Week in review

Whittier Elementary School Principal Sharon Blakely was honored last

week with an award of excellence by the Irvine Co. for improving

academics and parental involvement at her school. The school received

$5,000 for the award.

And 37% of the district’s English-language learners test results on

the first California English Language Development Test showed they are

probably fluent. District officials were quick to temper the results with

a caveat that this is just one measurement. Officials will be able to

glean more information when the results from the second year of testing

are in.

Two new cheer coaches have been hired at Newport Harbor High School,

filling the void created when former coach Lisa Callahan left. Callahan

was informed in January that she could no longer interact with students

on campus because of illegal hiring procedures.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

If it’s Tuesday, this must be the swap meet

City planners dodged a few bullets regarding the ongoing swap meet

saga last week as past department records surfaced documenting a rather

lax approach to the site’s permit enforcement.

Two separate documents from 1998 and 2000 showed the city not only

approved the Orange Coast College swap meet -- which at the time was

operating at twice the size of its original permit -- but recorded that

planners inspected the weekend venue on Tuesdays.

City officials said the campus swap meet permits were not scrutinized

during previous permit-renewal process because the shopping venue had not

received community complaints.

Since then, however, residents have lodged complaints about the swap

meet specifically and traffic on Fairview Road, prompting an extensive

city study of the venue. The study found the swap meet to be operating

with more than 200 permitted vendors and with an additional day.

College officials agreed to scale back the swap meet to comply with

the original permit.* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached

at (949) 574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

First lady swings through Newport Beach

California first lady Sharon Davis was in Newport Beach last week to

encourage abortion-rights supporters to back candidates who share their

views on this issue. Her talk at a private home raised $25,000 for

Planned Parenthood’s political arm.

Some Santa Ana Heights residents have set a special meeting to decide,

once and for all, where they stand as a group on the annexation issue.

Though historically most residents of the unincorporated area have wanted

to become part of Newport Beach, a few recently have questioned the move.

Newport Beach was home this past week to the biggest in-water boat

show in the West. The Newport In-Water Boat Show will close today at the

Newport Dunes Resort and Marina.

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

Vehicle burglars caught

In Costa Mesa, three Santa Ana men were allegedly caught in the act of

breaking into a car early Monday morning and were subsequently arrested

on suspicion of committing a rash of five vehicle burglaries in the north

area of the city, police said. Jorge Gil and Jorge Bravo-Garcia, both 18,

and Salvador Rivas-Bravo, 22, were arrested on suspicion of the vehicle

burglaries on Iowa Street and Gibraltar Avenue, police said.

All the missing property was recovered, and police are returning the

items to their owners. Officials said there have been quite a few vehicle

burglary arrests in the past few weeks, especially in the north end of

town.

Also, police arrested two Costa Mesa men early Monday morning on

suspicion of attempted murder after they allegedly beat a man with a

baseball bat in a convenience store parking lot.

Faustino Puga, 42, and Johann Flores, 25, allegedly sent a 29-year-old

Costa Mesa man to the hospital with major head injuries.In other news, a

15-year-old Monarch Beach resident was taken into custody Sunday after

leading Newport Beach police on a high-speed chase in his parents’

Mercedes-Benz, police said. Police chased the boy from MacArthur

Boulevard in Newport Beach to Crown Valley Parkway in Dana Point.The boy,

whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was booked on

suspicion of felony evading an officer and the unlawful taking of a

vehicle.

Because he is a minor, the boy was taken into temporary custody and

later released to his parents.

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

Fine day on the bay

The Balboa Bay Club was fined $60,000 for 20 water-quality violations

related to construction at the site. In issuing the fines, the regional

water-quality control board said sulfide levels in nearby waters were

sometimes unacceptably high.

Newport Beach’s just-formed Harbor Commission has put the issue of

dredging around private piers on the top of their priority list. Members

plan to look for ways to deal with the delicate issue of eel grass, a

protected plant that grows in the water near many docks.

* Daily Pilot staff. To contact the newsroom, call (949) 642-5680 or

by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .