WEEK IN REVIEW

NEWPORT BEACH

Film festival gets rolling with star-studded openingThe Newport Beach Film Festival opened Thursday evening at the Edwards Big Newport. Hollywood stars including Thora Birch, Chad Lowe and Michelle Trachtenberg graced the red carpet as more than 1,000 people gathered for the opening night screening of “Beautiful Ohio” and the subsequent gala.

Starring in “Treasure Raiders,” an action-adventure film that showed Friday, Alexander Nevsky — known as the Russian Arnold Schwarzenegger — expressed his excitement for the festival, particularly the John Wayne celebration.

“Arnold is a great guy, but John Wayne was the real action hero,” he said. “Before Arnold, before Clint Eastwood, there was John Wayne.”

Running through April 29, the festival will screen more than 400 international films. For more information, go to www.newportbeachfilmfest.com.

A boat thought to belong to Phoenix resident William Eugene Ott crashed Wednesday on the west jetty in Corona del Mar, but Ott has so far not been found. He left Cabrillo Marina on Tuesday intending to sail his 30-foot boat to the Santa Barbara Islands, his wife told authorities, but no one is sure he was on board when the boat hit the rocks and quickly sank.

Windy weather may have led to the crash, and the 57-degree water would make survival unlikely if Ott went overboard, Harbor Patrol officials said.

A 280-square-mile search turned up a bag of Ott’s prescription bottles and some other items.

Former Newport Beach Mayor John Heffernan on Wednesday sent a formal complaint to the state Fair Political Practices Commission, asking for an opinion on whether a city parks commissioner had a conflict of interest during discussions on a park planned next to the central library.

City officials said there could be a conflict because parks commissioner Debra Allen lives within 500 feet of the park property.

Allen has maintained that she does not have a conflict.

COSTA MESA

Playwright whose work premiered here wins PulitzerSouth Coast Repertory celebrated Monday, when the Pulitzer Prize for drama went to playwright David Lindsay-Abaire for his work in “Rabbit Hole,” a play commissioned by the Costa Mesa theater.

First performed in 2005 at South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival, the drama went on to the Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway, where it opened last year.

Lindsay-Abaire is currently working on the book and score for a musical production of “Shrek,” as well as a screenplay of his award-winning script, set to be released as a motion picture in 2009.

The City Council on Tuesday voted to endorse a gang-fighting initiative proposed by police, but nixed the part that would fund a gang-intervention specialist for local schools.

City officials recently beefed up anti-gang efforts, and Tuesday’s proposal from Costa Mesa Police Chief Christopher Shawkey was intended to be comprehensive.

But three council members said they’re not convinced prevention is effective and they want to see results before giving the schools money on top of an $8-million federal grant they already have for gang prevention. The council also took no action on a proposed daytime curfew to fight truancy, which a number of residents said they oppose.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Costa Mesa man faces hate crime chargeA Costa Mesa man is scheduled to be arraigned May 4 on one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon and one misdemeanor count of resisting a police officer. Anthony Tabarsi, a registered sex offender, is accused of pulling a knife on a man after shouting racial slurs at him April 16. Prosecutors enhanced the assault charge as a hate crime.

Police had to use a Taser to subdue Tabarsi, 41, at about 8:30 p.m. Monday. Tarbarsi allegedly challenged a man who was speaking Arabic to a fight at the Starbucks in the 2700 block of Harbor Boulevard, police said.

Tabarsi reportedly made fun of the man and slashed at the man with a knife outside Starbucks. Police used the Taser on him later when he would not comply with their requests to stop and take his hands out of his pockets.

On March 19, Tabarsi was arrested, on suspicion of public drunkenness and failure to register as a sex offender, outside the Q Club and Cafe on Mesa Verde Drive. He was reportedly calling himself King Anthony and challenging people to fight.

Six teenagers and three men were arrested last week in connection with a shooting the same evening near Pomona Avenue and James Street in Costa Mesa.

Police believe the shooting was gang-related. After interviewing seven alleged gang members who had been in a Toyota Camry police pulled over, they determined that the seven approached a rival gang member and had some sort of dispute, police said.

A 17-year-old Newport Beach teen was arrested on suspicion of firing the gun, although he was not in possession of a firearm when he was arrested outside his house Wednesday night.

EDUCATION

OCC shows solidarity with Virginia TechOrange Coast College remembered the victims of Monday’s shooting at Virginia Tech on Thursday.

At noon, more than 100 students and faculty members gathered for a convocation in the campus quad, joining hands while President Bob Dees and student government leader Lynne Riddle made remarks. The convocation was the first that OCC had held since the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Measure A, the first bond measure in the history of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, came to a close Monday morning, as crews finished installing the last set of new windows at Estancia High School. By the time workers fastened the final pane of glass, the measure had renovated interiors, cleaned bathrooms and made other improvements at 27 schools.

Voters, who passed the measure in 2000, put up $110 million in tax dollars, but state matching funds and other sources brought up the final sum to $194.5 million.

The bond covered most of the projects on its original list, although rising construction costs nixed a few items. Measure F, the $282-million bond that voters passed in 2005, is expected to make up some of the projects left over from Measure A.