Newswatch
‘Stunned’
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Big Island resident Erika Kauffman, 18,
wears the tiara after being crowned Miss Hawaii.
Erika Kauffman never thought about running for Miss Hawaii or any other scholarship pageant until she received a call from a Big Island pageant organizer in late February. New high school grad
crowned Miss Hawaii"I stayed home from school one day because I was sick, and the phone call came," Kauffman said Saturday.
After discussion with family and prayer, Kauffman said she accepted an invitation to run as a Kona contestant in the Miss Hawaii-Island Pageant held this past March.
Friday night, Kauffman went 2-for-2 in pageant contests when she was crowned Miss Hawaii 1997, replacing last year's winner Melissa Short. The win propels the poised Kealakekua native into statewide limelight with sights toward the Miss America Scholarship Pageant in October.
"When they called my name I was completely stunned," said Kauffman, who earned the title a month after her 18th birthday. "I was blown away."
A June 1 graduate of Makua Lani Christian School, Kauffman wants to earn a bachelor's degree in communication and become a recording artist. She won last night's swimsuit competition and also impressed judges with answers to questions. posed by pageant host Dan Cooke.
With all the different types of food to eat in Hawaii, Cooke asked what does she eat for a snack?
Kauffmann replied: "I love Gummy Bears and anything Gummy is my weakness."
Kauffman is the daughter of Dale and Carol Kauffman of Kailua-Kona. Her father is founder of King's Kids International and director of the Youth and Family Center at the University of the Nations in Kona. Her mother is a French language and physical education teacher.
The beneficiaries of Bishop Estate are the students and their parents. Or they're Kamehameha Schools. Or both. Kamehameha controversy
a battle of beneficiariesAttorney Beatrice "Beadie" Dawson, representing a group of Kamehameha students, parents and alumni, says that while the school is the institutional beneficiary, the children, their parents and the alumni have a special interest in Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate.
The state attorney general's office agreed that students and parents are legitimate beneficiaries.
Elisa Yadao, Bishop Estate spokeswoman, said that Bernice Pauahi Bishop stated in her will that the sole beneficiary of her estate was Kamehameha Schools.
A judge must decide whether students, parents and alumni have the legal right to go into court and challenge Bishop Estate trustees.
Newly incorporated Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi - made up of more than 2,000 Kamehameha students, their parents and alumni and four unidentified individuals - have petitioned the state courts to allow them to intervene in the trustees' petition that a fact finder be appointed to resolve allegations about the administration of Kamehameha Schools.
Attorneys for Bishop Estate, however, say intervention by a self-appointed group will set a "bad precedent" and is unnecessary. "There's no need for Na Pua in this case," said Bishop Estate attorney Robert B. Graham yesterday before Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall and a packed courtroom.
Bishop Estate trustees for years have maintained that the only beneficiary that has standing to challenge the trust is the Kamehameha Schools, Dawson said. "We don't believe that is true."
"Real beneficiaries are people being served, not the institution providing the service," said Kevin Wakayama, supervising deputy attorney general for the tax division, which supervises charitable trusts.
The state Supreme Court has barred the city from immediately releasing the records of suspended police officers to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Court bars release
of officers’ recordsThe high court, in an order issued Tuesday, said important legal rights may be lost if the records are handed over before a challenge by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers is heard in Circuit Court and appealed.
It put a hold on an April ruling by Circuit Judge Marie Milks, who had rejected SHOPO's request for a temporary restraining order.
Officers union attorney Michael Green said his clients are "thrilled" by the decision. "I think that we're making some progress, and we'll see what happens from there," he said.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Diane Kawauchi said it "could be a long time" before the legal process is completed.
"The city is really just the holder of the records, and we're just trying to comply with the law," she said.
The Star-Bulletin in March submitted a request to the Honolulu Police Department for information on all officers suspended since July 6, 1995, when a related law passed by the state Legislature went into effect.
The state Office of Information Practices said the city is required under the law to release the information.
