Mayor leaves for Japan for speech to summit
Mayor Jeremy Harris leaves for Fukuoka, Japan, today to deliver an address to the Third Asian-Pacific City Summit.He will speak on water and wastewater systems.
Harris will be accompanied by Cheryl Okuma-Sepe, deputy director of the city's Department of Environmental Services, and executive assistant Sharon Ishii.
Registry seeks donors of vital bone marrow
People between 18 and 60 years of age who are in general good health have an opportunity tomorrow to help save someone's life.They can register as bone marrow donors from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Town Center of Mililani Health Fair.
A small blood sample is collected from potential donors for tissue typing. They then are placed on the Hawaii and the national donor registries.
Those who have registered do not need to register again.
Call 547-6154 for more information.
The state Supreme Court has upheld a Circuit Court judge's decision against the attorney and two Maui neighbors who sued former Beatle George Harrison, the Honolulu Advertiser and reporter Edwin Tanji. Lawsuit against Beatle dismissed
The Supreme Court also ruled William Pickett, the attorney for Steven Gold and Scott Whitney, must pay $12,504.58 for Harrison's legal fees and the plaintiffs must also pay the legal fees for the cost of the appeal.
A Maui Circuit Court judge granted a summary judgment against Gold, Whitney and Pickett in their lawsuit alleging Harrison and the Advertiser defamed them in a quote from an article in 1993.
The article concerned a court dispute between Harrison and neighboring property owners over ownership of an easement over Harrison's Nahiku, Maui, property.
The Supreme Court agreed with the Circuit Court that the lawsuit was frivolous.
Man fights city over handicapped parking ID fee
It may be a fee of only $10 every four years, but paying the city money to be able to park in handicapped stalls is a violation of his civil rights, a disabled claimant says.Attorneys for the disabled and the city argued the point yesterday before U.S. District Judge Samuel King. The fee is for the identification cards and placards issued by the city and needed to park in handicapped stalls.
Federal law says a public entity may not place a surcharge on the disabled to cover costs for providing them equal access under the American with Disabilities Act.
"It's like putting coin machines at accessible (bathroom) stalls" to pay for their installation, argued attorney Lunsford Phillips, representing the disabled, who is himself in a wheelchair. "The federal law says you can't do it."
Hank Emerick filed the lawsuit against the city on behalf of all permanently disabled people, saying it is illegal for the city to charge the $10 fee.
Emerick has been in a wheelchair since 1963 after he broke his neck in a diving accident in Houston.
Gov. OKs tourism authority, hikes hotel room tax
Gov. Ben Cayetano has signed into law an industry-supported bill that increases the state's hotel room tax so that there will be more funds available to promote tourism, the isles' leading industry.The measure also establishes a Hawaii Tourism Authority to oversee visitor promotion and creates the equivalent of the hotel-room tax that will be imposed on time-share vacation rentals.
Both the increased hotel room tax and the time- share tax take effect Jan. 1.
The hotel room tax will climb from 6 percent to 7.25 percent.
This will mean a $25.5 million increase in collections -- not including the time-share tax, which is estimated to raise $3 million to $5 million.
The counties, which now share 95 percent of the revenues from 5 percentage points of the current 6 percent hotel room tax, will be getting less when the new tax takes effect.
Their remaining share will be the revenues from 3.25 percentage points.
The formula for calculating the tax on time-share vacation rentals is tied to a time-share's weekly maintenance fee.
Based on the average fee, the time-share tax would be about $2.50 a day.
Kihano bankrupt after theft conviction
Former state House Speaker Daniel Kihano, scheduled to begin a two-year sentence in a federal prison next month, has filed for bankruptcy.Kihano was convicted last October of illegally spending campaign funds for personal use and for trying to cover up the theft.
Kihano and his wife are seeking Chapter 7 liquidation.
The filing list assets of between $100,000 and $500,000 and debts of between $500,000 and $1 million.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffBig Isle fisherman sentenced to community service
WAILUKU -- A man convicted of fishing in prohibited waters of Kahoolawe has been sentenced to 100 hours of community service.Jubilee Logan, 37, of the Big Island said he doesn't know what he'll do for a living but he's staying away from Kahoolawe.
Logan pleaded no contest yesterday in Maui Circuit Court to two counts related to being in prohibited waters in February and March.
While fishing outside the prohibited zone about three months ago, his 31-foot boat was rammed by a barge, and he has been recovering from injuries with a cast on his left leg, he said.
"Right now, I've been through a lot and physically, I'm not fit to fish," he said.
"I'm not sure what I'll do."
Arraignment in bottled date-rape drug case
A 45-year-old Foster Village man will be tried for manufacturing and possessing GHB, known as the date-rape drug.District Judge I. Norman Lewis yesterday ruled there was probable cause for state narcotics officers to arrest Stevan Eberhardt and sent the case to Circuit Court for trial.
Eberhardt is to be arraigned July 23, but his attorney will seek an earlier date because of a schedule conflict.
Eberhardt, who is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, allegedly was using gamma hydroxybuterate, or GHB, to treat himself for symptoms of hepatitis C, according to his physician.
Deputy Prosecutor Vince Kanemoto said a bottled-water container seized at Eberhardt's residence contained 3,500 milliliters of GHB weighing 3,718 grams.
A class-A felony possession charge only requires 11/2 ounces or 42.525 grams, he said.
Alleged drug-debt murder punishable by death
A murder apparently committed over a $100 drug debt could lead to life in prison or perhaps even the death penalty for a man accused of being a career criminal.A federal grand jury yesterday indicted Richard "China" Chong for murder, firearm and drug offenses in the shooting death of William Noa at a Makaha beach park in September of last year.
Because the murder was allegedly committed with a gun and involved drug trafficking, Chong could face the death penalty.
U.S. Attorney Steve Alm said he is still evaluating whether to recommend the death penalty.
However, Alm said prosecutors will seek to sentence Chong under the so-called "three strikes and you're out" guidelines if he is convicted.
The three strikes law targets career criminals who have been convicted of at least two violent felonies.
A third conviction is punishable by life in prison without parole.
Chong was convicted of kidnapping in California in 1982 and of robbery and kidnapping in Hawaii in 1989. He was already facing a murder charge in state court for the Noa killing.
The U.S. attorney's office will now take over Chong's prosecution.
Man will not face retrial for murder
Honolulu prosecutors cannot retry a man convicted of reckless manslaughter for second-degree murder, the state Supreme Court has ruled.Timothy Whiting was convicted of manslaughter for the 1991 stabbing death of his wife, Junko, at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel.
The Intermediate Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Whiting because jurors might have seen a newspaper article that mentioned a lie detector test. Lie detector tests cannot be used as evidence.
Whiting was originally charged with second-degree murder, but was convicted of manslaughter because of his extreme mental and emotional condition.
The appeals court ruled Whiting could be retried for second-degree murder, but could only be convicted of manslaughter.
But the Supreme Court said trying Whiting's again for second-degree murder would constitute "double jeopardy" and ordered Whiting only face charges of manslaughter.
Man indicted in fraud involving real estate
A federal grand jury indicted William Weimer on charges of mail fraud stemming from a $700,000 Maui real estate scheme.The indictment alleges Weimer sold limited partnerships in two companies for $25,000 a unit.
The companies, Kailua Estates Partners and Kailua Partners, were to develop about 30 acres of land in Hamakuloa, Maui, into 45 homesites.
But Weimer canceled the contract to buy the land before collecting the money from investors and used most of the funds to pay personal expenses instead of developing the property, the indictment alleges.
Weimer allegedly continued to send letters over several years to investors claiming he was making progress on the development.
Man with demand note robs Kapiolani bank
A man robbed the Kapiolani branch of International Savings yesterday.The robbery was reported at 12:17 p.m. The suspect, an Asian man wearing a white T-shirt and cream-colored, knee-length shorts, used a demand note. No weapon was seen.
In other news...
Police yesterday arrested a woman, 56, for allegedly threatening her daughter, 28, with a knife at about 9 p.m. in Wahiawa.
They first demanded money. When the woman said she had none, they took her lunch.
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