Author: CNN

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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WBZ

By Courtney Cole

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    TAUNTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Laughter, not fear, is the goal of “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” and the community theater production at the Taunton Performing Arts Center aims to defy expectations.

The unexpected take on the classic horror tale arrives just in time for Halloween.

“This is not scary whatsoever. You may be horrified, but not for the reasons you think,” said actor Brendan Pione.

“It is lovingly based on Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula,'” explained actor Fred Halperin, “but it more aligns to campiness and a lot of innuendo and funny situations, funny scenarios.”

The gender-bending play is quick with the jokes.

“It goes in a completely different direction than the original, but still holds certain plot lines to it,” said director Natalie Cabral. “This Dracula is very different. It’s very sexy, very comical, very conceited sort of.”

Christopher Francis is having a blast playing the Count from Transylvania.

“It’s a very funny Dracula. It’s a very sexual Dracula. It’s a very promiscuous kind of guy,” he explained.

Actor Cassandra Gilbert added, “Honestly, this show, we push the envelope, which not a lot of shows do in community theater.”

For the cast, that community aspect is crucial to performing a piece like this.

“There’s a level of freedom to it. There’s a safeness to it. There’s an understanding that when you’re performing, you’re becoming a different person who’s not you,” Halperin said.

“It’s a less intimidating first step to take to say, I want to try this out. I want to try to express myself this way. And I want to do it in a place where I feel supported and there are lower stakes,” said Francis.

Pione added, “Everyone I know who finds out about this place is just surprised they never heard of it, wishes their own town had one.”

In the end, it’s all designed to show the audience a good time.

Cabral said, “It’s both what you love about Dracula and what you love about comedies all in one.”

“What I really hope that they’re talking about is how much fun they had,” said Francis. “I think that’s the overall goal.”

“Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” will be at the Taunton Performing Arts Center on Main Street from October 16 through the 19th.

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KPIX

By Da Lin, Jose Fabian

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — A school in San Francisco is changing how students learn by making artificial intelligence central to their education.

For 13-year-old June Rockefeller, her school experience will be different starting this year.

“I love school so much now. I think it’s just really fun,” she said.

Rockefeller is part of the inaugural class at Alpha, a new school in San Francisco that’s using AI and removing bells, grades and even teachers. AI handles the lessons, and adults are called guides and coaches, who are there to help with “motivational and emotional support.”

Students spend just two hours on core subjects, all taught by AI-powered apps, which, according to the school, do not have chat functionality. Instead, the AI uses a “vision model to watch the screen and coach … on how to learn more effectively.”

The rest of the day is used for hands-on life skills and passion projects, the school said. Ethan Wong, 14, was using AI to design an app for molecular gastronomy. On this day, he learned how to pitch his startup to investors.

“I really enjoy spending less time doing academics and spending more time doing things I love,” Wong said.

His dad, James Wong, admits he wasn’t sure about the experiment until he saw it in action.

“I had not seen that smile when he exited school in a very long time,” James said.

Carson Lehmann, Alpha’s lead guide, said education has been slow to change.

“I want them to see that they can create something, they don’t need any other skills, they don’t need a crazy degree in computer science, they are able to create a functioning app,” he said.

“What needs to be made really clear is that some of the consequences of unregulated and currently unstudied AI in education settings could have potentially really impactful and negative effects on our students,” said Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco.

And then there’s the price, $75,000 a year, more than many Ivy League schools. Alpha claims students at its other campuses score in the top one to two percent nationally across all grade levels.

The school started with just 15 students, but next fall it aims to enroll 75, with scholarships open to some families. And for Rockefeller, there’s no going back.

“It’s high standards, but it doesn’t stress me out,” she said.

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WBZ

By Logan Hall

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    QUINCY, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Baseball players gathered for a game in Quincy, Massachusetts Sunday, where they attempted to play 100 innings, all to raise money for ALS research.

The group made it to 53 innings, spread out over two days, before it was called due to the impending nor’easter. The home team defeated the visiting team, 66 to 53.

The game is benefiting the Angel Fund, which was founded by Rich Kennedy. His life has been hit hard by ALS; he was diagnosed in 2016 and his father and brother both died of the disease. Nearly a decade into his diagnosis, he said he’s still fighting.

“I’d get into fights all the time but this is the toughest fight I’ve ever been in,” said Kennedy. “Events like this are unbelievable, it keeps me optimistic.”

Over their 22 years of hosting the special baseball game, they’ve raised nearly $1 million.

“Yesterday, we got a $5,000 check, so many of these people know ALS very well, so it’s unbelievable, tremendous camaraderie, it’s fabulous,” said Kennedy.

The donations are meaningful but often the biggest sense of accomplishment comes for the players on the baseball diamond.

“I’ve learned when you get into a tough fight, lot of friends at your back, you can win,” said Kennedy.

In addition to 100 innings of baseball, the Angel Fund also hosts a golf tournament in Haverhill and a walk in Wakefield. They also participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in Wilmington.

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WJZ

By Tara Lynch

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    BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A settlement in one victim’s case could come as soon as next month — more than a year and a half after the cargo ship Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

According to court records obtained by WJZ, attorneys for Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, one of the six construction workers killed in the collapse, will meet on November 3 to discuss a deal.

The family’s wrongful death lawsuit was filed last September against Synergy Marine and Grace Ocean, the ship’s owner and operator.

If a deal is reached, this would be the first settlement for any of the families.

WJZ reached out to a spokesperson for the ship’s owner and operator, but has not yet heard back.

An independent legal expert told WJZ he isn’t surprised the family of Castillo Cabrera is settling now before their case gets caught up in a potential appeal process.

This is just one step in a lengthy legal battle following the bridge’s collapse that could span years.

“The personal injury wrongful death claimants typically go to the head of the line when it comes to the apportionment of damages,” said Allen Black, a maritime lawyer and professor of maritime law at the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore. “It makes sense for the personal injury claimants for Mr. Cabrera’s estate to come forward now and try and resolve this matter without waiting for the whole limitation of liability issue to be resolved. That issue’s going to take several years.”

Castillo Cabrera was a Guatemala-native who lived in Dundalk. He was 26 years old at the time of the collapse.

He was one of eight men working on the bridge, filling potholes, the night the ship crashed into the bridge on March 26, 2024.

According to the family’s wrongful death claim, Castillo Cabrera’s life “revolved around working hard and being there for his parents and family”.

Castillo Cabrera’s family and the families of two other victims filed wrongful death lawsuits against Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited last September, including the family of Miguel Luna, whose wife spoke with CBS News last fall. She says her husband was a hero.

“The only thing I would love for people to know is that, for me, my husband is a hero, alongside his five co-workers,” Maria del Carmen Castellon, the wife of Miguel Luna Gonzalez, said in Spanish.

There is also a fight by the ship’s owner and operator to limit their liability in this case.

Right now, the liability fund is capped $44 million, but if liability is not limited, billions could be available to any claim with physical damages, including paying for the new key bridge.

“Lawyers should never forecast, but I think it’s an uphill battle for the ship interest,” Black said.

This is just one side of what is a very complex case. The judge will likely decide if limited liability should be granted to the owner and operator of the ship next year.

There is also a pending criminal investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice.

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KCNC

By Kennedy Cook

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    Colorado (KCNC) — After tragedy struck Evergreen High School, the University of Colorado struck up the band.

“Evergreen, like so many communities, went through a trauma no one should ever have to face,” said CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz.

But just a week later, CU’s leadership began asking how they could help bring a little light, and music, back into the students’ lives.

“About a week after the tragedy, our chancellor reached out to the dean of the College of Music, John Davis, and said, ‘Hey, is there something we can do?'” said Logan Sorey with CU’s band program.

“Within 20 minutes, we emailed back saying, ‘Absolutely. Give us 24 hours and we’ll give you some options,'” said Sorey.

Their favorite option? Inviting Evergreen High’s marching band to take the field at Folsom with their drums, brass, and spirit echoing resilience.

Among them was Maya Hyslop, Evergreen’s drum major.

“I think I’m doing pretty good,” she said with a laugh, surrounded by dozens of new bandmates and with twenty songs to master.

After hours of rehearsal and weeks of anticipation, both bands were ready to share the field and a powerful message of unity.

“I was nothing but impressed with today,” said Sorey. “You never know what headspace people are going to be in. I’ve been talking to my students for two weeks about the excitement for today, and they brought it. They were ready for Evergreen to join us.”

That shared spirit carried through every note, a reminder that music doesn’t just fill stadiums; it heals hearts.

“It’s the same kind of mentality,” Hyslop added. “Take care of your own. And our own, in this case, is the music community.”

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