The San Diego school board met behind closed doors yesterday to discuss whether it had any legal precedent to call for Acle's removal from office.

A little more than a week ago, the city's Ethics Commission ordered Acle to pay $75,743 in fines and ruled he violated campaign laws 42 times during a November 2005 special election and a failed January 2006 runoff for the District 8 City Council seat.

Jose Gonzales, a San Diego Unified School District lawyer, told trustees that Acle's troubles with the commission do not threaten his legal standing on the board. The advice was requested by board President Katherine Nakamura, who said she was seeking information on behalf of the panel.

Acle yesterday reiterated his intent to challenge the Ethics Commission finding in San Diego Superior Court.

In the meantime, he will continue with school district business through the end of his term in December. Acle lost his chance at re-election by failing to submit a petition with valid signatures from voters.

The commission found that Acle failed to pay vendors for their services, neglected to maintain accurate financial records and removed a listing of money owed vendors from campaign documents. –M.M.

Personnel from aircraft wing return from Iraq

MIRAMAR: More than 150 service members from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing returned to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station last night after completing a deployment to Iraq.

The Marines and sailors spent about seven months in the combat zone. Their air wing is the aviation combat element of the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

The air wing participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has been part of ongoing operations against insurgents in Anbar province. –H.T.P.

Mexican border states aim to revive tourism

TIJUANA: Badly hit by declining tourism revenues, Mexico's northern border states are joining forces with Mexico's federal government in a plan to revive the region.

Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán hosted a meeting yesterday at a coastal development in Tijuana attended by Mexican tourism secretary Rodolfo Elizondo Torres and the governors of Sonora, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. The governors of Chihuahua and Coahuila sent representatives.

Over the next two months, the states agreed to develop a plan outlining measures to reverse the tourism decline.

While tourism across Mexico is up more than 8 percent since last year, border states have seen declining numbers of U.S. tourists, due to congested border crossings, reports of crime and other factors.

The Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a Tijuana-based think tank, estimates about $2.5 billion in potential revenues are lost each year as a result of bottlenecks along the northern border. –S.D.

S.D. school board puts off vote on $2.1 billion bond

SAN DIEGO: The San Diego school board postponed a vote on a $2.1 billion bond measure to upgrade and repair schools yesterday, saying the proposal needs fine-tuning and additional review.

After discussing the issue for about three hours, trustees decided to continue their meeting tomorrow morning.

Board members expressed support for the bond and agreed it was needed, but some said lingering questions persisted about everything from the extent of hazardous material removal that would be covered in the measure to the rationale behind proposed school closures and reconfigurations.

The initiative would succeed Proposition MM, the $1.2 billion bond voters approved in 1998. The money would establish new technology in schools and provide renovations, such as air conditioning, kitchen upgrades and repairs to facilities.

City Heights attorney John Stump criticized the initiative as rushed and full of “secretive proposals,” including one to close Central Elementary School and combine it with Wilson Middle School as a kindergarten through eighth-grade campus. He said the district is scrambling to place a bond on the ballot before Proposition MM sunsets and property owners see their assessments drop.

Any changes to school configurations would require a public hearing and vote of the board, officials said. –M.M.

VA counseling center is coming to Chula Vista

CHULA VISTA: Chula Vista will be the site of one of 39 new Department of Veterans Affairs counseling centers for recent combat veterans and their families, VA officials said last week.

Four counselors and one administrative aide will staff the new center, which will help veterans who have suffered combat stress or sexual harassment, said Dr. Karen Schoenfeld-Smith, a VA counselor in San Diego. They will also offer grief counseling to family members of troops who were killed in combat.

There currently are 232 similar counseling centers across the country, including offices in San Diego and San Marcos. Other new centers are slated for Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento and San Bernardino counties.

VA officials haven't yet identified a location for the Chula Vista center, Schoenfeld-Smith said. The center is expected to open in 12 to 18 months. –S.L.

Staff writers Maureen Magee, Hieu Tran Phan, Sandra Dibble and Steve Liewer contributed to this report.