Category: CNN Regional

By Kayla James

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    MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (KCCI) — State and Marshall County health officials say they are getting closer to determining the source of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Marshalltown.

During a Marshall County Board of Supervisors regular meeting Wednesday morning, the county public health director and Iowa’s State Epidemiologist spoke in front of the supervisors and people sitting in the audience.

According to the State Epidemiologist, Dr. Matthew Donahue, investigators believe the source could be a cooling tower. He says they’ve likely found all of them, but are still looking to make sure one has not been missed.

“Because of how wide it appears to be spread — because of the calls we made to patients so far — that seems like the most likely answer,” said Donahue. “We know that some outbreaks in the past have occurred from Legionella that multiplied to high levels in cooling towers, and then that water evaporated and it spread in a small area.”

The Marshall County Public Health director, Sydney Grewell, said by the end of Wednesday she would have tested 10 cooling towers of businesses in the north central part of Marshalltown.

“For each of those cooling towers that we think could be the reason why Legionella is spreading, we’re asking them to disinfect the whole thing,” said Donahue.

Donahue says disinfecting the cooling towers should kill the Legionella and decrease the risk of spread.

“If we’re not seeing new cases pop up after 14 days, then we think the outbreak has now been brought under control, and we might have disinfected the right tower,” said Donahue.

According to both the county and state health departments, businesses in Marshalltown are being urged to have a water management plan to make sure their cooling towers are disinfected properly in the future to avoid any future outbreaks.

As of Wednesday, there have been 34 cases in Marshalltown and one death.

Donahue shared a timeline during the meeting. He said the first cases were reported on Aug. 24, and an intensive investigation began the next week.

“When we have a lab report that comes into us, we call that patient,” said Donahue. “We figure out where all have you been? Where might you have picked this up?”

Part of that investigation also involved the county and state health departments reaching out to area healthcare providers.

“We have antibiotics that work really well to get rid of it, and those antibiotics work well the vast majority of the time when someone has a Legionella pneumonia,” said Donahue.

Donahue says they’ve essentially ruled out other sources, such as a hotel or a water fountain.

Both the county and state health departments ask people to stay vigilant of their own health to help as they try to end the outbreak.

“If you have a cough and fever, shortness of breath, you think you might have a respiratory infection or pneumonia — talk to your doctor and tell them about Legionella,” said Donahue.

Donahue emphasized that there is no person-to-person transmission of Legionella and that it takes two to 14 days from being exposed to someone actually getting sick. He also said that people are exposed to Legionella every day in the environment, and it’s only an unlucky few who get really sick.

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By Steven Rosenbaum

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    DALLAS, Texas (KTVT) — Dallas police responded to a deadly incident at a motel east of Downtown Wednesday morning.

Numerous police units and paramedics responded to the Downtown Suites on Samuell Boulevard around 9:30 a.m.

The Dallas Police Department said a suspect cut the victim, identified as 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, “with an edged weapon several times,” and paramedics pronounced the victim dead at the scene.

Police said a suspect, Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, is in custody and charged with capital murder. In addition to that charge, he has an immigration hold for allegedly being in the U.S. without authorization, according to Dallas County Jail records.

A witness told CBS News Texas reporter Briseida Holguin that Nagamallaiah and Cobos-Martinez were both employees of the motel. The witness said the suspect chased the victim with a machete, hit him multiple times and then cut off his head.

Video from the CBS News Texas Chopper showed a body and a trail of blood outside of a room on the motel’s ground floor.

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By Paula Wethington, Heath Kalb

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    MACOMB COUNTY, Michigan (WWJ) — At least one person was injured in the aftermath of a house fire on Wednesday morning in Macomb County, Michigan.

The fire was in the 48000 block of Donner Road in New Baltimore. Chesterfield Fire Department responded to the scene, along with assisting agencies.

One person was taken by ambulance to an area hospital because of smoke inhalation and burns, the fire department said.

Footage from Chesterfield Township police body cameras shows the moments as first responders rush to save the life of a 76-year-old man trapped inside the home. When police and firefighters arrived, they observed the back of the house to be fully engulfed in flames. The first responders heard a man gasping for air from the front room of the home.

Authorities crawled into and entered the residence, and were able to save the homeowner and the only person inside the house. The 76-year-old man was transported to a hospital.

Authorities say the man sustained burns to the left side of his body and was listed in critical condition.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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WWJ

By Paula Wethington, Heath Kalb

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    MACOMB COUNTY, Michigan (WWJ) — At least one person was injured in the aftermath of a house fire on Wednesday morning in Macomb County, Michigan.

The fire was in the 48000 block of Donner Road in New Baltimore. Chesterfield Fire Department responded to the scene, along with assisting agencies.

One person was taken by ambulance to an area hospital because of smoke inhalation and burns, the fire department said.

Footage from Chesterfield Township police body cameras shows the moments as first responders rush to save the life of a 76-year-old man trapped inside the home. When police and firefighters arrived, they observed the back of the house to be fully engulfed in flames. The first responders heard a man gasping for air from the front room of the home.

Authorities crawled into and entered the residence, and were able to save the homeowner and the only person inside the house. The 76-year-old man was transported to a hospital.

Authorities say the man sustained burns to the left side of his body and was listed in critical condition.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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By Mallory Sofastaii

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    PASADENA, Maryland (WMAR) — A Pasadena woman who is seeking remote work is warning others about the flood of job scams targeting people looking for work-from-home opportunities.

As a server, Lisa Owens spent most of her time on her feet until a car accident left her with a broken femur and no transportation.

“I wasn’t able to go back to work right away. And, of course, you need to work. Bills don’t stop even though you have something like that. So that’s when I started looking for the remote work,” Owens said.

But her job search led to a series of scam attempts. She received messages from job postings on Indeed letting her know positions were filled, but offering alternative opportunities.

“We’ve referred you to one of our clients. So that’s like a, oh, there’s hope, you know, there’s a rainbow there. So that’s what started all this actually,” Owens said.

She sent over her resume thinking she’d caught a break. The scammers told her the job involved making travel arrangements and working as a personal assistant.

“They even sent me a check,” Owens said. “Out of the blue overnighted me a check for $2,864. I’m thinking, hot damn, I won the lottery.”

But when she looked at the check more closely and used a third-party check cashing service instead of depositing it directly into her bank account, she discovered the truth.

“Instead of putting it in my bank account, I went through a company called Ingo. They’re an online check cashing company,” Owens said.

The check was fake, as was the job. And the scam offers kept coming.

“Since I’ve been aware of this, it’s been four, and that’s only been in the past two to three weeks. In fact, I got one not even just a few days ago,” Owens said.

Another fraudster posing as a property management company asked her to post rental listings on online marketplaces, making her part of the scheme.

“So I went on the website that is supposed to be theirs, and the house was actually for rent. It is a legitimate listing except that it was for $1,000 more and the security deposit was different. They were asking me to post for a $1,000 security deposit,” Owens said. “I said, well, if I’m posting these, they’re going to be contacting me. It’s my Facebook and they said well. You’re going to just forward them to this number.”

Owens knew better but also understands how easy it is to get pulled in with the promise of a large payout.

“Be aware, be vigilant, and sadly, research everything. It might be a dream job, but it might not be legitimate, and that’s the sad thing,” Owens said.

In an email to WMAR-2 News Mallory Sofastaii, Indeed sent this statement: “Indeed puts job seekers at the heart of everything we do. We have a dedicated search quality team who goes to extraordinary lengths deploying a variety of techniques to assess the suitability and validity of job listings. Indeed removes tens of millions of job listings each month that do not meet our quality guidelines. In addition, Indeed will not do business with an employer if their job listings do not pass our stringent quality guidelines. We encourage job seekers to report any suspicious job advertisements to us, or if they feel it necessary, to make a report to the police. We encourage all jobseekers to review our Guidelines for a Safe Job Search.”

In their Guidelines for a Safe Job Search, they encourage job seekers to report suspicious ads and warn users to never accept money upfront for work they haven’t performed. Job seekers should look for email addresses with company domains and be skeptical of especially lucrative or flexible work-from-home positions.

Click here for instructions on how to report a potentially fraudulent job listing on Indeed.

The postings that targeted Owens are no longer on Indeed. It appears the scammers pose as reputable companies, tell applicants jobs have been filled but to contact someone else for details on another opportunity to make it seem more legitimate and avoid detection.

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

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By Megan Mannering

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    LETCHER COUNTY, Kentucky (WLEX) — When fermented peaches turned a dumpster into danger, longtime Letcher County nurse Misty Combs stepped in to save the day.

“I’ve had some pretty crazy days on the job, but nothing like this,” Combs told LEX 18.

In her 21 years of nursing, Combs thought she’d seen it all. The RN works at the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg.

One day she and her coworkers noticed a panicked raccoon darting through the parking lot. Then, they heard a commotion from a nearby dumpster.

“Our health department is right beside Kentucky Mist Moonshine, a distillery, and they had put some fermented peaches in their dumpster, and I guess the baby raccoons had gotten in the dumpster and they were stuck,” Combs explained.

Drunk as a skunk? Try tipsy as a trash panda.

Combs realized the mother raccoon was frantic to find her babies and get them to safety.

“I was like, ‘We have to get them out!’ It was the motherly instinct in me because I saw that momma and she was trying so hard to get her babies back and she didn’t know what to do.”

Combs grabbed a shovel and scooped out the first raccoon, who ran to be with its mom. The second raccoon, however, was face down in the bottom of the dumpster, which was filled with water and peaches soaked in moonshine.

Without hesitation, she grabbed the raccoon by the tail and pulled him to safety, but quickly realized that he had passed out.

“Everybody around was like ‘It’s dead, it’s not breathing.’ It had drowned and it was full of water, you could feel the water, so immediately, I just started doing CPR on it.”

Video taken by her coworker shows Combs doing compressions on the animal’s chest, and flipping it on its side to slap its back. While she had never performed CPR on an animal, she told LEX 18 that she did what she could in the moment to provide life-saving measures.

Suddenly, the raccoon began breathing, although Combs admits she had some hesitation.

“The entire time, I was afraid it’d come-to and eat me up, and raccoons carry rabies so I was afraid of that.”

Fish and Wildlife responded before the town drunk turned into a mean drunk. They transported the animal to the local veterinarian who administered fluids and got the raccoon sobered up.

Combs and her colleagues named the critter Otis Campbell, named for the infamous Andy Griffith Show character. Eventually, Otis was returned to the Health Department’s parking lot where Combs had the honor of releasing him back into the wild.

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By Forrest Sanders

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) — The Nashville Fair is underway now through Sunday. The fair has no shortage of interesting people. We met one who creates art in no time at all, and you’re going to love her subjects.

Remember how there used to be those One Hour Photo businesses everywhere?

Artist Julia Tong is doing something a little like that at the Nashville Fair. She’s painting portraits of animals, each portrait only taking one hour.

“Trying to catch the most authentic side of them, and it usually ends up being a pretty goofy side!” Tong smiled. “I’m lucky for this, my work, I can just stare at animals the whole time!”

Tong’s subject Tuesday night took a lot of gray, black, and pink paint.

“Yeah! I’m painting the pig!” Tong laughed as someone watched her paint a portrait of Loki the pig.

“I think he wanted me to paint him!” Tong said. “I think they know, you know. At least they know I’m paying attention to them. I think he’s kinda a goofball!”

Tong has lived all over the US and in China. Her work carries all those influences.

“This is my Chinese name,” Tong said, pointing to her artist signature.

“Nashville’s my favorite [city], it really is,” she continued.

“Good answer!” I said.

“Yes!” Tong laughed before turning her attention back to Loki.

“The pattern on him is so nice!” she said. “It’s actually very Chinese philosophy, the yin and yang.”

What can you say, Loki? You’re a work of art.

“It’s the model!” Tong nodded. “The model is good.”

By Sunday, Tong will have a whole gallery of these one-hour animal portraits. Really, she’s trying to do a few things with her work at The Nashville Fair. One is foster a love art in anyone who happens to pass by. There’s something else.

“I hope people will see the fair when they see the paintings, you know, see their memories,” Tong said.

With a little more gray, black, and pink, the hour was up. A portrait was complete.

“It’s Loki the pig!” Tong said. “Look at how funny he is!”

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By Amanda Starrantino, Chelsea Hylton

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    LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — Large amounts of fruit and vegetables are being dumped on the streets of downtown Los Angeles and city officials are trying to identify who is responsible.

The aftermath looks less like a city sidewalk and more like a produce market gone wrong. For weeks, sanitation crews say they’ve been cleaning up tons of fruits and vegetables dumped onto the street.

City crews cleared a mess Tuesday morning, but by Wednesday night, new pallets of food waste were back, dumped again on corners like 15th Street and Hooper, Olympic and Naomi and Olympic and Hooper. Each time, sanitation has to haul away spoiled produce before it spreads or attracts pests.

Mayor Karen Bass’ office reached out to CBS Los Angeles, saying these are not victimless crimes. They said dumping large amounts of rotting food creates unsanitary conditions and blight and they’re urging residents to report illegal dumping by calling 311.

On Instagram, videos show toppled pallets of parsley and melons scattered across the road. One downtown resident told CBS Los Angeles off-camera that the food looks like rejected product, spoiled or unsellable, that workers simply toss out as a “free-for-all.” What makes it more puzzling is that it’s happening in areas not heavily traveled.

LA City Council District 14 says they’re working with sanitation to keep these blocks clean, but the source of all this food is still under investigation. For now, city crews will keep cleaning up the mess while neighbors keep asking who is doing the dumping.

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