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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire service
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Abercrombie to join union rally
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie was expected to join Honolulu Advertiser employees today at a noon union rally in front of the newspaper building at 605 Kapiolani Blvd.
Writers, artists and photographers of the daily paper notified management yesterday that they will engage in a byline strike today through Friday, not allowing their names to be used on their work in the paper and the Web page. They also plan to refuse to write blogs through Friday, according to a union official.
Contract negotiations have stalled between the company and six unions representing more than 600 employees. Union members voted Sunday to authorize the union bargaining committee to call a strike.
The company's last offer provided a 1 percent pay increase effective Oct. 27, 2008, a 1.5 percent bonus and called for higher medical premiums copayments by employees.
No negotiations are scheduled. The previous contract expired in June and has been extended.
Bishop Museum gets cash gift
A $21 million renovation project at Bishop Museum has received a $500,000 contribution from the Charles Reed Bishop Trust.
Restoration of the Hawaiian Hall complex began in 2006 and is expected to be completed in 2009. Improvements to the building will allow display of artifacts from Hawaii and the Pacific that had been held in storage because they would deteriorate in the open-air climate of the 1889 building.
A spokeswoman said the museum has raised $15 million of the total cost of the project.
Charles Reed Bishop was the founder of Bishop Museum. He established the charitable trust to support the museum he named for his wife Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.
Lava finger enters subdivision
HILO » A finger of slowly moving lava entered the upper boundary of mostly abandoned Royal Gardens subdivision yesterday but was not expected to do damage, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Tim Orr said. Four other fingers are farther uphill.
The longest finger of smooth pahoehoe lava was near the top of Prince Street, but a natural barrier of older lava was expected to divert the flow to the east, Orr said.
The same eastward diversion weeks ago protected the sole structure in possible danger, the home of Dean Schneider, three-fourths of a mile downhill from the lava. Another house, owned by Jack Thompson, is even farther from the lava.
Unconcerned, Thompson said yesterday that life has been "normal" and the weather has been excellent. "It's been great," he said.
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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff
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Man dies in vehicle fire on H-3
A 22-year-old man died in a vehicle fire in Kaneohe last night, emergency personnel said.
Police said a fire in a vehicle with one person inside was reported at 9:55 p.m. Officers at the scene reported the person was dead. The man was pronounced dead at 10:12 p.m., according to Brian Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department.
The fire occurred on the H-3 freeway between the Kamehameha Highway offramp and the Mokapu Boulevard onramp. Police temporarily shut down eastbound lanes of H-3 and traffic investigators were called to the scene.
Police ID victim in Big Isle crash
Big Island police identified the victim in Saturday's one-car crash as Daniel T. Ekau, 35, of Pahoa.
Police said Ekau was a front-seat passenger of a two-door sedan, when the driver lost control of the car, crossed the center line and hit an embankment on Route 130 at the 16-mile marker.
Ekau, who died at the Hilo Medical Center, was the only one wearing a seat belt, police said.
Police said the 41-year-old Pahoa driver and two passengers were thrown from the car.
The driver and a 19-year-old back-seat passenger were taken to Hilo Medical Center and later flown to the Queen's Medical Center on Oahu in critical condition.
Speed and alcohol were factors in the crash, police said.
The driver was arrested for negligent homicide, negligent injury, operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant, and promoting intoxicating liquor to a person under age 21.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call police Officer Robert Pauole at 961-8119.
HONOLULU
Homeless man stabbed in head
A 41-year-old man was in critical condition after he was stabbed in the head with a pair of scissors.
About 9:20 p.m. Monday, the victim and a 35-year-old man, both homeless, were arguing on Iwilei Road when the suspect stabbed the victim, police said.
The victim was taken to the Queen's Medical Center in critical condition. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder.
WAIKIKI
Mo-ped rider dies after crash
A 19-year-old Waikiki man critically injured in a mo-ped crash has died.
Shirzad Soleymani was pronounced dead at the Queen's Medical Center on Feb. 15, according to the Department of the Medical Examiner. An autopsy performed on Soleymani determined that he died from cranial cerebral injuries due to the crash. The manner of death was classified as an accident.
Soleymani, an organ donor, was put on life support to maintain the viability of his organs. Within 24 hours, his organs were recovered and transplanted to several recipients, said Dr. Stephen Kula, executive director of the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii.
About 1:05 a.m. on Feb. 12, Soleymani was making a left turn on Kalakaua Avenue to the mauka bound lanes of Seaside Avenue on a 1988 black Yamaha mo-ped. Police had said he lost control, struck a tree and was thrown from the mo-ped. He was not wearing a helmet.
Services for Soleymani were to be held today at Borthwick Mortuary. In lieu of flowers, donations were suggested to the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Biker dies after crash on Big Isle
A 51-year-old Utah woman died Sunday from injuries she received in a motorcycle cash on Hawaii Belt Road.
Hawaii police said Vicki Lynn Crowley of Draper, Utah, died when the 1991 Harley Davidson motorcycle she was riding hit a sandbag on the roadway at the top of the Hamakua end of Kaawalii Gulch at about 10:58 a.m.
Anyone with information is asked to call police Officer Wendall Carter at 961-2293.
This is the seventh traffic fatality on the Big Island, the same number at this time last year.