EDUCATION Bringing the arts to class First-grade...

EDUCATION

Bringing the

arts to class

First-grade teachers and principals of Sonora Elementary School,

St. John the Baptist Catholic School and three other Orange County

schools took part in the area’s first ArtsConnect orientation,

designed to provide teachers with creative ways they can incorporate

the arts into the everyday curriculum.

The school staff met at the Orange County Performing Arts Center

on Wednesday with Artsvision President Mitchell Korn, who explained a

bit about the program. Next year, the first-grade teachers will use

music, dancing, visual art and drama in their classes, and students

will be able to meet with artists who will visit their schools.

The five schools were selected last month from 18 Orange County schools that applied for the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s

first ArtsConnect grant.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Haidl to be kept

in jail until trial

Gang-rape defendant Greg Haidl, 19, sobbed quietly and dabbed away

tears on Monday after a judge ruled he must stay jailed and not

released to a psychiatric hospital until the end of his upcoming

retrial.

The judge in November revoked the bail of Haidl, son of former

Orange County Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, after a series of run-ins

with the law. Haidl and co-defendants Kyle Nachreiner and Keith

Spann, both 20, are awaiting retrial after a jury could not decide

last year if they were guilty of gang-raping a seemingly unconscious

16-year-old girl in 2002.

Jury selection in the high-profile case started this week, and so

far, 142 of about 450 candidates remain. The retrial is scheduled to

start Jan. 31.

* The investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a Newport

Beach couple continues, but it looks like foul play is definitely

involved, police said this week.

Tom and Jackie Hawks, 57 and 47 respectively, have been missing

since November when they sold their 55-foot cabin cruiser Well

Deserved, which they’d been living on in Newport Harbor. The boat’s

buyer, 25-year-old Long Beach resident Skylar DeLeon, is due in court

Tuesday on unrelated grand-theft charges. He is being held without

bail because of parole violations.

* A local man nearly took a slow tube to China when his joyride on

an inner tube got diverted during a Jan. 9 rainstorm.

The man, who lifeguards think is a Newport Beach resident in his

20s, suited up in a wetsuit and launched his tube on the beach at

56th Street in Newport Beach as his friends videotaped the adventure

during a driving rain, lifeguards said. A heavy current from the

Santa Ana River emptying into the ocean swept him out to sea and

lifeguards, Harbor Patrol and firefighters mounted a search until he

floated ashore an hour later in Huntington Beach.

POLITICS

Schools, cities not

in fear of state budget

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a 5% increase in education

when he released his $111.7-billion state budget Monday. The budget

changes won’t affect UC Irvine and Orange Coast College as much this

year as last year, when tuition and student fees were bumped up

considerably.

Orange Coast College President Gene Farrell expects little to no

change in course fees. UC Irvine, on the other hand, will begin the

second year of an expected three-year hike in enrollment fees 30%

across all the University of California campuses. Those fees will

likely rise eight to 10% this year.

Newport-Mesa city officials didn’t see any scary surprises in the

governor’s budget. The two cities lost money last year and will lose

more this year to help solve the state’s budget shortfall, but that

was expected as part of an agreement forged in 2004.

The 2005-06 budget doesn’t take any more money from cities, but

local officials said they won’t be surprised to see cities suffer

from state funding cuts to transportation, police services, welfare

and other programs.