Newswatch
Tree snails just get no respect.The bulk of federal recovery money for endangered species in Hawaii is going to the birds instead of the rare and beautiful Oahu tree snails.
And Mike Hadfield, a University of Hawaii zoology professor, says that could help speed extinction of the tree snails.
He learned last week that he will not be getting $60,000 in federal funds for his tree snail captive breeding program, forcing him to shut down his lab. Conservation biologists declared Hadfield's captive breeding and predator control research the most pressing in the state.
State wildlife manager Paul Conry, who decides which state projects should be considered for the federal recovery funds, says Hadfield's predator control work was funded, but a supplemental request for the captive breeding research was not.
Ronald Gomes and co-defendant Lucio Gonzalez had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing.
But Gomes changed his mind and won the right to a trial in a state Supreme Court ruling last year.
Defense attorney Anthony Ranken says Gomes went along with what happened because he was afraid of Gonzalez.
The two and another man allegedly met Angie Fernandez at Vineyard Tavern in Wailuku, then drove with her to the orchard, where she was raped and killed.
Mark Richard Matola, 39, received a 70-month term for stealing $2,125 about 8 a.m. Sept. 28 from Pioneer Federal Savings Bank on Wilder Avenue.
U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor said she sentenced Matola near the top of the guidelines of 57 to 71 months because of his criminal history and resistance to rehabilitation. Matola had been released for only five months for a 1985 bank robbery conviction when he committed the Makiki robbery.
By Star-Bulletin staff
He died at the scene shortly after the 1:50 a.m. crash.
The driver of the other car, a Pacific Palisades woman, 34, was treated at Kapiolani Hospital at Pali Momi and released, police said.
An initial investigation showed the man was leaving the Palisades area on Komo Mai Drive and nearing Lanikeha Place when he apparently crossed the center line and collided with the oncoming car, police said.
Elizabeth M. Savage was to appear in District Court today to face a felony charge in an April 7 theft. She resigned from the department in March.
Savage was linked to a theft from a car parked in a lot at 12th Avenue after an off-duty officer recognized her walking away from the car carrying a set of golf clubs.
She turned herself in to police at 9:15 a.m. yesterday. Her bail is $50,000.
Savage was arrested Feb. 11 for allegedly stealing a cordless phone from Sears Ala Moana. She was charged with misdemeanor theft and released on $200 bail.
Eight days earlier, she was arrested in a hotel room at the Outrigger Hobron in Waikiki with two others. The room contained items stolen from at least two cars in the hotel's parking lot.
-- Murder ruled out in death of Big Isle man
-- 15-year-old Waimea girl charged with running over boy