Auburn’s Bruce Pearl undergoes back surgery

By WTOP Staff
November 4, 2014 | 5:48 PM

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has undergone back surgery but isn’t expected to miss any time on the sidelines.

Auburn says Dr. Colby Maher of the Andrews Institute in Pensacola, Florida, operated on Pearl Tuesday morning

The school says Pearl is expected to be on the sidelines for the Tigers’ exhibition game against West Alabama on Friday.

The 54-year-old coach is preparing to start his first season at Auburn. The Tigers open Nov. 14 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where Pearl coached from 2001-05.

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

By Heather Gustafson
August 21, 2026 | 10:05 PM

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.

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