Category: CNN Regional

By Sergio Candido

Click here for updates on this story

    MIAMI (WFOR) — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is warning beachgoers not to put stranded sea turtle hatchlings back into the ocean as storms and rough surf can wash the young turtles ashore during nesting season.

In guidance issued Friday, the FWC said high winds and waves from storms on and offshore can affect sea turtles, hatchlings and their nests. Hatchlings may be found tangled in seaweed along the shoreline or in unusual places such as swimming pools and yards.

Anyone who finds one of these stranded “washback” hatchlings should not pick it up or return it to the water, according to the FWC. Instead, people should immediately call the agency’s 24-hour Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) for instructions.

Hatchlings that are actively crawling toward the ocean should be left alone and do not need assistance, the agency said.

All sea turtles are protected as threatened or endangered species and stranded hatchlings can require specialized care, FWC said.

Florida law also protects sea turtles and their hatchlings from being disturbed or possessed without authorization. Under the state’s Marine Turtle Protection Act, illegally taking, disturbing, molesting or harassing a marine turtle, as well as possessing a marine turtle or hatchling, is a third-degree felony.

A third-degree felony in Florida is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Why do sea turtle hatchlings wash ashore? After emerging from their nests, hatchlings travel across the sand and into the ocean, beginning a journey of several miles to reach floating vegetation that provides food and shelter.

The young turtles can end up in floating patches of sargassum, which can be pushed back toward shore by storm-driven currents and winds. When that happens, the sargassum can carry posthatchling sea turtles with it, leaving the turtles stranded onshore, FWC said.

What should you do if you find sea turtle eggs? Storms and high waves can also uncover sea turtle eggs or sweep them from their nests.

The FWC is asking people who encounter exposed eggs to leave them where they are. According to the agency, eggs rarely survive after being swept from a nest by rough surf.

Storms, however, do not necessarily spell disaster for an entire sea turtle nesting season.

Female sea turtles deposit eggs in several nests throughout the season, increasing the likelihood that some will successfully incubate even when hurricanes or tropical storms affect Florida’s coastline.

The FWC said that even during years when Florida experienced direct impacts from multiple storms, hatching and emergence success rates remained within the normal range.

Florida sea turtle nesting season continues through October Sea turtle nesting season continues through October in Florida, and wildlife officials are reminding residents and visitors to keep beaches “clear, clean and dark.”

Beachgoers can help by taking chairs, umbrellas and other equipment with them when they leave, filling in holes dug in the sand and properly disposing of trash. Fishing line should also be recycled or discarded appropriately.

Lights on or near the beach should be turned off at night because artificial lighting can interfere with nesting sea turtles and hatchlings.

Anyone who encounters a stranded, injured, trapped or dead sea turtle or hatchling should also report it to the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).

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 Kimberly King

Click here for updates on this story

    YANCEY COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — Nearly two years after Helene devastated western North Carolina, 48-year-old Anna Wiebe of Burnsville still lives with the unanswered questions surrounding the deaths of four members of her family.

Wiebe had helped her family leave war-torn Ukraine and come to North Carolina for a safer life. Instead, they were caught in catastrophic flooding along the South Toe River in Yancey County on Sept. 27, 2024.

The bodies of Wiebe’s mother, Tetyana Novitnia, and her 13-year-old nephew, Yevhenii Segen, have never been found.

Wiebe’s sister, Anastasiia Novitnia Segen, 42, and brother-in-law, Dmytro Segen, were recovered in the days following Helene.

“It’s hard enough when somebody you love dies from illness,” said Anna. “But when four members of your family go missing and two of them still not found it makes it even harder.”

Wiebe, who is originally from Ukraine, married Ryan Wiebe, who had roots in western North Carolina. The couple settled in rural Yancey County.

Wiebe said her family came to North Carolina to be closer to her and to find a life that was safer than the one they had left behind in Ukraine.

The Blue Trailer Wiebe took News 13 to the area where her four relatives had been living in a blue trailer near the Patience Park campground, about a mile and a half from Anna’s home.

Anna’s niece, Lisa Gindinova, who lives in New York, provided photos of the trailer.

“In front of this tree. Right here. That’s where their trailer was,” said Anna as she walked in the field.

The South Toe River was about 300 yards away.

On the day of Helene, Wiebe said Patience Park Road was too dangerous to drive as floodwaters rapidly rose.

“In the morning I sent my sister a text,” said Anna. “She texted back to me it was OK. We’re fine here.”

Minutes later, though, Anna couldn’t reach her sister.

“I saw neighbors’ houses floating by and all I could think about was ‘what about them, what about them,’ the phone is not working,” Anna said.

Video of flooding on the South Toe River, shot from Wiebe’s front porch, shows the Helene floodwaters rising. In one video, the current appears to be moving at a tremendous speed as the river rises well above its banks.

As the floodwaters subsided and conditions became safer, Anna hiked through land adjacent to the trailer that was higher ground than the trailer.

“I thought maybe I would see a roof or something or maybe a little window their faces in it. But it was gone. I knew they were gone,” Anna said. Two years after the tragedy, Anna still cries when she talks about what happened.

“When my brother-in-law was found, I didn’t want to believe it. But then days later my sister was found and there was no denial because they gave me her earring. And then I was thinking probably my mom will be found, and my nephew too, but they never were. If I met the people who found my sister and my brother-in-law, I would like to thank them personally. It means the world to me.”

Searching for the missing Lisa Gindinova flew from New York City to try to help her aunt after Helene.

“For three days straight after the hurricane there was no one,” said Gindinova. “No helicopters, no drones, nothing.”

Gindinova said the area around Patience Park Road and where her relative’s trailer was washed away was desolate for days.

Knowing four members of her family were missing and that she could make calls from her cellphone, Gindinova said she was surprised by what she felt was a lack of search resources sent to the area in the immediate days after the storm.

Today, the field is covered with grass and debris left behind by Helene.

YANCEY COUNTY USES HELICOPTERS TO CLEAR RIVER WHERE MISSING HELENE VICTIMS LIVED

The family has a photograph of one piece of the blue trailer’s siding. They don’t know whether other pieces were found.

Back at her home, Wiebe keeps her sister Anastasiia’s death certificate in a white envelope. For Anna, the document is something tangible showing her sister’s body was found.

The certificate lists 42-year-old Anastasiia’s death as drowning. The date her body was found is October 10, 2024. The date of injury is September 27, 2024 — the day Helene struck western North Carolina.

Sheriff says extensive searches happened Yancey County Sheriff Shane Hilliard said he and his department did everything they could along the South Toe River in the days after Helene to try to recover all four of Anna’s relatives.

Hilliard met News 13 at the South Toe River and described some of the searches conducted after the storm.

He said a dog team from Ohio found Anastasiia’s body along the South Toe River near the bridge for U.S. Highway 19E — about eight miles from where the family’s trailer had been.

Hilliard said a New York task force team found Dmytro Segen’s body about two miles downstream from where the family’s trailer had been.

“They were brought in the day before the hurricane,” said Hilliard. “That team was one of the first working once conditions became safe.”

Hilliard printed maps showing News 13 the winding path of the South Toe River and explained that large debris piles remain along portions of the river that have been difficult to access.

“So, we’re just a little over 8 miles, I believe it’s 8.3 miles from where their home set to this location,” said Hilliard as he stood about 50 feet from the riverbank at the U.S. Highway 19E bridge where Anastasiia’s body was found.

“There were recoveries going on the first few weeks, in different places throughout the county. We had some crews tasked with searching the entire river. The sheriff’s office was focused on areas where we knew we had missing. About half our deaths occurred in landslides and the other half was water,” Hilliard said.

Hilliard said the conditions after the storm were extremely difficult. In areas where people died in landslides, the challenge was getting heavy machinery in place to remove debris, he said.

“We knew we had bodies, but we physically couldn’t get to them,” Hilliard said.

Hilliard said 11 people were initially reported missing in Yancey County after Helene. He said three people currently remain missing, including Wiebe’s mother and nephew.

“We want nothing more than to give these families closure,” Hilliard said. NAMES OF 108 VICTIMS KILLED BY HURRICANE HELENE IN NORTH CAROLINA RELEASED: NCDHHS

News 13 asked Hilliard what more he could do to help bring that closure.

“One of the big things is there’s been approval from FEMA to remove some of the larger debris piles and we’ve got cadaver dogs that are going to come as those debris piles are being removed,” Hilliard said.

That debris removal and search happened earlier this week on the Wiebe property. One dog from the SBI was on scene. Anna Wiebe said she and her husband were notified about the work around the same time News 13 began asking authorities what efforts had been made in recent months to continue any search.

The search this week was of debris where the family’s trailer was. No remains were found.

Could the missing remains still be in the river? Hilliard described what he said were extensive efforts to search for remains along the South Toe River.

He went with News 13 to a second location along the river closer to Anna and her husband Ryan’s home.

“From here up has been searched numerous times with cadaver dogs by people with different organizations. I’ve floated this personally myself,” Hilliard said about the South Toe River. “There’s debris piles and any of the big bends you’re going to have really large debris piles. I think one possibility is they’re submerged under the water in sand.”

If the remains are submerged, Hilliard said, cadaver dogs would not be able to detect a scent.

Hilliard said accessing debris piles along the South Toe River remains difficult, adding that much of the property is privately owned and many areas are deeply wooded, including canyons and terrain that make it difficult to bring in equipment to dig through debris piles.

“We had some that was tasked with searching the entire river whether we had confirmed people missing or not,” said Hilliard of the initial searches after Helene.

Hilliard’s own family also faced hardship after Helene, something Anna Wiebe said she understands.

But Anna said she wants the sheriff and anyone who learns of her story to think of the pain she continues to endure.

“I’m glad the sheriff’s family and everybody was OK,” said Anna. “Their houses was washed away and it was terrible. But they didn’t lose their loved ones. I’m sure if they did, they would still be looking until they found them. Is this it? Nobody can do anything to find my mom and my nephew? Anyone in my shoes would want their loved one to be found. I still hope maybe somehow they’ll be found.”

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 Anahita Jafary

Click here for updates on this story

    YOLO COUNTY, California (KCRA) — Yolo County is experiencing a significant increase in copper wire thefts, with the agricultural community suffering tens of thousands of dollars in losses over the past week.

“At least one per week, if not more,” said Sgt. Matt Wirick of the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office, referring to the frequency of the thefts.

Wirick noted the rise in thefts is unprecedented.

“As long as I’ve been involved in investigating agricultural crime, here, for this agency, which is the past several years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen these numbers,” he said.

The thefts primarily involve electrical wire used to power agricultural pumps and wells.

“It’s most often found in the highest volumes in the form of electrical wire that often have to travel those long distances to serve agricultural pumps and wells,” Wirick said.

According to Wirick, there have been about 15 reported incidents in the past three months. In the most recent case, two suspects were identified just outside the city of Davis.

“Just outside the city of Davis, we were able to identify two suspects. In one of those cases, both of those suspects are from the Stockton area, and both have active warrants for their arrest,” Wirick said.

To address the issue, the sheriff’s office plans to implement targeted patrols, live surveillance, and site visits in affected areas.

“Farmers and ranchers [are] experiencing higher costs for fuel and materials and, you know, often dealing with fixed prices for their commodities and so the theft, and loss due to theft or vandalism, you know, results in further shrinking margins for them,” Wirick said.

The sheriff’s office stated that copper wire theft is considered grand theft, a felony, in most cases.

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 Ben Winslow

Click here for updates on this story

    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSTU) — A federal judge has sided with the owner of Pornhub and blocked Utah from enforcing its tough new age-verification law from being enforced.

In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge David Barlow granted Aylo Freesites’ request for a preliminary injunction. Aylo had argued that the law passed by the Utah State Legislature would require age-verification for adult content sites for people Utah — but then targeted VPNs, which can make it appear someone is outside the state or in another country.

The adult content company said in arguments in July that it feared civil and criminal liability and infringes upon the rights of people outside Utah and around the world.

“Utah responds that the statute demands not perfection but reasonable efforts to determine whether a user is actually located in Utah. After full consideration of each party’s briefing and oral argument, the court finds that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits, they have shown irreparable harm, and the equities favor an injunction. Thus, Plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction is granted,” Judge Barlow wrote in his order.

Judge Barlow said Utah’s law is vague and Aylo is correct to be worried.

“If the Legislature intended to include those geolocation requirements in its original passage of the reasonable age verification provision, it did not make that intent manifest in the statutory language. Therefore, the court gives effect to the actual-location provision and its enacting amendment by interpreting the provision as the basis for an entity’s geolocation requirements,” he wrote. “In short, Aylo is correct that the statute, as amended, now essentially imposes strict liability for entities like it when it comes to determining the location of its websites’ users.”

The ruling means Utah’s law will not be enforced while the case proceeds toward trial, which could impact numerous adult-content websites, but Aylo and the state had already agreed to not enforce it pending Judge Barlow making his ruling on the injunction request. Pornhub and similar sites have already blocked Utah IP addresses in a political protest for anti-porn laws the legislature has passed.

Aylo did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Thursday night. A spokesperson for Utah Attorney General Derek Brown did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment on the ruling.

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 Caroleina Hassett

Click here for updates on this story

    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSTU) — It’s been a rough year for farmers in Utah.

“We’ve all seen the pressures of rising fuel prices, and just every single thing costs a little bit more,” said Caroline Scheidell with the Utah Department of Agriculture. “Add in that, an unprecedented drought, wildfire issues, recent hailstorms.”

With many farmers losing their crops to these conditions, Scheidell said it takes a huge toll financially.

“It really takes everything going right to stay profitable. We’re noticing a lot of farmers really struggling this year, and it’s something we’re really concerned about,” she said.

However, one solution could help farmers get more money into their pockets: agritourism.

“Anything that could travel visitors to a farm…. this is the season for corn mazes and pumpkin patches, Scheidell said.

But if certain crops were lost, companies like Airbnb are encouraging farmers to use the property itself as a way to make money. In collaboration with American Farmland Trust, Airbnb is funding a new “Farm to Stay” grant program where for-profit farms can apply and get up to $10,000 if they qualify.

“We can look specifically at Utah, where in 2025 the typical farm stay host earned approximately $8,900, and so that’s a really great opportunity for again folks to have that additional cushion where they can then use that extra income in other ways that make sense for them,” said Ashley Brucker with American Farmland Trust.

“I think farm stays are one of the most interesting things that producers could do to draw people onto their farms,” Scheidell said, “I think it’s such a great way to support visitors, both in-state and to draw out-of-state and international guests.”

While some farms are no stranger to Airbnb, the hope is that the grant program gets farmers back on their feet financially.

“I don’t know of a single farmer out there who isn’t so proud to share the work that they do,” Brucker said, “this really provides this great opportunity for our farmers and ranchers to share their passion, their livelihood, their stewardship with others.”

Other qualifications for the grant include farms that have been in operation for at least a year, they must be a production farm and show at least $1,000 in profit over the past year.

UDAF and the Utah Office of Tourism are eager to continue to support agritourism development. A virtual meeting to gain input from anyone involved in agriculture will be held Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. to help guide future priorities.

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.