COSTA MESA Costa Mesa renews anti-airplane...

COSTA MESA

Costa Mesa renews anti-airplane vow

City officials renewed a commitment to delve into the issue of

increased airplane flights over the city last week, saying they will

continue to seek information, hire experts and collaborate with other

leaders in an effort to provide some relief to residents.

City Manager Alan Roeder said the city must first sit down with

all the relevant players to get a true assessment of what is causing

the increased flights over western portions of Costa Mesa. Airport

representatives from both Long Beach and John Wayne airports still

give conflicting information, but the more local folks have been able

to back up their innocence with charts and graphs, Roeder said.

Without playing the blame game, Costa Mesa leaders would like to

talk about where the changes came from and get a realistic assessment

of what can be done.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Vocal coach arrested

Robert Alan Giese, a 27-year-old voice coach accused of repeatedly

molesting a Buena Park teenager he met at the All-American Boys

Chorus headquartered in the Orange County Fairgrounds, will be

arraigned on Oct. 18, officials said last week.

Giese, who was arrested on Sept. 20, faces six felony counts of

child molestation. He is accused of molesting a 17-year-old boy

between May 1, 1998 and May 31, 2002 at his Irvine home. The victim

was 13 years old when the incidents began, officials said.

Police arrested Giese after the teenager reported the alleged

crimes. Giese was with the chorus as a full-time staff member through

May 2000. He was their production manager, voice coach and director

of communications until that time. After May 2000 Giese taught only

one voice class a week.

Giese is currently out on $200,000 bail and is scheduled to be

arraigned on Oct. 18.

In other news, Newport Beach police investigators testified at a

preliminary hearing that was held Thursday afternoon at the Harbor

Justice Center for Trenton Michael Veches, a former city recreation

coordinator accused of inappropriately touching several young boys.

Veches was arrested in April on suspicion of behaving

inappropriately with several boys 10 years of age or younger. He

faces felony charges for allegedly sucking the boys’ toes. Police

confiscated several digital images from Veches’ home computer showing

him performing the act, investigators said.

Police identified more than 50 victims in those pictures, all boys

who had participated in the city’s after-school and summer programs

Veches supervised over the last three years. He was arrested after a

co-worker tipped off officials that Veches was behaving

inappropriately with the children.

Veches’ next court date is scheduled for Oct. 8 at the Central

Justice Center in Santa Ana.

POLITICS

Getting down to wartime business in Congress

Newport-Mesa’s two congressman had their eyes on wartime

legislation this week, as Rep. Chris Cox proposed a bill and Rep.

Dana Rohrabacher renewed an older one.

On Wednesday, a House Judiciary subcommittee held hearings on

Rohrabacher’s H.R. 1198, which would allow American prisoners of war

in Japan during World War II to collect reparations from Japanese

companies that used them as slave labor.

One vet, Dr. Lester Tenney, shoveled coal for Mitsui Mining for

three years without pay. Tenney, in testimony, said he was brutalized

by company officials.

On Thursday, Cox proposed a bill, along with Rep. Martin Frost

(D-Texas), that would expedite special elections to fill vacant House

seats if a majority of members are killed in a terrorist attack.

The bill, known as H.R. 559, would allow states to tweak their

election laws so they could call the elections more quickly.

EDUCATION

Skate park idea inches forward in Costa Mesa

The School Board unanimously decided to explore building a skate

park at Davis Elementary School in Costa Mesa. The park would be a

collaboration with the city of Costa Mesa, which passed its half of

the joint resolution earlier in September. The next step is inviting

community input from nearby residents.

Orange Coast College has ratcheted up its reputation as a

high-transfer school. This week, it was named No. 2 out of

California’s 108 community colleges in the overall number of students

it transferred last year to the nine University of California

campuses and the 23-campus California State University campuses.

And because of the population crush at Newport Harbor High School,

parents are no longer admitted to school rallies. The school will be

videotaping the rallies, though, so parents can watch them from the

comfort of their own homes.