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• TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Doctors say they will need to operate soon on Tulane safety Devon Walker, who is in stable condition after fracturing his spine in an apparent head-to-head collision with a teammate during a weekend game in Tulsa.
• Tulane University's athletics program said specialists treating Walker at a Tulsa hospital placed him in traction after Saturday's injury and are treating him for a lot of swelling to the neck.
• "The current plan is for him to have surgery in the next one to two days," said the statement released late Saturday, hours after the New Orleans team opened the Conference USA portion of its schedule against Tulsa.
• The injury occurred on the final play of the first half. Tulsa was leading 35-3 and facing a fourth-and-2 with the ball at the 33-yard line on Saturday when the Golden Hurricane called timeout. Tulane then called timeout.
• When play resumed, Tulsa quarterback Cody Green tossed a short pass to Willie Carter, who caught it at about the 28, and turned upfield. He was tackled around the 18-yard line, with defensive tackle Julius Warmsley and Walker sandwiching him and apparently smashing their helmets into each other.
• ___

• GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- It should have been good news.
• The U.S. Embassy called to say the Guatemalan government would begin to authorize adoptions five years after a scandal froze the system that sent as many as 4,000 Guatemalan children a year to the United States.
• Ryan "Bubba" Hooker and his wife, Jess, might finally be able to collect the little boy they wanted to adopt and bring him home.
• But Hooker wasn't sure. This would be his 36th trip to Guatemala City. The 18-month-old toddler they had met in an orphanage was now a 6-year-old kindergartener. The couple had moved homes, passed up a job, spent untold amounts of money trying to adopt Daniel.
• If all went well, they were told, they would be the first U.S. family to adopt under the Central American nation's new adoption laws.

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