Lawyer Trapped in Jail
North County attorney Erubey Lopez is considering filing a lawsuit after he was trapped and forgotten for four hours inside a locked visiting room at a local jail. In accordance with policy, Lopez did not have his cellphone with him and tried to contact guards using an intercom system once he had been trapped for 30 minutes. The intercom system had been broken for the past eight months, said a colleague of Lopez, forcing Lopez to scream and pound on the door until a guard heard him. A sheriff’s official apologized after the incident, but Lopez remains concerned about the jail’s safety, citing UCSD student Daniel Chong, who was forgotten by DEA agents and left inside of a holding cell for five days last year.
Driver Clips House Near UCSD
A driver crashed into a house in University City on Wednesday, near the UCSD campus. The car nearly tore off an entire corner of the house after it drove off of the road and landed in the front yard of the home east of Genesee Avenue. Nobody was inside at the time of the crash, and the driver sustained minor injuries, but officials are still investigating why the event occurred.
San Diego bids for 2024 Olympic Games
San Diego mayor Bob Filner announced his intention to join Tijuana, Mexico in bidding to host the 2024 Olympic Games. The city recently received a letter from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) that requested bids from mayors of 35 cities, including San Diego. The bidding process alone will cost millions of dollars, according to San Diego Tax Fighters chairman Richard Rider. In addition, if San Diego wins the bid, the city would be required to build an Olympic Village to house 16,000 athletes, and possibly expand the San Diego International Airport. To split costs, Filner has proposed a partner bid with Tijuana, making it the first-ever international Olympic bid.
Camera in Dressing Room
Last Friday Feb. 22, a San Diegan woman reported seeing a hidden camera while in a dressing room at Fashion Valley Mall. Nicole Schull was in the Forever 21 dressing room when she noticed a shopping bag on the ground with a small hole in it. Upon closer examination, she claimed she found a camera in the bag. When Schull reached for the bag, a man in the room next to her grabbed it and fled. She ran after him screaming, and although the sales associates stopped him, they found no camera and let him leave. San Diego police officers are investigating.
UCSD, Surf Title Holder and Honoree
The Surf Channel has again placed UCSD second on its list of the top 10 universities for surfers. UCSD has been recognized by several surfing-related magazines and networks for its proximity to the ocean and as a six-time National Scholastic Surfing Association titleholder. The goal of Surf Channel’s list is to provide prospective college students with information when choosing which school would suit them. In addition to the location, several UCSD alumni and current students have attributed their interests in the “top surfing university” to the resources offered by recreation classes and clubs on campus.
Napoleone Ferrara Wins Breakthrough Prize
A researcher at UCSD’s Moores Cancer Center, Napoleone Ferrara, is the first recipient of the $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Created last year by a group of Internet moguls, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the award has instantly become the largest of its kind in the biological sciences. Ferrara’s win comes just three months after he was recruited to UCSD from Genentech, where he created Avastin, which is currently the most effective drug used to treat a variety of cancer types. He won the Lasker Award in 2010 and is a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
