Latest news with #unsanitary
CBS News
24-07-2025
- CBS News
Sacramento youth cheer, football teams frustrated with unsafe public park bathrooms
A mother is speaking out after she said the bathrooms at the park where her youth football and cheer team practices have become unsanitary and unsafe. The Dragon Youth Organization practices at Lawrence Park in South Sacramento off of Fruitridge Road. Sabrina Lovelady, the team mom, said the organization is made up of 100 children between 4 and 14 years old. They pay about $30 a day for a permit to practice at the park. She said the team has only been there for three weeks, but the issues with the bathrooms are becoming more than just gross. She said they're becoming dangerous. "I saw his private parts and I told my girls, 'Please do not come in here, please walk away,' " said Nevaeh Lovelady, the 16-year-old cheer coach who is also the daughter of Sabrina. Nevaeh was traumatized after taking girls on her team to the women's restroom only to find a man with the stall door open, exposing himself. "I can't even let them go wash their hands without looking over my shoulder 50 times because we have people posted up at every corner and I am not sure if they are going to snatch them up," Sabrina said. Sabrina is calling out the city to do more for the children's safety. She has been documenting what has been happening inside the park restrooms: finding stalls trashed, overflown toilets, drug paraphernalia and said suspicious strangers sometimes stop to watch the children. "We are here to keep the kids off the street and the city voices that it wants to do that and partnership, but where are you guys?" Sabrina said. The city recently repainted the restrooms and added two porta potties on Friday, but by the time the team arrived Monday, it was already trashed. "Porta potties are almost overflown," Sabrina said. "There's two homeless people locked in one bathroom lighting things on fire." The city said the problem is that it does not have the staff or funding. It said it is working on a plan to limit restroom access at the park for only permitted events like practices. "They are just mad at society and it's their way to get back at society for whatever reason," said Trevor Seifferc, who is homeless. The city's park maintenance manager sent an email to Sabrina on Wednesday morning that said in part: "Every person on my team, including myself, wishes to desperately to prevent the terrible things that are happening within Lawrence Park, but it is not within our current capabilities. the awful things that are happening at Lawrence Park are just one representation of similar events that occur at many of our parks across the city. Our society has a problem, and it can only be solved at societal level." The city said it maintains hundreds of parks, so staff is stretched thin. It plans to do more patrols in the area when it can. The City of Sacramento gave CBS13 this statement: "We're currently reviewing options to limit restroom access at this location only for permitted park events. Additionally, Park Rangers will look to increase park and restroom checks during the group's permitted events as staffing allows. These efforts are being evaluated alongside ongoing resource considerations. The City maintains over 200 parks, each with different levels of usage and maintenance needs, and our ability to respond quickly is often constrained by available staffing and funding." CBS13 also reached out to the Sacramento Police Department, but it deferred us to the city park rangers.
New York Times
22-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Video Taken by Migrant Shows Overcrowded ICE Holding Cell in Manhattan
For weeks, immigrants have complained about overcrowded and unsanitary conditions inside the holding cells of the federal immigration offices in New York City, drawing scrutiny from lawmakers and denials from the Trump administration. On Tuesday, new video footage offered the first glimpse inside one of the four cells on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has held hundreds of migrants for days at a time since ICE stepped up arrests this summer. Two videos, which were recorded by a migrant who was held there last week and sneaked in his cellphone, show more than a dozen men sprawled on the floor atop thin thermal blankets or sitting on benches built into the room's white walls. In one video, the man, who recorded it near one of the room's two metal toilets, is heard saying in Spanish that the migrants were being held 'like dogs in here.' ICE had traditionally used the cells, which don't have beds, to hold a small number of migrants for a few hours while they are processed and dispatched to detention centers outside the city. But the cells have become crowded since the agency scaled up arrests at its offices and in nearby immigration courthouses in May, forcing migrants to sleep on the floor or to sit upright, sometimes for several days. The video appeared to confirm some of those conditions, which had previously been described by migrants in interviews with The New York Times, and had been highlighted by activists and Democratic lawmakers, who have been denied access to inspect the cells. The video was obtained by the New York Immigration Coalition through a Queens assemblywoman, Catalina Cruz, and first reported by The City, a local news outlet. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said that 26 Federal Plaza was not a detention center and that detainees were held there only 'briefly.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
22-07-2025
- General
- CBS News
Chicago woman says rotting berries from neighbor's tree are feeding rat problems in Lincoln Square
A woman from Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood said a giant tree's sweet berries are causing a sour situation, feeding into the neighborhood's rat problem, and no one will listen to her concerns. "That's why I chose to contact Channel 2 News," she said. "I need someone to listen to me." Jane, who did not want to share her last name, never fancied herself a farmer. But for the last 28 summers, she has gotten quite the haul of rotten berries landing in her backyard. CBS News Chicago met Jane as she was scooping rotten berries out of nets hanging between garages on her property and collecting them in plastic bags. The daily harvests add up. "Since I've been gathering them and weighing them, since June 14, I'm over 215 pounds of berries, just this year" Jane said. The nets don't catch all the berries; even more are piled up on the ground and nearby garages. They are not edible for humans. "You can't use these for cooking. You can't use these for donating to anybody," Jane said. Instead, the berries make a delicious meal for pigeons, bees, fruit flies and, most frustratingly, rats. Jane has taken plenty of pictures of the rats the berries attract. One mother rat was spotted carrying her baby as she stopped for a snack earlier this month. Jane says the berries are creating an unsanitary, slippery and smelly situation. "There is rat feces everywhere," Jane said. The berries fall for about six weeks straight, and end up rolling around in the nets and on the ground. Jane can't control the decaying fruit because it is not coming from her yard. It is coming from a gigantic mulberry tree on her neighbor's property. The tree in question is so big that some of its branches are held up with metal. "If we get a sudden downburst, that chain's not going to hold anything," Jane said. Jane shared her concerns with 47th Ward Ald. Matt Martin, but was told the city can't do much because the tree is on privately owned land. "It is your right to take down the branches that encroach on your property line, but I know you mentioned the problem is with the entire tree," Martin's staff wrote. "Our office does not have the capability to compel your neighbors to take down the tree." The "take matters into your own hands" advice when it comes to tree branches crossing property lines doesn't always work out. CBS News Chicago covered a similar overbearing tree story in 2021. In that case, Roula Savakis of Chicago's Peterson Park community was so frustrated with a wall of trees blocking her windows that she hacked them back. In response, her neighbors took her to court, alleging at least $100,000 of damage. Asher and Cynthia Kohn accused Savakis of violating the Illinois Wrongful Tree Cutting Act. They claimed she damaged 38 of their trees intentionally and illegally. Four years later, CBS News Chicago has learned that the Savakis family ended up selling their home to the tree-owning neighbors and relocating. In Lincoln Square, as Jane's dog Brutus went hunting for mulberry-loving rats, CBS News Chicago went looking for the tree owners. Jane and two plant experts suspect the tree is a white mulberry. "Interestingly, white mulberry was introduced to the U.S. back in colonial times because it is the preferred food of the silkworm caterpillar, which is where we get natural silk from," said Jamie Viebach, horticulture educator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Viebach said while white mulberry is not officially listed as an invasive species in Illinois, it is non-native and very weedy. "It can basically be considered invasive (though, without the legal ramifications of the official designation)," Viebach wrote. And the tree is treated as invasive by some land managers. "It is not regulated or banned in any statewide way in Illinois, though it is often managed and removed by land managers when it is found growing in natural areas," said Chris Evans, an extension forestry and research specialist at the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Viebach also noted that the Morton Arboretum lists white mulberry as a "problem plant." Jane agrees with the description. "This is a health issue right now," she said. "This is a safety issue." CBS News Chicago knocked on the neighbors' door, but never got an answer. The city can issue citations to homeowners whose vegetation creates a "public nuisance." CBS News Chicago was told that while Savakis' situation with her neighbors' trees in 2021 met the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation criteria for a public nuisance, Jane's berry situation does not meet those criteria and does not warrant any fines. The city said the following constitutes a nuisance per ordinance 10-32-140 (Trees, shrubs or other plant materials – Public nuisance):
CBS News
05-06-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Family captures videos of mice and droppings at nursing facility in Philadelphia
He went in for physical therapy and recovery, but was met with mice and rodent droppings on the floor in several areas around the room. A Philadelphia family called CBS News Philadelphia after their brother was admitted to Graduate Post Acute, a nursing facility in Center City. The family didn't let him stay there because he has cancer, and they say the conditions were too unsanitary. Michael D'Emilio was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2018, and he's been fighting ever since. "It's just been a struggle for him," Rob D'Emilio, his younger brother, said. "He's the strongest person I know." This past April, Michael D'Emilio spent nearly a month in the hospital with pneumonia and needed physical therapy and rehab before he could go home. He said he decided on Graduate Post Acute, a nursing facility in Center City. His family expected him to be there for a few weeks until he was strong enough to come home, but after just a few hours of being there, the D'Emilios said they discovered mice in the facility. They captured video of a mouse darting out from under the bed and then later a mouse running in the hallway. "I'm thinking of getting out because of all the diseases mice have," Michael D'Emilio said. D'Emilio and his siblings decided he would not stay the night. "I don't want to wait for a mouse to come into the bed with me," he said. Rob D'Emilio took other videos that he claims show mouse droppings in different areas of the floor in Michael's room. "The smell of his room got me first," Rob D'Emilio said. "It smelled like a pet shop." Because Michael is immunocompromised, the D'Emilios took him home, but they're worried about other patients. "You don't want to keep things like that to yourselves because someone else is going to be in that environment that doesn't have siblings like Mike has, or any family," Rob D'Emilio said, "and they're going to be stuck there without a voice." Through a statement, the facility administrator said, "Graduate Post Acute takes the care and wellbeing of its residents very seriously. This community recently changed hands in 2025, and since then we have diligently addressed challenges stemming from deferred maintenance, including pest control. The team here is committed to providing the highest standards for quality and comfort, and we will continue to work toward that goal." Graduate Post Acute also sent CBS News Philadelphia a letter from Aardvark Pest Control Services saying in part, "We implemented industry-standard techniques, including baiting and trapping, which is ongoing, and worked with contractors hired by the center to address structural points of entry identified during our visits. This situation is a top priority, and the progress over the past few months has been positive." Graduate Post Acute is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The most recent inspections available on the department's website make no mention of rodents or rodent droppings. The facility informed CBS News Philadelphia that an unscheduled inspection conducted last week turned up no infestations. The D'Emilios said they reported the facility to the state. A spokesperson told CBS News Philadelphia, "The Department of Health takes all complaints seriously. If the Department receives a complaint related to a health care facility, it is investigated through what the Department refers to as a survey. Although the Department cannot comment on surveys, survey results are made publicly available at least 41 days following the completion of the survey."
