Category: CNN Regional

By Dave Elias

Click here for updates on this story

    NORTH FORT MYERS, Florida (WBBH) — Cara Marshall, 51, was denied a Florida driver’s license in Lee County after discovering her maiden name doesn’t match the name on her certified birth certificate, a discrepancy stemming from a decision her mother made decades ago.

“I’m not sure who I am anymore honestly,” Marshall said.

Marshall believed her maiden name to be Hendrix, as listed on her marriage license and old school pictures. However, she recently learned that her mother had changed her name when she was a year and a half old after marrying her stepfather.

“My mother never told me. She changed it herself, when I was a year and a half out when she married my stepfather,” Marshall said.

Marshall explained that her mother registered her in school and completed paperwork using the Hendrix name, hiding the fact that her biological father was Ronald Sniffen, whose last name should have been legally used.

“She did all the paperwork that way registering me in school and everything and never told me about it. She wanted to hide the fact that I had a different father,” Marshall said.

Marshall believes social pressures and stigmas at the time may have influenced her mother’s decision.

“In fact, she told me she wanted everyone’s name to be the same. She took it upon herself without doing it legally and now here I am,” Marshall said.

For decades, the discrepancy didn’t affect Marshall’s life. She attended school, worked, married, voted, and held a Real ID driver’s license in multiple states.

“In North Dakota I got a Real ID in 2022 and then we moved to South Dakota in 2025 and I got the Real ID down there…never had a problem and I was in and out in two minutes,” Marshall said.

However, after moving to Florida, the DMV denied her request for a license because her maiden name and the name on her certified birth certificate don’t match.

“It makes me go ‘who am I?’ How do I prove this now?” Marshall said.

Her case raises broader questions about the consistency of federal Real ID standards across states.

“If every state is following the federal Real ID standards, why are other states willing to issue her a license and Florida isn’t?” Marshall said.

Marshall expressed frustration with the situation.

“They’re setting me up to fail,” she said.

The extent of this issue remains unclear, and answers are still pending.

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 Ashley Sharp

Click here for updates on this story

    SOLANO COUNTY, California (KOVR) — In an economic blow to the billionaire-backed California Forever project, defense technology company Saronic decided to skip the group’s proposed Solano Shipyard in Solano County, a location finalist, for its new $3.2B next-generation shipyard. The company decided instead to send the development to Texas.

It would have created an estimated 10,000 new jobs in Solano County, which local leaders say has the worst unemployment rate in the Bay Area.

Tuesday, the ghost of these jobs became a topic of debate at the county’s Board of Supervisors meeting as local residents both in support of and against California Forever’s efforts to shore up shipbuilding took to the podium during public comment.

“Let’s do anything we can to help them help us,” said one neighbor in support of the group.

“Status quo is not working anymore; do we not see that? We need this to happen,” said a union leader with Operating Engineers Local 3, who supports the shipbuilding and manufacturing projects for local job growth.

As has been the case for years, opposition to California Forever was also present at the podium.

“Please do not do business with California Forever,” pleaded one neighbor during public comment.

“For the people who are here supporting jobs, you need to support Mare Island in Vallejo,” argued another.

California Forever plans to create a new city of 400,000 people on Solano County farmland. The group owns undeveloped land equivalent to the size of San Francisco in the county.

With it, the group also wants to build what they describe as the nation’s largest advanced manufacturing park to be called The Foundry as well as to revitalize shipbuilding through the proposed Solano Shipyard near Collinsville.

In a statement about the Saronic bid bust, California Forever and its supporters said, “Our coalition’s warning about losing the opportunity to Texas has now become reality.”

They also blamed legislative red tape, which they say forced the company to look outside of California.

“A key site selection criterion was the permitting framework to break ground within months, matching the speed required by America’s national defense needs, which is not possible in California without special legislation… The coalition worked for months to draft a balanced proposal that would have enabled Saronic to choose California and Solano County. Local and state government leaders did not pass the legislation in time,” the statement read.

Last year, California Forever’s founder and CEO Jan Sramek described to CBS Sacramento in a one-on-one interview his vision for Solano County’s workforce.

“The goal is really to provide a place where all of these companies that are doing incredible work in Silicon Valley can manufacture things in California, instead of sending all of those jobs to Texas or Florida,” said Sramek.

Last week, after the news of the lost Saronic bid, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development or “GO-Biz” sent a memo to state leaders saying that Solano County is at an economic crossroads and threw its support behind California Forever’s efforts to bring in more local jobs.

“None of this will happen automatically. Winning this competition will require collaboration among state and local government, labor, business, educational institutions, community organizations, and private investors. It will require thoughtful policy choices, disciplined execution, and a shared commitment to creating lasting public benefit,” said GO-Biz director Dee Dee Myers.”…GO-Biz believes the Solano Shipyard and Solano Foundry represent projects of statewide significance and the kind of transformational opportunity California should fight for and win.”

Solano County has recently lost major employers like Budweiser and Valero.

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 Lesley Marin

Click here for updates on this story

    ORANGE COUNTY, California (KCAL, KCBS) — At just four days old, Valentina Isla Campbell has quite the story to tell after her mother had to give birth to her in a Jack in the Box parking lot.

“In life, there are a lot of things you can prepare for,” father Darren Campbell said. “You can’t prepare for delivering your child in the passenger seat of your car.”

The little girl arrived 15 days early last Friday after her mother, Michelle Cisneros, started to feel contractions while she prepared for a doctor’s appointment.

“They started getting more intense, and they were five minutes apart at that point,” Cisneros said.

She went directly to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, where she was monitored and then sent home.

“She told me if my contractions were three minutes apart, then return,” Cisneros said. “We literally made it downstairs, and they were three minutes apart.”

The couple said they were sent home again, but within minutes of being home, Cisneros could feel the baby coming.

“And then we left and, I thought, OK, we’re in trouble here,” Campbell said.

The couple made it just two miles from their home when they pulled over at the Jack in the Box and called 911.

With the help of firefighters, Cisneros was able to safely deliver a very healthy baby.

“As soon as I heard her first cry, I felt relief, like she is OK,” Cisneros said.

The parents are thankful that both the mother and baby are OK. They spent a few days at Hoag Hospital but questioned if this could have been prevented.

“I was in so much pain, and they gave me morphine when I was there,” Cisneros said. “It should have been an indicator. I couldn’t even speak.”

For now, they are relishing much less dramatic moments with the newest addition to their family.

“It’s been surreal,” Campbell said. “We’re home and safe, and we’re a family of four now.”

Hoag Hospital said it is gathering more information about the incident and may release a statement.

The family said Jack in the Box reached out to them so the fast-food chain could send them a care package.

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 Nicholas Lentz, Adam Duxter, Stephen Swanson

Click here for updates on this story

    MINNESOTA (WCCO) — A “coordinated cyberattack” targeted more than 30 Minnesota community water systems on Sunday and Monday, the state’s IT Services department announced Tuesday.

The attack briefly shut down a water plant in Braham, Minnesota, on Monday morning, officials in the east-central city said. Three other communities reported attempted attacks on Monday: Maple Plain, Plymouth and South St. Paul.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, officials have yet to provide a full list of the impacted cities.

IT Services says it has activated a statewide response to the attacks and its teams are continuing to “assess the cyber impacts.”

“MNIT will continue working with its partners to investigate the incident, support recovery efforts, strengthen cybersecurity protections, and help ensure Minnesota’s critical infrastructure remains secure and resilient,” officials said. “Additional information will be shared as it becomes available.”

MNIT also says the Minnesota Department of Health is directly working with the targeted water systems “to help ensure public health remains protected,” officials said, adding it’s unclear if any cities are asking “their residents modify their drinking water usage.”

John Israel from MNIT says it’s an attack on critical infrastructure on a scale not seen before.

“All signs are pointing to disruption, not trying to get a financial gain or get an actual public impact. I think this is about disruption of services,” Israel said.

For experts like Craig Sixta, chief technology officer of Element Technologies, it’s a sign things need to change, even if it comes at a cost.

“These water treatment facilities are going to have to become more secure, put in more controls in place,” Sixta said. “That’s probably going to mean higher water bills.”

The City of Braham said in a Facebook post at 9:34 a.m. Monday that its water plant was offline for an unknown reason. Just under two hours later, officials said the facility was back online and that the cause of the outage was a “malicious cyber-attack of computerized operating systems by unknown actors.”

Braham officials said the attack shut down the “operating controls,” which resulted in the shutdown of the well and water treatment plant. They added that it did not cause any physical issues to the facility, nor did it impact water quality or safety.

“The City of Braham’s Public works crews were able to quickly determine the issue and mediate the cause of the outage,” city officials said in a news release.

Braham’s city administrator is requesting that the city’s “system vulnerability study” be evaluated to identify and mitigate any vulnerabilities or potential vulnerabilities exposed by the attack.

The release also said the city was informed that at least four other communities were attacked “with the same result.”

The document didn’t name the locations, though officials in South St. Paul, Minnesota, said Monday afternoon that they identified a cybersecurity incident involving technology used for parts of the city’s water utility system.

South St. Paul officials said that while the incident impacted some automated controls, steps that were taken allowed Public Works staff to maintain normal water and wastewater operations.

The Twin Cities suburb of Plymouth may also have been targeted, according to city officials. In a Facebook post, they said an issue impacting communications at two of the city’s water towers and multiple lift stations that began late Sunday is believed to have been caused by a cyberattack.

“Water levels and water quality are unaffected – the water is safe and there is no need for the public to adjust consumption,” Plymouth officials said in the post. “The issue is limited to equipment connected via cellular communications within the system, and crews have continued operating as normal through manual procedures.”

Officials in Maple Plain, located on the west side of Hennepin County, said they identified a cybersecurity incident involving the city’s water utility technology early on Monday. The incident affected “certain automated control functions,” but city workers have been able to maintain normal operations.

The Maple Plain City Council held an emergency meeting on Monday afternoon to review response efforts and talk about measures to protect “critical infrastructure and public services,” according to the city. Leaders say the city’s water is safe to drink.

City Administrator Jacob Schillander says the safety of residents “is of the utmost concern.”

“We’ve got this, we’ve got partners we can work with, systems in place. We’re going to do our very best to keep things moving forward,” Schillander 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 Erika Stanish

Click here for updates on this story

    FAYETTE COUNTY, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — Nearly a month after his plane crashed into a wooded area in Fayette County, a pilot is calling his survival a “miracle.”

On July 4, an ultralight plane crashed into the trees in Dunbar Township. The pilot, 75-year-old Gregory Beaver, talked with KDKA-TV on Tuesday about what happened.

“I guess it was a miracle,” he said. “Most of the folks who I was engaged with said the Lord wasn’t done with me yet.”

Beaver said he took off from Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport just after 9 a.m. on July 4.

“I took off, flew over towards Scottdale/Mount Pleasant at an elevation of about 1,500 feet,” Beaver said.

When he turned around to head back, Beaver said his routine flight turned into a fight for survival.

“I would say it was about 10 minutes from landing, and all of a sudden my engine started to chug, chug, chug,” Beaver said.

The 75-year-old said before long, his engine stopped.

“I didn’t panic, and I was hoping to clear some trees out in Dunbar Township off of West Crawford Avenue,” Beaver said. “And I could not maintain elevation, and I hit the tree, and the tree won.”

He said his Quicksilver single-wing ultralight plane was stuck in the trees, but he fell to the ground because he was not wearing his seat belt.

“It was estimated to be about 25 feet I fell to the ground,” Beaver said. “Had I had my seat belt on, there was a chance I would have been hanging there upside down.”

He said during the crash, he also lost his cellphone.

“I could not call anyone for help. So probably took me 20 minutes or so. I crawled and walked about 400 or 500 yards and finally got the attention of a gentleman who was cutting his grass, and he came out and started my recovery,” Beaver said.

Beaver was flown to UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh, where he learned he had three fractured ribs and one fractured vertebra in his lower back.

“I want to thank those who helped me in my rescue and getting me down to the hospital. A great deal of gratitude,” Beaver said.

Beaver is at home now, where he continues to recover. He said he has to wear a brace around his body.

“You can see a brace that the physicians gave me to hold my torso and my ribs intact, so there wouldn’t be any movement,” Beaver said.

Beaver said his interest in flying planes began at a young age. He said he used to live near the Mount Pleasant/Scottdale Airport as a child, where he could watch the planes take off.

“I could go up on the hill, and I could just watch all the planes take off, and they came right up overhead. I think that planted a seed of having an interest in aviation,” Beaver said.

Around 1997, Beaver said he started flying in a powered parachute.

“It is designed that you actually fly,” he said. “Your air wing is a parachute that you lay behind you, and as you gain speed, it comes up over top of you and then you can make sure your lines are all clear, you look left and right, and then you take off and up you go,” Beaver said.

He said around 2015, he and a friend built his ultralight plane. Just last Friday, Beaver said he hired crews to bring his plane down from the trees where he crashed. He said fortunately, there was little damage.

“The frame looked sound. There were a few tears, just small tears in the fabric. It’s a large, 28-foot-wide Dacron fabric, and they can be easily patched,” he said.

The fearless pilot said he hopes to fly it again in the spring.

“Something like that was a freak accident because this happens very, very rarely,” Beaver said.

He also shared this piece of advice to others who fly.

“Always to keep calm, and always when you’re flying an ultralight, have your eye on somewhere — a large pasture, a field — if you have to land, that way you can do so as safely as possible,” Beaver said. “If you panic, then you’re not going to think clearly.”

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 Siafa Lewis

Click here for updates on this story

    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — Philadelphia native Isaiah Thomas, known online as HMBLZAYY, has completed his 3,000-mile journey to California after 124 days.

The Nicetown native, known in the region for his clothing line, HMBL, has garnered national attention for his cross-country walk.

Thomas left Philadelphia on March 26 and reached Needles, California, June 27, live-streaming every moment of his journey on Twitch.

The inspiration came from his seven-day peace walk to the Richmond Slave Trail in Virginia for Black History Month. The funds he raised allowed him to send five kids from Philly to Disney World.

“These kids having fun right now, but how can we be able to influence and impact these kids’ life forever?” Thomas said.

Thomas then decided to challenge himself by walking across the country and raising money to start HUMBL University, a trade school to empower the youth.

The 3,000-mile journey was not without its challenges.

“The PA mountain were the hardest,” Thomas said. “It was like 28 degrees up there when I started. The elevation was crazy, but once I got towards the end I was so conditioned because of that.”

Notably, in April, on Day 34 of his journey, Thomas was struck by a car while walking on the side of the road in Richmond, Indiana. The incident was captured on his livestream.

“The first thought in my head is like, ‘I know this not happening, like this can’t be,'” Thomas said.

Thomas was hospitalized for more than a month but escaped the crash without a single broken bone.

In a Kelly Green Saquon Barkley jersey, he crossed California’s border in San Bernardino County on Day 124 of his journey, accomplishing his goal.

“Not nothing cliché really, just lock in with yourself, lock in with God and just understand that you can do anything you wanna do in this world,” he said. “We all get one life, and why not be great?”

Three thousand miles later, Thomas said the journey was absolutely worth it.

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 Nick Caloway, Adi Guajardo

Click here for updates on this story

    NEW JERSEY (WCBS) — A Tornado Warning was issued in Sussex and Warren Counties in New Jersey Tuesday afternoon as officials prepared for another round of storms across the state.

The warning expired at 2:15, only to be followed by a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.

Radar estimated rainfall totals in portions of Morris County were up to 6.4 inches at around 11 p.m. In Essex County, the same estimate found 4.7 inches of rain.

Video from Paterson showed several flooded, stalled cars and deep water.

“Remember, stay out of any flooding. Stay away from it. Don’t attempt to drive through it. Stay away from downed power lines. Charge your cell phones and devices to be ready for these storms,” N.J. Gov. Mikie Sherrill said.

Two daycares had to be evacuated Tuesday on Lackawanna Avenue after rain overwhelmed the community.

Kiddie University Daycare owner Lori Martin was told children and staff needed to evacuate due to something in the water.

“We did take our last 11 kids and staff out with the trucks from town and to the municipal building until parents could come pick them up,” she said.

Martin said it smelled like gas and she had never smelled that before.

Residents nearby also were inundated with floodwaters as water went inside homes and cars.

“We did take our last 11 kids and staff out with the trucks from town and to the municipal building until parents could come pick them up,” said Eric Papieuk.

Mayor Tracy Kallert said roughly 60 people were evacuated across town.

“I’ve been here about 15 years through the council and the mayor’s office, and I’ve never had to evacuate the daycare centers,” she said.

On Monday night, heavy rain caused major flooding and downed power lines in Bergen County.

Cars were stuck in high water, with drivers needing to be rescued on Route 208 in Hawthorne. The same situation happened in Glen Rock when an SUV was submerged in deep water. Hackensack also looked similar, as commuters were surprised by the downpours and fast-rising waters.

“I think this was the worst storm that we’ve encountered in many, many years,” said Hawthorne Mayor John Lane. “We do get rain. We do flood a little bit. But the torrential rains, the way it came down for an hour, half an hour.”

Seventeen water rescues were conducted across the borough of Hawthorne. No one was injured, the mayor said.

“We tried to get around the area, could not get around the area at all. Every street you went to was blocked,” Hawthorne resident Tatiana Amador said.

The water seeped into the basement at Palmas Ice Cream.

“Every time a truck would cross by, it felt like a beach wave coming in. Every time a beach wave would come in, that’s when all the water would come in,” Rosa DeJesus said.

On Tuesday, Lane said that crews are ready to take on the wet weather set for the afternoon and overnight.

“We’re prepared. Our ambulances are prepared, our fire trucks are prepared,” he said.

Parts of the state, including Bergen County, are under a flood watch until 8 a.m. Wednesday.

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 Ali Bauman

Click here for updates on this story

    NEW YORK (WCBS) — The neighbors of a man who allegedly killed his relatives and tried to blow up his Queens house recounted the terrifying moments as the incident unfolded just below their home.

Police say Kegan Thomas, 33, barricaded himself Saturday inside a Far Rockaway home and killed two of his relatives. As officers were preparing to enter the home, there was a fiery explosion. Then, Thomas walked out, armed with a shotgun and additional ammo, and got into a shootout with officers.

Thomas was charged with murder, attempted murder, arson and animal cruelty, among other charges.

His neighbors, who were trapped upstairs, spoke exclusively to CBS News New York’s Ali Bauman.

Amari Mosley, 12, was home with his three younger siblings and two moms when they heard gunshots. They live in the upper unit of a two-family home where the incident happened.

“I thought we were gonna die that day,” said Cherise Johnson, Amari’s mother.

Johnson said they were looking out the window as police responded to the scene.

“I kept telling them to get out the window because I seen all the guns drawn,” she said.

The family didn’t know what was happening, and then the apartment below exploded.

“It was so many gunshots, a lot of gunshots, so I took the kids and was on the floor on top of them, and after the gunshots stopped we had to get up cause now the house is all black smoke,” Johnson said.

Amari said he saw Thomas as he and his family members ran out of the house.

“I ran down the steps and seen the man on the floor and blood over him,” he said. “I had to walk over the blood, and we went to the corner and heard the window shatter, and I seen fire coming out of the house.”

Amari said he can hardly sleep from fear.

“The nighttime really scares me,” he said. “My dreams are him waking up and coming to get me.”

While the family is grateful to be alive, they are still living with the aftershocks.

The Red Cross is temporarily putting them up, but their home and belongings were lost in the fire after the explosion.

“We can never go back there. It’s destroyed,” Johnson 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.