Category: CNN Regional

By Jazmon DeJarnette

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    CARMEL VALLEY, California (KSBW) — Every Sept. 22 is National Centenarian Day. Its creation was to celebrate and honor those who have reached the age of 100 and older.

Here on the Central Coast, Sophia Gasser is 107 years old, making her a supercentenarian and the oldest resident living at Carmel Valley Manor.

Gasser has lived at Carmel Valley Manor for 14 years and has lived every single moment.

“Just the people for one thing, and just the atmosphere. I just love it,” Gasser said.

When asked about her greatest accomplishment in life, she didn’t hesitate, saying it’s her children.

“It just fills my life every minute, and I just love it,” Gasser said.

One of her favorite things about Carmel Valley Manor is the food, and that fits perfectly with Carmel Valley Manor’s new Blue Zone approval. The facility has changed many of its menus to make them healthier.

“Having lunch, breakfast and dinner with my friends, and that is always a joy,” Gasser said.

“They eat healthy meals, locally sourced, mostly all organic, both plants and proteins,” said Jay Zimmer, Carmel Valley Manor president and CEO.

Carmel Valley Manor even offers jobs for residents. Until recently, Gasser worked at Rose, a shop inside the manor.

“We have seven over 100 today. Sophia is 107, and, up until recently, she was still working in the Rose, which is an on-campus retail site, and not only was she working there, but she was the top salesperson in the group,” Zimmer said.

Gasser offered her secret to reaching 107 years old, saying it’s nothing but hard work.

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By Amy Fleury

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    MILWAUKEE (WISN) — A Milwaukee teen is behind bars, accused of shooting at two police officers, narrowly missing them. Investigators said when they went to search the teen’s home, they found more than 30 animals inside.

It happened about 8 a.m. Sept. 18 near Holton and Chambers streets. A search warrant WISN 12 News obtained said officers were responding to the teen’s home after his mother called 911, concerned about his emotional state and that he may have been bitten by a dog.

That document said the officers were in a “tactical position” and “two steps down from the top landing” when they knocked and announced who they were. Three seconds later, investigators said the teen fired a single bullet.

The search warrant explains the bullet traveled “through the door at chest level into the hallways where the officers were standing.” The officers took cover, and the suspect exited the residence and was arrested without further incident. Neither officer was hurt.

There were 34 animals, including dogs, cats, turtles and ferrets, in the residence. Police said Milwaukee’s animal control seized them.

“I don’t see why, why somebody would have that many animals, like especially staying in an apartment like that. It’s like, how do you even have room to house all the animals like that?” neighbor Dorion Ransom said.

Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission responded and took custody of the animals.

The 17-year-old was arrested. He has not yet been charged. The search warrant shows police are investigating him for attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

“Just got to be more aware who your neighbors are, and just, if there’s always something suspicious, go with your hunch, because you never know what’s really going on in a house,” another neighbor, Aniya Mitchell, told WISN 12 News.

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By Mariana La Roche, Kendall Keys

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    MILWAUKEE (WISN) — Six children ranging in age from 2 months to 9 years old were found locked inside a storage unit in Milwaukee.

Prosecutors charged Charles Albert Dupriest, 33, with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon and six counts of child neglect. Azyia C. Zielinski, 26, faces six counts of child neglect.

Around 1:30 a.m., an emergency call reported a child crying inside a locked unit at StorSafe, 5555 N. 27th St., the complaint states. Upon arrival, officers said they heard crying and coughing from within one of the units.

Milwaukee firefighters cut a padlock to gain entry and found six children aged 9, 7, 5, 3, 2, and a two-month-old.

According to the complaint, inside the unit was a bucket “containing urine” placed in the center of the storage unit. Detectives noted there was no electricity or running water and “the only light visible to the children came through the crack of the garage door.”

“The only light these poor children had to have was the crack of light that came to the bottom of the garage. We have your children stating that they had no food, that the only food they found was from the garbage,” Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Andrea Bolender said during Zielinski’s Friday court appearance.

Zielinksi was visibly emotional during the hearing.

“This is horrific. Ma’am, I see you are broken up. I hope you realize how lucky you actually are that none of these children have died,” Bolender said.

Detectives described the odor as “putrid,” said the complaint. Inside the unit, a detective observed a sectional couch and a twin mattress without sheets. The 5-year-old told a detective, “We’re not supposed to be loud,” before urinating in the orange bucket, the filing says.

According to the complaint, the 9-year-old told police he was responsible for caring for the children and said they used the bucket “to urinate and defecate.” He told investigators he was hungry and had no way to contact anyone in an emergency.

An employee from the storage unit told police in May he overheard an adult male say, “Sit down and be quiet,” inside the unit and provided surveillance video showing the defendants dropping off children.

Officers later found Dupriest and Zielinski sleeping in a Ford Expedition in the parking lot. Both admitted they slept in the SUV with their dog while the children slept in the storage unit, court documents say.

One of the children told police “she was upset the dog got to sleep in the car while she and her siblings slept in the unit.”

“The middle row was completely empty and the dog had the back row all to himself. As these children slept in a locked storage container with one twin mattress on the floor,” Bolender said.

According to court records, police recovered a loaded firearm from the SUV’s center console. Zielinski said the gun belonged to her, but stated Dupriest touched it when retrieving items.

In recorded interviews summarized in the complaint, Zielinski said the family had been sleeping in the storage unit for about six weeks after leaving a shelter and acknowledged placing a bucket in the unit for the children to use.

Dupriest said the children slept in the unit about three times per week and acknowledged that family or friends could have housed the children.

Forensic interviews of the children documented additional details. One child said she felt “sad” when locked in the unit and “mad,” so she made it dirty. Another said there were “no lights, only cracks through which light entered” and that he “would not know how to get out in an emergency.”

The 9-year-old said parents sometimes drank alcohol and, when “drunk,” the 9-year-old took care of the siblings; the 9-year-old also said a parent had “a bunch of guns.”

Investigators said Zielinski and Dupriest told them they were receiving food stamps and $2,000 a month in social security benefits. They said they were “kicked out” of Joy House, a Milwaukee Rescue Mission shelter for women and children in July.

In a statement to WISN 12 News, Patrick Vanderburgh, President and CEO of the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, said, “We were heartbroken to learn of the recent news involving children found sheltering in a storage locker. We want to confirm that the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and Joy House — our family shelter — have provided assistance to this family in the past.The family stayed with us for two months in 2023, and again for more than a month during June and July of 2025. While we must respect and maintain the confidentiality of our guests and their families, we can share that during their most recent stay, we were able to verify that the family had secured permanent housing before leaving Joy House. We remain committed to supporting families in crisis and providing the resources they need to move toward stability and hope.”

The complaint notes Dupriest’s prior felony conviction for third-degree sexual assault in Ozaukee County.

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By Audrey Biesk

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WXII) — Lives are forever changed following Hurricane Helene, and the emotional and mental trauma lingers for those still recovering one year later. Those emotions can feel heightened, especially during the tropical season.

The All Souls Counseling Center in Asheville responds to the mental health needs of its community daily, and when Hurricane Helene hit, the center was desperate to reach people in need.

“We started sending therapists to comfort care sites in partnership with FEMA, the Red Cross, Hearts with Hands and other supportive organizations,” said Meredith Switzer, executive director at All Souls Counseling Center. “We were really the mental health presence on site.”

Offering mental health support to people looked a lot of different ways, Switzer explained. “It could be a bottle of water, or a snack while they were waiting in line to speak with a FEMA agent and they had young children with them who needed to be occupied.”

Over the last year, the center has hired more therapists and started new community-based programming. Switzer said her team learned their work is even more powerful when they cast a wider net and meet people where they are. As a leadership team, it has made it a priority not to forget those who lost so much.

“Going into areas that have been hit the hardest, doing community dinners, we are partnering with Duke Energy Foundation to provide meals to areas like Bat Cave and Hot Springs — areas that are more rural that don’t have access to resources like we have here in Buncombe County,” Switzer said.

Adam Lewis, clinical director at All Souls Counseling Center, encourages people to be patient with themselves through mental and emotional recovery. “Some people will look at Oct. 1 and just want to be like, ‘All right, we’re done.’ And I get it, and some people might be there, but when we look at studies of disaster, one year post of a natural disaster is usually when healing starts,” Lewis explained.

The trauma from Helene shifted the way people view their surroundings. Lewis said it’s normal to see post-traumatic stress disorder-like responses in folks due to the severity of the storm. “It is not a guarantee for someone to have PTSD, but it’s not uncommon for most people in the area to have PTSD-like responses because trauma is when we can’t control what’s happening around us, and it really shifts how we view our life and our world and the storm that we had a year ago is one of those examples.”

During the uncertainty of the tropical season, the weather is something Western North Carolina residents may feel uneasy about. “I hear a lot about any sort of sudden rains — and we are used to unpredictable weather in the mountains, but the sudden onset of rain, especially if it wasn’t in the forecast, can cause people to be on edge,” said Lewis.

He explained how humans have a danger detection system that is designed to help keep us safe. “So that’s what that is trying to do when you go through a traumatic situation, that system gets sort of hijacked and just because it’s raining now doesn’t mean it’s the exact same thing that I’ve been through before,” he said. “It sends you into survival mode, which is important when you need to be in survival mode, but not when you need to sit down and parent a child or tend to your household duties or do what you need to do.”

One of his go-to coping exercises for folks to start with is to practice grounding themselves. “Getting your feet sometimes literally in the earth,” said Lewis. “Take your shoes off, stand there and feel the sun on your face, feel the breeze, whatever feels right to try to be here in the present moment versus where your brain may go, which is 12 months ago.”

He also recommends making time to focus on your breathing. “When in doubt, I find it very helpful to focus on your exhale,” said Lewis. “Nothing fancy. There’s a lot of exercises out there, but if nothing else, act like you’re breathing out from a straw with a slow, long exhale. Set a timer for 60 seconds and do that, and see how you feel, and maybe do it again.”

Lewis shared how support from the community can help people cope, or for those who do not want to be around a lot of people, just sit at home and be present in the moment. “I do encourage people around anniversaries of difficulty, of loss, to take the time and honor the loss,” Lewis said. “Give it the space it deserves. It will come out one way or another. We need to have a slow-release valve so we can sit with it better as opposed to it taking over.”

Switzer and Lewis agree that full emotional, mental and financial recovery will take time.

“We are so grateful for the outpouring of support. We certainly felt it, and it helped us heal and move through this experience. We are still recovering, so don’t forget about us,” explained Switzer. “We encourage people to come back and support our economy. We were reminded through this experience that we are very resilient.”

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By Jenyne Donaldson

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    BALTIMORE, Maryland (WBAL) — An exceptional young woman who cemented herself in the history books has a bright future ahead.

The saying goes, hard work pays off, and Zaila Avant-garde has taken that to the max.

At 18, Avant-garde is already a national spelling bee winner, a bestselling author of multiple books, and a two-time Guinness World Records winner, among other accomplishments.

At the age of 14 in 2021, Avant-garde became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“One of the motivations that I had was sort of knowing the history of African Americans in spelling bees, and I definitely sort of wanted to be the first African American to win,” Avant-garde told 11 News.

With the help of two tutors and a program, she studied 13,000 words for seven hours a day leading up to the competition. Now, her banner hangs in the Hall of Champions.

But she has also stood outside the winner’s circle, looking in.

“It was in 2019 when I went and I got about 439th place or something, but that’s OK. Small steps,” Avant-garde told 11 News.

The loss sparked a fire.

Avant-garde published five books, becoming a New York Times bestselling author. Her first book, “It’s Not Bragging if it’s True,” is described as an empowering collection of true stories. Avant-garde called it “a big sister guide.”

“Building self-confidence and, you know, learning how to embrace yourself and who you are as a person and things like that. Kind of like a guide with, like, lots of anecdotes from my personal experience,” Avant-garde told 11 News.

Now, Avant-garde is starting her first semester on a full scholarship at the University of Maryland, studying cell biology and genetics with plans to become a biomedical researcher — and even the sky’s not the limit as she sets her sights some 239,000 miles away.

“One of my dreams is to work for NASA, specifically for their human research program, kind of like researching ways to make it possible for humans to live in long-term colonies on Mars,” Avant-garde told 11 News.

She admitted it sounds a little far-fetched, but when she points to who and what motivated her, she knows anything is possible.

“(In) 2020, when the Nobel Prize in chemistry, I believe, was awarded to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, it was about CRISPR,” Avant-garde said.

CRISPR is a method of genome editing that researchers developed to change DNA with extreme precision. Avant-garde said it sparked her passion for science when she learned the research was used to transform the quality of life for a Mississippi woman living with sickle cell anemia.

Meanwhile, she’s exploring new goals.

“Something that I’m kind of interested in is actually getting another Guinness World Record,” Avant-garde told 11 News.

She already has three Guinness World Records for most basketballs dribbled simultaneously, most basketball bounces in 30 seconds and most bounce juggles in one minute.

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By Stephanie Aceves

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    MOHAVE COUNTY, Arizona (KTNV) — The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office was able to link two children who were found in a park restroom in Oxnard, California, to a cold case victim in Mohave County.

On Dec. 12, 1989, a woman was found dead on Old Temple Bar Road off White Hills Road, just 50 miles south of Las Vegas. She had been stabbed multiple times and left nude in the desert.

At the time, police were unable to identify the victim or any suspects involved in her death, but homicide investigators were able to obtain a DNA profile from the victim.

In February 2022, the SIU was able to obtain the victim’s fingerprints and matched them to a Maria Ortiz from Bakersfield, California. A records check revealed Ortiz was listed at a residential address in Bakersfield with two friends.

Authorities made contact with one of the friends, who was later discovered to be the victim’s cousin. The cousin revealed the victim’s real name was Marina Ramos, and she had been missing since 1989. Maria Ortiz was an alias used by Ramos.

Authorities also learned that Ramos had two young daughters, 2-month-old Jasmin and 14-month-old Elizabeth, at the time. After this discovery, the police tried to track the whereabouts of the two young girls. Using the DNA obtained from family members, investigators found a match to a woman and her sister who were found abandoned in a park in Oxnard, California, in December 1989. Through the use of DNA samples, results confirmed the two women to be Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos, the daughters of Marina Ramos.

Reports revealed that the girls were found in a park restroom in Oxnard on Dec. 14, 1989, just two days after Marina’s body was found in Mohave County.

After the girls were found, they were placed in the custody of child protective services and later placed into foster care. They were eventually adopted by a couple in Ventura County and raised together in a loving home, according to authorities.

While the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office has found the mother of the two girls, authorities are still looking for the suspects responsible for the homicide of Marina Ramos.

Witnesses say they saw a woman and two men with the children at the park. They were seen in a black mini pickup. The witness told officers the woman was carrying the smaller child in a yellow blanket and one of the men was carrying the older child. The woman was described as a Hispanic female wearing a long red skirt with white boots. The two men were only described as Hispanic.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office at 928-753-0753 ext. 4408.

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By Nathan Smallwood

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    MURFREESBORO, Arkansas (KHBS, KHOG) — A family from Cookson, Okla. found a brown diamond weighing nearly three carats during a recent visit to Crater of Diamonds State Park.

According to a press release, Raynae Madison and her family came to Arkansas for the weekend to celebrate her nephew’s birthday. They visited Crater of Diamonds on Saturday, September 13.

The family picked a spot to dig on the north side of the park’s 37.5-acre diamond search area, near Prospector Trailhead. After digging a few buckets, they were sifting dirt through their screens when Madison noticed an unusual oblong, shiny stone.

After showing their family, the release says they took the stone to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center. The staff there identified it as a diamond weighing 2.79 carats.

Madison chose to name her gem the William Diamond, in honor of her nephew. It is the third-largest diamond registered at the park this year.

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