Category: CNN Regional

By Kayla Moeller

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    YUBA-STUTTER, California (KOVR) — Chickens are a common sight in the Yuba-Sutter region — wandering neighborhoods, perching in trees, and sometimes causing a little trouble. But some have a much bigger job.

During this time of year, the Sutter-Yuba Mosquito and Vector Control District uses them to test areas of the region for West Nile virus.

“They all sound completely different and have very different personalities,” said Moriah Garrison, an entomologist with the control district.

From April through November, Garrison is chasing chickens to test their blood. She teams up with Zach Samay, an ecologist, to get the task done.

“We do a quick alcohol swab, we take a sterile lancet and he’ll poke to try to get a blood sample,” Garrison said.

The control district partners with landowners and farmers. Farmers supply the chickens and there are seven coops strategically placed around the Yuba-Sutter area to test from.

“Usually, we will see chickens get infected before we see people, so this gives us an extra bit of knowledge to be extra vigilant. We need to tell the public to wear long sleeves, use repellent, stay indoors dusk to dawn,” Garrison said.

The process allows the control district to know which areas to focus on. After the rainbow-colored samples are collected, the chickens go back into the coop for the night.

“Then Zach will package up everything and send off the samples. In about a week, we’ll find out if any of them have tested positive,” Garrison said.

So far, so good this season, but Garrison said they don’t usually start seeing positive samples come in until July.

Once the chickens retire for the season, they go to good homes.

“There are a few of them I can identify by just the sound of their voice,” Garrison said.

After last year’s chicken program ended, Garrison took home three of them, who are now her pets.

“They’re kind of doing an extra special little favor for us. They’re our little working chickens. Not only do they lay eggs and pay rent that way, but they also make it so we can find West Nile in areas where we might not by just capturing mosquitoes and testing them,” she said.

Mosquitoes that prefer feeding on birds are also more likely to carry West Nile virus. So if they’re biting these chickens, it’s a sign the virus could be circulating in the area.

Between 2003 and 2021, there were 74 cases across Yuba-Sutter.

“It’s kind of a debilitating disease. Some people, when they get it, are asymptomatic. But for some people, it can be fatal. So I love having a part in making sure more people don’t get infected,” Garrison said.

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 Steve Large

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    MODESTO, California (KOVR) — New details are emerging about the woman killed when a suspected DUI driver crashed into a Modesto home during a law enforcement chase last week.

Family members identified the victim as 73-year-old Carla Zepeda, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who was housesitting for friends when a vehicle slammed through the home on Tuxford Lane while she was asleep inside.

Her son, Steve Cox, said the loss is especially painful because Zepeda had recently volunteered to donate one of her kidneys to him after he was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease.

“I didn’t know who to turn to or where to go,” Cox said. “So I told her what was going on and she said, ‘You can have one of mine.’ “

That planned gift of life was tragically taken away when authorities say a vehicle driven by 20-year-old Zachariah Knobel crashed into the home following a California Highway Patrol pursuit.

According to investigators, officers attempted to stop Knobel’s vehicle before he fled, leading to a pursuit that ended when the car crashed into the residence near Robin Hood Drive and Tuxford Lane in the middle of the night. The CHP said Knobel was suspected of driving under the influence and was later arrested.

Authorities have since booked Knobel on charges including second-degree murder, driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license.

We reached out to the CHP about the pursuit in this residential neighborhood. They referred us to their online policy which says officers are required to balance the risks of a pursuit to the public.

“I don’t want to blame the police for doing their job,” Cox said. “It’s their job to take people like Zachariah Knobel off the streets.”

Cox said his mom loved to travel, had several camping trailers, and had worked for Stanislaus County for more than two decades before retiring.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of Carla Zepeda, a retired Stanislaus County employee who dedicated approximately 27 years of service to our community,” the county said in a statement to CBS News Sacramento. “Carla retired in 2017 as a Fiscal Manager II with our Community Services Agency. On behalf of Stanislaus County, we extend our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, former colleagues, and all who knew and loved her during this difficult time.”

For Cox, his mother will be remembered for her generosity and willingness to help anyone in need.

“She was kind and gentle and nice to everybody,” he said. “She was just a real salt-of-the-earth kind of woman who would help anybody who needed it — including me.”

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 Nicole Comstock

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    ENCINO, California (KCAL, KCBS) — On a quiet street in Encino, one massive modern home stands out from the rest. It’s not because of the curb appeal, but because of the content allegedly created on the property.

“We could just see these girls,” said one neighbor who didn’t want to share her name. “They have like a gym in front of the garage, and they were doing handstands on each other in g-strings. I mean, they just looked nude.”

Neighbors said the content creators come to the home, seeking a place to film viral videos and large parties, which have drawn unwanted attention to the community.

“There was a swatting incident here,” another neighbor said. “We had to hide in the back of the house with our animals because police were here, SWAT teams.”

CEO of Creators Inc Andy Bachman, who owns the home, said his talent agency manages digital content creators and changed their policy after the swatting incident “because that’s obviously an annoyance and something I can’t have happening.”

Bachman admitted that many of the creators have OnlyFans accounts. He added that they are welcome to shoot their own videos at the house, but said no adult content is filmed there.

“We’re really proud of the work we do,” Bachman said. “We’re really proud of the work we do. We support content creators. We comply with the law. We respect our neighbors. And we’ll continue advocating for the rights of entrepreneurs to build businesses in the modern economy.”

Neighbors argued that the activities at the home conflict with residential zoning laws and are better suited for a commercial property.

“It’s not just the morality,” a neighbor said. “It’s the fact that they’re running a business in a residential neighborhood. It’s not like they’re baking bread. There’s a constant stream of people coming in and out.”

Another neighbor said the home has hosted events that bring “50 to 100 cars or more.”

“Using the street as a bathroom,” the neighbor said. “It’s just kind of gross.”

The residents said they have filed complaints with the City of Los Angeles but believe they’re getting the runaround. Bachman said that it’s because his company is not doing anything wrong.

“Content creators work from home as well. Millions of Americans work from home today,” Bachman said. “The question isn’t whether someone works from home, it’s whether they’re complying with local laws.”

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 Olivia Young

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    DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colorado (KCNC) — Amid Colorado’s drought, researchers are hoping to make better use of the rain the state does get.

Coloradans may have heard about rain barrels that homeowners can use for yard irrigation, but the state has also authorized up to 10 pilot programs for large-scale rainwater harvesting.

One Douglas County community was the only one to apply to be a pilot site: Sterling Ranch. The community describes itself as the leader in water-conscious development in Colorado. Sterling Ranch was designed with efficient irrigation and xeriscaped landscapes featuring native plants.

But they’re not the only ones exploring how rainwater harvesting could help solve Colorado’s water problems.

Colorado State University professor Sybil Sharvelle is using the roof of the Hydro Building at CSU Spur to capture rainwater and water native plants outside.

“Water from those roof drains drains down into those black pipes, comes into this tank, then gravity flows over to the next tank and is then, from there, pumped outdoors,” said Sharvelle. “We so far have not had to use potable water to supplement the irrigation.”

She’s hoping to learn how much water can be saved this way and how to navigate challenges like contamination and downstream water rights.

“We’ve had to develop what’s called a water augmentation plan. What that does is ensure that downstream water users are not impaired by our use of the roof runoff at this building. So what we have to do is actually track all of the water that comes into our storage tanks and how much we use for irrigation. We then report that to the Colorado Department of Water Resources, and then they report that to Denver Water,” said Sharvelle. “So these projects have been really good for us to learn the processes for properly accounting for these water uses, so that we can be sure that we’re not impacting the downstream users.”

Sterling Ranch has been preparing to do the same thing on a neighborhood-wide scale for years.

“We’re sitting right above what will be Colorado’s very first rainwater harvesting basin,” said Britta Strother, director of planning for Dominion Water and Sanitation District, which serves Sterling Ranch.

In 2010, Sterling Ranch became the site of the first rainwater harvesting pilot project in Colorado. For the last 15 years, Dominion Water and Sanitation has studied rainfall, runoff, soil infiltration and vegetation use in Sterling Gulch.

“There is an actual physical berm that goes across, and that is it. That is where the water will flow,” said Strother.

Researchers determined that there is enough harvestable rainfall within the Sterling Gulch drainage to support a meaningful supplemental water supply. Now Dominion is in water court, seeking the green light to begin using that water for the irrigation of parks and common spaces in the community.

The pilot’s project manager says Dominion’s water court filing seeks authorization to harvest approximately 111 acre-feet of water annually.

“We’re hoping that someday, when it rains, so not this year, there could be upwards of 400 acre-feet of water stored that will be used for outdoor irrigation,” said Strother. “This is, or could be, one of the great solutions for the water supply shortage in Colorado.”

Since 2024, CU professor Aditi Bhaskar has been studying runoff from Sterling Ranch, testing quantities of potentially dangerous nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen to understand the impact of a largely xeriscaped community’s runoff on downstream users.

“Sterling Ranch is the only one that’s a neighborhood-wide thing, and I think that that’s really unique about the project, and it’s had a lot of impact because of that scale. I’d like to see a lot more projects at that scale start to come up, so that we can learn more about the potential,” said Sharvelle.

Sharvelle wants to keep studying rainwater harvesting so more communities can get the most out of every precious drop.

“This provides another source of water, other than our potable drinking water, and allows us to make use of local water sources as our supplies become more and more diminished,” said Sharvelle.

She says that, eventually, the practice may even be used to harvest drinking water. Right now, it is only legal to harvest rainwater for irrigation purposes.

“That is a first step, to use it for irrigation and maybe toilet flushing, like non-potable purposes. But I think there’s a lot of movement toward thinking about how we could make use of these water sources for potable applications,” said Sharvelle.

Unfortunately, the state’s rainwater harvesting pilot program sunset last year.

So, while Sterling Ranch can move forward, other communities would likely need legislative action extending that program before they could start their own programs.

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 Michael Abeyta

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    AURORA, Colorado (KCNC) — The first day of summer has yet to arrive, and already water in the City of Aurora is at a premium. Storage levels in their reservoirs are at 55%.

However, it’s not all bad news when it comes to conserving water in Aurora during Colorado’s drought so far.

“We have had a lot of people comply, and that’s been awesome,” said Shonnie Cline, Aurora Water’s Deputy Director of Internal and External Affairs.

She says most people have been doing their part and that this spring’s storms have helped in one aspect.

“It’s slowed up demand. So, people aren’t necessarily needing to water and they are turning off their sprinklers when they’re getting rain, which has been great,” said Cline.

But it’s not all good news, either. The storms didn’t increase reservoir levels.

“We will continue to see those storage levels decrease because, really runoff is for all intents and purposes, over,” said Cline.

Those levels are historically low this year.

“If you look at over a 10-year average, we’re normally sitting at about 74% of full at this time of year. So, we’re obviously down from where we were,” said Cline.

So, Aurora Water says the fight to save what water we have continues. They need residents to continue to follow Stage 1 water restrictions.

“Because what could push us into a Stage 2 restriction, which would take you down to one day a week of watering and even more in enforcement, is if people are not following the current Stage 1 water restrictions,” said Cline.

That means watering only two days a week and not during the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Aurora Water says they know it’s not easy, but it’s also necessary.

“Seeing your lawns turn yellow is very hard, and it’s going to be happening more as we get into the heat of summer,” said Cline.

Aurora Water says lots of people have asked them if data centers are contributing to the problem. They say the data centers that are in Aurora are low water usage by law.

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 Allie Ware

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    JACKSON, Mississippi (WAPT) — A Mississippi teenager is defying expectations after surviving a traumatic brain injury and multiple life-threatening injuries from a January accident.

On Jan. 3, 17-year-old Landyn Simmerman was accidentally hit by a vehicle while helping a friend who had wrecked. The accident left him with a traumatic brain injury and his family was preparing for the worst.

Simmerman suffered a broken pelvis, femur, hip, ribs, facial fractures, two collapsed lungs, and a stroke. Doctors performed a craniectomy, removing half of his skull to relieve pressure on his brain.

Simmerman was placed in an induced coma for two weeks before being moved to Atlanta for specialized inpatient physical therapy and weeks of medical treatment.

“It’s been a little scary. The surgeries are not fun at all,” Simmerman said.

Doctors warned that recovering from a traumatic brain injury would be a long road, but Simmerman applied his competitive nature to his recovery, amazing his doctors and family.

“He was very determined through this whole thing, even when he was hurting really bad, he was determined to keep going and get better,” his mother, Britney Parker, said.

“All the recovery times they gave us, I cut them in half,” Simmerman added.

As part of his recovery, Simmerman underwent multiple surgeries, including having a custom skull created to replace the part of his own that was removed.

“They made me a fake skull and put me to sleep and put it in and screwed it in,” he said.

Although Simmerman does not remember the accident or his time in the hospital, his progress has been remarkable.

“We don’t take a single breath for granted anymore,” Parker said.

Doctors have said it could take up to a year for his brain to fully heal, and Simmerman has learned that the effects of brain injuries are not always visible to others.

“It takes time for your brain to heal,” Parker said. “We have also learned that effects from brain injuries don’t always look visible to other people.”

This fall, Simmerman will start his senior year of high school and is looking forward to returning to normal teenage activities.

“Driving, playing baseball, and getting back to school and just being normal, normal life,” he said.

The scars remain, and so do some challenges, but Simmerman’s determination to keep going has been unwavering.

This month, Simmerman completed his outpatient physical therapy program and is now focusing on speech therapy to ensure his cognitive abilities are fully regained.

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 Sam Carter

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    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — The Louisville Slugger is as quintessentially Louisville as bourbon or the Hot Brown.

But did you know that, from 1974 through 1996, the iconic baseball bats were made in Jeffersonville, Indiana?

According to Jack Hillerich, president and CEO of Hillerich and Bradsby, it was a promise from then-Mayor Jerry Abramson that pushed him to bring Slugger home.

“[The mayor said] Don’t worry about it, Jack,” Hillerich recalled. “If you build it and you don’t like it, I will buy it back from you.”

For his part, Abramson, who grew up working at his family’s grocery store across the street from the original Slugger factory, views luring the bat maker back to Louisville as one of his most satisfying accomplishments during his 21 years as mayor.

“Personally, this might be one of the most successful projects I worked on, without a doubt,” Abramson said. “We brought it back to Louisville.”

In July, the Slugger Museum and Factory will celebrate 30 years since it opened. According to the museum, approximately 7 million people have walked through the building since it first opened. Hillerich, when asked if he ever expected to reach that number of visitors, got philosophical.

“The most important things are unknown and unknowable. I didn’t have a clue how many people would come; I just knew we had to do it because it had to be done,” Hillerich said.

On July 13, the Factory and Museum will begin a week of programming celebrating 30 years at its Main Street Location.

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 Chloe McCoy

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    GREENVILLE, South Carolina (WYFF) — A decades-old Greenville, South Carolina, murder case has led to an arrest after cold case investigators revisited the 1986 killing.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said on April 7, 1986, the body of 18-year-old Chelsie Yvonne Moss was found in the woods near Fair Street and Kerns Avenue. Her death was ruled a homicide after investigators determined foul play was a factor.

In 2023, the Greenville County Cold Case unit began investigating the unsolved death and, after over three years of work, were able to determine probable cause after forensic evidence was presented.

Investigators announced on Tuesday that the suspect, 64-year-old Ronnie Lee Williams, has been charged with murder.

Williams is currently in the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections on unrelated homicide charges from a murder conviction in 1989. He is awaiting a bond hearing on the new charges.

Deputies are still actively gathering information in the case. Officials say Chelsie was known to frequent the area of Pendleton St. and the West End in Greenville. If you knew Chelsie or encountered her, deputies encourage you to reach out. Officials emphasize that no detail is too small.

Anyone with information about Ronnie Lee Williams can anonymously reach out to Crime Stoppers of Greenville at 23-CRIME.

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.