Woman back in custody, faces over 20 charges in alleged elder exploitation scheme

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Rachel Denny Clow

Click here for updates on this story

    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (KRIS) — Moraima Annette Montano, 54, is back in custody at the Nueces County Jail facing more than 20 criminal charges after a Nueces County Grand Jury handed down multiple indictments in May 2025. The charges relate to alleged financial exploitation of elderly and disabled individuals at unlicensed group homes she operated in Corpus Christi.

According to jail records, Montano was arrested on September 9, 2025, and is being held without bond on the majority of charges. The arrest comes after she was initially taken into custody in December 2024 on similar allegations.

Extensive List of Charges

The charges stem from alleged crimes committed between November 2019 and February 24, 2025 at multiple locations in Corpus Christi. Montano is charged with:

5 counts of Exploitation of Child/Elderly/Disabled (Third Degree Felony) 10 counts of Credit Card or Debit Card Abuse (State Jail Felony) 6 counts of Credit Card or Debit Card Abuse Elderly (State Jail Felony) 2 counts of Forgery Financial Instrument (State Jail Felony) 1 count of Fraud Use/Possession of Identifying Information 1 count of Financial Abuse of Elderly ($30,000-$150,000) 1 count of Misapplication of Fiduciary/Financial Property ($30,000-$150,000 Enhanced) (Second Degree Felony) 1 count of Operating a Boarding House Without County/Municipal Permit (Class B Misdemeanor)

According to the grand jury indictments and complaint obtained by KRIS 6 News, Montano allegedly exploited five elderly individuals through various schemes involving unauthorized withdrawals from bank accounts, fraudulent use of debit cards, forged checks, and misuse of government stimulus payments.

Financial Abuse Case (September 2021 – February 2025) The most serious charge alleges Montano misappropriated between $30,000 and $150,000 from five elderly individuals by withdrawing money from their bank accounts without consent. The indictment also alleges she intentionally or knowingly failed to use the victims’ income, money, and assets for necessities required for their support and maintenance.

Debit Card Exploitation (July – September 2024) One victim was allegedly exploited through multiple unauthorized debit card transactions between July 27 and September 24, 2024. According to court documents, Montano withdrew money from the victim’s bank account for her personal benefit and made purchases at restaurants, department stores, and for utility payments.

Forged Check Scheme (September 2024) In one case, Montano allegedly deposited a forged check into a victim’s Rally Credit Union checking account with intent to defraud. The victim had left Montano’s group home approximately two months earlier. When the victim’s apartment lease was terminated, a refund check for $1,428.06 was mailed to Montano’s group home address on Ridgeview Drive.

Forged Checks from Frost Bank Account (April – September 2024) Another victim had at least three checks allegedly forged from their Frost Bank account without consent, including checks made payable to Unique Living, LLC for $1,300 and $1,200, and to Bright Star Real Estate for $2,925.

On September 13, 2024, when Montano arrived at Frost Bank with a personal check made payable to herself for $3,000, bank employees contacted the victim, who told them Montano was “stealing his money” and instructed them not to process the check. Frost Bank employees reported noticing inconsistencies in the victim’s account, noting that signatures on checks were never consistent. The bank filed a report with Texas Department of Family and Protective Services – Adult Protective Services on August 6, 2024.

Government Stimulus Payment Exploitation (May 2020 – January 2021) One of the earlier alleged incidents involves Montano exploiting an elderly person by using government stimulus payments without consent during the period from May 28, 2020 to January 4, 2021.

Additional Credit Card Abuse (March – October 2023) Six separate indictments allege Montano used a debit card associated with another victim’s Frost Bank account without effective consent on various dates between March 27, 2023 and October 30, 2023.

The charges were filed following an investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), working in cooperation with local law enforcement and financial institutions.

During the investigation, multiple financial institutions reported suspicious activity on victims’ accounts. Rally Credit Union and Star Financial Credit Union provided investigators with bank records and surveillance footage showing Montano making withdrawals using different debit cards and making purchases at various retail locations.

When investigators searched Montano’s purse with consent in October 2024, they found one victim’s debit card along with multiple receipts from transactions made throughout the region, including purchases at restaurants, stores, and other locations.

Unlicensed Group Home Operations In addition to financial exploitation charges, Montano faces a misdemeanor charge for operating a boarding home at 7001 Keystone Drive, Corpus Christi, without proper permits.

On October 18, 2024, Corpus Christi Fire Department Assistant Chief Randy Paige informed investigators that the City of Corpus Christi requires a permit for individuals who run foster homes or group homes.

On October 24, 2024, Fire Department Lead Inspector David Martinez conducted a reinspection of 7001 Keystone Drive and informed Montano the home would need to be permitted as a group home due to five individuals potentially residing there. Montano told Martinez she was the landlord and that the home was owned by Bright Star Real Estate.

On November 5, 2024, the City of Corpus Christi confirmed the residence did not have a group home permit or any other business-related permit.

Current Status and Bond Information Montano is currently held at the Nueces County Jail. She was booked on September 9, 2025, at 9:06 PM by the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office.

While most charges list bond status as “WITHOUT,” indicating no bond has been set, several charges from earlier in 2025 have set bail amounts totaling approximately $82,000.

Please note: 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.

A survivor’s story: Former KCFD firefighter Chris Anderson remembers career-ending fire

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Taylor Hemness

Click here for updates on this story

    Missouri (KSHB) — On Oct. 12, 2015, Kansas City, Missouri, firefighters Larry Leggio and John Mesh were killed while fighting a fire near the intersection of Independence and Prospect avenues.

One exterior wall of the building collapsed, burying them both under a pile of bricks.

Their names are likely remembered from the tragedy, but two other KCFD firefighters were buried under the same rubble that night.

They survived, but what exactly does a survivor’s story sound like? I asked one of them to answer that question.

There are a couple of words people always use when they feel like their profession was the only one they were ever meant to have.

“I know it sounds corny, but I always felt that that was what God wanted me to do,” Chris Anderson told me. “That was my … that was my purpose. It was just … it was a calling, and I absolutely loved every minute of it.”

Chris spent thousands of those minutes fighting fires. But he didn’t know that he only had a few minutes of firefighting left when he arrived on scene that October night.

At one point inside the building, surrounded by flames, he had a premonition that, thankfully for him, never came true.

“My captain and I got trapped,” Chris said.

That was when he imagined he was standing in his living room.

“It was very real to me,” Chris said. “And I was looking out of our window, and watching the chief’s buggy pull up, and the captain and the chief getting out to come and inform my family [that I had died.] It was just a very real feeling.”

What actually happened was other firefighters guided Chris and his captain out of the burning building.

He ended up in the alleyway spraying water into a pair of windows, unaware his firefighting career was just seconds from being over.

“Right above the two windows, the bricks bulged out about six inches,” he said. “And I spun on my … on my right knee, to get my back to the building, to get behind my fire truck. From seeing the bulge, within a second, I was hit by bricks. As soon as I got my back to the building, that building was down.”

Chris, called to be a firefighter, was now buried under a collapsed wall of brick.

“When I shifted my shoulder, there was a small hole that opened up by my left wrist,” he remembered. “And I stuck my hand out and waved and yelled that we were alive.”

His team got him out and into an ambulance, and he called his wife, Heather.

“He just said, ‘I got thumped,’” Heather told me. “[He said,] ‘I’m okay, I’m going to the hospital.’ By the time I ended up getting logged on to the news station, they were announcing that a firefighter had died at a local hospital, and I was terrified.”

When Heather got to the hospital, she followed her nose.

“There’s a certain smell that goes along with a structure fire,” she explained. “And being that there was a number of firefighters already with him, you could smell the path that they took.”

Heather told me Chris looked like a tank had run over the left side of his body.

He’d torn muscles in his arm, shoulder and ribs, and he suffered a traumatic brain injury. But when he spun on his right knee to turn from the building, he tore all the cartilage away, making a return to firefighting impossible.

Battered and bruised, he held onto life. Meanwhile, his career, his calling, had slipped through his fingers.

I asked him to describe what the last decade has been like for him and his family.

“Definitely the first 18 months to two years, we did nothing but go to doctors’ appointments eight hours a day, five days a week,” Chris said. “It took five years to heal completely with different surgeries and treatments, and rehabs and everything else.”

But the fire, and all those injuries, also took a different kind of toll.

“When that fire happened, I crawled into a bottle for three years,” Chris said. “I mixed that up with a lot of prescription drugs, a lot of pain pills, a lot of anti-anxiety, and I did that for three years, just trying to cope.”

Heather described the time after the fire in an even harsher light.

“In 2015, we were married 20 years,” she said. “And this year, we’ve celebrated our 30th anniversary. You know, the past 10 years have been completely different. Completely. I’ve been married to a different man. That night, my best friend just didn’t exist anymore.”

Chris and Heather aren’t living in the same place anymore, either. They chose a quiet life away from the city lights and sounds.

Despite the alcohol and drug abuse, and the survivor’s guilt he carries, Chris says he wouldn’t change anything about what’s happened to him. He told me that maybe he spared someone else from the same fate.

When I asked him how he describes his survivor’s story, he said his story is “still being written.”

“I can’t tell you if it’s good or bad yet,” Chris said. “I believe that everyone has a predetermined expiration date. We just don’t know what that date is. Maybe God’s not done with me yet and … has something else in mind.”

Chris Anderson was not the only KCFD firefighter who sustained career-ending injuries when that building collapsed.

Dan Werner was also partially buried under the rubble. I spoke with Werner when I first started working on this story.

He decided not to speak on camera but did say, “My family will forever be grateful to all the people of Kansas City for the love and support we were shown after the accident. It’s our wish as a family to step aside and let the focus remain on the loss of two legends, in John (Mesh) and Larry (Leggio).”

Please note: 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.

A hidden infection is spreading through Florida avocado trees — and it could impact your wallet

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Briauna Brown

Click here for updates on this story

    FLORIDA (WFOR) — There’s a new threat that may affect a mainstay fruit source for many of the state’s growers – Florida avocados.

Agricultural experts in Florida are warning this month about a disease, sunblotch viroid (ASBVd), that can severely stunt avocado tree growth by spreading through the groves and deforming the fruit. This could mean fewer locally grown avocados available in Florida stores, leading to higher prices, according to researchers at the University of Florida.

UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said sunblotch viroid was first reported in Florida in 1941.

The disease is caused by a viroid, which is one of the smallest known infectious organisms to disrupt a tree’s growth and fruit production. It spreads through root grafts among trees, contaminated pruning or grafting tools and propagation materials.

Viroid is known to reduce crop yields by 80% — leaving trees both stunted and weakened, researchers said.

UF/IFAS experts said a part of the issue is that infected avocado trees may look healthy for years before symptoms appear. Growers will notice anything from streaked and blotched fruit to unusual coloring on stems and leaves or a drop in yield.

Trees can also be free of symptoms and can quietly spread the disease through their seeds or pollen.

“Hundreds of grafted avocado trees are being produced to establish orchards in new areas, driving the industry’s expansion northward,” Romina Gazis said. She’s the associate professor of plant pathology and director of the Plant Diagnostic Clinic at UF’s Tropical Research and Education Center.

“At the same time, growers are replanting in orchards where trees were lost to laurel wilt. Because our industry relies on seedling-grafted trees, and the seeds themselves may carry the viroid, it’s critical to scout and test for its presence to protect new plantings,” he continued.

UF/IFAS experts said at this time, there’s no program to check that budwood or seeds are free of viroid. And as thousands of new trees are planted, it’s important to take steps in trying to prevent ASBVd.

Experts said nurseries should test budwood trees annually and growers should train their staff to spot symptoms of the disease, ensuring that infected trees are destroyed, and equipment is sanitized.

Gazis said in the past, growers and nurseries were able to eradicate ASBvd by following these sanitation practices.

“Today, many new growers and nurseries are not aware of this threat to the industry, but with our UF/IFAS Extension renewed effort to educate the industry, we can once again control this disease,” Gazis said.

Experts urge homeowners to watch for symptoms too and have them tested by professionals. If there’s a positive result, that tree should be removed from the property.

If you’d like more information, contact the UF/IFAS TREC Plant Diagnostic Clinic in Homestead.

Please note: 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.

Firefighter credits department’s mandatory cancer screening for saving his life

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Tod Palmer

Click here for updates on this story

    Missouri (KSHB) — For three years now, the Independence Fire Department has partnered with Lifescan Wellness to provide annual physicals for all department members.

Firefighter Spencer Ashley said the scan he underwent last October saved his life.

“It was just another normal day,” Ashley said.

He was 24 years old in his second year as a firefighter with IFD — following in the footsteps of his father, Richard, who spent 35 years with the department.

“This was my second LifeScan,” Ashley said. “The first one, it was all clear. … The second one is where everything changed.”

Lying on a non-descript table in a makeshift ultrasound screening room, the technician noticed that the lymph nodes in his neck were excessively enlarged — three times bigger than normal, Ashley recalled.

“The way that she responded to me, her reaction to it and sending me back to the nurse practitioner to go get looked at for the second time — that’s when I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna make an appointment with my primary care physician and get it looked at,’” Ashley said.

Tests confirmed the doctors’ fears.

“I was diagnosed with classic Hodgkin lymphoma with a syncytial variant subtype, which is a rare variant form of classic Hodgkin lymphoma,” Ashley said.

Studies show firefighters are at a higher risk of developing cancer than the average person and that cancer is the leading cause of firefighter deaths in the line of duty by a wide margin.

“Generally speaking, across the board, it’s about one and a half times more likely depending on the cancers,” IFD Assistant Fire Chief Craig DuPlantis said. “It’s 15 to 19 times more likely for certain cancers. … It’s going to happen. It is a part of the job. It’s an inherent risk that’s understood.”

After Ashley’s diagnosis, 12 rounds of chemotherapy infusions, each followed by a stomach injection the next day to keep up his white-blood cell count, lasting from Jan. 8 to June 27, 2025.

“Eating, going up and down stairs, everything was just exhausting,” Ashley said. “Not to mention the mental side that goes along with it — the depression, anxiety, PTSD, all of it.”

Still, it was better than the alternative.

“With the rare variant form of cancer that I had, my oncologist told me to my face that if you hadn’t gone to your primary care physician to do this follow-up, you would have been dead in six months,” Ashley said.

IFD has worked with the firefighters union, IAFF Local 781, in recent years to make the annual physicals mandatory.

“We haven’t gone through a single year where we haven’t found at least one person with a problem,” DuPlantis said. “Not specific to say cancer like this, but we’ve caught health threats and life threats in multiple people every year we’ve done this.”

Initially, the firefighters union was concerned about how the information would be used, but DuPlantis said the reality of screenings in recent years helped create buy-in and allay those fears.

“The fact that all of the problems we’ve located have been with personnel in the operations division, rank-and-file personnel, goes a long way towards kind of spreading our message that this is for your benefit,” DuPlantis said.

Ashley is certainly grateful for the screenings — and hopes that other firefighters, or people in general, don’t put off recommended preventive screenings, like the one he credited with saving his life.

“I thank God we do this,” DuPlantis said. “I’m very happy that we were able to make this mandatory, because, if it were optional, a lot of younger personnel would go, ‘Well, I’m 25 years old, so I don’t need to do this.’ We would have missed that, and we probably would have lost him, but I’m glad we didn’t.”

Please note: 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.

Classic horror story gets hilarious revamp in “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” at Massachusetts theater

CNN on October 14, 2025


WBZ

By Courtney Cole

Click here for updates on this story

    TAUNTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Laughter, not fear, is the goal of “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” and the community theater production at the Taunton Performing Arts Center aims to defy expectations.

The unexpected take on the classic horror tale arrives just in time for Halloween.

“This is not scary whatsoever. You may be horrified, but not for the reasons you think,” said actor Brendan Pione.

“It is lovingly based on Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula,'” explained actor Fred Halperin, “but it more aligns to campiness and a lot of innuendo and funny situations, funny scenarios.”

The gender-bending play is quick with the jokes.

“It goes in a completely different direction than the original, but still holds certain plot lines to it,” said director Natalie Cabral. “This Dracula is very different. It’s very sexy, very comical, very conceited sort of.”

Christopher Francis is having a blast playing the Count from Transylvania.

“It’s a very funny Dracula. It’s a very sexual Dracula. It’s a very promiscuous kind of guy,” he explained.

Actor Cassandra Gilbert added, “Honestly, this show, we push the envelope, which not a lot of shows do in community theater.”

For the cast, that community aspect is crucial to performing a piece like this.

“There’s a level of freedom to it. There’s a safeness to it. There’s an understanding that when you’re performing, you’re becoming a different person who’s not you,” Halperin said.

“It’s a less intimidating first step to take to say, I want to try this out. I want to try to express myself this way. And I want to do it in a place where I feel supported and there are lower stakes,” said Francis.

Pione added, “Everyone I know who finds out about this place is just surprised they never heard of it, wishes their own town had one.”

In the end, it’s all designed to show the audience a good time.

Cabral said, “It’s both what you love about Dracula and what you love about comedies all in one.”

“What I really hope that they’re talking about is how much fun they had,” said Francis. “I think that’s the overall goal.”

“Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” will be at the Taunton Performing Arts Center on Main Street from October 16 through the 19th.

Please note: 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.

Classic horror story gets hilarious revamp in “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” at Massachusetts theater

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Courtney Cole

Click here for updates on this story

    TAUNTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Laughter, not fear, is the goal of “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” and the community theater production at the Taunton Performing Arts Center aims to defy expectations.

The unexpected take on the classic horror tale arrives just in time for Halloween.

“This is not scary whatsoever. You may be horrified, but not for the reasons you think,” said actor Brendan Pione.

“It is lovingly based on Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula,'” explained actor Fred Halperin, “but it more aligns to campiness and a lot of innuendo and funny situations, funny scenarios.”

The gender-bending play is quick with the jokes.

“It goes in a completely different direction than the original, but still holds certain plot lines to it,” said director Natalie Cabral. “This Dracula is very different. It’s very sexy, very comical, very conceited sort of.”

Christopher Francis is having a blast playing the Count from Transylvania.

“It’s a very funny Dracula. It’s a very sexual Dracula. It’s a very promiscuous kind of guy,” he explained.

Actor Cassandra Gilbert added, “Honestly, this show, we push the envelope, which not a lot of shows do in community theater.”

For the cast, that community aspect is crucial to performing a piece like this.

“There’s a level of freedom to it. There’s a safeness to it. There’s an understanding that when you’re performing, you’re becoming a different person who’s not you,” Halperin said.

“It’s a less intimidating first step to take to say, I want to try this out. I want to try to express myself this way. And I want to do it in a place where I feel supported and there are lower stakes,” said Francis.

Pione added, “Everyone I know who finds out about this place is just surprised they never heard of it, wishes their own town had one.”

In the end, it’s all designed to show the audience a good time.

Cabral said, “It’s both what you love about Dracula and what you love about comedies all in one.”

“What I really hope that they’re talking about is how much fun they had,” said Francis. “I think that’s the overall goal.”

“Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” will be at the Taunton Performing Arts Center on Main Street from October 16 through the 19th.

Please note: 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.

Woman can finally take honeymoon after $1M lottery scratch-off win

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By WTVD Staff

Click here for updates on this story

    RALEIGH, North Carolina (WTVD) — Cheryl Bach of Holly Springs and her husband have been married for 31 years but have never taken a honeymoon.

That will change after Bach won $1 million prize on a scratch-off ticket.

“I’m going to take a vacation with my husband that will finally be our honeymoon,” she said. “I haven’t decided where yet.”

She bought a $10 Million Spectacular ticket from the Harris Teeter on Village Walk Drive in Holly Springs. She said she called her husband immediately to share the big news.

“He didn’t believe me,” Bach said. “I had to take a picture to show him.”

She said it took her some time to calm down.

“I had to put my glasses on to make sure I was seeing it right,” Bach said with a laugh. “I was shaking for the rest of the day.”

Bach went to lottery headquarters in Raleigh on Friday to claim her prize. Given the choice of an annuity of $50,000 for 20 years or a lump sum of $600,000, she chose the lump sum.

After required state and federal tax withholdings, she took home $430,514.

In addition to her honeymoon, she said she plans to pay some bills.

The $10 Million Spectacular game debuted in December 2023 with five top prizes of $10 million, 20 prizes of $1 million and 20 prizes of $100,000.

All the $10 million prizes have been claimed.

Please note: 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.

Family sues John Muir Medical Center after son seriously injured in a swimming accident

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Sarah McGrew

Click here for updates on this story

    LAFAYETTE, California (KCRA) — Sitting in the backyard of the home she shares with her husband and daughter, Ofelia Noroozi constantly feels the absence of the fourth member of their family: her son Amin Noroozi.

“Just those everyday little moments are just so cruel,” Ofelia Noroozi said. “It’s like we’re missing what could’ve been. The future.”

Amin Noroozi was a 17-year-old student and multisport athlete at Acalanes High School.

In April, he and his girlfriend, Audrey, and some of their other friends headed to Stinson Beach for the day. Ofelia Noroozi had told her son to be safe while driving on the winding roads leading into the beach community in Marin County.

Later in the day, Ofelia Noroozi’s phone lit up with Amin Noroozi’s name, but when she picked up, it was Audrey’s voice.

“It was Audrey saying that he had gotten into an accident and that he couldn’t feel his legs,” Ofelia Noroozi recalled. “They were waiting for the helicopter to land to airlift him somewhere.”

Amin Noroozi and Audrey had been out in the water, diving through the waves. After going through a wave, Audrey looked behind her to find Amin Noroozi floating face down. When she reached him to flip him over, Amin Noroozi told her he could not feel his legs.

He was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek. The same hospital where he was born. His neck was broken, and the doctor told the family that Amin Noroozi was paralyzed from the chest down. He needed emergency surgery.

Before going into the operating room, Ofelia Noroozi told her son that she would go to the ends of the Earth to make sure he was OK.

Ofelia Noroozi said one of the last things her son told her before heading back to surgery was, “These legs may not work anymore, but these lips are always going to kiss you.”

The surgery was a success. His parents and younger sister said that, at one point, he wiggled a finger and indicated he could feel a touch on his leg. But in the days after surgery, his condition became increasingly critical.

“You think they would do everything possible for your son,” Amin’s father, Payman Noroozi, said. “There was no point where we were thinking of him dying.”

His parents said his temperature hit 109 degrees, and his heart rate plummeted. Four days after he was admitted to the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest and died.

A lawsuit the family filed on Oct. 9 alleges that “despite the successful surgery, the critical post-surgical care was deficient, disorganized, unsupervised, and spun out of control, directly and unnecessarily causing Amin Noroozi’s suffering and death.”

With tears threatening to spill over, Payman Noroozi said, “I feel like if they couldn’t have done it, they should have told us so we could take him somewhere else. That’s where I feel like failed [Amin].”

The family says Amin Noroozi should have been transferred to a Level 1 pediatric trauma center. John Muir is a Level 2.

In a statement obtained by our colleagues at the San Francisco Chronicle, John Muir declined to comment on the specifics, given the pending litigation and patient privacy policies.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of Mr. Noroozi,” the hospital said in a statement. “We stand behind the professionalism and dedication of our physicians, nurses, and staff, and we remain focused on patient safety, quality, and continuous improvement.”

The Noroozis know they cannot bring their son back, but they want to prevent something similar from happening to another family.

“No seeing him coming back from school every day — it was going to be his senior year,” Ofelia Noroozi said. “It doesn’t get better. It doesn’t. You just kind of have to keep going.”

Please note: 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.

Sacramento Zoo celebrates its first okapi birth, welcoming a male calf

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Lindsay Weber

Click here for updates on this story

    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — It’s a boy! The Sacramento Zoo announced on Monday that its okapi Kivuli gave birth to a healthy male calf last week.

The zoo said the Oct. 9 birth was the first okapi birth in the Sacramento Zoo’s history. The birth was also partially visible to guests in the side yard of the okapi habitat.

Officials said Kivuli and the calf are both healthy, but the animal care team and veterinary staff will monitor them closely over the next few weeks. The focus of care will be on bonding, nursing and growth monitoring.

Zoo officials said that within the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, there are fewer than 100 okapi across 27 institutions, making the birth a key contribution to conservation.

In the wild, officials said okapi are endangered, with their population estimated between 10,000 and 15,000. Their primary habitat is the dense forests of central Africa.

The Sacramento Zoo said the mother and calf will not be on exhibit while the calf reaches critical milestones in its growth.

Please note: 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.

County of Monterey expands indigenous interpreter services

CNN Newsource on October 14, 2025

By Jacquelyn Quinones

Click here for updates on this story

    SALINAS, California (KSBW) — The County of Monterey is enhancing health care access for indigenous communities by training interpreters and expanding services in local hospitals, with Natividad Hospital leading the initiative.

For years, the county health department and Natividad Hospital have partnered to train indigenous language interpreters to ensure patients can communicate clearly and receive better care.

Natividad Hospital is one of the first hospitals to provide interpreter services for the indigenous population, and as of today, the hospital has about 20 indigenous interpreters and is actively seeking more.

Monterey County is home to a large Hispanic and indigenous population, and that diversity is driving a push for more indigenous language interpreters, especially in local hospitals.

“They are different communities that identify with certain language groups, and for more than a decade we’ve realized that there weren’t suitable services for language access,” said Victor Sosa, the Interpreter Services Manager at Natvidad Medical Center. “Generally, some of the community would interpret for their parents, and that just wasn’t appropriate and didn’t really give families access to health care.”

Staff at Natividad Hospital decided to take action by creating a pipeline to train and certify interpreters from indigenous communities.

In 2017, Sosa co-authored the indigenous interpreter textbook, a first-of-its-kind resource.

“In using that, we’ve trained over 200 interpreters that identify belonging to indigenous communities, and some work here in the hospitals and others work throughout Monterey County,” said Sosa.

Natividad Hospital was also recognized for its OB-GYN department, which has improved the birthing experience for both Latina and indigenous mothers.

“They went out to the communities, provided more research and training so that when moms got appropriate prenatal care, they came to the hospital and had a better birthing experience,” said Sosa.

The county’s health department has also partnered with Natividad and other groups to expand interpretation services into mental health programs.

“Many of our indigenous women in South Monterey County, specifically Soledad, Greenfield, and King City, may not be comfortable accessing mental health services,” said Elsa Jimenez County of Monterey Director of Health Services. “So we’ve partnered with CBDIO out of Greenfield to develop a community-based program.”

The health department is partnering with Natividad and, pending board approval, plans to hire a full-time indigenous interpreter who would be based at the Alisal Health Center.

Please note: 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.