Author: CNN Newsource

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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By Chris Tanaka

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — A retired attorney has found a new passion forging superheated iron as a blacksmith in Boston.

Andy Good is one of the many artists working at the Humphreys Street Studios in Dorchester.

“There are two stone carvers, there are lots of painters and then there’s a whole lot of people who, in one way or another, are making clothing,” Good said.

He’s been pounding out masterful creations for 15 years after falling into it by accident.

“The truth is my wife, when I was lawyering, said, ‘All you do is work and work out. You’re a bore, find something else to do,” he said.

Good attended an adult education class in Framingham and fell in love with the craft.

“The idea of hitting something hard with a hammer when you’re defending criminal cases, that’s therapeutic,” the 79-year-old retired attorney told WBZ-TV.

He’s made all sorts of steel sculptures, from tools to intricate flower petals.

While the steelwork is born of fire, the passion was born of curiosity and having the studio space to make it flourish.

“The whole point is to do the mental and physical challenges that are completely and utterly different,” he said.

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By Logan Hall

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    PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (WBZ) — Some very rare baseball cards are now up for auction after they were found in an unlikely place.

For antique collector Tom Conrad, a good find usually means an old advertising sign, oil can or soda bottles. But when he stumbled upon a box of baseball cards from the early 1900’s on Facebook Marketplace, he knew he’d found something special.

“I hate to say once in a lifetime find, but it really is right up there,” Conrad said.

Conrad bought the collection for just $75 from someone who had originally picked it up at an estate sale in Providence, Rhode Island. Inside a wooden chest, he discovered 122 baseball cards dating from 1909 to 1911 featuring legends such as Cy Young, Christy Mathewson and John McGraw.

The cards were glued to the inside of the chest, a preservation choice that may have helped keep them intact for more than a century. Many of the cards remain stuck to the chest but are removable.

Conrad has since listed the collection on his antique Facebook page, where the top bid has climbed to $6,700.

Among the highlights is a 1909 Cy Young card, which experts say could be worth thousands.

“In poor condition it’s still a couple grand,” said Matt Sharps, a trading card specialist at Card Vault, a card shop co-owned by Tom Brady. “I saw a couple years ago there was a sale and a graded 8, which is near mint, sold for over $100,000.”

Sharps said the discovery is the kind collectors dream about.

“These cards used to come in boxes of cigarettes back in the day, you get a little card with your pack of cigarettes,” Sharps said. “A lot of them got destroyed, and people thought they were going to be worthless, so finding them still intact all this time later is unreal.”

For Conrad, the cards represent more than money. They’re art.

“It’s a true piece of history for baseball itself, but for Americana in general,” he said. “Just thinking that someone thought to put these in the trunk lid to conserve them like that.”

For more information, head to Conrad’s Facebook page, Smalls to the Walls Auctions.

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By Mike Hellgren

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    HAGERSTOWN, Maryland (WJZ) — Melissa Tran is back in Maryland after federal immigration authorities detained her more than five months ago over a non-violent conviction two decades earlier.

The mother of five, and Hagerstown business owner, spoke with WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren as her future remains uncertain.

Tran’s ordeal started with her annual check-in with immigration in downtown Baltimore—a routine she has done for more than 20 years.

“Just a normal check-in,” Tran said. “You go and you show them your identification, and then, they give you your next appointment date.”

This time, ICE detained her without explanation. Tran spent five days in Baltimore.

She described being housed with nine women in filthy conditions.

“No shower, nothing. No personal hygiene. No toothbrush to brush your teeth,” Tran said.

The women were kept in one room with an inflatable mattress and no blankets.

“I was in shock,” Tran said.

Tran was then taken to Louisiana, Arizona, and ended up in Tacoma, Washington.

She said she was always shackled on various buses and planes but relied on the many letters of support she received from friends in Maryland to keep her spirits up.

“When you’re sitting there, and you don’t know what’s happening to you, and you think all these negative thoughts, it’s the letters that I received from the people in the community saying you have to stay strong, we are fighting for you, we are praying for you,” Tran said. “It gives me hope.”

Tran, 43, came to America from Vietnam legally as a refugee in the 1990s, her lawyer said.

As a teenager, she admitted to stealing some checks from her employer.

She pleaded guilty, and a judge entered an order of removal in 2003, but because Vietnam would not accept her, she was allowed to stay as long as she checked in regularly with immigration.

“I know what I did was wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” Tran said. “For my kids to have to go through it is horrible for me to comprehend. Why? We always say if you change, you deserve a second chance.”

It is uncertain now if she will get that second chance.

A federal judge found there was no need to continue her detention for now.

Tran said she was elated when she received the news that a federal judge ordered her release from detainment at a federal facility in Washington state.

She was overjoyed to finally hold her children again when she returned to Hagerstown, Maryland, on Monday.

“Just a moment to feel them and touch them,” Tran told Hellgren. “I’m finally home.”

She spent more than 150 days in ICE custody, with her four children constantly on her mind.

“I’ve never been away from them this long, so I thought about them every single moment,” Tran said. “I said, ‘What’s going to happen when I’m not home?’ I have an autistic son, so I did a lot with him, but now he’s without me. I just kind of said, ‘How are they going to survive without me?'” Tran said through tears.

A federal judge in Washington state found the government was unnecessarily detaining her, but Tran still faces deportation, possibly to a third country.

“I hope the judge will allow us to reopen my immigration case, and then we have a good outcome, and I can stay,” Tran said.

Tran has to report to immigration again in Baltimore next week.

One of her lawyers, Bernard Semler, is also a family friend.

“It’s unfortunate the immigration system has moved into one-size-fits-all, and it doesn’t take into consideration an individual’s work to get a second chance,” Semler said. “We’re hoping either through the judicial system or even politically, we’re hoping someone in the Trump administration might see this and say, ‘Hey, we need to look at these on a case-by-case basis.'”

Semler noted his client’s past theft conviction has been reclassified and is no longer considered an aggravated felony, and said she has been building a stable life and family for decades without trouble.

“She has been here legally, checking in, doing everything she is supposed to,” Semler said. “She didn’t enter the country illegally. She’s been here the entire time.”

Semler hopes to avoid a deportation at all, but especially one to a third country.

“The government had agreed not to remove Melissa during the pendency of the case, but now the case is wrapping up,” Semler said. “We’re trying to get an agreement that they would not consider third-party removal for her.”

In a published statement, a Department of Homeland Security official referenced Tran’s past conviction and said the government was still pushing to remove her to Vietnam because of it.

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By Sergio Candido

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    Florida (WFOR) — Two Texas parents were arrested and face child neglect charges after authorities said they left their 6-month-old baby unattended on a Florida beach for nearly an hour while they walked away with their other children.

The incident took place on Oct. 10 in Miramar Beach, a census-designated area located just east of Destin in the Florida Panhandle.

Around noon that Friday, deputies responded to 4000 Sandestin Boulevard following reports of an unattended infant on the beach. When deputies arrived, witnesses confirmed the child had been left alone for nearly an hour beneath a tent while the parents walked down the beach with three other children, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a Facebook post detailing the arrest.

Good Samaritans immediately began caring for the child and called law enforcement, authorities said.

“We’re thankful for the quick-thinking beachgoer who raised the alarm and for those who stepped in to care for the child with the same kindness and concern they would show their own,” Sheriff Michael Adkinson said.

While deputies waited for South Walton Fire District personnel to arrive and assess the infant, the parents returned to the scene, where both admitted to placing the child under the tent for a nap before leaving with their other children, claiming they lost track of time, WCSO said.

Video showed Houston parents left baby alone for nearly an hour

Security footage obtained during the investigation confirmed the family was away for nearly an hour and did not bring their cellphone with them.

South Walton Fire personnel evaluated the infant and confirmed the child’s vitals were normal and they were not in distress. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) was notified and responded immediately to the scene.

Both parents, Brian Wilks, 40, and Sara Wilks, 37, of Houston, Texas, were arrested and charged with child neglect without great bodily harm. DCF took custody of the children pending the arrival of family members traveling from Texas. They both bonded out the following on Saturday, Oct. 11, on a $1,000 bond each.

“This incident serves as a reminder that even brief moments of inattention can have serious consequences and can sometimes lead to tragic outcomes,” the sheriff’s office said.

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