By Samantha Delouya, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Often strung from utility poles or buried beneath our feet, copper wire has played a critical role in powering America’s electrical grid for more than a century.

But brazen thefts are threatening the grid, with thieves climbing onto car roofs to cut down telephone lines or prying open manholes in broad daylight to strip copper wiring.

The effects have been felt nationwide: roads and bridges going dark, 911 calls that fail to connect and higher utility bills as replacement costs get passed on to consumers.

The price of copper has driven the thefts, said one detective at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department who requested anonymity due to the undercover nature of his role.

This year, copper prices have reached all-time highs on a jump in new data center construction and speculation about new tariffs by the Trump administration, according to JPMorgan. In the United States, copper prices have climbed more than 30% this year.

Los Angeles has become one of the nation’s hot spots for copper wire theft. As the city recovers from its most destructive wildfires in a generation and prepares to host the World Cup this summer and the Olympics in 2028, it’s struggling in many places just to keep the lights on. The city and the utility companies spend millions each year repairing the damage.

There were more than 15,000 destructive attacks nationwide on domestic communication networks between June 2024 and June 2025, with copper theft a major driver, according to the TV and internet industry trade group, NCTA. More than 9.5 million customers were affected, with California and Texas alone accounting for over half of the incidents.

“This doesn’t happen just once a week or once a month,” the LASD detective said of copper thefts. “These things happen daily.”

Seven miles of copper wire, gone

When Los Angeles unveiled its newly built Sixth Street Bridge in 2022, it was hailed as a new city landmark. At night, the 3,500-foot bridge, with wide pedestrian walkways, would light up in shifting LED colors.

Three years later, the bridge sits dark.

Thieves have stolen more than 38,000 feet, or seven miles, of copper wire from the bridge, causing $2.5 million in damage, according to Mark González, the local assemblymember who represents the area.

“We have multiple incidents just in our areas each day. It adds up,” the undercover LASD detective said, adding that construction sites in LA, where homes are being rebuilt after January’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires claimed more than 16,000 homes and structures, are frequent targets for thieves.

It’s very hard to trace stolen bare copper, the detective told CNN. While some telecom companies use colored paper coating to help identify their wires, city wiring is less easily identifiable. Any fix would be expensive for the city.

“For now, it’s kind of the Wild West,” the detective added.

The Sixth Street Bridge isn’t an isolated case. As copper prices climb, streetlight outages have become a persistent problem across Los Angeles. Theft- and vandalism-related outages increased tenfold between 2017 and 2022, according to the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called copper wire t

CNN

By Samantha Delouya, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — Often strung from utility poles or buried beneath our feet, copper wire has played a critical role in powering America’s electrical grid for more than a century.

But brazen thefts are threatening the grid, with thieves climbing onto car roofs to cut down telephone lines or prying open manholes in broad daylight to strip copper wiring.

The effects have been felt nationwide: roads and bridges going dark, 911 calls that fail to connect and higher utility bills as replacement costs get passed on to consumers.

The price of copper has driven the thefts, said one detective at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department who requested anonymity due to the undercover nature of his role.

This year, copper prices have reached all-time highs on a jump in new data center construction and speculation about new tariffs by the Trump administration, according to JPMorgan. In the United States, copper prices have climbed more than 30% this year.

Los Angeles has become one of the nation’s hot spots for copper wire theft. As the city recovers from its most destructive wildfires in a generation and prepares to host the World Cup this summer and the Olympics in 2028, it’s struggling in many places just to keep the lights on. The city and the utility companies spend millions each year repairing the damage.

There were more than 15,000 destructive attacks nationwide on domestic communication networks between June 2024 and June 2025, with copper theft a major driver, according to the TV and internet industry trade group, NCTA. More than 9.5 million customers were affected, with California and Texas alone accounting for over half of the incidents.

“This doesn’t happen just once a week or once a month,” the LASD detective said of copper thefts. “These things happen daily.”

Seven miles of copper wire, gone

When Los Angeles unveiled its newly built Sixth Street Bridge in 2022, it was hailed as a new city landmark. At night, the 3,500-foot bridge, with wide pedestrian walkways, would light up in shifting LED colors.

Three years later, the bridge sits dark.

Thieves have stolen more than 38,000 feet, or seven miles, of copper wire from the bridge, causing $2.5 million in damage, according to Mark González, the local assemblymember who represents the area.

“We have multiple incidents just in our areas each day. It adds up,” the undercover LASD detective said, adding that construction sites in LA, where homes are being rebuilt after January’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires claimed more than 16,000 homes and structures, are frequent targets for thieves.

It’s very hard to trace stolen bare copper, the detective told CNN. While some telecom companies use colored paper coating to help identify their wires, city wiring is less easily identifiable. Any fix would be expensive for the city.

“For now, it’s kind of the Wild West,” the detective added.

The Sixth Street Bridge isn’t an isolated case. As copper prices climb, streetlight outages have become a persistent problem across Los Angeles

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) — You don’t get labeled the “Oracle of Omaha” for nothing.

As one of the world’s most successful investors, Warren Buffett’s views on markets, companies and the economy have always been of great interest on Wall Street and Main Street.

Now 95, Buffett is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, 60 years after taking a controlling share in the company.

But during his long tenure Buffett has had plenty of sensible things to say about how to invest well and live a good life through the work you choose and the way you treat people.

Here’s just a sampling:

Don’t lose money

Buffett is best known as a value investor – someone who buys companies he believes are undervalued. “If you buy things for far below what they’re worth and you buy a group of them, you basically don’t lose money,” he explained on Adam Smith’s Money World.

But Buffett’s advice also speaks to the need to diversify risk.

“It’s the foundation of how I manage client money,” said certified financial planner and CPA Brian Kearns. “Investing is about growth, but it is also about capital preservation. … Find reasonably priced investments … but don’t risk too much of your net worth on one idea.”

It also means investing across asset classes. “They all have different risk profiles and, when combined, allow you to hold investments for the long term because you will experience less volatility,” Kearns said.

Focus on the essentials

At a 1998 event at Florida University, Buffett said he doesn’t consider macroeconomic predictions when deciding on an investment. “We have never not bought or bought a business because of any macro feeling of any kind because it doesn’t make any difference.”

Certified financial planner Adam Grossman explains that to clients this way: “While the future direction of the economy is important, it isn’t knowable. For that reason, Buffett says, investors should avoid making forecasts and should definitely avoid listening to others’ forecasts.”

Don’t complicate things

Most people are not investment professionals. But they can have a successful, diversified investment strategy that is simple and affordable.

“You don’t need to be an expert in order to achieve satisfactory investment returns. But if you aren’t … follow a course certain to work reasonably well. Keep things simple and don’t swing for the fences,” Buffett advised in his 2013 shareholder letter.

It’s the same advice he said he gave to the trustee of money he was bequeathing to his wife. “(It) could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund,” Buffett wrote. “I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors … who employ high-fee managers.”

Don’t save up sex for old age

At a 2008 event with MBA students, Buffett recounted being collected from the airport by a 30-year-old Harvard Business School student who already was a CPA and thought a job in management consulting “would be the perfect culmination of his resume.”

“I said ‘30 and you already got all this stuff and you are still thinking about spending another couple years doing something you don’t really want to do because it will make your resume be e

By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — The Trump business empire’s expansion into nuclear fusion is alarming ethics experts, who warn it poses glaring conflicts of interest and risks the federal government playing favorites in what could be the holy grail of clean energy.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) shocked Wall Street last week by arranging a $6 billion marriage with TAE Technologies, a Google-backed company at the leading edge of fusion energy.

The merger means that soon, President Donald Trump will simultaneously have a major financial interest in a company whose fortunes will be influenced by the actions of a government that Trump himself presides over.

Nuclear fusion companies are regulated by the federal government and will likely need Uncle Sam’s deep research and even deeper pockets to become commercially viable. The merger needs to be approved by federal regulators – some of whom were nominated by Trump.

“There is a clear conflict of interest here,” Richard Painter, the top ethics official under former President George W. Bush, told CNN in a phone interview. “Every other president since the Civil War has divested from business interests that would conflict with official duties. President Trump has done the opposite.”

Painter, who is now a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said anyone other than the president or the vice president could be committing a crime if they participated in a US government matter that they knew they had a financial interest in.

For instance, he said the secretary of energy would have to recuse him or herself from any matter linked to fusion if they simultaneously had a significant stake in a fusion company.

“It’s only legal because the criminal conflict of interest statute does not apply to the president,” Painter said, adding that while it is “technically legal” he doesn’t believe presidents should be excluded from the law.

An instant $500 million boost to Trump’s fortune

The fusion deal caused an immediate boost to Trump’s net worth.

Trump Media’s share price skyrocketed 42% when the merger was announced on Thursday. That increased the value of the stake Trump owns through a trust, by $500 million to $1.7 billion. Trump Media’s share price continued to climb Friday, increasing the value of that stake to above $1.8 billion.

Some on Wall Street are betting the deal will create a halo effect for TAE.

TAE will “clearly have major political support from President Trump in our view and this importantly will create a major nuclear fusion US energy domestic bet over the coming years,” Dan Ives, a veteran tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, told clients in a note last week.

Harnessing the power of the stars

Fusion is a futuristic form of energy that aims to replicate the same process that powers the sun and other stars. It has long been viewed as a potential game-changer because it would provide almost limitless clean energy.

However, fusion is not yet commercially viable, and to get it off the ground it may need support from the federal government in the form of loans, subsidies, contracts and research.

That’s why the public interest could be harmed if the merger creates an unfair advantage for Trump-backed TAE, worries Kathleen Clark, a law profes

By Alaa Elassar, CNN

(CNN) — For more than a month, a Virginia high school football coach accused of child pornography offenses has remained missing after vanishing from his home without a trace.

His sudden flight and consequent disappearance has left behind a stunned community — including his wife, children and the team he once led — and a trail of unanswered questions.

Travis Turner, 46, is believed by his family to have walked out of his home on November 20 in Appalachia carrying a firearm and disappearing into the thick, mountainous woods. He hasn’t been seen since.

Virginia State Police said they were on their way to visit Turner at his home, but when they arrived, the coach was already gone. Days later, they announced the coach is wanted on five counts of child pornography possession and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor.

Here’s what we know.

The last time he was seen

The last-known contact Turner’s family had with him was on or around Thursday, November 20, when he set off into the nearby woods with a firearm, the family’s attorney, Adrian Collins, said in a statement. At that time, no arrest warrants had been issued for him.

“Criminal charges were not obtained against Turner until days after he failed to return home,” he added. “He was not a fugitive nor wanted by law enforcement at the time he went missing. His wife was not helping him escape, she was asking for help to find him.”

When Turner failed to return home that night, his wife immediately contacted local authorities but was informed that a missing person report couldn’t be filed until 24 hours had passed, according to Collins. The next day, she formally reported him missing to the Virginia State Police. The family has been fully cooperative with law enforcement in their ongoing search for Turner, Collins said.

“Police are actively searching for Turner. Since his disappearance, VSP has utilized a number of assets, including search and rescue teams, drones and k9s, to assist in the search. VSP’s main priority is locating Turner safely; he is now considered a fugitive,” Virginia State Police said in their only statement, issued on November 25.

The United States Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for any information on Turner, the agency announced on its Facebook page on December 1.

CNN has reached out to Virginia State Police and the US Marshals for an update, but has not heard back.

A husband, father and coach

Turner’s family released an updated statement through Collins, their attorney, confirming their homes and properties “have been searched multiple times, with their consent.”

Turner left his car and keys at home, as well as his contact lenses, glasses, wallet, license and cash, Collins said. Turner also left behind his prescribed daily medications, “which he needs,” the attorney said. “It is not like Travis to disappear or stay away from home.”

Turner, who was listed as a physical education teacher at Union High School in a now-removed entry on the school’s online staff roster, was last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt, sweatpants and glasses, state police said. The agency hasn’t shared any details about when or where he was last seen or who may have seen him last.

“If Travis has the ability and is able to respond to his family’s wishes; your wife and children are in distress. Leslie pleads for you to come home and face