Waving toward home

Newport Beach's flag is flying in an unlikely place these days ? Iraq. A battalion of Marines from Camp Pendleton that the city "adopted" in December 2003 was deployed to Fallouja recently, and the city's flag went along. Members of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines sent a photo back as proof.

Activities to support the Marines and their families are organized by a committee that includes Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau, former Mayor Steve Bromberg and Arches restaurateur Dan Marcheano, all military veterans. The committee so far has held two mess night events to raise money for Marine families, and a picnic was held in August after the battalion returned from an earlier deployment.

CARRYING THE TORCH

Following ever closer in the footsteps of his predecessor, Newport Beach Rep. John Campbell todayplanned to propose a bill that would permanently ban taxes on Internet access.

In December, Campbell won a special election to replace Chris Cox, Newport Beach's congressman for 17 years who left to become chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Internet access taxes are now banned through 2007. Cox failed to get a permanent ban through Congress in 2003 but was able to get temporary bans renewed.

Campbell said Wednesday that the permanent Internet tax ban continues his work as a state legislator ? he was a coauthor of a state Internet tax ban bill that expired in 2004. He unsuccessfully pushed to extend the ban in 2005.

"I'm picking up the baton, if you will, for him [Cox], but it's also a baton I've carried in California," Campbell said.

The bill prohibits creation of state and local taxes on Internet access ? for example, e-mail messages can't be taxed.

The Internet has been a powerful force for commerce and communication, so the government shouldn't do anything that could stifle it, Campbell said.

"If someone says they don't want to make it [the tax ban] permanent, they're saying, 'I may want to tax e-mails at some point,'" he said.

'CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH'

And speaking of Chris Cox, a month after surgery to remove thymic tumor, he was given a "clean bill of health," a statement from his office said Tuesday. Cox, 53, had surgery Jan. 30 that removed a benign tumor from his thymus gland, and he returned to work a few weeks later.

The thymus is located behind the sternum and helps in the development of the body's immune system.

GOD OF THE SEA NEXT DOOR