Daily Dose: Stolen Cables Disrupt 10 Million Broadband Lines

Events

Stolen Cables

Fiber optic and copper cables that carry information to the Defense Department as well as to the Alpine and Pine Valley sheriff's substations were stolen in the East County early today, authorities said.

The theft occurred sometime between midnight and 1 a.m., according to San Diego County sheriff's Sgt. Joseph Passalacqua. The thieves cut the cables on Alpine Boulevard, in the vicinity of Peutz Valley, he said in a statement.

"It appears that 75 feet of fiber optic cable was taken along with six feet of ," he said.

Crews were working to repair the damage, Passalacqua said, asserting the problem was expected to take about 17 hours to fix.

In addition to the Defense Department and the sheriff's substations, the Verizon network was affected, according to the sergeant, who said a total of 10 million broadband lines were down.

No other details were immediately released.

Courts

• Jury selection got under way Monday for the trial of an East County man accused of booby-trapping his wife's pickup truck with a pipe bomb in an attempt to kill her.

Larry Hoagland, 50, faces life in prison if convicted of attempted murder and other counts in the Sept. 23, 2010, alleged attack on his wife, Connie.

• A man who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor animal abuse for kicking his pit bull puppy was sentenced to 15 days in jail, placed on three years probation and ordered to attend animal cruelty awareness classes, the San Diego Humane Society reported Monday.   

As part of his plea and sentence, Heneli S. Wallace is not allowed to own another animal for three years, according to the Humane Society.

Condor Chick

A 6-week-old California condor chick at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park came through its first veterinary examination with flying colors Tuesday, zoo officials said.

Saticoy, hatched March 10 before a live webcam audience of thousands, got a clean bill of health, according to the zoo. Until today, animal care specialists could only view the chick via the "Condor Cam."

The zoo said the eight-pound bird, now about the size of a bowling ball, received a vaccination for West Nile virus and microchipped, and blood was drawn for further testing. Geneticists will use a blood sample to determine whether Saticoy is male or female.

The condor chick can be seen on the Condor Cam playing with its feathers and flapping its wings, in preparation for its first flight, when it is 5 or 6 months old.

Only 22 condors were left in the world when a breeding program was started in the 1980s. After 174 hatchings at the zoo and more elsewhere, the population is now estimated to be 386 -- about half in the wild.

College

Almost 80 percent of college students in San Diego County admit to using a cell phone while driving, according to a UC San Diego study scheduled to be released Tuesday.

The study by the UC San Diego Trauma Epidemiology and Injury Prevention Research Center also found that half of college students send and receive text messages while driving, even on the freeway.

Further details are set to be released at a news conference in front of UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest. The data was gathered from students at the area's four major universities and eight smaller colleges.

-City News Service contributed to these posts

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