Category: CNN Regional

By Matteo Iadonisi

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    OCEAN CITY, New Jersey (WPVI) — Affectionately known as Ocean City’s ‘Number One Beach Bum,’ 90-year-old Earl Paul has counted more than 10,000 visits to the beach.

Paul and his wife, Catherine, had moved to Ocean City in the 1990s following his four-decade career as a pipe fitter. Unfortunately, Catherine passed away just a couple years later.

Paul visited the beach to find healing. After some time, he became determined to visit each and every day possible.

Nearly three decades later, Paul has counted more than 10,000 days on the beach. He says it’s easy to make the trip, only being a short walk from his home in Ocean City.

And he has no plans to stop visiting.

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 Bryanna Gallagher

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    PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A small business in Center City Philadelphia is trying to figure out how hundreds of containers of French onion dip it never ordered ended up outside its storefront.

MacMart, a mac and cheese kiosk at the corner of 18th and Arch streets, received a large delivery of “Heluva Good” French onion dip.

“So you’re telling me I have 600 containers of Heluva Good French onion dip…” said Marti Lieberman, co-owner and operator of MacMart.

Lieberman said the unexpected shipment followed what initially appeared to be a routine promotional inquiry.

“A few weeks ago, I got an email from a promotional company based out of Australia,” she said.

She said the message did not seem unusual at first because the business has done promotional work in the past, but she got concerned after more emails were sent.

“As things progressed, there were red flags,” Lieberman said.

She eventually responded that she would take a sample to see whether the product would be a good fit and then blocked the email. Despite that, messages continued. Weeks later, a delivery arrived.

“I get a really nice man at the door, he says, ‘Hi honey, I have your cases,'” she recalled.

Lieberman shared the unusual situation, which she referred to as a “dip gate” scandal, on Instagram and tagged the “Heluva Good” brand.

While transporting the dip to her commissary, she said she heard directly from the company.

“I get a DM from Heluva Good dip saying, ‘Stop what you’re doing, we don’t know where this came from,'” Lieberman said.

She said the company told her it needed to conduct an internal investigation. About 24 hours later, she learned the product likely came from a third-party company that needed to get rid of the stock.

“Heluva Good dips has no affiliation with how this all went down. We appreciate the humor that all of our followers and everyone in the city has been able to find in this,” she said.

Lieberman also said she was told another female-owned and operated business in Philadelphia apparently received the same delivery, though the identity of that business remains a mystery.

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 Ryan Lovell

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    TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (WVTM) — Two formerly University of Alabama-sponsored student magazines that were suspended by the administration will be independently published under new names.

Alice and Nineteen Fifty-Six were university-affiliated student magazines shut down following a memo from U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General Pam Bondi on anti-discrimination laws and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies regarding “proxy organizations.”

The memo followed executive orders from the Trump administration that targeted ending DEI practices in the public and private sectors, specifically places that receive federal funding, which later affected both publications because Alice was geared toward women and Nineteen Fifty-Six focused on highlighting people of color.

An independent alumni organization, MASTHEAD (Media Alumni Seeking to Highlight Equity and Diversity), later stepped up to fundraise to help publish the publications independently of the university, an effort that proved successful.

The two publications later resurfaced as Sixty-Three (formerly Nineteen Fifty-Six) and Selene (formerly Alice), both keeping the missions they held when they were university-sponsored.

Both organizations released statements in recent days after resurfacing.

Sixty-Three said, in part, “Sixty-Three stands on the shoulders of giants. In 1956, Autherine Lucy was the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama and seven years later, in 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood were the first Black students to enroll at the university. Just as 1963 could not have happened without 1956; Sixty-Three would not have been possible without Nineteen Fifty-Six.”

Selene, getting its name from the mythological Greek goddess of the moon, also said:

“While having been founded by and for college-aged women, Selene welcomes all readers into her audience regardless of gender, and her staff finds it imperative to the magazine’s mission that we uplift marginalized voices and stories. Selene is for everyone as we all deserve a place in journalism despite what administrations and the wider culture may say, and she will always hold true to progressive values.”

WVTM 13 reached out to the University of Alabama for comment and has not heard back.

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 Edward Smith

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    GLENDALE, Kentucky (WLKY) — The impacts of war are hitting home for the community in Glendale, Kentucky, after one of their own was killed in the conflict with Iran.

Sunday morning, the small community slowly started to find out about the death of Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, who is from Glendale.

Pennington died on Sunday, succumbing to injuries sustained in a March 1 attack on U.S. troops at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Pennington was assigned to the 1st Space Brigade at Fort Carson in Colorado.

In the summer of 2025, Pennington was assigned to the Space Battalion of the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command.

The community of Glendale is remembering tonight for his dedication, skill and personality demonstrated both overseas and at home. Brother Michael Bell serves as the pastor of Glendale Christian Church, where Pennington grew up attending.

He says he remembers him for having a steady personality.

“He was a good, real, genuine person,” Bell said. “Ben was always a good young man. He came to the after-school program here, just a good person.”

The pastor has been supporting the family since Pennington was injured about a week ago. Bell says he’s been in contact with his dad every day last week. When the church community first found out about his injuries, they spent last Sunday holding a special prayer time for him, Bell says.

According to Bell, as recently as Saturday morning, Pennington’s condition was slightly improving. He says Pennington underwent surgery in Saudi Arabia and was supposed to undergo another one in Germany. But the pastor says his condition got worse on Saturday night.

Pennington attended Central Hardin High School. He graduated in 2017, but teachers like Tom Pitt still haven’t forgotten him. Pitt says he interacted with Pennington two hours a day, five days a week, his entire senior year.

“You don’t forget somebody like Ben Pennington. You just don’t,” Pitt said.

Throughout his time as a student, teachers remember Pennington for the effort he put into everything he did. He was an Eagle Scout. He also was a part of the school’s automotive technology program, where he represented the school in Skills USA.

“He was very good at anything I could give to him, anything I could, you know, put in front of him,” Pitt said. “Anything I put in front of him, he excelled at.”

Pitt says as far as he knew, all Pennington wanted to do was join the military. Pitt said joining the military excited him. Bell says the same thing, making the loss heartbreaking but not surprising for the community.

“We want the Penningtons to know that we hurt with them and that we stand with them and we’re very proud of their son,” Bell said.

Pennington has been recognized for his service, being awarded more than five medals along with multiple ribbons. He will be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.

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 Yunier Martinez

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    MORETOWN, Vermont (WPTZ) — Massive sheets of ice, some the size of cars, have jammed up the Mad River in Moretown, creating a scene that looks almost like the Arctic.

The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for Vermont, as ice jams over the weekend and into Monday have kept residents and town officials on high alert.

Kristina Bisbee, a Moretown resident who has lived along the river for five years, described the sight and sound of the ice as unsettling. “It’s pretty frightening,” she said. “Not just the sight, it’s the sound, the groaning and the intensity of it.”

Moretown Emergency Management Director Stefan Pratt has been monitoring the ice closely, checking conditions every two hours.

Overnight Monday, part of the ice jam broke free upstream but quickly got stuck again about a quarter of a mile downstream.

“There’s not a lot you can do because the water level could rise up and it could wash everything away, or it could just continue to be where it’s at,” said Pratt.

Over in Waitsfield, the ice jam from Sunday has cleared, but officials are urging residents to stay away from the river because conditions remain unpredictable.

“It may look solid, but underneath, you don’t know what’s there. So keep your distance from the river,” said Fred Messer, Waitsfield Emergency Management director.

The focus now is on the weather forecast, as the Mad River Valley is expected to receive rainfall later this week.

If it doesn’t, Moretown officials said heavy machinery could be required to break up the jam, a costly step.

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 Renata Schmidt

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    SOUTH BRISTOL, Maine (WMTW) — University of Maine researchers are using satellite data to help oyster farmers pick their site locations with greater confidence and even predict an oyster’s time to market.

Professor Damian Brady and his post-doctoral student, Tom Kiffney, spend a lot of time out on the Damariscotta River. It’s where they have a research farm, full of oysters, scallops and kelp.

They are working on a variety of research projects with the Darling Marine Center and recently published their proof-of-concept study for a computer model they hope will help farmers choose their sites.

“Site selection is everything,” Brady said. “It takes a long time to get a lease. And then once you have a lease, that’s your lease. You can’t move it elsewhere.”

Choosing the right site is critical.

“Unlike terrestrial agriculture, there are no inputs to shellfish aquaculture. So once you choose a site, you rely on that site to provide both the food and good temperatures to grow your oyster or other shellfish,” Kiffney said.

Water temperature and chlorophyll levels, or oyster food, are key components in oyster farming, so understanding these measurements at potential oyster sites is valuable in understanding if a site would be successful.

The research team has eight sensors in the Gulf of Maine and more in other waterways along the coast. However, they cannot put a sensor in every corner of the coast, so that is where satellite data comes in.

Satellites are constantly circling over Earth and transmitting images back. Brady and Kiffney can access these images and pool them together to get a strong idea of water temperature and chlorophyll levels of the coast of Maine over time.

However, the satellites are far away and there may be a lot of cloud or pollution between the water and the satellite, so Brady and Kiffney need to “ground truth” the data — verify that the satellite data matches the data from their own sensors.

With that accomplished, they now have a tool that can provide the temperature or chlorophyll levels within a 300-square-foot area of the Maine coast within the past couple of weeks.

But they want to push it further and to do that, Kiffney spends a lot of time measuring oysters.

“Working with Maine farmers is one of the biggest highlights of my job,” he said. “In aquaculture, you don’t want to just know what is happening at one site. You want to look across multiple sites. The Maine farming community is very generous. They often allow us to track animals on their farm.”

Together with the oyster measurements and chlorophyll and temperature measurements, Kiffney and Brady have been building a growth model, something to predict when an oyster will be ready for market.

“This idea of building end-to-end products now can’t be understated,” Brady said. “When I first came here to the University of Maine, and I’ve been here 16 years, these tools were not available.”

Between scouting locations, obtaining leases and then growing oysters, there is a lot of time between starting a farm and making a profit. Knowing what the time horizon looks like before investing in a farm could be instrumental in helping potential farmers be better prepared.

“It’s a pretty risky proposition,” said Luke Saindon, the farm director for The World is Your Oyster. “Anything you can do ahead of time really helps.”

Saindon used an early version of the computer model to choose his farm’s location near Wiscasset.

“The actual interaction was really straightforward. It was just a GIS map that was available online, which made it pretty smooth to use and interact with,” Saindon said.

Now, the work is perfecting the computer model and getting it into the hands of farmers.

“Our biggest challenge now is getting this into the hands of growers,” Brady said. “The actual technology is there.”

Brady also said that the team wants to work closely with growers to understand what data would be helpful or what additional questions they can begin to answer.

There are other resources for shellfish farmers to use while this tool is being rolled out. Kiffney helps teach a course with the Aquaculture and Shared Waters program to help farmers take advantage of tools already available to the public. Brady and Kiffney also encouraged growers to reach out to them via email if they are considering a site for a farm and need some help sorting through the data.

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.