In a twisted turn of events, a New York grandmother’s mysterious disappearance during a Las Vegas trip has taken a chilling twist. As days passed without any sign of her return, her family began to receive unsettling text messages from her phone, ominously demanding Bitcoin.

Alisa Goods, a 63-year-old grandmother who cherished her time with her five grandchildren, was reported missing on August 10th, just two days after she was last seen. The last sighting of her was near the intersection of Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue, as documented by a missing person report and confirmed by KLAS-TV.

At the time of her disappearance, Goods was staying with her longtime friend Roger John. According to John, she left his apartment at approximately 12:45 p.m. on August 8th, intending to catch a bus to a nearby CVS to purchase iron pills.

Tragically, she never returned from that outing.

“Last I saw her, she was going down the stairs. And I said, ‘OK, see you later,’ And that’s the last time I saw her,” John told the station.

John said he initially wasn’t alarmed because Goods sometimes spent hours out shopping. When she didn’t return, he began calling and texting her without success and later contacted her family.

“This is not like her to just go missing,” Goods’ niece, Alana Calloway, told the outlet. “She has a family that loves her, cares about her. We want her home and want her home safe and alive.”

On Aug. 12, Goods’ family says messages started coming from her phone.

The person asked for gas money and Bitcoin, requests the family found suspicious because Goods doesn’t drive and didn’t have a car in Las Vegas.

“I said, ‘What do you need gas for? The car?’ My aunt does not drive. There is no car,” Calloway told CBS News.

The family says they still don’t know who is texting from Goods’ phone, raising the possibility that she had been kidnapped.

“If they have her phone, there’s a possibility that they have her,” Calloway told the outlet. “I want to know that she’s OK and that she is alive.”

The family has checked local hospitals, jails and the coroner’s office but has found no sign of Goods. Her daughter, Kristen, traveled to Las Vegas to help search for her.

“I am hoping to God for the best, but my heart can’t take what it could be, which is the worst,” Kristen Goods told the station.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police (LVMPD) told CBS News that Goods’ missing person case remains active and asked anyone with information to contact investigators.

News Media has reached out to LVMPD but did not immediately hear back.

In a quaint coastal town in California, the serene summer months have been disrupted by unusual power outages. Surprisingly, these electricity woes are attributable to a feathered troublemaker.

Wild turkeys have ruffled feathers in Cambria, causing havoc by repeatedly cutting off electricity. Since mid-July, both locals and businesses have been wrestling with brief but recurring power blackouts.

These power cuts tend to hit during daylight, usually lasting about an hour, and can occur twice daily or over consecutive days, The Tribune reported. The outages have thrown morning routines into chaos, from preparing for the workday to brewing coffee, and even affected the operation of critical medical equipment.

Businesses have not been spared the inconvenience; restaurant staff have had their workflow disrupted just as they start food prep and get ready to welcome diners.

Residents turned to social media to seek explanations, prompting an initial response from PG&E. The energy company suggested that the outages were caused by “an animal contacting the powerline” during these incidents.

The utility later confirmed to the Tribune that six outages in the area since July were caused by wild turkeys.

It may sound like an unlikely explanation, but PG&E regional communications representative Stephanie Magallon explained that the birds can create a rather unusual electrical hazard.

“These large birds perch on power lines,” she said. “When they take off, the push from their weight causes the lines to swing and come into contact with one another. When that occurs, our enhanced powerline safety settings (EPSS) detect the hazard and automatically shut off power to prevent an ignition.”

The system is particularly important along the North Coast, where power infrastructure runs through or near areas at elevated risk of wildfires.

PG&E said its enhanced safety settings are activated based on daily wildfire conditions and can cut electricity extremely quickly when a potential hazard is detected.

“We evaluate wildfire risk each day to determine when we should turn them on,” Magallon told the California based outlet. “These settings shut off power within one tenth of a second after detecting hazards on the power line, such as contact from an animal or tree branch, to prevent an ignition.”

Rather than simply blaming the birds and moving on, PG&E crews have been investigating ways to prevent the unusual outages from happening again.

The utility said crews recently worked to modify the lines by creating more space between them, reducing the chances that the wires will touch when a turkey lands or takes off.

Residents and observers have reported increasingly large flocks of turkeys around the coastal community, with the birds commonly roosting in trees close to electrical lines.

Although wild turkeys can fly, they aren’t exactly graceful long-distance aviators. Some residents have reported seeing the birds land on power lines while taking off from nearby trees.

Young turkeys that have recently fledged may be even more likely to misjudge the distance and wind up where they shouldn’t.

The feathered troublemakers have also tangled with Cambria’s electrical infrastructure before.

In 2021, a flying turkey was reportedly seen striking a power line during an outage that affected much of the community, according to reporting cited by the Tribune. PG&E did not confirm at the time that the bird caused the outage.

For now, the latest incidents have left residents with an unusual explanation for their flickering lights — and PG&E with a decidedly unconventional reliability problem.

“We understand these outages have been frustrating for customers, and we appreciate the community’s patience while we worked to identify and address the cause,” Magallon said.

A menacing dust storm is set to barrel through Arizona within hours, causing alarm as it may carry dangerous fungal spores capable of inducing a life-threatening illness.

Central and southern Arizona are bracing for the so-called ‘fungal storm,’ impacting hundreds of thousands of residents. This has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a blowing dust advisory for the affected regions on Wednesday.

The forecast predicts wind gusts reaching up to 55 mph, set to hurl dense dust, debris, and soil across cities including Phoenix and Tucson between 6 pm and 1 am ET (3 pm to 10 pm local time).

Primarily impacting parts of Maricopa, Pinal, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, the storm threatens areas like the suburbs of Phoenix—Buckeye, Avondale, Ahwatukee, and Queen Creek. An estimated 1.5 million people fall within the advisory’s path.

With the National Weather Service predicting that visibility will drop to a mere quarter of a mile on Wednesday, travelers are cautioned to expect perilous driving conditions throughout the night.

Another concern during an Arizona dust storm is the microscopic fungus called Coccidioides, which is blown into the air from local soil and can trigger the potentially fatal lung infection Valley fever when inhaled.

NWS warned in a statement: ‘Persons with respiratory problems should make preparations to stay indoors until the storm passes. Be ready for a sudden drop in visibility to near zero.’

Arizona officials have not confirmed that the dust storm will contain the fungus, but the CDC has warned that Coccidioides is found throughout all of Arizona and its neighboring states in the Southwest.

NWS added that conditions throughout Arizona on Wednesday, including the chance for severe thunderstorms and high winds, will make it possible for a phenomenon known as haboobs to form.

These are huge walls of dust kicked up from the dry ground right when the soil is at its driest. The combination of extreme heat and drought plus monsoon winds create more frequent and intense dust storms carrying Coccidioides.

For people caught outside during a fungal storm, the spores turn into growing fungal cells that the immune system typically fights off, causing mild flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough and headaches in most patients.

However, severe infections can spread to the organs and bones and become fatal. The CDC has warned that between 15 and 30 percent of all cases of pneumonia in the Phoenix and Tucson areas are caused by breathing in Coccidioides. 

NWS warned that individuals suffering from heart disease and chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma will be among those at the greatest risk for complications.

‘Those most at risk may feel better if they avoid outside exercise today, keeping windows and doors closed to help reduce exposure,’ the weather agency added.

Those driving through Arizona have also been warned to be ready for potentially fatal road conditions, as blowing dust can make it impossible to see anything within seconds.

‘If you encounter blowing dust or blowing sand on the roadway or see it approaching, pull off the road as far as possible and put your vehicle in park. Turn the lights all the way off and keep [your] foot off the brake pedal. Remember, “Pull Aside, Stay Alive,”‘ NWS advised in their alert.

At the same time as the dust and thunderstorms, an Extreme Heat Warning has been issued throughout the same parts of central and southern Arizona through Friday.

Temperatures are expected to compound breathing issues outside, with the heat index approaching 110°F.

The heat index is the ‘feels like’ temperature, which is hotter when the air is more humid. On a 90-degree day, high humidity can make the ‘feels like’ temperature reach 105°F.  

‘Overexposure can cause heat cramps and heat exhaustion to develop and, without intervention, can lead to heat stroke,’ NWS said.

The extreme forecast is being fueled by a massive heat dome, a system of high pressure, blanketing the western half of the US. The pressure traps heat and humidity close to ground like a lid on a boiling pot. 

This is a breaking story. More details to follow. 

Christopher Kennedy anticipated a swift and uneventful X-ray visit ahead of his routine surgery. Little did he know, this would lead to a startling discovery as a technician noticed scarring on his lungs.

At 68, Kennedy, a former Air Force technician, was caught off guard by the diagnosis. He had shown no symptoms, living an active life filled with regular exercise, landscaping his garden, and training Bernese Mountain dogs to serve as therapy animals in hospitals.

After undergoing multiple tests, Kennedy received a sobering diagnosis from his pulmonologist: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). As explained by Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a representative for the American Lung Association and a Johns Hopkins pulmonologist, though not involved in Kennedy’s care, IPF is a mystifying illness where scar tissue develops in the lungs, hampering oxygen flow to the bloodstream. This progressive disease, noted for its severe mortality rate, remains without an identifiable cause.

Initially, Kennedy believed he could overcome the disease. Yet, as his lung functionality continued to decline, this notion proved overly optimistic. The medications intended to slow the fibrosis were ineffective, and routine activities demanded supplemental oxygen. In 2024, Dr. Aman Pande from the Cleveland Clinic delivered a grim prognosis: Kennedy had less than one year left to live.

Reflecting on life’s unpredictability, Kennedy shared, “We all wonder, as human beings, how we’re going to go. And you never know. It’s a great mystery. Well, for the first time in my life, I was told ‘This is how you’re going to go.'”

“You come out one of two ways”    

Pande did have one option for Kennedy: They could see if he was eligible for a double-lung transplant. Kennedy, at 74, was older than most patients who undergo the operation, but he was otherwise a promising candidate, Pande said. Lung transplants are usually the final option offered to IPF patients, Pande said, and are usually curative, though a small percentage of patients can see the condition recur. 

Kennedy was initially resistant to the idea, because his younger brother had died after the same procedure. But after more convincing from Pande, he agreed to undergo testing to see if he would be eligible. Cleveland Clinic doctors “scoured everything,” Kennedy said. Finally, he was approved as a candidate. He was registered on the national transplant list, and waited for a pair of suitable lungs to become available. 

As the months passed, Kennedy’s lung function continued to degrade. He went from using two liters of oxygen a day to 10. He had a mild case of COVID-19. He lost more than 40 pounds. In October 2024, he was admitted to the hospital. 

“Dr. (Jason) Turowski, (a transplant pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic) said ‘OK, we’re going to admit you and you come out one of two ways: With a set of lungs, or we’re going to carry you out,'” Kennedy recalled. 

“You’re reminded every breath matters” 

Kennedy spent a month in the hospital. There were two false alarms, where it seemed that a pair of lungs might be available but ultimately were not. The third time was the charm, and on Nov. 15, Kennedy underwent a double-lung transplant. 

“It was a relief. I was apprehensive, obviously, and anxious. I can remember going into the operating room,” Kennedy said. “I can remember the flurry of activity, all the people that were in there getting me ready for the surgery. Next thing you know, you’re in your room.” 

Just hours after the surgery, Kennedy’s lung capacity was already better than it had been in months. He had several setbacks, including a post-surgery infection and a stroke, but his “indomitable spirit” has helped him recover, said pulmonologist Rachel Powers, who has been part of Kennedy’s post-transplant care team.  

“I’m very proud of him. He really has kept a very good perspective of his course of recovery,” Powers said. “He’s kept such a good outlook, and I think that’s been really important for some of the things that he’s had to overcome after transplant.” 

For Kennedy, now 75, life is now beginning to feel normal again. Tests show that his lung capacity is at 98%. He is back to spending time with his wife, children and grandkids. He is able to exercise at home and was recently able to take his dog for a walk without losing his breath. He’s almost done training the canine, a Bernese Mountain dog named Fini, to be a hospital therapy dog. 

Kennedy had believed Fini would be the last therapy dog he trained, and named him after the retirement flights conducted by Air Force members. But in a few weeks, he’ll be getting a new puppy. He plans to name her Encore to celebrate his own second chance. Training hospital therapy dogs has become even more meaningful after his own medical journey, he said. 

“There’s a lot of things that are different in my life. It gives you great perspective and proportion of life, of what’s important and what isn’t,” Kennedy said. “You take every breath for granted, because, you know, why would you not? But as soon as they become compromised, you’re reminded every breath matters. It keeps you centered.” 

Edited by

Camille Carolyn Knox