Syracuse, Nebraska — Gerri Eisenhauer’s father, Army Pvt. William Walters, was shipped off to World War II before she was even born.

In 1944, her family got back his body and a U.S. government letter that only said he had died somewhere in France.

“I just always wondered, where he died, how he died, it was just a little part of a puzzle piece that was missing in my life,” Eisenhauer told CBS News.

For decades, the family was resigned to the fact that it would never know. That is, until a few months ago.

Eisenhauer was at her home in Syracuse, Nebraska, this past summer when she received a message from Christophe Ligere, a French historian, from the small village of Grez-sur-Loing, in central France. The message read, in part, “On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of France, we pay tribute to Private William Walters.”

Ligere had found Walters’ name in the diary of an eyewitness to his death, and he immediately felt like he had to find Walters’ family. Ligere conducted some research and located the Walters’ family tree, and from there he found the online obituary of another relative of Eisenhauer, through which he left her that message.

“We were looking for our soldier,” Eisenhauer’s daughter, Jan Moore, told CBS News. “We did not know that he was their soldier, too.”

As Eisenhauer learned from Ligere, in August 1944, American troops began liberating the village of Grez-sur-Loing. It was a joyous day, but there was one casualty: while crossing the Loing River into town, Walters’ boat capsized and he drowned at the age of 20.

After Ligere tracked down Walters’ family, he invited them to France to honor their shared hero and the sacrifice he made here. Eisenhauer and her daughter and son, Jan and Allen, made the trip in September.

Marc Perrot had witnessed Walters’ death at the age of 13.

“They went looking for him and found him,” Perrot explained in an interview with France Télévisions. “They did a lot of things to try to revive him, but it didn’t work.”

Perrot met Eisenhauer and showed her where they laid her father to rest prior to his body being returned to the U.S.

“They covered him with flowers,” Eisenhauer said of the French. “It’s just amazing, the care that they gave him.”

This week, Eisenhauer returned to her father’s grave in Cass County, Nebraska.

“First time I’ve been here and had the answers,” Eisenhauer said.

She says she now feels at peace, and it’s all thanks to the grateful people of France, who even 80 years on, still see the U.S. through the prism of our better angels.

“It’s very important because the…young people come from the US…to battle for democracy…in France,” Ligere told CBS News.  

• Veterans Day
• World War II
• Veterans
• U.S. Army
• France

Steve Hartman

Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment “On the Road.”

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NEW YORK — Firefighters responded to a brush fire in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Friday evening.

According to fire officials, a passerby who was walking through the park just before 7 p.m. Friday called 911 to report smoke.

By 8 p.m., the FDNY said the fire had grown to two alarms and spread across approximately 2 acres. FDNY Brooklyn Borough Commander Joe Duggan said the fire was in an “extremely inaccessible,” hilly area with dense brush.

It took about 120 firefighters to get the fire under control, FDNY officials say, and firefighters will remain on the scene overnight to ensure it doesn’t reignite.

“There are some hotter spots. As the wind picks up, there might be a, you know, a spark or something, but we’re leaving fire companies here for the purposes of mitigating any small fires that might happen. It’s very wet up there now, we’ve got a lot of water up there now, so we don’t think that there’s any threat to future fires tonight up there,” FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker said.

It is unclear how the fire started.

“Daylight will help us figure out the cause and origin of this fire,” Tucker said.

FDNY officials say no civilian structures were threatened by the fire at any point. There were no reported injuries.

Crews were also called to another brush fire near the Major Deegan Expressway in the Highbridge section of the Bronx. Further details have not yet been released about that fire.

New York City is under a drought watch, along with other parts of the state, due to the weeks-long dry stretch across the region. Less than 2 inches of rain has fallen in Central Park since September, and October was the driest month ever recorded in the city.

A Red Flag Warning was also issued for the area Friday, meaning the danger for fire is very high because of a combination of high winds and parched earth. The warning has been extended through 6 p.m. Saturday.

“We’re encouraging New Yorkers to, you know, don’t throw cigarette butts on the ground. Making sure that, as the passerby did today, you’re reporting any fires you see. You shouldn’t be grilling in the parks,” said New York City Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zachary Iscol.

“We were extremely lucky by the passerby who saw something but also did something. They notified the FDNY, and it was a quick response,” Mayor Eric Adams said.

After six wildfires on Staten Island over the last two weeks, Borough President Vito Fossella and FDNY officials plan to urge locals to take preemptive measures to protect their homes.

“We work with the State Department of Environmental Conservation to allow homeowners who live around an area that may be very sensitive or prone of brush fires to obtain a permit and cut back some of the Phragmites with the goal to protect their homes and the people who live in those homes,” Fossella said.

Firefighters in New Jersey have been battling a string of wildfires in recent days, including one that started early Friday morning in the Palisades. That fire sent clouds of smoke across the Hudson River into parts of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

Lori Bordonaro and

contributed to this report.

• Prospect Park

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now on a short list being floated by some Trump allies to serve as the next head of the Department of Health and Human Services, multiple people close to the president-elect’s campaign say.

Hopes among Kennedy’s backers that he could be nominated to lead the department have risen in recent days, after Republicans cemented their majority in the Senate. 

Kennedy’s odds of clearing a Senate led by Democrats would have been low, given his long record of what the party called “anti-science, fringe public health stances” that outraged Trump’s opponents and a broad array of health experts during the campaign.

That includes a comment that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and his chairmanship of the group Children’s Health Defense, which has claimed that the “parallel between rising disease rates and the increasing number of childhood vaccines is hard to ignore.” Doctors argue statements like these mislead about the safety of immunizations and threaten to erode hard-fought improvements in U.S. vaccination rates against preventable diseases.

Kennedy himself has been noncommittal when asked publicly about the possibility he could be picked to head the sprawling HHS umbrella of agencies, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration.

Ahead of the election, Kennedy told Fox News he was “confident that if I wanted to do HHS secretary, the president would fight like hell to make that happen,” but also said that he was unsure if that would be “the most effective” role for him.

In a CNN interview last month, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick, was asked whether Kennedy would be in charge of HHS. 

“Of course not,” he replied. 

But two people close to the campaign say the election results have played a big role in changing the thinking on whether Kennedy could clear a steep and often painful Senate confirmation process that can bog down nominees.

Kennedy’s supporters argue that the election offers a mandate not just for Trump’s platform overall but for Kennedy and his “Make America Healthy Again” proposals to combat chronic disease, citing the votes Kennedy may have delivered in Trump’s favor. 

As one example, podcast host Joe Rogan initially voiced support for Kennedy and his ideas before later endorsing Trump.

“We have not yet decided exactly what that strategy is going to be, but that is a possibility,” Kennedy told NPR in an interview after the election, asked if he would be named to a Senate-confirmed position.

As to the question of whether Kennedy is now in serious contention for the HHS secretary role, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Americans reelected Trump “by resounding margins because they trust his judgement and support his policies, including his promise to Make America Healthy Again alongside well-respected leaders like RFK Jr.”

Other potential HHS secretary picks

However, Kennedy is not the only name that has been floated by Republicans for the top job at HHS.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suggested Wednesday his top health official, state surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo, could be a candidate. Under Ladapo, the state’s health department has warned some against getting COVID-19 booster shots, citing claims that federal health authorities and outside experts criticized as unproven or misleading.

Other names floated by Trump allies in Washington include former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former deputy HHS secretary Eric Hargan, who supporters think could be effective because he knows how to navigate the department’s bureaucracy.

But people close to the campaign say few Trump surrogates and supporters have spent as much time with the president-elect as Kennedy or plotted as ambitious an agenda. 

The two spent hours flying together in the final stretch of the campaign. Kennedy was also in Florida after the election, huddling with the president-elect’s top ranks to weigh potential candidates to fill the administration.

“He’s going to help make America healthy again. And he’s a great guy and he really means it. He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it,” Trump said on Wednesday morning after the election.

Trump has previously said he’s been friends with Kennedy “for a long time” and would let him “go wild” on many of his policy priorities, except for curbing fossil fuels.

“I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on medicines. The only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under our feet,” Trump said in New York on Oct. 27.

Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform

Kennedy’s nomination would come at a key time for many of the issues he campaigned on, which he says underpin “the chronic-disease crisis.”

Kennedy has accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of a range of products, including psychedelics — after MDMA failed to earn the agency’s approval earlier this year — and raw milk, which officials have discouraged amid the ongoing bird flu outbreak on dairy farms.

Other proposals include restricting pharmaceutical advertising and rewriting the laws that currently rely on drugmakers paying fees to fund most FDA approvals. Ahead of the election, he warned FDA officials who “are part of this corrupt system” to “pack your bags.”

In the days ahead of the election, Kennedy said Trump had asked him to “root out the corruption and the conflicts of interests” in agencies that oversee drugs and vaccines, pledging to “restore transparency” and stop “hiding science.”

“He doesn’t want me to take vaccines away from people. If you want to take a vaccine, you ought to be able to take it. We believe in free choice in this country,” Kennedy said in remarks posted on Nov. 2. 

His call for stopping water fluoridation comes as the Environmental Protection Agency is now facing a court order to take action against the practice. 

That ruling was driven in part by a review released by the NIH earlier this year, examining the risk it might lower children’s IQ, and comes as critics have called on the CDC to revise its statement backing fluoridation. The NIH review found that concentrations of fluoride in drinking water higher than recommended levels were associated with lower IQ in children, but more studies were needed on the effect of lower concentrations of fluoride.

But were he to end up HHS secretary, some of Kennedy’s aims would fall outside of his jurisdiction, like the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Other responsibilities under the broad HHS umbrella could consume much of Kennedy’s time, some allies worry, distracting from his priorities.

“Bobby is very action-oriented, brilliant, an excellent communicator, has a great grasp of details, and is a transformational leader. He is not, his skillset is not, as a bureaucrat administrator,” said Dr. Robert Malone, a longtime Kennedy ally who was with him and Trump on election night.

Malone said he had spoken with many of the aides from some of the “at least four different HHS transition teams” under Trump, but not personally with Kennedy, in recent weeks about the future of the department.

He said he thought Kennedy would likely do better in a role at the White House, serving as a czar who could target specific issues across different departments.

“Make no mistake, what is being discussed is a major reimagining of the entire federal health research and promotion and protection infrastructure. That includes very significant reforms and changes in business practice,” said Malone.

• Donald Trump
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A man has been arrested in connection with a spate of random stabbings over two days in Seattle, in which a woman and eight men were injured — five of them on Friday afternoon, police said.

“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults,” Deputy Chief Eric Barden said at the scene Friday.

The stabbings on Friday afternoon took place in a roughly four-block area in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.

Witnesses reported a description of the suspect and officers found him nearby and took him into custody, police said. A weapon was found near the person who was arrested, and a knife was lodged in one of the victims, police said.

Four of the victims, all males, were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and one victim was treated at the scene and released. A hospital spokesperson told CBS News Friday evening that two of the victims were in critical condition and a third was in serious condition.

Barden said police suspect that the person arrested in connection with Friday’s stabbings is the same person involved with at least four other stabbings that happened starting early Thursday. He cited similar suspect descriptions and the randomness of the attacks, but added that the investigation is ongoing.

The Thursday stabbings in Chinatown started when a 52-year-old woman was found with multiple stab wounds, police said. On Thursday afternoon, a 32-year-old man was found after being stabbed multiple times and at about 8 p.m. a 37-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the back, police said.

Then early on Friday, police responding to an assault call found a 53-year-old man bleeding heavily from a neck injury. Police followed a blood trail to a nearby doorway and unsuccessfully used that as a starting point for police dogs to try and track a suspect.

“It is my understanding that everyone is alive,” Barden said of the victims on Friday afternoon.

Police said a 10th stabbing on Thursday night involved a cellphone robbery in which someone forcibly opened a vehicle door and tried to stab a 60-year-old man in the chest. The victim blocked the assault and was cut on his hand, police said. It was not clear that it was connected to the random attacks, police said.

• Seattle
• Stabbings

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida disclosed Friday that he was notified by authorities on Monday about a “potential plot on my life” by a convicted felon in possession of firearms.

Moskowitz, who represents the 23rd Congressional District that includes portions of Palm Beach and Broward Counties, posted the allegation on X, which was later collaborated by police in Margate, a city located in the Miami metropolitan area. 

The freshman congressman was elected to a second term on Tuesday. 

John Lapinski, 41, of Margate, was arrested Oct. 31 at his home after police responded at about 6:30 a.m. to reports of shots fired. He was subsequently detained under the Baker Act, also known as the Florida Mental Health Act and taken to Broward Health Imperial Point in Fort Lauderdale. He was then moved to the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

When arrested, Lapinski was also found to be in possession of several guns and ammunition, as well as body armor, police said.    

He faces three firearms charges relating to a convicted felon and a domestic injunction.

“During the investigation, our detectives located several firearms and evidence that indicated he may have been planning some type of criminal act,” police said in a news release.

The Margate Police Department contacted the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI to assist with the investigation. The ATF is currently the lead agency for this investigation, Margate Police said.

Moskowitz claimed that Lapinski was arrested near the House member’s home in Parkland.

“Found with him was a manifesto, among other things, included antisemitic rhetoric and only my name on the ‘target’ list,” Moskowitz, who is Jewish, wrote in his social media post. “There are many other details that I will not disclose as I do not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation.”

Lapinski has two prior felony convictions of resisting an officer with violence and grand theft in Lake County.

Moskowitz, 43, serves on the bipartisan House task force investigating the attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I understand the failures and importance of fixing the protection of our current Commander-in-Chief and Vice President,” Moskowitz wrote. “At the same time I am deeply worried about congressional member security and the significant lack thereof when we are in the district. Regardless of our political affiliations or differences, we all have families we want to keep safe.”

On Tuesday, Moskowitz was elected to a second term, securing more than 52% of the vote against Republican challenger Joseph “Joe” Kaufman, which was a margin of about 17,500 votes.

Moskowitz has touted his ability to work with Republicans. He was elected to the House in 2022 after serving in the Broward County Commission in an appointment by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Previously, he was Florida’s emergency operations manager under DeSantis, including during the pandemic in 2020. Before that, he was a Florida state representative from 2012 to 2019. His first election was in 2006 as a member of Parkland City Commission, which he served in until 2012. 

Republican U.S. Rep Carlos Gimenez, also of Florida, said in a statement: “Political violence has no place in our country. This violent anti-Semitic hate is despicable and must be confronted to the fullest extent of the law. I commend local and federal law enforcement in acting swiftly to ensure the safety of my dear colleague.”

• United States Congress
• Margate Police
• U.S. House of Representatives
• Crime