Category: CNN Regional

By Charlie Lapastora

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    STOCKTON, California (KOVR) — With speeds up to 80 mph on a 30 mph speed limit residential street, Stockton residents are asking for help.

After seeing street racers speed by in front of his home on Saturday, Stockton resident Dan Richardson had enough. He’s used a speed gun to clock drivers going over the speed limit on a regular basis.

“Chaos 24/7,” Richardson said. “It’s a truck route through a residential neighborhood. That should never happen when you have an 80,000-pound truck rambling by on a bumpy street at 2 o’clock in the morning, shaking your house to where it wakes you up. It’s ridiculous.”

For more than four years, neighbors have rallied together to try to curb the speeding that takes place daily through their neighborhood on Pershing Avenue.

“The traffic averages, on a daily basis, 30,000 cars a day,” Richardson said. “That’s almost as much as some slower sections of I-5.”

“We jokingly call it the ‘Pershing Expressway’ because nobody treats it like a 30 mph zone,” Richardson added.

Richardson lives on Pershing Avenue and says the average speed is at least 45 mph. He said was given a speed gun by the mayor and has clocked traffic at 60 mph — and at one point, 80 mph.

“I’ve been hit,” Richardson said. “My wife’s been hit. And that right there (as car drives by), that’s an example of what goes on, on a regular basis.”

Julie Devincenzi has lived in Stockton since the 1980s and says this street’s gotten “worse and worse.” Her husband was also hit.

“He was just crossing at the light on Acacia Street, and a car went through the red and hit him,” she said.

Neighbors also have experienced some too-close-to-call moments with seims and cars whizzing by on Pershing, including just the other day.

“There was a pickup truck and luckily I heard it and it was the tree that saved me,” Zoran Jovanovic, Richardson’s neighbor on Pershing Avenue, said.

Devincenzi says she wants to see some sort of control to take care of the speeding.

“Narrowing of the street, whatever they have to do to stop this racing through here,” Devincenzi said.

Devincenzi doesn’t feel safe walking her granddaughter across the street to the park. Nor does Katya Evanhoe, who also lives near Pershing Avenue.

“I feel like this is collateral damage, Katya Evanhoe said. “It’s outrageous that young kids cannot safely cross over. Baby strollers, elders my age, we don’t cross over. Victory Park, Victory School is over here, the museum is over here, the swimming pool is over here.”

Evanhoe also noted that on Google Maps, the only route given for drivers if they want to access March Lane is through Pershing Avenue instead of the March Lane exit off of I-5, which adds to even more drivers zipping past their residential street.

The Stockton Police Department stated the importance of patrol in this area.

“Pershing Ave, near Victory Park, is a high focus area for speeders,” Stockton Police Officer David Scott said. “SPD officers and Motor Officers from our traffic section regularly spend time patrolling and conducting traffic enforcement, with radar devices for speeding in that area, and for all other kinds of moving traffic violations.”

Officer Scott also noted that there were 14 traffic fatalities this year to date compared to 26 at this same time last year.

Neighbors say a hawk light will be installed sometime later this month. Evanhoe says it’s due to a Safe Streets for All grant. Richardson noted their district councilmember, Mario Enríquez, has been listening to their concerns. A ceremony is in the works to commemorate the new hawk light installation later this month.

However, for Pershing Avenue neighbors, they are rallying together — asking for even more help — to curb the everyday speeding, the street racing, and the danger that hits too close to home for them.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate partner and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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.

By Julia Falcon

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra’s home caught fire early Thursday morning in South Miami-Dade, prompting a massive response from first responders near Coral Gables.

Records obtained by CBS News Miami confirm the property belongs to Spoelstra, who was seen outside the home as firefighters battled the blaze.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the call came in around 4:30 a.m. at the home on the 4800 block of SW 80th Street. Firefighters were still seen battling hot spots around 8:30 a.m.

When firefighters got to the scene, there were two structures on the property “fully involved” by the flames, MDFR said. The call was then upgraded to a second alarm for more manpower. MDFR said 20 units responded to the fire due to its size. The privacy wall and tall trees surrounding the home also made it difficult to get to the fire, MDFR said, with only one point of entry.

MDFR said that due to a partial collapse, firefighters switched to a defensive attack and continued to extinguish the flames.

No injuries have been reported, MDFR said.

CBS News Miami has reached out to the Miami Heat for comment. The Heat played a game against the Denver Nuggets last night in Denver.

Spoelstra, who has been with the Miami Heat organization since 1995 and has served as head coach since 2008, has led the team to multiple NBA Finals appearances and two championships.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate partner and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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.

WFOR

By Julia Falcon

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    MIAMI (WFOR) — Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra’s home caught fire early Thursday morning in South Miami-Dade, prompting a massive response from first responders near Coral Gables.

Records obtained by CBS News Miami confirm the property belongs to Spoelstra, who was seen outside the home as firefighters battled the blaze.

According to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the call came in around 4:30 a.m. at the home on the 4800 block of SW 80th Street. Firefighters were still seen battling hot spots around 8:30 a.m.

When firefighters got to the scene, there were two structures on the property “fully involved” by the flames, MDFR said. The call was then upgraded to a second alarm for more manpower. MDFR said 20 units responded to the fire due to its size. The privacy wall and tall trees surrounding the home also made it difficult to get to the fire, MDFR said, with only one point of entry.

MDFR said that due to a partial collapse, firefighters switched to a defensive attack and continued to extinguish the flames.

No injuries have been reported, MDFR said.

CBS News Miami has reached out to the Miami Heat for comment. The Heat played a game against the Denver Nuggets last night in Denver.

Spoelstra, who has been with the Miami Heat organization since 1995 and has served as head coach since 2008, has led the team to multiple NBA Finals appearances and two championships.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate partner and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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.

By Juliet Lemar

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    SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, California (KSBY) — For Michael McGee, every tattoo tells a story — death in his family, his children, his last time in prison. But after losing his 7-year-old daughter, McGee faced a choice that would change everything.

“I literally kind of had a dream of like, what am I here for? It just can’t be for drugs, violence, gangs, the street life. It has to be something bigger,” McGee said.

Now McGee runs Hustlin Ink, a mobile tattoo shop that mixes ink with conversation, offering people a chance to be heard while they get new artwork.

“You can come in here, sit down, get a tattoo, unwind, talk,” McGee said.

One of his recent clients was 18-year-old Isaac Lara, who joined a gang in Lompoc when he was just 12 years old.

“It’s not really too many options out there for you, you know. You got to pick a side or work a 9-to-5 job,” Lara said.

Lara has been shot four times, but he recently stopped by Hustlin Ink to honor a friend and start a new chapter in his life.

“My friend Monty, he was one of my best friends. He was shot in Santa Maria at a truck meet, and it sucked losing him. That was one of my closest friends,” Lara said. “That was really like [the] point in my life where I was just like [I] knew I need to stop.”

For Lara, McGee’s shop provides something he doesn’t get elsewhere — someone to listen.

“I don’t really have no one to talk to, and it’s good to talk to someone sometimes,” Lara said.

McGee understands the struggle of trying to move beyond a troubled past.

“Everyone wants to look at you as the old chapter, the old book, the old who you was, and they don’t want to allow you to be a new person,” McGee said.

One conversation at a time, McGee is working to break the prison-and-gang cycle, offering a different path where people have a chance to be heard.

Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness spokesperson Suzanne Grimmesey supports this approach to creating change.

“Any way that you have the conversation, that’s what moves us forward, and that’s what takes away the stigma that keeps people from getting the help they may need and deserve,” Grimmesey said.

Through ink and empathy, McGee helps people rewrite their stories, one tattoo at a time.

“Change is possible. It is. It’s not always easy, but it is possible,” McGee said.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate partner and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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.

By Chris Davis

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    MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (WTVF) — It’s an intimidating walk into the Rutherford County Courthouse, especially when you have to meet one-on-one with a judge. Thankfully, this was a meeting Taylor, a 17 year old child who’s been in Tennessee’s foster care system for years, has wanted for years.

“This is what you want to do?” asked Judge Darrell Scarlett, a Circuit Court Judge in Rutherford County.

“Yes,” Taylor replied. “I give my full consent.”

Taylor first met her future adoptive parents, Matt and Karis Leckron, two years ago. The Leckrons had independently prayed about becoming foster parents, not knowing the other was feeling the same divine pull. Two years ago, they were asked to take in a 15-year-old girl for the weekend. That girl was Taylor, and before the weekend ended, they knew they wanted her to stay permanently.

“I watched her and my wife interact with each other, and I knew that’s what I wanted forever,” Matt Leckron said.

Karis Leckron said the decision to adopt was clear from the start. “It wasn’t even a doubt in my mind that the next step was to adopt her when the opportunity came,” she said.

The transition wasn’t without challenges. “So our very first experience parenting was with a teenager — so we got baptized by fire for sure,” Karis Leckron said.

“Sometimes we would sit and have long talks even at night when they were both snoring, almost falling asleep,” Taylor added.

Tuesday, the Leckrons officially went from being Taylor’s foster parents, to becoming the real thing. Judge Scarlett praised both the family and Taylor during the hearing. “You’re getting a wonderful, wonderful child. And from what I hear from her, she’s getting wonderful wonderful parents too,” Scarlett said before approving the adoption.

The courtroom erupted in applause as the adoption became official. “I love you,” Matt told his daughter. “I love you too,” Taylor replied.

Joyanna Wever, Taylor’s teacher at Holloway High School in Murfreesboro, helped coordinate the attendance of Taylor’s friends and fellow classmates. “They all wanted to be here and be like — we’re there for you and we’ve got your back,” Wever said.

Taylor was moved by the support from her friends. “It means the world to me honestly because they showed up to support me and my family,” she said.

Now officially part of the Leckron family, Taylor is considering her future career options, including possibly writing a book about her life experiences. “I also want to advocate for kids, maybe social working,” she said.

Taylor, who is formally taking the last name Leckron, knows whatever she pursues, she’ll be supported by two loving parents every step of the way. “It’s going to be etched in our memory forever — this day,” her father said.

“It’s just such an answered prayer,” her mother added.

“Now I have a forever family, and that means a lot to me,” Taylor told us.

November is National Adoption Month, highlighting the need for families willing to adopt older teenagers in foster care, who often face longer waits for permanent homes.

This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate partner and does not contain original CNN reporting.

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.