City Councilwoman Rene Mansho is putting a graffiti-removal bill on hold after objections were raised about the lack of city resources to enforce the measure and about possible violations of property rights. Faced with city and ACLU objections,
Mansho halts graffiti billUnder a bill introduced by Mansho today, the city could order property owners to clean up graffiti with two weeks notice.
If the graffiti is not cleaned up, the city could do it and charge the property owner.
Parks Chairwoman Mansho, who said she introduced the bill at the request of a constituent, said she will defer the bill when it reaches her committee. Instead, she will help the administration set up a three-month pilot program to have the city send out letters asking property owners to clean up graffiti.
Police arrested one man, recovered several guns and seized thousands of marijuana plants in an eradication effort on Oahu last week, they announced yesterday. Pakalolo raids net 8,000 plants;
one man arrestedOn Thursday and Friday, police and Hawaii National Guard helicopters scanned Makiki Heights, the Koolau Summit Trail and the area above Tripler Army Medical Center, Waiahole and Waikane valleys, and Kipapa and Koloa gulches to find 8,000 marijuana plants, said police Narcotics Vice Capt. Alvin Nishimura.
The majority of the plants, 3,500, were found above Tripler, Nishimura said.
Police arrested a 50-year-old Ewa Beach man who was growing 88 pakalolo plants on his property and in a lot adjacent to his Fort Weaver Road home, Nishimura said.
When Robert Holbron held Delores and Avelino Natividad at gunpoint March 4, 1996, he was insane, his attorney says. Paranoia led defendant
to hold couple, attorney saysHolbron believed people were trying to kill him and that the Natividads' daughter, Teresa, knew why they wanted him dead, Don Wilkerson, his attorney, said yesterday in opening statements in Holbron's kidnapping trial.
He also believed holding the Natividads against their will was a necessary evil to force them to put him in touch with their daughter, also his former girlfriend, who held the key to his survival.
But Deputy Prosecutor Julian White said Holbron knew what he was doing when he made the Natividads, ages 60 and 68, his hostages for about 24 hours at their Waipahu home.
Holbron, 50, faces kidnapping and firearms charges for allegedly holding the couple against their will with a semiautomatic gun. He also faces charges for allegedly driving recklessly and refusing to stop during a police chase before he arrived at the Natividads.
If convicted as charged, he faces a prison term ranging from 20 years to more than 90 years.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffBank of Hawaii's Discovery Bay branch was robbed yesterday by a man who showed a teller a demand note stating that he was armed. Discovery Bay bank branch robbed
The man fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash and the demand note. The robbery was reported at about 10 a.m.
It was the 36th bank robbery of the year in Hawaii, compared with 16 on the same date in 1996.
The suspect is in his late 30s, about 5 feet 7 and 180-190 pounds.
He was wearing sunglasses, a blue baseball cap with "Hawaii" printed on it, a white T-shirt and dark pants.
Police are looking for a 22-year-old Aiea woman suspected of robbing another woman this morning. Woman who fled arrest
suspected in new casePolice said at 1:30 a.m. a woman reported that she was visiting friends at an Aiea home when the suspect asked to see the woman's necklace and bracelet.
The suspect then took the jewelry and refused to return it to the the victim, police said.
The suspect pointed a gun at the victim and threatened her, police said. Police said the two women began fighting, and the victim was hit with the pistol, a bottle and a drinking glass.
The suspect left with her boyfriend before police arrived.
Police identified the suspect as the same woman who escaped arrest on July 16 when police picked her and a man up for suspicion of driving a stolen car and possessing two guns.
While police were arresting the man, the woman, who was handcuffed in the back seat of a police car, escaped by sliding the handcuffs down her back and under her legs. Police said the woman reached out of the car's open window and was able to open the door and run out.
In other police/fire news:
Man in critical condition after hit by car
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