Former Haitian first lady weeps on stand in Miami, recounts moment her husband said they were going to die

By Tania Francois

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — Former Haitian First Lady Martine Moïse broke down in tears Tuesday while testifying about the night gunmen stormed the presidential residence in Haiti, fatally shooting her husband, President Jovenel Moïse, and leaving her severely wounded.

Taking the stand in Miami federal court as the prosecution’s star witness, Moïse recounted the July 7, 2021, attack during the trial of Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian American pastor accused of participating in the assassination conspiracy.

Moïse testified that gunfire woke the couple at around 1 a.m. at their home in Pétion-Ville, Haiti. She said her husband stayed awake working at a desk before telling her, “Honey, we are dead”.

Crawling on her hands and knees to reach her adult children’s bedrooms, Moïse found them holding the family dog’s mouth shut to keep her from barking. After instructing them to hide in a windowless bathroom, Moïse returned upstairs to be with her husband, telling her children she “couldn’t leave their father”.

Moïse described trying to get underneath the bed when gunfire erupted again, wounding her and killing her husband. She wept uncontrollably as prosecutors displayed photographs of the bedroom, showing her husband’s body lying on top of Haiti’s constitution.

She testified that the attackers spoke Spanish, using the names “Jefe” and “Pipe,” as they rummaged through the room. Before leaving, someone grabbed her leg, rolled her onto her back, shone a light into her eyes, and stepped on her foot.

After the gunmen fled, groundskeepers found Moïse bleeding from her nose and mouth and used one of her husband’s neckties to try to stop her bleeding. She noted that none of the 40 to 50 security officers assigned to protect the family came to help.

Moïse was treated in Haiti before being flown to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where she underwent several surgeries to reconstruct a shattered right elbow.

During cross-examination, defense attorneys questioned Moïse about her husband’s political conflicts. She testified that her husband had “a lot of enemies” and clashed with wealthy Haitian business interests after moving to cancel contracts that benefited a small elite.

“One percent of the population has taken 99% of the wealth while the rest of the country lives in poverty,” she testified, adding that her husband wanted to “feed the people”.

Questioned about former President Michel Martelly and former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Moïse stopped short of direct accusations. She testified she believed the investigation would lead to answers regarding Martelly, and recalled a meeting with Henry where he told her not to expect elections or justice for her husband.

Federal prosecutors allege Sanon conspired to remove Moïse from power to become president himself. Sanon, a U.S. citizen who had not lived in Haiti for at least five years, is ineligible for the presidency under Haiti’s constitution. Four co-defendants were convicted earlier this year, while Sanon’s trial was delayed due to health issues, including a cancer diagnosis and diabetes.

Moïse is expected to return to the stand Wednesday as cross-examination continues. Her daughter, Jomarlie Moïse, who hid during the attack, is also scheduled to testify.

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Students protest cancellation of spring musical

By Piersen Maass

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    WATERTOWN, Wisconsin (WKOW) — Watertown High School students are protesting after the school board decided to cancel the spring musical, “Flashdance.”

Interim Superintendent James Fell pulled the plug, saying the production could be risqué.

“I had heard some, you know, through some board members, you know, people expressing concern by just the very nature of the title,” Fell said.

His decision prompted protests.

The film “Flashdance” is rated R, but students were planning to perform the “high school version” of the musical, which is modified for a younger audience.

The musical director and high school principal approved the production before the superintendent stepped in.

Now, the original musical director has decided not to take part in the new production.

“The fact that our director is not going to be able to make his usual amazing show is extremely heartbreaking,” student Sophia Tolfa said. “I think we’re all just feeling a little defeated right now, but it’s also lighting a fire in us.”

The school is now looking for a new director and a different musical for the spring.

Earlier this year, Watertown High School made national headlines after the school board voted to ban a piece of instrumental music because of its ties to LGBTQ history.

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Physical therapist creates affordable crawling device for children with disabilities

By Crystal Flintrop

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    HILLSBORO, Wisconsin (WXOW) — A physical therapist at Emplify Health by Gundersen is helping make an important developmental milestone more accessible for children with disabilities after years of seeing existing mobility devices fall short of her patients’ needs.

Cassidy Sanchez has worked in pediatric therapy for 25 years. Over that time, she has treated children who need help developing head control, walking or crawling.

According to Sanchez, crawling can help children develop hip and shoulder stability, depth perception and coordination. But she found many of the devices designed to help children practice the movement were expensive, difficult to use or did not provide enough head support.

“I really feel that everyone has the right to learn and grow and feel a sense of belonging,” Sanchez said. “What I wanted, was something that could help these kids that have more complex needs to be able to flourish in their environments.”

One of those children is 3-year-old Emerald Richardson.

Emerald was diagnosed with Glutaric Aciduria Type 1 after her newborn screening came back when she was 5 days old. According to her mother, Maranda Richardson, the rare metabolic disorder is life-threatening.

The family recently moved to Tomah and travels about an hour to Hillsboro each week for Emerald’s therapy. Richardson said they have been making the weekly trip for about two years.

During Emerald’s time with Sanchez, therapy has focused on skills including walking, crawling, independent head control, sitting and reaching for toys.

Sanchez said Emerald has made progress, including improved head control and a greater tolerance for being on her stomach. She has also started using her arms and legs more, putting weight on them and keeping her head closer to midline.

Richardson said the relationship with Sanchez and the rest of Emerald’s therapy team goes beyond the time they spend in appointments.

“They all see Emerald for Emerald,” Richardson said. “A lot of people look at Emerald and they don’t see her as a normal three-year-old girl. But she is, like cognitively, she is a normal three-year-old girl. I’ve never had to express that, or fight for her to have equal treatment with them.”

Richardson recalled Sanchez looking at food labels on her own time to find options compatible with Emerald’s protein-restricted diet. During another appointment in La Crosse, Emerald suddenly developed a 103-degree fever. Richardson said Sanchez ran with the family to the emergency room while carrying the crawling devices they had been testing.

“Cassidy in particular, I feel like she thinks about my kid day in and day out,” Richardson said. “I know she loves Emerald, and she loves us.”

That connection also helped drive Sanchez to find a better way to help children like Emerald practice crawling.

“We’re all kind of MacGyver-ish,” Sanchez said. “We’re using straps and Velcro and bands and tape and whatever we might come up with to try to make something work for children. But I also know my limitations, and I am not an engineer.”

Sanchez reached out to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Lab. She told the team what she liked about existing devices, what did not work and what she wanted a new device to accomplish.

Peter Noonan and a team of students developed an initial design, beginning the process that eventually produced the Coggon Crawler, named for Sanchez’s maiden name.

The device supports a child in a hands-and-knees position. It uses ball bearings to help keep children’s fingers from getting caught underneath, has places for straps to keep them from rolling off and includes a headrest.

“The parents’ hands are free so that they can encourage them and play with them and present toys to help encourage that crawling,” Sanchez said.

The Coggon Crawler is an open-source design built with 3D-printed pieces and PVC pipe.

The length of the PVC determines the height of the bed the child lies on, allowing the device to be adjusted as a child grows.

“People are able to open-source print the 3D products themselves and build it themselves for, hopefully, less than about $100,” Sanchez said. “It has been just so cool to see it be able to be in use.”

Sanchez said she wanted the device to be affordable for families already dealing with the costs of devices, therapies, travel and time off work.

She said the biggest barrier to getting the crawler into more clinics and homes is finding somewhere to reliably print it, particularly on a printer capable of PETG printing.

That need reached Eric Johnston, a supervisor in facility operations at Emplify Health by Gundersen in La Crosse.

Johnston’s department got its 3D printer in February after years of considering the technology. It was initially intended to produce discontinued or expensive parts used throughout the health system.

Johnston said one plastic gear inside a door motor costs about 25 cents to print. When that gear fails, a refurbished motor costs about $1,800.

As word of the printer spread, the department began receiving requests for other projects. Then Sanchez reached out.

Johnston said a piece for the lab was in the middle of printing when Sanchez called. He canceled it.

“When she called and said what this was for, there was no question in my mind that that’s going to be our main focus for the foreseeable future,” Johnston said.

Printing a crawler takes about a week, he said, and one piece alone takes about 18 hours.

Sanchez knew Johnston was working on the project. She did not know how far he had taken it.

During one of Emerald’s weekly appointments, Johnston brought in a finished crawler and told Sanchez the team had already made four.

“Oh my goodness,” Sanchez said as she saw the device. “And it says Coggon Crawler on there.”

Johnston told her the team was not finished. While Sanchez had asked for one, he said they hope to make about a dozen.

“I knew I had somebody working on maybe one. I didn’t know that we were gonna have all of this come today,” Sanchez said afterward. “This is so exciting.”

Several of the crawlers may already have a destination.

Sanchez said she has received at least six requests from colleagues within the Emplify Health system, including therapists in Iowa, La Crosse and Onalaska.

For Emerald’s family, the project is about more than one piece of therapy equipment.

“It just means the world to have someone that loves your kid enough to develop something like that,” Richardson said. “That’s life changing for so many kids.”

The Coggon Crawler continues to evolve.

Sanchez has also connected with TOM Global, an organization working on revisions, research and ways to increase the device’s usability.

A future version is expected to include a more robust headrest for children who need additional support.

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Federal appeals court temporarily stays Christa Pike’s execution

By Eric Pointer

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A federal appeals court temporarily stayed Christa Pike’s execution while it considers her latest challenge to her death sentence, according to court filings.

According to court documents, Pike argues the state recently reversed its position that she fabricated allegations of sexual abuse.

Pike argues that the State’s concession of her history of child sexual abuse and rape “erodes the foundation” of her state court proceedings.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered Pike’s execution stayed until further notice of the court.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute Christa Pike by lethal injection on Wednesday morning at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, marking the first time the state has put a woman to death in more than 200 years.

The execution is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Sept. 30.

Pike has spent more than three decades on death row following her conviction for the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike was 18 years old at the time of the crime.

Investigators said Pike bragged about the murder, showing off a piece of Slemmer’s skull to other students.

This case also marks the first time Tennessee will execute someone for a crime committed at age 18 since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Gov. Bill Lee reviewed Pike’s request for clemency and decided not to intervene.

Death penalty advocacy groups held a virtual vigil Tuesday night to pray for Pike, Slemmer’s family, and those who will carry out the execution.

Witnesses are expected to gather at Riverbend Prison a few hours before the execution.

This story was reported by Eric Pointer and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. by Eric Pointer and WTVF’s editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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South Florida mom accused of leaving 4 children home alone for 3 days while on cruise released on bond

By Ivan Taylor

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    FLORIDA (WFOR) — A 29-year-old South Florida mother accused of leaving her four young children, including a 2-month-old baby, home alone for three days while she went on a cruise was released from jail on bond Tuesday night.

Nathalie Belizaire walked out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center before 9 p.m., covering her face after noticing cameras outside the jail.

Belizaire was arrested after getting off the cruise ship and faces four counts of child neglect. She appeared in bond court earlier Tuesday before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer, who expressed disbelief as she reviewed the allegations.

“You cannot make this up,” Glazer said. “It says she went on a cruise and left her children home alone.”

According to the arrest report, Belizaire was supposed to drop the children off at their grandmother’s home before leaving for the cruise but allegedly never did.

“These poor kids were home alone for three days?” Glazer said. “I guess there’s probable cause for child neglect. We’re just grateful nothing else happened to these kids.”

Belizaire’s public defender told the judge that she denied the allegations.

“Judge, Ms. Belizaire denies these allegations,” the attorney said.

“Of course she does,” Glazer responded.

The judge appeared particularly troubled by the age of the youngest child.

“The baby was born in July of this year. Who leaves a baby alone like that?” Glazer said.

According to Belizaire’s arrest report, North Miami Beach police entered the family’s apartment after the father of the 2-month-old baby called 911.

Police body-camera video recorded officers entering the residence, where investigators said they found the infant and the other three children without adult supervision. The four siblings were found together, hiding in a bathroom, according to police.

The infant’s father told investigators that he had seen a WhatsApp story posted the previous Thursday that appeared to show a Carnival cruise ticket purchase.

According to the arrest report, the father said he had been told the children would be supervised while Belizaire was away. Two days later, however, he became concerned that no one was caring for them and contacted authorities.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Belizaire’s public defender asked the judge to consider pretrial services and an alternate bond, stressing that the accusations had not been proven.

“At this time, it’s only an allegation. She denies the allegation,” the public defender said.

“They arrested her disembarking the cruise ship,” Glazer responded.

The judge ultimately set bond at $2,500 on each count and ordered Belizaire to have no contact with the children, either directly or indirectly. She was also ordered not to possess firearms, weapons, or ammunition.

Belizaire wiped away tears during the hearing.

“Good luck to you, madam,” Glazer said after announcing the bond conditions.

Belizaire posted bond and was released Tuesday night.

The Florida Department of Children and Families is expected to investigate the case.

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Metro Atlanta cancer survivor establishing nonprofit to help others discover identity after treatment

By Emily McLeod

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    Atlanta (WUPA) — As Blood Cancer Awareness Month ends this week, a metro Atlanta graduate student and blood cancer survivor is using his story to help others discover themselves beyond treatment.

In 2022, Owen Abeles was just a few months into his freshman year at Oxford College of Emory University when he was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin Lymphoma.

During that time, Abeles was put in a quarantine house and couldn’t go to the dining hall for his meals. That’s when he began to discover his love for cooking.

“It was like by force,” Abeles said. “I started cooking more often, but then I ended up finding it’s a meditative exercise for me. It’s a place where I can kind of reset.”

Rather than returning home to New Jersey, Abeles chose to continue his classes while undergoing chemotherapy for six months at Piedmont Newton in Covington.

While navigating freshman year and chemotherapy, cooking became a stress reliever and creative outlet for Abeles.

“I never knew how much I liked the act of cooking, and making, and eating the food that I made until I began doing it more often,” Abeles said. “So it’s not just like food is medicine. It’s also like the act and the enjoyment of making, and cooking and then consuming it’s kind of this whole circle.”  

Abeles has been in remission for 3 and a half years and is completing a master’s degree in bioethics at Emory University.

He said much of his path has been shaped by his experiences.

“That’s why I’m building the nonprofit I founded. That’s why I do the research that I do. Because I can’t just let it sit there, let a problem just exist without me interrogating it,” Abeles said. “It irks me. Rather, I need to dive in and make it better.”

When he’s not in the kitchen or studying, he’s working on his nonprofit, The Cairn Project.

The organization aims to help young adults discover themselves after cancer treatment, just like Abeles found a piece of himself in the kitchen.

He feels there are gaps in resources for young adults figuring out what’s next following cancer treatment.

“Our goal is to help establish identity and balance for emerging adult cancer patients,” Abeles said. “So what that really means is outside of treatment, to which treatment has gotten so much better, there is still a lack of support for emerging adults, where people like me go through treatment and then fall out and are left to their own devices to figure out jobs, to figure out school, to figure out life.”

When it comes to his love for helping others, Abeles’ organization is just the beginning. He’s now applying to medical school because of the support from his professors and care team.

“It solidified medicine is where I wanted to go because I see myself as a person that will lend his hand,” Abeles said. “And when everybody lended their hand to me, that allowed me to hoist myself up and to continue with school and to continue with my academics and my extracurriculars and become the person I am today.”

Abeles said he is hoping to launch programming for his nonprofit at the end of this semester.

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Kokanee salmon bring fall deep reds to Northern Utah streams

By Mike Anderson

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    HEBER CITY, Utah (KSL) — Fall colors are showing up in both the trees and some streams around northern Utah, as kokanee salmon turn bright red and begin to spawn. Next to the Strawberry Reservoir visitor’s center, the deep colors are especially easy to spot inside spawning traps, run by Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources.

The Jensen family came from Salt Lake City to see the deep reds, making a stop on their way home after a weekend camping trip Monday.

“Oh, it’s a blast,” Scott Jensen said, alongside his wife, Alyssa, daughter Paisley, and son Declan. “I think it’s a fun place for the kiddos to come see something different that you know they don’t get to see anywhere else.”

For Alyssa and the kids, it was the first time seeing the kokanee turn.

“I’ve lived in Utah my whole life and didn’t even know that this was a thing,” Alyssa Jensen said.

While the salmon have always been popular, the attraction seems to be drawing more people each year. Trina Hedrick, a cold water sportfish coordinator for the DWR, says it’s important that people look from a safe distance for the fish.

“It’s probably best to just stay out of the creeks at this time. If there are kokanee running, it’s not a nice thing to go smush in their reds,” she said of the eggs.

Hedrick says the kokanee spawning season may remain in its peak through the next couple of weeks, and at least some of the fish could be spotted in streams up until Nov.1 in some lower elevations.

“I’d say just enjoy,” Hedrick said. “They’re beautiful fish. Some of their red color is literally just as as bright red as the leaves this year.”

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Gov. Sherrill tours Jersey Shore nor’easter damage as beach towns push for federal aid

By Ryan Hughes

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    BRIGANTINE, New Jersey (KYW) — Cleanup continues down the Jersey Shore as many people are still assessing the damage after the weekend nor’easter.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill was on the ground in Brigantine Tuesday to see the power of Mother Nature firsthand. Sherrill says the state is working with federal partners to help beach towns recover.

“This is just the beginning of storm season,” Sherrill said, “and so making sure we move as quickly as possible to get the beaches in their most protective state for these homeowners will be key.”

Hundreds of feet of the beach in Brigantine was washed away, and the city’s promenade suffered structural damage.

Brigantine is not due for a beach replenishment project until 2029. The mayor is now asking for an emergency project.

“There’s no beach here without the dune system that protects our island and this beach,” Brigantine Mayor Vince Sera said. “It puts a lot of our homes in danger, and we need to get ahead of that before it gets wiped out.”

Sera says he is working with Rep. Jeff Van Drew and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to extend the seawall by 275 feet to help protect the city from future storms. He also says the head of FEMA will be in town Thursday.

In nearby Atlantic City, the storm’s strong winds toppled the giant dinosaur displays at Showboat’s Jurassic Beach Dinosaur Park.

The beaches in AC suffered severe erosion, and steep cliffs have left several beach access points unsafe and unusable.

“The dunes got beat up a little bit, but they protected the infrastructure,” Don Milora, who lives down the shore, said, “and that’s what they’re designed to do.”

Ed Potosnak, the commissioner of the NJDEP, also toured the damage. He said recovery will be challenging, but within days the state will submit a request asking for federal assistance.

“We’re going to work closely with the Army Corps of Engineers to help with our survey to make sure everything is lining up with what they’re seeing,” Potosnak said, “and then put together a federal request so we can get our communities protected for the next storm that can come. We’re in storm season now.”

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104-year-old woman receives brother’s dog tags 83 years after he died during WWII

By Mike Sullivan

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    BEVERLY, Massachusetts (WBZ) — After 83 years, a 104-year-old Beverly, Massachusetts, woman finally has her brother’s dog tags after his plane crashed during World War II in 1943. Beverly Veterans’ Services doesn’t know how they ended up in a file that came to their office, but they spent years trying to reunite the tags with the veteran’s family.

Dorothy Stewart lost her brother Bernard Parnell when she was just 21. “First off he was handsome,” said Stewart. “The girls used to chase him all of the time.”

He joined the Navy following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and headed to Florida for training to be a radioman on an aircraft.

“It had engine trouble and it crashed off the coast of Florida,” said Stewart.

She says her brother handed a life jacket to the pilot, Lt. James Digh.

“The pilot was the only survivor. My brother’s body was never found,” said Stewart.

Her brother’s dog tags remained lost until Ken McKay opened a folder. The assistant director of Veterans’ Services in Beverly was combing through a tote of records dating back to the Spanish-American War.

“This is the fourth or fifth maybe dog tag that we’ve pulled out of these files,” said McKay.

For four to five years, the tags hung on a frame in his office while he pursued answers.

“Researching ancestry,” McKay said, “I was able to view the application for the headstone for Bernard in 1972.”

The application was submitted by Dorothy Stewart. “Due to her age, I initially just searched for an obituary,” said McKay.

Instead, he found an article written about her five straight world championship victories in indoor rowing. She was competing in an age group she calls 95 plus. She stopped competing in the event once COVID hit.

“With that, I called the YMCA, and explained who I am. They thought I was a scammer at first,” said McKay.

They eventually helped to connect the two, with the tags being returned to her in a ceremony at the YMCA on Sept. 29.

“I broke down and cried. I just held it after I kissed it,” said Stewart. “Who would have dreamed after all of this time?”

It’s the closest she has been to her brother since 1943.

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Big Bear bald eagle Jackie honored with life-size monument in San Bernardino Mountains

By Zach Boetto, Dean Fioresi

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    BIG BEAR, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Beloved Big Bear bald eagle Jackie was honored with a life-size monument in the area where she so frequently roamed the skies before her death last month.

The intricately designed wooden statue was handcrafted by chainsaw sculptor Paul Waclo, recreating a majestic shot of Jackie flying with a fish in her talons.

“People that know Jackie, especially from that side, will recognize that’s Jackie,” said Mike Wayman, the owner of the park where the monument was installed. “They just like the idea that there’s someplace that they can go and see, and remember something that they really had an attachment to.”

Waclo and his team said that getting the monument right was so important to them because they knew how important Jackie was to the Big Bear Lake community.

The monument was unveiled during a ceremony at Fawnskin Freedom Park on Saturday, another lasting image of the eagle that drew the fascination of millions via Friends of Big Bear Valley’s 24/7 livestream camera pointed at her old nest, which she shared with her longtime partner Shadow as they raised several clutches of eaglets.

“She’s dearly missed already,” said Nancy Koch, a Big Bear resident who visited the monument on Sunday. “I’ve been watching the nest for several years, and this is just my way of showing my love for her.”

Jackie died last month after a weeks-long battle with a mystery illness. She was found extremely sick in late July after she was seen fighting with subadult eagles near the Big Bear Lake shore.

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