Category: CNN Regional

By Christine Sloan

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    NEW JERSEY (WCBS) — A New Jersey pilot and his co-pilot have been jailed in a West African country for almost six weeks after landing there to refuel.

CBS News New York’s Christine Sloan spoke to both men on the phone on Monday.

Ewing resident Fabio Espinal Nunez has years of experience as a pilot, but the 33-year-old said nothing could prepare him for the terrifying ordeal when members of the Republic of Guinea military forced their way onto the plane he and co-pilot Brad Schlenker had landed in order to refuel.

“There were around 100 Army people and they were pointing AK-47s at us and talking in French, which we do not know,” Nunez said.

“More like screaming in French,” Schlenker added.

Speaking from the prison they are being held at, Nunez and Schlenker described what sounds like a scene out of a movie.

“Around four to five heavily armored vehicles pointing guns at us and saying that we need to go to the ground, we need to go to the ground,” Nunez said.

Nunez was flying a Brazilian family from Suriname to Dubai on a private plane. The flight log given to CBS News New York shows they had clearance to land, but the government still charged them with violating Guinean airspace.

“We’ve got the transcripts of the radio transmissions, all clearly revealing the fact that we were innocent and ambushed,” Schlenker said.

“The military is taking over the government there, and for whatever reason the civil government is allowing their release and the military is not,” said Lauren Stevenson, Espinal’s fiancé.

Stevenson said three judges from the civil government have cleared the men, who are scheduled to be in court in the coming weeks, but the hope is the U.S. government will get them out before then. She said she is asking the Trump administration to step in because the embassy in the Republic of Guinea isn’t doing much.

“We’re begging for their release. I mean, this has been over a month. We’re scared,” Stevenson said.

“Mr. Trump, can you please come down here and get us out of here?” Schlenker said.

CBS News New York reached out to the State Department, but did not immediately get a response. Congresswoman Bonne Watson Coleman’s office said it is looking into the pilots’ plight, but Nunez said he’s losing hope.

“Hopeless and helpless, too,” Nunez said.

“It has been terrible here,” Schlenker said.

CBS News New York also reached out to the Republic of Guinea’s mission in New York. Representatives said they’d get back to us soon.

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 Hannah Kliger

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — When Lady Gaga strutted onto the Super Bowl halftime stage alongside Bad Bunny in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, a New York City designer and his friends were back home cheering at the television.

Raul López, the Brooklyn-based creative director behind fashion label LUAR, designed Gaga’s salsa-inspired dress for the big game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, marking a career milestone rooted in his Caribbean heritage.

“It was an iconic, historic moment just to be part of and to represent the Caribbean. And being Latino and an immigrant was really amazing,” López said.

López said Gaga’s team initially reached out for a secret, salsa-inspired project.

“We actually didn’t know it was for the Super Bowl, which is funny. But they came up, they hit me up, and they were like, hey, Gaga is doing a salsa number and we would love for you to make a dress,” he said.

Born and raised in the Los Sures section of Williamsburg to parents from the Dominican Republic, López said his upbringing continues to shape his work and creative voice.

“It was an amazing time, even though I was not for the faint of heart. It was a different time, but it was a beautiful urban dystopia,” he said.

Gaga’s Super Bowl performance gave López the opportunity to explore a softer, more playful aesthetic than he is often known for.

“This was like an amazing way to, like, show that side of me that is kind of vulnerable. And I think maybe I’ve shunned away so long because I had to make it more tough because that’s how I grew up,” López said.

The halftime show included multiple nods to Brooklyn’s Latino community.

Bad Bunny also featured Toñita, owner of the Caribbean Social Club and a Puerto Rican icon in Williamsburg, often referred to as the neighborhood’s last Latino social club.

“Amazing. It was amazing. We had a great time here looking at her at the Super Bowl. It was an epic experience,” said Jorge Espada, who works at the club.

For López, seeing Toñita on the national stage alongside his own work underscored the generational legacy of Williamsburg’s Hispanic community.

“She’s like a Williamsburg icon. For me, it was like, wow, like, this is so cool to see the different generations like her before me,” he said.

The performance broadcast to millions became a celebration of pride, resilience and representation.

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 Jennifer McLogan

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    NEW YORK (WCBS) — Adelphi University student Orion Newby was celebrating on Monday after a court found that he did not use artificial intelligence to cheat on a paper.

Newby was able to prove it was all his work, assisted by school tutors.

When his parents, Candace and Hunter Newby, learned a second alleged offense against their son could mean expulsion, they hired a lawyer, and, four months after CBS News New York first reported on the controversial case, they won. A state Supreme Court judge reversed disciplinary measures against Orion and ruled the school must expunge his record.

“A group made a decision arbitrarily and unilaterally about the use of a new technology that no one quite fully understands,” Hunter Newby said.

An Adelphi professor used an app meant to call out AI-generated writing. Although Orion Newby explained he got help from tutors with Adelphi’s Bridges program, who assist students like him who have learning and neurological disorders, his professor reviewed his paper and Orion received a zero. The work was deemed fraudulent.

“I felt shocked. I felt like that was it. I felt like my life was over,” Newby said Monday. “I didn’t want to be known as a plagiarist.

“I don’t think it was fair. I don’t think it was reasonable,” he added.

“Unfortunately, it required us to go to a court for him to be heard,” said Candace Newby, Orion’s mother.

Some educators told CBS News New York AI-detection tools are not reliable enough, especially if students like Orion could face serious consequences based on their findings.

“Higher education needs to take a very careful look at this and we think the court’s opinion in the Newby case is really groundbreaking,” former U.S. attorney Mark Lesko said, referring to students getting due process.

Adelphi said in a statement, in part, “We are evaluating the court’s decision and will proceed accordingly.”

Meanwhile, Orion Newby is back on campus, he says, with a weight lifted from his shoulders.

“Now I’m a happy boy again,” he 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 Steven Yablonski

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    PLANTATION, Florida (WFOR) — A Tennessee rapper with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media was arrested after a SWAT standoff in Plantation Monday overnight, and he livestreamed the dramatic situation before he was taken into custody.

According to Plantation police, the situation began to unfold in the 8600 block of Gatehouse Road late Monday night.

Richard Maurice Colbert, better known by his stage name iHeartMemphis or iLoveMemphis, has over 700,000 followers on Instagram.

A family member told CBS News Miami that they’ve been trying to get Colbert help for days. And before the barricaded standoff that he livestreamed, he posted on social media leading up to the incident and showing when welfare officers went to check on him.

Colbert allegedly told the officers that he was God, with another video showing clouds in the sky and him saying that they were spying on him.

Video from the scene showed a garage door and car on its side, as well as glass on the ground after a window was shattered.

“Please, please save me y’all,” Colbert is heard saying in the livestream. “I’m begging you. I don’t got nothing. I don’t want to hurt nobody, y’all.”

At one point 20,000 people were watching Colbert’s livestream as he barricaded himself inside the home. Colbert rose to fame with his hit song “Hit the Quan” in 2015.

During the video he’s heard telling people he didn’t want to die, and in another part of the video he’s heard speaking with a dog.

Toward the end of the livestream he’s seen crouching in the garage and you can see the moment SWAT member move in to arrest him just after 3 a.m.

Plantation police said no injuries were reported, but the Colbert was taken to the hospital for evaluation.

Police said he was taken into custody for an active warrant for “written or electronic threats to kill.”

The dog that was inside the home was safely removed and released to a family member.

No other information was released.

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 Brian Sherrod

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — A new law expands how black history is taught at public schools across the state. Colorado’s HB25-1149 law requires K-12 public schools to integrate comprehensive Black history and cultural studies into their curriculum by 2028.

That law was signed in June 2025. The law establishes a 17-member committee to develop standards focusing on Black contributions and experiences. It also creates a free, bilingual resource bank for educators.

Director of Black Student Success at Denver Public Schools, Michael Atkins, is just one of several people who fought for this law. Atkins has been a part of the area since he was four years old. Atkins says this new law is essential. Black history cannot only be taught during February, which is the month recognized as Black History Month.

“We know our story is not just confined to just 28 days,” Atkins said. “This bill will allow the opportunity for us to embrace the black experience, 365 days a year.”

Atkins says all students and staff will learn about Black history and its contributions. Atkins says history cannot only be focused on slavery.

“African Americans have really contributed to our current state of living,” Atkins said. “That needs to be heard, taught, and observed to our most precious asset, which is our babies. This bill not only benefits our Black students. This bill benefits all students.”

Fourth-grader Zora Jackson in Denver Public Schools also worked to enact the law. Jackson attended meetings and spoke on the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings and how they changed the world and her own life.

“I work every day to help my community become better and become a better person,” Jackson said. “I also want to help people rise up against hatred.”

Jackson said she is still surprised when she learned about what happened to Black people in the past.

“The fact that people were being treated differently based on skin color,” Jackson said.

Atkins and Jackson say that when all students learn about Black history and their contributions, it improves understanding. If you do not learn, you cannot change.

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 Donald Fountain

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — Before you toss out your old music gear, you might want to send it to Coco Hankerson.

Hankerson is a music repair technician in the metro Atlanta area. However, she prefers to go by Coco the Geek, the name of her music repair business.

“I came up with the name Coco the Geek because I’m a geek of electronics,” said Hankerson. “Why not go ahead and choose a name that represents what I am, a geek, I’m a nerd?”

Hankerson specializes in repairing a mixture of old and new music gear. She says the work is not easy.

“That’s why you call me in. I’m the specialist. Y’all make the beats, and I be the geek,” Hankerson said.

She started her business in 2020 as a recycling company, then she switched to music repairs in 2024. Now Hankerson receives requests to fix gear across the country.

“It’s a lot of work. It may not look like it, but it’s a lot of technical work. You gotta learn how to read schematics, you gotta know what you’re doing because you can’t get hurt if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Hankerson said.

When Hankerson is in her repair shop, she sometimes gives the equipment she’s working on a name.

“I just call them my babies, come on baby let me go ahead and get you right,” said Hankerson.

Despite some of the technology being old, Hankerson says she still sees the value of getting the equipment back up and running.

“Why would you not want to do that? So to be able to contribute to him getting back to doing whatever it is he do or needs to get done with this, it feels good,” said Hankerson. “Because if not, it’ll be sitting where it was sitting, collecting dust. Those memories will be fading away.”

Hankerson recalled moments when, as a six-year-old, she was frustrated with why her Sony Walkman stopped working. She said those moments motivated her to be where she is now.

“If I can go back and tell 6-year-old me, ‘You have no idea, you are about to be one of the world’s greatest techs,’ I be jumping all over that bed, man,” said Hankerson.

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 Dan Raby

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    ATLANTA (WUPA) — The family of a Georgia Army veteran is now fighting to bring him back to the U.S. after he was deported to Jamaica, despite having an active appeal.

Godfrey Wade had lived in the U.S. for more than 50 years before he was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. He remained in custody for nearly five months before his deportation.

His family and attorneys are trying to reopen Wade’s case, holding out hope that his case can be fully heard.

Wade came to the U.S. lawfully in 1975 as a teenager. He enlisted in the Army and served overseas.

That was his foundation, and he took pride in it and made us believe in the U.S. Army,” said his daughter, Emmanuela Wade.

After Wade was honorably discharged, he worked as a chef, tennis coach, and fashion designer.

His family says Wade’s life changed in September 2025, when he was pulled over for failing to use a turn signal in Conyers and arrested for driving without a license. Following that arrest, ICE detained him due to a 2014 removal order stemming from a 2007 bounced check and a 2006 simple assault charge. Wade’s attorney said that the assault charge involved no physical violence and that his client had paid the bounced check and related fines.

ICE cited a removal order from over a decade ago after officials said Wade did not show up for a hearing in 2014. Court records show hearing notices sent to an address used by ICE were returned as undeliverable. Wade’s attorney says the Covington man was unaware of the removal order until his arrest.

Loved ones have called Wade’s detainment “an emotional roller coaster” that has left him absent from the lives of his six children and three grandchildren.

“We’ve built an amazing life together, and to be separated from that is very challenging, especially since he did not have an opportunity to have his voice heard,” Wade’s fiancée, April Watkins, told CBS News Atlanta.

Georgia U.S. Rep. David Scott said his office formally requested last week that the Department of Homeland Security halt Wade’s deportation until he could have the case heard in court.

“Nonetheless, DHS deported Mr. Wade to Jamaica and did not notify my office until four days later,” Scott said in a statement. “Mr. Wade served this country honorably and was entitled to due process. His deportation is a continuation of the Trump Administration’s punitive and cruel immigration tactics, and I will continue pressing DHS for accountability.”

Speaking to CNN from Jamaica over the weekend, Wade said that he wants a chance to be heard.

“We are trusting in the justice system of my beloved country, the United States of America, that I loved so much and served,” he said.

Wade’s attorney says an emergency stay of the removal was denied, but an appeal remains pending.

CBS News Atlanta reached out to ICE for comment on Wade’s deportation and will update this story if they choose to respond.

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 KRIS staff

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    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (KRIS) — Jose Lopez lost everything when his house burned down, but he held onto hope even while walking through ash, soot and dirt.

“All this happens for a reason and I know God wants me to think big,” Lopez said.

The owner of Chico’s Candy Apples saw his home and business destroyed in a fire months ago. Neighbors, including Westside business Candy Andy, helped push his story out so customers could find him again.

Now Lopez says his Facebook is still flooded with neighbors asking where he’ll pop up next.

While he’s not back in the home he owns, Lopez has sold enough candy apples to move his family into a new apartment. He reminds his wife to stay focused on small goals.

“Don’t think about all the money we need to fix the house. Just think about one apple at a time, you know,” Lopez said.

No longer having to borrow someone else’s kitchen has made a significant difference.

“Way better. Now we can do our apples from here, and eventually we’re gonna get back to our home,” Lopez said.

Lopez says health issues made the last few months even harder, but he found strength in his faith.

“All the stress and the anxiety… I gave it to God. I said, God help me out,” Lopez said.

Most of his support has come through social media, with customers telling him they found him online.

“That’s how they go. They go because, ‘I saw you on Facebook, I saw you on Facebook,'” Lopez said.

At his table, customer Delma Garza drove from Kingsville after seeing one of those posts.

“It’s always good to be friendly to people… to help out wherever you can,” Garza said.

Lopez is looking forward to one thing most of all.

“Going back to my home. It’s going to be a great… great feeling,” Lopez said.

Since starting over, sales have already doubled from around 60 apples a day to now more than 120.

Lopez says his faith in God keeps him moving forward even on the hardest days. As he works to rebuild his home and business, every candy apple sold is one step closer to his goal.

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

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 Franchi

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    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSTU) — As the Olympic Games unfold in Milan and Cortina, Italy, the slopes of Cortina are once again hosting Olympic alpine skiing. But this isn’t the first time these Italian mountains have welcomed the world’s best skiers.

For 90-year-old Marvin Melville, a Utah native and two-time Olympian, watching the games return to Cortina brings back vivid memories from seven decades ago when he competed there as a 20-year-old in 1956.

“The parade, being a part of the team and representing the United States, there’s nothing quite like that,” Melville said.

The 1956 Olympics were the seventh iteration of the Winter Games, featuring only 32 countries compared to the 93 expected to compete this year. Melville’s experience represents a simpler era of Olympic competition, captured in his family’s home movies that transport viewers back 70 years.

His memories of skiing the treacherous Olympic downhill course in Cortina remain as vivid as those classic home movie reels. “I got halfway down the mountain and crashed and broke my skis and couldn’t finish,” Melville said. “But there were probably 80 competitors, maybe more, and there was only about 20 that got to the finish line.”

The Olympics provided Melville with unexpected moments of human connection that transcended Cold War tensions. While watching a U.S.-Russia hockey game, he stood next to a Russian cross-country skier. “The Russians scored a goal, and she took her fist and slammed me in the shoulder. All of a sudden I had a strong, warm affiliation with the Russians, which previously, you know, I thought they were the enemy,” Melville said.

Four years later, Melville competed again at the 1960 Olympics in California at what is now known as Palisades Tahoe, where he finished in 22nd place. “It makes you very patriotic. And I was also served in the military for two years. So yeah, I feel like I’m a patriotic citizen,” Melville said.

Melville has donated his Olympic mementos to the Alf Engen Ski Museum, though he borrowed them back to share his story. His official team jacket still fits after all these years. “Having this on your ski uniform was a big deal,” Melville said, referring to the Olympic patches.

Now battling polycythemia vera, a form of blood cancer, Melville reflects on his life on the slopes and the family he raised in Utah. He has five daughters, 29 grandchildren, and 56 great-grandchildren.

Surprisingly, skiing wasn’t always his passion. “No, no, I did not think that. I didn’t even like it the first few times we went up to Alta,” Melville said when asked if he always planned to be a skier.

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

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.