Category: CNN Regional

By Kayla Moeller

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    CALIFORNIA (KOVR) — Current drought maps are showing California is drought-free for the first time in 25 years.

The U.S. Drought Monitor climatologists put out a weekly map assessing drought conditions across the country. This week’s map continues to show zero drought conditions across the whole state of California.

“This is the first time we have seen that since December of 2000. It’s been quite a while since there’s been no abnormally dry conditions or worse being depicted in the state,” said Brian Fuchs, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The map shows that much of the rest of the country is experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions.

“When we start looking at California, the first map that actually had no drought depicted in the state on the U.S. Monitor was the map on the week of Dec. 9. That was where we had zero drought, but we did have a little under 9% of the state that is abnormally dry. Since that time, we’ve knocked down that abnormally dry with the continued wet pattern, so now we have no abnormally dry, no drought being depicted on the U.S. Drought Monitor map,” Fuchs said.

“This water year that started Oct. 1, we got off to a great start. We’ve seen regular storms work their way through over the months and in the first quarter of the water year, as we rounded into the new calendar year, we’re at about 150% of average for precipitation,” said Michael Anderson, a state climatologist with the California Department of Water Resources.

Our first alert weather team says this 2025-2026 season is considered to be a La Niña year, and for California, that usually means drier conditions.

“But this year is an anomaly. We’re seeing the storms form right off the coast of California, so they’re coming right in and inundating the state from north to south, so we’ve had this heavy, steady rain that has continued,” meteorologist Kristine Hanson said.

That steady rain has also helped refill California’s reservoirs, with 14 of the 17 major ones at 70% or more capacity.

But that doesn’t mean these conditions are here to stay. Climatologists say we’re in a wait-and-see period to see how the rest of winter goes and what things look like come fire season.

“That back and forth is something California is well accustomed to,” Anderson said. “We’ll see then, as we get into February and March, when they start the growth cycle, if there’s continued moisture to allow for that and then fire season begins when those grasses begin to dry out.”

“The next week or so is supposed to be fairly dry and warm as well, so again, as quickly as we’ve seen these dry situations get tampered down and relieved, they could be developing again,” Fuchs said.

The Climate Prediction Center is projecting California to stay drought-free through the end of March, but they’re coming out with their monthly update next week, so we’ll see if those projections continue through April and into spring.

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 Mia Bearden

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    MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — A Milwaukee family is grieving after a crash on the city’s south side killed a 29-year-old father a month before his wedding.

D’Monte Owens was killed Wednesday night, Jan. 7, near 76th and Morgan, just a few blocks from his home.

His sister-in-law, Savannah Lee, says Owens had just left the house when the crash happened.

“He just left to run and go get dog food, that’s all he was doing,” Lee said. “I don’t know if he was going to Walmart or what, but he barely made it 5 minutes down the road.

Owens was a father to a three-year-old daughter and was preparing to get married next month. Lee says the reality of his death still hasn’t settled in.

“This whole thing has just been extremely hard,” Lee said.

Lee says Owens walked out the door around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday night. Milwaukee police say the crash happened around 7:20 p.m.

Police say a 21-year-old driver was traveling south on 76th Street when the vehicle hit Owens’ car and spun out. That driver was taken into custody. Owens was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.

Crash near 76th and Morgan in Milwaukee anino’s Restaurant For Owens’ family, the loss is felt not only in their day-to-day lives, but in the future plans he and his fiancée were counting down to.

“They were planning on getting married in Jamaica next month and they were looking forward to that,” Lee said. “He has never gotten to see my sister in her wedding dress so that was really hard.”

Lee says crashes like this are becoming more common and hopes Owens’ story makes drivers slow down and pay attention.

“I’ve always been an advocate for safe driving,” Lee said. “It’s frustrating and concerning. Attention needs to be brought to it.”

As the family plans Owens’ funeral, they are leaning on support from the community. A Meal Train has been set up to help Owens’ fiancée and daughter. The family has also created an official Venmo account to help cover funeral costs.

The family says anyone who wants to support them or add to the memorial at the crash site is welcome to do so.

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 McRae and Ashley Portillo

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    DENVER (KCNC) — Some gas stations in the Denver metro area, including Costco, Murphy Express and King Soopers locations, sold contaminated fuel on Thursday, according to the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety.

King Soopers confirmed to CBS News Colorado that the pumps at 13 of its gas stations in the Denver metro area contained contaminated fuel. That fuel was pumped into vehicles by customers.

According to a King Soopers company representative, multiple locations in Aurora, Broomfield, Parker and other cities were impacted. Store officials said the fuel was delivered by a third-party carrier.

Several customers told CBS Colorado that the unleaded gas they pumped into their vehicle was contaminated with diesel. Lance Strait got gas from a Parker King Soopers on Thursday morning and drove to work without any issues. “But on the way home, it was sputtering and misfiring and obviously had some serious mechanical issues,” said Strait.

“I think everybody is in panic mode right now,” he said.

Many drivers have a similar story. Tracy Burlingame filled her tank up at the same King Soopers on Wednesday evening. Her husband drove the vehicle the next day.

“It was just not driving right at all, sputtering, in wouldn’t accelerate, and we talked, and was like, that sounds like bad gas,” said Burglingame.

Burglingame’s vehicle was towed to a nearby auto shop.

“They did call me this morning and say that they tested the fuel, and it was diesel. So, we had nearly 25 gallons of diesel put into our unleaded truck,” said Burlingame, who was also told repairs would be about $3,000.

“It’s upsetting,” she added.

Once King Soopers learned about the contaminated fuel, officials said all affected fuel lines were shut down. Teams continued to work to complete the remediation process and get the pumps back online.

King Soopers released this statement, which read in part: We sincerely regret the inconvenience and disruption this has caused our customers. We understand how important reliable fuel service is, and we are committed to working directly with any impacted customers to resolve their concerns. Customers who believe they may have been impacted are encouraged to contact their local store and we will assist them promptly.

An earlier update from King Soopers had listed some locations in Boulder and Littleton but the company amended its location list to include five fewer locations, lowering the number of gas stations impacted to 14 locations. That list was updated several hours later to exclude the location at 15109 E. Colfax Ave., leaving the total number of locations impacted at 13.

Murphy Express said a gas station of theirs in Parker was impacted. That is located at 13001 Copperhead Trail.

The known Costco locations that are impacted, according to Colorado officials are in Sheridan and in Superior.

The Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety released this statement to CBS Colorado: The Division of Oil and Public Safety began receiving complaints about bad gas on Thursday, January 8. Reports were coming from fuel sold at Costco, Murphy Express, and King Soopers locations, among others.

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 Kayla Moeller

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KMAX, KOVR) — Current drought maps are showing California is drought-free for the first time in 25 years.

The U.S. Drought Monitor climatologists put out a weekly map assessing drought conditions across the country. This week’s map continues to show zero drought conditions across the whole state of California.

“This is the first time we have seen that since December of 2000. It’s been quite a while since there’s been no abnormally dry conditions or worse being depicted in the state,” said Brian Fuchs, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The map shows that much of the rest of the country is experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions.

“When we start looking at California, the first map that actually had no drought depicted in the state on the U.S. Monitor was the map on the week of Dec. 9. That was where we had zero drought, but we did have a little under 9% of the state that is abnormally dry. Since that time, we’ve knocked down that abnormally dry with the continued wet pattern, so now we have no abnormally dry, no drought being depicted on the U.S. Drought Monitor map,” Fuchs said.

“This water year that started Oct. 1, we got off to a great start. We’ve seen regular storms work their way through over the months and in the first quarter of the water year, as we rounded into the new calendar year, we’re at about 150% of average for precipitation,” said Michael Anderson, a state climatologist with the California Department of Water Resources.

Our first alert weather team says this 2025-2026 season is considered to be a La Niña year, and for California, that usually means drier conditions.

“But this year is an anomaly. We’re seeing the storms form right off the coast of California, so they’re coming right in and inundating the state from north to south, so we’ve had this heavy, steady rain that has continued,” meteorologist Kristine Hanson said.

That steady rain has also helped refill California’s reservoirs, with 14 of the 17 major ones at 70% or more capacity.

But that doesn’t mean these conditions are here to stay. Climatologists say we’re in a wait-and-see period to see how the rest of winter goes and what things look like come fire season.

“That back and forth is something California is well accustomed to,” Anderson said. “We’ll see then, as we get into February and March, when they start the growth cycle, if there’s continued moisture to allow for that and then fire season begins when those grasses begin to dry out.”

“The next week or so is supposed to be fairly dry and warm as well, so again, as quickly as we’ve seen these dry situations get tampered down and relieved, they could be developing again,” Fuchs said.

The Climate Prediction Center is projecting California to stay drought-free through the end of March, but they’re coming out with their monthly update next week, so we’ll see if those projections continue through April and into spring.

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 Chad Pradelli and Cheryl Mettendorf

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    PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Courts are now facing a growing threat: AI-generated deepfakes.

Melissa Sims said her ex-boyfriend created fake AI-generated texts that put her behind bars.

“It was horrific,” she said.

Sims said she spent two days of hell in a Florida jail.

“It’s like you see in the movies ‘Orange is the New Black’,” she said. “I got put into like basically a general population.”

Her story made headlines in Florida.

Sims and her boyfriend had recently moved there from Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

She said her nightmare began in November 2024 after she called the police during an argument with her boyfriend, when she said he allegedly ransacked her home.

“Next thing I know, I’m looking at him and he’s slapping himself in the face,” she said.

She said he also allegedly scratched himself. When police arrived, they arrested her for battery.

As part of her bond, the judge ordered Sims to stay away from her boyfriend and not speak to him.

Fast forward several months, and she said her boyfriend created an AI-generated text that called him names and made disparaging comments.

“I end up getting arrested for violating my bond,” she said. “No one verified the evidence.”

Judge Herbert Dixon says Sims’ ordeal is one of increasing frequency.

“Several years ago, it started out with just fake audio recordings,” he said. “And now it’s gotten to a point of fake video and fake images being produced.”

Dixon is a senior judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He also serves as a member of the Council on Criminal Justice alongside former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. Its mission is to advance policy in the criminal justice system.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is to develop a framework for the responsible use of artificial intelligence,” he said.

He believes prosecutors and police need to do a bit more due diligence in this age of AI before they bring charges.

Drexel University professor Rob D’Ovidio teaches AI forensics.

“This is scary to say, but we’re no longer going to be able to trust what we see in front of us,” he said.

He said AI-generated video, texts and other evidence can be difficult to spot. AI is simply getting too good.

“The challenge is the detection tools are not keeping up with those capabilities,” he said.

As an example, he created an AI-generated photo to show us. He input it into three different well-known AI detection software programs. All three spit back different results that ranged from 1% to 62% probability of the photo being synthetic or AI-generated.

“The standard nowadays is we trust unless proven otherwise, right? I think we have to flip the script and distrust until we verify,” he said.

As for Sims, her story has a happy ending.

After eight months of legal wrangling by her attorney, prosecutors dropped the bond violation charge against her. And, last month, she went to trial on the battery charge and was acquitted.

Sims shared her story on her journey to advocate for a new law to create AI evidence standards and penalties.

“If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” she added.

In July, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed a new digital forgery law that makes it a felony to create AI deepfakes that injure, exploit or scam in the state.

WPVI-TV reached out to Sims’ ex-boyfriend but 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 WABC Staff

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    LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) — Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent the morning with YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel to sing to children at a school in Lower Manhattan.

The toddler whisperer, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, has a giant internet following on her YouTube series, where she sings to children while teaching language development.

Mamdani and Ms. Rachel sang to children at District 2 3K/Pre-K Center on Friday morning, a pre-K on Washington Street.

The two sang “The Wheels on the Bus” to a classroom of several dozen children.

They then had a group discussion with the children about how they feel. The mayor said he is feeling happy because Thursday he announced universal child care for every 2-year-old.

“Giving makes us so happy, and giving child care makes everyone really happy in the city,” Ms. Rachel said

That led to their next song — “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

Of course no Ms. Rachel visit is complete without her friend Herbie, her orange cuddle and comfort doll who appeared at the end.

Ms. Rachel was one of Mamdani’s high-profile picks to serve on his inaugural committee.

Her YouTube channel has around 18 million subscribers and her videos have racked up more than 13 billion views.

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 Sara Tenenbaum

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    ANTIOCH, Illinois (WBBM) — A man from Antioch, Illinois, has been arrested and charged with possessing child pornography with the help of two electronic detection dogs.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said they received a tip from an email provider that suspected child pornography had been sent from a device in Lake County. Their investigation traced the device to the 1000 block of Deertrail Court in Antioch, police said.

Sheriff’s officers searched the residence with the help of two electronic detection K9 officers, Grip and Enzo.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said they seized electronics containing dozens of images of child pornography and videos of children under the age of 13 during their search.

David J. Ransdell, 72, is now charged with five felony counts of possessing child pornography. Additional charges are still possible, the sheriff’s office said.

Police did not say when Ransdell is due in court.

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.