BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Bag in post...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

Bag in post office prompts bomb scare

An unidentified package in a Corona del Mar post office on Monday

morning, which was initially considered a bomb, turned out to be a

plastic bag with a can of detergent in it, Newport Beach police said.

At about 7:45 a.m., police received a call from a resident saying

there was a suspicious object in the post office in the 400 block of

Orchid Avenue, Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

Police and fire officials responded and saw a “plastic grocery bag

with a cylindrical object sticking out,” he said. The Orange County

Sheriff’s Bomb Squad inspected the package and determined it was not

a threat, Shulman said.

“The resident did the right thing by contacting us and the fire

department,” he said. “And the fire department did the right thing by

asking the bomb squad to take a look at it. The good news is it

turned out to be nothing.”

Three arrested after freeway tagging

Costa Mesa Police arrested three men early Sunday morning on

suspicion of spray-painting gang-related graffiti on a freeway

pillar, officials said.

Police arrested Byron Najarro, 23, and Mario Garcia, 24, both of

Costa Mesa, and 21-year-old Kirk Butterfas of Lakewood at about 2:10

a.m. after they saw Garcia drawing graffiti on a pillar near the Bay

Street overpass on the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway, Lt. Dale Birney

said.

He said a vehicle in which the three men arrived on scene was

parked in the center median on the freeway.

Police will be checking seat-belts

The Costa Mesa and Newport Beach police departments have joined

the National Buckle Up America campaign.

Police officers will actively look for motorists not wearing their

seat belts and hand out tickets to them starting Monday. The campaign

will continue through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Both departments have assigned more patrol officers to the

campaign thanks to a grant from the California Office of Traffic

Safety.

In 2001 alone, 1,268 Californians died because they did not buckle

up, according to the cities’ police departments.