Council likely to defer pilot parking program
A bill that would lead to a pilot program establishing residential parking zones will likely be deferred when it comes up before the City Council tomorrow.Councilman Andy Mirikitani, chairman of the Public Safety, Transportation and Environment Committee, said this morning he will recommend a final vote be held off.
University of Hawaii at Manoa leaders, who have been opposed to the bill, were expected to present alternatives to Mirikitani today.
Big Isle mayor urges Council to deny raise
HILO -- Big Island Mayor Stephen Yamashiro is urging the Hawaii County Council to reject a negotiated $1.7 million pay raise for county blue collar workers because the county can't afford it.Hilo Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd said her reading of the Council is that all nine members will support the mayor's position, that the Legislature's cut of $2.9 million from the county's share of hotel room taxes this spring makes funding the raise impossible.
The Council's Finance Committee was to discuss the matter today, with a vote by the Council to follow Aug. 19.
Yamashiro submitted the cost items to the Council this month after United Public Workers director Gary Rodrigues wrote him a letter saying the Hawaii Labor Relations Board had required such a submittal to the councils of all four counties.
Yamashiro informed the Council that the Legislature failed to act on negotiated contracts with other unions, including the Hawaii Government Employees Association.
The attorney general has issued an opinion that the Legislature's failure to approve the contracts amounts to rejection.
Yamashiro suggested it would be unequal treatment to approve a pay raise for United Public Workers members in the absence of a raise for other union members.
Maui ready to declare 'drought warning'
WAILUKU -- The Maui County Water Department is poised to declare a "drought warning" that would require people in Upcountry areas of the Valley Isle to reduce water consumption by 10 percent.Water board members yesterday authorized the declaration if certain conditions occur in the system, including reservoir levels under 20 million gallons in lower Kula.
Feds take Kilauea Hotel following drug arrests
U.S. District Judge Alan C. Kay has ordered the forfeiture of the Kilauea Hotel in downtown Hilo.The hotel was the site of an undercover investigation that resulted in 56 crack cocaine buys and 17 drug arrests last fall, officials said.
Isamu and Setsuko Uemura, the hotel owners, did not try to stop drug trafficking at the downtown hotel, resulting in the court-order seizure of the property, U.S. Attorney Steven S. Alm said yesterday.
Federal laws allow the government to seize property involved in drug trafficking.
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Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffRemains of fetus found in hotel bathtub drain
City medical examiners are examining the remains of a human fetus discovered in the drain of a Waikiki hotel room tub to determine if it was delivered alive or stillborn.Police homicide investigators were called to the Outrigger Hobron at 2:10 p.m. yesterday after a maid made the discovery.
Hotel employees declined to talk about any reports of the incident and referred calls to hotel officials, who could not be reached for comment.
According to a police report, a maid was cleaning the bath tub when it apparently backed up. She removed the drain plug and discovered the remains.
The fetus appeared to be so small that it may not have been capable of surviving and possibly may have been stillborn, police said.
An Outrigger spokesman this morning wouldn't comment beyond saying the hotel is helping police locate the people involved out of concern for the woman's health.
Checks at area hospitals turned up no females who were recently admitted for birth-related conditions, police said.
The room had been registered to a male with an unknown female guest, police said.
Police yesterday were trying to locate the room's occupants.
Detectives are awaiting the medical examiner's report to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.
Exotic dancer's purse stolen; police book man
Police this morning arrested a man who allegedly stole a purse from an exotic dancer.The woman reported that her purse containing $400 was taken while dancing at the Fantasy Island Showgirls nightclub on Kona Street at about 1 a.m., police said.
One man admitted taking the purse and discarding it outside the establishment.
The purse was later recovered, police said.
The man was booked for second-degree theft.
German tourists stable after nearly drowning
KAILUA-KONA -- Two tourists from Germany who nearly drowned in the swimming pool of the Kona Pacific Condominium are in stable condition at Kona Hospital following the incident , police said.A 60-year-old man first got into trouble while swimming shortly before 6:43 p.m. yesterday, they said.
His 42-year-old female companion tried to help but was pulled under by him.
Condominium residents pulled both visitors from the water and the woman was quickly revived, but arriving police had to resuscitate the man to regain a pulse.
Both were hospitalized, the woman in stable condition and the man in serious but stable condition.
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