CNN – National

By Jalen Brown and Justin Gamble, CNN The Kankakee School Board voted Monday unanimously to terminate first-year math teacher John Donovan after several students recorded him calling a Black student the n-word, sparking outrage from students and families in the Illinois school district. Videos of the incident, secretly recorded October 20 by multiple students in

By Raja Razek, CNN Winning numbers were drawn Saturday night for the second largest jackpot in Powerball history. The winning numbers are: 19, 31, 40, 46, 57 with a Powerball of 23. Powerball game leaders increased the jackpot estimate to $825 million for Saturday night’s drawing after “strong” ticket sales across the country, according to

By Kristina Sgueglia, CNN A now-former Philadelphia sheriff’s deputy is charged with selling guns illegally to an FBI informant while he was a deputy, including two that were traced back to the deadly Roxborough shooting, two weeks earlier, that left a 14-year-old dead and four juveniles wounded, according to court documents. Samir Ahmad is charged

By Laura Ly, CNN The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, a prominent faith leader who led Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, died on Friday, the church said. He was 73. “The Butts Family and entire Abyssinian Baptist Church membership solicit your prayers for us in our bereavement,” the church said in a statement about the

By Ella Nilsen, CNN The US Department of Interior announced Friday it is launching an “expedited” process to potentially change water-flow operations on the drought-stricken Colorado River, as Lake Mead and Lake Powell have fallen to alarming new lows. In the possible actions it laid out, Interior said it will consider using its federal authority

By Theresa Waldrop, CNN An 8-year-old Colorado boy is on track to become the youngest person to climb El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park and he hopes to reach the top of the summit on Friday evening, his father said. On their last leg of the four-day adventure, Sam Adventure Baker — his real

By Kristina Sgueglia, Zenebou Sylla, Justin Lear and Laura Ly, CNN At least six people were injured after a shooting erupted Friday outside a church in Pittsburgh where a funeral was taking place, police said. One victim originally reported in critical condition is now in stable condition, among five other people also being treated for

By Liam Reilly and Richard Roth, CNN A former United Nations communications specialist in Iraq, whom authorities say drugged 20 victims and sexually assaulted at least 13 of those victims over a nearly two-decade period, was sentenced Thursday in a Manhattan federal court to 15 years in prison. Karim Elkorany, 39, pleaded guilty on May

By Ray Sanchez, Samantha Beech and Nicki Brown, CNN A pair of experts at a pretrial hearing for the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley should be allowed to testify before a jury to dispel the myth mass shootings can’t be prevented, a prosecutor said Friday. Jennifer and James Crumbley have each been charged

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Gaps in fencing along the US-Mexico border can be a dramatic — and sometimes puzzling — sight. Miles of tall steel bollards end abruptly, giving way to open space or much smaller barriers that are designed to block vehicles from crossing, but not people. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says he

By Claudia Dominguez, CNN A Miami Beach, Florida, condominium building was evacuated Thursday, with residents given just hours to leave following a structural inspection of the property, which sits less than two miles from site of last year’s deadly Surfside condo collapse. The evacuation order this week for the Port Royale building came during its

By Elizabeth Wolfe and Raja Razek, CNN The gunman who killed two people and wounded several others in a school shooting in St. Louis, Missouri, on Monday was flagged by an FBI background check but was still able to purchase the AR-15-style rifle he used in the attack from a private seller, police said. When

By Alta Spells, Leyla Santiago and Sara Weisfeldt, CNN The University of Florida Faculty Senate approved a no-confidence resolution Thursday on the selection process to appoint US Sen. Ben Sasse as the next president, officials said. The 67 to 15 vote comes after Sasse, a Republican senator from Nebraska, became the only person considered for

By Raja Razek, CNN Police in Oklahoma are conducting a homicide investigation after eight people were found dead in a house fire. “It is a complex scene given the state of the house due to the fire damage,” the Broken Arrow Police Department said in a Facebook post Thursday evening. The circumstances behind the fire

By Laura Ly, CNN A suspect is in custody after allegedly hijacking a New York City bus Thursday morning with “what appeared to be a firearm,” police officials said. The 44-year-old man allegedly ran in front of the bus with what appeared to be a gun just after 7:30 a.m. in the St. Albans neighborhood

By Amir Vera, Melissa Alonso and Amy Simonson, CNN The sheriff of a suburban Atlanta county was found guilty Wednesday of six federal counts of violating the civil rights of incarcerated people, court documents show. Suspended Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill was found guilty on six of the seven counts against him related to incidents

By Chris Boyette and Emma Tucker, CNN The Colorado 8-year-old who set out this week to become the youngest person to climb El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park is over halfway to reaching the summit, his father — and climbing companion — said. Sam Adventure Baker and his father, Joe Baker, started their trek

By Amanda Watts and Holly Yan, CNN The man who gunned down the Houston area’s beloved first Sikh sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to death, according to court records. “We are extremely grateful that justice has been served,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted. “Sandeep changed our Sheriff’s Office family for the better, and we

By Kiely Westhoff, CNN Laura Kavanagh, who became the first female commissioner of the Fire Department of New York Thursday, hopes her appointment will pave the way for other women to hold the role in the future. “This moment — me being first — only matters if I am not the last,” said Kavanagh. Having

By Melissa Alonso, CNN The Miami Beach City Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to prohibit discriminatory practices “based on the texture or style of a person’s hair,” according to a news release. The new ordinance bans discrimination based on a person’s hair when seeking housing, employment, public services, funding or use of facilities across the

By Laura Ly and Eric Levenson, CNN A Massachusetts man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of Vanessa Marcotte, a 27-year-old Google employee who was killed after she went for a walk in 2016, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Angelo Colon-Ortiz, 36, of Worcester, won’t be eligible for parole for at

By Leah Asmelash, CNN Five years ago, a single hashtag sent waves across the world: #MeToo. News of sexual harassment and assault allegations against ubiquitous Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had just broken. In its wake, countless people came forward with stories of sexual abuse — accusing high-profile men from former president George H. W. Bush

By Zoe Sottile, CNN A Tuesday court ruling has cleared the way for Richmond, Virginia, to remove its last-standing Confederate statue. The statue, standing at the intersection of the city’s Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue, depicts A.P. Hill, a Confederate general killed during the Third Battle of Petersburg in the American Civil War. The statue

By Dakin Andone, Shimon Prokupecz and Matthew J. Friedman, CNN In the face of calls for his resignation by victims’ relatives and a major newspaper, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw is not stepping down, saying at a meeting of the agency’s oversight board Thursday that his officers “did not fail the

By Justin Gamble and Dalila-Johari Paul, CNN Four years after a synagogue attack that forever changed her life, Andrea Wedner hopes to inspire the next generation to root out antisemitism amid continued reports of anti-Jewish bigotry. For weeks, Andrea and her husband, Ron Wedner, have been working with students at the Community Day School in

By Nouran Salahieh and Rebekah Riess, CNN The AR-15-style rifle used in the deadly St. Louis school shooting had been taken from the shooter’s possession during an interaction with police about a week before the attack, and it’s unclear how he got it back, police say. The gunman, 19-year-old Orlando Harris, opened fire on Monday,

By Andy Rose and Amanda Jackson, CNN Several people were injured Wednesday at an amusement park in Branson, Missouri, after sections of a train ride derailed from the track, the park said. Six guests and one employee were transported by ambulance to get medical treatment, the Silver Dollar City theme park said in a statement

By Andy Rose, CNN A Tulsa, Oklahoma, police supervisor was placed on administrative duty Thursday after an audio recording revealed the sergeant making inappropriate comments about police brutality protesters during a training session. The comments were made earlier this month during a Citizens Police Academy meeting, where residents can learn more about policing operations and

By Amanda Watts, Andi Babineau and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN The Environmental Protection Agency is recommending that Louisiana health and environmental officials consider relocating students from an elementary school near a chemical plant after the federal agency found the children may be exposed to harmful levels of toxins, according to a letter obtained by CNN. In

By Elizabeth Wolfe and Amanda Musa, CNN After a diver found what appeared to be a human bone in Lake Mead, the park searched the area and uncovered more human remains, the National Park Service confirmed Wednesday. The diver, who is a private business operator at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, found the bone

By Melissa Alonso and Amy Simonson, CNN An Arkansas man is in the hospital — but expected to recover — after he was engulfed by a fireball when he was tased by state police while wearing a backpack with a gallon of gasoline inside, according to a news release from Arkansas State Police. Around 1:18

By Stella Chan and Taylor Romine, CNN A doctor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of an inmate at a detention facility in Southern California in November 2019, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s office. Elisa Serna, 24, was an inmate at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in

By Andi Babineau, CNN Two men accused of cheating in an Ohio fishing tournament have pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against them. Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky are each charged with cheating, attempted grand theft, possessing criminal tools, all felonies, and unlawful ownership of wild animals, a misdemeanor. CNN has reached out to

By David Williams, CNN A Kentucky coal miner who rushed straight from work to take his family to a University of Kentucky Wildcats practice game is on the shortlist for father of the year and earned praise from legendary coach John Calipari, who shared a picture of him and expressed admiration for his hard work

By Chris Boyette, CNN A sheriff in western Iowa says local, state and federal authorities are “actively investigating” in a rural area where a woman claimed her late father disposed of dozens of bodies of people he killed decades ago. “We are actively investigating this, and who wouldn’t?” Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope told CNN

By Kacey Cherry and Raja Razek, CNN A former county official in Nevada entered a not guilty plea Wednesday in the stabbing death of a Las Vegas investigative journalist last month. Robert Telles, who was the public administrator for Clark County, is charged with murder in the death of Jeff German, who was found stabbed

By Amir Vera and Stephanie Gallman, CNN Authorities have identified the boy found dead inside a suitcase in rural Indiana earlier this year, according to a Wednesday news release from the Indiana State Police. The body of Cairo Ammar Jordan of Atlanta, Georgia, was found in rural Washington County inside a hard-shell suitcase with a

By Chris Boyette, CNN Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration did not comply with state public records laws and must turn over records relating to flights taking migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a judge ruled Tuesday. On September 14, two planes picked up 48 migrants in San Antonio, Texas, and dropped them off in Martha’s

By Holly Yan, CNN To help thwart potential school violence, students and staff need to beware of certain warning signs — and feel comfortable reporting them. But “the general public, they really don’t know what to look for,” said former FBI special agent and profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, who has studied school shootings for more

By Eric Levenson, Bill Kirkos and Brad Parks, CNN Darrell Brooks was found guilty of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide on Wednesday for driving his SUV into a crowd of Christmas parade attendees in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last November, killing six people and wounding dozens more. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison

By Taylor Romine and Aya Elamroussi, CNN Los Angeles police have launched a criminal investigation into the recording of a conversation that included racist comments and was leaked online, leading to the resignation of two officials involved, the police chief said. The leaked audio, which was posted anonymously on Reddit and obtained by The Los

By Nouran Salahieh, Holly Yan and Rebekah Riess, CNN When family members of 19-year-old Orlando Harris grew concerned about his mental health, they seemed to do everything right, the St. Louis police commissioner said. “They contacted us, said that he had a firearm,” Commissioner Michael Sack said Wednesday. “The mother at the time wanted it

By Zenebou Sylla and Isa Kaufmann-Geballe, CNN Two men accused of assaulting people on New York subway platforms are facing charges, authorities said Tuesday. The incidents happened Friday and Sunday and are the latest high-profile violent events of the past few months — including some in its subway system — that have prompted city officials

By Amir Vera, Bill Kirkos and Brad Parks, CNN Darrell Brooks told jurors Tuesday during closing arguments he did not intentionally plow a SUV through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last year, which left six dead and dozens more injured. Brooks has been representing himself during this roughly three-week trial. He tearfully asked jurors

By Amir Vera and Stella Chan, CNN The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in Seven Trees, near San Jose, California on Tuesday. Preliminary information from the USGS says the quake was 6.9 kilometers (4.2 miles) deep and hit around 11:42 a.m. PT. About 100,000 people received an advanced notification from the

By Stella Chan, CNN After nearly two decades on death row at San Quentin State Prison, Scott Peterson was moved to a different facility, more than two years after his death sentence was overturned. Last week, Peterson was transferred to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, about an hour southeast of Sacramento, according to the

By Rebekah Riess, CNN The man who sold a pistol to a gunman who used it to hold four people hostage at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue in an 11-hour standoff in January has been sentenced to 95 months in prison, the US attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced. Henry “Michael” Dwight Williams, who

By Holly Yan, Adrienne Broaddus and Caroll Alvarado, CNN Jean Kuczka and Alexzandria Bell were on the brink of celebrating exciting milestones in their lives. Alexzandria, 15, was looking forward to traveling to Los Angeles to celebrate her Sweet 16, her father said. And Kuczka, 61, was getting ready to retire after a long, illustrious

By Casey Tolan, Majlie de Puy Kamp and Isabelle Chapman. Photographs by Maddie McGarvey for CNN A few blocks from the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, America’s battle over abortion is playing out under one roof. On one side of a squat single-story office building, a Planned Parenthood clinic offers reproductive health care and

By Pete Muntean and Aya Elamroussi, CNN Federal investigators are asking the manufacturer of a seaplane that plunged into a Washington state bay last month to mandate inspections of the plane’s tail section, citing an issue that could potentially lead to a possible loss of airplane control. The request comes after a float plane carrying

By Josh Campbell, CNN A US Navy sailor who was arrested in a federal undercover operation targeting illicit weapon sales has been convicted of possessing and selling unregistered machine guns, the Justice Department announced Monday. Patrick Tate Adamiak, 28, was indicted earlier this year in Virginia after special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,

By Holly Yan, Rebekah Riess and Nouran Salahieh, CNN The 19-year-old gunman who killed two people and wounded several others at his former high school left a note saying his struggles led to “the perfect storm for a mass shooter,” St. Louis police said. Orlando Harris graduated from Central Visual and Performing Arts High School

By Andi Babineau and Jennifer Henderson, CNN Police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man suspected of attempting to abduct a 10-year-old girl last week and have released surveillance footage of the alleged incident. In the footage, the child appears to be running quickly down a residential street,

By Amy Simonson, CNN Five people have been trapped about 200 feet underground at the Grand Canyon Caverns since Sunday in Peach Springs, Arizona, officials said. The group became stranded at the tourist site after an elevator malfunctioned, according to Jon Paxton, a spokesperson for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office. “Yesterday five folks were exiting

By Shimon Prokupecz, Matthew J. Friedman and Rachel Clarke, CNN A member of the elite Texas Rangers unit has been suspended and is being investigated for the actions he failed to take during the long standoff at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, when a shooter was left unchallenged for more than an hour, sources

By Amir Vera and Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN The father of missing 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said Monday. Adam Montgomery, 32, was also charged with falsifying physical evidence, abuse of a corpse and tampering with witnesses or informants,

By Jalen Brown and Laura Ly, CNN A New Jersey elementary school teacher is suing Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad for viral social media posts made last year accusing her of forcibly removing a student’s hijab, a headscarf worn by some Muslim women and girls. The defamation lawsuit filed on Oct. 5 accuses the American fencer

By Stephanie Gallman, CNN If your parents name you “Adventure,” they probably hoped you’d do some adventurous things. Sam Adventure Baker understood his assignment. The Colorado 8-year-old sets out Tuesday to become the youngest person to reach the summit of El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park. The journey is expected to take four days

By Bill Kirkos and Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN On the day his state trial was set to begin on charges of aiding and abetting in George Floyd’s killing, a former Minneapolis police officer pleaded guilty Monday. J. Alexander Kueng, who was slated to stand trial with Tou Thao, was charged with aiding and abetting second-degree

By Amanda Watts, Paul P. Murphy, Caroll Alvarado and Steve Almasy, CNN A teen and an adult were killed in a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday morning, police Commissioner Michael Sack said. Officers arrived at the school four minutes after the first 911 call and it

By Rosa Flores, Rosalina Nieves and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN Last week, Stephen Balka found himself living a parent’s nightmare. His 2-month-old son Adrian was struggling to breathe, sometimes going as long as seven seconds between gasping breaths, the father said. “It’s a very terrifying situation,” Balka said. “It’s one of my biggest fears.” After rushing

By Dakin Andone, CNN A recent move by Texas school districts to provide families with child identification and DNA kits has sparked anxiety amid the horrifying backdrop that genetic material was needed by authorities to identify the fourth-grade victims killed this year in a shooting at a Uvalde elementary school. The kits, however, are not

By Sonya Hamasaki, Elizabeth Wolfe and Tina Burnside, CNN The man who allegedly shot and killed two employees in the maternity ward of a Dallas hospital was in the building to attend the birth of his child, authorities said. Nestor Hernandez, 30, was arrested on Saturday and is facing capital murder charges after authorities say

By Sonya Hamasaki Los Angeles officials are condemning the display of banners from a freeway overpass this weekend by a group of demonstrators seen in bystander photos showing support for antisemitic comments recently made by rapper Kanye West, also known as Ye. West has recently made a series of antisemitic outbursts, notably on October 8,

By Lauren del Valle, Holly Yan, Yon Pomrenze and Jean Casarez, CNN A teen accused of killing four students and wounding seven others at a Michigan high school last year pleaded guilty Monday to all charges against him in what prosecutors are calling a landmark case. Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism

By Ray Sanchez, CNN Fourth- and eighth-graders fell behind in reading and had the largest ever decline in math, according to a national educational assessment showing the devastating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on America’s children. The alarming findings are based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and math exams, often called the

By Chris Boyette, CNN A couple wanted in connection with a murder in Las Vegas last week were found dead after leading police on a 35-mile car chase and escaping into the Arizona desert Friday, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. Hunter McGuire, 26, and his girlfriend, Samantha Branek, 32, were found by a

By Mark Morales and Gloria Pazmino, CNN New York has created three task forces aimed at streamlining the city’s justice system in the hopes of decreasing violence, officials announced Sunday. City officials touted frank discussions on crime solutions with criminal justice stakeholders at a two-day summit with Mayor Eric Adams held at Gracie Mansion, the