Author: CNN Newsource

By Sheldon Ingram

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    NEW CASTLE, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — On February 3, students at Neshannock High School sent more than 300 letters of support to lift the morale of Ukrainian soldiers.

Those letters arrived a week ago, and on Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 showed the students a video of the soldiers receiving their letters and reading them out loud.

“I was tearing up a lot, just seeing the circumstances everyone is living under and what they’re going through, and to be able to fight for the country they love, and the people they love, is really inspiring,” says Catherine Spor.

She and many of her classmates were persuaded to write the letters by another student named Arsenii, who fled Ukraine with his mother and sister while his father stayed behind to fight on the front line.

Arsenii watched with his schoolmates as the soldiers read their letters and cards, while expressing gratitude.

“They were really happy that kids from another country, from another continent across the ocean, know about their problems,” he says.

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 Jade Jarvis

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    STUART, Florida (WPBF) — A Martin County mom and pediatric ICU nurse is seeking justice after a crash involving a suspected drunk driver who left her paralyzed from the chest down.

Rebecca Engle and her attorneys said the driver who left her critically injured hasn’t been arrested yet and have filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages for her pain, suffering, and financial burden.

“This accident has significantly changed the course of my life. I’m now having to be — 24 hours a day, seven days a week — cared for by my husband and my kids,” Engle said.

A loss of independence has been the hardest thing to deal with for Engle after 34 years of staying busy and being fulfilled as a registered nurse.

“It’s just my calling. It’s always been what I’ve done. And now to be on the opposite side of the, you know, patient bed, it’s been very humbling,” Engle said.

Engle’s car was left mangled after a serious car crash on Nov. 30, 2025.

“On that night, she was coming home on Southwest Kanner Highway from doing some early Christmas shopping when this intoxicated driver was driving erratically and collided with her at a high rate of speed,” said Ryan McCarthy, Engle’s attorney.

She had to be airlifted to the hospital, is now a quadriplegic, and unable to go back to her nursing job at HCA Lawnwood’s pediatric ICU and needing round-the-clock care from her husband and children.

“It’s almost three months since the accident. Why hasn’t there been an arrest made? We’ve been told that an arrest warrant may be issued next week. But it’s time. It’s time for justice,” said Gary Lesser, Engle’s attorney.

Engle’s attorneys, Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel, PLLC, believe the other driver, identified as Steven Hererra Valdez, was drunk at the time of the crash based on the accident report, his speed, and information determined from a blood draw.

Now, they’ve filed a civil lawsuit against him on behalf of Engle seeking damages in excess of $50,000.

WPBF 25 News spoke with Martin County State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl, who said Herrera Valdez wasn’t initially arrested because he was also severely injured and placed in the ICU, and then a mistake in filing paperwork related to the case delayed it further.

“I really just want my day in court to see Mr. Herrera so he can see what he has done to me and to my family. I feel he needs to pay the price for this for sure,” Engle said.

Bakkedahl said there is a hearing scheduled for Mar. 4 in this case to hear testimony from Engle, investigators and witnesses to potentially bring criminal charges forth against Herrera Valdez.

Engle’s friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help her family with medical and living 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 Angela Rozier

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    INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Florida (WPBF) — A dispatcher at the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office is being recognized for helping a woman deliver her baby over the phone on Valentine’s Day, just weeks after starting her job.

Autumn Martin, who began working as a dispatcher on December 8, received a 911 call on February 14 from a woman in active labor.

The caller explained that the midwife was on her way, but the baby was arriving faster than expected.

Martin admitted feeling a bit scared initially but followed her training with her supervisor by her side. She said the mother’s sister and husband were also present to assist during the call.

“I was just answering calls as they were coming in. I got the call, and they said the baby’s crowning, and I said, okay—we’re having a baby,” Martin said.

Shannon Wells, the mother, said Evie is her fifth child.

Wells and her husband had planned a water birth at home with a midwife, but Evie had other plans.

“I looked at my sister and I said, we’re not going to make it. I can feel her head. I could feel she had shifted her position finally and was coming,” Wells said.

While the midwife was en route, they were advised to dial 911, and Evie made her entrance on Valentine’s Day.

“It’s sweet to hear a baby cry. I have two of my own, and I think it’s music to your ears when you first hear the little baby cry,” Martin 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 Pamela Comme

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    VOLUSIA COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — A simple act of kindness at DeBary Elementary School is now touching hearts around the country.

Sophia Campbell was laughing through tears as she looked at her desk, completely covered in bright pink, sunshine yellow and neon green sticky notes. Each one carried a handwritten message from a classmate.

The moment, captured on video, has now been seen by millions online.

“Shining like a diamond,” Sophia read from one note. “Smiles follow you,” another said.

Just minutes earlier, the fourth grader had been struggling, worrying she wasn’t smart enough.

Her friend Ashton Miller noticed.

“I wanted to encourage her to keep reading,” Ashton said.

He shared an idea with the rest of the class: surprise Sophia by covering her desk in messages of encouragement.

The response was immediate and overwhelming.

Within minutes, classmates filled dozens of sticky notes with affirmations, compliments and reminders of her strengths. When Sophia returned to her seat, she was met with a colorful display of support.

It’s the kind of culture fourth-grade teacher Joanne Miller has intentionally built at DeBary Elementary School over the past decade through what she calls the “Kindness Squad.”

“Every Friday morning, we line the whole parent loop, and we greet all the families that come to the elementary and get them pumped up for the day,” Miller said. “It’s just what we do.”

From dancing in the car line to celebrating academic and personal victories in the classroom, encouragement is woven into daily life at the school.

In this now-viral moment, that culture was on full display.

But Miller said the most meaningful part wasn’t just Sophia’s emotional reaction.

“While I’m very excited that it made her feel special, equally important is how it made the rest of my students feel to see how their act of kindness impacted her,” she said.

For Sophia, the words from her classmates left a lasting impression.

“I felt like I was appreciated, loved, like I was smart … All the feelings that are happy,” she said.

She now has a stack of sticky notes she plans to keep, reminders of one powerful lesson learned early in life: sometimes the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference.

The viral video may have introduced millions to the moment, but in this DeBary classroom, kindness is simply part of the curriculum.

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 Madilyn Destefano, Luana Munoz

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    ORLANDO, Florida (WESH) — A man was arrested after deputies found him in a Chinese restaurant with a shovel, shouting, “I had to destroy that restaurant. All Chinese restaurants are going to release a new strain of COVID on July 6,” according to an arrest affidavit.

Deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrested 43-year-old Richard Jarvis on Monday after receiving a 911 call related to an aggravated battery.

OCSO responded to Pearl’s Chinese restaurant, located at 5438 Central Florida Parkway, where the owner told deputies Jarvis first attempted to enter through the back door of the establishment, shouting, “He was going to kill everyone inside,” the affidavit said.

Deputies said when Jarvis could not get in through the back door, he made his way to the front, entered the restaurant, and went straight to the kitchen, where he began tossing food and destroying restaurant equipment with the shovel.

“I am a prophet, I’m trying to save everyone,” Jarvis said.

When the owner saw Jarvis vandalizing the kitchen, deputies said he attempted to run away.

That’s when Jarvis struck the owner in the back with the shovel and said, “If you run away, I’ll kill you,” documents said.

OCSO detained Jarvis, and he is charged with aggravated battery, criminal mischief, and burglary of a structure with a weapon.

The following day, a nearby business manager spoke to WESH 2 and said she dialed 911.

“I heard help, help. ‘I said, did you hear that?’ I immediately went to get my husband to go back there,” said Vanessa Tregjo.

Trejo and her family manage the June-Bee martial arts studio just two doors down from Pearl’s Chinese restaurant.

On Monday, Trejo says she picked up lunch from the restaurant, and 30 minutes later, she heard the owner shouting for help.

“Then, when we came to the front, the owner was already in the front. He kind of locked them in. He told me both ladies were still in there, and he was attacking them.

Trejo says she immediately called 911.

She says restaurant staff locked the back door after seeing a man in the area talking to himself.

“We were really scared because nothing like this really happens,” said Trejo.

WESH 2 has requested the body-camera video from OCSO.

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 Graves

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    KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — It was a chilly February day when Jason Howery spotted what he thought could be the biggest discovery of his life in a northwest Missouri waterway.

Howery, a self-described independent researcher in archaeology and anthropology, has spent two decades combing Missouri for ancient remains thousands of years old.

“I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life searching for the first North American inhabitants,” Howery said.

On Feb. 13, Howery was exploring an area in northwest Missouri where he had already found pieces he believed to be the remains of mammoth and mastodon.

In about shin-deep water, Howery spotted what he believed to be the femur of a Colombian Mammoth.

“I thought, ‘Man, that really looks like ice age bone, that looks like what I’m looking for,'” Howery said. “But the water was so cold, there was ice on the edge and ice floating down, that I didn’t really want to get in the water right then.”

Howery said after searching around the site for half an hour, he took off his shoes and stepped into the cold water to try to confirm his suspicions. He said he knew as soon as he touched it.

“As soon as you feel ice age bone, especially when it’s still wet, it has this texture that is sticky and glassy at the same time,” Howery said. “And it’s unlike anything else in the world that I’ve ever felt.”

Howery struggled to pull it from the lake. The bone itself weighs 92 pounds.

“When you’re looking at that type of staining that’s on there, and the mineralization of it, it’s definitely an authentic piece that hasn’t been seen in 10,000-plus-years,” Howery said.

Howery considers this find a manifestation of the work throughout his life.

“It’s all of the hard work coming together over 20 years of doing the research, doing the analysis, doing the fieldwork, and being there and being the first person to, you know, have permission to go in and find the right places to look,” Howery said.

The femur joins his extensive collection of artifacts already found from across Missouri.

Howery is now raising money to preserve the mammoth femur. He said the next steps are a CT scan and getting the bone radiocarbon dated.

He also hopes to use the money to help inspire the next generation through his Paleo Outreach Program.

“To inspire them into, first of all, getting out, putting your phone down, get out into nature, get reconnected,” Howery said. “Because you never know, there’s so much history out here that is all around us.”

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 Carson Zorn, Alexa Velez

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    NAPLES, Florida (WBBH) — Naples Classical Academy announced it has canceled or rescheduled all public-facing on-campus events and activities after a person with measles was on campus.

According to Christopher Wester, head of the school, the Florida Department of Health verified that a person with a confirmed case of measles was on campus on Feb. 10.

Wester said the visitor was an adult who spent a limited amount of time on campus.

Staff and parents were notified that the case had been reported to the school and were provided with all applicable information provided by the FLDOH, Wester said.

The school followed FLDOH guidelines for reporting and communicating with all stakeholders regarding the possible exposure and canceled or rescheduled all public events for the recommended time frame, according to Wester.

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 Deborah Weiner

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    BALTIMORE (WBAL) — Changing technology is enhancing how sketch artists can help police solve cases, as evidenced by a recent sketch in Baltimore that helped to provide closure to a family.

When the identity of a person — who sometimes may be a victim of a crime — is unknown, they are referred to as “John Does.”

That’s where Michael Streed’s sketches come in, having helped police solve kidnappings, murders, robberies and much more over decades.

A recent John Doe case was particularly brought to life, not just by the artist’s expertise, but also by a new tool that produced startling results.

It was a gripping image, a picture that couldn’t be ignored.

But this was no photograph. Rather, it was a lifelike sketch that went viral on social media.

“There’s that hybrid blend of photography and art, so people don’t take it too literal, but yet, at the same time, it causes it to jump off the screen and get people’s attention,” Streed told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates.

Late last month, police officers found an unresponsive man near Lombard Street and Market Place in Downtown Baltimore. The victim had no identification and had been experiencing homelessness. Investigators called the man’s death suspicious.

Without a name, he was considered a John Doe.

That’s where Streed comes in.

A retired police sergeant known as the “Sketch Cop,” WBAL-TV 11 News first met Streed in 2017, reporting on how he has produced thousands of forensic sketches, many for the Baltimore Police Department.

Streed, who now works virtually from California, receives photographs of the deceased and incorporates artificial intelligence to create images. It’s a far cry from how his sketch work appeared in 1979, and how it has evolved over the years.

“It helps me enhance what’s there. It helps me become a better artist and be able to serve the decedents themselves and their families, and the detectives much better,” Streed told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates.

AI, anthropology, Photoshop and a keen artist’s eye gave the downtown John Doe case unprecedented humanity.

When the Shields family saw Streed’s sketch on social media, they knew instantly that it was Marcell Shields.

“This picture was the first thing on my timeline. As soon as I saw it, I immediately knew it was my brother,” Brittni Shields, Marcell’s sister, told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates.

The eyes in the image made him look familiar; the mouth and chin were just like Marcell’s.

“It was spot on,” Brittni Shields told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates.

The family covets the “before” pictures from Marcell’s childhood, before the 37-year-old struggled with mental illness and homelessness after he left his job at 7-Eleven. The family had driven around to Marcell’s typical haunts to check on him; he always refused help but was happy to see them.

“I would just go downtown to ride around to look for him, that’s how I would find him, and I hadn’t been able to find him,” Brittni Shields told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates. “Days later, I see this sketch and it broke my heart.”

“Even though they’re homeless, even though they may suffer from mental illness, there is someone, somewhere that is thinking about them, that is praying for them and just hoping that, one day, things will get better,” Marcell’s aunt, Erica Shields, told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates.

But for the sketch from Streed, the family might never have known that Marcell was not only unreachable; he was gone.

“I just have to thank the artist for the accuracy because we wouldn’t have known,” Brittni Shields told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates.

“I didn’t like reading about how he died,” Streed told WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates. “I was so grateful I was able to do something to help his family and help him.”

Streed’s sketches have led to high-profile convictions, including the killer of Rachel Morin in Harford County.

The Shields family also hopes the sketch can help answer questions for them about what is believed to be a pedestrian hit-and-run case. Anyone with information about what happened to Marcell around 2:15 a.m. on Jan. 28, 2026, is asked to call Baltimore police.

The Shields family established an online fundraiser to help lay Marcell to rest.

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.