Category: CNN Regional

By Luzdelia Caballero, Lauren Pozen

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    ORANGE COUNTY, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Thousands of people in Orange County are once again being told to leave their homes after a chemical leak from an aerospace facility first prompted evacuation orders overnight. With five shelters now active, most of which have reached capacity, many are left wondering what to do.

For the second time in less than 24 hours, families in Garden Grove and nearby neighborhoods were forced to pack up and leave with their pets, essential paperwork, and medication, with no answers to when they can return home.

“We know that what we’re breathing in is toxic. I can smell it,” one evacuee said while wearing a face mask. “It reminds me of the burn pits in Iraq, the smell. It’s just ridiculous that we have to sit here, not knowing.”

There were three evacuation centers for communities affected by the incident at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, with the latest number of evacuees on Friday reaching 40,000. Officials said air monitoring is ongoing, and that there are no air particulates “compromising anybody.”

At the Garden Grove Sports & Recreation Center evacuation site, evacuees were concerned about possible exposure to the chemical fumes and wanted clearer information from officials.

The compromised leaking tank contains a chemical called methyl methacrylate, a flammable plastic epoxy.

Health experts say it is a respiratory irritant and potential exposure could lead to lung, skin and eye irritation, nausea and dizziness. The chemical is heavier than air, so its vapor would settle and sink.

The OCFA said crews initially made progress toward removing the chemical product but determined Friday morning that the “tank that is in the biggest crisis is in fact unable to be secured and mitigated.” This led to the reissuance of evacuation orders on Friday.

Residents say the back-and-forth orders have left many confused, exhausted and worried about their safety. On top of that, the evacuation centers in both Garden Grove and Cypress had both filled, leaving thousands to hit the road again and search for another option.

“It’s been chaos, just dealing with everybody coming and going and nobody knows anything,” said Jacqueline Riegos, who evacuated from Stanton. “No one can really give us any details as to what is going on, and we don’t know how long this is going to be.”

Officials say it’s an unprecedented event, with a county hazmat team calling on experts throughout the state and country to help search for solutions to depressurize the affected tank and mitigate exposure.

Some evacuees, like Diane Chavira grabbed only the essentials before heading out once again.

“I was sleeping in my house until this morning, they told us we had to leave,” she said.

She gathered her four dogs and left, but was disappointed to find the evacuation center at Stanton City Hall and the community center closed.

“I’m just tired. I had a hip replaced a year ago, and it’s very hard. You know, because I have no transportation,” she said, noting that she can’t bike all the way to Garden Grove.

Now she, and other evacuees, are wondering where they will stay and how long they will be away from home.

A second evacuation center is at the Cypress Community Center, 5700 Orange Ave., in Cypress. Later in the day, a third and fourth option were made available in Anaheim, at Savannah High School on N. Gilbert Street, and Fountain Valley at the Mountain Square Regional Park-Freedom Hall on Euclid Street.

Late Friday night, after the Fountain Valley evacuation shelter reached capacity, Orange County officials announced that a fifth shelter was being made available to residents at John F. Kennedy High School at 8281 Walker Street in La Palma.

OCFA officials estimated that despite the orders to evacuate from their homes, 15% of residents opted to stay back.

City of Garden Grove 24-hour call center (714) 741- 5444, or visit: ggcity.org/emergency

Orange County public information hotline (714) 628-7085.

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 Kara Finnstrom

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    WEST HOLLYWOOD, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A West Hollywood barbershop saw the need to offer men not only cuts and shaves, but also a trained ear to listen and offer support.

Spike Eldib, a barber at Entourage, said that sometimes the barber’s chair feels more like a therapy couch, with regular customers opening up, talking, and asking for advice.

Men are significantly less likely than women to seek mental health help, and the National Institutes of Health says that’s partly due to societal norms and the notion that they should handle it on their own.

“Whatever they have on their mind, an issue that they can’t tell mom, dad, friend, anything they can say it here in the barber shop,” Eldib said.

That’s exactly what long-time customer Matthew Berdin does. He’s an emergency room nurse, a job that he says is physically and emotionally demanding.

“Holding all that inside is not very good for you overall, just not even like your mental health, but like your overall health,” Berdin said.

Eldib recently decided to formalize the supportive conversations that have long been happening in barbershops. He launched Hairapy.

Many barbers at Entourage are now being counseled on intentional listening and supportive conversation. Eldib noted that there are some challenges, such as when questions are too difficult to answer.

This is where Neal Tobisman, a licensed family and marriage therapist, comes into the picture. He sees Hairapy as another tool to support mental health.

“Sometimes there are barriers in terms of people just not even knowing who to speak to about it or there might be financial or insurance issues,” Tobisman said.

He also believes barbers are in a unique position to spot red flags and share information about important resources.

Hairapy joins a larger movement of barbers turned mental health advocates. The Confess Project focuses specifically on connecting Black men with mental health care. During the last decade, it’s spread to thousands of barbershops nationwide.

“There is a lot of stigma, and it’s resulted in a lot of people just kind of trying to manage these things on their own and just feeling kind of increasingly isolated and unsupported,” Tobisman said.

The overriding hope is to help men overcome mental health barriers with support from barbers they trust.

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 Jamie Leary

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    DENVER (KCNC) — A Denver daycare owner is desperately searching for her missing service dog after she says the animal was taken from her yard earlier this month.

For the last week, Hannah Cummins has been canvassing her Highlands neighborhood looking for Opal, a 6-year-old chihuahua-greyhound mix she says disappeared from her yard May 16.

“She’s been with me for six years. I rescued her six years ago, and it’s just really hard,” Cummins said.

Cummins said Opal was lying in the sun outside while she moved furniture inside her home near Pecos Street and 33rd Avenue. When she came back a short time later, the dog was gone.

“She was just in the sun laying down, and I went back in the house,” Cummins said.

She does not believe Opal simply ran away because the dog is trained to work with children at her daycare.

“She works with kids who are having any social, emotional needs,” Cummins said. “When they’re first coming into the school, when they’re transitioning, she works with them one on one.”

Children at the daycare have also struggled with Opal’s disappearance.

“She kind of just made me feel like if I was sad or something, she would kind of support me,” said 7-year-old Layla, who has known Opal since she was a baby.

Neighbors and a nearby business have reported seeing a man experiencing homelessness with a dog matching Opal’s description, according to Cummins.

“There’s multiple people that have said that they’ve seen Opal,” she said.

But Cummins said the search has also led to scams, including people asking for money or her personal information, as well as fake AI-generated videos claiming to show the missing dog.

“The video was the one that got me really upset,” Cummins said. “It’s like they took an AI video somehow. But you can tell it’s AI.”

Cummins has filed a police report with the Denver Police Department and is asking anyone with information about Opal’s whereabouts to come forward.

“I don’t care,” Cummins said. “I just want her home.”

Anyone who has information on Opal’s whereabouts is encouraged to contact the DPD.

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 Marielle Mohs

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    BURNSVILLE, Minnesota (WCCO) — The stage is a special place for 18-year-old Kaili Quevedo.

“When I’m on a stage, I don’t feel my disability, I don’t feel my chronic pain, I don’t feel my anxiety,” said Quevedo.

Most recently, she competed at the Masquerade Dance Competition at the Ames Center in Burnsville. During her solo performance to, “Circus” by Britney Spears, she described it as “freedom.”

“The chains broke and I was back in my body and I was back in dance, I was back on the stage doing what I love, and that was the best feeling ever,” said Quevedo.

Quevedo was born with Spina Bifida, but has never let it stop her from pursuing her passion. Although, her journey as a dancer has not been easy.

“When you have a disability, everything is so unpredictable, and you never know when things are going to flare up or surgeries are going to happen,” said Quevedo.

She took a break from the stage for a year to address her chronic pain with her medical team at Children’s Minnesota.

“Where we saw limitations, she saw opportunity,” said Dr. Meysam Kebriaei, the Medical Director of Neurosurgery at Children’s Minnesota. He says dancing is one the best treatments Quevedo can do for herself.

“[Dance] helps her from a physical standpoint, from a mental health standpoint, and really keeps her going and motivated,” said Kebriaei.

Quevedo takes pride in motivating herself and others, by being an advocate for others with disabilities.

“It’s a mix of emotions of frustration because I know what everyone’s thinking, but at the same time, I know once I get on that stage, I change their minds,” said Quevedo.

Just last month, Quevedo was the first wheelchair dancer to compete at the presitigious NYCDA dance convention and competition in Lake Geneva where she took 11th place out of 72 dancers.

At the Masquerade Dance Competition in Burnsville, Kaili’s solo routine earned platinum.

“Platinum is one of the highest scores you can get at a dance competition,” said Quevedo.

Quevedo plans to take her talents to even bigger stages in the near future.

“My plan is to go out to Los Angeles and break more barriers in the industry as a professional dancer,” said Quevedo.

Quevedo says she’s hoping to join the Rollettes dance team in LA, which is a professional wheelchair dance team.

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 Conor Wight

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    MINNESOTA (WCCO) — Fifteen people are accused of stealing more than $90 million in taxpayer dollars in various fraud schemes impacting multiple Minnesota Medicaid programs, including one that the fraud crisis effectively wiped out.

According to prosecutors, eight of the defendants took money from Housing Stabilization Services. It was designed to reimburse providers who helped get seniors or people with disabilities into steady housing. According to prosecutors, the eight people essentially lied about the services they provided and instead redirected HSS dollars for personal use. Minnesota shut down the program last October as a direct result of widespread fraud.

Two of the defendants appeared in court on Friday for a routine initial appearance before a judge, including 32-year-old Muhammad Omar of Roseville, Minnesota, and 45-year-old Sharmaine Meadows of Lake Elmo, Minnesota.

Omar made national headlines on Thursday when the FBI said he jumped from a fourth-story balcony in an attempt to evade arrest. He was brought into custody hours later, with a federal prosecutor revealing in court that Omar drove to a cousin’s house and asked someone to ditch the vehicle elsewhere. He has family abroad, the prosecutor said, and allegedly used Medicaid dollars to buy property in Kenya. He’ll remain in custody ahead of a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Omar and a partner, Ibrahim Abdi, are accused of fraudulently taking $3.2 million from HSS for operations at North Home Health Care LLC in Fridley, Minnesota and South Home Health Care LLC in Roseville. In one instance, for a period of about four months in late 2023, prosecutors say Omar and Abdi billed HSS for providing services to a recipient who was dead.

In Meadows’ case, her defense attorney, Peter Wold, firmly denies that she stole any money. The indictment against her states that she took nearly $4 million from HSS while lying about services rendered. Wold told WCCO his client has housed “hundreds” of people in need while using HSS legitimately.

“Sharmaine is an honest, hardworking individual,” Wold said, calling the allegations against her “hilarious.”

Not everyone charged is a Minnesotan. Deborah Hodges, Candice Langley and Cynthia Allen are all accused of stealing from HSS. All three are from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It’s not the first time that alleged fraudsters committed crimes in Minnesota from homes in the City of Brotherly Love; in fact, prosecutors say that Allen became interested in HSS in 2021 when someone told her the program presented a “lucrative opportunity.”

The other programs involved medical and autism services, including charges that amount to what prosecutors described as the largest autism fraud scheme ever handled by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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 Chloe Rosen

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    CHATFIELD, Minnesota (WCCO) — Charges have been filed against a Chatfield, Minnesota, police officer who is accused of crashing his car while driving under the influence, according to court records filed on Friday.

The suspect, identified as 61-year-old Kenneth Gallion, around midnight Thursday near West 94th Street and Lyndale Avenue South in Bloomington, Minnesota. Police Chief Book Hodges said Gallion had finished an off-duty job at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

According to the criminal complaint, officers were called to the scene after someone reported an SUV, which had been driving very fast, had gone airborne. The caller also stated they believed the car had struck a nearby building.

Officers found the car in a parking lot. Both the front and back tires on the driver’s side were flat, according to the charging documents, which also said Gallion told officers that he was not injured and had stopped to use the bathroom.

The charging documents go on to say that officers could smell a strong odor of alcohol on Gallion’s breath and noted that conversation was difficult as Gallion was taking a long time to answer questions and was slurring his words.

At the time of the accident, Gallion was wearing his full uniform, including his gun. Bloomington officers were able to secure the gun in one of their squad cars, per the complaint. Gallion was also unsteady on his feet and told officers “he didn’t know where he was, and believed he may be in Rochester,” according to court documents.

Bloomington officers performed several field sobriety tests on Gallion and noticed that Gallion had difficulty with them. Gallion agreed to a breath sample and blew a 0.273, which is more than three times the legal limit.

“I’ve never seen this before in my career and God-willing I never see it again,” said Hodges on Friday. “Most of us would be passed out at a .16 or something. Once you get to .30, there are very few people who can actually function.”

Officers took Gallion into custody, he chose not to speak with an attorney.

Court records show that he has a hearing scheduled for next next month.

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 Erin Jones

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    DALLAS, Texas (KTVT) — It started with a simple Instagram post. A Dallas Mexican restaurant asked people to try their comfort‑style food out of fear they would have to close down for good. Thanks to the power of social media, their fortune is changing.

For almost 20 years, Andres and Georgina Soto have been serving up made‑from‑scratch Mexican food at Ana’s in Dallas.

“You know it means a lot to them,” Andrea Soto said. “They’re here almost every day.”

Recently, their daughter Andrea says business slowed down so much that they started worrying the restaurant might not survive.

“It’s been worse than COVID when we only had to‑go orders, and we were doing okay at that time, so it’s shocked us, unfortunately,” she said. “The economy… gas is expensive.”

She says many of their longtime customers are now working multiple jobs and can’t afford to eat out as often anymore.

Hoping to bring in new customers, she posted a video on social media. It quickly took off and has now been shared thousands of times.

Then, local influencers started stopping by, posting recommendations and encouraging followers to support the restaurant.

“I saw it on TikTok, and the food looked really good. Everything looked really nice, so I wanted to come check it out,” Breanna Galvez said.

“I just felt for the family,” Mary Alonzo said. “How they’ve been here for 17 years, and that they were going to come to an end. I felt like I didn’t want to see it come to an end.”

“We’re very happy about how it blew up. We did not expect it to go that viral,” Andrea said.

Now, the family says they’re seeing tons of new customers.

“We definitely feel happy!” Andrea said. “You know, we’ve even had a wait, and we’re very thankful for people who have been patient with us.”

She promises the food will be worth 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.

By Noel Brennan

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — On the 100th anniversary of Route 66, an Oklahoma couple hit the road in a century-old car to drive the entire length of the iconic highway from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. Ed and Jackie Fogle made it pier to pier in one piece.

“We were afraid we were going to have to push it the whole way,” Ed said. “But we got through it.”

Like any old road, Route 66 has a beginning and end, but in the 100-year history of the highway, no two journeys are the same.

Ed and Jackie’s road trip started with an uphill battle, pushing past hurdles in their 1926 Hupmobile, a car as old as Route 66. Just don’t ask how many miles it has on it.

“Oh, who knows. The speedometer doesn’t work. The odometer doesn’t work. There’s no fuel gauge,” Ed said.

The couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma towed it in a trailer to the start of Route 66 in at Navy Pier in Chicago.

With help from their traveling mechanic, the Hupmobile survived its first hiccup, and the Fogles hit the open road as they did for their honeymoon 25 years ago in a 1959 Cadillac convertible.

“Top down every inch of the way,” Ed said.

This time it was slow and steady on wooden wheels; mile after memorable mile on the Mother Road.

“We went to Oatman, Arizona, where they have the donkeys, and a donkey tried to eat my purse,” Jackie said. “So that was kind of a highlight for me.”

In a car with no shocks, the Fogles felt every bump in the road.

“In the middle of the desert in southern California out in nowhere, bang,” Ed said.

They replaced the radiator and fixed the motor mount twice, but the Hupmobile is still in one piece.

“It’s running good,” Ed said.

Ed and Jackie have traveled more than 2,400 miles and 25 years together. Santa Monica is the end of the road, but not the journey.

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 Ricky Sayer

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    PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A stolen Apple AirTag was used to help police track down a sexual assault and burglary suspect in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.

The AirTag and two dollars in cash are the only things the woman noticed had been stolen from her home in the day following the assault, according to the criminal complaint for 29-year-old Charles Willis.

The AirTag had last pinged a location behind the nearby Phipps Conservatory, according to the complaint. Police searched the area, noting there were several homeless camps in the immediate vicinity.

Officers spotted Willis on the train tracks above neighboring boundary street and took him into custody.

Apple AirTags are used to help track personal items, such as keys or luggage.

“The AirTag is interesting, because I mean, maybe he didn’t know what it was,” said Anthony Dimitriou, who lives a few doors down from the victim’s home in Oakland, which KDKA-TV is not identifying. “Maybe he thought it was a coin or something.”

The location is near the University of Pittsburgh campus, where many students taking summer classes are living, including Dimitriou.

“It makes me a little nervous,” he said.

The woman went to sleep Wednesday night without clothes on, she told police. She woke up early Thursday morning to a sound and told police someone was touching her indecently, the complaint said.

The man, she said, then “quietly, quickly, and calmly” left her bed and the room. She went downstairs and saw someone outside a window that police say he’d exited through.

Police pulled prints from that window and matched them with Willis, the complaint said. The AirTag was then used to help point police toward the suspect.

“I guess taking a device known for tracking isn’t the smartest thing to do, but I guess if you’re going to commit a crime like that, you’re not the smartest person, and you’re not the best person, so I’d say he got what was coming for him,” Dimitriou said.

Once arrested, the complaint said the man told police he’d been looking for money and things to salvage when he walked into the woman’s room. It says the man confessed to sexually assaulting her, saying the man said he “understands what he did was wrong and that he was a weak man.”

The man did not confess to taking the AirTag.

The complaint said police also have security camera footage of someone trying to break into multiple homes.

Willis is being held at Allegheny County Jail, with his bail denied. Charges against him include burglary, aggravated indecent assault, and indecent assault.

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 Krystle Rich

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    BERKS COUNTY, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A 16-year-old baseball player from Berks County, Pennsylvania, wants to give back to his community after they were there for him in his greatest time of need.

Reading native Victor Aponte fell in love with baseball at 6 years old. Two years later, he began pitching. At 14, he had the scare of a lifetime after being unable to finish a baseball tournament. He was soon rushed to the hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with leukemia.

“They told me my diagnosis, and I broke down in tears,” he said. “My first thought was, ‘Am I going to be able to play baseball again?'”

EL1 Reading, a baseball training company, sprang into action, starting a GoFundMe and raising $30,000 for his medical expenses.

“There are a lot of people who love and care about Victor and his family,” EL1 Reading general manager Clint Fernandez said, “and the fact that we were able to raise that kind of money showcases how we have each other’s back.”

Aponte’s teammates helped lift his spirits by making swag, like wristbands and T-shirts, while Governor Mifflin High School held a blood drive in his honor.

“I was in shock. I was just lying in the hospital bed and just hearing all this great stuff that these people are in my corner, it felt great,” he said. “This is really a family that I have here.”

After losing his hair and going through over a year of chemotherapy, Aponte was able to make his return to the mound with the outpouring of support.

“It was like a kick in the gut. You don’t want any kid to go through that,” Rich Delucia, a former MLB pitcher and 3Up 3Down Baseball Academy owner, said. “If things are going bad, come here, work, take your mind off things. There’s always a place for them to go to when things are going their way.”

“People think, ‘Oh, you’re just going to play baseball,'” Aponte said. “But here, it’s really like a family.”

Now Aponte wants to turn his pain into purpose.

“I want to play baseball in college, and I want to major in nursing,” he said. “I can relate to kids in the future since I was in their situation. I can reassure them that they’re going to be OK.”

From the mound to the medical field, Aponte is looking forward to giving back to the community nat pop that gave so much to him

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.