Category: CNN Regional

By Zoe Blair, Brittany Decker, Mya Caleb

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    BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — Birmingham commemorated the lives of Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, and Denise McNair, who were killed 62 years ago when a Ku Klux Klan bomb exploded in the basement of 16th Street Baptist Church.

A special ceremony was held Monday at the church to honor their memory.

Bells tolled at 10:22 a.m., the exact moment the bomb detonated, followed by a wreath-laying ceremony.

The Carlton Reese Memorial Unity Choir performed, and former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley spoke. Baxley reopened the cold case in 1971 and prosecuted one of the Ku Klux Klan members involved in the bombing.

“The tragedy is that four girls that were full with promise, possibility, potential lost their lives,” said Rev. Arthur Price Jr. of 16th Street Baptist Church.

He added, “People were angry and their anger turned into activism. The activism turned into action. And that action made people agents of change. Because in 1964, we get the Civil Rights Act passed. In ’65, the Voting Rights Act passed.”

A visual reminder of the day is also present at Kelly Ingram Park across the street, where figures representing the four girls stand in tribute.

To honor those lives, Birmingham Black Lives Matter and state representatives held a commemoration ceremony Tuesday evening.

State Rep. Mary Moore spoke at the ceremony, detailing how she was supposed to be at the church that day.

“I always ask people, does anybody ask the significance of that Sunday? That was Youth Day at 16th Street,” she said. “They had sent out a message to all of us that had participated in the marches to be here for Youth Day all day from Sunday school through the 11:00 hour”

But, Representative Moore didn’t make it before the bomb went off.

“We had a lot of cars coming,” she said. “Our car stopped so the men got out to repair the car. Then when they did that, by that time, one of the deacons came out, running out the church, telling us that we couldn’t make it to 16th Street.”

Though they were blocks away, they still heard the blast.

“Not only could people hear it, but it shook the houses.”

Moore says she’s proud of the nationwide change the bombing sparked, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but she’s disappointed in where the country stands now.

“As a 14 year old, I thought that what me and my friends was doing by marching in this park and doing our part to get freedoms for ourselves, that we would be the one that changed America,” Moore said. “We did for a little bit, but I don’t know if it was a true change, especially in today’s climate when you see the level of hate.”

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By Arielle Mitropoulos, Maria Wilson

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    CONCORD, New Hampshire (WMUR) — The only man on New Hampshire’s death row is getting another chance to plead his case.

In an order issued Monday, the New Hampshire Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal for Michael Addison, who was convicted of killing Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs. Briggs was shot to death in 2006.

Addison’s lawyers argue that, since the death penalty was abolished, his sentence should be commuted.

“It is simply unjust to execute one person in a state where the death penalty has been repealed,” said Jonathan Cohen, counsel for Addison.

Addison was found guilty of capital murder in 2008 and sentenced to death. The death penalty was abolished in New Hampshire in 2019, more than a decade after his conviction.

“It’s not something that’s going to have this kind of echo effect, but nevertheless, this is a very weighty question,” Daniel Pi, a University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law professor, said.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who prosecuted the case while serving as attorney general, said changing Addison’s sentence would be a “grave injustice” to Briggs.

“Addison, a career criminal, murdered Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs in cold blood, and he should face the death sentence imposed by a jury of his peers and upheld by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Commuting his sentence would be a grave injustice and an insult to Officer Briggs’ family and law enforcement,” Ayotte said in a statement.

Addison’s lawyers said the death penalty goes against the state’s contemporary values.

“Mr. Addison’s execution will take place while literally no other person, regardless of their crime or background, would ever be eligible for execution in New Hampshire,” Cohen said. “In the wake of New Hampshire’s prospective repeal of the death penalty, no death sentence can stand.”

Addison’s lawyers told News 9 that he would be the only person in the United States executed after the death penalty was abolished in his jurisdiction. New Hampshire has not executed anyone since 1939.

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By Nick Matoney, Marcie Cipriani

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    CADOGAN TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — A woman recently evicted from a home in Cadogan Township, Armstrong County, is facing multiple charges after three dead babies were found inside the house.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Jessica Mauthe, 39, of Ford City, the investigation began when the owner of a property on Oak Lane was cleaning out the residence and found a dead baby in a trash bag inside a closet.

Police said two other dead babies were found in totes in the attic.

The criminal complaint said that during a police interview, Mauthe described birthing the infants and placing them in the locations where they were found.

“Shocked. No one believed it. It’s just evil,” neighbor Carmen Felix said. “How can you plop babies in the toilet? The girl across from here is a nurse, and she’s sick. She almost didn’t go to work today because she can’t get this off her mind.”

Mauthe is charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse.

She is being held in the Armstrong County Jail.

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By Matt Leonard

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    LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (WESH) — The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a restaurant at Disney Springs was robbed early Monday morning.

According to the sheriff’s office, the Paddlefish restaurant reported a robbery shortly after midnight on Monday.

In an incident report shared with WESH 2, the victims said an unknown man entered the restaurant after it closed and took cash from the restaurant.

In the incident report, the suspect is described as a man weighing about 160 pounds and standing at about 5 feet, 10 inches.

In a photo shared alongside the report, the suspect appears to be wearing blue rubber gloves, a black cap and small goggles over his eyes. The victims described the suspect as wearing all black and socks, but no shoes.

Nobody was injured during the robbery.

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By Ari Hait

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    MARTIN COUNTY, Florida (WPBF) — Deputies in Martin County are being called heroes after racing into a canal to rescue two people stuck in an overturned car.

Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said it happened off of Rt. 714 in the northwestern section of the county.

“If you’ve been out there, you know it’s dark and desolate out there,” Budensiek said.

The Sheriff said a husband and wife were driving on Rt. 714 Saturday night, around 10:30 p.m., when they were hit by another car that just kept going.

“Looks like it was sort of clipped in the back, spun out of control, left the road, rotated over onto its roof, and landed in a canal,” Budensiek said.

The area where this happened is very rural, with the roads surrounded by thick brush.

Budensiek said that the brush made it extremely difficult for deputies to initially find the car, even after the people inside had called 911.

“Even knowing the area where that vehicle was supposed to be, couldn’t find it,” Budensiek said. “They drove up and down the road and eventually heard a horn honking.”

Once they were able to locate the vehicle, Budensiek said deputies wasted no time going into the canal to rescue the people trapped inside the vehicle that was quickly filling with water.

“The car was submerged but not fully submerged,” Budensiek said. “So, they were able to maintain the ability to breathe.”

Deputies busted out the windows of the car and pulled the couple to safety.

“God was looking out for them,” Budensiek said. “They were in a rural part of Martin County. They left the road. They ended up in a spot where no one would have found them. If they’d been knocked unconscious and fully submerged, they would have drowned in that car.”

Investigators are still searching for the vehicle that hit the car, sending it into the canal.

The sheriff said the only description they have of that vehicle is a “white, work-type vehicle.”

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By Tommie Clark

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    ELDERSBURG, Maryland (WBAL) — A game store owner said two people stole $25,000 worth of Pokémon trading cards from her.

Now, police are trying to catch the suspects who were seen laughing on surveillance video.

“It’s not funny. It’s not a joke. This is our livelihood,” said Storm Crow Games co-owner Samantha Clark.

Surveillance video shows the inside of Samantha and Tyler Clark’s store on Sept. 6, when the store was packed with people. Then, the suspects walked to the back of the store, pretending to sign up for an event. Instead, video shows them sneaking into the back office.

“They knew everything that was right to say. They said, ‘Oh, we are here to play in the event and everything that’s going on,'” Tyler Clark said.

The owners said the suspects stole three high-value binders containing at least 1,000 Pokémon trading cards worth around $25,000. The rare cards are part of a popular franchise and were only in-store for a special trade day.

“It just happened, the timing for it was terrible — awful — because we normally don’t even have anything that’s that expensive back there,” Tyler Clark said.

The men left with the stash in a backpack, all in a matter of minutes.

Game stores across the area have seen similar incidents, including two Ellicott City businesses. They reported thefts the same day as Storm Crow Games.

“I’m hopeful that they’re going to get caught, prosecuted. I’m not hopeful for getting the individual cards back. A lot of them are super rare or hard to replace,” Samantha Clark said.

The Clarks said they’ve put everything into their small business and the stolen cards hit hard.

The two recently found out insurance is covering less than half of the stolen amount.

However, since the incident, the community has been showing up. Some are donating their own collections to help the Clarks.

“I kind of got upset, and I knew I had a collection of cards just sitting around not doing anything with it. And I was like, ‘Hey, this isn’t anything compared to the amount of money they lost. But at least do something and at least let them know people are thinking of them,'” said John Fuller, a customer.

The game store has a GoFundMe to support the efforts to recoup some of the lost value.

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By Lee Anne Denyer

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    ESPARTO, California (KCRA) — More than two and a half months after a fireworks explosion in Esparto left seven men dead, officials are exploring legislative and regulatory changes to prevent future incidents.

As the California State Fire Marshal’s office is finalizing its report on the July 1 explosion, the office’s General Fireworks Advisory Committee met for the first time since the incident. The committee is comprised of representatives from the fireworks industry, state agencies, the fire service, and other stakeholders. Licensed pyrotechnic operators and members of the fireworks display industry, for example, are committee members.

“(Monday) was really important for us to formally brief them on where we are with this case,” State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant said of the investigation. “What happened in Esparto, while still under investigation, has already taught us that there were loopholes that were being used.”

It’s unclear at this point when the Office of the State Fire Marshal’s final report will be released. Berlant said Monday that his team is in the process of writing it and closely working with the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, but that he could not share a definitive date at this point as to when the report would be published.

Meanwhile, Berlant said the office is also actively working on revising its regulatory standards and best practices for fireworks licenses. This process was already underway, he said, before the explosion, but has been intensified given the gravity of what happened in Esparto.

“We know we are planning to make some regulatory change to ensure that any license holder in the state of California proves, with documentation, that they have their local permits to store fireworks,” Berlant said. “It’s required, but this makes sure that there’s that checks and balances, that they’re following the local requirements as they’re required to follow the state and federal requirements.”

California State Senator Christopher Cabaldon, who represents Esparto, also attended Monday’s meeting, sharing with members details about new legislation he’s introduced in response to the Esparto explosion.

“We’ve got to fix licensure loopholes, and we have to fix this gap between people saying they have local permits to store tons of explosives when they really don’t,” Cabaldon said.

If approved, the bill would require a fireworks licensee to provide to the State Fire Marshal documentation of local land use permits and information about how fireworks would be stored.

This bill would also authorize the State Fire Marshal to deny the application for a license or the application for renewal of a license to a person who served more than a year in prison for a violent crime in which public safety was threatened.

“It’s not an indictment of the entire fireworks industry by any means,” Cabaldon said. “It is a big wakeup call that this isn’t an isolated incident in the middle of rural Yolo County that nobody else should be paying attention to. It is a California-wide problem, and we’re putting people at risk.”

Cabaldon said he expects the bill will evolve as more information about the Esparto investigation is revealed, but his focus now is to ensure steps are being taken to ensure there is effective enforcement of the rules surrounding dangerous fireworks and that updated rules close loopholes that are already evident.

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