Category: CNN Regional

By Carlos Garcia

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    CAPE CORAL, Florida (WBBH) — A Cape Coral family is grappling with the emotional and financial toll of repairing their home’s seawall, which has been collapsing since Hurricane Ian struck in 2022.

“You have to have the money to be able to fix it. And if you don’t, then you’re kind of screwed,” said Marsha Berg.

Berg’s 88-year-old mother, Lois, has lived in the home on Southeast 13th Terrace for nearly 30 years. After Lois’ husband passed away, Marsha and her disabled-veteran husband moved in to help care for her.

When Hurricane Ian hit, the storm caused significant damage, including black mold, which forced the family to leave their home for a year and incur expenses for temporary living arrangements.

“At one time we had tried to get, you know, stones to put it in there, but they ended up washing it away,” Berg said.

Now back in their home, the family is working to pay off their debt while facing rising repair costs. The seawall behind their property has massive holes, the ground is caving in, and their deck is on the verge of collapsing.

“Not just the cost, the physical even, for us to try like to get it in the back of a truck or whatever, we can’t physically,” Berg said.

The family says their homeowner’s insurance does not cover the damage, and the city cannot assist because the seawall is on private property.

“The homeowner’s insurance does not cover that. So, we are kind of in the situation of how do you fix it then?” Berg said.

Adding to the challenges, Marsha recently underwent a liver transplant, and her husband has limited physical ability, all while she continues to care for her elderly mother.

“She won’t leave. It’s her home. And I, I have to do it for her,” Berg 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.

By Danielle Scruggs

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    CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Florida (WPBF) — Florida is on track to tie its record for executions this year as Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed the 19th death warrant for James “Chicken Head” Robertson.

“I killed my cellmate because I wanted the better jailhouse conditions on death row,” Robertson said.

The 63-year-old will be executed Oct. 13 for the 2008 murder of his cellmate Frank Hart at Charlotte Correctional Institution. He is slated to be the 17th inmate killed by the state this year, bypassing two others already awaiting execution.

William Lee Thompson, 74, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. Oct. 13 for the murder, kidnapping and sexual battery of Sally Ivester 50 years ago in North Miami Beach.

William Reaves, 77, is set to be executed Oct. 20 for the 1986 killing of Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Raczkowski.

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 Graham Cawthon

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    BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WJCL) — A South Carolina hunting guide spent years searching for a massive alligator nicknamed “Snaggletooth.” On the night of Sept. 28, the elusive reptile finally surfaced at the wrong time.

Cole Poplin and William Ard of Renegade Bowfishing were hunting on Lake Moultrie with tag holder Chris Webb and Webb’s father, Craig, when the group captured the alligator at about 11 p.m., according to The Post and Courier.

The animal weighed 844 pounds. Renegade said it was so large that it stalled a 1,000-pound winch and later required a tractor to move.

“Absolute freak of a dinosaur,” the company wrote on Facebook.

Renegade said Webb had earlier passed on an 11-foot alligator, despite the guides’ recommendation that he take it. His patience paid off when the group encountered Snaggletooth.

Two measurements, one enormous alligator Although the animal’s reported weight is not in dispute, its exact length is less certain.

Renegade said four members of the hunting party measured the alligator three times shortly after it was killed. Each time, according to the company, it measured 14 feet.

The alligator was then curled inside the boat, packed in ice and transported to a processor. About 11 hours later, after it was straightened again, the animal measured 13 feet, 8 inches.

Renegade attributed the 4-inch difference to icing, rigor mortis and the alligator’s curled position during transportation.

“Me personally, I’m going with the fresh kill 14 feet,” the company wrote. “In my mind, that’s how he swam around the lake.”

Neither measurement was independently verified by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

Among the state’s heaviest reported harvests The Post and Courier described Snaggletooth as the second-largest alligator caught in South Carolina. Because the state does not maintain a formal all-time record book for harvested alligators, that ranking is best understood as a comparison of documented and publicly reported catches.

The heaviest widely documented South Carolina harvest was a 1,025-pound alligator taken in 2010 near the Lake Moultrie-Diversion Canal area. Published accounts differ on that animal’s exact length.

At 844 pounds, Snaggletooth did not challenge the earlier animal’s weight. Its reported length, however, places it among the longest alligators documented during South Carolina’s public hunting season.

SCDNR says alligators can take more than 30 years to reach trophy size.

Hunt followed state season rules South Carolina’s 2026 public alligator season runs from noon Sept. 12 through noon Oct. 10. Hunters are selected through a state lottery and receive a tag valid for a designated management unit.

State rules require hunters to restrain an alligator and bring it alongside a boat or to shore before killing it. Shooting a free-swimming or basking alligator is prohibited.

Lake Moultrie is in Unit 2, South Carolina’s Middle Coast alligator management unit.

End of a yearslong search Poplin said he first spotted the alligator about four years earlier and had pursued it repeatedly during hunting seasons.

Poplin is a U.S. Coast Guard-certified captain who operates Renegade Bowfishing, an alligator-hunting and bowfishing guide service offering trips in South Carolina and North 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.

By Anum Siddiqui

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    NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) — An 11-year-old patient at Manning Family Children’s Hospital celebrated his “rebirth” Thursday, as he celebrated the end of his life-saving treatment.

Peyton Stewart celebrated at Manning Family Children’s Hospital in New Orleans by ringing a bell in a special ceremony.

Doctors at the hospital discovered Peyton had a rare genetic mutation causing an autoimmune deficiency. His treatment included a bone marrow transplant, which gave him a second chance at life.

Out of his five siblings, Peyton’s older brother was identified as a perfect match to donate bone marrow and provide him with the gift of life.

“I feel good, and I’m happy,” Peyton said.

The day was filled with emotion, as tears of joy marked this significant milestone in Peyton’s recovery.

Peyton said he hopes to one day become the CEO of Manning Family Children’s Hospital.

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 Chad Thompson

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    MADISON, Wisconsin (WKOW) — Police arrested five people for attacking a man who tried to stop them from harassing an unhoused person early Wednesday.

Officers were called to the intersection of North Carroll Street at West Washington Avenue around 12:40 a.m. Sept. 30. They found a victim bleeding and suffering from several injuries, according to the Madison Police Department report.

The victim told police he stepped in after a group of men surrounded the unhoused person. He said the men then began punching and kicking him repeatedly.

One suspect also placed him in a chokehold. The victim was taken to the hospital for his injuries.

The suspects left before police arrived, but the incident was caught on public space cameras, police said. Officers reviewed this digital evidence as part of their response.

A witness also provided police with a photo of the suspect’s vehicle. Officers found the vehicle and stopped it near East Washington Avenue and East Springs Drive.

All five suspects were detained. Riley Joseph, 18, was arrested for disorderly conduct, substantial battery and strangulation.

Aaron W. Burr, Bryce A. King and Tanner M. Cox, all 18, were arrested for disorderly conduct and substantial battery. Dylan J. Vail, 21, was arrested for disorderly conduct and party to a crime substantial battery.

All the suspects were taken to the Dane County Jail.

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By Tom LoBianco | Quincy News Correspondent

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    Washington (Quincy News) — The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.342% Thursday, its highest level since 2002, extending a sharp rise in U.S. borrowing costs that has been echoed across global bond markets.

The 10-year posted its biggest quarterly increase since 1994 during the third quarter as investors confronted persistent inflation, rising energy prices, tighter monetary policy and a growing supply of government and corporate debt competing for capital.

Friday’s jobs report briefly eased some of that pressure.

Employers added just 29,000 jobs in September, while unemployment rose to 4.2% from 4.1%, the Labor Department reported. July and August job gains were also revised down by a combined 60,000.

Treasury yields initially fell as investors reduced bets on another Federal Reserve rate hike this month, but then turned higher again.

The 10-year Treasury is a key benchmark for borrowing costs across the economy, influencing mortgage rates, corporate financing and asset prices.

“It’s really this perfect storm,” said David Mitchell, professor of economics and director of the Bureau of Economic Research at Missouri State University.

Part of the debate centers on the Treasury Department’s expanding bond-buyback program.

Treasury announced in August that it would at least double the maximum size of its liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated securities beginning Sept. 9, increasing the maximum from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation.

The program is designed to improve trading in older, less-liquid Treasury securities. It is not an effort to simply pay down the federal debt, since Treasury continues issuing new securities to finance the government.

Still, the timing led some market participants to view the expansion as an attempt to reduce pressure in the long end of the bond market. Yields continued higher after it was announced.

“Treasury can’t really do anything, and the fact they’re trying to do something, it doesn’t send a signal of confidence,” Mitchell said.

The Treasury Department did not return requests for comment for this article. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has defended the program, arguing that yields might have risen further without the purchases and pointing to strong demand at subsequent Treasury auctions.

“We have a big toolkit, so we’ll see,” Bessent told CNBC in August. “Part of it is signaling here and to show that we believe that the yields don’t reflect the underlying fundamentals.”

Another major source of pressure has been the war with Iran.

The 10-year Treasury stood at 3.97% on Feb. 27, the day before U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began the current conflict. At Thursday’s peak, it had climbed roughly 137 basis points, or 1.37 percentage points.

Disruptions affecting the Strait of Hormuz and repeated flare-ups in the conflict have pushed energy prices higher, increasing concerns that oil and refined-product costs will keep inflation elevated.

“That’s a huge move in a short period of time and consumers are noticing the increase at the gas pump and it’s likely to be that way for a while,” said David Kass, a clinical professor of economics at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The Federal Reserve added to the pressure in September by raising its benchmark interest rate a quarter point to 3.75% to 4%, its first hike since 2023.

But recent economic reports are complicating the outlook. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose 3.4% over the year in August, still well above its 2% target, while Friday’s weak employment report sharply reduced expectations for another rate increase at the Fed’s Oct. 27-28 meeting.

The rise in borrowing costs also extends far beyond the United States.

French 10-year yields have reached their highest levels since 2002, Britain’s 30-year borrowing costs touched 6% for the first time since 1998, and Japanese bond yields have reached multi-decade highs.

Investors globally are confronting persistent inflation, heavy government borrowing and another increasingly important source of debt: the artificial-intelligence boom.

Five of the largest AI “hyperscalers” — Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle — have issued about $220 billion in debt this year, more than double last year’s total, according to LSEG data reported by Reuters.

The companies are raising money to finance data centers and other AI infrastructure. That borrowing does not directly determine Treasury yields, but a surge in highly rated corporate bonds gives investors more alternatives and increases competition for capital.

Kass also pointed to changes in the Japanese yen carry trade, in which investors historically borrowed cheaply in yen to invest in higher-yielding assets elsewhere. Rising Japanese rates and a stronger yen have made some of those trades less attractive.

At the same time, Kass cautioned against viewing today’s yields as evidence of an economic crisis. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.2% annual rate in the second quarter, while unemployment remains at 4.2%.

“Historically, we’re at pretty much average levels,” Kass said.

What is unusual is the speed of the recent adjustment after years of much lower borrowing costs.

Friday’s jobs report showed how quickly expectations can shift. But the rebound in Treasury yields after their initial decline underscored a larger point: the forces pushing global borrowing costs higher extend well beyond any single economic report.

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.