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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire service
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Scientist earns presidential honor
President Bush is scheduled to present an astronomer working at Mauna Kea's Subaru Telescope with the government's highest honor for young scientists.
Olivier Guyon is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Guyon has worked at Subaru Telescope since 2002 under a NASA grant to develop special equipment to boost the telescope's adaptive optics system.
His work has enabled the Subaru Telescope to capture detailed images of planets and planet-forming regions around nearby stars.
The award gives him a five-year research grant to further his research.
Adaptive optics make adjustments to the lenses of ground-based telescopes to compensate for distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere.
Forums discuss city board plans
Public hearings on proposed changes to the city's Revised Neighborhood Plan start this weekend.
The plan governs the neighborhood board system and its 32 regional boards.
The first hearing is from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Kapolei Hale in Conference Rooms A-C.
The second hearing will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Windward Community College, Hale Akoakoa Building.
The final hearing will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday at Honolulu Hale in the Mayor's Conference Room on the third floor.
The public is invited to attend and submit testimony. The Neighborhood Commission will continue to receive written statements until noon Dec. 7.
The commission is the custodian of the Neighborhood Plan.
A draft of the amended plan and the public notice are posted on the commission's Web site at www.honolulu.gov/nco. Copies are also available in Room 406 of Honolulu Hale and Room 312 of Kapolei Hale.
For more information call the commission at 527-5749. After Monday the number will change to 768-3710.
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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff
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7 homeless after Big Island blaze
A blaze destroyed a Big Island home yesterday morning, leaving a family of seven displaced.
At 6:47 a.m., Big Island firefighters responded to a report of a blaze on Kona Drive between King Kamehameha Boulevard and Tiki Lane. When they arrived, they found a 300-square-foot single-family home engulfed in flames, and two adults and five children evacuated.
The fire was under control by 7:30 a.m., but the home and its contents were destroyed. Fire officials estimate about $12,500 in losses. A cause has yet to be determined.
The American Red Cross was working to assist the family.
Honolulu
Fake money order leads to arrest
Retail store workers helped collar a man suspected of forgery.
In the Kalihi Home Depot on Alakawa Street, a 47-year-old man allegedly attempted to purchase items using a counterfeit money order at about 7 p.m. Tuesday. A previous security notice alerted the employee of prior incidents of fake money orders. The suspect was booked on suspicion of second-degree forgery.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Fallen glass closes highway on Kauai
MOLOAA, Kauai » A portion of Kuhio Highway near the Moloaa Fruit Stand was closed for about 45 minutes yesterday when a glass delivery truck lost its contents on the road.
At about 10 a.m. a truck carrying large glass panels destined for a North Shore residence lost the glass when the straps holding it in place snapped. Police and firefighters from the Hanalei station responded.
Kuhio Highway was opened at 10:45 a.m., officials said.
WEST OAHU
Man notices fraud; suspect arrested
On Monday a 27-year-old Aiea man was at his bank checking on his account when he noticed a check stolen two weeks ago was used on Friday.
The victim alerted the store. A 29-year-old man returned to the store Tuesday night, and the clerk recognized him and called police. Police booked the man on suspicion of second-degree forgery.
COURTS
Professor indicted on Net sex charge
An Oahu grand jury has indicted an internationally acclaimed professor at the University of Hawaii on a single charge of using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor.
Marc P. Fossorier, also known as "peile44," was arrested Monday after he showed up at a Pearl City fast-food restaurant for a prearranged meeting with an alleged 15-year-old girl he had met on the Internet.
The indictment alleges he used the computer between April 23 and Monday to communicate with the girl, who was actually a state investigator pretending to be a minor.
Fossorier has said he was trying to meet her to tell her that what she was doing was wrong.
Bail was set at $50,000.
Fossorier has been internationally recognized for his research in communications and coding and was awarded the UH Regents' Medal for Excellence in Research.
Man faces charges in assault on child
A man accused of assaulting his 7-month-old daughter and flinging her into his van in front of the baby's mother has been indicted by an Oahu grand jury.
Pulumataala Eli, 32, was charged yesterday with second-degree attempted murder in the Oct. 24 incident. He allegedly struck the infant about the head and face multiple times. The baby was brought to Kapiolani Medical Center unconscious and not breathing.
Bail was set at $500,000.
Eli is currently on probation in a 2003 assault case in which he fired a shotgun at another person. He served a year in jail for that conviction. He is also facing trial in December for an unrelated assault case.