American Scene

TEXAS

2 students shot, wounded at middle school

EDINBURG — Two middle-school students were wounded by gunfire Monday afternoon while trying out for a basketball team, and authorities suspect hunters may to be blame.

Two boys, ages 13 and 14, were shot, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino. Classes were not in session at Harwell Middle School when the shooting happened around 4:45 p.m., but the school complex was immediately placed on lockdown.

One of the wounded boys was in critical condition Monday night with a bullet embedded in an organ. The other was stable and awaiting X-rays, Sheriff Trevino said.

At the time of the shooting, one of the boys was going for a layup. The other was waiting his turn to try out, Sheriff Trevino said.

The sheriff said it was too early to say whether the students were targeted or if the shooting was accidental.

Investigators think the shots may have come from hunters on adjacent farm property, Sheriff Trevino said. The shots did not come from the campus and were not a result of a drive-by, he said. 

CALIFORNIA

Record executive dies after shooting

LOS ANGELES — A music industry executive died Monday after being shot last week by a rampaging gunman in the heart of Hollywood, a hospital spokeswoman said.

John Atterberry, who has worked with the Spice Girls, Jessica Simpson and others, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, spokeswoman Simi Singer said.

The 40-year-old executive was shot in the face and upper body as he drove his Mercedes-Benz during Friday’s random attack near Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard.

Mr. Atterberry was the only seriously injured victim of Tyler Brehm, 26, who police say fired nearly 20 bullets in the air and at cars as he screamed that he wanted to die. He was killed by police minutes later.

Brehm’s ex-girlfriend has said she and Brehm had recently broken up. But police say they’re still looking for a motive for the attack.

NEVADA

Federal report: Home flipping drove housing bubble

LAS VEGAS — A new federal report shows that speculative real estate investors played a larger role than originally thought in driving the housing bubble that led to record foreclosures and sent economies plummeting in Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and other states.

Researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that investors who used low-down-payment, subprime credit to purchase multiple residential properties helped inflate home prices and are largely to blame for the recession. The researchers said their findings focused on an “undocumented” dimension of the housing market crisis that had been previously overlooked as officials focused on how to contain the financial crisis, not what caused it.

More than a third of all U.S. home mortgages granted in 2006 went to people who already owned at least one house, according to the report. In Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, where average home prices more than doubled from 2000 to 2006, investors made up nearly half of all mortgage-backed purchases during the housing bubble. Buyers owning three or more properties represented the fastest-growing segment of homeowners during that time.

NEW YORK

New data: Drop continues in child abuse

NEW YORK — Fears that persisting economic woes would increase child abuse in the U.S. have proved unfounded, according to the latest federal data.

A comprehensive new report, to be formally released Wednesday, shows overall abuse and neglect figures declining slightly between 2008 and 2010, and child fatalities dropping by 8.5 percent during that span.

The annual report from the Department of Health and Human Services said the estimated number of victimized children dropped from 716,000 in the 2008 fiscal year, when the recession began, to 695,000 in 2010. That’s down from 825,000 in 2006.

The rate of abuse — factoring in cases where some children were abused more than once during the year — was 10 per 1,000 children, down from 10.3 in 2008, to reach the lowest level since the current tracking system began in 1990.

The number of fatalities from abuse and neglect has dropped markedly, from an estimated 1,720 in 2008 and 1,750 in 2009 to 1,560 last year. About 80 percent of those killed were 3 or younger.

FLORIDA

3 band members charged with hazing

TALLAHASSEE — Police have arrested three Florida A&M band members in the beating of a woman during hazing rituals that became so severe that her thigh was broken.

Tallahassee police said Monday that on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 the three struck band member Bria Shante Hunter’s legs with their fists and with a metal ruler to initiate her into the “Red Dawg Order.” It’s a band clique for students who come from Georgia.

Miss Hunter told police that days later the pain became so unbearable that she went to the hospital. Her thigh bone was broken, and she had blood clots in her legs.

Miss Hunter’s beatings came about three weeks before FAMU drum major Robert Champion was killed during a band trip to Orlando, Fla. Police say hazing was involved.

LOUISIANA

Rare 1787 gold coin fetches $7.4M

NEW ORLEANS — An exceedingly rare 1787 gold Brasher doubloon has been sold for $7.4 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a gold coin.

Blanchard and Co., the New Orleans-based coin and precious metals company that brokered the deal, told the Associated Press the doubloon was purchased by a Wall Street investment firm. Identities of the buyer and seller were not disclosed.

Minted by Ephraim Brasher, a goldsmith and neighbor of George Washington, the coin contains 26.66 grams of gold — slightly less than an ounce. Worth about $15 when it was minted, the gold value today would be more than $1,500.

It is the only known example of the doubloon with a distinctive hallmark punch on the eagle’s breast; five other known doubloons have a punch on the eagle’s left wing.

From wire dispatches and staff reports