Republican Maui Mayor Linda Lingle formally filed for governor today at the Pearl City Office of State Elections. Lingle officially
By Richard Borreca Star-Bulletin
files for governorHer campaign takes aim at the state's poor economy, and she promises to improve the state's living standard.
"I'm the only elected official in the state who has used both performance-based budgeting and privitization to achieve measureable improvements," she said.
Lingle spent the morning campaigning on local radio stations. She divides her time between Maui and Honolulu. A campaign spokeswoman said Lingle tries to spend Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays on Maui, devoting the rest to campaigning across the state.
Former U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong will lead a 10-person honorary campaign committee that includes Merv Lopes, Chaminade University basketball team coach, and Hoaliku Drake, former Hawaiian Homes Commission chairperson.
Described as a "progressive conservative" by former U.S. Housing Director Jack Kemp, she will be 45 when she celebrates her birthday June 4.
Lingle completes her second term as mayor of Maui this year. Previously, she served as a Maui County councilwoman for five two-year terms.
Lingle's campaign expense reports filed earlier this year show her with $261,000 to spend, compared with incumbent Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano's $2 million.
Former House speaker's fate awaits doctor's report
A federal judge wants a court-appointed expert to evaluate Daniel Kihano's heart condition before he sentences the former House speaker, who illegally spent $27,000 in campaign funds for personal use.U.S. District Judge Alan Kay yesterday ordered the prosecutor and defense attorney to agree on a medical expert by May 21, which means another delay in Kihano's sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Seabright argued that the federal Bureau of Prisons has said it can care for inmates in Kihano's condition.
Ben Cassiday, Kihano's attorney, previously said a heart specialist gave Kihano a 50-50 chance of living beyond six months.
He has requested 12 months of house arrest because of Kihano's poor health.
With consecutive counts, Kihano faces a maximum prison sentence of 200 years and a fine of up to $750,000.
Coalition: Don't commercialize Hanalei Bay
LIHUE -- Activists fighting the increase of commercial boating in Hanalei are charging that proposed changes to county rules would open the door for a commercial boat harbor in the area.The Limu Coalition, a group of native Hawaiians and environmentalists, took out a full-page advertisement in The Garden Island newspaper yesterday that claimed the Hanalei Bay area "could soon become a harbor and a marina with a strip mall."
"That's been the state's plan all along," said Limu Coalition spokesman Ray Chuan.
Boating industry proponents countered those claims with a full-page advertisement of their own that charged the Limu Coalition with trying to mislead the public.
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka also denounced the Limu Coalition, calling their advertisement "full of misrepresentation, deception and distortion."
"Nothing could be farther from the truth," Kusaka said.
A public hearing is set for Monday on whether the county should amend special management area rules to allow a single permit to be issued to the operator of the boat yard on the shore of the Hanalei River, instead of issuing individual permits to boating companies.
Regulating boaters would then be left to the state.
Ex-union Hamakua sugar workers to get checks
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union will distribute almost $1.3 million to former Hamakua Sugar employees who were in its bargaining unit before the company went bankrupt.Checks will be handed out from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the ILWU Hall in Honokaa, Hawaii. Checks will be mailed to recipients who don't come to pick them up.
About 540 former employees will receive checks.
The union will provide refreshments for members who come by to pick checks up.
It's part of an interim distribution of assets of the bankrupt company.
"Except for any final distribution of the approximately $850,000 left reserved in the estate for administrative claims, this will conclude the five-year battle by the ILWU, Local 142, to secure a meaningful share of the estate's assets for its members," said attorney Rebecca Covert, representing ILWU. "The union members will receive about 46 percent of all allowed claims with this interim distribution."
Hamakua filed bankruptcy in August 1992. A judge ruled that Hamakua could not reject or amend its collective-bargaining agreement with the ILWU.
Possible dengue fever case leads to spraying
The state Health Department's Vector Control Branch sprayed mosquito insecticide in a Mililani neighborhood yesterdaybecause a resident may have dengue fever.Officials said similar spraying was done in Hilo because the resident had traveled there.
Residents in the Launani Gardens area of Mililani were notified of the spraying and warned not to provide mosquito breeding grounds in standing water.
Health Department workers have taken similar precautions in the past. There were six confirmed cases of dengue fever on Oahu last year.
The mosquito-borne illness causes fever, headaches, pain in muscles and joints, and body rash. It is seldom fatal but can trigger a fatal illness called dengue hemorrhagic fever in young children.
All confirmed cases found here were in residents or visitors who contracted the disease while traveling in other countries, according to the Health Department.
Fiji, Samoa and Indonesia have had recent outbreaks.
Comet may be visible for next week and half
A new comet may be visible to islanders in the twilight sky after sunset for the next week and a half.SOHO was discovered May 3 and named for its finder -- a satellite called the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory that looks at the sun, said University of Hawaii astronomer Richard Wainscoat.
It's brighter now than Comet Hale-Bopp was when it approached Earth in March last year, but is much harder to see because it's in the twilight, he said.
Comet-watchers should look straight up from where the sun sets, which is slightly north of west in the summer, Wainscoat said.
It will appear as a "fuzzy blob," he said. "You won't see a nice long tail."
He said some UH astronomers have observed the comet from the Waianae Coast, away from clouds, and Nicolas Biver and Roland Meier will study it from the James Clerk Maxwell Submillimeter Telescope on Mauna Kea.
Pearl Harbor-based sub will take scientists to the Arctic
On Aug. 3, 40 years after the first nuclear submarine traveled under the polar cap at the North Pole, the USS Hawkbill will break the ice canopy.The Pearl Harbor-based Hawksbill continues to explore the last frontier as part of the Navy's partnership with the scientists.
The submarine will leave June 1 on a 42-day mission to the top of the world with a team of two Navy and five civilian scientists. It will be the fourth and the second to the last Arctic scientific expedition begun in 1994 involving nuclear submarines.
In preparation, the USS Hawkbill has been converted into a research laboratory housing specialized collection gear, sonar scanners and remote video cameras and monitors. Last year, the Atlantic-based USS Archerfish carried the scientific team to the Arctic test site.
Cmdr. Bob Perry, the Hawkbill's skipper, said 12 of its torpedoes have been taken off to make room for the equipment and convert part of its forward torpedo room into bunk space.
But Perry added the 292-foot-long Hawkbill will still be "a fully functional warship" throughout the scientific expedition. Perry said the Sturgeon-class submarine was built especially to work under the ice caps of the polar regions, hunting Russian subs during the Cold War.
The reason the missions will end next year is because all of those subs are being decommissioned.
Leis needed for Punchbowl Memorial Day ceremonies
Donated leis are needed for this year's Memorial Day service at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.The city hopes to distribute about 40,000 leis, enough for every headstone.
Some 2,000 Boy Scouts will drape the leis on the veterans' grave sites for the May 25 ceremony, which begins at 8 a.m.
Leis can be taken to these locations by 11:30 a.m. May 22:
Ala Wai Community Park; Kaneohe Community and Senior Center; Pililaau Park; Waialua District Park; Hawaii Kai Fire Station; Kalihi-Kai Fire Station; Waianae Fire Station; Waipahu Fire Station; Kailua Recreation Center; Sunset Beach Neighborhood Park; Waiau District Park; Kailua Fire Station; Kaneohe Fire Station; Waimanalo Fire Station; and Waipahu District Park.
To donate flowers or help sew leis call the Senior Citizens Section at 973-7262. For more information, call 523-4183.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffMan indicted in assaults on 7 females this year
A 21-year-old man faces 13 counts of sexual assault, attempted kidnapping and stalking for alleged actions against seven females between the ages of 11 and 29 since March.An Oahu grand jury yesterday indicted Joseph P. Purtell Jr. on the charges, which include six counts of first-degree sexual assault. He is in custody in lieu of $300,000 bail.
Police initially charged Purtell May 8 with five counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of third-degree sexual assault for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl March 30.
Purtell allegedly held the girl at knifepoint and took her to a lot at Kupuna Loop and Kupuohi Street in Village Park to rape her.
The added charges run from March 12 to May 1.
Reported chlorine spill evacuates Mahiole St.
About 32 Mahiole Street residents evacuated to Moanalua Recreation Center last night after a chlorine spill was reported at Jarrett White Road and Mahiole Street at 9:42 p.m.Investigators determined water with chlorine was leaking on or near Navy property, possibly from a broken water main.
Evacuees returned to their homes at 11:20 p.m.
Man accused of attack found dead in his car
HILO -- A man arrested for a knife attack on his girlfriend Sunday was found dead in his car yesterday, police said.Keith Darrell Durham, also known as Dunham, 46, of Paradise Park subdivision south of Hilo had no signs of injuries, but foul play has not been ruled out, they said. An autopsy has been ordered.
Police were called to the home of Durham and his girlfriend at 1 p.m. Sunday. They found her with cuts on her neck and arms and bruises and scratches from being dragged on the ground.
Durham refused an order to stop and drove away as police arrived but was arrested later at the home. He was charged with abuse of a household member.
Heeia woman arrested in sword-slashing case
Police yesterday arrested a 45-year-old Heeia woman for allegedly slashing her boyfriend with a sword.The couple were involved in an argument at their Alaloa Street home when the woman reportedly got a sword and sliced the forearm of the 55-year-old man, police said.
Officers were called and arrested the woman for second-degree assault.
No foul play suspected in death of Kailua woman
No foul play is suspected in the death of a 53-year-old Kailua woman, who was found unconscious yesterday at the bottom of a swimming pool at her Wanaao Road residence.The woman was pronounced dead at Castle Hospital at 3:58 p.m.
Her former husband, who is disabled and who resides at the same address, discovered the woman's body and called 911 at about 3:15 p.m.
Puna area sweep bags 7,909 marijuana plants
HILO -- Police seized 7,909 marijuana plants in the Puna district yesterday, bringing the total for two days of eradication to 12,808 plants, they said.
Electrical sparks may have caused Maui fire
WAILUKU -- Sparks from electrical lines seem to be the cause of a brush fire that took about three hours to put out near the Sandalwood Golf Course yesterday, Assistant Fire Chief Clayton Carvalho said.Firefighters arrived at the fire at about 2:30 p.m. but had difficulty extinguishing the blaze because of high winds and thick brush, Carvalho said.
The fire, burning about an acre and a half of land mauka of Honoapiilani Highway, caused no monetary damage, he said.
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