Newswatch
Kauai step-up won't be noticeable, Navy says
WAIMEA, Kauai -- A proposed increase in weapons testing and military training activity at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai would be "incremental" and won't impact the community or the environment much more than current activity does, base commander Navy Capt. James Bowlin said Saturday."The public won't notice much of a change in the amount of activity," he said.
The Navy wants to upgrade capabilities at its west Kauai facility to test and train Navy troops in its Theater Ballistic Missile Defense program.
Because 30 countries -- "not all of them friendly" -- now have ballistic missile capabilities, the new weapons system is needed to protect deployed U.S. troops and allied countries from short- and medium-range missile attacks, Bowlin said.
The U.S. plans to spend $4 billion a year through 2003 to develop missile defense programs, and the west Kauai facility, designated as the nation's premier testing and evaluation range, is a leading candidate for much of that work.
The Navy held the first of two public hearings on a draft environmental impact statement today in Waimea. The proposal was expected to be met with loud opposition from environmentalists and native Hawaiian activists.
Kamehameha official obeys court order
Kamehameha Schools Admissions Director Wayne Chang has answered questions from the state attorney general's office as part of a probe into allegations that trustees manipulated the student admission process.Chang and his attorney, Howard Luke, met with state investigators for about three hours Friday morning as a follow-up to a Jan. 21 interview with the state.
Luke described the meeting as cordial, noting that his client was responsive to investigators' questions as he had been in the past.
Both Luke and the attorney general's office declined to discuss the contents of the interview.
The state is investigating allegations of financial mismanagement and breaches of fiduciary duties by Bishop Estate trustees.
In addition to Chang's testimony, the state has subpoenaed the admission records of all students who applied at the estate-run Kamehameha Schools during the past two years.
Isle all-star sought for attempted murder
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- An arrest warrant for attempted murder was issued Friday for University of New Mexico football player Kawika Ordenstein, a former St. Louis High School standout.Ordenstein, 20, allegedly attacked University of New Mexico track athlete James Marin, 19, Thursday afternoon, slammed Marin's head against a car and "put him in the hospital with serious injuries to the head," UNM Police Lt. Jay Daniels said yesterday. The beating occurred in a campus parking lot.
The dispute was apparently over a woman, Daniels said.
"Ordenstein knocked him out with the first punch and continued to hit him," Daniels said.
Ordenstein's teammate Dion Marion said: "All I know is, Kawika told the guy to stop touching his girlfriend. That's what he told me. In fact, she had told him (Marin) to stop touching her. I know Kawika wouldn't do anything without reason."
Daniels said Ordenstein's attack was stopped by a third person.
UNM police tried to serve Ordenstein several times with an arrest warrant but failed, Daniels said. The warrant carries a $100,000 cash bond.
An armed-and-dangerous bulletin was issued for Ordenstein Friday night.
"The suspect is still out and about," Daniels said. "We don't know where he is at this time. We have talked to his attorney."
Ordenstein's attorney, Robert Cooper, said last night: "I'm going to make arrangements to have (Kawika) turn himself in Monday morning. We would like to go to the courthouse to be arraigned and let them hear our side of the story. I don't think he is guilty of anything."
Ordenstein, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound wide receiver who will be a senior in the fall, was at first suspended from the team indefinitely. But when more information became available, he was removed permanently. He was the Lobos' leading returning receiver with 20 receptions for 266 yards in 1997.
Navy, UH team to help search for ship
Navy Cmdr. Kurt Sadorf saw the movie "Titanic" only a few weeks ago, and those visions of the twisted wreck will be with him as he searches for the World War II aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, sunk during the Battle of Midway more than half a century ago.Petty Officer Chuck Toland says he approaches the search for the Yorktown with "a sense of pride" since "no one has seen the ship since it was sunk" and it reflects one of the Navy's greatest sea battles.
Sadorf, Toland and the rest of the crew of the Navy's 240-foot Laney Chouest, a deep-submergence support vessel, will play a crucial role in the hunt for the Yorktown, which begins next month off Midway atoll, 1,250 miles west-northwest of Honolulu.
The project is the sixth collaboration between Robert Ballard, best known for his discovery of the Titanic in 1985, the Navy and National Geographic.
Also hired to help pinpoint the resting place of the Yorktown, and four Japanese carriers lost during the Pacific battle, will be a team of University of Hawaii scientists, graduate students and technicians headed by Bruce Appelgate, director of field operations at UH's Hawaii Mapping Research Group.
Keiki winners share aloha in posters
Seven children from six islands have been named winners in "Na Keiki Aloha: The Children of Aloha Poster Contest," sponsored by the Miss Universe Pageant.The contest was open to elementary school children, who were asked to draw a poster that expressed the message, "How to Share Aloha with the World."
It drew 2,788 entries, including 1,900 from Oahu. Because of the number of Oahu entries, two winners were selected from the island.
The winners -- officially "Keiki Delegates" -- are:
Oahu: Blanche Hoopai, a third-grader at Helemano Elementary, and Iris Lynne V. Malang, a sixth-grade student at Kalakaua Intermediate School. Honorable mention went to Nicole Chun, a third-grader at Mililani Mauka Intermediate.
Cayetano threatens to veto budget
Gov. Ben Cayetano Friday night branded the Senate's proposed budget cuts as "very, very Draconian," and vowed to veto the supplemental budget if the Senate's recommendations are adopted.That would mean the state would continue operating on the two-year, $11.6 billion budget that legislators approved last year with Cayetano deciding what spending restrictions to make.
Cayetano's promise of a veto came when he appeared on a live broadcast of Hawaii Public Television's "Dialog" show in which he answered questions from callers.
It followed his comments on the Senate's plan to drastically slash the state's subsidy for the A+ after-school program that Cayetano, as lieutenant governor, established.
"I think wiser heads will prevail. The A+ program (cost) may go up a little bit, but no way near what the Senate is talking about," Cayetano said. "I wouldn't support it. I'll veto the bill."