Sea otter pup and mom reunited

CNN Newsource on November 12, 2025

By Valentina Saldaña

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    California (KSBY) — A sea otter pup was reunited with its mom in Morro Bay and the heartwarming video has caught the attention of many people on social media.

The Marine Mammal Center covers 600 miles of California coastline. The rescue organization recently received a call about an otter pup that was seen near the shore along the Embarcadero.

Team members from the Morro Bay facility were sent to the rescue. They took a small carrier, ice, a rescue net, and a Bluetooth speaker, recording a one-minute clip of the pup’s cries to play on repeat in hopes that the mother would hear it.

“Vocalizations are very important for pairings of moms and pups, so in this situation, we were able to identify the potential mom because of those vocalizations,” said Aliah Meza, Senior Manager at the Morro Bay facility.

Eventually, the team spotted an adult otter following their boat around the bay.

“I would be on one side, she would be on the other, and then we’d end up on the other side. So that kept happening and her persistence of following us and approaching the boat was the really key indicator,” said Shayla Zink, Operations Coordinator at the Morro Bay facility.

After two hours of searching, Zink placed the pup, which they nicknamed Caterpillar, into the water.

“I definitely cried a little bit when she came up and got the pup. It was super rewarding, like top five day at work ever,” Zink said.

This was the first reunification in the area since 2019, but the Southern sea otter reunion was important for more than one reason.

“Southern sea otters are still a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and currently their population is kind of hovering at 3,000,” Meza said.

Meza said that because Morro Bay is secluded, the likelihood of finding an otter mom is higher than if a pup is stranded in the open ocean.

In a case where the mother cannot be found, the organization might be able to send the pup to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for its surrogacy program with their captive adult female otters.

“Teaching them how to forage and eat and act like otters appropriately in a way that humans just can’t teach them,” Zink said. “They need that maternal care.”

The Marine Mammal Center encourages people to contact them at (415) 289-SEAL(7325) to report an animal that’s in distress. For more information, visit their website: marinemammalcenter.org

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Pilot was trying to return to airport when plane crashed on highway, NTSB says

CNN Newsource on November 12, 2025

By WBZ Staff

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    Massachusetts (WBZ) — The pilot flying the small plane that crashed on a highway in Dartmouth, Massachusetts last month was trying to return to the airport, according to a preliminary report from the NTSB.

Tom Perkins, 68, and his 66-year-old wife, Agatha, of Middletown, Rhode Island, died when their single engine plane crashed onto Route 195 on October 13 and burst into flames.

According to investigators, shortly after taking off from New Bedford Airport for Kenosha, Wisconsin at 8:05 a.m., the pilot told air traffic control he would be returning to the airport, and that he did not need assistance. The pilot was cleared to land.

Low altitude alert About a minute later, the controller provided the pilot with a low altitude alert. “Shortly after, the pilot made an unintelligible exclamation. There were no further communications from the pilot,” the NTSB wrote in the report.

The crash site was about four miles southwest of the airport. The NTSB said several trees had the tops cut off approximately 50 feet above the ground. The fuselage of the plane came to rest in the median of the highway after hitting a car traveling on I-195 west. The driver of that car suffered minor injuries.

Investigators said the distance from the initial impact point to where the fuselage came to rest was about 280 feet. The NTSB said all of the major components of the airplane were located at the crash site.

Both sides of the highway in southeastern Massachusetts were shut down for several hours after the crash.

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Video shows alligator slinking back into Charles River in Boston

CNN Newsource on November 12, 2025

By Mike Sullivan

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — A viral video has people in Boston looking for an alligator in the Charles River. The small gator was spotted over the weekend and caught on video by a couple passing by.

“I wasn’t necessarily scared. My girlfriend was like, ‘I don’t want you to touch it. You don’t know what could be in the water,” said Trevor Rochelle, who took the video.

Rochelle likes to fish in the area, but he didn’t expect to catch a gator on camera instead. In the video, he is seen poking the alligator with a stick to see if it’s alive. After, it retreats back into the water. People on social media began questioning if the video was actually AI, but the stick that is in the video was still there when we met Rochelle for an interview.

“That was the first thing people thought. You’re joking. This isn’t real. The video was the realistic piece,” said Rochelle. “Believe me, it was real. I am not pulling anyone’s leg.”

He spotted the small gator in one of the two lagoons that sit in the Esplanade and connect to the Charles River. After the encounter, Rochelle says he contacted Boston Animal Control for help.

“They thought I was crazy. Then I told them I live near MIT, and they thought maybe he isn’t as dumb as we thought,” said Rochelle. “We got the authorities to come out here, and we reported it to who we needed to report it to.”

Alligators illegal to own in Massachusetts MassWildlife is aware of the video, and they are working with Boston Animal Control and the Massachusetts Environmental Police to try to capture it. Alligators are not native to the state, and MassWildlife says they cannot survive cold weather. They are also illegal to own in Massachusetts.

It turns out, this isn’t the first time an alligator has been found in the Charles River. WBZ covered a similar story in 2010, when a canoeist came across one in the Charles in Needham. A local reptile educator from Rainforest Reptile Shows pulled it from the water with his bare hands.

“It’s definitely not native, maybe someone had ill intentions,” said Rochelle. “We are trying to get the word out and trying to get everyone to come out to find this thing, to find the right home. That’s the end goal here.”

Rochelle has named the gator “TT,” and he hopes he can survive this week’s cold snap long enough to be found.

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‘Walking America Couple’ pass through Northern California, share message of positivity and connection

CNN Newsource on November 12, 2025

By Brady Halbleib

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    California (KMAX, KOVR) — Crossing the country to spread positivity, gratitude, and human connection, that’s the mission behind a couple who are walking across all 50 states.

Their journey brought them to Northern California, where they passed through Roseville and Folsom on Tuesday.

Torin and Paige Rouse call themselves the Walking America Couple. They set out to walk more than 12,000 miles through every U.S. state.

What started as a leap of faith to explore America’s beauty and diversity on foot has become a deeper mission, one about understanding humanity, one step at a time.

The Rouses say their goal is to connect with people from all backgrounds and remind others that change starts with kindness, compassion and the way we listen to one another.

“It’s all about changing the mind, showing people how much we’re capable of, how we can change our perspective to be happier, more resilient, more loving, and less judgmental,” Paige Rouse said.

“We’re seeking to change people within, and that will eventually result in the change outside that we’re all hoping for,” Torin Rouse added.

Along the way, the couple has been welcomed into hundreds of homes, relying on strangers for meals, shelter, and encouragement. They say it’s those acts of kindness that have restored their faith in humanity, and they hope to inspire that same feeling in others.

Now more than two years into their journey, California marks the 28th state the Rouses have visited so far.

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Homeowner who helped pilot that crashed in Snake River describes what happened

CNN Newsource on November 11, 2025

By Daniel V. Ramirez, EastIdahoNews.com

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    BLACKFOOT, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — For over two hours Monday, crews worked to remove a small passenger plane that had crashed into the Snake River near the Rose Road Bridge in Blackfoot.

A pilot, who was the only person inside the plane, called a nearby house around 6 p.m. asking for help, according to a news release from Bingham County. It was reported that the pilot had non-life-threatening injuries.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s aircraft inquiry reports the plane was a Tecnam P2008.

FlightAware.com, a flight tracking website, showed the plane flying out of Idaho Falls Regional Airport at 5:40 p.m. with an estimated time of arrival at the McCarley Field Airport in Blackfoot at 5:54 p.m. The plane is shown stopping 1.38 miles away from the airport near the bridge on Rose Road.

The homeowner who helped the pilot — he asked EastIdahoNews.com not to identify him — says he heard a loud thud and assumed it was a semi-truck or another large vehicle that made the noise.

Twenty minutes later, he heard his doorbell ring and saw a man “dripping wet, with blood on his face.”

“He wouldn’t really talk much. He was just panicked,” the homeowner said.

The homeowner said he helped the man out of his wet clothes and called 911 for help.

He said the pilot told him he was coming out of Idaho Falls, and that his chest hurt.

“I’m really surprised he got out of that river and walked up here,” says the homeowner. “He’s lucky to be alive. If he had hit that bridge, we wouldn’t have seen him.”

The crash is still under investigation. EastIdahoNews.com will provide updates as we receive them.

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Fishing and friendship: What we know about the men found side by side after drowning in Henrys Lake

CNN Newsource on November 11, 2025

By Nate Eaton, EastIdahoNews.com

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    ISLAND PARK, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — Stephen Marx and James Morey were no strangers to Henrys Lake.

Over the years, the two had spent countless days fishing its waters, often on the same boat Marx had owned and used for decades, according to his wife, Ynette Marx.

But their fishing trip on Nov. 1 ended in tragedy with Marx, 64, and Morey, 55, drowning in the lake they loved so much.

“When they found them, they were right by each other in the lake. Neither one of them would have let the other go without the other,” Ynette told EastIdahoNews.com through tears.

Investigators will likely never know what led to the two experienced fishermen going overboard. Another fisherman told officials he was the only person on the lake between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. that Saturday, so it’s presumed Marx and Morey fell in before that time.

The day started off normally, with Marx and Morey agreeing to meet up at Walmart and head up to the lake, according to Ynette. After a few hours, she realized she hadn’t received any photos of fish from her husband, which was unusual. He always sent her pictures of what he had caught.

“At 6:30 p.m., I hadn’t heard from him all day long, so I tried calling him and it went straight to voicemail,” Ynette explained. “I called James’ wife, and she hadn’t heard from her husband either. So we called the police and around 10 p.m., an officer called me and said, ‘Your husband’s truck is here with the trailer and no boat.’”

Fremont County Search and Rescue crews were called out, and Marx’s boat was found on the shore, with no footprints nearby.

Other agencies responded to help on Sunday with drones, four-wheelers, helicopters, search dogs and people on foot. By the end of the day, the men were still missing.

“I woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning on Monday and when I rolled over to hold him, I remembered he wasn’t there,” Ynette said. “That’s when I thought he was gone because I didn’t think he could survive two nights in the cold.”

Ynette went to Henrys Lake on Monday and waited for any developments in the search. She was told it could take days or weeks before her husband and Morey could be recovered. It was even possible that, given weather conditions, they might not be found until the spring.

But around 5:30 p.m., a side scan sonar from a rescue boat spotted an anomaly in the water and divers were sent in. Marx and Morey were found next to each other in about 13 feet of water. Ynette was on shore when her husband’s body was brought in.

“He looked just like he was asleep. He even had his sunglasses on. He looked cold and his arms were folded up against him,” Ynette said.

Marx and Morey met 30 years ago as new teachers in Klamath Falls, Oregon. In 2010, Morey moved his family to his wife’s hometown of Carey, according to his obituary, and the Marx family ended up in Idaho Falls for Stephen’s job at Bonneville Power Administration.

Ynette praised the work of all the searchers who helped find Marx and Morey. She asked to take a photo of them so she could always remember the people who found her husband and his friend.

“This truly was a joint effort. Even though the outcome was not what we had hoped for, we did get some closure on this and hopefully the families can rest at ease,” Fremont County Search and Rescue Commander Brett Mackert told EastIdahoNews.com.

Morey leaves behind a wife and three children. His funeral is scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m. in Carey and he will be buried in the Carey Cemetery.

“(James) loved the outdoors and spent much of his free time boating, hunting and fishing with friends and family. He enjoyed countless hours at the lakes, rivers and outdoors of Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho with friends and loved ones, building memories that will last forever. James took care of his family in every way, lived his life to the fullest, kept his faith, and died doing what he loved most,” according to Morey’s obituary.

Marx spent more than 20 years working with the Boy Scouts and young men groups from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He loved hiking, huckleberry picking, hunting and being outdoors. He leaves behind a wife and two sons.

“He was an ardent believer of that old saying ‘a bad day fishing (or hunting) was better than a great day at work.’ Always congenial and quick with a joke, Stephen made friends wherever he went,” Ynette said. “We are not OK, but we’re trying to be OK. He will be sorely missed.”

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‘Every moment is a fight.’ After surviving paralysis twice, 4-year-old faces another hurdle

CNN Newsource on November 11, 2025

By Kaitlyn Hart, EastIdahoNews.com

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    REXBURG, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — A local 4-year-old who was paralyzed for the second time in his life after a crash in September continues to persevere through challenges that would beat down even the toughest of adults. Now, he needs a pacemaker.

“Every moment is a fight, but he’s showing resilience as much as he can,” says Katherine Grover, Carter’s mom.

On Sept. 22, Carter’s grandmother, Laurie Peterson, was driving him to his physical therapy appointment, which he goes to three times a week in Rexburg, when she suffered a medical emergency while driving near the intersection on Salem Road at 3000 North.

“She suffered a stroke that led to her being unable to stop properly at the stop sign and was hit by another oncoming vehicle. It did, unfortunately, involve a hay-baler,” Grover says. “We do feel like the vehicle rolled, but we aren’t sure. They were both wearing seatbelts at the time.”

Carter and his grandmother were both transported to EIRMC, with Peterson suffering multiple strokes, leaving her in critical condition in the ICU at EIRMC. Since our last update, Peterson has been released from the hospital and is recovering steadily every day.

“She’s healing properly, her brain activity is excellent,” Grover says. “She’s doing really good. She’s walking around and being more independent every day.”

Carter was severely injured in the crash, leaving him paralyzed for the second time in his life, after overcoming paralysis as a baby.

At seven months old, Carter contracted a virus as a complication from COVID-19, which caused him to become paralyzed from the neck down. He had recently overcome much of the paralysis and begun running until the crash.

Following the crash in Rexburg, Carter was airlifted to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. He suffered a spinal cord tear in the C1 and C2 of his spine, and damaged his C5 and C6, resulting in paralysis from the neck down and an inability to breathe on his own.

“We have been in the hospital since the accident, surrounded by machines and doctors working around the clock to keep him stable,” says Grover. “Things are getting hard, the weight of medical expenses, traveling costs between state to state, long-term care needs, preparing to move here to give Carter what he needs, and we just need help.”

According to Grover, Carter recently had a major health scare when his heart stopped, causing doctors to now evaluate his medical needs and prepare him to receive a pacemaker at only four years old.

“He had the spinal fusion surgery, and then he had a (tracheostomy) surgery. Then he had another surgery to help stabilize his spine,” Grover says. “He’s had multiple surgeries. Recently, we’ve faced another challenge, and now he needs a pacemaker to help regulate his heart.”

Grover says doctors believe that due to his spinal injury, his brain has stopped communicating correctly with his heart.

“His heart stopped, so they resuscitated him, and they were doing compressions for four minutes. He was okay for a moment, and then (his heart) stopped again, and then they had to continue doing compressions,” Grover says. “So now anytime they do any breathing treatments or move him, his heart rate drops down to 30, which is not good. His brain can’t send the proper message down to his heart to say, ‘Hey, just beat regularly.’”

Grover says the emotional and physical toll has been overwhelming on her and her family, causing her to be forced to quit her job and try to make plans to move to Salt Lake City in order to be closer to the specialists and treatments that Carter requires.

“He is in a very uncomfortable and painful state at this moment, so he hasn’t been sleeping at night. But he is all cognitively there, and his brain activity is completely normal for a four-year-old,” Grover says. “He’s just really scared.”

Carter’s mom says she and the doctors are worried about his mental health and hope to be able to get him a pacemaker as soon as possible.

“They’re worried that he’s just going to give up,” Grover says.

On top of all of this, not only is Grover a single mom to Carter, but also his older brother William, who has been worried about his brother as he stays with family back in Idaho Falls.

“I’m a single parent and I’m trying to manage everything by myself, and it’s not easy,” Grover says. “My little family’s just broken right now and we’re doing everything we can. (William) wants to be with his mom and his little brother because that’s what he’s used to.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Grover and her family with travel costs and Carter’s medical needs. Click here to donate.

The family hopes to raise $300,000 to get them back on their feet and provide Carter with the medical support he requires.

“Our family’s just so broken, and I’m trying to find a home where I can bring my son, so he can be with me and my other son,” Grover says. “I have to just maintain as best as I can.”

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Farm fined $125K for exposing workers to pesticides, DA office says

CNN Newsource on November 11, 2025

By Ricardo Tovar

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    SALINAS, California (KSBW) — The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office announced that a farm must pay more than $100,000 in penalties for allegedly exposing employees to pesticides.

The Environmental Protection Unit of the District Attorney’s Office resolved the case against The Growers Company, Inc. (“Growers”) for allegedly violating pesticide-related laws.

In one instance, on Oct. 9, 2023, a Growers supervisor ignored pesticide warning signs in a lettuce field and ordered a crew of 93 field workers into a field that had been treated with various pesticides less than 24 hours earlier, per the district attorney’s office.

One of the pesticides allegedly used, Sivanto Prime, has a 24-hour restricted-entry interval, and no one is allowed to enter during that period.

The District Attorney’s Office claims that 66 of the field workers developed symptoms consistent with exposure to pesticides, such as nausea, dizziness, headache, and irritation of the throat, nose, eyes, and skin.

“Moreover, despite legal requirements to take all exposed employees to a physician for medical care, Growers took only 34 of the exposed employees to a physician for evaluation,” per the District Attorney’s Office.

The ruling requires Growers to pay $125,194 in civil penalties and costs and includes injunctive terms to prevent further violations.

A felony criminal charge was also filed against a Growers supervisor, who has since died.

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Husband and wife charged in drug ring that allegedly took EBT for drugs

CNN Newsource on November 11, 2025

By Ricardo Tovar

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    SALINAS, California (KSBW) — A joint media conference on Monday, led by the Salinas Police Department, revealed that months of police work stopped an alleged major drug operation in Salinas.

The operation, dubbed “Logged Out,” was conducted by Salinas police in late 2024.

The large-scale drug trafficking operation was allegedly led by husband and wife Matthew Loggins, 44, and Karen Guadalupe Loggins, 33, who police say focused sales mostly in the Chinatown area and accepted EBT cards as payment for drugs.

“The Loggins profited on some of our community’s most vulnerable residents — the unhoused and those battling addiction,” said Salinas Police Chief Carlos Acosta.

Police said the Loggins network used multiple people as “drug runners” who transported narcotics from Southern California to Salinas. Matthew and or Karen followed closely in another vehicle to ensure the drugs arrived safely.

Evidence revealed direct ties to Mexican Cartel associates; this was based on packaging and signature stamp markings found on the drugs.

“One of the most disturbing discoveries in this investigation was the Loggins’ willingness to accept EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) cards as payment for drugs. Many of those purchasing drugs provided their EBT information and other personal information, which allowed the suspects to drain their funds for their own profit,” said Chief Acosta.

On Oct. 27, the Logginses were taken into custody and booked into Monterey County Jail on multiple drug-trafficking felonies, police said. This was after police searched three properties belonging to the Loggins, per police.

Police say they confiscated multiple firearms, currency, jewelry, designer bags, a 2022 Jeep Wagoneer, a 2020 Dodge Charger, and millions of dollars’ worth of narcotics.

In total, Salinas police said they seized nearly 27 pounds of methamphetamine, six pounds of fentanyl in pill form, a little over 17 pounds of powdered fentanyl, an ounce of heroin, and 11.2 grams of cocaine.

Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni also spoke Monday and said her office reviewed 45 search warrants in the case. Pacioni said that, in the limited time her office has been investigating, they have counted at least 30 instances of EBT fraud.

“As a further step to ensure that justice is served, we’ve initiated civil forfeiture proceedings on over $400,000 in suspected drug-trafficking proceeds,” said Pacioni.

Monterey CHP Captain Erica Elias said that on Oct. 24, her office conducted a traffic stop in South Monterey County that netted several pounds of narcotics.

In total, 12 pounds of fentanyl and 25 pounds of methamphetamine were concealed within the vehicle, leading to the arrest of 38-year-old Sabrina Pieri of Marina. Elias said this arrest was part of Operation “Logged Out.”

Pieri was booked into the Monterey County Jail on numerous felony and misdemeanor charges, Elias said.

Other arrests as part of the operation were Nicole Rankins, 37, Adrian Estigoy, 31, Andrea Salazar, 31, Sean Coffer, 31, Danuelle McDonald, 47, and Kayla Potter, 37.

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Man says cockroach told him to kill two people

CNN Newsource on November 11, 2025

By Peyton Spellacy, Hamilton Kahn

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    SOUTH VALLEY, New Mexico (KOAT) — Two men were found dead with gunshot wounds Friday night in the South Valley, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.

Alexis Najera Hernandez, 27, has been arrested and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on two open counts of murder.

BCSO deputies responded around 10:27 p.m. on Friday to reports of gunfire near the 1400 block of Entrada Bonita SW. According to court documents, Hernandez answered the door when they arrived. He had a gun in his waistband and a Marine Corps sabre on his hip, both of which he surrendered after he was ordered to do so.

In addition to the men who were dead, three other adults and two young children were also inside. The adults were detained for questioning, and the children were safely removed from the scene.

Hernandez was taken to a BCSO substation, where he was read his rights and agreed to speak with detectives. He said he had been hearing voices and getting signs that he should kill “Hector,” the owner of the property, and later said he also gotten a message from a cockroach telling him to kill “Hector,” the documents said.

According to the documents, after being taken into a back room by “Hector” and the other victim, known as “Yorces,” Hernadez said he shot them both, then went to his car to reload the gun. He then went back and shot their bodies again, he told police.

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