California IN BRIEF : RANCHO MIRAGE : Girl Killed in Drag-Racing Crash

A teen-age girl on spring break was killed in a head-on collision with a car drag-racing on a highway near Palm Springs, authorities said. Another young woman and two youths were also hurt in the collision on California 111 in Rancho Mirage, about 10 miles southeast of the desert spa city, where tens of thousands of students have converged for an annual weeklong party that begins with springtime vacation at high schools and colleges. Timare Blanke, 17, of Corona, died at a hospital shortly after the crash, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies said. A passenger in Blanke’s car, Chin Huang, 18, of Anaheim, was treated at the same hospital for minor injuries. The names and condition of two 16-year-old Torrance boys in the other car were not released. The wreckage and victims “were scattered for about three blocks,” Police Lt. Lee Weigel said.