Author: CNN Newsource

By Ana Maria Soler

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    DADE COUNTY, Florida (WFOR) — Three people were arrested in connection with a vehicle airbag theft ring in Miami-Dade, with investigators looking for a fourth suspect, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office announced.

Detectives with MDSO’s Intracoastal Auto Theft Unit identified the suspects as three teens after deputies responded to multiple locations across South Florida where vehicles had been broken into and airbags removed.

MDSO said that the three were taken into custody without incident. According to MDSO, the group is responsible for more than 40 stolen airbags from dozens of Honda vehicles across multiple incidents.

The suspects were identified as Rayeem Lawrence, 19, from Lauderdale Lakes; Nasir Brunson, 19, from Miami; and Reniyah Newman, 19, from Miami. The fourth person, who’s at large, has not yet been identified by authorities.

According to arrest reports for the suspects, the thefts began in early May. Deputies responded to several locations in northeast Miami-Dade where Honda vehicles had been burglarized and their driver-side airbags removed. On May 6, deputies documented three separate incidents along NE 191 Street, all involving Honda CR-Vs.

By May 20, detectives said the number of burglaries had grown. At least 27 Honda vehicles were broken into at a single location near NE 191 Street and NE 14 Avenue. Surveillance footage showed three people in dark hoodies arriving in a silver Honda sedan, breaking into multiple vehicles, and leaving in a stolen gray Honda CR-V.

On June 17, deputies responded to additional burglaries at Northlake Village Condos and Carmel at the California Club, where more Honda vehicles were targeted. Security footage from both locations showed three people in hoodies and face coverings entering vehicles and removing airbags.

Detectives identified the silver Honda Accord used in the crimes as being registered to Lawrence’s mother. On July 3, deputies stopped the Accord near NE 195 Street and Ives Dairy Road. Brunson, who was a passenger, was found to have an active warrant. During the stop, deputies found a wallet belonging to a recent burglary victim, as well as burglary tools and devices commonly used in vehicle theft.

Surveillance video from the Cedar Glenn complex showed Brunson, Newman, and another unnamed co-defendant jumping a fence, approaching a Chevrolet Suburban, and fleeing after being confronted by a witness. The group was later seen getting into a gray Honda sedan.

Lawrence was arrested on Aug. 15. According to detectives, he admitted in a recorded statement to driving associates who targeted Honda vehicles for their airbags and said he was paid for his involvement.

Brunson faces charges of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and possession of burglary tools.

Newman is charged with burglary of an unoccupied conveyance.

Lawrence faces multiple charges, including grand theft of motor vehicle parts, burglary conspiracy, grand theft conspiracy, and criminal solicitation.

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said the group caused an estimated $102,500 in stolen airbags and $14,700 in damaged vehicle windows.

The investigation continues as deputies search for the fourth suspect involved in the theft ring.

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 Ivan Taylor

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    MIAMI, Florida (WFOR) — Miami Police and employees of a Mexican restaurant in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood are asking for the public’s help identifying a couple accused of stealing a tip jar containing money intended for the kitchen staff.

Surveillance video from La Potranca Tacos & Cantina on Biscayne Boulevard captured the incident on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

Restaurant employees said the jar contained approximately $80 to $100 in tips.

The money had a special purpose. Employees said servers had agreed that tips collected from takeout orders would go to the cooks working in the kitchen.

But that night, employees say, the money disappeared after a couple came into the restaurant.

Surveillance video shows a woman walking into the restaurant and approaching the counter. Video from another camera appears to show her grabbing the tip jar and attempting to conceal it while looking to her left.

A man can also be seen nearby, appearing to keep watch as the woman takes the jar.

Brisa Briones, regional manager for La Potranca, said she was furious when she reviewed the surveillance footage.

“When I saw the video, I felt angry because people work so hard. They don’t deserve that,” Briones told CBS News Miami.

Milton Alvarez was working in the kitchen when the incident happened. He said employees were stunned when they learned what had happened.

“The truth is that we were left speechless when we saw the video,” Alvarez said in Spanish. “It is some extra money we look forward to getting.”

According to Briones, the pair initially entered the restaurant and behaved like regular customers.

“First they came and they ordered like regular customers, and they left the place,” she said.

Briones said the couple later returned. That’s when the restaurant’s surveillance cameras captured the images employees say show the woman taking the tip jar while the man stood nearby.

The restaurant has been operating in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood for nearly a year. Briones said management reported the incident to Miami police.

Employees believe the couple may live in South Florida and hope someone will recognize them from the surveillance footage.

Anyone with information about the identities of the two people is encouraged to contact Miami police.

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 Francis Page Jr.

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    August 25, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — HOUSTON — Democracy had a front-row seat as the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce (GHWCC) convened Harris County Judge candidates Dr. Letitia Plummer and Orlando Sanchez for a substantive post-primary forum before Houston-area business, civic and community leaders.

The event carried added significance with remarks from Houston City Council Member Martha Castex-Tatum, helping set a tone of civic responsibility, leadership and voter participation.

Dr. Plummer, the Democratic nominee, highlighted her experience as a dentist, mother, small-business owner and former Houston City Council Member At-Large, while emphasizing responsive government, neighborhood investment and public safety.

photo GHWCC Greater Houston Women’s Chamber Debate 2026

Orlando Sanchez, the Republican nominee and former Harris County Treasurer, presented his own Houston story—rooted in his Cuban immigrant upbringing, Bellaire High School and University of Houston education, and decades of public-service experience. Guiding the conversation were respected Houston voices Dr. Jacquie Baly, Nancy Sims and Grant Trammell, whose facilitation helped keep the focus on issues rather than political theater.

Under the leadership of GHWCC Founder, President and CEO Suzan Deison, the forum once again demonstrated why informed civic engagement matters.

The biggest winner? Harris County voters—because democracy is strongest when candidates answer questions, communities listen, and citizens ultimately make the choice.

More Information on the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce, go to: ghwcc.org

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Kierra Lee
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3465287733

By Francis Page Jr.

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    August 25, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — HOUSTON — Houston’s September docket is about to get crowded—in the best possible way. From September 17–20, 2026, federal judges, attorneys, law students, educators, corporate legal leaders and aspiring young advocates from across America will gather in Houston for Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization’s 13th National Conference, “Pursuing a More Perfect Union.” And Houston Style Magazine is proud to serve as a media sponsor, helping amplify an event that places opportunity, justice and the future of American democracy squarely in the spotlight.

Held every four years, the JTB-APO National Conference is designed to connect generations of legal talent while expanding pathways into a profession that has tremendous influence over civil rights, constitutional freedoms, businesses, families and communities. Official conference information confirms programming from September 17 through September 20, with activities centered in downtown Houston.

That makes the conference more than another gathering of people carrying briefcases and quoting precedent.

It is democracy doing some serious recruiting.

For more than three decades, Just the Beginning has worked to encourage students from historically underrepresented communities to pursue careers and leadership opportunities in law. Its approach combines education, exposure and connection—the idea being that young people are more likely to imagine themselves becoming attorneys, judges and policymakers when they can actually meet the people already doing the work. JTB’s programs reach students from middle school through law school and emphasize leadership skills, mentorship and real-world legal experiences.

During the Houston conference, students will participate in immersive legal programming while attorneys and judges take part in Continuing Legal Education programs, judicial conversations, networking and mentoring opportunities. The official registration program includes CLE panels, student enrichment activities, judicial meetings, a luncheon honoring a legendary Texas jurist and an awards celebration recognizing trailblazers and scholarship recipients.

One of the weekend’s most meaningful moments will honor the late Judge Reynaldo Guerra Garza, whose career permanently widened the doorway to America’s federal judiciary.

Born in Brownsville, Texas, Garza was nominated by President John F. Kennedy to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1961 and confirmed by the Senate that April. He became the nation’s first Mexican American federal district judge, later serving as Chief Judge of the Southern District of Texas from 1974 to 1979 before President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

That history matters because representation in the justice system is not simply about symbolism. Courts earn public confidence when Americans can believe that the institutions interpreting the Constitution understand the breadth of the nation they serve.

Leading the 2026 gathering as conference co-chairs are two distinguished Houston jurists: Hon. Vanessa D. Gilmore, U.S. District Judge (Ret.), who served on the Southern District of Texas federal bench from 1994 until her retirement in 2022, and Hon. Alfred H. Bennett, who has served as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas since his 2015 confirmation.

The conference will also celebrate four law student scholarship recipients, including scholarships connected to Houston’s law-school community. Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law notes that JTB’s conference scholarships include recipients associated with Houston law schools along with the Joshua and Dorothy Williams Memorial Legal Education Scholarship.

For Houston, hosting “Pursuing a More Perfect Union” feels especially appropriate. This is one of America’s youngest, most diverse and most internationally connected major cities—a place where tomorrow rarely waits politely for permission to arrive.

A more perfect union was never meant to describe a finished product. It is an assignment passed from one generation to the next.

And this September, some of the young people walking into a Houston conference room may eventually walk into a courtroom wearing the robe.

Houston Style Magazine is proud to help tell their story from the beginning. photo

Registration & Conference Information: Just the Beginning National Conference

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Kierra Lee
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3465287733

By Burt Levine

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    August 25, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — HOUSTON — In Texas politics, sometimes the road from the blue side of the aisle to the red side leads straight to the judicial bench.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced August 25, 2026, that former Democratic state Rep. Shawn Nicole Thierry, who switched to the Republican Party in 2024, will become judge of Harris County’s newly created 515th Judicial District Court. Her appointment becomes effective September 1 and runs through December 31, 2028, or until a successor is elected and qualified.

For Thierry, it represents another remarkable turn in a Houston political career that has moved from Democratic legislative politics to Republican alignment — and now into Texas’ judiciary.

The 515th Judicial District is composed of Harris County and, under state law, will give preference to civil cases. The court was created by the Texas Legislature as part of an expansion of Harris County’s judicial capacity and takes effect September 1, 2026.

Abbott pointed to Thierry’s nearly three decades of legal experience in announcing the appointment. She currently serves as executive director of Policy in the Office of General Counsel at Texas Southern University, bringing her political journey home to an institution with deep roots in Houston’s Black legal and civic history.

Thierry earned her bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Management from Howard University and her Juris Doctor from Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Her résumé also includes membership in the State Bar of Texas and Houston Bar Association, along with civic involvement ranging from literacy organizations to community service. Abbott previously appointed her to the Texas Juvenile Justice Board in 2025.

But it is impossible to tell the Shawn Thierry story without discussing politics.

First elected in 2016, Thierry represented heavily Democratic Texas House District 146 for four terms. Her relationship with Democratic activists deteriorated significantly during the 2023 legislative session after she joined Republicans and several fellow Democrats in supporting Senate Bill 14, which prohibited certain gender-transition-related medical treatments for minors. The measure was signed into law by Abbott in June 2023.

photo

Thierry argued that children should wait until adulthood before making certain potentially irreversible medical decisions. Critics within her party argued that the legislation interfered with decisions they believed should remain between families and medical professionals.

That debate followed her home.

In the 2024 Democratic primary runoff, union organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons defeated Thierry, ending Thierry’s bid for a fifth House term. The race became a referendum not simply on one legislative vote, but on representation itself: How far may an elected official depart from the prevailing views of the voters and party that elected them before those voters decide to make a change?

That question is democracy doing exactly what democracy does — sometimes loudly, sometimes painfully and almost never neatly.

Three months after losing the primary, Thierry announced she was leaving the Democratic Party and joining the Republicans, saying her positions on children, family, faith and women’s sports were increasingly incompatible with Democratic Party policies. Abbott publicly welcomed her into the GOP.

Now comes a different assignment.

Campaign applause, party labels and legislative floor fights should matter considerably less when a judge puts on the robe. Litigants appearing before the 515th District Court will not be asking whether Thierry once carried a Democratic primary ballot or later joined the Republican Party. They will expect something far more fundamental: equal justice, impartiality, competence and fidelity to the law.

That is where democracy’s next test begins.

Thierry said following the appointment that she intends to serve with “integrity, fairness, and respect for the rule of law.”

Those words establish a worthy standard.

Because political parties may open doors, close doors — or lead someone to an entirely different hallway. But inside a courtroom, justice must belong to everybody.

And in Harris County, everybody will be watching.

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
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3465287733

By Francis Page Jr.

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    August 25, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — Houston Congressman Al Green has again put the Constitution where he believes it belongs – squarely in the middle of America’s political conversation. On Monday, August 24, Green filed H.Res. 1486, articles of impeachment accusing President Donald J. Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors tied to the administration’s immigration-enforcement practices and what Green describes as a broader assault on constitutional restraints. Green’s office says the resolution alleges that Trump allowed ICE and Customs and Border Protection to operate without adequate accountability while assaulting civilians and covering up unjustified killings, naming Renée Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.

Green followed the filing with a direct communiqué to Trump — not a victory lap, but a constitutional warning shot. He told the president that the issue, in his view, is not Democrat versus Republican, conservative versus liberal, or Left versus Right, but “right versus wrong.” That framing matters. The Constitution was never designed as a party souvenir to be pulled from the shelf only when convenient. It is the operating agreement for a republic, and Green is arguing that no president gets an unlimited data plan for executive power.

The resolution goes further, accusing Trump of abusing presidential authority by turning ICE and CBP into “unaccountable paramilitary police forces” while threatening due process, free speech, judicial independence and the separation of powers. Those are Green’s allegations, not adjudicated findings. The White House and Department of Homeland Security rejected them Tuesday, August 25, defended federal immigration officers and called the impeachment effort baseless. That rebuttal belongs in the record, too, because democracy works best when charges are public, responses are public and evidence is tested rather than buried beneath partisan shouting.

Politically, Green is climbing a steep hill. Republicans currently control both chambers, and filing articles does not itself impeach a president. Under the Constitution, the House must approve articles by a simple majority; conviction in the Senate requires two-thirds of senators present. H.Res. 1486, therefore, is not a removal notice. It is a constitutional accusation placed into the national record.

That distinction is precisely why Green’s action may matter even if it never reaches a Senate trial. He acknowledged the arithmetic in his letter, arguing that unsuccessful articles can still register formal disapproval and demonstrate that some members of Congress are “watching and willing to act.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney — hardly a liberal icon — warned in 2022 that Trump represented an extraordinary threat to the republic, a reminder that concern over democratic guardrails has crossed ideological lines.

Green, who has represented Houston in Congress since 2005 and lost his Democratic primary runoff to Christian Menefee in May, is making this stand as his current House tenure nears its end. That gives the moment an added layer: a longtime Houston congressman choosing confrontation over quiet departure.

For Houston Style Magazine readers, the issue is larger than one politician. Democracy determines whether neighborhoods are heard, courts remain independent, immigrant families receive due process and federal power answers to law. Green’s critics will call the filing political theater. His supporters will call it constitutional courage. Both can debate the tactic.

But the larger democratic principle should be harder to dispute: presidents are powerful, not sovereign. Congress is not decorative. Courts are not optional. Free speech is not a favor. Due process is not a loophole.

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America’s democratic experiment has survived wars, assassinations, scandal, segregation and constitutional crises because citizens and institutions kept insisting that the rules still mattered. Al Green’s latest filing is one more test of that insistence. The outcome is uncertain; the responsibility is not.

Democracy does not protect itself. People do.

More Congressman Al Green Information, go to: algreen.house.gov

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Kierra Lee
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By Todd Feurer

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — A White Sox fan went viral after spilling her purse as celebrated picking up catcher Jake Rogers’ walk-off home run ball on Friday at Rate Field.

Emma Rodriguez didn’t catch Rogers’ home run on the fly, but picked it up when a team employee pointed it out to her on the ground in the front row of the bleachers.

While she celebrated the White Sox’s walk-off 6-4 win over the Mets, jumping up and down, everything spilled out of her Coach purse – including her keys, wallet, cash, change, and lip gloss.

Rodriguez did get everything back after the game, and she gave the ball back to Rogers to help him commemorate his first career walk-off home run.

In return, Rodriguez received a signed bat, ball, and jersey, along with a thank you note from Rogers.

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.