Author: CNN Newsource

By Marissa Armas

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    Texas (KTVT) — He was one of the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives; now federal prosecutors have filed their fifth superseding indictment against Mexican cartel leader José Rodolfo Villareal-Hernández, also known as ‘El Gato.’

Villareal-Hernández is connected to a 2013 Southlake murder and is facing a new charge.

The violent crime at Southlake’s popular Townsquare shook the community over a decade ago. Now, 12 years later, Villareal-Hernández, who is accused of orchestrating that murder, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, interstate stalking, and now, continuing criminal enterprise.

“A rival drug cartel that was responsible for the death of the defendant’s father,” Paul Coggins, former United States attorney, said. “So, there was a long-held plot of revenge at the heart of this indictment, at the heart of this story.”

Authorities said that in May 2013, Villareal-Hernández, who was part of the Beltran Leyva Organization cartel, ordered the hit on Juan Jesús Guerrero Chapa in Southlake. Guerrero Chapa was allegedly a lawyer for a rival cartel.

Authorities said Gurrero Chapa was gunned down while sitting in his vehicle. He had been in the area shopping with his wife.

While others were convicted, Villareal-Hernández remained on the run for years. He was finally arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the U.S. this past February.

“It just shows the lengths that the federal government will go to, the federal government, the state government, will go to in a case like this, in a murder case, in a murder for hire case,” Coggins said.

Coggins added that if a jury finds Villareal-Hernández guilty on the murder-for-hire charge, he is death penalty eligible.

“Then they move to a special sentencing hearing where the jury considers you know, all these factors that cut against death penalty and in favor of death penalty, and the basic factor, the underlying factor, is did the defendant intend to kill someone, and was it premeditated?” said Coggins.

Villareal-Hernández’s arraignment is set for Oct. 29 in Fort Worth.

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By Kayla Moeller

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    California (KMAX, KOVR) — A witchy wave took over Lake Natoma on Saturday. Hundreds of people dressed up as witches and wizards paddleboarded to the Rainbow Bridge from Black Miners Bar, all for a good cause. The event’s goal is to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer.

More than a thousand people were signed up for this year’s Witch’s Paddle and hundreds showed up to paddle, donate and raise awareness for childhood cancer.

“This year is in her honor. We have a big poster over there that this year is in memory of Ivy Foley,” said organizer of Witches on the Lake, Janay Taua.

Ivy was the inspiration behind Witches on the Lake.

“A really good friend, her daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of pediatric cancer, and the thought of doing this — so many people in our area love to paddleboard, myself and friends included. I wanted to do a paddleboard event and I said, ‘Let’s partner it with a charity,'” said Taua.

All donations from the event will go to Keaton’s Child Cancer Alliance, a local nonprofit.

Ivy passed away earlier this year, but her family was there to paddle in her honor.

“It can be really lonely. Especially when your child is in the depths of treatment, it can be very lonely. So events like this, it just makes your burdens lighten a little bit,” said Lindsay Foley, Ivy’s mother. “And on the other side of it, now that my daughter has passed, it’s also very lonely, and to see all the love and support out here is huge.”

“I think it’s great. The energy, the costumes, the kids. I think that’s great, to bring everybody out for such a thing. If you look at the line of cars waiting to get in, it’s great,” said Sacramento resident Stacey Sturtebant.

The event started four years ago with 70 people, and it’s exploded with hundreds of participants since then.

“I’m blown away and people are still walking down the streets with their boards. It’s pretty awesome,” said Lindsay.

“We brought candy because we weren’t sure if we were supposed to hand out candy or not. But apparently, businesses donate their candy,” said Rancho Cordova resident Jessica Brown.

Besides paddling for a purpose, there were floating trick-or-treat stations for the kids.

“There’s a lot of people that do come just because it’s a fun themed event, but there are many people that come because of what the event is for and that’s what makes it really special,” said Taua.

Organizers say they’re still waiting on final numbers, but it’s looking like they raised about $10,000 through the event.

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By Reg Chapman

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    MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (WCCO) — Police in Minneapolis said they’re tracking five early-morning home invasions that have happened on the city’s north side in the past week.

One of the incidents involved a family being held at gunpoint after four masked men broke in.

“They had the guns all up in our face,” the mother said.

A loud thud woke her up, and when she walked out of her bedroom, she found a group of armed thieves inside her home.

“I came out and I instantly threw my hands up because I’m scared. I got my child in there, and I’m screaming, ‘No, please stop. My child is in here, my child is in here,'” she said.

The mother did not show her face during her interview with WCCO as she is afraid of the men who invaded her home, who have not been caught. She mentioned how she begged for her life and the life of her child.

“I was screaming, ‘Help, help, my child is in here, my child is in here. Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,'” she said.

“I woke up to yelling,” said Brenda Clark, who was in her bedroom upstairs during the incident.

Clark is the mother of the woman held at gunpoint.

“That’s when they got to running out the door, when they heard footsteps upstairs, and they heard my mom, like, ‘What’s going on down there?'” she said.

Clark went to her Ring camera and saw the men casing her North Minneapolis home.

“They were outside from 5:54 [a.m.] walking, pacing, looking dead at the camera. Like one person was like, ‘I don’t think it work.’ The other person was like, ‘It do work.’ They didn’t care. The point was they didn’t care,” Clark said.

Video shows the men helping boost one another inside the kitchen window. They then took cash, credit cards and other belongings from Clark’s daughters.

“Y’all was bold, to cut a screen, like y’all real criminals. This is what y’all do, you know, y’all’s specialty, in this, cut a screen and just come through the window. They plotted,” Clark said.

Investigators arrested one juvenile, and they are working to determine how many of the Minneapolis home invasions he is connected to.

Police are asking people to call 911 if they have any information.

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By Victor Jacobo

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Several rideshare drivers were arrested by immigration agents on Saturday at the O’Hare International Airport rideshare parking lot.

It was the second immigration raid targeting rideshare drivers at O’Hare in little more than a week.

The Department of Homeland Security said 11 people were arrested at the O’Hare rideshare parking lot on Saturday morning.

Citizen app video shows federal agents patrolling a lot designated for rideshare drivers near O’Hare and interrogating several people.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the incident, saying Border Patrol conducted a targeted operation near the parking lots at O’Hare, resulting in the arrest of 11 undocumented immigrants from Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela.

DHS did not provide names for the people who were arrested, but claimed they had criminal histories including domestic battery, DUI, and overstaying a visa. Officials also said some had a final order of removal requiring them to be deported.

Groups representing drivers said they are concerned.

“These are drivers that are essential to every single one of our communities,” said Bailey Koch, a spokesperson for the Illinois Drivers Alliance, which represents rideshare drivers.

Koch said the organization is working to help those impacted.

“We are trying to locate where they’re at, where their families are at, and try to get them as many resources as we can, on top of working to make sure that this does not continue to happen,” she said.

Federal agents conducted a similar operation detaining multiple people at the same lot on Oct. 10.

The Illinois Drivers Alliance said, after that incident, it has worked with the city of Chicago to put up signs and station personnel to prevent unauthorized entry into the lot in an effort to protect drivers.

“As of today, we have worked with the city to provide 24/7 security on that lot, and really enforcing that if you do not have the correct credentials to be in there, you’re prohibited from being in that lot,” Koch said.

Koch said the alliance is working to learn more information about how agents gained access to the lot on Saturday, and what other measures can be put in place in order to prevent unauthorized access.

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By Ashley Paul

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    Maryland (WJZ) — Parents in Harford County are outraged after a second-grade student was able to search a sexually explicit term on his Harford County Public School-issued laptop.

The incident happened at Roye Williams Elementary School in Havre De Grace.

“Unfortunately, when I pulled up his laptop and his search history, it was typed in, and the first page that came up was Wikipedia. And unfortunately, it showed him images of what that was,” Sadie Gaupp told WJZ’s Ashley Paul.

Gaupp cried as she talked about the moment the web page loaded, and she saw the words and images her son had searched on his laptop earlier that day.

“That’s just a conversation that I didn’t even want to have with my eight-year-old, let alone having to say what that is and have it not be a huge deal because it’s a child. So you don’t know how they’re going to react to something,” Gaupp said.

She said that another student dared him to look up the sexually explicit term, and he admitted to what he saw later that night.

“I’m really frustrated he was able to access this at school. It wasn’t like the laptop, because they do come home. It wasn’t like he did that at home in our home; he did that at school, on the school’s internet, on their devices. And where’s the protection there?” Gaupp asked.

“Do eight-year-olds really even need laptops to learn…?” A letter sent to parents by the school’s principal explains they are committed to appropriate digital learning, and there are multiple firewalls and filters in place to restrict access to inappropriate websites.

It goes on to say, “Educational resources such as Wikipedia remain accessible because they are widely used for research and learning. Unfortunately, in this instance, a student intentionally encouraged others to search for a term that produced inappropriate results on that platform.”

The webpage in question, they tell us, has since been blocked by the district’s technology department.

“I don’t care if it’s well for their learning. Do eight-year-olds really even need laptops to learn in the first place?” Gaupp questioned. “Because we were learning way before that without laptops. But it’s easy to have app monitoring, it’s not hard.”

Gaupp says she plans to homeschool her children from now on because of this incident.

HCPS tells us they monitor and filter online content to the federal standards outlined by the Children’s Internet Protection Act, and any student sharing or encouraging access to inappropriate content will face disciplinary action.

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By Mark Prussin

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    NEW YORK (WCBS, WLNY) — The Broadway League and the Actors’ Equity Association have a tentative deal in place to avoid a strike, the union said Saturday.

“After a marathon mediation session lasting until 6 a.m., Equity and The Broadway League have reached a tentative agreement on the Production Contract. Now we will bring the deal to our members for ratification, and in the meantime, we are putting our full support behind AFM Local 802 as they work with the League to reach a deal that averts a strike,” the union posted on social media.

A mediator was called to the table to attend Friday’s session between Equity, whose members include actors and stage managers, and the Broadway League.

“We’re pleased to have a reached a tentative agreement on terms both parties are comfortable with. Our focus has been negotiating in good faith at the bargaining table to reach a fair contract and we thank our mediators for their diligent work bringing us together,” Jason Laks, President of The Broadway League, said in a statement.

The exact terms of the deal are not yet known. Equity was fighting for more pay, boosted health care contributions and better working conditions.

In 2007, most shows went dark for 19 days during the most recent stagehands strike.

Negotiations continue for Broadway musicians

A Broadway strike can’t be ruled out just yet, however. Talks continue for Broadway’s union musicians, operating under a different agreement.

Equity and Musicians Local 802, which is still trying to work out a deal, have been on expired contracts for weeks amid separate negotiations.

“We are thankful that our brothers and sisters in labor at Actors’ Equity have reached an agreement. Local 802 is still in negotiation for a fair contract, and everything remains on the table, including a strike,” Local 802 Union President Robert Suttmann said in a statement.

Musicians Local 802 voted with 98% in support of authorizing a strike if they cannot reach an agreement with the Broadway League.

Broadway musicians went on strike for five days in 2003.

Dave Carlin contributed to this report.

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