NEWPORT BEACH
Residents pass Measure B; project starts around 2009
Measure B, which requires the next Newport Beach City Hall to be built next to the central library on Avocado Avenue prevailed Tuesday with 52.8% of the vote.
Mayor Ed Selich estimated it would take at least until the summer of 2009 before the city could get the proper environmental and traffic studies completed and break ground on the project.
With an estimated two years for construction, a new city hall might not be open for business until 2011, he said.
The City Council also will have to decide what to do with the site of the current city hall on Balboa Peninsula.
Newport Beach activist Allan Beek said he plans to push forward with a lawsuit aimed at challenging the legality of Measure B.
Rehab home files suit against city; suit could go federal
The drug and alcohol rehabilitation center Pacific Shores Recovery filed a federal fair housing complaint against the city. The complaint could be the first step in filing a federal lawsuit.
The complaint, filed with the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, states a city-imposed moratorium from April 2007 on new rehabilitation homes is discriminatory. The moratorium was lifted last month after the City Council moved to impose stricter rules on rehab homes in the city.
Pacific Shores is one of two local rehabilitation homes the city sued in November for allegedly violating the moratorium. The suit claims Pacific Shores opened new residential facilities for recovering addicts while the moratorium was in effect.
EDUCATION
Student punished for BB gun, threats, principal says
A Killybrooke Elementary School student was transferred out after he allegedly brought a BB gun to school and later verbally threatened another student, according to school officials and parental accounts.
Principal Katherine Sanchez mailed a letter to families detailing school guidelines taken when incidents concerning weapons occur. Sanchez and other district officials could not give further details due to confidentiality laws.
PUBLIC SAFETY
USDA investigation prompts ban of school beef products
Newport-Mesa School District will keep beef off the menu through March as the United States Department of Agriculture investigates the Westland Meat Company and Hallmark Slaughterhouse.
