Author: CNN

KCBS

By Michele Gile

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    HUNTINGTON BEACH, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A youth-restricted area containing books Huntington Beach city leaders deemed too obscene for children remains at its Central Library despite a judicial order to eliminate the section.

In 2023, the City Council ordered librarians to move materials with “sexual content” from the children’s section to the youth-restricted area on the fourth floor of the library. The action met stiff resistance, leading the American Civil Liberties Union to join a lawsuit filed by residents, including former librarian Erin Spivey, who left her job following the order.

“The instructions we expect the city to follow are returning the books to the children’s section, taking down the signs about restricted books, establishing the teen section and making sure that employees are protected from any pushback from the City Council,” Spivey said.

Spivey’s lawsuit accused city leaders of a censorship scheme that violates California’s Freedom to Read Act, which prohibits removing public library books from shelves solely because of their content. The judge ruled in her favor in September. The city filed an objection to the judge’s order to move the books.

Huntington Beach’s Susie and Tom Davidson consider themselves to be conservative and are against kids having access to sexual material, yet they want the city to comply with the judge’s order.

“I just think they kinda jumped the gun on all the restrictions,” Susie Davison said. “Now, they’re finding out that it’s not working, but they should be listening to the government and let’s get it back in there.”

The city said it will discuss the issue during a closed session meeting, but couldn’t comment further.

In June, voters rejected Huntington Beach’s library review board and approved a measure to eliminate the panel.

In the weeks leading up to the special election, Councilman Chad Williams’ political action committee paid for “Protect Our Kids from Porn” signs to be placed across Huntington Beach, sparking outrage from some parents.

Williams claimed the city’s libraries contained pornographic content. It’s a similar allegation made by the former mayor, which led the council to approve an appointed committee to oversee which books are allowed in the children’s section.

“Children should not have access to these books,” said former Mayor Gracey Van der Mark. “If you’re an adult go for it; you can read whatever you want. But, it is our job and our responsibility to protect children from material that could be harmful for them and if they’re not mentally mature enough to read these books we shouldn’t be exposing them and only the parents can decide that. The government should not be deciding if this is appropriate for their children.”

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KDKA

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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WCBS

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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WBZ

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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WBZ

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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WBZ

By AARON PARSEGHIAN

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    WORCESTER, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A Worcester store known as a community hub for all things Japanese manga culture was hit by a costly theft over the weekend.

John Le, owner of Otaku Sekai – which roughly translates from Japanese to “Nerd World” – said surveillance cameras caught a man stealing hundreds of Pokémon cards Saturday from his Park Avenue shop.

“It was a busy day,” Le said. “I had rows of people just trying to look at product cards and everything else. It was a very good opportunity for anyone that wanted to kind of, like, steal something.”

Video showed the suspect flipping through binders of Pokémon cards, stuffing several into his sweatshirt, then walking out with another full binder. Le estimated the man took around 500 cards worth more than $3,500.

“Three thousand dollars is two weeks of my staff’s pay,” Le said. “It’s a lot of money to us.”

The cards ranged in price from $5 to $15 each, far less than the rare, high-value collectibles that can sell for thousands. Le said the taking of that specific inventory makes the loss sting even more.

“My whole inventory in that price range is something that parents and kids can actually afford day to day,” he said. “So, it’s kind of sad that my whole inventory in that price range is gone.”

Le opened Otaku Sekai four years ago after leaving his corporate job, turning a small mall kiosk into a popular local gathering place for manga and trading card enthusiasts.

He says his goal was to create “a space for people to come and just hang out, be social, meet each other,” bonding through a common and growing interest.

Now, photos of the suspect are posted outside the shop as Worcester police investigate. Despite the setback, Le said he remains focused on the sense of community that first inspired his business.

“The family bonding – you know, the friends, the emotion, the feels that’s all into these cardboard that’s worth so much more than their monetary value,” he said.

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WBZ

By David Wade

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    Massachusetts (WBZ) — A woman who was run over and impaled by an e-bike is on a mission to get them better regulated in Massachusetts as their popularity grows.

It’s rare to see Lynne Forester and her husband Gary sitting still. Their iPad is proof, filled with photos from their international hiking trips.

“We’ve hiked 200 miles at one time, and 112 miles another time. We’ve done ten walks like that,” Lynne said.

At home, Lynne walks five miles on the Cape Cod Rail Trail every morning. But one morning last month, disaster struck. An e-bike slammed into Lynne. Somehow, the handlebars impaled her left eye. Her eye is still completely shut and the prognosis is unclear.

“I remember being hit. I remember my hands being under my face and blood was pouring out of my eye and then I went unconscious,” she recalled.

At the scene, first responders used the Jaws of Life to cut the handlebars from Lynne’s face. She spent 24 days in the hospital.

“I’m better than I thought I would be, accepting the damage to my eye,” she said.

Lynne knows she’s lucky to be alive. Last summer, Minh Dang, a father of three in Braintree, was hit and killed by an e-bike in Boston’s Back Bay. His family said he loved gardening, coffee, and being a dad.

So how could that happen from a bicycle?

E-bikes make going faster easier, thanks to a built-in battery that gives riders a boost while pedaling up to 20 miles per hour.

Mark Vautour at Landry’s Bicycles can hardly keep them in stock.

“They’re tremendously popular and growing,” Vautour said.

There are basically two types of e-bikes:

Class 1, which uses pedal assist only. Class 2, which has both pedals and a throttle.

They’re convenient and fun – when you ride under control. Whether you pedal or hit the throttle, once you reach 20 miles per hour, the battery shuts off.

The law in Massachusetts says if you go faster than 20 miles per hour using a motor, you need a license, registration, and a helmet. But police say a lot of people are modifying their bikes.

A quick search on YouTube shows dozens of videos explaining how to change the settings. Within minutes, riders can manipulate the settings to get their bikes up to 40 miles per hour.

Police across Massachusetts have been sharing videos of crashes and near-crashes, many involving teenagers.

In Mansfield, Police Chief Ronald Sellon told the town’s Select Board that they need to have a discussion about tighter rules on local bike paths. He says modified e-bikes are especially dangerous – powerful enough to reach speeds more like mopeds or motorcycles.

“I don’t think that folks realize that by law, that takes it from something that your 14- or 15-year-old can ride with a bicycle helmet – to you know you need a license, it needs to be registered,” Sellon said.

Many towns are already changing rules and posting warnings. At the State House, lawmakers are debating what else can be done.

The answer is still unclear. State Senator Barry Finegold, a Democrat from Andover, is pushing hard.

“Make it be common sense. If these things are like motorcycles, then get them licensed like motorcycles,” he said.

Meanwhile, get well cards and doctor’s appointments are piling up for Lynne Forester. Her left eye remains closed, and she still doesn’t know if she’ll ever see again.

“From what I know, the muscles that open your eye are not working,” she said.

She wants everyone to hear what happened to her and she wants e-bikes off all trails.

“I said it the first day I woke up, I said, ‘That’s going to be my mission,'” she said.

State law currently bans e-bikes on unpaved bike paths and kids under 17 have to wear helmets. Some towns want to ban them on all paths and make adults wear helmets as well.

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KCBS

By Matthew Rodriguez

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    SAN BERNARDINO, California (KCAL, KCBS) — San Bernardino police arrested a school bus driver after he allegedly threatened a tow yard worker on Tuesday.

The driver arrived at the yard in a school bus that was towing a trailer to pick up one of his other cars. He allegedly got angry and pointed a handgun at one of the employees, according to the San Bernardino Police Department.

Officers, who were nearby, responded to the tow yard and detained the suspect. The officers found a rifle and a crossbow sitting on the trailer.

San Bernardino PD booked the man for attempted assault with a deadly weapon. Investigators said he does not work for the school district and is a private bus driver.

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WWJ

By Paula Wethington

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    DETROIT, Michigan (WWJ) — A vehicle crashed sideways into a house on Roselawn Street in Detroit, resulting in injuries to the driver, but not to anyone inside the house.

Detroit police said the man who was driving the 2015 Ford Taurus lost control of the vehicle leading up to the crash at 3:20 a.m. Wednesday. The driver was thrown out of the vehicle during the crash into the home, police said. He was taken to DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital and reported to be in stable condition.

Although there were two people inside the home, neither of them was injured, police said.

Jordan Burrows contributed to this report.

Jackie Jackson said she and her daughter were sleeping in their bedrooms at the time, and the noise of the crash woke her up. She went to see what happened and discovered the car driver on the floor of their living room.

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KYW

By Stephanie Stahl, Ed Specht

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — A little boy from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, endured years of treatment for a rare childhood hip disorder, and now he’s back to playing sports.

Doctors say 9-year-old Landon Gallo had to be temporarily immobilized, making for a challenging journey. But now he’s better than ever, even sprinting without pain, after his treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Three years ago, Landon was limping and sidelined with pain that was originally thought to be growing pains.

“It was like the inside of, like my bone hurt, like my hip bone hurt,” Landon said.

He was eventually diagnosed with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, which happens when blood flow to the hip socket is interrupted. Left untreated, it can cause bone damage and a painful disability.

“When I first heard the diagnosis, I was really nervous because I didn’t know what to expect,” Landon’s mom, Jessica Gallo, said.

The treatment was to cast Landon’s legs in a V-shape. Landon was able to scoot on the floor at home, but getting around was a challenge.

“It seems a little bit barbaric to take a kid who is active, who loves to run and play, and to put him in casts so that he can’t walk,” said Dr. Wudbhav Sankar, Landon’s doctor at CHOP.

But Sankar said the casting allows blood flow to return to the hip socket.

Sankar said the cause of this rare disease isn’t known, and it’s usually treated with surgery or the casting that Landon had for six weeks.

After the casts were removed, Landon had extensive physical therapy, and now he’s back to the things he loves – soccer, lacrosse, skiing, Taekwondo and more.

He’s been cleared to play sports with no limitations.

“He’s doing really great, and it’s so exciting to see how far he’s come,” his mom said.

Doctors say this hip disorder is four times more likely to strike boys than girls and usually happens between ages 4 and 10.

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