Author: CNN

WCCO

By Nicholas Lentz, Ubah Ali

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    MINNESOTA (WCCO) — A 42-year-old man is accused of stealing a law enforcement camera that reads license plates in Faribault, Minnesota, and trying to break it, according to a court document filed in Rice County.

According to the criminal complaint, the man from Faribault is charged with one count each of theft, interfering with emergency communications and fourth-degree damage to property.

An individual reported to police on July 27 that someone had stolen a Flock camera, the court document said. The company is contracted by the City of Faribault for automated license plate readers, which police use for investigations, missing persons and other tasks.

The complaint said officers checked the camera located near the intersection of Lyndale Avenue South and Highland Place in Faribault and saw it had been removed.

“The cables that had been attached to the camera appeared to have been cut and were hanging freely,” according to the court document.

Police learned the camera went offline during the morning of July 27, the complaint said. The individual who reported the theft told investigators the man charged had allegedly come to their shop on Seventh Street around midnight on July 26 and was telling them about Flock cameras. At one point, he said, “I think I might take one,” according to the court document.

During the afternoon of July 27, the man came to the individual’s shop on Central Avenue, opened a backpack and told them, “it’s one of those Flock cameras,” the complaint said. The individual said they wanted nothing to do with it.

The man later showed up to one of the individual’s stores, was looking for tools and trying to “tear apart” the camera, according to the court document.

The complaint said officers executed a warrant to search the man’s home. They told him they assumed he knew why they were there.

According to the complaint, the man told police he found a camera in the road “the other night,” that he didn’t know what it was and wasn’t going to keep it. The officers then asked the man to retrieve the camera, which they later saw had black tape over the lens.

While speaking with the man, the complaint said, the officers saw a backpack that “appeared consistent” with the backpack he was wearing in surveillance video of the shop that investigators had previously reviewed.

Both the Flock camera and backpack were seized as evidence, the court document said. The license plate reader had the same serial number as the camera missing from the area of Lyndale Avenue South and Highland Place.

If convicted, the man faces a maximum of over four years in prison and a fine of up to $14,000.

At the same time, law enforcement agencies in other Minnesota communities say they’re seeing an increase in vandals targeting the cameras.

In Winona, police say someone cut down poles and removed all eight Flock cameras, leaving the city’s entire system offline since Saturday. The estimated value of the stolen equipment is roughly $24,000. Investigators are working to learn who is responsible.

Edina officials say the city has experienced four separate incidents involving Flock cameras being damaged.

As of Monday, the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office has had one issue with vandalism of a camera, in the City of Nowthen.

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.

KTVT

By J.D. Miles

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    TEXAS (KTVT) — An almost unbelievable update on a story we first told you about in May, when authorities in Hunt County seized a number of starving dogs from a rural property and charged the owner with animal cruelty.

Some of those dogs were believed to be near death when they were taken to an SPCA facility in Dallas. There were doubts and questions about whether they could be nursed back to health.

One dog was so malnourished that he had to be carried by Hunt County Sheriff’s deputies out of what investigators described as hellish conditions when the dog and six others were seized from farmland back in May.

“This is definitely one of the worst cases that we’ve seen in quite a few years,” said Rebecca Woodward, the SPCA Sr. Director of Shelter and Medical Operations.

The one they called Boone was said to be hours from dying when he and the others were rushed to the SPCA of Texas Dallas shelter, where a team of 150 staff and volunteers worked around the clock for weeks to save him.

“He could barely walk,” said Woodward. “Our team knew it was critical to come in and save him very quickly. And it was an hour-by-hour situation. He had to have really close monitoring from all teams to pull through, but we never stopped believing that he would make it.”

Today, Boone is thriving.

“As long as we were taking those little steps of improving his nutrition and improving his health day by day, we could see the spark come back in his eyes,” Woodward said.

Boone, Clyde and Cash are still at the SPCA shelter in Dallas with others currently in foster homes.

But all of them, ages 3 to 8, we are glad to report, are thriving.

“It took everyone at the SPCA to play a hand in this. And so we’ve been rooting for him from day one,” said Woodward. “And we just can’t wait to see him get a forever home.”

Boone and the other dogs seized in the raid are currently available for fostering and adoption. Whoever they end up with will have a family pet with a survival story unlike almost any other

In fact, the staff at the SPCA of Texas, Dallas, believes these dogs that have been through so much seem to show a greater appreciation of everything they get.

“They all just seem to be enjoying their life right now,” Woodward said. “And I would like to believe it’s because they got that second chance, but they could just be being dogs. I mean, they’re getting to play. They got to do enrichment. Our goal is for them to do this in a home, but to see them blossom in shelter, we’re doing something right.”

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WBBM

By Tara Molina

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago says treated wastewater from its Calumet plant could be redirected to data centers — potentially reducing how much drinking water those facilities consume each day.

The Calumet Water Reclamation Plant processes an average of 350 million gallons of water daily, treating sewage, rainwater and wastewater before releasing it into the Little Calumet River. John Murray, who leads the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, said that treated water could instead be put to industrial use.

“It would be possible here to use treated water reuse not only in data centers but also industrial settings,” Murray said.

The district serves Chicago and 48 nearby suburbs — roughly 1 million customers.

The push comes as data centers face growing scrutiny over their water consumption. As CBS News Chicago has reported, a single data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water in one day — the same amount as a medium-sized town — and that water does not return to the water system.

Most data centers in the area currently rely on municipal drinking water to cool their computers, servers and equipment. Rachel Havrelock of The Freshwater Lab explained why that water isn’t recovered.

“Oftentimes these cooling systems are what we call evaporative cooling — that means the water is lost to the system,” Havrelock said.

Nationally, data centers accounted for 17.4 billion gallons of water use in 2023, a figure projected to grow to 72.6 billion gallons by 2028.

Murray said shifting data centers to recycled water would reduce pressure on Lake Michigan.

“It would decrease the amount of water that would have to be used from Lake Michigan,” he said.

But the transition wouldn’t happen overnight. New infrastructure would be needed to move treated water from a plant like Calumet to industrial sites — and that infrastructure doesn’t come cheap.

“If there was a data center built nearby one of our plants, there would have to be a way to get the water to them, so there would have to be a pipeline. There would have to be pumps. The water would have to get to them, and it’s very costly to do that,” Murray said.

Murray said any such project would go through a public process, addressing the kind of concerns that have already shaped local pushback and new rules around data centers in the Chicago area.

“Anything we would do, any project we would consider like that — we would be working through an open, public, transparent process,” he said. “Any type of situation that arises where there could be a water reuse project pursued? We would be very open and very transparent and working with our neighbors to ensure that appropriate mitigation measures are put in place.”

Researchers and water protection advocates say that conversation needs to start soon, pointing to states like California as examples of places that have already addressed the issue. Murray framed the potential shift in straightforward terms.

“That would be a benefit to the environment,” he said.

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WBBM

By Sara Machi

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Thousands of dollars of new and unused school supplies – including books, beakers, and maps – were thrown in the trash outside an elementary school in Avondale ahead of the new school year.

Now neighbors want to know why this happened as others try to salvage what they can.

It might be that one man’s trash is another’s treasure, but some are questioning why these items are in the trash at all.

“What you don’t see is there’s really good stuff on the bottom too,” Ashley Di Bella said.

Hundreds of items – likely worth thousands of dollars – were salvaged from the dumpsters outside Carlos Fuentes Elementary School in Avondale, on the city’s Northwest Side; some still brand new in packaging.

“I called some of my other daycare colleagues and was, like, ‘Child, come on up out here. They got stuff for third graders, they got stuff for first graders, they got stuff for kindergarteners,'” Parish Banks said.

Banks drove 30 minutes to Fuentes Elementary to get supplies to open a new daycare in Greater Grand Crossing.

“Worth it. Look, I’m still digging,” Banks said.

People in Avondale were especially concerned that the items thrown in the dumpsters outside Fuentes Elementary could have been reused, because many are brand new, and come in multiples, including textbooks in sets by the dozen.

“My understanding, based on what I talked with them this morning, there still will be stuff thrown out. How much I’m not sure,” Di Bella said.

Fuentes Elementary is one of five former charter schools run by Acero that were set to be closed at the end of the 2025-26 school year, but instead are being taken over by the Chicago Public Schools.

A CPS spokesperson said the district “is dedicated to being a responsible steward of public resources and supporting our schools, families and neighborhood communities.”

“As Carlos Fuentes Elementary School prepares to become a District-managed school, District staff were charged this summer with clearing out legacy materials left behind by the former operator,” a CPS spokesperson said. “CPS expects all transition teams to prioritize donation and recycling whenever possible. It appears that some of the disposed items at this school included textbooks that do not meet approved learning standards for CPS classrooms. We will continue to evaluate the disposal process at Fuentes Elementary and other schools to ensure usable supplies are redirected to community partners, families, or local organizations moving forward.”

It’s unclear if the same process is playing out at the four other former Acero schools being taken over by CPS.

But by Monday morning, not all that had been thrown out could be salvaged, because of this weekend’s severe weather.

“Almost everything is ruined, because of the rain, which is very unfortunate. So many books,” Jana Signer said.

Signer and her sister came by Fuentes Elementary to save as much as possible from the dumpsters, a mission that hits close to home after they were raised by their mother, a teacher who often paid her own money for supplies.

“It’s really unfortunate. It blows my mind that they would throw away usable stuff when there are kids that don’t have that kind of stuff,” she said.

They’re now hauling away what they can, hoping the supplies end up with students and not in the landfill.

Headlines have appeared previously about Chicago schools discarding books en masse, albeit for a different reason and not involving any new books.

In 2022, some were alarmed when hundreds of books were seen in dumpsters at Lake View High School, 4015 N. Ashland Ave. — including a copy each of August Wilson’s “Fences,” Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” On that occasion, the principal of Lake View High said the disposal of the books was an example of weeding, which he said ensures the school removes materials in poor condition or containing inaccurate or dated information.

In 2024, two dumpsters full of paperbacks and textbooks were seen piled up outside Carl Schurz High School, at 3601 N. Milwaukee Ave. in the Irving Park neighborhood.

Various biology and chemistry textbooks and lab notebooks, a copy of Mawi Asgedom’s “Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard,” and multiple copies of Peter Mayle’s 1991 national bestseller “A Year in Provence” were among the books visible in a massive dumpster.

At that time, CBS News Chicago reached out to the Chicago Public Schools, which again said the disposal of the books is part of “the regular weeding process.” The books were old, outdated, and no longer needed, and thus were thrown away, CPS 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.

WBBM

By Todd Feurer

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    Chicago (WBBM) — Seven people were rescued after their boat capsized on Lake Michigan on Monday evening near 49th Street near the Kenwood neighborhood.

Chicago Fire Department officials said three of the boaters were taken to the hospital in good condition. The other four refused transport.

It’s unclear what caused their boat to capsize.

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.

WBBM

By Adam Harrington, Aida Mogos

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    CHICAGO, Illiinois (WBBM) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday signed a law designating July 25 as Emmett Till Day statewide.

July 25 is Till’s birthday. He would have turned 85 this year.

While visiting family in Mississippi in 1955, Till, 14 at the time, was kidnapped in the dead of night and then brutally lynched after reportedly whistling at a white woman.

When Till’s badly decomposed body was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River, his mother Mamie Till refused to allow a quick burial and instead brought his remains back to Chicago, where she insisted on an open casket funeral.

That open casket funeral, and photos from it which were printed in newspapers nationwide, are credited with sparking the modern-day Civil Rights Movement.

Pritzker signed the bill designating Emmett Till Day at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, 4021 S. State St., where Till’s funeral was held.

The governor said he hopes the Emmett Till designation will encourage communities to mark July 25 each year for education, reflection, and public programming.

“Mamie Till-Mobley said, ‘Let the people see what they did to my boy!’ and today, Illinois is answering the call one more time,” Pritzker said. “By signing this legislation, we ensure that the lives of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley will not be forgotten.”

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.

WBBM

By CBS Chicago Team, Jermont Terry, Jeramie Bizzle

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    CHICAGO, Illinois (WBBM) — A scary situation for a CBS News Chicago reporter and photographer who were attacked near the Adler Planetarium during a shoot on Monday afternoon.

The incident happened just before 4:30 p.m. on the 900 block of East Solidarity Drive.

As our reporter and photographer were preparing to go on the air during the 4 p.m. newscast, three men in a white tow truck approached.

Two witnesses visiting Chicago said they watched as the tow truck parked directly in front of the news van.

“They just were trying to do anything they could to scare them unnecessarily. It came out of nowhere,” one witness said.

The crew and the two witnesses say a white or Hispanic man with a dog got out first and then moved aggressively towards the crew while shouting racial slurs targeted at one of our journalists.

“It started racial with the cameraman because he’s an African American male,” the witness said.

The man ordered the dog to attack, but it did not, Chicago police said.

“I think he was trying to, again, intimidate him, make him scared by having the dog approach first,” the second witness said.

When one of the crew members defended himself from the dog, witnesses say that’s when the other two men in the tow truck jumped out.

“They were saying, ‘Leave the dog alone,’ and I just feel like maybe the scene got more chaotic than they were expecting, and I feel like the only thing they thought to do was to just cause as much damage as they could and leave,” the witness said.

One of the men then smashed our photographer’s camera while the other smashed the windshield of our news truck with a traffic cone before taking off.

Fortunately, the reporter and photographer got away unharmed. Three people were arrested about 20 minutes after the incident, following another attack, police said. CPD received reports about the same tow truck—this time because the occupants were pointing a gun at people on the sidewalk near 42nd and Western in Brighton Park. By the time officers caught up to the truck, the driver sped off.

Eventually, all three occupants from the tow truck jumped out after crashing into a squad car. A gun was also recovered from the tow truck, police said. The gun was not pointed at the CBS crew.

“We didn’t see any guns in that moment, but to know that it escalated to that or could of been that is just terrifying,” the witness said.

A CBS spokesperson said in a statement, “We are shocked and horrified by this crime and we are grateful that our journalists are safe.”

The investigation into the incident is ongoing. Charges are pending.

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.

WFOR

By S.E. Jenkins, Morgan Rynor, Abby Dodge

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    BROWARD COUNTY, Florida (WFOR) — The Broward Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting involving its deputies that left an armed suspect dead Monday night after authorities say he fled from deputies, refused repeated commands to drop his weapon and attempted to point a gun at law enforcement in Davie.

The shooting happened shortly after 7 p.m. near the 6300 block of Stirling Road. The investigation stretched across multiple blocks, from a Wawa gas station to a nearby McDonald’s, where the confrontation ended.

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, members of its fugitive and gang unit approached the suspect while he was pumping gas at the Wawa on Stirling Road.

Sheriff Gregory Tony said deputies were attempting to arrest the man on an outstanding warrant. Investigators said the suspect had previously fled from police and was linked to other crimes through DNA evidence.

Authorities said the suspect ran from deputies while carrying a firearm. Deputies caught up to him and tackled him in the McDonald’s parking lot, but investigators said he resisted arrest and officers were unable to take the gun from him.

Sheriff Tony said deputies then conducted a tactical retreat while repeatedly ordering the suspect to drop the weapon.

“Given a multitude of commands to let go of the firearm, the officers probably spent over a minute and 15 seconds, from my account of looking at the BWC, just trying to get the individual to let the firearm go,” Tony said.

According to investigators, the suspect then attempted to point the firearm at deputies, prompting officers to open fire.

“At that point in time, he looked and attempted to point the firearm at them, and they engaged him,” Tony said.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have not released his identity.

Officials said six BSO deputies and one Plantation police officer fired their weapons during the shooting. Tony said no bystanders were injured and the deputies involved suffered only minor cuts and scrapes.

One witness who asked not to be identified said she heard about 20 gunshots before seeing a large police response.

“I started seeing cops come,” she said. “There were undercovers, cops, helicopters.”

Investigators are still working to determine whether the suspect fired any shots at deputies.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting involving BSO deputies, which is standard procedure whenever law enforcement officers use deadly force in Florida.

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.

KCNC

By Christa Swanson

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    DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — Teams of military members, Colorado first responders, and family members who have lost loved ones due to impaired driving faced off on Sunday in the annual Kart Racing for Heroes event.

Kart Racing for Heroes is a Colorado-based nonprofit that helps raise awareness and highlights the prevention of impaired driving. It also thankd the military, police, firefighters, and first responders who serve our communities. The event introduces go-kart racing as a way to reduce stress without the use of alcohol or drugs.

It was organized by Craig Mansfield, whose 23-year-old son, Senior Airman Kristopher Mansfield, was killed in a crash involving a drunk driver in 2004.

“My son was killed by an impaired driver 21 years ago. He was stationed at Buckley. Because of that, I got a lot more help than most people get during the time of an impaired crash. So I wanted to do [something for] the Air Force. My son and I had raced karts together,” Mansfield shared. “Then, through MADD, I went out and did checkpoints and saw the stress of the police officers, the firemen, the EPS, even tow truck drivers having to pick up body parts because of stupidity and carnage in impaired driving. So we came up with the Kart Racing for Heroes events to say ‘Thank you’ to these men and women who have these jobs and do them so well. To be able to say thank you.”

During the event, teams of five men and five women each compete in a relay race with driver changes, aiming to complete the most laps in one hour. This year included teams from the military, the Denver, Lakewood and Northglenn Police Departments, Colorado State Patrol, South Metro and Summit County Fire and EMS, and family teams who have lost loved ones to impaired driving. Drivers also competed against a team operating a hand-controlled kart.

This year’s event was dedicated to the family of Magnus White, one of the nation’s top junior cyclists, who was struck and killed by a drunk driver near his Boulder home in 2023.

“Each year, we dedicate it to a family who has lost a loved one to say, ‘Hey, we’re still here for you.’ So, we’ve dedicated it to 20 different families over the years, and the one thing I hear back from them, ‘This is a lot of fun, and thank you,'” said Mansfield.

Mansfield says that kind of support and community is important to the families as they navigate their loss.

“It’s huge,” he said. “You know, after I joined MADD, that they have a victim assistance officer. They go to court with you just to explain that process, which is not on TV. There’s hundreds of cases there, and you have somebody right by your side explaining everything that gonna go on.”

Mansfield also had a message for those who are thinking about getting behind the wheel while impaired”

“I did victim impact panels for 20 years also, and I’ve heard every story about why they thought they were okay to drive when they aren’t. You’ve got Lyft, Uber, taxis, friends. Heck, my number’s all over the place! Call me, I’ll come and get you, you know? We’ll spend the night, I’ll make breakfast in the morning for you, and get you back to your car. Don’t, DON’T drink and drive.”

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KCNC

By Spencer Wilson

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    EVERGREEN, Colorado (KCNC) — A Colorado nonprofit is working to help landowners fight back against growing infestations of mountain pine beetles and protect their properties from wildfires.

What started as a handful of infested trees in Evergreen, Colorado, has turned into hundreds for landowner Jon Hager.

“It was a very small infestation, maybe four or five trees,” Hager said. “This year, we had to be very proactive on it.”

Now, crews are cutting down and chipping dozens of beetle-killed and infested trees on his property as part of an effort to slow the spread of mountain pine beetles, which experts warn could become a bigger problem during Colorado’s dry summer conditions.

“It’s our responsibility as landowners,” Hager said. “I think it’s also a responsibility for my neighbors that we take care of the beetle problem so it doesn’t spread to their land as well.”

The work is being organized by the Mountain Pine Beetle Foundation, a Colorado nonprofit focused on removing infested trees from private property. Founder Wesley Manney said the organization’s goal is simple: stop beetle infestations before they grow and reduce wildfire risk at the same time.

“Dead pine trees are like standing matches,” Manney said. “It takes one spark, and then you have a whole forest go up.”

After trees are cut down, crews run much of the material through industrial chippers. Manney said the process helps eliminate habitats where beetles can continue to spread.

The effort comes as Colorado officials have renewed concerns about mountain pine beetles. State leaders recently created a task force to examine the growing threat, particularly after a winter with low snowfall and continuing drought conditions in many mountain communities.

For Hager, it’s about personal responsibility to our communities and the state we all love.

“It is a community problem,” he said. “It’s easy to look at your own land and say, ‘I don’t have many beetles.’ But if you don’t proactively address it, it can take out a whole hillside.”

Manney said funding remains one of the biggest challenges. Tree removal is expensive, and many property owners cannot afford large-scale mitigation projects on their own (although they regularly volunteer hours either identifying infested trees or logging).

“If we can crowdfund and raise money, then we can put that money directly into the forest,” Manney said. “Boots on the ground, chainsaws in the woods.”

The nonprofit is encouraging homeowners to request property evaluations and is also seeking volunteers to help hike through forests to identify infested trees, as well as donations to help expand its work across Colorado’s mountain communities.

With beetle activity increasing and wildfire concerns already high this summer, both Hager and Manney said waiting is not an option.

“It’s a huge task to undertake,” Manney said. “But we have the right people, the right personnel and the right service providers here locally, and we can do it.”

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.