Newswatch
Lingle says AG's office should look at contracts
LIHUE --The state attorney general should investigate why a close friend of Gov. Ben Cayetano was handed millions of dollars in state contracts without public bids, Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle said."This is the opposite of where our state needs to to be going. We have limited resources and we need to watch them closely," the Maui mayor said during a $100-a-plate fund-raiser at the Kauai Beach Hotel Friday night.
Lingle was reacting to a Star-Bulletin story Friday that disclosed that planning and construction contracts for a Kapolei middle school were awarded to a company affiliated with Cayetano's friend, Bert A. Kobayashi.
The state did not look for other bids before giving the contracts, worth nearly $37 million, to Makai Village Partnership.
Kobayashi is chairman of PAB Investment Corp., one of two general partners for Makai Village.
Makai Village also received planning and design contracts, again on a noncompetitive basis, for a high school planned at Kapolei. Those contracts, awarded in November and April, are worth more than $4 million.
"The idea or excuse that, 'Well, we needed to do it fast, so we bypassed public bidding,' is a weak argument," Lingle said. "If we ever did something like that on Maui, the attorney general's office would come after us."
Isle group challenge health plan
Three Hawaii patient advocacy and physician groups are fighting a proposed health plan contract they feel would hurt physicians and patients.They say it dictates how physicians practice medicine, yet holds them solely responsible for decisions affecting patient care.
Patients couldn't be assured of a doctor's competency because the contract has no mechanism to determine participants' credentials, the groups say.
And doctors could only send patients to network hospitals and doctors, regardless of location or quality.
The disputed contract is being offered to physicians under a new health plan, the St. Francis Preferred Provider Organization/Health Hawaii Network.
The plan couldn't be sued, so a doctor would be in a bad position in telling patients they couldn't have certain services denied by the carrier, said Dr. Arleen Jouxson-Meyers, Wahiawa pediatrician who heads the Hawaii Coalition for Health.
"It might incur a lawsuit which he might end up paying. It's sort of a gag clause on physicians in advocating for patients. They can be terminated without cause."
The coalition, Hawaii Medical Association and Hawaii Federation of Physicians and Dentists have proposed Health Hawaii Network contract revisions to protect patients from cost-cutting medical care.
Hula's Bar closing after 24 years
The 100-year-old banyan that shelters Hula's Bar & Lei Stand also holds the souls of people who have died from AIDS, say some patrons.Linda Shapin, who has lost a good friend to AIDS, says she knows he's up there. "I look up in the tree and I know if it could talk, it would have some great stories to tell, both wonderful and painful," said Shapin, 44, who has known the tree since Hula's opened in 1974.
The tree, split in the middle from Hurricane Iwa 16 years ago, has been held together with steel cables and loving care from the bar's owner.
The tree and Hula's, which has become a world-renowned drinking establishment, bows out this weekend after 24 years. The bar at Kuhio Avenue and Kalaimoku Street expects 500 to 700 people for its goodbye bash Sunday.
Hula's owner Jack Law said the bar and tree must make way for a new development for Niketown.
"Times move on; things change," Law said. "But you'd better not keep taking away from Waikiki what people come here for, the ideal Hawaii environment and what makes it unique."
Regular Roger Coye, 62, said: "We're all bummed. It's been our home for so many years. It can't be replaced. It'll be a new bar but it won't be the same."
Although it welcomes everyone, Hula's has been the most prominent bar for the gay and lesbian community, Coye said.
Hawaiian studies backers blast key schools job cut
State Sen. Rod Tam, Hawaiian studies advocates and others are protesting a move by the state Department of Education to eliminate a Honolulu district position, which they claim could affect more than 40,000 students and parents.They say the elimination is an example of how the department shifts positions with no regard for students.
"A lot of cuts are taking place across the board, but you don't see cuts at the management level," said Keali'i Gora, a part-time Hawaiian studies teacher for the department.
"You only see it at the school and district levels who provide direct services to the children," he said.
District officials, however, say programs will not be hurt by the action.
Tam and the others Friday criticized officials for eliminating a district educational specialist position that administers services to 40,000 children and parents, specifically those who participate in English for Second Language Learners programs and in Hawaiian studies.
Gora said the group fears that without the specialist to coordinate these programs, the work will fall onto the district office, which to date hasn't given any direction for the programs.
Dance teacher wants report kept private
Hula teacher Howell "Chinky" Mahoe, who pleaded no contest last year to sexually assaulting four minor dancers, wants to prevent the state from referring to a confidential report in public.Mahoe's motion, postponed from Friday to Aug. 6, challenges the common practice of citing the presentencing report in open court during a sentencing hearing.
Both David Gierlach, Mahoe's attorney, and Deputy Prosecutor Darrell Wong declined comment on the motion. They have declined comment on the case since May, when Mahoe's sentencing was delayed for a third time for what Gierlach described as a "procedural matter."
The presentencing report, which includes a defendant's social and criminal history, is intended primarily for judges at sentencings and for the parole board, which sets minimum terms.
Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe will have access to Mahoe's report at Mahoe's Aug. 24 sentencing, which was advanced from Sept. 24.
Mahoe, 43, pleaded no contest last September to five felony counts of third-degree sexual assault and one misdemeanor count of fourth-degree sexual assault involving four boys from 9 to 14 from 1994 to 1996.
Councilman accused of slapping girl over cigarette
A 17-year-old girl has accused Windward Councilman Steve Holmes of slapping her after arguing with her about a lit cigarette at a Kailua bus stop last month.Holmes yesterday denied the accusation but acknowledged that he pulled the cigarette from her lips after she became obnoxious.
Police Lt. Grant Arakawa, citing a police report, said that after the June 30 incident, the girl filed a complaint alleging simple assault, a petty misdemeanor.
Holmes voluntarily went to the Kailua Police Station to discuss the incident with officers, Arakawa said.
Jim Fulton of the prosecutor's office said the case is being reviewed "just like any other case: We will proceed only if there are grounds to prosecute."
POLICE/FIRE
HPD says road rage led to baseball bat attack
Police Friday night arrested a Kaneohe man for allegedly hitting another man with a baseball bat after a traffic altercation.The suspect, 18, and the victim, a Kailua man, were involved in a traffic incident yesterday on Kalanianaole Highway near Castle Hospital at about 6:10 p.m., police said. When the two men pulled over, the suspect reportedly attacked the other man with a baseball bat, causing arm injuries.
The suspect fled, but was apprehended an hour later.
Police charge motorist in attack with 2-by-4
Police Friday arrested and charged a 48-year-old man in connection with the June 27 beating of a 35-year-old man with a 2-by-4 wooden board.Daniel Sisneros Jr., who has no address, was charged with first- degree and second-degree assault and is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Police said Sisneros got into an argument after a traffic altercation on the H-1 Freeway. The man who was hit with the board was treated at Tripler Hospital for a dislocated shoulder and cuts to his face.
Moped collision leaves woman critically hurt
A 49-year-old Texas woman was critically injured when her moped slammed into another moped in Waikiki Friday.The woman was on Kalakaua and Saratoga avenues traveling directly behind a New York man, 22, on his moped, police said. For an unknown reason, the woman crashed into the man at about 6:20 p.m.
The woman, who was not wearing a helmet, suffered serious head injuries and was taken to Queen's Hospital, where her condition has been upgraded to guarded. Traffic investigators have not determined whether she was under the influence of alcohol.
Mililani infant suffers suspicious injuries
Police have opened a first-degree assault case after a 2-month-old Mililani boy was brought to Kapiolani Hospital Friday in critical condition.The infant was with a day-care provider in Pearl Harbor when the alleged assault took place, police said. They said the baby was initially taken to Tripler Hospital on Thursday, and then transferred to Kapiolani Hospital for head injuries, possibly from being shaken.
No arrests have been made as of this morning.
Navy cruiser refuels chopper on medical flight
A Coast Guard helicopter with assistance from a Navy cruiser picked up a sick crewman on board the Liberian-flagged motor vessel China Joy Wednesday.The 21-year-old man was brought to Honolulu for treatment of appendicitis.
The USS Bunker Hill, a cruiser headed to San Diego acted as a "lily pad" in the rescue operation, officials said. The helicopter was able to land on the cruiser to refuel before and after picking up crewman.
See expanded coverage in Saturday's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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