UH students to pay more tuition; law school ranked in top 50
University of Hawaii students will pay more money to go to school this fall.A tuition increase of $48 per semester was approved today by the University of Hawaii Board of Regents for Manoa campus undergraduate students.
Also approved for each of the next two years were tuition increases of $24 a semester for UH community colleges and $36 for UH-Hilo and UH-West Oahu.
Medical students will pay $120 more per semester, and graduate students $60 more in each of the next two years.
The increases, which take effect in the fall, are expected to raise an additional $5.3 million in revenue from 1998-2000 to help offset UH budget cuts.
Resident undergraduate students at Manoa will pay $1,464 per semester for the next year; Manoa graduate students, $1,956; community college students, $492; resident law students, $4,008; and medical students, $5,412.
Tuition at UH-West Oahu will be $912 for resident students in the fall.
At UH-Hilo, lower-division undergraduates will pay $672; upper-division undergraduates will pay $1,104; graduate students will pay $1,956.
Student government leaders have opposed the tuition plan, saying it would hurt student morale and those who can least afford the payments.
Kau prison proposal won't get 'fast track'
Despite Gov. Ben Cayetano's hopes, his proposal to build a 2,300-bed prison in Kau won't go through a "fast track" approval process because Attorney General Margery Bronster wants to ensure that all appropriate environmental and land-use laws are followed.Cayetano was anticipating speedy approval for his initiative, with groundbreaking to occur as early as this year. He even said the environmental impact statement for a spaceport, a proposal the state abandoned several years ago, could be used, instead of doing a new one for a prison.
But Bronster said today: "We strongly believe that the law requires that environmental assessments and even environmental impact statements are required (for a Kau prison). The spaceport EIS may reveal certain environmental concerns, but a spaceport is not a prison."
Bronster's special assistant, Cynthia Quinn, added that the attorney general's office wants to do all it can to facilitate having a new prison, but proper procedures must be followed. "Sometimes it's not great being a hall monitor," Quinn said.
Bronster and Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro, Budget Director Earl Anzai and Land Board Chairman Michael Wilson are working on the Kau prison project. Cayetano's chief of staff, Charles Toguchi, is coordinating.
OHA board meets to pick new trustee
Trustees of the fractious Office of Hawaiian Affairs met today to begin choosing a successor to trustee Billie Beamer, 70, who died Jan. 24 after being hospitalized last December for an infection.State law requires at least six of the eight remaining trustees to pick Beamer's successor.
If they fail to make a decision within 60 days, the task falls to Gov. Ben Cayetano to fill the vacancy. That person would serve until the November elections.
Beamer's at-large post and four others will be on the ballot for Hawaiian voters. Those are the positions held by Oahu representative Clayton Hee, at-large representatives A. Frenchy De Soto and Rowena Akana, and Maui representative Abraham Aiona.
Feds look to take away Big Isle pair's property
The U.S. Attorney's Office yesterday filed a civil suit seeking forfeiture of a Big Island property it said was used to conduct an illegal sports bookmaking operation.The site at 53-3980 Hiwahiwa St. in Kapaau is owned by Carlton and Danita Torres, the suit said.
An investigation shows there is probable cause to believe the couple have run the operation for 10 years and now average a weekly profit of between $6,000 and $10,000, said an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Gary Gerszewski.
60 Ewa Villages homes go onto open market
About 60 homes in the Ewa Villages are being offered on the open market under city revisions in the program, originally designed for low- and moderate-income buyers.Home prices, set at affordable levels, will remain the same, said Robert Agres Jr., director of the city Department of Housing and Community Development. He said a new two-bedroom home would cost $163,300.
The chance to buy homes in the former plantation villages was offered initially to workers from the defunct sugar cane operation. But some workers told city officials they were unable to afford the price of renovated homes.
Agres said the new program will eventually offer for sale existing homes that have been rehabilitated, as well as vacant lots.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffTwo officers injured while capturing suspect
An Ewa Beach man was arrested yesterday for allegedly assaulting two police officers and attempting to steal an officer's gun.Officers spotted the suspect, 32, on Hanakahi and Kaunolu streets in Ewa Beach, police said.
The man was wanted on an $11,000 felony court warrant.
Police said the two officers were injured.
The suspect was booked on first-degree attempted theft, assaulting a police officer and second-degree assault, police said.
The suspect had two prior arrests and one conviction for assaulting police officers.
Honeymooner allegedly robbed by prostitutes
A honeymooner from Japan was reportedly robbed this morning by two prostitutes in Waikiki.Two women took the man to a Waikiki apartment at 3 a.m. and allegedly took $200 from his pockets, police said. When the victim, 30, fought off the women, one of the prostitutes hit him in the head with a shoe.
Police said the victim, who was on the second day of his honeymoon, was very uncooperative with officers. Police said he was fearful that his wife would find out about the incident.
In other news . . .
Police yesterday charged a Kaneohe man who allegedly trapped his ex-girlfriend's arm in the window of a car and dragged her.
Donald Ramil, 24, was charged with leaving the scene after causing an accident with substantial injury, police said. He is being held on $11,000 bail.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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