WEEK IN REVIEW

EDUCATION

District to destroy tainted beef, asks for $15,000 refund

Newport-Mesa School District will destroy any recalled beef it has from a slaughterhouse under investigation for inhumane practices.

The district has about 100 pounds of the bad beef from Westland Meat Company and about 40 to 50 cases of processed food school officials will coat with bleach or ammonia to make it inedible before sending it to a landfill.

School officials are also waiting on reimbursement for the 10,000 pounds of beef they have at processors that have been recalled. Richard Greene, the district’s director of nutrition services, said the school is owed $15,000 in entitlement funds to reimburse them.

POLITICS

Campbell says bad info on school lunches not his fault

Rep. John Campbell responded to criticism this week that his campaign repeated misinformation when attempting to sway public opinion about a Berkeley Public School lunch program he hopes to strip of federal funding.

The move is aimed at withholding $2 million in funding from the city, after its council members voted to condemn a Marine recruitment center they said engaged in recruitment efforts for an illegal war.

In an assertion repeated broadly on the Internet, television, and talk radio, Campbell and Senate co-sponsor Sen. Jim DeMint said Chez Pannise, an upscale Bay Area restaurant, received $243,000 a year to provide “gourmet school lunches” for Berkeley students.

Officials said the Chez Pannise Foundation, opened by the restaurant’s proprietor, runs a school nutrition program as part of its broader mission of improving youth nutrition and eating habits. School lunches, on the other hand, are prepared in-house, and include standards like pizza, sloppy Joes and barbecue chicken.

“That was our understanding form the earmark,” Campbell said. “Usually the earmarks are very descriptive, so we did the best we could based on what on was in the description.”

COSTA MESA

Time Warner explains bad service; residents still irate

A Time Warner representative addressed the City Council this week hoping to dispel concerns about the quality of service in the city.

Kristy Hennessey, vice president of government and community affairs for the region, said the company faced difficulties during a transitional phase about a year and a half ago and that the problems would end.

John and Wilma Feeney, who requested the council’s help at a Jan. 2 meeting, said they still face consistent problems with their cable service.

“Some of us had our say about it, and then [the council] received and filed it,” John Feeney said. “I’ve been around long enough to know what ‘receive and file’ means — you and I call it ‘throwing it in the trash.’ ”

NEWPORT BEACH

Country club shouldn’t be annexed, city manager says

City Manager Homer Bludau doesn’t want the city to annex a country club and adjacent neighborhood that want to become part of the city.

Absorbing the land could strain relations with Costa Mesa, Bludau said. The City Council will discuss the recommendation when they meet this week.

Santa Ana Country Club and a residential neighborhood south of Mesa Drive gathered more than enough signatures last year to petition for annexation to the county agency that oversees the process.

Costa Mesa has a sphere of influence over the two areas and tried to annex them in 2002, but faced widespread opposition from property owners who petitioned against the annexation.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Police seek suspect who pinned, groped jogger

Newport Beach police sought the public’s help to catch a man who sexually assaulted a woman outside Newport Harbor High School on Feb. 16. The woman, 22, was jogging on the school track just before 8 p.m.

On the way back to her car, she was attacked from behind. He pinned her to the ground and groped her, but ran away when she managed to scream, police said.

Police absolved their primary suspect of the crime Tuesday, and released a description of the suspect Wednesday. Police describe the man as 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, white with a muscular build. He was wearing blue jeans and a blue-hooded sweat shirt with white lettering across the front at the time of the attack, police said.

Anyone with information about the suspect or to report a similar attack is asked to call police at (949) 550-6273.

BUSINESS

Renowned philanthropist remembered for grace, spirit

The Newport-Mesa business community suffered another loss last week as Gail Kirwan, Hoag Hospital Foundation member and longtime benefactor of the Orange County Performing Artscenter, Orange County Museum of Art and other groups, died Monday after a 12-year battle with cancer.

Kirwan, 65, was elected to the Hoag Hospital Foundation’s board of directors in 2002 and served as its secretary. She and her husband, Roger, were honored in 2004 as “Outstanding Philanthropists” of the year by the Assn. of Fundraising Professionals.

“As an officer, she played an important role in introducing friends and neighbors to Hoag from a philanthropic standpoint,” said Ron Guziak, the executive director of the Hoag Hospital Foundation. “That’s certainly an important role of foundation board members, and she did that with a lot of grace and spirit. It’s very sad to have her not be here. She was a great friend.”

Picante Martin’s owner was generous, had great memory

Balboa Island residents and shop owners last week mourned the death of Martin Diaz-Puente, owner of Picante Martin’s Mexican Restaurant on Marine Avenue. Diaz-Puente, 44, died at his home in Costa Mesa on Feb. 14. The county coroner’s office is awaiting toxicology results.

Friends and neighbors remembered Diaz-Puente as a gregarious owner who remembered every customer.

“If you walked in there once and introduced yourself and told him your name, he’d recognize you from then on,” said Carolyn Carr, who writes the Island Breeze newsletter and runs a shop nearby. “He’d recognize your voice on the phone.”

People left flowers and candles on the restaurant’s doorstep and posted messages on its windows. Picante Martin’s closed temporarily following Diaz-Puente’s death.