WEEK IN REVIEW

NEWPORT BEACH

Sen. Clinton visits local resort for private event

Hillary Clinton supporters flocked to see the presidential hopeful at a closed-door event Thursday evening at the Balboa Bay Club & Resort. More than 200 Clinton fans paid between $150 and $2,300 to see the senator at a no-press-allowed rally at the luxury resort. Clinton has raised about $1 million in Orange County this election cycle, according to the most recent data available from the Center for Responsive Politics.

EDUCATION

District cites lack of dialogue in investigation

A dispute over the funding of the Corona del Mar cheerleading team apparently came to a resolution this week, a day after a complaint was made public.

Parents of some children on the team filed a complaint with the organization’s booster club about two weeks ago and brought their complaint to the Tuesday night school board meeting.

Parents called for accountability on why more than half of the team’s competitions were canceled this school year and asked to see financial records, something they were previously denied.

The district investigated the complaint and cited a lack of communication as the reason parents were not privy to decisions made to cancel competitions, district officials said. The investigation also showed that competitions were nixed when there wasn’t enough money because some parents didn’t pay their dues, officials said.

Dues for the school’s cheerleading team can be more than $4,000, including uniform and competition costs.

UCI Muslims, Jews protest each other over events

UCI’s Muslim Student Union’s “Never Again: The Palestinian Holocaust” ended in a controversial week that included Union members’ building a wall replicating one that divides Israel and Palestine. They decorated the wall with information, opinions and pictures depicting the violence in the region, including an Israeli flag stained in blood.

Union members say they are protesting an Israeli government that oppresses Palestinians; but other student groups on campus, most Jewish, have called the group’s action “hateful.”

UCI repeated that it will uphold the Constitution, allowing students the right to free speech and will intervene only if rights are violated.

 The Newport-Mesa Unified School District, prior to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spending plan announcement Wednesday, made its budget recommendation to the school board Tuesday afternoon.

Deputy Supt. Paul Reed said the district needs to cut $10 million, more than $3 million of that on programs and services such as reading mentors.

Following the governor’s budget announcement, district officials said there was no change in their recommendation to make cuts in several programs, such as a deaf and hard of hearing program at Kaiser Elementary and reading coaches from four elementary schools.

BUSINESS

SEC charges local business heads for alleged scheme

Two current and former top officers of the Irvine-based Broadcom Corporation were charged with backdating stock options over a period of five years, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged this week.

The complaint identifies former Chief Executive Henry T. Nicholas, Chief Technology Officer Henry Samueli, former Chief Financial Officer William J. Ruehle and General Counsel David Dull. Samueli, Nicholas and Dull live in Newport Beach, according to the complaint.

Broadcom reported another $2.22 billion in compensation from the alleged scheme, the SEC estimated.

“The SEC failed to mention that an independent team of lawyers and forensic accountants hired by Broadcom’s outside board members thoroughly examined Broadcom’s options granting process, and filed a report that fully exonerated Dr. Samueli,” a statement from Samueli’s lawyer, Gordon Greenberg, read. “That investigation concluded that Dr. Samueli ‘reasonably relied on management and other professionals regarding the correct option accounting treatment and grant approval process.’”

Soon after reports of the SEC complaint surfaced Samueli announced he resigned as chairman of the company’s board of directors.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Man, woman collared in bust on alleged meth lab

Costa Mesa Police arrested two during a raid on a suspected methamphetamine lab on the 900 block of Joann Street Wednesday, recovering what police characterized as drug paraphernalia and about an ounce of the drug. Police added that a 6-year-old child was also found at the scene and taken into custody by social services.

Norman Frederick Graham Jr., 47, was apprehended after leading police on a short foot chase, which ended when police tackled him in Fairview Park, Lt. Marty Carver said. Sabrina Elizabeth Johnson, 36, was also apprehended, police said.

Officials said the alleged laboratory was not making methamphetamines during the raid and that no hazard was posed to neighbors.

 The trial for an Irvine woman accused of killing a Costa Mesa teacher with her car in August 2006 got into full swing this week. Janene Johns, 53, still reeling from the death of her husband of 26 years six weeks earlier, lost control of her Lexus on West Coast Highway and hit Candace Tift, who was riding her bike on the sidewalk. Johns had recently taken Xanax, the sleeping aid Ambien, and the cough suppressant Mucinex earlier in the day, she told police.

Johns is charged with vehicular manslaughter while under the influence. Defense attorneys claim Johns was not intoxicated, rather in a depressed and paranoid-induced state of unconsciousness. People cannot commit crimes while unconscious, unless it is drug-induced.

The trial is expected to conclude early next week.

COSTA MESA

Retirees’ donations help save local senior center

Flo Martin and Joan Cox, two retired high school teachers, helped rescue the Costa Mesa Senior Center’s program that gives needy seniors free groceries twice a month.

Martin donated $2,000, and Cox chipped in $500. That covered the $2,000 less the senior center received from city officials when they were doling out federal Community Development Block Grant money this year.