WEEK IN REVIEW

COSTA MESA

Federal agent to screen suspects at city’s jail

A federal immigration officer will be stationed in Costa Mesa’s jail full-time beginning this month to check the immigration status of people booked at the jail, officials said Tuesday. The program, offered Nov. 16 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, would render unnecessary a City Council plan to train city police for immigration enforcement.

Federal agents used to visit the city jail but decreased their checks after Sept. 11, 2001, because of other duties. Also last week, a dozen Orange County Sheriff’s deputies began federal training so they can perform immigration checks on arrestees at the county jail.

EDUCATION

Nobel Peace Prize-winner speaks at high school

To kick off Corona del Mar High School’s seventh annual community service learning day on Tuesday, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Ken Rutherford, the co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network, spoke to students about the dangers of landmines around the world. In 1993, Rutherford lost his lower legs to a mine while performing humanitarian work in Somalia.

Rutherford’s visit was sponsored by Club Anthro, a humanitarian-themed student group.

Later, dozens of nonprofit groups set up tables in the campus quad, handing out pamphlets and signing up student volunteers.

A group including a former Newport-Mesa teacher first proposed their idea to the school board a year ago. In January, the board voted unanimously against it, saying the plan was too vague and that there was too little local support for a charter school. In April, the Orange County Department of Education turned down the proposal as well.

The academy’s founders plan to revise their petition and shop it to other districts in Orange County.

BUSINESS

Popular Mexican food eatery celebrates 40th anniversary

“Mama” Margarita Avila and her husband Salvador Avila started their restaurant chain Avila’s El Ranchito, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last month. The business started in Los Angeles County and has had its Newport Beach and Costa Mesa locations for over 30 years. The Corona del Mar eatery opened 10 years ago.

PUBLIC SAFETY

New Fire Department chief, Steve Lewis, is sworn in

Lewis, 54, replaced retiring Chief Tim Riley, who was the city’s fire chief for 15 years.

Lewis last worked as a deputy chief of the Long Beach Fire Department and has more than 20 years of experience in fire service.

Challenges in his new job will include overseeing completion of the new Santa Ana Heights fire station and deciding which other stations should be replaced or refurbished.

NEWPORT BEACH

Youngsters in Green Room band to play holiday event

Four teens prepared last week for their big gig today at the Corona del Mar Christmas Walk, but they said they weren’t nervous.

Perhaps it’s because the kids — Blake Allen, 12; Travis Barrett, 12; Evan Harr, 12; and Alex Herrera, 13 — are practically old pros.

Their inspiration for the music they play together as the Green Room rock band comes from decades long before they made their first appearance. The boys play songs made famous by the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Lynard Skynard and other classic rock bands. They rehearse at least once a week, and it’s paid off, literally, as the boys are able to collect some dough for some of their gigs. Between birthday parties, sports and school, the boys are learning the business of rock ‘n’ roll too.

The council will withdraw the suit over 2323 Main St., a 445-condo project, once Irvine’s City Council rescinds its approvals of the project. That’s likely because the developer has abandoned the condo plan and sold the property to someone with plans for a commercial project, officials said.

The other suit Newport filed, over Avalon Jamboree Village, is pending.

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

“I have been down this road so long. I have trampled the halls of Sacramento legislators. I have testified before legislators. There is zero, zip, zilch, nada that we can do.”

— Ken Kearsley, mayor of Malibu, who’s been fighting for years to get bills passed that would control alcohol and drug rehabilitation homes in cities like Malibu and Newport Beach, where residents say they’re concerned that the homes are a nuisance and potential threat to public safety

“My basic principle is to make sure people enjoy coming to work. Tim Riley left this department in great shape; if I just wanted to maintain the status quo, we’d do our job very well. But you always have to be looking to improve.”

— Steve Lewis, Newport Beach’s new fire chief, on the direction he wants to take the department now that he’s taken over

“It’s going to be the equivalent of 24/7 coverage, and it’s probably going to amount to a little less than 10 interviews a day.”

— Jim Hayes, the Los Angeles field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, estimating that a federal immigration agent will screen about 250 people a month at the Costa Mesa jail, regardless of the crimes those arrested are suspected of committing

“They’ll remember me for the dumb ficus trees in Balboa Village. It was the albatross around my neck, and yet it was the right decision.”

— Tod Ridgeway, Newport Beach city councilman who will be termed out of office on Dec. 11, on his expectation that the decision to removed 25 ficus trees in 2002 will be his legacy

“The weapon I’m talking about has killed more people than nuclear, biological and chemical weapons combined.”

— Ken Rutherford, co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, on the threat posed by landmines; Rutherford addressed students at Corona del Mar High School on Tuesday during the school’s community service learning day.