Bolstered by an endorsement and a $2,000 check from former Reagan administration appointee Orson Swindle, Republican state Rep. Gene Ward officially announced his candidacy for the congressional seat now held by Democrat Neil Abercrombie. Ward to challenge
Abercrombie for CongressWard's announcement yesterday sets the stage for a potentially bloody primary battle with Rep. Quentin Kawananakoa, who three weeks ago toppled Ward as House minority leader.
Kawananakoa, 35, of Nuuanu, said he has no intention of abandoning his 4-month-old campaign to represent urban Honolulu in Washington. Nor will he change course, Kawananakoa added, simply because Swindle, President Reagan's assistant secretary of commerce who twice ran unsuccessfully against Abercrombie, has abandoned him and is now backing Ward, 54, of Hahaione Valley.
The Army will conduct an Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury, to determine if a Wheeler Army Air Field officer will face a court-martial for allegedly stealing helicopter parts. Army holding hearing
similar to grand juryCapt. James Hawkins, maintenance officer with the 25th Aviation Regiment, has been charged with larceny, attempted larceny and conduct unbecoming an officer. Hawkins allegedly stole parts for a OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopter in June.
This is the second time in 10 months that the 25th Division's aviation unit has been involved in a theft investigation. In December, more than 270 soldiers from the unit's 2nd Battalion were restricted to a hanger while investigators searched for 14 sets of night vision goggles valued at nearly $60,000. An Army specialist admitted stealing the goggles, which were recovered from a Kailua gun dealer.
Ventilation system problems led officials to temporarily shut down the Army's chemical weapons incinerator on Johnston Island Sunday. Ventilation glitch closes
Johnston Island brieflyNo one was injured and there was no release of toxic emissions outside the plant as a result of the incident at the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System, according to an Army release.
Munitions which carried nerve gas and other chemical weapons are destroyed at the plant 700 miles southwest of Honolulu.
Operations were resumed by late Sunday afternoon.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffPolice this morning are looking for an unknown suspect who beat up a 17-year-old boy in Waikiki last night. Man sought in beating
of boy at bus stopPolice said about 11:30 p.m. the boy was sitting at a bus stop on the makai side of Kalia Road fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village when a blue pickup truck with unknown license plates drove up.
Police said apparently a man got out of the truck and beat up the boy, causing internal injures.
The boy was treated at Queen's Hospital.
Police arrested a 28-year-old Salt Lake man yesterday for alleged sexual assault of a child. Girl alleges sex assault;
man arrestedPolice said they learned about the assault when they broke up an argument between the girl and the suspect shortly before 4 p.m.
The victim and the suspect were fighting in an Ala Ilima Street apartment building that they both lived in. The girl told police that she had been in the man's apartment when he assaulted her between July 14 and 20.
HONAUNAU -- A man brandishing a knife robbed the Stop and Shop in Honaunau in south Kona last night. Honaunau store robbed,
but cash is recoveredBig Island police said the cashier fled the store after the man entered at 7:44 p.m., and the man took the cash register and fled on foot through the coffee fields.
Police said neighbors chased the man, who dropped the cash register. The suspect got away. No money was taken from the locked cash register.
The robber is described as 35 to 40 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, 180 pounds, with large acne pockmarks on his face and shoulder-length black hair. He was last seen in a dark windbreaker, wearing slippers, police said.
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