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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire service
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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Daniel Taylor, right, walked out of federal court yesterday afternoon, accompanied by his wife. Taylor was charged and sentenced to 11 months in prison after he removed ancient Hawaiian artifacts from Kanupa Cave on the Big Island and tried to sell them. CLICK FOR LARGE |
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Man sentenced for artifact sales
A Big Island man was sentenced to 11 months in prison for conspiring to sell native Hawaiian artifacts.
Daniel Taylor, 39, was indicted in March 2006 with John Carta for removing native Hawaii remains and funerary objects from Kanupa Cave.
The items had been turned over by various museums, including Bishop Museum, to Hawaiian organizations that buried the items in the cave in November 2003.
In June 2004, Taylor and Carta removed about 157 artifacts from the cave. Taylor sold a piece of kapa to a tourist for $150 and a fisherman's bowl and cover to a collector for $2,083, federal authorities said.
Carta was sentenced to a maximum term of a year but died before reporting to prison.
Break limits Leeward water use
Leeward residents and businesses are being urged to conserve water until permanent repairs to a broken water main are completed later this week.
The water main broke at 11 a.m. Sunday, leaving 12 homes without water.
The Board of Water Supply temporarily repaired the 24-inch main yesterday, and is asking residents and businesses to limit their water use to "essential needs only," such as drinking, cooking and personal hygiene until the main is fully restored.
The water main, installed 46 years ago, supplies 60 percent of the water to 9,000 homes and businesses.
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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff
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$50,000 bail set in mom's killing
A Halawa Heights woman charged with murdering her mother remained in custody on $50,000 bail after her first court appearance yesterday.
Carol Weidman, 25, clad in blue prison overalls, remained silent in Honolulu District Court, allowing a deputy public defender to speak for her.
District Judge Leslie Hayashi confirmed bail and ordered Weidman to return tomorrow for a preliminary hearing.
The mother's boyfriend discovered the body in her home Wednesday. Weidman apparently was home at the time.
Police said she admitted even before questioning that she had to kill her mother "before she killed me."
The Medical Examiner's Office said it is awaiting fingerprint analysis before releasing the mother's name. Officials determined she died of strangulation and stab wounds.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
9 from Maui help fight Molokai blaze
Nine Maui firefighters flew to Molokai to help fight a major brush fire.
The fire was first reported a little after noon yesterday near mile marker 11 along Maunaloa Highway, police said.
It spread quickly on the makai side of the highway and went past Kaluakoi Road, far enough away to miss residential homes.
"Thank God we didn't have trade winds," said Roland Hagman, who lives at the top of Kaluakoi Road.
Hagman, interviewed yesterday evening, said firefighters battled the blaze to keep it from going toward the homes in Kaluakoi and the fire was headed in the direction of Maunaloa.
Authorities closed Kaluakoi Road and the highway leading to Maunaloa Town, Hagman said.
Police Lt. Timmy Gapero said county and Molokai Ranch water tankers and a third helicopter would be enlisted in the fight.
"The fire is spreading as we speak," Gapero said. "The wind is not helping us."
Gapero said he didn't know how the fire started.
Hagman estimated the fire had expanded to cover some 5,000 acres.
There were no official estimates of its size.
Fire destroys Waikoloa buildings
Big Island fire inspectors are investigating the cause of a fire that destroyed two abandoned buildings and damaged a third along Waikoloa Road near the entry drive to the Waikoloa Land Co. field office.
Fire officials said the owner planned to demolish the buildings.
Firefighters took about an hour and 16 minutes to put out the blaze reported at 12:26 a.m.
No one was hurt in the blaze, which covered about a half acre.
CENTRAL OAHU
Man, 21, arrested in cashier holdup
Police arrested a 21-year-old Wahiawa man who allegedly robbed a restaurant cashier at gunpoint.
Just before midnight Sunday, police said, the man entered a restaurant in Wahiawa, demanded money and showed the cashier a handgun. The cashier gave him the money in the cash register and he fled, police said.
He was found several blocks away and arrested for investigation of first-degree robbery.
The suspect was later identified in a photo lineup, police said.