WEEK IN REVIEW

EDUCATION

Scientists find galaxies from a long time ago, far far away

UC Irvine scientists announced their fascinating look back in time as they discovered a cluster of galaxies 11.4 billion light years from Earth. Their discovery using the Keck Telescope in Hawaii is the farthest distance anyone has seen. It was a peek at three medium-sized galaxies and potentially two more about to collide. The previous farthest known galaxy cluster sighting was 9 billion light years away.

 The Newport Beach Spirit run overcame a little rain on March 30 to have a successful day, earning about $80,000 for Newport-Mesa schools.

The run — a tradition for more than 20 years — has generated more than $1 million in money to local schools. It started with Harbor View, Andersen, Eastbluff and Newport Coast Elementary schools, but this year participants were allowed to choose the recipients of their $5 donations.

 Ava Soleimany isn’t necessarily a world traveler, but she could pass for one. The 13-year-old Harbor Day student is a semi-finalist for the National Geographic Society’s California State Geography Bee.

For Ava, learning about geography is essentially learning about ourselves. Culture, places, environment: All these things make up who people are.

If she wins the state contest, she will receive $100 and a chance at the national title in Washington D.C. to compete for a $25,000 scholarship.

NEWPORT BEACH

Park project to restore plants, help endangered birds

Newport Beach is getting ready to embark on a roughly $5 million project to clean up the water and bring native plants back to Big Canyon Nature Park. Restoring the area could improve the habitat for numerous species of endangered birds.

The 55-acre Big Canyon Creek area between Jamboree Road and Upper Newport Bay is a hodgepodge of different habitats, including tidal wetlands and freshwater marshes.

 Scott Morlan’s surfing and environmental class at Newport Harbor High School wants to start a citywide ban on polystyrene foam products at Newport eateries.

The students gathered on the beach near Newport Pier last week brandishing homemade signs detailing how non-biodegradable products harm local beaches. The students have gathered about 500 signatures from residents and businesses and have met with local environmental leaders and City Council members. The class hopes to get the city council to consider passing a ban on the use of polystyrene foam products at local food vendors.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Odd array of items found near frozen corpse in hotel

Police found “hundreds” of photographs of a blond woman, an electric saw and papers detailing how to clean up a crime scene in a ninth-floor room of the Fairmont Newport Beach hotel, where the body of 33-year-old Monique Trepp was discovered packed in dry ice last month, search warrants show. Native New Zealander Stephen Royds, 46, was said to have lived in the room for two years, the search warrants state.

Royds told detectives after he was arrested on drug charges that his girlfriend Trepp, 33, a one-time Huntington Beach resident, died about a year before police found her body packed in dry ice in a 2-by-3-foot plastic bin in his hotel room March 6, authorities said.

Royds told police he found Trepp dead on the floor of the hotel room in March 2007, but chose not to call police because there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest, according to the search warrant. Royds was convicted of drug charges in 2002, but he skipped his sentencing and has been wanted ever since, court documents show.

 Police are seeking the public’s help catching a man who walked into two women’s homes in the middle of the night and masturbated in their rooms while they slept, police said. The man, described as 6-feet tall and 190 pounds, has entered the homes virtually naked through unlocked doors. The women woke up and the man ran away, police said. Investigators think it’s the same man in both instances because of the similar circumstances, they said.

POLITICS

Twice-failed activist may try suing H.B. mayor again

Republican activist Michael Schroeder revealed this week that he is considering suing a third time to prevent Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook from using her title on the ballot for her congressional bid.

“At this point, we’re still examining our options and looking at the judge’s decision,” he said after two other lawsuits were tossed out of court. “[A suit] for the general election is conceivable; we’re looking at everything right now.”

 Assemblyman Van Tran’s attempt to legally require the state to screen and verify the immigration status of prisoners — much like Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Costa Mesa jail — failed to make it out of an Assembly committee Wednesday.

Tran hoped identifying and deporting such prisoners would cut state costs to house them, as well as address the problem with overcrowding in California prisons, though opponents said the bill would deputize state officers to enforce confusing and frequently changing federal immigration law.

BUSINESS

Halfacre named top Newport Beach citizen

The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce named Lula Halfacre, the chief executive of the Traditional Jewelers store at Fashion Island, as its 2008 Citizen of the Year Wednesday.

Halfacre, who founded the store in the 1970s with her late husband, Marion Halfacre, serves on the chamber’s Commodores Club and has chaired the Taste of Newport festival as well as the chamber’s board of directors.

She is set to receive her award June 12 at the Citizen of the Year Gala at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa.

The chamber surprised Halfacre with the award by inviting her to the Marriott Wednesday under the pretext of tasting food for the gala in June. When she arrived, though, she found a group of past recipients of the award who told her she was this year’s winner.

“What an honor it is to be associated with this group of people,” Halfacre said.

“To be in this group has just made me speechless.”