Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

The 44-year-old Tax Foundation of Hawaii is on the verge of ceasing operations because of money woes.

As a result, the four members of the foundation's staff, including Executive Director Lowell Kalapa, are job hunting.

State lawmakers, who have come to rely on the organization's analyses of tax and budget legislation, even if the assessments are critical, were stunned.

"It would be a real loss," said Senate Ways and Means Co-Chairwoman Lehua Fernandes Salling (D, Kapaa). "Lowell has always provided an invaluable, objective viewpoint on tax measures. It's during (tough economic) times like now that we really need that kind of information."

House Finance Chairman Calvin Say (D, Palolo) added: "The Tax Foundation tries to keep the state in line with its tax policies. If it dies, there will be a vacuum. Most of the opinions would then be from the Tax Department, which has its own perspective."

But, countered Kalapa, "Does anybody need the foundation if no one can come to the table to support it?"

Desmond Byrne, owner of Honolulu Information Service and chairman of Common Cause Hawaii, said: "If this community cannot support as important (an) organization as the foundation, we are indeed in very sad shape."

But Hawaii and 19 other states reported increases in active cases of the infectious disease. The state has the second highest incidence of tuberculosis in the country, a rate of 16.9 victims per 100,000 people, according to information released yesterday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The key to Hawaii's position near the top of the list is the large proportion of foreign-born residents, said a state Department of Health official.

And while the state's 3.6 percent rise isn't good news, it isn't an alarming change, said Dr. Philip Bruno, chief of the department's tuberculosis branch. The 200 cases reported last year amounted to just seven more than the 193 cases in 1995, he said. The numbers are down from a 1992 peak of 273 new cases.

Bruno said 80 percent of the new cases last year were in foreign-born residents.

The most encouraging statistic is that only one new TB victim last year was a child under 5 years old. The occurrence of the disease in young children indicates a disease being transmitted within the community, he said.

Dennis Shields, 49, a minister in the Religion of Jesus Church, was arrested at his Captain Cook, Kona, home in 1994.

Police found several ounces of marijuana and charged him with misdemeanor possession of a detrimental drug, a crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Shields does not deny that the marijuana was his but says it is a sacrament in his church.

Shields sought protection under the U.S. Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

Congress had passed the law to restore the religious right to use drugs after an Oregon court ruled Native Americans had no right to use peyote.

In 1988, Williams was convicted of the murder of Honolulu Police Officer Troy Barboza and sentenced to life without parole.

In 1991, he was transferred under the Western Interstate Correctional Compact to the Washington correctional system for security reasons.

Sunday, he was caught after scaling a fence at the correctional facility.

The Hawaii Department of Public Safety said Williams may be transferred to an intensive management unit in Washington.

He faces criminal charges for attempted escape. If convicted, he will be sentenced to 10 years consecutive to his current life sentence.

Police/Fire


By Star-Bulletin staff

The 27-year-old Konohiki Street woman was getting something out of the trunk of her car in the parking lot of the Pohakea Point townhouse complex around 2:30 a.m. when she was grabbed from behind, police said.

The man pushed up against her and held a sharp instrument, believed to be a knife, against her neck.

He began calling her obscene names and cut her on the side of her neck and cheek. He also lifted her shirt and slashed her in the back. The woman set off a strobe-like instrument that she carries while running, startling her attacker, police said. She stepped back and managed to get a good look at her assailant. He then grabbed her and threw her to the ground before fleeing on foot, police said.

The woman returned to her townhouse and called for help. She suffered minor cuts.

She described her assailant as in his late 20s to early 30s, 5-foot-10, 220 to 240 pounds. He was husky and muscular with short black hair - possibly a crew cut - and a goatee. He wore a stud earring in one ear and wore shorts and possibly a red T-shirt.

The woman told police she was attacked in November 1995 while jogging on Lilipuna Road. The assailant in that case - who also wielded a knife and called her obscene names - was never arrested.