He said the residency will continue to operate until the shop’s brick-and-mortar location opens in early spring.

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 Leanne Suter

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    LONG BEACH, California (KABC) — Who is Jim Birge? That is the “Jeopardy!” answer to the game show’s number one fan. He has been hosting “Jeopardy!” tournaments for Long Beach middle schoolers for 25 years, something he created when his wife was a teacher.

“I just had this idea, and I took it to the principal, and we ran with it. That was back in 2001,” said Birge. “This is our 25th consecutive year.”

His love for the classic game show began when he was a boy. His sister-in-law appeared on the show several times, and later, his brother-in-law played the trumpet in the signature theme song.

“It made me feel dumb, and I wanted to be smarter, you know, that type of thing. Because you do watch and go, ‘How do they answer these?’ and you just try,” he said.

And behind his enthusiasm is late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek’s dedication to the game despite battling pancreatic cancer. His connection to the late host grew even deeper with his own diagnosis.

“I found out in October that I have pancreatic cancer. Inoperable, that type of thing. It would have been easy to just stop, but [I’m] kind of inspired by Alex,” Birge said.

Despite the grueling treatments, the 78-year-old is fighting to host as many tournaments at competing schools as he can until the final round.

“To get to June, our Tournament of Champions, there’s absolutely no way this would have happened… if it wasn’t for my crew and my family,” Birge said with tears in his eyes.

Birge’s ultimate dream would be for the tournament to go statewide or even national. But for now, he hopes to find someone to take over the tournament in Long Beach.

“I may have given it up when I found this out, but I wanted to finish a full quarter of a century,” he 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.