Week in Review

PUBLIC SAFETY

Elementary school teacher dies after being hit by car

A popular teacher and young mother died Thursday after she was hit late Wednesday by a driver who is believed to have been under the influence of prescription drugs. Costa Mesa resident Candace Tift was riding her bike along West Coast Highway in Newport Beach when a car drifted onto the curb, striking Tift.

Tift, 31, taught fourth and fifth grade at Newport’s Eastbluff Elementary School. She and her husband, Wade Tift, have a 15-month-old son, Owen.

Tift was riding on her beach cruiser bike just blocks from her Costa Mesa home when she was struck by a car driven by Irvine resident Janene Kathleen Johns, police said. Johns, 52, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of being under the influence of prescription drugs.

Tift’s mother, Mary Logan, remembered her daughter as an active mom who loved reading and teaching. Tift’s organs were donated to three people Friday.

Although only one of the shootings — an incident that left two people wounded — has been determined gang-related, much of the meeting discussion focused on gang crime.

Some residents said they’ve seen increasing police activity in their neighborhoods and asked what could be done about the gang problem. Including a five-year gang-elimination plan, police said they are hiring additional officers to specifically combat gang crime.

COSTA MESA

Lighting of four fields for evening practices OKd

The city will temporarily light three fields at the Farm Sports Complex and one at Davis Elementary School to allow evening youth sports practices this fall, the parks and recreation commission decided Wednesday. The commission substituted the lighting plan for one that included lighting fields at Balearic Community Center, after center neighbors complained.

The city has been battling a shortage of fields as the ranks of youth sports groups have swelled, and fields have been taken out of commission for maintenance and other reasons. Permanent lights are slated for two of the Farm fields, but those probably won’t be ready until 2007.

EDUCATION

Local exit exam numbers beat county, state

For the third year in a row, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District topped both the state and county in its scores on the California High School Exit Exam. During the 2005-06 school year, the district saw 72% of its test-takers pass the math portion of the exam, while 74% passed English. The averages for the county were 70% and 69%, respectively, while the state posted even lower at 59% and 61%.

Newport-Mesa’s percentages have dropped off slightly over the last three years, but the district credited the decline to more students taking the test each year.

Daystar Television Network, the plaintiff, has demanded immediate ownership of the station, arguing that it made a higher cash bid than the foundation, but Judge David Sills has said the district still has the discretion not to sell KOCE at all.

BUSINESS

Area hotels post steady summer-occupancy rates

Despite traffic numbers at John Wayne Airport slightly sliding and hotel rates increasing, Newport-Mesa hotels are having a steady summer with occupancy numbers the same or higher than last year.

The Hilton in Costa Mesa experienced a steady business, comparable with last summer.

The Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau has seen almost a 5% rise in walk-in visitors to its office, and the Fairmont Newport Beach has also had an increase in visitors.

“At the beginning of the summer, all of us were holding on to the edge of our seats with gas prices and the fact that most of the airlines aren’t adding new flights and are all full,” Brad Logsdon, director of sales and marketing for the Hilton, said.

POLITICS

GOP group won’t endorse Dick Nichols’ reelection

The Orange County GOP central committee on Monday voted not to endorse the reelection of Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols because of comments he made to the media in 2003 that some found offensive and embarrassing.

Nichols told the Daily Pilot in a 2003 interview he didn’t want more grass at Corona del Mar State Beach because it attracts “Mexicans” who make it “their private, personal grounds all day.”

NEWPORT BEACH

Hoag Hospital center focuses on the brain

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian recognized its newest center of excellence this week.

Although it doesn’t yet have a permanent home, the Hoag Neuroscience Institute and its staff of doctors and nurses will embark on what doctors consider to be the final frontier of medicine — the brain.

The institute’s doctors said they are committed to forming a cohesive to team to tackle their patients’ issues together. They specialize in brain tumors, epilepsy, dementia and other brain disorders. As the population grows older and larger, there’s more of a need for a comprehensive clinical research and treatment hospital, doctors said.

City Councilman Steve Rosansky said the park will likely cost at least $5 million to develop and will include ball fields. Newport Beach officials agreed the $5 million price is probably the best deal they’re likely to get on such a desirable piece of vacant land.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“She was just so nice to me the whole year. I was new at that school, and she helped me through being a new student. I thought she was a really great teacher. She wanted to make the world a better place.”

— Cassidy Betts, a 9-year-old student at Eastbluff Elementary School, of her former teacher Candace Tift, who died this week after being hit while riding her bicycle on West Coast Highway by an allegedly impaired driver

“He’s still so popular because of who he was and how he touched every age group and ethic. There will never be another Elvis Presley.”

— Tina Altman, president of the Orange County-based Jailhouse Rockers fan club, at the sixth annual Elvis Fest at the Orange County Marketplace

“There’s this perception that somehow hemp and marijuana are the same. Certainly from the point of a campaign hit piece, you could make the claim that you’re being soft on drugs, when in reality it has nothing to do with that.”

— Chuck DeVore, Newport Beach Republican assemblyman, who co-wrote a bill that would allow farmers to grow industrial hemp in California

“It’s just something that’s going to be an asset for the city of Newport Beach. The kids just really enjoy old firetrucks.”

— Rick Poulson, the city’s auto body and paint mechanic, of the nearly finished museum inside the Balboa Island fire station

“It’s going to affect hundreds of people and millions of dollars. It’s possible [to reverse the sale], but it’s not that simple. If all we had to do is hand the license over and we hand them $10 million, that would be great, but that’s not how it’s going to work.”

— Milford Dahl, an attorney for the Coast Community College District, on a court ruling that voids the sale of KOCE-TV