Urban News

(MEMPHIS) -- Plans are afoot to wrest control of Shelby Farms Park in Memphis from the current nine-member appointed board and put it into the hands of a not-for-profit group. The park -- twice as large as New York's Central Park and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park combined -- is the nation's largest urban park.

The Commercial Appeal says that it's not uncommon for Memphis attractions to be run under that arrangement. For example, the city's waterfront district is now run by a nonprofit company called Riverfront Development. The city zoo is also run by a nonprofit board.

Meanwhile, some $6.25 million in grant monies has been obtained to start the ball rolling in the Shelby Farms transfer.

(LOS ANGELES) -- Doctors and school officials in the Los Angeles enclave of Van Nuys say they have no idea why an otherwise-healthy, 15-year-old male student collapsed and died in the locker room of his high school's gymnasium. According to the Los Angeles Times, Ricardo Martinez was changing into his gym togs prior to class when, in front of his classmates, he fell to the floor. Students tried to revive him while others called 911.

He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about 90 minutes after collapsing.

Witnesses told the publication that he simply started shaking a little, then slumped to the ground. The student had been an avid boxer, participating for years in a police-sponsored league. He quit boxing several months ago after the birth of his son. Among the survivors are his parents, six siblings, his girlfriend (who is 15) and infant Ricardo Jr. (now six months old).

(MIAMI) -- A state audit of Florida schools shows that many in the Miami district have failed to comply with state mandates on smaller class size. Additionally, the canvass shows that too many qualified teachers have been reassigned to other tasks, including administrative activities. This action, according to experts, further taxes the teacher pool and exacerbates teacher shortages.

Many low-performing schools -- according to the Herald -- were singled out for non-compliance with class-size regulations.

The report shows that as many as 87 percent of the city's kindergarten through third-grade students in Miami-Dade schools are in schools where the class size exceeds state rules.

(WASHINGTON) -- Officials of the local transit authority in the nation's capital are still trying to figure out what went wrong when a subway car's door trapped a woman and the car dragged her down a platform before she could break free. The 58-year-old woman suffered injuries to her head, arms and legs and lost consciousness after falling to the pavement.

The accident, according to the Washington Times, is one of over a dozen being registered in new cars, which have just put into service.

Before Washington Metro lines first opened three decades ago, engineers traveled the world to figure out what was wrong with other systems to avoid any problems in Washington. The design of the Metro cars' doors called for trains to not be able to run if any door is open. The accidents in the new generation of cars are puzzling in light of the fact that they were ordered with the same specifications.