Category: CNN Regional

WFOR

By Najahe Sherman

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — It’s a monumental milestone – two exceptional young women have become Eagle Scouts.

For Emily Mayol and Victoria Parra, this moment has been years in the making.

“I was so overjoyed. Like, I don’t think I can ever be that excited about something,” said Emily Mayol.

“Tears were shed, but I was just really excited. They were happy tears,” said Victoria Parra.

Becoming the first female Eagle Scouts in Troop 65’s 50-plus year history required outstanding leadership, commitment to community service, and breaking barriers in a traditionally male-dominated organization

It wasn’t until 2017 that the Boy Scouts of America welcomed girls. Scout Master Edward Steinman, who has led the troop for years, fully embraced this change.

“It was always boys. It was called Boy Scouts of America, now it’s just Scouts of America. It was a very, very good thing for them to do, because it adds a lot to the program,” Steinman said.

To earn the prestigious Eagle Scout rank, Mayol and Parra completed 21 merit badges, each representing a mastered skill, progressed through all scouting ranks, and spearheaded impactful community projects.

Mayol saw a need in her school’s drama club and created acting blocks.

“They’re blocks that you can stand on, you can use as props and we ended up making a stand for them as well to give more space to the theatre room,” said Mayol.

Now, those blocks are essential tools in all her school’s theater classes.

Parra addressed an invasive plant crisis in her local park by building collection stations and bins.

“So the park was suffering greatly and I grew up in that park. So, I wanted to make sure that it was safe and that it would always be beautiful,” said Parra.

She redesigned placards to educate park-goers about invasive species, encouraging community involvement in preserving the area.

Jennifer Mayol, their Scout Master for six years, cherishes this moment.

“It was very emotional because it was the end of a long road with scouts and that they were the first two girls on Miami Beach was fantastic,” Jennifer Mayol said.

These trailblazing young ladies aim to inspire the next generation and offer this advice.

“There is going to be difficulties. So, you just need to be able to commit to what you love, and to follow through,” said Parra.

“As long as you just try your best, and you stay true to who you are, you can do it,” said Mayol.

This achievement is more than a personal triumph. It embodies true leadership, commitment to community, and the courage to break barriers.

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 Najahe Sherman

Click here for updates on this story

    MIAMI (WFOR) — It’s a monumental milestone – two exceptional young women have become Eagle Scouts.

For Emily Mayol and Victoria Parra, this moment has been years in the making.

“I was so overjoyed. Like, I don’t think I can ever be that excited about something,” said Emily Mayol.

“Tears were shed, but I was just really excited. They were happy tears,” said Victoria Parra.

Becoming the first female Eagle Scouts in Troop 65’s 50-plus year history required outstanding leadership, commitment to community service, and breaking barriers in a traditionally male-dominated organization

It wasn’t until 2017 that the Boy Scouts of America welcomed girls. Scout Master Edward Steinman, who has led the troop for years, fully embraced this change.

“It was always boys. It was called Boy Scouts of America, now it’s just Scouts of America. It was a very, very good thing for them to do, because it adds a lot to the program,” Steinman said.

To earn the prestigious Eagle Scout rank, Mayol and Parra completed 21 merit badges, each representing a mastered skill, progressed through all scouting ranks, and spearheaded impactful community projects.

Mayol saw a need in her school’s drama club and created acting blocks.

“They’re blocks that you can stand on, you can use as props and we ended up making a stand for them as well to give more space to the theatre room,” said Mayol.

Now, those blocks are essential tools in all her school’s theater classes.

Parra addressed an invasive plant crisis in her local park by building collection stations and bins.

“So the park was suffering greatly and I grew up in that park. So, I wanted to make sure that it was safe and that it would always be beautiful,” said Parra.

She redesigned placards to educate park-goers about invasive species, encouraging community involvement in preserving the area.

Jennifer Mayol, their Scout Master for six years, cherishes this moment.

“It was very emotional because it was the end of a long road with scouts and that they were the first two girls on Miami Beach was fantastic,” Jennifer Mayol said.

These trailblazing young ladies aim to inspire the next generation and offer this advice.

“There is going to be difficulties. So, you just need to be able to commit to what you love, and to follow through,” said Parra.

“As long as you just try your best, and you stay true to who you are, you can do it,” said Mayol.

This achievement is more than a personal triumph. It embodies true leadership, commitment to community, and the courage to break barriers.

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 Riley Rourke

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    BOSTON (WBZ) — Video newly obtained by WBZ appears to show a New York Rangers fan push a Boston Bruins fan down the stairs at TD Garden after a series of heated exchanges on Saturday.

The incident happened just after 3 p.m. between the second and third periods of the game. Witnesses said that the victim, who told police he had at least 7 beers, was taunting people in the stands.

“You could kind of tell he had quite a few drinks at that time. He was falling out of his seat. Falling onto the stairs,” the witness who recorded the video told WBZ. He asked for his name to be kept private.

The interactions between the 66-year-old victim, a Bruins fan, and 48-year-old Aaron Tucker of Vermont, who was wearing a Rangers jersey, then began to escalate, according to court documents. His wife told police that the victim was getting “uncomfortably close to her.” Witnesses then saw the victim putting his middle finger in her face, according to a police report.

Witnesses also told police that the victim’s friends were trying to get him to leave to avoid any fights.

The witness we spoke with said that Tucker then turned to his group of friends, who were seated directly next to him, and said, “‘If he comes over here, I’m going to grab him by the throat and throw him down the stairs.'” That witness said, after one more altercation, that’s exactly what happened.

The video he recorded shows a man in a Rangers jersey grab another man by the neck, while on the stairs, and shove him. The victim then fell into the seating section below.

“When he went airborne, he went over two rows of club seats, skipped the third row, and hit his head on the concrete wall,” the witness explained. “He just completely folded, upside down, on the concrete and there was a line of blood going down the concrete wall. I don’t know how a human can bend the way that he did.”

Officers arrived to find the victim lying on the ground in the loge section below, “semi-conscious, breathing with eyes slightly open,” documents show. He was taken to a Boston hospital with a cut on the back of his head and was being tested for a concussion, according to a court report. He told EMTs he had no idea why he was going to the hospital.

The victim told WBZ-TV on Monday that he is doing fine but doesn’t want to comment further.

Court documents said that Tucker and his girlfriend left the arena immediately following the fight. He was arrested shortly after on Lafayette Avenue in the North End.

He has been charged with two counts of assault and battery, one to cause serious bodily injury and another on a person over the age of 60. Tucker told WBZ-TV’s Louisa Moller that he is sorry for what happened and that it “wasn’t him.” He declined to go on camera.

Tucker will be arraigned in Boston court on Friday.

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.

WBZ

By Riley Rourke

Click here for updates on this story

    BOSTON (WBZ) — Video newly obtained by WBZ appears to show a New York Rangers fan push a Boston Bruins fan down the stairs at TD Garden after a series of heated exchanges on Saturday.

The incident happened just after 3 p.m. between the second and third periods of the game. Witnesses said that the victim, who told police he had at least 7 beers, was taunting people in the stands.

“You could kind of tell he had quite a few drinks at that time. He was falling out of his seat. Falling onto the stairs,” the witness who recorded the video told WBZ. He asked for his name to be kept private.

The interactions between the 66-year-old victim, a Bruins fan, and 48-year-old Aaron Tucker of Vermont, who was wearing a Rangers jersey, then began to escalate, according to court documents. His wife told police that the victim was getting “uncomfortably close to her.” Witnesses then saw the victim putting his middle finger in her face, according to a police report.

Witnesses also told police that the victim’s friends were trying to get him to leave to avoid any fights.

The witness we spoke with said that Tucker then turned to his group of friends, who were seated directly next to him, and said, “‘If he comes over here, I’m going to grab him by the throat and throw him down the stairs.'” That witness said, after one more altercation, that’s exactly what happened.

The video he recorded shows a man in a Rangers jersey grab another man by the neck, while on the stairs, and shove him. The victim then fell into the seating section below.

“When he went airborne, he went over two rows of club seats, skipped the third row, and hit his head on the concrete wall,” the witness explained. “He just completely folded, upside down, on the concrete and there was a line of blood going down the concrete wall. I don’t know how a human can bend the way that he did.”

Officers arrived to find the victim lying on the ground in the loge section below, “semi-conscious, breathing with eyes slightly open,” documents show. He was taken to a Boston hospital with a cut on the back of his head and was being tested for a concussion, according to a court report. He told EMTs he had no idea why he was going to the hospital.

The victim told WBZ-TV on Monday that he is doing fine but doesn’t want to comment further.

Court documents said that Tucker and his girlfriend left the arena immediately following the fight. He was arrested shortly after on Lafayette Avenue in the North End.

He has been charged with two counts of assault and battery, one to cause serious bodily injury and another on a person over the age of 60. Tucker told WBZ-TV’s Louisa Moller that he is sorry for what happened and that it “wasn’t him.” He declined to go on camera.

Tucker will be arraigned in Boston court on Friday.

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 Margaret Kavanagh

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    WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (WTKR) — John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, just released a new book about his life and met up with WTKR’s Margaret Kavanagh at Bicentennial Park in Williamsburg to discuss his new memoir and the day he tried to kill the former president.

Hinckley, now a free man living in Williamsburg, has just released a book called “John Hinckley Jr.: Who I Really Am” that tells his story from beginning to end.

“It’s my memoir. It’s called ‘Who I Really Am’ and it tells my whole story from beginning to end,” Hinckley said. “All the good and the bad are in the book.”

The book details how he pushed friends and family away in the late 1970s and early 1980s, isolating himself and falling into a deep depression that led to what he describes as delusional behavior.

“By the time 1981 rolled around, I was a very ill man, and I committed that crime,” Hinckley said.

He was obsessed with the 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver, where the main character Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro, plots to assassinate a fictional presidential candidate. Hinckley was also infatuated with actress Jodie Foster who played a teenage prostitute in the movie. Foster was 12 when she filmed for her role, Iris.

“In the fall of ’80, I went to New Haven seek her out and I talked to her on the phone a few times and I left messages and wrote poems for her and I always signed them so she knew who I was,” Hinckley said. “She was saying, ‘Look I can’t be talking to strangers on the phone and I was always trying to keep her on the phone.'”

To impress the actress, he devised a plan to kill the president similar to the plot in the movie. Hinckley told me what happened on March 30, 1981.

“I was staying at a hotel in D.C., and I saw Reagan’s schedule for the day in the newspaper, and I made up my mind what I wanted to do,” Hinckley said. “So I wrote a letter to Jodie Foster, and I left it in the hotel room and I took a cab to the Hilton hotel and I saw where the crowd was standing, so I got amongst the crowd and Reagan arrived with his entourage and walked right past me, and it looked like he was waving right at me so it kind of startled me so I just kind of waved back. He went on into the building. He gave his speech and when he came back out. That’s when I shot him.”

Hinckley shot and wounded four people that day. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity the following year, then remained in a mental hospital before receiving his unconditional release and full freedom in 2022.

“I’m just so sorry for what happened,” Hinckley said.

“In 1981, I was depressed, delusional, and that’s why I committed my crimes,” Hinckley said. “But I’m so far removed from that now. I feel so much better now. And my life now is devoted to music and art.”

He creates art that he sells and music that he puts online but says he’s had trouble getting music venue owners to allow him to perform live.

“Then the owner of the venue always seems to cancel on me and it’s very frustrating because I know I can put on a good show and sing my songs and make the people happy,” Hinckley said.

I also spoke with Jason Norman, the ghostwriter who helped Hinckley put the book together.

“I just figured there was much more to him than this and there was,” Norman said. “There was his music career, his college life, his life on the inside, when he was institutionalized for a while, his relationships. I just felt like this was a full story that needed telling.”

Writing the memoir was therapeutic for Hinckley, though emotionally challenging.

“Early on it was hard drudging up all those memories cause I kind of pushed them in the back,” said Hinckley. “I hope people read it and see that I’m not the person I was back in 1981.”

He denounces all political violence and wants peace while continuing to make art and play music, hoping to one day perform live.

“I feel like the public would be attending a good concert if I could just put on the show,” Hinckley 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 Kamilah Williams

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    PORTSMOUTH, Virginia (WTKR) — A Portsmouth mother says she has been unable to access her mailbox for weeks after losing her mail keys, leaving her without important documents and prompting her to seek help from a U.S. senator.

Unique Reid said she lost the keys to her London Oaks apartment mailbox in early December and immediately began trying to replace them.

Since then, she says, she has been locked out of her mailbox with no clear timeline for a solution.

Reid said the lack of access has affected critical parts of her life, including mail related to her son, who is autistic, his medical appointments, and other personal documents.

“Important mail about my son, doctor’s appointments, about tax papers supposed to be coming in the mail,” Reid said.

Reid said she contacted the U.S. Postal Service, worked with her property manager, and repeatedly tried calling both local and national USPS phone numbers, but received no response.

“I contacted USPS Postal Service, went to my landlord, talked to her,” Reid said. “She stayed in there with me for about two hours trying to contact the post office on the phone. Called the 1-800 number, called the main post office number, no response.”

WTKR News 3 reached out to the United States Postal Service for clarification. In a statement, USPS said:

“The Postal Service will install new locks and provide new keys for customers residing at this complex who submit a request at the Post Office and pay for a new key. Once a new lock is installed, the customer can pick up the new mailbox key from the Postal Service. Until then, the customer can pick up her mail at the local Post Office. We greatly value the continued support from our customers…”

Despite that guidance, Reid said a month has passed, and she still does not have access to her mailbox.

“It’s still been hectic,” she said.

Frustrated, Reid took the issue a step further and contacted U.S. Sen. Mark Warner’s office. She said Warner’s office responded, telling her that a staff member had been assigned to her case and would contact USPS on her behalf.

When asked how it felt to receive that response, Reid said it was a relief.

Reid said she hopes the issue will be resolved soon, especially with tax season approaching.

“I really do need them because my W-2s are coming in that mailbox and I need them,” she said.

WTKR News 3 will continue to follow this story as Reid awaits a resolution.

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 Anthony Sabella

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    NORFOLK, Virginia (WTKR) — We are continuing to learn more about Renee Good, the Old Dominion University alumna who was shot and killed Wednesday by an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. Federal investigators accuse Good of trying to hit an ICE agent with her car.

While Good lived in Hampton Roads, she sat down with News 3 anchor Erin Miller for an interview in 2022 — then, Renee Macklin. She graduated from ODU in 2020 with a degree in English and spent her time on campus developing skills as a writer and photographer.

Charles Winslow worked with and mentored Good on photography during her time at ODU.

Winslow owns a photography business and hires photographers for sporting events. Good wanted to learn and enhance her writing while in college, Winslow said.

“From the first day of shooting, she was fantastic, she has an eye for it,” Winslow told News 3 over a video call from Germany.

Good worked everything from basketball games to NASCAR races, Winslow says. Other times, Winslow, Good and a small group of photography friends would head to Virginia Beach.

“We’d get the highest room we could get on the beach and we’ll all camp out and shoot the sunrise in the morning because she needed those sunrises for her poems and her books,” Winslow said.

After Good graduated in 2020, the two eventually lost touch. When Winslow first heard about the shooting, he said he was shocked. Around four or five hours later, some of his photographers called him about it.

“When they told me Renee, I was like, ‘no, it’s a mistake,'” Winslow said. “‘Someone mixed this up,’ and, no. It was her. As soon as I saw her photo, I couldn’t believe it. The first thing I thought of was New York.”

Every year in January and February, Winslow says he would invite Good and other photographers to travel to New York to take pictures of the homeless. They used those photos for the ACLU in New York to raise awareness for the homeless.

“She cried. She cried like a baby,” recalls Winslow of Good’s reaction to the experience.

That is the person Winslow said he remembers — someone who cared for others, lived life freely and wanted people to get along.

“If there was an argument, she would be the first one to break it up,” Winslow said. “She would tell people, ‘don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it.'”

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 Nick Sloan

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    WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. (KMBC) — A Chinese national has been charged in federal court after authorities say he took photos and video of Whiteman Air Force Base and military aircraft without authorization.

Federal prosecutors announced last week that 35-year-old Qilin Wu is accused of illegally photographing a vital military installation and military equipment, a misdemeanor under U.S. law.

According to a criminal complaint, Air Force patrol officers and agents with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations were called Dec. 2, 2025, after a suspicious minivan was spotted near the perimeter of Whiteman Air Force Base.

Officers found Wu near the base, where he told them he was there to observe the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.

He was warned that photographing or recording the base was prohibited.

Investigators say the same vehicle returned to the base the next day. Agents again contacted Wu, who admitted taking videos of the B-2 aircraft and photographing perimeter fencing, a gate and military equipment.

Authorities reviewed Wu’s phone and found 18 images and videos of Whiteman Air Force Base and military hardware, court documents say. Wu also admitted photographing another U.S. Air Force base and its aircraft.

Prosecutors said Wu entered the United States illegally near Nogales, Arizona, in June 2023 and was released while awaiting immigration proceedings scheduled for 2027.

He was re-arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Dec. 3, 2025.

The charge carries a possible sentence of up to one year in federal prison if Wu is convicted.

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 Metia Carroll

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    NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) — New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno is getting ready to take office Monday.

Sunday kicked off events leading up to her inauguration, including the “All In For Our Culture Festival” that was held at Lafayette Square.

The festival showcased the sounds and spirit of the city, with attendees enjoying food trucks, community organization showcases, and a kids’ zone.

Organizers said the event was designed to reflect on the city’s deep musical roots.

Unity, creativity, and the defining culture were the main focus for the day’s event.

The inauguration will be held on Monday, Jan. 12, at 9 a.m. The theme is “All In For New Orleans.”

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.