UH draws fire for lack in ethnic studies staff
The University of Hawaii's ethnic studies program is suffering because UH hasn't filled a Japanese specialist vacancy, warns a national group of academics and others adding voice to the issue today.The Association for Asian American Studies, along with the Japanese American Citizens League of Hawaii and the UH Department of Ethnic Studies, this morning denounced UH for not replacing the position vacated last October by Franklin Odo. The groups will ask to meet with UH President Kenneth P. Mortimer.
Odo, an internationally recognized researcher on Japanese in Hawaii, is now counselor to the provost on Asia-Pacific research at the Smithsonian Institution.
Professor Ibrahim Aoude, acting chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department, today said UH budget priorities go against the university's mission to make it the premier academic institution in the Pacific.
Aoude said it's inconceivable the administration and the College of Social Sciences can't come up with the money, especially when there are so many people of Japanese ancestry living here. "How can you tell the story of the multiethnic community in Hawaii when 25 percent of the population in Hawaii is not represented in that particular story?" Aoude asked.
UH spokesman Jim Manke said Mortimer is on the mainland and will return Monday. Social Sciences Dean Richard A. Dubanoski is away until Thursday.
Social Sciences Associate Dean Nancy D. Lewis said she sympathizes with the groups but said the college has more than 20 vacant full-time jobs it wants to fill but can't. The college's budget was cut more than $750,000 this year.
Along with the lack of money, Lewis said, there is a restriction on funding any vacancies, and only Mortimer has the authority to lift the hiring freeze.
Japanese-American vets to meet
The first joint convention of World War II Japanese-American veterans will be held next weekend attracting more than 3,000 veterans and their families.The highlight of the convention will be a luncheon banquet starting at 10:30 a.m. July 4 at the Hawaii Convention Center and will feature Gen. Eric Shinseki, the highest ranking Asian American who was raised on Kauai and is a West Point graduate.
The activities that day will include the dedication at 10 a.m. of the Brothers in Valor monument in Fort DeRussy dedicated to efforts of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 100th Infantry Battalion, Military Intelligence Service and the 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion. In the past these units have held separate conventions, and this will be their first joint effort.
The convention will conclude with a memorial service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at 9 a.m. on July 5.
Throughout the Fourth of July weekend the various chapters of these units will hold golf tournaments and reunions of their own at different locations.
Ed Sakamoto's play "Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire," which deals with how World War II ripped apart Japanese American families here and on the mainland, will be presented as part of the convention at the Neal Blaisdell Center.
The play will be presented at 6 p.m. July 2; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. July 3; and 7 p.m. July 4.
Conference to discuss brain disability
Parents of children with brain injuries and teachers are invited to a conference tomorrow to discuss strategies of helping such students.Roberta DePompei, co-author of a text on traumatic brain injury, will be featured speaker at the event, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the state Capitol auditorium.
Her book is about the impact of such injuries on cognitive-communicative skills of survivors and the family's involvement.
It was believed in the past that only a few students had traumatic brain injury, said the Pacific Brain Injury Association. Because of advanced medical procedures and emergency care, however, "the number of children surviving a severe or moderate pediatric TBI is the fastest growing number of students with special need," it says.
Estimates are that 3 percent of students will have a brain injury by age 15, according to the association. "It is the primary cause of death and disability among adolescents and young adults. The lifetime cost of a brain disability is estimated at $4 million to $7 million, the association said.
DePompei, co-chairwoman of a Task Force on Children nd Adolescents for the Brain Injury Association, will help form coalitions of parents, teachers and educators.
Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. The fee is $15.
Price supports intact for sugar
WASHINGTON -- A proposal that would have cost Hawaii's sugar growers an estimated $17 million a year has been defeated in the House of Representatives by a 258-167 vote.The proposal to cut federal price supports for sugar by 1 cent per pound was the latest effort to end a system critics decry as corporate welfare costly to consumers but supporters insist is necessary to keep American growers competitive with foreigners.
Among the strongest supporters of subsidies is Gay & Robinson, the Kauai sugar grower, which warned that the change "would have devastated remaining sugar production in Hawaii."
In Washington, supporters also include Hawaii lawmakers.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie managed the opposition's debate on yesterday's amendment, and Rep. Patsy Mink delivered an impassioned speech condemning it.
"We have lost about a dozen major sugar producers in the state of Hawaii," said Mink. "We have about three left.
"If this amendment should pass, one small plantation on the island of Kauai . . . will suffer a million-dollar loss. It will probably throw that company out of business, and the island will be devastated. . . . Our industry in Hawaii could lose $17 million."
Isle telescope helps spot new nearest planet
SAN FRANCISCO -- The world's champion planet-finders have discovered another new world, one tantalizingly close to Earth's doorstep. Two San Francisco State University astronomers and two of their colleagues found the planet orbiting a star called Gliese 876, 15 light years away.
The discovery of an extrasolar world so close to our own, and orbiting such a low mass star, implies the galaxy is even more jam-packed with these planets than previously believed, said lead researcher Geoffrey Marcy of San Francisco State.
"It's by far the closest star around which any planet has been found," Marcy said Wednesday of his seventh planet find since 1995. The previous closest-known extrasolar planet orbits a star about 35 light years away. A light year is 5.9 trillion miles, the distance light travels in one year.
This latest planet was detected using one of the two giant Keck Observatory telescopes atop Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island.
Keck Observatory Director Frederick H. Chaffee said the discovery is "part of a big picture that's just starting to evolve, where we are realizing that there are planets around other stars."
Queen Emma nonprofit buys state auditorium
Queen Emma Foundation offered the winning bid of $5 million to buy the Mabel Smyth Memorial Auditorium and grounds at public auction from the state.The foundation, current occupant of the property, bought it yesterday from the Department of Land and Natural Resources for use by Queen's Medical Center.
The fee-simple sale includes a land area of 28,213 square feet, including a paved parking area, the two-story 338-seat auditorium, offices and meeting rooms.
Queen's will use the building for education, training, meeting and office space.
The state had acquired the auditorium from the hospital's foundation to use during state Capitol renovations.
Woman drops off hidden boa at Honolulu Zoo
An unidentified woman presented a cloth bag she said contained a bird to a Honolulu Zoo cashier as a donation.It didn't contain a bird, but an illegal 4-foot boa constrictor.
On June 20, the woman gave the cashier a note which said not to open the bag until she left, said an Agriculture Department spokeswoman. No charges will be filed since the woman voluntarily turned in the snake, officials said.
Under current law, the maximum penalty for possessing an illegal animal is $25,000. For information, call 586-PEST (7378).
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffOfficers seize illegal fishing net at Makua
State conservation officers yesterday seized an 800-foot long monofilament fishing net in waters off Makua beach.A dead seabird believed to be a red-footed booby was found in the net left unattended for over 24 hours. State law prohibits leaving a monofilament lay net in the water for more than four consecutive hours in a 24-hour period.
No owner has been identified.
Abandoned nets are a problem because they continue to capture and kill fish and other marine life.
Violations may be reported to 587-0077; from neighbor islands, dial the operator and ask for "Enterprise 5469."
Help sought to find boy, 5, missing since Feb. 2
Police and Missing Child Center-Hawaii are seeking the public's help in finding a boy who has not been seen since Feb. 2. Soo Kim, 5, is believed to be in the company of his noncustodial aunt Soo Chun.Call Detective Bert Dement (529-3099), Missing Child Center-Hawaii (586-1449) or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (800-843-5678).
Maili man with knife invites cops to shoot
A 25-year-old Maili man was arrested for allegedly threatening police with a kitchen knife while yelling at the officers to shoot.Police were called to a domestic argument about 2:15 a.m. today to a Hila Street home when the man became hostile with the officers outside his home. He then ran inside and retrieved a 14-inch kitchen knife, police said. During the standoff the man repeatedly yelled at officers to "shoot or he would kill them."
The man also stated he wanted to kill himself.
Police convinced him to drop the knife, and he was arrested after a scuffle.
Teens booked in break-in at BYUH athletic office
Two Kahuku teens were arrested for allegedly breaking into the coach's offices at the athletic department at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.A Kahuku Intermediate student, 14, and a Kahuku High School student, 15, were seen by a coach entering through an office window at 10:30 last night, police said.
Security was called and the boys were apprehended, police said.
The boys were booked for second-degree burglary.
Big Isle men charged with attempted murder
KAILUA-KONA -- Police are holding two men for the June 13 stabbing and beating of Bruce Marshall, 32, of Honomalino.Donn-Lee Keebler, 40, and Nile James Smith, 45, both of Ocean View, were charged yesterday with attempted murder and assault.
They are being held in lieu of $50,000 bail each.
Marshall was stabbed in the chest, neck and arm and hit on the head with a blunt object in the 11:30 p.m. attack outside his house.
He walked to a neighbor's house and was treated at Kona Hospital, where he was in stable condition following the attack.
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