In brief: Work nears completion on ruptured pipe in Los Angeles

Los Angeles – Repair crews on Thursday were shoring up a giant hole in the middle of Sunset Boulevard caused by a ruptured pipe, as officials at the water-logged University of California, Los Angeles, continued to assess damage from the 20 million gallons that inundated the campus.

Workers were reinforcing the excavated 56-by-41-foot crater and making the site safe for crews, said Mike Miller, district superintendent for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Meanwhile, workers off-site were fashioning new valves and a Y-joint connector to replace the burst section of the century-old steel line.

The Department of Water and Power said work on the pipe itself was expected to be completed late today or early Saturday. Then work could begin on repairing the famed boulevard, a heavily traveled east-west thoroughfare, pushing reopening well into the weekend.

UCLA officials said six facilities were damaged in Tuesday’s flooding. The flooding sent water cascading into the Pauley Pavilion, less than two years after a $136 million renovation.

5-year-old girl fatally shoots other 5-year-old girl at home

Chubbuck, Idaho – A 5-year-old girl is dead after police say another 5-year-old accidentally shot her at an eastern Idaho home.

Lt. Bill Guiberson of the Chubbuck Police Department said emergency workers responded to a Chubbuck home at about 3 p.m. Wednesday and took the victim to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello. The hospital confirmed later in the evening the girl had died.

In a statement Thursday, police said adults were in the home at the time of the shooting but were in a different room.

It’s unclear whether the victim lived at the residence; the statement said only that she was there “visiting with friends” when the shooting happened.

Investigators have not released the type of gun involved or said how the children got access to it. No names or other details have been released, and police continue to investigate.