EDUCATION 80% of Newport-Mesa schools meet API...

EDUCATION

80% of Newport-Mesa schools meet API goals

Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials reported Thursday

that 80% of their schools met Academic Performance Index target

scores for 2002-03.

Some schools reported substantial increases, such as Whittier and

Pomona elementary schools, which showed gains four times what the

state had mandated. The API is based on a series of standardized

tests and sets annual improvement goals for schools.

* High numbers of students stayed home from school in the last

week before the winter break, some likely ill with the flu. School

district officials reported one confirmed case of influenza A based

on five throat cultures taken at Corona del Mar High School last

week. At least 11 district schools reported more than 10% of the

student body had stayed home or was sent home sick.

* The school board elected new officers this week. Dana Black is

the new president, Serene Stokes the vice president, and Dave Brooks

the clerk.

* An anonymous donor gave $20 million to UC Irvine, matching the

largest single donation in the school’s history. The money will go to

support 10 faculty positions and additional expenses for the School

of Information and Computer Science.

-- Marisa O’Neil

BUSINESS and ENVIRONMENT

Coldwell makes deal to buy Newport’s Strada Properties

National residential real estate giant Coldwell Banker announced

plans to acquire Strada Properties, a Newport Beach-based firm that’s

seen exponential growth since it burst onto the scene in 2000.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies said their

combined sales in the last 12 months reached $5.5 billion.

Strada’s two Newport Beach offices and 225 employees will be added

to the 15 offices and 750 agents that Coldwell Banker has in Orange

County. Company executives said they’ll combine technology and

marketing to further the brand identity as a high-end residential

brokerage.

* Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to declare an emergency

to allow trees and plants to be cleared in San Diego Creek, to

prevent a flood that could wash sewage into Upper Newport Bay.

Environmentalists were concerned about the destruction of animal

habitat and questioned performing the work as an emergency. Crews on

Wednesday began marking areas where vegetation will be cleared, and

that clearing could begin this week. The $3.3-million project should

last three months.

-- Alicia Robinson

COSTA MESA

Review overestimated legal costs, city attorney says

A review of an independent review done on the city attorney’s

office found that the city’s legal costs are closer to other cities

of its size than the independent review found.

The supplemental review was done by acting City Atty. Tom Wood,

who arrived at the same conclusion as the independent review -- that

Costa Mesa should keep its legal services in-house.

* Prince of Peace officials have decided to remove some of the

school’s ficus trees to keep the peace with neighbors. They will be

removing the ficus trees along Baker Street and raising $10,000 to

replace them with a variety of tree known as yellowwood or

podocarpus.

-- Deirdre Newman

PUBLIC SAFETY and COURTS

Arrests in alley shooting made during citywide search

After a citywide, multi-agency search early Wednesday, police

arrested six locals in connection with a shooting in a Costa Mesa

alley the night before Thanksgiving that left two people injured,

officials said.

Sixty officers from the Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Santa Ana

police departments, and officials from the county district attorney’s

office and the Probation Department, served search warrants on

several locations in the city.

In the end, they recovered one handgun and arrested Enrique

Olaguez and Gustavo Zamora, both 19; Guillermo Arturo Ascencio II,

22; 20-year-old Christian Hernandez; and two 17-year-old boys who are

not being identified because they are minors.

All suspects are being charged with attempted murder and

conspiracy to commit murder.

* A judge on Thursday dismissed significant charges against two

Inland Valley teenagers accused of raping an unconscious girl, ruling

out the possibility of life sentences for them. Judge Francisco

Briseno threw out charges of infliction of great bodily injury and

use of a deadly weapon against 18-year-old Greg Haidl, son of Orange

County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, and Kyle Nachreiner, 19. Greg

Haidl, Nachreiner and Keith Spann are accused of assaulting the

then-16-year-old girl in Don Haidl’s Corona del Mar home. The teens,

then high school students, allegedly penetrated the girl with a pool

cue.

-- Deepa Bharath