Category: CNN Regional

By Caitlyn Scott

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    LAS VEGAS (KCRA) — Actor and singer Donnie Wahlberg shared a video on social media over the weekend, saying he was on board a plane that skidded off the runway at Las Vegas’ main airport.

In an Instagram video posted hours after the incident, the “Boston Blue” star said he was aboard an aircraft at Harry Reid International Airport when it overshot the runway as the plane attempted to take off.

“We were taking off and didn’t get up in the air and ran out of runway. I’m just going to tell you these pilots saved our lives. And God covered us,” Wahlberg, 57, said.

He said the aircraft went off the runway and into a fence. The actor said the plane was able to avoid “heavy” airport equipment and vehicles.

“Thankful to God, of course, and to our incredible pilots who did an amazing job of keeping us safe and avoiding a serious disaster,” he said in the post’s caption. “The airplane did take some lumps — but we did not. Thank you to all the emergency personnel on the ground in Las Vegas! You all were absolutely wonderful. All glory to God! By His grace, we are all ok.”

People Magazine, in reference to the Federal Aviation Administration, said Wahlberg was on a Dassault Falcon 50 bound for Toronto Pearson Airport in Canada. Eight people were aboard the plane when the pilot aborted the takeoff and the plane went off the runway.

Harry Reid International Airport said no known injuries were reported and that some travelers may have experienced delays.

A ground stop was put in place at the airport at 12:50 p.m., but it was lifted by 2:30 p.m.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By John Rupolo

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that New Mexico should change its name to “New America,” sparking reactions from political candidates.

“New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America. We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added, “The name would add great value and prestige to the state. Home values and incomes would rise.”

New Mexico is the site of several contested races in November’s midterm elections. Republican candidates across the state were asked for their thoughts on Trump’s proposal.

Gregg Hull, a gubernatorial candidate running against Deb Haaland, said, “I’ve been in New Mexican and part of this culture and history for the last 40 years. My children are New Mexican and my grandchildren in New Mexican. New Mexico does not need a new name.”

Didi Okpareke, running against incumbent U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury in the First Congressional District, was asked if President Trump’s comments could hurt Republicans in contested races.

“I really think that we are we’re going to win depending on what we’re truly doing this for. So I can speak for myself. I’m doing this because I think that it’s time that we have amazing representation,” Okpareke said.

Larry Marker, a candidate running against Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Luján in the U.S. Senate race, also weighed in on the proposal.

“Legislatively just isn’t going to happen and really isn’t even an issue to the voters of New Mexico. Instead of a new name, we need new representation in New Mexico,” Marker said.

President Trump has previously signed executive orders to rename geographic features, including changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in August and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America last year.

When asked whether a president has the authority to rename a state, KOAT political expert Brian Sanderoff said, “Renaming federal territories or geographic features like lakes, that is in the president’s prerogative, but renaming states is not.”

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 Daniel Espinoza

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    SANDOVAL COUNTY, New Mexico (KOAT) — Last Friday, fentanyl and methamphetamine were discovered in election mail at Sandoval County’s election warehouse, prompting an emergency response and raising questions about worker safety.

Two K-9 units alerted officials to potentially dangerous substances in the mail, and initial testing confirmed the presence of fentanyl and methamphetamine. County Chief Deputy Clerk Joey Dominguez said their emergency preparations were effective.

“The team just executed it phenomenally,” Dominguez said.

No workers were harmed, but Dominguez estimated that about 200 ballots were affected, though the exact number has not been confirmed. The ballots remain secured as officials await clearance to handle them safely.

“We want to count every single individual’s ballot. And as soon as we get the confirmation it’s safe to do so, we plan to do that,” Dominguez said.

The incident tested Sandoval County’s emergency response plan. Meanwhile, Bernalillo County election officials emphasized their own safeguards for handling similar threats.

Inside Bernalillo County’s election warehouse, workers are processing thousands of absentee ballots. Bureau of Elections Administrator Nathan Jaramillo explained that the county uses technology to screen incoming mail for illicit substances before workers handle it.

“We have technology in place, sensors that will identify or detect any sort of illicit substance. So that’s always a safeguard in place,” Jaramillo said.

If the sensors detect something suspicious, the county has procedures to respond.

“We have great relationships with a lot of our local emergency responders and reporting. So if something were to be identified, we can quickly have them dispatched and quarantine those particular ballots to be handled properly from there,” Jaramillo said.

Jaramillo added that the county also prepares for physical threats, cyberattacks, and suspicious election mail. Workers are trained in safe mail-handling procedures and use protective equipment.

Despite the incident in Sandoval County, Jaramillo said Bernalillo County will continue following its existing security protocols as more ballots arrive ahead of Election Day.

“At the end of the day, the integrity of ballots is secured. The integrity of the election is secured,” Jaramillo 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 Ricardo Tovar

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    MOSS LANDING, California (KSBW) — Sea lions are gathering near Moss Landing harbor on the east side of Sandholt Road, ignoring barriers and cones set up to protect them from traffic.

Footage from today shows the sea lions hopping on top of the barriers and basking in the sun.

A tourist from Idaho, Jim Rice, visiting the area said he came specifically to see the sea lions up close.

“Yeah, we’re staying down by Santa Cruz, and we saw on the news where they were out here, and so we came down today,” Rice said. “Yes, they are, it’s like they’re gonna be there no matter what, so I guess we just need to leave them alone and let them be there instead of trying to herd them where we want them to go because that’s definitely not working. I see they put those barriers up to try to keep them off the road, and that didn’t work.”

The California Highway Patrol has herded the sea lions away from the road in the past, but they often return shortly after. Officials advise the public to avoid approaching the sea lions and to give them their space.

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 Anna FitzGerald Guth

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    MILL VALLEY, California (KSBW) — Mill Valley resident Catherine Breed has finished her roughly 900-mile swim of California’s entire coast. To achieve this unprecedented feat, the 33-year-old swam through open water for about five to eight hours per day — and faced an unexpected foe.

Since starting at the Oregon border in July, Breed experienced this year’s historic El Niño changing the Pacific Ocean in real time. She shared what she witnessed and how El Niño complicated her team’s journey with SFGATE on Saturday afternoon, two days before her ceremonial finish.

In this conversation, Breed voiced concern about a surprising current, which seemingly flowed north as she attempted to travel south. Josh Willis, a senior research scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told SFGATE that El Niño has not changed the far offshore California Current, which flows north to south, but he had another theory. “Near shore, there is a small coastal jet that also goes from north to south most summers, driven really by the upwelling and the winds near shore,” Willis wrote via email. “But during an El Niño year, those upwelling winds tend to reverse and the coastal jet can stop or reverse as well. This is probably what Catherine was experiencing.”

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

SFGATE: What happened on your swim today?

Catherine Breed: I swam from Point Loma to Mission Bay, which was about 8 miles. When we were coming back into the San Diego harbor, there was so much trash — like more than I’ve seen the entire trip. There were a lot of plastic bags.

Breed: The Tijuana River is a global, national and California crisis. Essentially, raw sewage comes out of the river and spills into the ocean. The pollution zone is about 1.5 miles offshore, so I’ll be finishing around 3 miles offshore, crossing the border at sea. That’s why no one’s gonna see me finish. The strategy for avoiding the pollution crisis is to 1) avoid, and 2) I’ve started taking prophylactic antibiotics at the guidance of my medical team. Thank goodness it’s at the end.

SFGATE: How are you feeling so close to the end?

Breed: Physically and emotionally, I feel great. We had a really fun day in the ocean today. My body’s holding up great. I think, mentally, I am ready to be done. I’m ready to be home. I’m a little overwhelmed at some of the attention that’s going to come from the finish.

SFGATE: What should Californians know about your observations underwater?

Breed: I want to underscore how challenging this was during the super El Niño. I picked this year out in 2023, and I had no crystal ball saying it would be a super El Niño. It really forced us to work with Mother Nature every single day. It proved extremely challenging for the swim … My message to people would be to get involved in local ocean conservation to understand what’s happening in your backyard. I do believe that this year is an alarm for us.

SFGATE: What signs of El Niño did you notice?

Breed: We’ve definitely been feeling the warmer water. We started noticing that all the way up in San Francisco, where it was warmer than it typically has been in other years. The fact that there was so much activity, in the forms of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Pacific, was also very noticeable. We were in Hurricane Rachel, and we definitely got swell from the other storms. Having a lot of big swell from the west or the south made it difficult to anchor at times.

The other thing we’ve noticed is the shifting current. It seems to be going in the opposite direction than it typically does, but I need to do some research on that … The current plus the hurricanes and tropical storms meant that I had to reverse direction sometimes. Instead of all my sections swimming north to south, I did some segments where I swam south to north. That doubles our time in the ocean. It doubles transit time. It forces us to really think about our day in a very strategic way.

SFGATE: What kinds of marine life did you see?

Breed: We saw a lot of manta rays, which I thought was pretty unique. We saw them as far north as Malibu. They are a tropical species, so having them this far up north was interesting. We definitely saw tuna and marlin. We also saw many sea lions affected by domoic acid in Monterey.

And there were lots and lots and lots of whales — in the hundreds. I had a whale swim underneath me in Humboldt County, and then I had dolphins swim right near me in Mendocino. Bottlenose dolphins in Santa Barbara played with me for like 10 minutes, which was so amazing. Up around Morro Bay on the Central Coast, a baby humpback and a mother humpback swam within like 15 to 20 feet of me, and that was probably the coolest experience of my life.

We were seeing like 10 to 20 whales per day. And then, all of a sudden in the Santa Barbara area, we didn’t see any whales anymore. That could also be because it was warm.

SFGATE: And the shark sightings?!

Breed: They’re pretty uneventful. The crew is always looking out, and I’m swimming very close to the boat. If the crew sees a fin, they just tell me, “Cat, shark!” I hop out within about 5 seconds. If we see it again, we evaluate if we should get back in the water or just be done for the day. One day, we did make the call to be done. But most of the time, I resume my swim, and that’s it.

SFGATE: After this incredible accomplishment, what’s next for you?

Breed: I’m going to a wedding in Central America, so I’m gonna go enjoy a little vacation. And then I will really just focus on my next step in life professionally. I want to see how I can use this swim to share a story that inspires not only ocean conservation but also more people to go after big goals and push themselves.

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 Jacquelyn Quinones

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    GREENFIELD, California (KSBW) — The Greenfield Police Department is participating in a UC San Diego wellness program designed to support the mental and physical health of law enforcement officers.

“Our role in life and in our professional roles is very stressful. We see the worst in people, but we also see the best of people. But we carry that DNA, we know what’s cumulative, we know it adds up, we know there is a higher suicide rate for officers,” said Greenfield Police Chief Guillermo Mixer.

The program has provided the department with resources to create a dedicated wellness and weight room for officers and staff.

Mixer explained the goal of the initiative, saying, “Because we know that when our officers are well, mental and physically fit, they can better serve our communities.”

Officer Maria Martinez, who has worked for the Greenfield Police Department for five years, shared how prioritizing self-care has made a significant difference in her daily life.

“What I like to do to take care of myself mentally, physically is working out. I like to utilize the wellness room to decompress after traumatic incidents or just dealing with the public. It can be a lot,” Martinez said.

She added, “Using the massage chair, your body can decompress, we can go out to the public and better assist individuals.”

Martinez also noted that the department is giving officers one hour of wellness time during their shifts.

“It will help us just leave everything behind at work and not take it to our loved ones at home,” she said.

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By Ricardo Tovar

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    MARINA, California (KSBW) — Five great white sharks were spotted about 200 yards off the beach near Sanctuary Beach Resort in Marina on Tuesday morning, according to drone video shared by Evan Brodsky with Sanctuary Cruises.

Brodsky said the group included four juvenile sharks and one adult female estimated to be more than 14 feet long. The video was filmed around 10 a.m.

The sighting comes as a California State Parks shark advisory remains in effect for nearby Marina State Beach, and a great white shark was caught on camera breaching just off the shore at Marina State Beach over the weekend.

California State Parks independently confirmed the shark breach at Marina State Beach, noting that the timestamp on King’s video matched perfectly with a surf line video of the same event.

“Given where she was standing, and the timestamp on her video, which matched up perfectly with the timestamp on the surf line video, it’s very likely to be the same shark,” said Mike Dippel, Chief Ranger for California State Parks.

The advisory was issued after a great white shark breached near the beach over the weekend.

State Parks said fall is a common time for great white sharks to return to the Central Coast and advised people to use caution when swimming, surfing or otherwise recreating in the water.

“It is that time of the year. October, the fall months tend to be when white sharks do come back and migrate to the Central Coast. So just make sure you’re aware of that and using caution when surfing or swimming, recreating in the water around the Central Coast this time of year,” said Dippel.

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 Tim Fang

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — An elderly California couple has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in connection with the deadly shooting of their son-in-law, a New York Times executive, attorneys said.

According to the Alameda County Public Defender’s office, 77-year-old Shouyong Zhang and his wife, 77-year-old Shili Chen, entered their pleas on Monday. In addition to murder charges, Zhang and Chen were charged with personal use of a firearm causing death, and lying in wait, a special circumstance that carries the possibility of a life sentence without parole.

The pair are accused of fatally shooting 40-year-old Jonathan McKinsey in the parking lot of the Dublin Sports Grounds on the afternoon of Sept. 26. Dublin is located about 35 miles east of San Francisco.

McKinsey, who was head of engineering at New York Times Games, was pronounced dead at the scene. Chen and Zhang were arrested near the Dublin police station minutes later.

Dublin Police Services said Zhang admitted to shooting McKinsey, and that Chen has refused to talk after their arrest. A second gun was found during the search of the couple’s car, according to police.

The shooting followed years of documented family strife involving McKinsey, his wife – identified as Candice Jang, their three children, and his in-laws.

In Oct. 2025, McKinsey was charged with child endangerment involving their 2-year-old, and corporal injury involving their 6-year-old, following accusations from Jang. McKinsey pleaded not guilty to both charges.

Days later, Jang filed for a restraining order against McKinsey to keep him away from both her and the children, which was followed by McKinsey filing his own restraining order against Jang in December 2025. McKinsey also filed for divorce days later.

Court documents indicate that McKinsey alleged his in-laws had long abused him for being a transgender man and alleged that Jang had physically and emotionally harmed him and their children for years and allowed her parents to do the same. McKinsey also alleged that Zhang had punched him in the chest while he was recovering from a double mastectomy, and alleged that Chan struck her grandson after he wanted to wear his sister’s dresses, and called him derogatory names.

Police have not elaborated on the motive for the shooting and have not addressed the previous charges against McKinsey or subsequent court actions.

In a statement to CBS News Bay Area, the public defender’s office said Tuesday that they plan to ask a judge for Zhang’s release or to set bail, saying he had not been in trouble with the law previously, is physically frail and is showing signs of dementia.

“We are very concerned about his health and well-being if he remains in custody and are exploring all options to ensure he receives appropriate medical care and accommodations given his age,” the public defender’s office said. “We are also examining how these illnesses may have contributed to this tragedy.”

Jail records show both Zhang and Chen are scheduled to appear for a bail hearing on Nov. 4.

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.