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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire service
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Kaimuki parking change approved
Mayor Mufi Hannemann signed a bill yesterday converting the city parking lot between 11th and 12th avenues in Kaimuki from coin-fed meters to an attendant operation. Republic Parking Hawaii is expected to get a contract to operate the lot, with the city paying $2,000 a month plus 3 percent of the gross. The company will also provide nearly $1 million in improvements. Parking will cost 75 cents per hour for the first two hours and $1.50 an hour after that.
Coming this weekend in your Star-Bulletin:
Sunday
Insight: A new game aimed at teens portrays millions around the world disappearing in a moment, "raptured" into heaven by Jesus. The player's job is to save the ones left behind -- activists, secularists, non-Christian rock musicians and others who resist "recruitment" into the "forces of good" -- from the global forces of evil. The game has created a stir among Christian, Jewish and activist groups who disagree with the fundamentalist theology the game presents.
Today: Geoffrey Chadsey's pencil drawings, on display at the Contemporary Museum, are of ordinary people in ordinary settings and have an eerie familiarity to them.
Business: German expatriates Thomas and Eva Kafsack, who moved to Maui seven years ago, have turned Surfing Goat Dairy into a slow but gradual success despite having little to no experience when they first began raising goats and making goat cheese.
Business: Homeowners nationwide are stressing about finding buyers as the real estate market continues to slow. Even though home values are not expected to fall dramatically, many economists say prices will not improve nationwide for 12 to 18 months.
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR FUND
Monetary gifts may be sent to:
Honolulu Star-Bulletin's
Good Neighbor Fund
c/o Helping Hands Hawaii
P.O. Box 17780
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817-0780
Clothing, household items and gifts can be donated at the Community Clearinghouse, 2100 Nimitz Highway.
You may also participate in the Adopt-A-Family program, in which businesses, employee groups, social clubs, families or individuals can help a specific family.
Call 440-3804 for information about the program or to arrange for pickup of large items.
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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff
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LEEWARD OAHU
Robber of Nanakuli restaurant is sought
Police were looking for a man who robbed L&P Drive Inn in Nanakuli at gunpoint on Wednesday night.
Police said the man entered the eatery at 87-1650 Farrington Highway at about 9:25 p.m., pointed a gun at the owners, both in their 30s, and demanded money. They said the man used force to get what he wanted and then fled.
The suspect was described as being in his 30s or 40s, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 160 pounds, with black crewcut hair. He was wearing a white shirt and gray pants.
HONOLULU
Injured hiker airlifted from Manoa Falls Trail
A hiker in her 50s visiting from the mainland was airlifted out of the Manoa Falls Trail yesterday after suffering a knee injury.
After 3 p.m., Honolulu Fire Department personnel hiked about 10 minutes up the trail to reach the woman, who was hiking with her sister, and airlifted her to Manoa District Park, then transferred her to paramedics, said fire Capt. Sigmund Oka.
The woman refused medical services, said Bryan Cheplic, of the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
2 men are held in Kona shooting
KAILUA-KONA » Big Island police are holding two men in connection with a shooting in Kona on Wednesday night that left a 32-year-old man wounded.
The victim was taken to Kona Community Hospital, where he was listed in guarded condition.
The case is classified as an attempted murder.
Police received a call about a shooting in the old industrial area of Kailua-Kona at 10:11 p.m., they said.
The initial report said several shots had been fired.
County Fire Department medics transported the victim to the hospital. The two suspects were arrested at the scene.
No further information was released. Police ask anyone who witnessed the shooting or has information about it to call police at 935-3311 or CrimeStoppers at 329-8181.
Mattress fire damages McCully apartment
A mattress fire started by a cigarette caused about $3,000 worth of damage to a McCully apartment late Wednesday, according to Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Frank Johnson.
The fire was reported at 11:04 p.m. at 2239 Date St., Johnson said. It was confined to a bedroom and quickly extinguished.
Nobody was hurt. The Red Cross was assisting the apartment's occupants.
Waianae teen arrested after beach theft
Police arrested a 15-year-old Waianae boy who allegedly stole items at a Waianae Coast beach park.
Two tourists were swimming at Yokohama Bay Beach Park at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when they saw a group of youths allegedly taking one of their bags on the beach, police said.
The tourists saw the suspects walk to a car and drive away. They got the car's license plate number and called police.
Responding officers found the car, the suspect and the bag, but it was empty, police said.
The tourists identified the boy who took the bag. Police arrested him on suspicion of second-degree theft and released him pending investigation.
WAIKIKI
Witness alerts police to vehicle break-ins
Police arrested a 31-year-old man who was allegedly breaking into cars in Waikiki early Wednesday.
Police said a 51-year-old saw the suspect from his Waikiki apartment looking into vehicles at about 2:15 a.m.
He called police and directed officers to the car where the suspect was sitting. Police arrested the suspect for investigation of three counts of unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle.
[THE COURTS]
Not-guilty plea given in registry offense
A convicted sex offender, who at one time was linked to an unsolved murder in the same McCully apartment building where he raped and shot a woman, pleaded not guilty yesterday to failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
Vernon Reiger Sr., 71, remains free on $25,000 bail after being arraigned before Circuit Judge Derrick Chan.
Reiger was released from prison on June 26, 1999, after serving a 20-year maximum for a 1980 attempted murder, sodomy and burglary conviction, said Tommy Johnson, administrator for the Hawaii Paroling Authority. Reiger was indicted Dec. 6 for failing to register as a sex offender.
According to court documents filed in the attempted-murder case, Reiger was also "the principal suspect in numerous unsolved murders" where the weapon used and the modus operandi bore striking similarities.
Prosecutors said the attempted murder was carried out in a "deliberate and calculated fashion with a gun placed to the back of the victim's head and discharged point blank three times." The woman survived but went into hiding because she was in fear for her life.
Meth user in prison for role in crash
HILO » A Big Island methamphetamine user who fell asleep while driving, causing a crash that killed another driver last year, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Hawaii County prosecutor's office announced.
Travis Spencer, 26, of Honokaa drove a stolen vehicle under the influence of methamphetamine on Aug. 15, 2005, the prosecutor said.
Spencer crossed the center line of Hawaii Belt Road just north of Hilo and hit a car driven by Judy Gamiao, 56, a married man and the father of three daughters, killing him.
Moments before the fatal crash, a witness saw Spencer drift into the oncoming lane and then snap back into his own lane, as if waking up from momentary unconsciousness, according to court testimony.
"Methamphetamine use can keep a user awake for long periods of time, but eventually a user will fall asleep and sometimes suddenly," the prosecutor's statement said.
Spencer was sentenced by Circuit Judge Glenn Hara to 10 years in prison for negligent homicide and five years each for four related offenses. Hara allowed Spencer to serve all of the sentences at the same time but ordered him to serve another five years consecutively for violating probation for a felony theft.
State high court suspends attorney
The Hawaii Supreme Court suspended attorney Jameelah Peer on Dec. 8 from the practice of law because of her failure to cooperate with an investigation of her professional conduct in four cases, according to a press release from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Peer is barred from accepting new retainers, clients or legal matters and must also return papers, property and unearned advance fee payments to her existing clients until further action by the state Supreme Court.
Peer, 51, was admitted to the Hawaii State Bar in 1999. She is a graduate of Franklin Pierce Law Center.