Navy

IRVINE — The U.S. Navy did not detect toxins beneath the former El Toro Marine Base's runways and progress is steadily being made on a plume of contamination beneath other sections of the former base, residents were told at last week's City Council meeting. The Navy plans to reevaluate its findings every five years, and if traces of trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical solvent used on the base in the 1970s, are detected in new areas, the Navy will continue to clean it up, said Jim Callian, Navy Base Realignment and Closure environmental coordinator for El Toro.

The sentencing of two Newport Coast men who pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit electronics to the U.S. Navy was pushed back until at least November, federal officials said Wednesday. Mustafa Aljaff, 30, and Neil Felahy, 32, could be sentenced to 2.5 years and three years in federal prison, respectively, for selling counterfeit semiconductors to the military that were not military grade. Semiconductors are tiny integrated circuits used in everything from medical equipment to aircraft.

Edward Louis Armstrong, a World War II and Korean War veteran and longtime Laguna Beach resident, died May 10. He was 86. The Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade Committee in 2002 recognized Capt. Armstrong's service to his country as a submariner when he was named Patriot of the Year. The award is conferred on a Laguna Beach resident who has served the country gallantly or meritoriously in time of war or national emergency. Armstrong moved to Laguna Beach in 1963 and was twice elected president of the Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn.

Two members of a Newport Beach family are scheduled to be sentenced to prison this summer after pleading guilty to selling counterfeit electronics to the military. Mustafa Abdul Aljaff, 30, of Newport Coast, and Neil Felahy, 32, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington on Jan. 13, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors for buying counterfeit semiconductors and selling them to the Navy as military-grade components. A third defendant, Neil’s wife, Marwah Felahy, 32, was also charged.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Navy SEAL Matthew McCabe and a group of former Special Forces personnel held a news conference March 4 on Capitol Hill calling on the Pentagon to drop charges against McCabe and two fellow SEALs accused of assaulting an Iraqi. The Iraqi, Ahmed Hashim Abed, is an al-Qaeda leader who was behind the 2004 killing and mutilation of four American contractors, whose bodies were dragged through the streets of Fallouja, Iraq, and hung from a bridge there, according to a news release posted on the congressman’s website.

Bill Harrison says he’s mastered the secret to faith. “Start thanking God immediately before he answers your prayer,” Harrison told middle school students during a visit to Mariners Christian School last week. “That’s the secret to having faith.” At 88, his faith remains unshaken. The Hemet resident has always believed in a higher being, but his religious conviction was tested in 1945, when, at 23, he found himself marooned on a raft in the South Pacific for six days.

When integrated circuits — a minuscule but sophisticated semiconductor found in medical equipment, aircraft and spacecraft — malfunction in electronic equipment, serious injury, electrical shock and even death could occur, federal court documents show. These were the risks to which a Newport Coast family exposed U.S. Navy personnel by allegedly selling that military branch counterfeited integrated circuits, according to the unsealed contents of a federal indictment recently posted online.

A Newport Beach family is due in federal court Oct. 27 to face charges of allegedly selling U.S. Navy counterfeit electronics that could have cost lives. Mustafa Abdul Aljaff, 29, his sister, Marwah Felahy, 32, and her husband, Neil Felahy, 32, who all live in Newport Coast, face 11 counts of conspiracy, trafficking counterfeit goods and mail fraud, according to an indictment unsealed Oct. 8 in Washington D.C. In March, June and July of this year, the three entered into contracts with the Navy and other government agencies to sell them integrated circuits, a tiny semiconductor used on everything from medical equipment to aircraft, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys’ Office.

The white powdery substance labeled “Anthrax” that was found in a Newport Beach apartment Tuesday turned out to be flour, fire department officials said Wednesday. Authorities tested the material outside of the Coronado at Newport Beach apartment complex unit where they found two jars filled with the powder and determined it was harmless. Police said Phong Huu Nguyen, 29, is the man who vandalized, made threats and left the jars inside his former apartment. About 2:45 p.m. Tuesday authorities received a call about possible vandalism inside the Coronado at Newport Beach apartment, 1700 E. 16th St. Police said Nguyen had recently been evicted.