EDUCATION UCI now driving with hydrogen Researchers...

EDUCATION

UCI now driving

with hydrogen

Researchers at UC Irvine’s National Fuel Cell Research Center took

delivery of a new hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Monday. They will use

the state-of-the-art SUV, one of only 18 in the world, to study the

feasibility of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed “Hydrogen

Highways,” a plan for a widespread rollout of hydrogen fueling

stations. The hydrogen vehicles, built by Toyota, have the same body

and chassis as their Highlander SUV. The prototype cars are years

away from mass production.

* Students in Newport Harbor High School’s Culinary Academy

advanced to a national competition after taking top state honors over

the weekend. Each member of the four-person team also won an $8,000

scholarship to attend culinary school. The team cooked up a

three-course meal in 60 minutes, beating out 14 other student teams

at the ProStart Student Invitational Saturday at Cal Poly Pomona

* California voters narrowly passed Proposition 55, which will

provide $12.3 billion to California schools to improve facilities.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District stands to get the $50 million

promised to it for the multi-school Measure A construction project.

UC Irvine and OCC will also get money for facilities’ improvement.

* The Coast Community College District filed a counter lawsuit

against Christian broadcaster Daystar Television Network on

Wednesday, asking a judge to decide who should be allowed to buy

KOCE-TV. Attorneys for the district filed the cross complaint in

response to a suit filed last week by Daystar. The district’s

response also asks the court to decide if they could restart the

bidding process or take the station off the market they it loses the

case.

-- Marisa O’Neil