Training

A puppy that was tied to railroad tracks in a gruesome attempt to get rid of it is now up for adoption with Riverside County Animal Services. The 10-month-old poodle-terrier mix, named “Banjo” for old train traffic signals, was rescued last week by a train engineer who saw the fluffy pup tied to the tracks ahead of him. The engineer noticed a man walking away from something left on the Mecca-area tracks about 5 p.m. April 2, Riverside County...

Authorities believe a 78-year-old man thought to have tied a puppy to train tracks in Riverside County last week may have been "senile" and "didn't fully understand what he had done," officials said Tuesday. A train engineer noticed a man walking away from something left on the Mecca-area tracks about 5 p.m. on April 2, Riverside County Animal Services said in a statement Tuesday. That something was a live, 10-month-old poodle-terrier mix. The engineer used the train's emergency brakes to stop and avoided hitting the puppy, officials said.

Theodore Roosevelt was appalled by the lack of firearms training within the constabulary when he was appointed president of the New York City Police Department Board of Supervisors, a rank now known as police commissioner. He would, I suspect, be equally appalled by a National Rifle Assn.-funded study released last week that recommended putting guns in every school in America. Upon becoming New York's top cop in 1895, Roosevelt recognized the danger of large numbers of undertrained officers carrying firearms in crowded urban environments.

Authorities believe a 78-year-old man thought to have tied a puppy to train tracks in Riverside County last week may have been "senile" and "didn't fully understand what he had done," officials said Tuesday. A train engineer noticed a man walking away from something left on the Mecca-area tracks about 5 p.m. on April 2, Riverside County Animal Services said in a statement Tuesday. That something was a live, 10-month old poodle-terrier mix. The engineer used the train's emergency brakes to stop and avoided hitting the puppy, officials said.

Three cars on an Amtrak train derailed in western Washington state after a Sunday morning mudslide. No one was hurt. The Amtrak Empire Builder was carrying 86 passengers and 11 crew when the accident happened near Everett. Afterward, the train was unlinked from the three disabled cars and took the  passengers to Mukilteo, where they were transferred to chartered buses, according to Amtrak. Rail traffic between Everett and Seattle, which includes the Amtrak Cascades and Empire Builder trains, was canceled until Tuesday morning, Amtrak said.

Thirteen people were hurt Saturday when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a dump truck in Pacoima. Nine of the train's 190 passengers were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Shawn Lenske said. Four others, including the truck's driver, were treated at the scene and released. The train was headed south from Lancaster toward Union Station in downtown Los Angeles when the collision happened at 2:24 p.m., Metrolink spokesman Jeff Lustgarten said.

A Metrolink commuter train collided with a dump truck near Pacoima, injuring more than a dozen people Saturday, authorities said. Nine of the train's 190 passengers were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Shawn Lenske said. Four others, including the truck's driver, were treated at the scene and released. The train was headed south from Lancaster toward Union Station in downtown Los Angeles when the collision happened at 2:24 p.m., Metrolink spokesman Jeff Lustgarten said.

It will take less than 110 seconds to decide the winner of Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, but if you pay attention to the bettors, they are almost certain to place their trust in the combination of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Garrett Gomez. Flashback, trained by Baffert and to be ridden by Gomez, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile race that is a final prep for the May 4 Kentucky Derby. Flashback's primary competition was expected to come from Hear The Ghost, who ran down Flashback to win the San Felipe Stakes by a half-length on March 9. But Hear The Ghost suffered an injury this week and will be scratched from Saturday's race.

BEIRUT -- A Syrian government newspaper accused Jordan of hosting training camps for opposition fighters and warned its neighbor that it was risking getting entangled in Syria's 2-year-old conflict. The rebuke printed in an editorial on the front page of state-run al Thawra newspaper follows recent U.S. and British media reports that describe Jordan as providing a place for rebels to be trained with American support. Jordan has denied the existence of such training camps. One aim of the alleged training is to create a buffer on Jordan's border that could host fighters and help handle the flow of refugees.

The number of Los Angeles County Probation Department employees investigated for serious crimes last year remained roughly the same as in 2011 despite efforts to weed out misconduct through improved training, according to a report released Wednesday. In 2012, 64 employees were either arrested or questioned in crimes ranging from burglary to attempted murder, according to a report by the county's Office of Independent Review. In 2011, 69 probation employees were arrested. "The frequency of off-duty employee misconduct continues to plague the department," according to the report.