CNN – National

By Rob Kuznia and Yahya Abou-Ghazala, CNN In late August of 2021, Minneapolis police responded to a shooting along I-94, where they found a BMW sedan that had crashed into a freeway median. Slumped behind the steering wheel was 38-year-old Luis Damian Martinez Ortiz, who’d suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. After reviewing

By Faith Karimi, CNN Americans took fewer steps during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and they still haven’t gotten their mojo back, a new study found. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily.

By Raja Razek and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN A Colorado dentist is accused of fatally poisoning his wife by putting arsenic in her protein shakes after ordering it online and making a number of suspicious internet searches in the weeks leading up to her death, including “how to make poison,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

By Cheri Mossburg and Holly Yan, CNN A union representing 30,000 Los Angeles school custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and other support staff has started a three-day strike with support from the district’s teachers, effectively stopping classes for more than a half million students in the nation’s second-largest school system. Members of Service Employees International

By Sara Smart and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN The first-grade teacher who was allegedly shot by a 6-year-old student in her Newport News, Virginia, classroom has spoken out for the first time since the January incident, saying in an interview with NBC that she has tried to “stay positive.” “I’ve been doing OK. It’s been challenging,”

By Jamiel Lynch, CNN The Miami Beach City Commission voted Monday to not set a curfew for this upcoming weekend, but the panel did pass a measure ordering liquor stores to close early after two deadly shootings riled the popular Florida spring break location. During a special meeting in the wake of the fatal shootings,

By Amanda Jackson, CNN Two teens on spring break were killed Sunday night in a sledding accident in a closed area of Copper Mountain Ski Resort in central Colorado. The teens reportedly were riding tandem down the halfpipe and went airborne off a large snowbank at the bottom, according to a Monday statement from the

By Ryan Young and Devon M. Sayers, CNN The man charged in the shooting of an unarmed Black man last month has resigned from the Shreveport, Louisiana, police department. Former Officer Alexander Tyler, 23, resigned from the force late last week, according to Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux. Tyler had been on administrative leave since being

By Christina Maxouris and Dakin Andone, CNN Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced former South Carolina attorney, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month after he was found guilty of murdering his wife and son — the most serious and grisliest of the allegations faced by the scion of what was once one of the

By Dakin Andone, CNN Attorneys for the family of Stephen Smith say their effort to exhume the 19-year-old’s body is an attempt to provide his mother answers about what led to his death — and has nothing to do with the family of Alex Murdaugh. “This is not an Alex Murdaugh 2.0, or any Murdaugh

By Andi Babineau, CNN One student died and another was injured Monday in a shooting outside a high school in Arlington, Texas, police said. Arlington police say they responded to Lamar High School just before 7 a.m. after reports of a shooting just outside the school building. Officers found a male student with an apparent

By Rebekah Riess, CNN A Colorado dentist was arrested early Sunday morning on murder charges in the poisoning death of his wife, according to a release from the Aurora Police Department. Aurora police detectives launched an investigation into the woman’s suspicious death, after James Toliver Craig, 45, drove his wife, 43, to a hospital around

By Ray Sanchez, CNN Aspiring rapper Irvo Otieno streamed his music — with titles like “Man in the Middle,” “Can’t Wait,” “Trapped Out,” and “Frenzy” — under the name Young Vo. Otieno was 28, could write a song in less than five minutes, and wanted to start his own record label, said his mother, Caroline

By Sara Smart, CNN At least two people died and four others were caught in two different avalanches in Colorado over the weekend, authorities said. The first avalanche happened in the area of Rapid Creek near Marble, killing a 36-year-old man who was found Saturday buried in about four feet of snow, according to the

By Isa Kaufman-Geballe and Nouran Salahieh, CNN Police are asking for the public’s help as the search continues for a missing Indiana teenager who is “believed to be in extreme danger,” according to a missing person alert. Scottie Dean Morris, 14, was last seen at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the small town of Eaton, 76

By Celina Tebor, CNN Five kids were killed and another was injured after their car veered off a road and crashed into a tree early Sunday in the New York metropolitan area, according to authorities. Those killed ranged in age from 8 to 17, according to a release from the Westchester County Police Department. Four

By Michelle Watson, Paradise Afshar and Dakin Andone, CNN The family of a 19-year-old found dead in the middle of a South Carolina road in 2015 will seek to have his body exhumed, they announced last week, almost two years after state authorities reopened a probe into his death based on information learned while investigating

By Michelle Watson and David Williams, CNN Officials in Hawaii seized a motorboat that had been floating just feet away from a sacred site on Maui known as the Hauola Stone. The officials told the boat owner they are taking control of the 56-foot grounded motorboat, named Kuuipo, in order “to avoid damaging a culturally

By Zoe Sottile, CNN Bear lovers rejoice: The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is hiring for “professional bear huggers.” The department posted an adorable job listing on Facebook on Monday, featuring precious snaps of conservation officers cuddling baby bears. Unfortunately, a love of bears is not the only qualification you’ll need to become

By Isa Kaufman-Geballe, CNN Law enforcement officials are desperately searching for an Indiana teenager who was last seen on Thursday and “is believed to be in extreme danger,” according to a missing person alert. Scottie Dean Morris, 14, was last seen in the small town of Eaton, which is 76 miles northeast of Indianapolis, Thursday

By Rebekah Riess, CNN The deaths of three Michigan rappers whose bodies were found in an abandoned apartment building in early February were related to gang violence, state police said, asking members of the public who might have information about the case to come forward. In a series of tweets Friday, Michigan State Police confirmed

By Harmeet Kaur and Daniel Wine, CNN If you’re sick of getting all those spammy text messages on your phone, there’s hope: New rules from the FCC require telecom companies to block messages from suspicious sources. May the scourge of robotexts finally come to an end! Here’s what else you need to know to Start

By Kia Fatahi and Zenebou Sylla, CNN Three children are dead and two adults were critically injured in a fire early Saturday morning in a west Baltimore home, the city’s fire department said. Firefighters were called to the home in the 3000 block of Brighton Street and initially rescued three children and two adults who

By Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN Brightly colored toys buried in mud. Brown murky water where cars once parked. Family photos floating through a neighborhood. This is what one Southern California community looked like last week, lifelong Ventura resident Angie Thompson said, after the state’s 11th atmospheric river this winter wrought hurricane-like winds and catastrophic flooding. “We’re

By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN — Photographs by Austin Steele and Vanessa Leroy, CNN Jamaal Grant was studying biology at Colby College in Maine when a friend asked if he’d be interested in teaching after graduation. Grant had planned to go to graduate school and build a career in science, but in need of a

By Faith Karimi, CNN Tracey Lomax watched from the viewing room of a state prison in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, as her sister’s killer received a lethal injection. Convicted murderer Gary Heidnik had received his last meal — black coffee and two slices of cheese pizza — shortly before he was executed on July 6, 1999. Applause

By Paradise Afshar, CNN Republican lawmakers in Kentucky have passed a bill that prohibits transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care, allows educators to refuse to refer to transgender students by their preferred pronouns and would not allow schools to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity with students of any age. The bill, if enforced, would

By Paradise Afshar, CNN A shooting during spring break celebrations in Miami Beach left one person dead and another injured Friday evening, according to the Miami Beach Police Department. Officers heard gunshots near 7th Street and Ocean Drive, a palm-tree lined intersection just feet from the beach, at about 10:41 p.m. ET and responded to

By Melissa Alonso and Zoe Sottile, CNN A five-year-old was killed and two other juveniles were hurt after a drive-by shooting in Tempe, Arizona, late Friday night, according to Tempe police. “The death of that five-year-old is a tragedy and our deepest condolences go out to that family,” said Byron Thomas, spokesperson for the Tempe

By Melissa Alonso and Zoe Sottile, CNN California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Saturday that the state will cut insulin costs by 90% and that it will start manufacturing naloxone, a nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdoses. The lower insulin cost results from a collaboration between CalRx, a California Department of Health Care Services

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A Florida man was bitten on the leg by an unexpected visitor: An alligator waiting right outside his door. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told CNN in an email that they received a call about the bite on March 4. The 56-year-old man received a bite injury to his

By Sara Smart and Rebekah Riess, CNN A suspect is facing charges of attempted murder and felony assault after authorities say he shot and injured an Olivet College baseball player after a Friday night game at Muskingum University in Ohio. The player was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and has since been

By John Blake, CNN Few scholars have experienced the fickle nature of fame as dramatically as Ibram X. Kendi in the past three years. Kendi, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller, “How to Be an Antiracist,” became an intellectual celebrity in the summer of 2020 after his books became a go-to source for

By Shimon Prokupecz, Matthew J. Friedman and Rachel Clarke, CNN Chilling details of the chaotic and bloody aftermath of the Uvalde school massacre show how emergency medics desperately treated multiple victims wherever they could and with whatever equipment they had, according to never-before-heard interviews. Some came from off-duty or far away to back up their

By Paradise Afshar, CNN Two people on board a single-engine plane were injured Friday after a collision with another plane during an aerial demonstration in Mesa, Arizona, officials said. The collision, which happened at Falcon Field Airport before 1 p.m. local time, left the two injured people trapped after returning to the runway in a

By Zoe Sottile, CNN No, this isn’t a sequel to “Cocaine Bear” — it’s the real-life story of a wild cat rescued in Cincinnati that had been exposed to cocaine. The exotic cat — known as a serval — tested positive for cocaine after being rescued in Cincinnati, according to animal control officials. Servals are

By Nick Valencia, CNN A lieutenant in the Memphis Police Department has now been identified as being at the scene after the arrest of Tyre Nichols, and according to police files obtained by CNN, chose to retire earlier this month prior to a disciplinary hearing on the case where he would have been fired. In

By Chris Boyette, CNN Police body camera footage shows an Oklahoma City police captain who was pulled over for suspected drunk driving asking the arresting officer to turn off his body camera. Sgt. Christopher Skinner pulled over Capt. James Matthew French, 55, a little after 1:30 a.m. on March 12 after allegedly seeing his SUV

By Kristina Sgueglia, CNN Cleanup of the toxic train derailment site in the Ohio town of East Palestine will likely take about three months, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said 6.8 million gallons of liquid waste and more than 5,400 tons of solid waste have already been

By Jay Croft, CNN Jared Bridegan was driving home with his 2-year-old daughter in the back seat when he came upon a tire in the road, police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, said. Bridegan, 33, a Microsoft senior design manager, stopped the car and got out to move the obstruction, police said, when he was fatally

By Camila Bernal and Stephanie Becker, CNN Military investigators at Fort Hood said there was no foul play in the death of Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz, who was stationed at the Texas Army post, as her family raises accusations that she was being sexually harassed. Basaldua Ruiz, a 20-year-old combat engineer with the 1st Cavalry

By Andy Rose, Jennifer Feldman and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN A Missouri sheriff and two of his deputies were arrested Thursday and charged in connection with an alleged plot to help a father kidnap his daughter from her mother after an argument last month, charging documents show. The father, Rick Gaston, 62, was also arrested and

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN The world will look a bit greener today as many people wear the color to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In the US and other countries, the holiday is mainly thought of as a celebration of Irish pride — but, interestingly, St. Patrick wasn’t actually Irish. Here’s what else you need to know

By Holly Yan, Theresa Waldrop and Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN The fate of nearly 200,000 American students’ education will soon be controlled not by locally elected leaders but by state-appointed managers yet to be named. The Texas Education Agency said it plans to appoint a board of managers to take over the Houston Independent School

By Carlos Suarez and Devon M. Sayers, CNN As she watched construction workers dismantle the amusement park ride where her 14-year-old son died from a horrific fall, Nekia Dodd hoped no families will suffer as she has this last year. Tyre Sampson plummeted to his death from the Orlando FreeFall drop tower in ICON Park

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Paul Linehan loved the melody of a ballad he performed onstage for years, but the place and person it featured felt far away from his life. … the first to cross the threshold Of that isle of hope and tears Was Annie Moore from Ireland Who was only fifteen years

By Steve Almasy, CNN Three of the 10 people facing murder charges in the death last week of a 28-year-old Black man at a Virginia mental health facility were security guards at the hospital who watched and then participated in the fatal smothering, the prosecutor told CNN Friday. The victim’s family wants answers as to

By Jamiel Lynch and Andy Rose, CNN A former English professor at Florida’s Palm Beach Atlantic University says the school terminated his contract early after a complaint that he was “indoctrinating” students by teaching about racial justice. Sam Joeckel told CNN in a Wednesday statement he felt the university ended his contract early “for a

By Greg Wallace and Pete Muntean, CNN Two airliners were about 14 seconds and just over a half mile away from colliding at a Sarasota, Florida, runway last month, a preliminary report from safety investigators shows. Air traffic control cleared Air Canada Rouge A321 to take off when incoming American Airlines 737 was just a

By Michelle Watson, Eric Levenson and Sara Smart, CNN Three hospital employees in Virginia were arrested Thursday and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Irvo Otieno, the 28-year-old Black man who died at a state mental health facility last week, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Dinwiddie County said in a news

By Taylor Romine, Eric Levenson and Rachel Ramirez, CNN The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is no longer mandating emergency restrictions on water use for over 7 million people after winter storms boosted water supplies, the district said in a news release. The restriction had been put in place in June 2022 and allowed

By Cheri Mossburg and Taylor Romine, CNN A union representing school workers in Los Angeles plans to strike for three days next week with support from the district’s teachers union, it said, setting up what could be a shutdown of the nation’s second-largest school system. Cafeteria staff, bus drivers, custodians, teachers’ assistants and other members

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN A massive blob of seaweed spanning more than 5,000 miles is headed for the shores of Florida, threatening to dampen tourist season with an incredibly sticky situation (forgive the pun). The seaweed will be prevalent on beaches in Florida around July, researchers say, after it completes its trajectory through the Caribbean

By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken Women don’t belong out at sea working on ships with men, the 62-year-old engineer told the 19-year-old trainee just weeks before she says he raped her. The young woman, Hope Hicks, was a student at the US Merchant Marine Academy. The man, Edgar Sison, was her boss. He worked

By Andi Babineau and Alaa Elassar, CNN A train that derailed in western Arizona Wednesday evening was carrying corn syrup, the railroad said, after the county sheriff’s office said it may have been carrying hazardous materials. “BNSF Railway can confirm that a train carrying corn syrup derailed” around 7:40 p.m., company spokesperson Lena Kent told

By Joe Sutton, CNN Two hikers were found dead and one has been rescued after authorities believe they were caught in a flash flood while trekking the popular Buckskin Gulch slot canyon in southern Utah. The three men, all in their 50s, began their hike Friday but officials believe they were caught in the flooding

By Andy Rose, CNN The man who investigators say is connected to a string of unusual animal habitat tamperings at the Dallas Zoo — including the alleged theft of two tamarin monkeys — was indicted Tuesday on felony burglary charges, court records show. Davion Irvin, 24, was indicted by a grand jury on two counts

By AJ Willingham, CNN The term “incel” is everywhere. What was once a niche piece of internet slang now populates international headlines and is a frequent topic in discussions about gender, misogyny, violence and extremism. “Incel” is a portmanteau of “involuntary celibate.” In its most basic form, incel describes someone, usually a male, who is

By Paradise Afshar, CNN A man who in 2021 was an Army trainee in South Carolina was found not guilty by reason of insanity last week in connection with an alleged hijacking of a school bus with 18 elementary students onboard. Jovan Collazo, who is now 25, had been accused of getting on a bus

By Melissa Alonso and Theresa Waldrop, CNN A man who served more than 34 years of a 400-year sentence for an armed robbery was released from a Florida jail this week after prosecutors dismissed charges against the wrongly convicted man. “I never lost hope and always knew this day would come,” Sidney Holmes, now 57,

By Dakin Andone, Ryan Young and Kevin Conlon, CNN The family of a Black man found dead in Mississippi last year is calling for a more thorough investigation into his disappearance and death, alleging he was murdered after he told his mother he was being followed by White men in trucks. “What we have is

By Taylor Romine and Chris Boyette, CNN A one-time payment of $5 million to each eligible Black resident is among recommendations unanimously accepted by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors as part of a draft plan by a panel proposing reparations. The move Tuesday was an intermediate step, with a final report that includes board feedback

By Pete Muntean and Greg Wallace, CNN Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday cited an “uptick” in recent aviation incidents and called on participants at a Federal Aviation Administration safety summit to help find the “root causes” of the problem. “We are particularly concerned because we have seen an uptick in serious close calls,”

By Sara Smart, Michelle Watson, Brian Todd and Eric Levenson, CNN Seven sheriff’s deputies in central Virginia were arrested and charged with second-degree murder Tuesday in the death of a Black man who prosecutors say was fatally “smothered” while in custody. Irvo Otieno, 28, died on March 6 at a state mental health facility during

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN When you’re craving a quick snack, how often do you reach into the fridge for a few strawberries or grapes without rinsing them? (It’s okay to admit it, we’ve all done it before.) While consuming unwashed fruits and vegetables isn’t totally detrimental to your health, some scientists say you should make

By Justin Gamble, Nicole Chavez and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN Students at Wellesley College in Massachusetts approved a referendum Tuesday that called for accepting admissions applications from all nonbinary and transgender prospective students, a college spokesperson said. The women’s college of about 2,300 students currently accepts those who “live as women and consistently identify as women,”

By Cheri Mossburg and Nouran Salahieh, CNN Advances in DNA technology led to the arrest of a man in the 1997 shooting death of a teller during a bank robbery in California, authorities announced Tuesday. On April 28, 1997, two robbers disguised as construction workers wearing raincoats, hard hats and pantyhose over their faces went

By Artemis Moshtaghian, Zenebou Sylla and Rob Frehse, CNN A 20-year-old man from Upstate New York has been charged with making a terroristic threat after threatening to carry out a shooting at the Tops Friendly Markets in Manlius, New York, in a Discord post, according to court documents and local police. Police responded to a

By Pete Muntean and Theresa Waldrop, CNN The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating yet another close call between commercial airliners, this time at Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC — the seventh since the start of this year. On March 7, Republic Airways Flight 4736 crossed a runway, without clearance, that United Airlines Flight 2003

By Michelle Watson, CNN A Vermont girls’ high school that withdrew from a basketball tournament last month after refusing to play against a team that had a transgender player is no longer able to participate in future Vermont Principals’ Association (VPA) activities and tournaments, the group said in a news release Monday. VPA, the state’s

By Celina Tebor and Eric Levenson, CNN A Louisville police oversight body will now have the power to interview police officers and to directly access body camera footage as part of an agreement with the Louisville Metro Police Department, Mayor Craig Greenberg announced Tuesday. The memorandum of understanding between the city’s Office of Inspector General

By Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN Ohio has filed a federal lawsuit against Norfolk Southern over last month’s toxic chemical derailment in East Palestine, Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday. Yost outlined the 58-count complaint, saying that Norfolk Southern violated numerous state, federal and Ohio common laws and violated the state’s Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability

By Jeremy Grisham and Chris Boyette, CNN A 14-year-old was killed and two other teens were hospitalized Tuesday after a vehicle crashed into them while they were riding horses that the Dallas Police Department says were stolen. Two of the horses also died, Dallas Police said in a news release. Police responded to the crash

By Melissa Alonso and Jennifer Henderson, CNN The former sheriff of a suburban Atlanta county was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison on civil rights charges related to his treatment of incarcerated people, according to the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Victor Hill, previously the Clayton County sheriff, was

By Josh Campbell, CNN A gunman races across the quad at a southern California university, spraying a barrage of bullets from the barrel of an assault-style rifle. Campus police arrive on scene and return fire as the suspect rushes toward the school’s library. As the officers give chase, throngs of screaming students and teachers flood

By Tina Burnside, CNN A 13-year-old girl reported missing in Dallas was found locked in a shed more than 1,000 miles away in North Carolina after she was abducted and raped by a man she met on a social media platform, authorities said. The girl was found in Lexington, about an hour’s drive northeast of

By Alexandra Meeks, CNN Make sure you’re getting a long, restful night’s sleep before you head to the doctor’s office for a vaccination. A new study finds you should aim for at least six hours of quality slumber in order to maximize your body’s response to a vaccine. Here’s what else you need to know to