Football team, band in virus quarantine

ONEONTA, Ala. — The entire football team and marching band at a small-town Alabama high school are under quarantine following exposure to the new coronavirus.

Oneonta High School coach Phil Phillips said a fifth player has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. It’s the second quarantine of the summer for the team.

“I looked my wife in the eyes Monday night before I went to bed and I said, ‘You know I sure hope we didn’t kill anybody’s grandmother today by having a football practice,” said Phillips. “You’re torn because the kids want to play so bad.”

Smugglers create sophisticated tunnel

PHOENIX — An incomplete tunnel found stretching from Mexico to Arizona appears to be “the most sophisticated tunnel in U.S. history,” authorities said.

The tunnel intended for smuggling ran from a neighborhood in San Luis Río Colorado, Mexico, to San Luis, Ariz., where it stopped short of reaching the surface. It was built in an area that’s not conducive to tunnels because of the terrain, and it had a ventilation system, water lines, electrical wiring, a rail system and extensive reinforcement, federal officials say.

“What makes this one unique is that the terrain in Yuma is very hard… the sand is very loose, and most of them end up caving. So the fact that the material was very well built and it had ventilation, it had water, it had a rail system with walls, roof, floor, electrical, makes this one a very unique type of tunnel,” said Angel Ortiz, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations in Yuma. HSI is a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“This appears to be the most sophisticated tunnel in U.S. history, and certainly the most sophisticated I’ve seen in my career,” said Carl E. Landrum, acting chief patrol agent with the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector.

Study finds bias in traffic stops

MINNEAPOLIS — Black drivers accounted for nearly 80% of police searches and routine traffic stops in predominantly white Minneapolis, according to a public defender’s study using city policy data.

From June 2019 to May 2020, the study found Black and East African drivers were more often searched when pulled over during equipment or moving violations, with 26% of those searches resulting in arrest, the Star Tribune reported.

“The numbers speak to the volume of Black and brown drivers that are being harassed by police,” said Hennepin County Public Defender Jay Wong.

The Associated Press