Briefs of News in Your Hawaii
By Star-Bulletin Staff
By Star-Bulletin Staff
The monthly fee increase from $35 to $55 took effect yesterday.
An informal poll of 10 schools offering afterschool care indicates an average 10 percent drop in enrollment.
Kaala Elementary School in Wahiawa lost 25 of the 135 children it had last week. But the largest A+ private provider, YMCA of Honolulu, says it lost about 130 students, about 5.5 percent, from March to April.
Nearly 29,000 youngsters had been enrolled in A+ at about 175 sites statewide.
The state needs to reduce the number of those covered under QUEST to a maximum of 125,000.
The department created QUEST-Net for those whose assets exceed the maximum allowable under QUEST. QUEST-Net offers a much smaller benefits package but allows higher assets.
If people have too many assets for QUEST-Net then they will be referred to reasonably priced private medical plans.
Rose Schilt of the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition says people will fall through the cracks and not have medical coverage.
The money was donated yesterday by Matsunaga's family and the Matsunaga Peace Foundation. The family donated nearly 1,000 boxes of papers to the university following the senator's death from cancer in April 1990.
State lawmakers had set aside $50,000 to catalog the senator's personal writings and documents from his campaigns and 28 years in the U.S. House and Senate. But the position never was filled because of the budget crunch.
The material eventually will be made available to the public at university's Hamilton Library.
"We hope that it will give us some insight into the man Sparky was and his love for the people of Hawaii, who he represented for 28 years," said his wife, Helene.
He took the opportunity to label Mayor Jeremy Harris' proposal to increase police officers as "smoke and mirrors" while detailing a plan for an even larger police presence.
Morgado said the Harris administration failed to properly address the large numbers of vacancies that have occurred in the Police Department since Harris entered office in July 1994.
The 240 "new" sworn officers that Harris boasts of putting into next year's budget would barely replace officers lost through attrition over the last several years, Morgado said. Further, not all those posts will be filled during the coming year because only four recruit classes of up to 40 new officers are being graduated during that time, he said.
Carol Costa, the mayor's spokeswoman, said four recruit classes of 60 are the most the department can train at one time.
A 25-year-old Makua Beach man was thrown from his car after it rolled over on Farrington highway in Makaha near Keeau Homestead Road just after midnight. He apparently had been trying to pass another car when he lost control, traffic investigators said.
Around 7:40 p.m. yesterday in Maili, a 35-year-old Waianae woman suffered internal and external head injuries after she was struck by a car while crossing Farrington Highway near Kaukamana Street.
The woman, 43, is in stable condition at a hospital with numerous cuts and bruises.
The woman was leaving her Hoowae Street home about 8:30 p.m. yesterday when the man, whom she had broken up with a few months ago, emerged after hiding under blankets in the back seat of her car, police said.
Police said he forced her into the passenger seat and took the wheel. He repeatedly assaulted her while driving, police said. As they drove Honolulu-bound near the Kinau Street offramp, the
woman jumped from the car, fearing he was going to kill her, police said.
The woman flagged a passing motorist to take her to a hospital. Police found her car abandoned at Alapai and Green streets.
A fire crew responded to a call at 94-1481 Waipio Uka St. shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday and found the girl not breathing and without a pulse.
Bystanders reportedly pulled her from the pool after she became separated from friends.