Author: CNN Newsource

By Francis Page Jr.

Click here for updates on this story

    November 2, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — HOUSTON, TX — November 2, 2026 — Some roads take us places. Others remind us how far we’ve come.

In a heartfelt celebration of Houston history, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis joined the family of the late Commissioner El Franco Lee, elected officials, community leaders, and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church members to unveil newly installed signs honoring the Commissioner El Franco Lee Memorial Highway.

More than a highway dedication, the ceremony celebrated a Fifth Ward son whose public service helped reshape Harris County.

The memorial designation covers U.S. Highway 59 between Interstate 10 and Loop 610. Established through House Bill 635 in 2019, authored by State Representative Harold Dutton Jr. and sponsored by State Senator Borris Miles, the recognition ensures Lee’s name remains visible to generations of Houston motorists. From Fifth Ward Roots to Harris County History Born January 30, 1949, El Franco Lee understood something fundamental about leadership: The measure of public service is not how high you climb, but how many people you lift along the way.

A graduate of Houston’s historic Phillis Wheatley High School who attended Texas Southern University, Lee began his political journey alongside fellow Fifth Ward trailblazer Congressman Mickey Leland.

After serving in the Texas Legislature from 1979 to 1985, Lee shattered a historic barrier in 1984, becoming the first African American elected to Harris County Commissioners Court.

He represented Precinct One from 1985 until his passing on January 3, 2016.

For more than three decades, Lee championed neighborhood parks, health care accessibility, senior services, and opportunities for underserved families.

His beloved Precinct One Street Olympics, launched in 1986, introduced thousands of Houston children to recreation, teamwork, mentorship, and community pride. His commitment also helped establish the El Franco Lee Health Center, extending medical services to communities too often overlooked. A Legacy That Refuses to Fade Commissioner Rodney Ellis called Lee an icon, emphasizing the importance of preserving African American history.

“When future generations of young people, whatever color they are, pass this sign, they will look up his name and ask, who was he and what did he do?”

Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Mose A. Jones, who also grew up in Kelly Courts, celebrated Lee’s extraordinary contributions to Fifth Ward.

Senator Borris Miles remembered Lee’s unwavering determination to secure resources for his community, while Representative Harold Dutton Jr. highlighted his commitment to neighborhood improvement and civic participation.

Perhaps the ceremony’s most touching reflection came from El Franco Lee II, who described his father as modest and unlikely to have expected such recognition.

Though his parents could not witness the moment, he expressed confidence that they would be smiling. More Than a Name on a Sign For Houston, these highway signs represent something enduring: a reminder that representation matters, neighborhoods deserve investment, and meaningful leadership leaves landmarks long after a public servant’s final day in office.

photo

El Franco Lee helped build bridges long before a highway carried his name.

Now, every passing vehicle offers another opportunity to remember the man, recognize his service, and inspire tomorrow’s leaders.

Learn more: Harris County Precinct One | Texas House Bill 635

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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
3465287733

By Ben Jealous

Click here for updates on this story

    November 2, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — When I was a boy, Martin Luther King Jr. was in our history books. Dolores Huerta was in the fields of our county.

She and the United Farm Workers were organizing the people who picked our food. Our family stood with them. I cannot remember eating grapes or strawberries for much of my childhood. Boycotts were how we helped the farmworkers fight for fair wages and the dignity they deserved. Dolores was one of my heroes long before I met her.

Later, as I found my way into leadership in the civil rights movement, I came to know her personally. We marched, organized and campaigned together. I learned she was even more remarkable up close. A few years ago, I was walking past the U.S. Capitol when I almost missed her.

Dozens of teenagers and college students from Texas were sitting together on the cement steps. In the middle of them was Dolores, 92 years old, sitting just like everybody else. No special chair. No fuss. You would have thought she was another student.

I called out to her, smiling. We caught up.

There was one thing I knew better than to do. I did not ask how she managed to look so young. I had made that mistake before.

We were campaigning together. She was 91. For nearly two weeks she had been putting in 12-hour days, traveling, talking to voters, and rising the next morning to do it all again.

Over breakfast I asked her how she did it. She looked at me and said, “It’s easy, Ben. You just live every day like you did the day before, and you never stop.” That was it. No secret. No lecture. Just keep going.

A friend told me he had seen Dolores dancing with the rapper Common at two in the morning. I believed him. Of course I did. The last time I saw her, Dolores was 94. I was hosting Dr. Jane Goodall at an event celebrating Jane’s 91st birthday.

Jane asked the room if anybody there was older than she was. It was clearly supposed to be a rhetorical question.

Dolores answered that she was.

For a moment, Jane looked stunned. Then she gathered herself and took back command of the room. I had to laugh. Dolores had surprised one of the most extraordinary women alive just by being herself. Once, over another meal, Dolores told me how far back her family went in New Mexico.

More than a dozen generations, as I remember it. I asked for the stories.

Well, there were plenty. One ancestor, she said, may have ridden with Geronimo’s band. Another was kidnapped by members of the band as a child, only to escape into a town crying, “Soy una cristiana!” Another had a wagon break down on the way west. Another was a circuit-riding pastor.

By the time she finished, I was pretty sure she had covered every character in every Western movie I had ever seen.

I remember thinking: No wonder she is so tough. No wonder she is so brave. Courage had been passed down in her family for generations, along with stories of surviving hard times.

That was also what Dolores spent her life doing for the rest of us. She helped build the farmworkers’ movement and carried its lessons to each new generation. She fought for workers, for immigrants, for women, for the right to vote. “Sí, se puede” was not just something she said. It was how she lived.

When Dolores died at 96, I thought again about those young Texans on the Capitol steps. They were sitting beside someone who had helped change their grandparents’ world. And she was sitting among them like she belonged there. She did.

Dolores understood something that every movement must learn. You do not hand the work to the next generation from a distance. You sit with them. You listen. You show up.

I will miss her laughter, her stories, and the wonderful surprise of finding her wherever people were organizing. But I will keep hearing her voice over breakfast. You live every day like you did the day before. And you never stop.

Now it is our turn.

Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and former national president and CEO of the NAACP. He also served as the founding director of Amnesty International USA’s domestic human rights program.

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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
3465287733

By Francis Page Jr.

Click here for updates on this story

    November 2, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Some journalists report history. Others become part of it. For more than four decades, Melanie Lawson has accomplished both, bringing intelligence, compassion, credibility, and unmistakable Houston pride into living rooms across Southeast Texas.

Now, the legendary former ABC13 Eyewitness News anchor is receiving another richly deserved standing ovation.

On Saturday, November 14, 2026, Lawson will be inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Lone Star Chapter during its annual Emmy Awards celebration at Houston’s 713 Music Hall.

And Houston couldn’t be prouder!

The Silver Circle recognizes broadcasting professionals whose careers span at least 25 years and whose contributions have left an enduring imprint on television and their communities. With more than four decades at KTRK-TV, Lawson has exceeded that standard in spectacular fashion. A Houston Original With a Remarkable Journey Born and raised in Houston, Lawson developed a passion for storytelling that eventually carried her from Princeton University to Columbia University, where she pursued law and journalism.

Following three years practicing law on Wall Street, she returned home to pursue her true calling: telling stories that matter.

What followed was an extraordinary broadcasting career that helped define Houston television news.

From covering historic elections and devastating hurricanes to interviewing presidents and global cultural icons, Lawson consistently demonstrated that journalism is about more than headlines. It is about humanity.

Her interviews have included Maya Angelou, George Foreman, the Dalai Lama, and influential American political leaders. She also chronicled Houston’s emergence as an international cultural powerhouse, including the rise of Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child.

Her outstanding journalism earned three Emmy Awards and widespread professional recognition. A Legacy Rooted in Faith, Family, and Service Lawson’s commitment to community reflects a remarkable family legacy.

Her father, the late Reverend William A. Lawson, founded Houston’s historic Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church and became a towering figure in the city’s civil rights movement.

Like her father, Melanie understood that public service requires more than visibility. It requires purpose.

Through community involvement, charitable leadership, and mentorship, she opened doors for aspiring journalists while helping ensure Houston’s diverse communities had a respected voice.

For generations of Black journalists, particularly women entering television news, her career has represented possibility, professionalism, and perseverance. A Well-Deserved Celebration Lawson, who retired from ABC13 in January 2026, joins fellow Houston broadcasting veterans Khambrel Marshall and Grace Olivares among this year’s Silver Circle inductees.

The November 14 celebration begins with doors opening at 5 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., and the Emmy Awards ceremony at 6:30 p.m. The sold-out event will also be livestreamed free through the EMMYS app.

For Houston Style Magazine, this recognition celebrates far more than one extraordinary broadcasting career. It honors a Houston daughter who elevated journalism, championed community, and inspired generations.

Melanie Lawson didn’t simply deliver the news. She helped Houston understand itself.

Congratulations, Melanie! Your place in the Silver Circle is well earned—and your place in Houston’s heart is forever golden. Official information: lonestaremmy.org

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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
3465287733

By Ben Jealous

Click here for updates on this story

    November 2, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Ohio’s Republican governor helped bring back the death penalty. Now he says it has lost its moral justification.

Ohio’s Republican House speaker wants to keep it. Meanwhile, he seems content to let bipartisan legislation to abolish capital punishment stay stuck in committee, blocking any chance of getting a bill to the governor’s desk.

Forty-five years ago, Mike DeWine believed executions would deter murder and save innocent lives.

This summer, he said he was wrong.

“The moral justification I had,” DeWine declared, “no longer exists.”

That should have sparked an extraordinary debate in Columbus. A survey of Ohio lawmakers found majority support for repeal among respondents. Yet Speaker Matt Huffman remains opposed, and the House bill has not reached a floor vote.

DeWine spent decades as a prosecutor, legislator, attorney general and governor, watching the law he helped create. He concluded its original justification no longer held up.

He is hardly alone. Twenty-seven former Ohio lawmakers signed a letter urging repeal of the death penalty law enacted in 1981. Some helped make that law.

What changed? Experience.

Decades of research have failed to demonstrate that executions deter murder. In a survey of leading American criminologists, 88 percent rejected the claim that capital punishment effectively reduces homicide.

Earlier research comparing neighboring states, including Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, found no consistent deterrent advantage. That does not prove executions cause more murders. It means their promised lifesaving benefit remains unproven.

Huffman defends executions for the most heinous crimes.

Some crimes are so terrible that words fail us. Families who lose loved ones deserve justice, compassion and safety. But life without parole can keep a murderer imprisoned until death.

What additional good does execution accomplish?

If the answer is retribution, that raises a question far older than our republic.

Pope Leo XIV has reaffirmed Catholic teaching that capital punishment violates human dignity. More than 500 Ohio faith leaders have urged lawmakers to abolish it.

Christians disagree about capital punishment. But the Apostle Paul warned against confusing justice with revenge. Quoting Scripture, he wrote: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Regardless of one’s faith, when government becomes an instrument of vengeance, it violates a foundational principle of civilization: justice must rise above revenge.

Ohio taxpayers also bear the cost.

Attorney General Dave Yost, who favors resuming executions, reports that 337 people received death sentences under Ohio’s modern law. Only 56 had been executed through 2025. None since 2018.

Death sentences require expensive trials and appeals, often followed by decades of confinement. Yost’s office cites estimates of $116 million to $348 million in additional capital-case costs, extrapolated from other states.

Meanwhile, DeWine announced $3.4 million in violent-crime-reduction grants this April for 44 law enforcement agencies across 28 Ohio counties.

Imagine what sustained investment could do for unsolved murders in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, for witnesses afraid to testify, and for families living with violent loss.

Repeal would not immediately release those estimated costs into police budgets. But resources are finite. Money devoted to pursuing death sentences cannot simultaneously be spent preventing violence.

Then consider Elwood Jones. After 27 years on Ohio’s death row, prosecutors dismissed his murder charge in December 2025 following the reversal of his conviction for withheld evidence.

You can release someone wrongfully imprisoned. You cannot bring back someone wrongfully executed.

Republicans Jean Schmidt and Adam Mathews sponsor House repeal legislation. Republican Stephen Huffman and Democrat Nickie Antonio sponsor Senate measures.

The House bill received an initial hearing in March 2025. It has not advanced out of committee.

If Huffman opposes repeal, he owes the public and his fellow lawmakers a real debate. Is preserving the death penalty about protecting Ohioans, or about retribution?

Let him explain why executions deserve scarce public-safety dollars. And let his colleagues vote.

DeWine helped create this law. After 45 years, he reconsidered what justice, safety and human dignity require.

The governor has put his conscience on the record. Maybe it’s time for Ohio’s speaker to check his own. Ben Jealous is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania and former national president and CEO of the NAACP.

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.

kierra lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
3465287733

By Josh Wallace

Click here for updates on this story

    DUNCAN, Oklahoma (KOCO) — A man was arrested Halloween night after he reportedly pointed a gun at a Duncan police officer responding to a call of shots fired at trick-or-treaters.

Duncan Police Department officials said that just after 8 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to Linwood Lane after receiving a call that “an individual had allegedly discharged a firearm in the direction of trick-or-treaters,” according to a news release.

At the scene, witnesses directed officers to the home where the shots were reportedly fired. As officers were arriving at the home, the man allegedly pointed a firearm at one of the responding officers, officials said.

“The individual complied with officers’ commands and exited the residence where he was taken into custody without further incident,” police officials said.

The man was arrested on complaints of assault and battery with a deadly weapon, attempted murder and possession of a firearm while intoxicated, according to the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office.

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 Stephanie Moore

Click here for updates on this story

    LAURENS COUNTY, South Carolina (WYFF) — A school district in South Carolina is addressing concerns after candy was given out in medicine bottles ahead of Halloween.

The Laurens County School District 56 addressed the concerns on Facebook Saturday evening.

The post said the following:

“Laurens County School District 56 does not promote or encourage students to play with medicine bottles. In fact, we teach our students the importance of medication safety and that medicine bottles should never be used as toys.

“We understand the concerns that have been raised regarding the recent distribution of candy in medicine bottles at one of our schools.

“We truly believe those involved had only good intentions and would never knowingly do anything to put a child in harm’s way. However, we recognize that even with the best intentions, this was not an appropriate way to distribute candy to students.

“We sincerely apologize for this situation and any concerns it has caused our families and community. We will use this as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of student safety and ensure that something like this does not happen again.The safety and well-being of our students will always be our top priority.”

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 Christian Bussiere

Click here for updates on this story

    DELTONA, Florida (WESH) — Deputies rescued a 4-year-old child from a retention pond in Deltona early Saturday morning, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

Jenexica Rodriguez-Crespo and Fermin Medrano-Perez, the parents of the child, were arrested on charges of child neglect and animal cruelty.

VSO responded after a caller reported an unaccompanied toddler walking near the pond. Deputies who heard the call through Live 911 spotted the child in the water and retrieved him.

“For us, that automatically triggers us to get up, move. We got to get there as quick as possible to kind of prevent worst-case scenario,” Sgt. Peter Carelli told WESH 2.

After identifying the child’s home, deputies found animal waste, a roach infestation, and mold inside, authorities said. Deltona Animal Control took custody of a caged dog that authorities said had been neglected.

“Walking up to the house, I just got this extreme foul odor from within, and I’ve been doing this for 13 years, and it was pretty bad enough that I was I was concerned that someone could have been possibly dead inside. That’s how bad it smelled,” Carelli said.

“It was just disheveled everywhere. There was stuff on the ground. There was feces that had been there for a long period of time, as well as urine,” he said. “There was insects, dead insects inside the house. You know, feces from insects. Just the whole condition.”

Deputies say a grandparent took custody of the child, and the Florida Department of Children and Families was contacted for follow-up.

“No child should have to go through that,” Carelli said.

Both parents have been released on bond.

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 Coleman Petit

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN FRANCISCO, California (KPIX) — Three people were rescued Friday from a burning vessel off of Stinson Beach after a good Samaritan vessel reported the fire, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday.

Watchstanders got a distress call just before noon from the good Samaritan, who told them that there was a vessel with smoke coming from it roughly five miles west of the beach, with a person waving their arms on board.

A lifeboat crew and a helicopter crew were launched, officials said, but by the time they arrived the good Samaritan had rescued all three boaters from the burning vessel.

The vessel then sunk, according to officials.

Coast Guard crew members transferred the rescued boaters to the lifeboat. None of the boaters sustained any injuries requiring care, officials said. They were taken to Pier 45, where their vessel had departed from before it caught fire and sunk.

The master of the vessel told the Coast Guard that it began rapidly taking on water through an engine compartment on its stern side, before eventually sinking.

The cause of the fire and sinking of the vessel is under investigation.

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.