Newswatch
Though the measure is still being tweaked, the City Council is leaning heavily toward prohibiting smoking in Oahu work environments, including restaurants. Under the current proposal, bars and nightclubs would be exempt.
Not fair, said Kathleen Masunaga, executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association.
Many restaurateurs fear they would lose business to nightspots that serve light fare and believe they're being singled out.
But pressed by Councilman Steve Holmes, Masunaga said the association would likely go along with an across-the-board ban if puffing in outdoor dining venues was allowed and definitions expanded.
The proposal will go to the committee level for fine-tuning before it comes up for a final Council vote.
Under expansion plans, the nonsectarian school may become Windward Oahu's first private high school.
The City Council approved the project despite objections from environmental groups who fear development may harm Kawainui Marsh.
Officials at the 35-year-old school say they want to boost enrollment to as many as 1,000 students by adding high school grades, headmaster Stephen Switzer said.
That's about the official enrollment of Mid-Pacific Institute.
The school serves 400 children from preschool to eighth-grade.
When the funding becomes available to build the high school, it would be the only private high school on Oahu's Windward side.
Johns, 54, also of Kapaa, apparently was the last person seen with Cynthia Hanson, 45, while she was alive, police said. Detectives also discovered physical evidence, which they would not reveal, that allegedly ties Johns to the murder.
Hanson was reported missing on Oct. 12 by her former roommate, David Hiltsley, who told police he had last seen her on Oct. 5. Hiltsley said the woman left their Wailua Homesteads house that night and said she would be moving out within a few days.
When she failed to pick up her belongings or a welfare check, Hiltsley contacted police and Hanson's sister on the mainland, police said.
A Kapaa man found the woman's skeleton Nov. 8 while pig hunting in abandoned cane fields in the Kealia area, northwest of Kapaa. Police initially thought the bones, which had only a patch of scalp remaining, belonged to a man. But a Maui forensic pathologist used dental records to confirm the remains were Hanson's.
Police already had begun a homicide investigation, saying they suspected foul play because the body was found nude in the remote area, with no identification or other belongings nearby.
The suspect, allegedly a member of the FBBs, or Full Blooded Bisayan, was later found at an abandoned home on Bannister Street frequented by gangs. Police recovered a .22-caliber handgun.
Police believe the man challenged the youth, allegedly a member of the Bahala Na, to a fight as the boy left his friend's house on Bannister Street just before 3 p.m.
As the youth attempted to defend himself, the older man pulled out a .22 from his back pocket and fired eight shots into the air, police said.
The youth was not injured.
Jody Joao, 31, was being held on $15,000 bail.
An officer who recognized Joao and knew he was unlicensed pulled him over and checked the motorcycle's license plate and vehicle ID number. Both were found to be fraudulent.
- Lost hunter recovering in hospital
- Information sought on suspect
- Escaped inmate subject of search