San Diego-area school board fires coach over tortilla-throwing incident
SAN DIEGO — The Coronado Unified School Board voted unanimously to fire their head basketball coach Tuesday night, days after someone threw tortillas at an opposing team Saturday night.
The board members took the vote behind closed doors and did not comment further. During closed session the board discussed but did not take action on student discipline.
Calls for the punishment of those involved in the tortilla-throwing incident increased throughout the day Tuesday.
After a Saturday night division championship game between Coronado High and Orange Glen High, a high school in Escondido, at least two people threw tortillas at the Orange Glen team.
Some people have said it was a racist incident, considering Orange Glen is a predominantly Latino school.
But others say it is too soon to jump to conclusions and the incident may not have been racist.
The Coronado school board held a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss the aftermath of the Saturday game that ended in the altercation.
According to witnesses, Coronado head basketball coach JD Laaperi allegedly cursed at an Orange Glen coach after the game, saying “That’s why you don’t talk (expletive). Get your kids and get the (expletive) out of here.”
That’s when, according to video footage circulated on social media, at least two Coronado players flung tortillas into the air toward the Orange Glen team.
—The San Diego Union-Tribune
Mother a person of interest in deaths of 2 girls found in Florida canal
LAUDERHILL, Fla. — She’d roam the streets of her neighborhood with a Bible, to some seemingly popping up out of nowhere. Eager to evangelize the masses, Tinessa Hogan, 36, was spotted Monday in the deep brown water of a canal in Lauderhill asking if she could baptize a neighbor’s children.
Hogan is considered a person of interest in the deaths of her own two little girls, Destiny, 9, and Daysha, 7.
Neighbor Cheryl Robinson, 34, described Hogan as having a cult-like personality. Other neighbors said they frequently saw Hogan in and around the canal.
At a news conference Wednesday, police released photos of Hogan and her daughters.
Police confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel that Hogan was the same woman whose behavior was so alarming that she was detained by officers and taken away in an ambulance Tuesday about four hours after Destiny was found in the canal.
She had not been questioned by police as of 5 p.m. Wednesday. Police would not say whether Hogan is being held under the state’s Baker Act.
Police don’t know what time either child went into the water. About 5 p.m. Monday, both girls were seen with their mother, said Lt. Mike Bigwood. They were found dead nine hours apart Tuesday.
—South Florida Sun Sentinel
DC bridge collapses, injuring several people
Several people were injured Wednesday after a pedestrian bridge collapsed onto a Washington, D.C., highway.
The incident occurred around noon when the bridge collapsed onto Interstate 295, blocking traffic in both directions. According to District of Columbia Fire and EMS, six people were injured and four were transported to nearby hospitals. A hazardous materials crew was also dispatched to the scene to stop a diesel fuel leak from a truck that was struck by debris. Several other vehicles appeared to be covered by debris.
The collapse stretched across six lanes of highway but appeared to damage vehicles only on one side.
No people were trapped under the bridge.
Officials said it is unclear what caused the collapse and whether anyone was walking over the bridge at the time of the incident.
—New York Daily News
Cows escape, stampede in neighborhood; 1 killed by deputies
LOS ANGELES – A small herd of cows somehow got loose and wandered into a residential Pico Rivera, California, neighborhood Tuesday night.
About 7:35 p.m., officials received reports of about 20 cows at Beverly Road and Durfee Avenue, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Deputy Tracy Koerner.
Media footage showed the cows calmly gathering about 9 p.m. in a cul-de-sac. A few appeared to be munching on a residence's front lawn.
At one point during the night, Koerner said, the cows began to charge and one was fatally shot by law enforcement. He said he didn't know what or whom they had been charging at and also did not have information about any people that had been injured in the incident.
At least seven deputy vehicles were parked in the cul-de-sac. Koerner said that deputies attempted to keep the cows together while waiting for the department's mounted enforcement detail to arrive with horse trailers.
By about 9:50 p.m., most of the cows had been loaded onto two trailers.
But several managed to escape the deputies and continued their outing through the neighborhood.
"There's still a few out and about," Koerner said.
—Los Angeles Times
———
