By Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN) — Ogechi Irondi’s future teetered between two wildly different scenarios: one that would lead to dual degrees after nine years of college, and one that would leave the single mother and her young children homeless.

Strangers helped seal her fate.

The 31-year-old had suffered unfathomable challenges during her studies at Georgia Tech – one of the most rigorous universities in the US. She was in a toxic relationship. Her mother was tragically killed. Shortly afterward, Irondi discovered she was pregnant with twins.

“I had been suffering so bad for the past four or five years,” Irondi said. “So I finally got the courage to say something.”

Strangers from the Atlanta-area nonprofit Giving Grace learned about her plight – helping pay her rent so she could finish school and buy weekly groceries so Irondi could finally eat more than one meal a day.

“Without them, I would be on the streets with my children,” she said.

Across the country, good Samaritans are donating directly to families in dire circumstances. Instead of giving to large charities and not knowing exactly who or where donations go, targeted giving tells donors exactly who they’re helping – often leading to inspirational success stories and new friendships forged by mutual gratitude.

“We are the antithesis of the big-box donors,” said Pam Koner, founder of Family-to-Family – which connects donors with individual families suffering extreme poverty and other crises.

“We are about creating a way for families who want to give – and want to give to a family they know about.”

Targeted giving is also effective and efficient – providing families in crisis with the exact items they need more quickly.

But immense challenges this year mean the need for direct giving is more urgent than ever before.

‘100% the worst’ year in terms of need

In this year’s troubled economy, more Americans are asking strangers for help with housing and food.

The unemployment rate rose to a four-year high of 4.6% in November, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. GoFundMe’s latest annual report shows a 20% increase in fundraisers for basic needs this year compared to last year.

And families on the brink of homelessness post new messages on local Facebook pages every day, asking for used children’s clothing or spare firewood to keep warm.

“A lot of people are losing their jobs,” Family-to-Family Program Director Nancy Hennessee said. “They’re going around collecting food everywhere they can.”

This year is “100% the worst” in terms of need since Family-to-Family started in 2002, Hennessee said.

“One of our community partners who runs a food pantry has gone from having 220 families coming to her food pantry to having over 450 families in the last two months,” she said.

Some food banks have had to get creative, cutting egg cartons in half “and giving each family half a carton of eggs instead of a carton.”

A simple idea leads to radical change

Before Christy Betz launched Giving Grace, she volunteered with a homeless outreach program and saw a post asking for donations of durable men’s jeans.

“So I started collecting in my neighborhood, and I took them down there,” the suburban Atlanta mother said. “And then I just kept seeing more and more needs.”

Betz noticed a lack of basic supplies often prevented homeless people from being able to get a job.

“I met a guy who was homeless and needed steel-toed boots in order to take

By Mark Morales, CNN

(CNN) — A reform-minded mayor is taking charge of New York City at a time when the largest police department in the country is finding its stride in its stability, touting a drop in gun violence and homicides while its current leadership stays intact.

New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch is staying at the helm under progressive Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, providing nearly 35,000 uniformed members sustained leadership after she became the fourth police commissioner to serve in the scandal-scarred Adams administration.

Since Tisch took over, questionable promotions and transfers were stopped altogether while former NYPD executives with good reputations came back to fill out her executive staff. Despite the moves, questions still remain about key operational tools, such as the future of the Strategic Response Group – a specialized unit within the NYPD used for crowd control and major events — and the use of the gang database, among others.

Tisch and her team have been briefing the new Mamdani administration on how the NYPD has been running and how they’ve been able to achieve a drop in crime, including in the transit system, which has been the setting of multiple high-profile murders and assaults over the previous four years.

“I’ve had a number of great conversations, both with the mayor-elect and his team, and we’re doing briefings on different topics, and what I can tell you is both the mayor-elect and his team are committed to public safety and are very pleased with the results that they’re seeing, both in the subway below ground and above ground as well,” Tisch said at a briefing in December related to subway safety.

The commissioner on Tuesday highlighted this year’s “unprecendented reduction in violent crime,” noting in a post on X that as of Christmas Eve the NYPD has 1,000 fewer shootings than it did four years ago.

Mamdani, in the past a harsh critic of the NYPD, has signaled a softening in his stance by virtue of keeping Tisch on the job, a police executive who is not ideologically in lock step with him but has the support of business leaders, law enforcement, and political power players, among others. Among his goals is creating a new civilian agency known as the Department of Community Safety, which would use community-based prevention strategies to tackle homelessness and mental illness.

“I have admired her work cracking down on corruption in the upper echelons of the police department, driving down crime in New York City, and standing up for New Yorkers in the face of authoritarianism,” Mamdani said in a statement regarding her appointment, adding that both will work together to make sure police focus on serious and violent crime. “Together, we will deliver a city where rank-and-file police officers and the communities they serve alike are safe, represented, and proud to call New York their home.”

Shootings, homicides decline

A drop in the number of shootings stands out in the NYPD’s statistics near year-end, coinciding with a drop nationally from a peak in 2021, according to statistics compil

By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

New York (CNN) — Warren Buffett became the the world’s most famous investor because of his sage investment wisdom at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. That wasn’t his only job: He’s also the company’s best pitchman.

Take the company’s annual meeting – the place to be if you want financial advice and to network with major business players. It’s also a shopping bonanza.

The “Berkshire Bazaar of Bargains” has become synonymous with the meeting itself, a Buffett-themed shopping mall that shows off products from the conglomerate’s various holdings. And there are many, many products under the company’s umbrella: enough at least to fill 20,000 square feet with 50,000 items of inventory for shareholders in 2025, according to the company.

The Nebraska billionaire has a love for posing with mascots and items under the ownership of Berkshire’s ginormous umbrella, too, with the smiling faces of Buffett and his late right-hand man Charlie Munger on all sorts of quirky products for sale in the bazaar.

With Buffett set to retire as CEO at the end of 2025, let’s take a look back at his role as his company’s biggest mascot.

Squishmallow

Anyone with children – or perhaps a kidult themselves – knows what a Squishmallow is. The egg-shaped plushies took the toy world by storm and is also part of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. It joined through an indirect line of corporate takeovers, after Berkshire Hathaway acquired Alleghany in 2022, the parent company of Squishmallow-maker Jazwares.

Squishmallow made its first appearance in Omaha in 2023, debuting a Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger plush. The toys immediately flew off the shelves and reportedly sold for up to $450 online.

See’s Candies

Buffett also has a history of buying up companies whose product he is a personal fan of. See’s Candies is one of those items, purchased by Berkshire Hathaway in 1972. Note the disco Buffett fudge box below.

Heinz

Warren Buffett has a long corporate history with Heinz. Berkshire Hathaway and 3G capital first bought Heinz for $28 billion in 2013, taking the condiment maker private. The two parties arranged a massive – but ultimately unsuccessful – merger between Kraft and Heinz in 2015, creating the third-largest food company in North America. This year, they split into two separate publicly-traded businesses.

Though Buffett told told CNBC he was disappointed by the split, Berkshire remains Kraft Heinz’s biggest shareholder.

Two figures who didn’t split, though? Buffett and Munger, who are seen here on a bottle of Heinz ketchup and Kraft macaroni and cheese.

Jell-O mold

Food conglomerate Kraft Heinz was also the owner of Jell-O.

Fruit of the Loom

In 2001, Berkshire announced it was buying Fruit of the Loom for $835 million in cash. What better way to commemorate that than with Buffett-themed boxers?

Brooks Running

Not everyone can run Berkshire Hathaway, but at least you can run with Berkshire-backed Brooks Running shoes, with the founder himself on the soles.

Coca-Cola

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — When patients come to Eric Frankenfeld’s chiropractic practice with insurance woes, his wife, Lisa, the office manager, tells them not to worry because she’ll work with them to keep care affordable.

But starting in January, the Frankenfelds might need to ask for the same treatment from their own doctors, since they will become uninsured. The Point Pleasant, New Jersey, couple will no longer be able to afford their Obamacare plan after the enhanced premiums subsidies lapse at year’s end. They decided to forgo coverage after learning that their plan’s premium will skyrocket to $1,928 a month, up from $340 this year.

Though they are both healthy, the idea of losing coverage keeps Lisa Frankenfeld, 62, up at night — worrying one of them might be diagnosed with cancer, suffer a stroke or heart attack or get into a serious accident.

“We are health care providers who cannot afford benefits. Oh, the irony,” she told CNN. “Purchasing a plan doesn’t make financial sense. We’re just going to cross our fingers and hope for the best.”

The Frankenfelds are among the millions of Affordable Care Act enrollees who are facing tough decisions this open enrollment season, which ends January 15 in most states. More than 90% of ACA policyholders — or about 22 million people — receive the enhanced subsidies, which spurred record sign-ups for Obamacare coverage this year.

A sizeable share of those enrollees are self-employed or own or work at small businesses. Nearly half of adults in the individual health insurance market — the vast majority of which is purchased through Obamacare exchanges — are affiliated with a small business, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

Employer policies are often too pricey for small businesses and for those who work for themselves, leading many to turn to the Affordable Care Act exchanges. And even though several told CNN their Obamacare coverage requires they spend a lot out of pocket for care, they say it’s still better than being uninsured.

However, without the enhanced subsidies, which were enacted by the Biden administration as part of a 2021 Covid-19 relief package, enrollees’ premium payments are expected to jump 114%, on average, next year. The provision’s lapse also means that consumers who make more than 400% of the federal poverty level — about $62,600 for an individual and $84,600 for a couple — will no longer qualify for any federal aid.

The House is set to vote in January on extending the beefed-up assistance for three years after Read more

By Hanna Park, CNN

(CNN) — An Oklahoma man who was doing target practice with a recently purchased handgun in his backyard on Christmas Day is accused of shooting and killing a woman seated on a front porch blocks away as she held a child in her arms, authorities said.

Cody Wayne Adams, 33, was arrested Thursday evening on suspicion of first‑degree manslaughter in connection with the shooting, according to court records. He was later released on a $100,000 bond, records show.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 25. CNN has reached out to Adams’ lawyer for comment.

The woman, identified as Sandra Phelps, was sitting with family members under a covered front porch at a home in Comanche, about 90 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, on Thursday afternoon when she was struck in her right arm by what appeared to be a single bullet, an affidavit said. Phelps was holding a child in her left arm while seated on a love seat.

The family members told investigators they heard five to seven shots “over several minutes” coming from somewhere north of the home, the affidavit said. Phelps remarked that someone nearby must have gotten “a new gun for Christmas,” according to the filing. Shortly after, she said “‘ouch’ and collapsed.” No additional gunshots were heard.

First responders were dispatched to the home around 3:15 p.m., the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office said. Phelps was pronounced dead at the scene soon after, according to the affidavit. Investigators said the bullet, after striking Phelps’ arm, travelled into her chest cavity. No bullet strikes were found on the house, the filing shows.

Law enforcement officers canvassed the surrounding neighborhood and found one home less than a mile away – where Adams lived – that lacked a suitable backstop for shooting, according to the affidavit. Investigators learned neighbors “had heard Adams shooting during the afternoon about 20 rounds,” the document said.

When deputies went to the home, Adams told them he had been firing a Glock .45‑caliber handgun he “bought for himself for Christmas,” shooting at a “Red Bull can laying on the ground” in his backyard, the affidavit said.

Investigators found “several spent bullet casings on the ground and on the deck” in Adams’ backyard, along with a Red Bull can south of the house. From the point where Adams said he was shooting toward the can, red and blue lights of emergency vehicles at the home where Phelps was shot “were visibly in line with the shooting angle,” the affidavit said.

When told that his shooting might have caused the woman’s death, Adams became “became visibly upset and began to cry,” according to the affidavit. A deputy told him that “there was nothing behind his property to stop any bullets from traveling beyond his property and hurting someone.”

After being advised of his rights during a later interview at the sheriff’s office, Adams allegedly acknowledged firing multiple rounds southward from his residence, the filing said, using two loaded magazines containing roughly eight and then 10 rounds of Winchester .45 caliber ammunition.

The charging document alleges that Adams caused the woman’s death by using a firearm in a way that “that created a situation of unreasonable risk and probability of death, or great bodily harm, to another person and demonstrated a conscious disregard for the safety of others.”

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