Category: CNN Regional

By KTBS staff

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    LEESVILLE, Louisiana (KTBS) — Residents near Fort Polk and surrounding areas may notice large balloons in the sky this week as the military conducts high-altitude training.

The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), in coordination with the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), will operate the balloons from Wednesday through Saturday. The flights are part of a scheduled rotational training exercise.

The balloons are similar in appearance to weather balloons and will be visible during daylight hours. Military officials said the assets operate at significant altitudes and do not pose a risk to commercial or private aviation.

Military and civilian aviation authorities are monitoring flight paths. Once the mission is complete, military personnel will recover the equipment in designated landing zones.

The balloons are expected to be visible from the Sabine County area.

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 WDJT News Staff

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    WAUWATOSA, Wisconsin (WDJT) — Wauwatosa police are investigating after they say a driver fired shots at another vehicle in a road rage incident Tuesday, April 7.

Officers responded to the area of I-41 and W. Capitol Drive around 3:10 p.m.

Police say a driver struck several construction barrels before sideswiping a second vehicle. After the crash, the driver of the first vehicle fired multiple shots at the other vehicle, striking it twice before fleeing the scene.

No injuries were reported.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Wauwatosa Police Department at 414-471-8430.

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 Lance Allan

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    WAUWATOSA, Wisconsin (WDJT) — Twins from Wauwatosa are making the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles soar. Grant and Aidan Matthai have won multiple national and conference titles in cross country, and track and field. Now they want to end their collegiate careers at home with a bang.

‘The bond doesn’t. It doesn’t break,” Aidan Matthai said. “Let’s go!”

When you look at the Matthai twins — you’re nearly seeing double.

“If people meet us for the first time? We give them leniency because we’re identical twins,” Grant Matthai said. “So I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna be mad at you if you get us wrong the first few times. But if you’ve known us for at least a year? You gotta get it right!”

Grant and Aidan Matthai are twins from Wauwatosa. But you should know who’s who.

“Three strikes and you’re out kind of deal,” Aidan Matthai says.

Competing for UW-La Crosse, they’ve won back-to-back national cross-country championships.

“The first time we won the national title was 2024,” Grant Matthai said. “And I would say the main emotion from that one was relief just like to get that off your back and say ok, like I knew we were capable of doing this. But we hadn’t proved it yet. And we finally were able to prove it. So you get that weight off your shoulders. This time around? It was mostly just like pure joy.”

“Oh I’ll go with that one. Especially with Grant,” Aidan Matthai said. “It’s like, it’s kind of the stuff that you dream about when you first enter as a freshman. And then it becomes a reality. And you’re like wow, this is like gonna be one of my all-time moments that I look back on.”

Next month, in their last season together, they have a goal of a 3-peat for a men’s national outdoor track title.

“Outdoor nationals is at La Crosse,” Aidan Matthai said. “So it’s kind of symbolic in a way where as a senior? I get to end my collegiate career at the place where it started. So I mean, outdoor season is really when I wanna have my best performances. And winning a team title at home would just be the greatest.”

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 Tom Ignudo, Kerri Corrado, Grant Gilmore

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    PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (KYW) — A meteor spotted in the Philadelphia region Tuesday afternoon traveled more than 100 miles before disintegrating, NASA said.

More than 200 people from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut reported seeing the meteor, according to the American Meteor Society.

NASA said that February through April is peak fireball season, and meteors are quite common, but they usually occur over the ocean or unpopulated areas.

NASA report on meteor

In a report, NASA said the meteor was seen in the sky at around 2:30 p.m.

An analysis of the accounts and publicly accessible cameras shows the meteor first became visible 48 miles above the Atlantic Ocean, off the shore of Mastic Beach in Long Island, New York.

According to NASA, the meteor was moving at 30,000 miles per hour and traveled 117 miles through the upper atmosphere before it disintegrated 27 miles above Galloway, which is just north of Atlantic City.

Witnesses react to seeing meteor in New Jersey

Nicholas Samuelian said he was driving on Route 70 in Medford Lakes, and he saw a bright light in the sky and originally thought it was the sun reflecting off an airplane.

“I didn’t know what to think at first I never seen anything like that, so it was one of the craziest things I have ever seen,” Samuelian said.

“Immediately after that it started breaking up into pieces and there were all different flashes of light and that’s when I realized I should grab my phone and start taking a video,” he added.

Nicholas Brucato, of Manchester Township, said he saw the same streak moving across the sky.

“I had my phone in my hand thankfully and I started recording it and I thought it was pretty cool, and then two to three minutes later I heard a big boom,” Brucato said. “I don’t know if that was related at all. I’m not sure.”

Many others on social media said they also heard a boom.

NASA said when meteors travel through Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, exceeding the speed of sound, which eventually leads to sonic booms.

“After that I posted it to a Facebook group and it just blew up from there,” Brucato said.

What are the differences between a fireball, meteoroid, meteor and meteorite?

A meteoroid is small asteroid in space. It becomes a meteor when the light is emitted from a meteoroid or asteroid as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere and beings to burn.

A fireball is a meteor brighter than the planet Venus, and a meteorite is a fragment that survives passage through the atmosphere and hits the ground.

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By WUPA Digital Team

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    ATLANTA, Georgia (WUPA) — A former correctional officer at U.S. Penitentiary Atlanta has been convicted of taking bribes to help smuggle drugs and other contraband into the facility, federal prosecutors said.

A jury found 51-year-old Patrick Shackelford guilty after a six-day trial. He was taken into custody immediately following the verdict on April 2.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Shackelford worked with inmates to bring drugs, including methamphetamine and marijuana, into the prison between 2018 and 2019.

Prosecutors said the group used a hidden space connected to the visitation area, where visitors passed packages of contraband through a small hole under a restroom sink. Inmates would then retrieve the items and move them throughout the prison.

Authorities said Shackelford helped by allowing inmates access to restricted areas, hiding drugs in a staff office ceiling, and escorting inmates through checkpoints to distribute the contraband.

In exchange, Shackelford received about $5,000 and pain pills, officials said.

Investigators later uncovered one of the largest contraband seizures in the prison’s history, including more than a pound of pure methamphetamine, marijuana, cell phones, and other items hidden inside the facility.

“This conduct endangered the safety of the prison,” U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said in a statement.

Several inmates involved in the scheme have already pleaded guilty.

Shackelford is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20 and faces a minimum of 10 years in prison.

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 Joe Brandt

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — A Pennsylvania Uber driver woke up to a slithery surprise after picking up two passengers who attended a reptile show.

Officers from the Exeter Township Police Department in Berks County were called out Saturday after a local Uber driver found something unexpected in his car: a live ball python.

The driver said he picked up two passengers Friday night at a reptile show in Philadelphia.

During the ride, a passenger told the driver the contents of their bag had fallen out, and they wanted to look for it, but the driver had to keep moving. He later came home to Exeter and parked in his garage.

The following morning, the driver discovered the reptile in the trunk and called police.

Officers then secured the snake and brought it to a safe location.

The department said the call was “a little outside the usual.”

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By Hannah Kliger

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Students in New York City are learning to play tennis in unlikely places — their school hallways, cafeterias and auditoriums — thanks to a free after-school program.

New York Junior Tennis & Learning has students volley and rally wherever they can. Sometimes that means across lunch tables, but the students make do with whatever space they have.

Their school gyms are often reserved for other after-school programs happening at the same time.

“We’re very creative when it comes to not having the gym. We love to use our imagination to really play tennis,” said 9-year-old Addison Absolam, a student at P.S. 9 in Brooklyn.

“You get to run around, get that exercise,” 10-year-old Laila Leslie added.

The NYJTL program emphasizes that fancy equipment and large courts are not necessary to enjoy the game of tennis.

Deja Martyr, a product of the program nearly 20 years ago, is now its manager.

“I feel like I’m a living testament of how long the program has shaped me,” Martyr said.

Limited space and resources in city schools have not stopped students from forming teams that compete in tennis tournaments citywide.

“They get to continue that skill and then develop it,” Martyr said.

NYJTL runs dozens of after-school programs in more than 30 school buildings, mostly in Brooklyn. Leaders say it is the largest youth tennis and education nonprofit in the nation, serving around 90,000 children.

“I feel like I’m really in the moment while I’m playing,” Addison said.

The program is part of a larger mission to make tennis accessible year-round through the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development.

“It allows families to keep those costs, which can be upwards of $3,000 per child, it allows them to have a space, and enriching space for young people,” said Ian Porchia, deputy director for COMPASS at DYCD.

The P.S. 9 students are proving that you can build a team without a court. It just takes a little space and a spark of creativity.

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 Sarah Horbacewicz

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    BOULDER, Colorado (KCNC) — A Thornton woman has been indicted on more than 20 counts of charges, including fraud, theft, and forgery. In a March 27, 2026, indictment by a grand jury, Cindy Burdine is accused of staging fake robberies of her Boulder dance studio, Kenesis Dance, and committing insurance fraud. Burdine is also accused of using at least some of that money from insurance for cosmetic surgery.

The Colorado Attorney General’s office is calling the indictment “Operation Tiny Dancer.”

The indictment claims Burdine profited more than $500,000 from insurance companies after the two staged robberies. One of the alleged robberies occurred in July 2023, in which the indictment states Burdine enlisted the help of another employee to damage her own studio and hire two people to show up in security footage as burglars. The indictment also charges Burdine with attempting to influence a Boulder police officer.

A complaint from the attorney for the landlord of Burdine’s Table Mesa Shopping Center studio also claims Burdine owed about $50,000 in overdue rent. The studio now sits empty with an eviction notice on the door dated in February of this year.

Beyond the indictment, parents and former employees of the dance studio shared a trail of complaints, including parents who claim to have lost thousands of dollars to credit card charges. Two former employees shared with CBS Colorado that they are relieved to see formal charges coming to light. The indictment shows a former employee is the one who tipped off the AG’s office to insurance fraud at the studio.

Lizzie Friend was a customer of Kinesis Dance (also known as Frequency Dance) and says she took her daughter to Burdine’s studio for years. When asked about her reaction to the indictment, she said, “It’s so much worse than we even thought.”

In 2023, Friend says she left the studio amid the alleged robberies and as other financial “red flags” with the studio came up for parents.

“[Burdine] would put through a really big charge on all the company parents’ credit cards. So, you’d see, you know, an $800 charge. And she’d say, ‘This is for an upcoming competition,’ and then a few weeks or months later, the competition would be canceled. She’d say, ‘We’ll roll it into the next one,'” Friend said those future competitions also never came.

Friend says when she left the studio and went through her charges, she was out close to $4,500. Friend says she asked for a refund.

“[Burdine] said, you know, ‘Great, checks in the mail. It’s on its way.’ And then she went full no contact,” Friend said.

So Friend filed a complaint with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office. In the complaint, Friend claims that on at least one occasion, after parents had paid Burdine for a competition, the dance competition host confirmed to a parent that Burdine never paid.

After working with the DA’s office, Friend says she got her money back, but says not every parent did. Friend explained that when the studio shut down in the middle of a season this year, she was told some parents were out thousands of dollars.

“If your kid’s dancing on a competitive team, they spend 10 plus hours at the studio every week,” Friend said, “We trusted our kids to someone who clearly made some really bad decisions and doesn’t have a great moral compass, and that’s scary.”

CBS Colorado reached out to Burdine by phone, email, and even visited her home, which the indictment claimed was listed as her business address, but did not hear back.

“It’s really good to see this finally coming out, and I’m glad she can’t cause any more harm to parents and kids,” Friend said.

Burdine’s bail has been set at $10,000, but she does not appear in any local jail records. Boulder police and the Colorado Attorney General’s office were unable to confirm if she had been arrested.

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