Author: CNN Newsource

By Jessica Davis

Click here for updates on this story

    SUFFOLK, Virginia (WTKR) — A Suffolk church is tackling food insecurity with an indoor aeroponic farm that grows fresh vegetables without soil and gives them away for free.

Greater Works Community Outreach Ministries operates the “Garden of Eat’n,” a vertical indoor farm that uses a growing method called aeroponics. Twenty gallons of water and nutrients sit at the base of each tower, flowing upward and directly onto the roots of the plants.

Valerie Baker, a minister and first lady at Greater Works Community Outreach Ministries, described how the system works.

“There are holes or a pipe that goes up the middle of the tower and it goes into the rain cap, and the water rains down on the roots of the plants, the plants don’t get wet but it goes directly on the roots,” Baker said.

Baker said the vertical system uses 90% less space and 95% less water than traditional growing methods.

“That’s why we can get so many more plants with the space that we have, they’re 28 pods in each garden so we can have 28 plants in each one and we have twelve,” Baker said.

With 12 towers and 28 plants each, the church harvests every three weeks and replants immediately to keep up with demand. Lettuce, collards, basil, and cucumbers are among the many vegetables grown inside the Garden of Eat’n.

Baker said the program is especially important for residents in the area who face barriers to accessing fresh food.

“We’re in a food desert, a lot of people don’t have access, they don’t have cars… food is so expensive and it’s more expensive to eat healthy,” Baker said.

Community members who visited the Garden of Eat’n left with fresh produce, including kale for soup and lettuce for salad.

The Garden of Eat’n is open the first three Wednesdays of each month, alongside the church’s “House of Bread” program. On third Saturdays, the church also hosts a drive-up mobile pantry. The church will not be operating this Wednesday.

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 Megan Knight

Click here for updates on this story

    ELLICOTT CITY, Maryland (WMAR) — They stop in their tracks when they see her in the hallways.

“Look, there’s Frankie!” said one student.

“Oh my gosh, hi Frankie!” said another.

To say Frankie the three-legged chihuahua-pug mix is a celebrity at St. John’s Parish Day School, is not an exaggeration.

“The students adore her, love her. They look for her when she’s not here,” said Steve Springer, the head of the school.

Springer started his position in July. He moved from Los Angeles where he adopted Frankie. She was hit by a car and brought to a rescue. Veterinarians had to amputate her front leg.

The injury did not affect her sweet and gentle disposition.

“I think it’s rare you find a dog you completely trust. There’s not a mean bone in her body, she just loves to be around people,” said Springer.

He started bringing Frankie into school over the summer and the staff fell in love. He continued to bring her in once classes started and the students quickly fell in love too.

“She’ll go out when kids are coming in and greet them in the morning,” he said. “She goes to classes and reads with the kids, she does math with them.”

Frankie has a basket full of fan mail from the students, filled with notes and drawings. She has her own school uniform, her portrait hangs outside the front office and she’s a certified therapy dog.

“You can always tell where she is,” said Brooke Wakeman, a second grade teacher. “Inevitably there will be a group of kids on the floor surrounding her and giggling and having a great time.”

Wakeman said Frankie not only provides comfort to the kids, her disability also serves as a teachable moment.

“At our school, we talk a lot about social and emotional learning and just kindness and empathy and compassion and she brings that out in people naturally,” she said.

“We talk about that sometimes in life, people have differences but they learn to adapt. She’s like any other dog, she can run, she can jump,” said Springer.

“It’s important for us to recognize that in people around us, that even though we may be different, people may have to adapt because of a situation in their life but in the end, we’re all the same.”

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 Wayne Covil

Click here for updates on this story

    COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Virginia (WTVR) — Despite having just returned home from chemotherapy treatment, a Colonial Heights woman is being recognized for rushing into a burning apartment and rescuing two young boys.

Jerkesha Petty had barely fallen asleep after finishing treatment — her 232nd day of chemotherapy — when a smoke detector jolted her awake.

“I looked across and I look at the door, and it was smoke coming from out of the top of the door,” Petty recalled. “I ran across the street, don’t know how I got the strength.”

Once she was outside the apartment, she spotted one of the young boys who lived there and grasped the full scope of the emergency.

“I could see straight through the kitchen and it was just flames everywhere,” Petty said.

Petty made sure both boys were outside before grabbing a fire extinguisher and going back in.

“It worked, but it didn’t put the fire out. So I ran back home, I got the second fire extinguisher, I started at the base, and it still didn’t put the fire out,” Petty said. “So I went back home and got the white one. I had like a specialized one and then I just started spraying everywhere.”

The third extinguisher knocked the fire down and out.

“I didn’t really have time to respond, react. I just knew that they needed to get out of the residence and that the fire needed to be put out,” Petty said.

Because of smoke inhalation, Petty was taken to an area hospital, where she was treated and released.

Battalion Chief Geoff Turner of the Colonial Heights Fire Department praised Petty’s actions.

“I think it is great. She was at the right place, at the right time and she was already fighting a battle of her own,” Turner said.

Firefighters said the smoke detector in the apartment was working. Turner also used the moment to remind the public about proper fire extinguisher use.

“The training is pretty simple,” Turner said. “We use the acronym P.A.S.S. Which stands for pull the pin, aim, squeeze and sweep.”

On Friday morning, the Colonial Heights Fire Department presented Petty with a certificate recognizing her bravery — along with a new fire extinguisher. Two area businesses also gave her special gifts.

“Should the opportunity arise again, you have a replacement that is ready to go,” Colonial Heights Fire Chief Stephen Hoke said.

Petty has since finished all of her chemotherapy and radiation treatments and is now a breast cancer survivor.

This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WTVR 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.

By Forrest Sanders

Click here for updates on this story

    NASHVILLE (WTVF) — In a city like Nashville, we know some people were just born to entertain. A stage can be many things. Sometimes, there’s a lot of reward in an audience of one.

Colleen Myers knocked on a door. As she walked into the apartment, she burst into song. She danced through the room singing Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee. The woman who lives in the apartment laughed as she watched.

Then, Myers was on to another room, another show.

She sang Hit The Rock Jack to a man as he danced.

Myers is an LPN at Burton Court at Blakeford assisted living and memory care community.

A lot of the residents will tell you, there is something special about the Myers visits.

“I have a favorite nurse,” a resident nodded. “This nurse right here.”

Myers has gotten to know the residents well enough that the person behind each door gets their own show.

“I have a resident from Germany, so I will go in her room and yodel!” she explained. “I have another resident who worked at Ohio State.”

For that resident, Myers performs the school fight song.

One resident likes Shakespeare.

“Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo!” Myers called as the resident smiled.

“Just crazy all the time!” he said.

“We have fun,” Myers added.

The story with Myers is this; as a kid, she became a fan of someone.

“My mom and I used to watch Carol Burnett,” Myers said.

Between the Tarzan yell, the Eunice sketches, the ‘Went With The Wind’ parody, Carol Burnett was just so good.

“As a little girl, I was just performing the skits,” Myers continued.

Since it’s a little rare to get an eleven-season network variety show, Myers determined she could sing, dance, and make people laugh. She’d just do that here.

Something Carol Burnett once said was, ‘if you’re an entertainer, you should be able to entertain.’ The people here are so glad to have this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song.

“People need to laugh, older people especially,” one resident said. “Our life is kinda somber. It makes us so happy. I think it really is excellent.”

“I love what I do, and they are my family,” said Myers. “I’m so happy to be here.”

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 Eric Pointer

Click here for updates on this story

    NASHVILLE (WTVF) — A Nashville woman making history as the first recorded Black female violin maker in the United States is inspiring others far beyond her workshop — including a Chicago-area musician who owns one of her instruments.

Ann Harris, a fiddle player, singer, and songwriter, said she found Nashville violin maker Amanda Ewing through social media — and immediately knew she wanted Ewing to build her an instrument.

Harris said the commission marked what she believes is the first documented collaboration between a Black professional violinist and a Black professional luthier in U.S. history.

Harris used crowdfunding to finance the violin. When the instrument arrived on her birthday, she said the moment felt full of meaning.

“It was just — I can’t even begin to explain the well of emotions that really surged through me. And I was just like, I have to connect with this woman,” Harris said.

Harris said she hopes their story opens doors for the next generation of young Black and brown musicians and craftspeople.

“Hopefully, what’s happening are there’s young, young people, young brown and black people that see pictures of Amanda in her shop or her work or see me on stage and I’m promoting her work and holding it, and that’s That’s a really powerful, and elevating promise,” Harris said.

Harris has since performed on Ewing’s violin on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

Ewing has been recognized as the first recorded Black female violin maker in the United States.

This story was reported by Eric Pointer and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Eric Pointer and WTVF 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.

By Carley Gomez

Click here for updates on this story

    LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Hundreds of fans gathered Saturday as the city named the intersection of Slauson and Crenshaw “Nipsey Hussle Square” to honor the late rapper’s life and work in his South Los Angeles community.

Nipsey Hussle’s brother, Blacc Sam, told the crowd that the artist’s impact continues to resonate.

“Hussle inspired the youth, inspired the people from the hood, inspired the uninspireable, as people would say, and he put a light on it,” he told the crowd.

Hussle’s mother, Angelique Smith, shared a message for fans during the ceremony.

“I just want to inspire everyone here, through your struggles, through your setbacks, your challenges, your haters … respond with love,” she said.

Before Hussle became a community activist and Grammy-winning artist, he and his brother often stood at the same intersection selling his mixtapes. Fans at the dedication described the rapper’s influence on their own lives.

“Ever since I was a little girl, my mom used played it around me and then my uncle … he’s a huge fan, and I lived with him most of my life so I kind of took it on for him,” said fan Savannah Stiles.

Hussle frequently spoke about reducing gang and gun violence in his neighborhood. The newly named square is also home to the Neighborhood Nip Foundation, which continues his work by creating programs that support and encourage local youth.

Los Angeles City Council member Heather Hutt said Hussle’s commitment to his hometown never wavered.

“His love for Los Angeles was insurmountable. He could have invested his money anywhere. Somewhere that cost less, somewhere with less issues, hut he determined that L.A. is where he wanted to be,” she said.

The name change comes after tens of thousands of petition signatures were submitted to City Council members urging the city to honor Hussle’s legacy.

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

Click here for updates on this story

    LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The mother of a 12-year-old girl in Reseda who died after a school fight is speaking out, saying her daughter was simply trying to protect her older sister from a group of bullies.

Khimberly Zavaleta’s family says she was hit in the head with a water bottle, then later suffered a brain injury. She died at a hospital on Wednesday.

Elma Chuquipa, the girl’s mother, spoke with Eyewitness News over the weekend and said the day of the incident, Khimberly was standing up to a group of students who were allegedly bullying her older sister.

“At dismissal time, she was in the school hallway when a tall boy came up to her … he was pushing her, and my daughter told him, ‘What’s your problem with me? Let’s go to the principal’s office and talk about it’ -but he ignored her,” said Chuquipa.

The mother said that when Khimberly stepped in to defend her sister, someone allegedly threw a water bottle at her.

“My daughter goes and pulls her away, so they don’t hit her sister, and that’s when [Khimberly] gets hit in the head.”

The fight was captured on video, but the footage does not show a water bottle being thrown.

“They were hitting her sister — my eldest daughter,” Chuquipa said. “In the video, you can see them pulling [Khimberly]. At one point, they hit her hard on the head, which led her to where she is now – in a morgue.”

The 12-year-old was taken to the emergency room, where initially, everything seemed fine, according to Chuquipa.

Days later, the mother said Khimberly suffered some complications.

“We took her to the emergency room, where she arrived with no vitals,” Chuquipa said. “My daughter was there, they tore her clothes, they gave her CPR, I was very scared, I cried a lot-I had this hope that she would get up from where she was.”

Chuquipa said doctors performed X-rays on Khimberly and found there was a lot of blood in her head.

She was intubated and was later transferred to another hospital.

“The doctor said, ‘We’re going to have to perform surgery,'” recalled the mother. “We’re going to open this part of her skull so we can remove all the blood, clean her up, and so on-it’s a six-hour surgery, the doctor tells me. ‘Save my daughter,’ I told the doctor.”

Chuquipa said doctors discussed a fourth surgery, but that they told her “there’s a 1% chance that your daughter will live or stay in the operating room.”

“As a mother, I felt so bad,” Chuquipa said. “We got together with my family … when we got together with my family, we agreed to do the surgery, which was a 1% chance, and I said, ‘There is hope’ … when we met with the doctors, they decided not to operate because my daughter’s brain was already dead.”

“It was very painful for me to leave my daughter in the hospital with the hope of coming home,” the mother said. “She always told me, ‘I will never leave you.’ When I was there, I said to her, ‘You told me you would never leave me.'”

The Los Angeles Police Department said the Robbery-Homicide Division, Valley Bureau Section, is investigating the case as a homicide, but that they won’t be releasing any more information because it involves juveniles.

Chuquipa said Khimberly – who was described as a sweet girl who was learning how to cook and loved to sing – was loved by many at the school.

She even wanted to become a doctor.

Chuquipa is now hoping for better safety measures at schools.

“Let’s hope there will be more safety for children,” the mother said. “I’m afraid to send my oldest daughter to school. I’m very afraid that something will happen to her. I already lost one daughter, and I don’t want to lose her too.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District released the following statement regarding the incident:

“The Los Angeles Unified School District is deeply saddened by the death of a Reseda High School student. Our thoughts and condolences are with the student’s family, friends, and the entire school community.

Out of respect for the family and to protect confidentiality, we cannot share details. The District remains committed to providing support to students, staff, and families affected by this loss, including counseling services and additional resources on campus.

The District takes the safety and well-being of our students very seriously. We are currently cooperating with law enforcement in connection with this incident.”

On Friday, a group of students held a protest at Reseda High School in support of Khimberly.

“God is touching the heart of many people who are coming to ask for justice and to support me. I feel happy that at some point there will be justice,” said the 12-year-old’s mother, Elma Chuquipa.

Meantime, a GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with funeral and medical expenses.

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 Loureen Ayyoub

Click here for updates on this story

    BERKELEY, California (KPIX) — A group of Bay Area activists turns a busy Berkeley overpass into a weekly call for peace, and they’re calling it NICE.

The gathering, held on a pedestrian bridge above a freeway in Berkeley, brings together community members waving signs and dancing as passing drivers honk in support.

“Every honk is somebody saying, ‘Yes, we agree,'” said Jennifer Quinn, an activist who started the event. “We are here to protect our democracy and our community, and this is just a really fun way to do that.”

Quinn said NICE began as a costume joke on Halloween but has since grown into what she describes as a community movement.

“NICE stands for now it counts everyone. Now, everyone’s got to show up. Got to show up for community,” Quinn said. “And you can start here and make some friends.”

Participants say the weekly “overpass visibility dance party” promotes nonviolence and calls for immigration policy reform. Organizers describe the event as a peaceful response to what they perceive as growing hostility and division in national politics.

Sarah Donaldson, an activist attending the gathering, emphasized the importance of maintaining a peaceful approach.

“We got to be peaceful all the time. No violence,” Donaldson said.

Quinn said the lighthearted tone is intentional.

“It cuts through the intensity of some really intense politics,” she said. “So, I say that I’m holding space for more nice people. You don’t have to agree with everything in the protests, but we need to show up and be counted.”

For organizers, the weekly event is as much about community building as it is about activism — keeping the atmosphere upbeat while amplifying a broader message of unity.

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.