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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire
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Bacteria warning issued for Kualoa park
The state Health Department is advising people to stay out of the water near the first restroom at Kualoa Beach Park because of high levels of bacteria.
Warning signs have been posted and will remain up until bacteria levels return to normal, the department said in a news release.
Between the restroom and the shoreline is a leach field that services the restroom and adjacent shower area. Past experience has shown high levels of enterococci bacteria during tides higher than 2.3 feet, heavy rains or three-day weekends, when recreational use is high, the department said.
Enterococci bacteria are used as indicator because they are closely associated with viruses and pathogens that are harmful to humans.
Rare birds released after captive breeding
Seven Hawaiian palila birds raised in captivity were released on the north side of Mauna Kea on Thursday in an ongoing effort to expand their numbers in the wild.
Palila are a critically endangered species of honeycreeper native to the Big Island.
The birds were hatched and reared at the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center, which center Director Alan Lieberman described as "an ark where these species can be maintained while conservation and forestry officials work to set up protected habitat where they can be re-released."
Twenty-two 22 palila have been released into the state's Puu Mali Forest Reserve on Mauna Kea since 2003.
Established in 1996, the Hawaiian Endangered Bird Conservation program includes the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center on the Big Island and the Maui Bird Conservation Center. The program is part of the San Diego Zoo's department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species.
Ceremony to mourn infants and children
A memorial tree-trimming ceremony for families who have lost an infant or child will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Central Union Church.
The event is sponsored by Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children and Kapiolani Medical Center at Pali Momi, Central Union Church, Habilitat and Kaiser Medical Center.
The ceremony gives families an opportunity to remember children lost because of illness or injury, SIDS, neonatal death, stillbirth, miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.
The program will include music and dance, sharing and trimming the tree, with ornaments provided by families in memory of their children.
For more information, call Chaplain Steve Murphy, director of hospital ministries, 983-8651.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staff
HONOLULU
Man who killed officer surrenders in assault case
A 26-year-old man who was convicted of manslaughter in the death of an off-duty police officer in 1997 turned himself in to police yesterday for a separate incident that occurred last month.
Gabriel Kealoha was arrested on suspicion of second-degree attempted assault and first-degree terroristic threatening. He was released pending further investigation.
Police said the incident occurred at about 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 6 at Kealaolu Avenue and Moho Street in Kahala.
The victim, 34, told police that Kealoha tried to run him over twice after a traffic incident. Police said the victim was jogging in the bicycle lane.
Kealoha was accompanied by his attorney, Brook Hart, when he turned himself in to police yesterday.
"There was an incident where the complainant acted aggressively toward Gabriel. There was some face-to-face confrontation," Hart said.
"It arose out of the complainant's perception that Gabriel was driving too fast," he added.
Kealoha, who was 17 at the time of the incident involving the death of off-duty police officer Sgt. Arthur Miller in 1996, received the maximum time as a juvenile.
He served in a detention facility until he was 19.
Miller fell off an overpass on the H-1 freeway near the airport viaduct after he and Kealoha were involved in a traffic altercation.
Miller's blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit.
2 men critically hurt in single-car collision
Two people were taken to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition yesterday after they were involved in a single-vehicle crash in Manoa.
At about 2:20 a.m., police said, a 20-year-old man was traveling north on Manoa Road with a 19-year-old male passenger in a black 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse at high speed and lost control.
Police said the driver veered to the right shoulder and struck a curb, rock wall and tree near Uluwehi Place.
The driver and the passenger were pinned in the vehicle. Both were taken to Queen's in critical condition.
Speed was a factor, police said.
Neither the driver nor the passenger was wearing a seat belt, police said.