Category: CNN Regional

By WCCO Staff

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    ST. PAUL, Minnesota (WCCO) — One of two men federally indicted in what officials at the time called “one of the largest” drug busts in Minnesota history pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Guillermo Mercado-Chaparro was arrested and charged last July after authorities seized nearly 900 pounds of meth from two vehicles in St. Paul.

Court documents say an undercover police officer bought a pound of meth from Mercado-Chaparro. Through surveillance after the purchase, police learned he was traveling around south Minneapolis to conduct several suspected drug deals.

Several days later, charges say police observed Mercado-Chaparro receive two large bags from his truck’s bed and place them in a nearby Jeep.

Authorities eventually stopped the Jeep with Mercado-Chaparro and another man, Joel Casas-Santiago, inside. A drug-sniffing dog alerted officers to the odor of drugs. During a search of the Jeep, police found more than 250 pounds of meth, according to charging documents.

Police then obtained a search warrant for Mercado-Chaparro’s truck, where they seized more than 630 pounds of meth from the bed, court documents say.

A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled for Mercado-Chaparro.

Casas-Santiago has a plea hearing scheduled for March 24.

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 Leo Stallworth

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    LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Federal authorities said they’ve struck a major blow against one of Los Angeles’ most powerful street gangs.

A sweeping investigation targeting the 18th Street gang led to multiple arrests and uncovered what prosecutors describe as a violent criminal enterprise operating in the heart of the city.

“My office is unsealing seven indictments charging 14 defendants with racketeering and drug trafficking offenses stemming from their membership in one of the largest and most violent gangs in the Western Hemisphere,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a press conference Thursday.

Federal agents and local police arrested 12 members and associates of the 18th Street gang, a group authorities said has been running a large-scale drug operation centered around MacArthur Park.

“The 18th Street gang is a transnational criminal organization that controls the rampant drug trafficking in multiple areas of Los Angeles, including MacArthur Park, parts of Hollywood, downtown and the San Fernando Valley,” Essayli said.

Prosecutors allege the gang transformed the park into an “open-air drug marketplace,” using tents among the homeless population to conceal narcotics sales and avoid law enforcement detection.

“Since January of 2023, the LAPD’s Gang and Narcotics Division, working with the FBI Gang Task Force, conducted a comprehensive investigation into the gang’s leadership and narcotics distribution network,” Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said.

During the investigation, authorities seized more than 175 pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl, along with cash, firearms and additional drugs.

“Evidence was collected highlighting the free flow of narcotics between distributors in the areas of MacArthur Park and Skid Row,” said Robert Molvar, acting assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “These drugs were being taxed through extortion payments known as rents by high-ranking members of the gang for continued permission to operate in their territory.”

According to the indictment, the 18th Street gang has more than 100,000 members in the U.S. and also operates in Mexico, Central America and South America.

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 Andrea Nakano

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — It may have taken years, but a San Francisco man has been able to turn his dream into reality. Joey the Cat, as he’s most commonly known, opened an arcade in the Mission District Thursday night and he got the ball rolling on the first official Skee-Ball league.

Skee-Ball is a game most people fondly remember playing as a kid, but for Joey the Cat, he turned fun and games into a profitable business.

“The cat came from a nickname that I got in college, just sort of a metaphor for being on the prowl on a Thursday night,” Joey Mucha said. “Then, when I joined the competitive Skee-Ball league, that was my alter Skee-go that I gave.”

Mucha is a 3-time national champion and originally bought a Skee-Ball machine to practice in his home. He now owns hundreds of arcade games and rents them to dozens of bars in the city.

“My passion for Skee-Ball and then putting it into bars and other venues basically blossom to business that was very organic,” he said.

This space used to be his warehouse for the arcade games, but owning his own arcade was his ultimate dream. He started this project in 2018.

“It was a lot of work,” he said. “A mixture of red tape, construction woes, the pandemic was in the middle of all that. Then just really seeing this vision through took a lot of tenacity.

While this space is open mostly for private parties, it opened to the public Thursday night for the first Skee-Ball league kick-off party.

“I did this as a kid,” player Alisa Yee said. “We went to Chuck E. Cheese as a kid, and I’m like, oh my God, there’s a Skee league. I think it’s perfect.”

Yee is the leader of the Pickle Rollers. She says it doesn’t matter if her team finishes in last place, but she has been working on her Skee-Ball skills.

“I figured it out,” she said. “You gotta use a netting to rebound it into the other ones. You can’t just go for the concentric circles. That won’t work.”

Seeing the smiles is what Joey the Cat hoped for when he built this place.

“This is a dream come true,” he said. “Building this venue has been a lot of work but just feeling the fervor that we feel right now has really just washed over me with joy. I’m so glad to be past the construction woes and now what’s happening behind me is in the future.”

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 Kaley Fedko

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — International Women’s Day is Sunday, March 8, and it’s all about celebrating the women who lead, create, and lift others up.

This weekend in Atlanta, women-owned businesses are coming together for a market built around that mission at the Shed at Elizabeth and Edgewood in Inman Park.

CBS News Atlanta caught up with three entrepreneurs, part of an Atlanta business owner sisterhood selling their products on Sunday.

Kate Terentieva designed her own card game called Off The Record, meant to bring people together and start conversations.

The cards have unique questions to ask your partner, friendly or romantic, that invite conversation and depth.

The cards were designed with women top of mind.

“We do love to engage in deeper conversations and deeper discourse naturally, and that’s supported by data as well,” said Terentieva. “Two-thirds of our customers for Off The Record are women.”

A few tables down, Eva Lester will be showcasing her line of sunglass brand Gleam Eyewear that she built from the ground up.

“I just created something that I wish I had because I’ve overpaid for eyewear since I was 8,” said Lester, “and so I wanted to create, like, eyewear that was fashionable but also accessible.”

Each pair is named for a trailblazing woman in history.

The ones she was sporting were named in honor of Frieda Kahlo, the Mexican painter known for her self-portraits.

“They kind of have a fun nod to her unibrow,” said Lester.

Madilyn Dubois built a business around handbags that combine style and practicality and have a unique tieing handle feature.

“That’s our motto on the website: one bag for every moment, and that’s the goal. It’s a product you can wear from the yoga studio to the boardroom, or from the airport to soccer practice pick up,” said Dubois.

Together, the women say markets like this are about more than selling products.

“That’s the best part, truly, seeing women’s reactions when I tie the knot in front of them is just the coolest thing, and when they’re excited about the product and when they know how to style it, like when it clicks, I’m like, oh my gosh, like, that’s community,” said Dubois.

The three women will be part of a cohort of eight businesses selling on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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 Waleed Alamleh

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    KENTWOOD, Michigan (WXMI) — Some parents in Kentwood Public Schools are taking the initiative to learn English as a second language through a partnership with the Literacy Center of West Michigan — with the goal of getting more connected with their children’s schools.

The free English classes are provided for parents across school districts in Kent County, including in my Kentwood and Wyoming neighborhoods.

The effort comes as the last census showed that 13% of residents in the county don’t speak English at home.

Guillermo Rodriguez moved to the United States when he was in high school, barely knowing any English. Coming to West Michigan about 15 years ago, he wanted to improve.

Rodriguez said the language barrier created more than just professional challenges — it affected his sense of belonging.

“A lot of times when you move into a new neighborhood, you don’t talk to nobody, because you don’t know how. So, and you feel like you’re not part of that community, and part of that — that’s because you don’t want to try,” Rodriguez said.

“English is one of the, far as I know, one of the hardest language to learn, and especially for us as a Spanish people you know,” Rodriguez said.

That’s why he has been taking the classes on and off again for the past decade, wanting to improve on his writing and reading skills.

“I have to learn how to write and read better, and I realized that that way I can get better jobs,” Rodriguez said.

Wendy Falb, Executive Director for the Literacy Center of West Michigan, said the stakes for families go beyond the classroom.

“Many of those folks do not have English language proficiency, and it limits their children’s outcome, it limits their health outcomes, and it limits their employment. So we’re really excited about removing those barriers,” Wendy said.

The program has been around since 2011, Falb says the centers goal is to help parents remove those barriers that may be holding them back.

“We understand that adults are very busy adulting, taking care of their children and making money, and it’s very challenging to find the time to pursue your own education,” Falb said. “This two generational approach, where we support parents’ education in the context of the school and in using the content of how to support their child’s education is a really powerful tool.”

Grace Joldersma has been an instructor with the Literacy Center for 4 years, helping parents better understand English and the schools their children attend.

“I teach them how to get on that school calendar. Help them understand how a school program or a year goes,” Joldersma said. “Then we go into, you know, some grammar learning and then some basic living situations. So like tonight, we’ll be learning about how to give directions.”

For Rodriguez, the classes are helping him be a better resource for his own kids.

“You know, a lot of times he asked me about, homework. I say, buddy, I got no idea what you’re saying. I try to understand, but it’s hard,” Rodriguez said.

His message to others in similar situations is straightforward.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are. If you don’t know the language, I encourage you to start learning,” Rodriguez said.

The program is widespread across the region. Parents of students at Godfrey Lee and Godwin Heights can also sign up for classes next school year through the Literacy Center of West Michigan.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXMI’s editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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 Waleed Alamleh

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    KENTWOOD, Michigan (WXMI) — A West Michigan senior living community is offering families, staff and community members a firsthand look at what it’s like to live with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease through a virtual dementia simulator.

Commonwealth Senior Living uses the simulator to give participants an immersive experience of the challenges their loved ones face daily.

Amy Lynch, a granddaughter and daughter-in-law of two family members who have experienced Alzheimer’s and dementia, knows that reality all too well.

“Forgetting the people that they loved and that they were close with, that’s the hardest part, and even eventually forgetting how to do everyday activities, as far as even taking care of themselves,” Lynch said.

Lynch’s mother-in-law, Irene, lived at Commonwealth Senior Living for years before passing away last September.

“It’s a tough, very tough, to watch a loved one go through it,” Lynch said.

Lynch also shared a memory of her grandmother who stayed with her.

“She would just glance at me and say, ‘Oh, hey, I remember you. You’re the daughter I chose,’ because she used to tell me that all the time,” Lynch said.

The simulator uses a combination of physical tools to replicate the sensory experience of dementia. Participants wear pokey spikes in their shoes to simulate foot pain, oven mitts to make gripping items more difficult, vision-reducing glasses, and headphones that produce muffled noises similar to what dementia patients may hear.

While wearing the equipment, participants are asked to complete everyday tasks — a challenge I experienced firsthand.

“This is like almost impossible,” I said during the simulation. “Just the vision alone is throwing me off, let alone all the muffledness.”

Attempting to handle change from a coin purse proved especially difficult.

“This change in the coin purse is gonna be impossible. Wow, this is so hard,” I said. “And I just dropped a lot more.”

Tracy Prince, a staff member at Commonwealth Senior Living also has two family members with dementia, said the experience is designed to build empathy.

“It kind of gives them a taste of what someone with dementia and or Alzheimer’s would have and what they could potentially be going through,” Tracy said.

For Tracy, going through the simulator herself was an emotional experience.

“I cried during the whole thing, because just it brings to light exactly what your loved one’s going through, and when they ask you a question 10 times in two minutes, or if they say repeat themselves the same time within five minutes, you know, it’s just you then kind of understand,” Tracy said.

For Lynch, the simulator offered a new and heartbreaking perspective.

“It’s very heartbreaking, because you weren’t aware of everything that they had to deal with and all the pressures that they were under trying to even make it feel normal,” Lynch said.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. WXMI’s editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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.