Honolulu Star-Bulletin Breaking Stories

Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Friday, July 9, 1999

Old school
ITS renowned alumni include U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, former U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong, Gov. George Ariyoshi, Duke Kahanamoku and Hawaii Chief Justice Wilfred Tsukiyama, to name but a few.
It is McKinley High School, which had educated half of Hawaii's high school students through the 1920s.
While it has aged gracefully, with some buildings sporting red-tiled roofs of Spanish colonial revival architecture, the school has had a nomadic past:
It was started by the Rev. Maurice Beckwith in 1865 as the Fort Street English Day School.
In 1895, it moved into Princess Ruth's former palace on Queen Emma Street and was renamed Honolulu High School.
With enrollment rising due to immigration, it moved to Victoria Street and became Linekona School. When the president was assassinated in 1901, it was renamed McKinley High School.
In 1913, due to growing demand, the school moved to its present digs at South King Street. It kept its name and the 8-ton bronze statue of McKinley.

Bankrupt movie truck
owners sue arsonists
Movie production company owners have sued arsonists who torched their trucks in 1991, causing their company to go bankrupt.
William Takaki, Janina Takaki and Billie Takaki of Automastics Inc. yesterday filed suit in Circuit Court against Hawaii Teamsters member Joseph Tavares and his associate George Cambra, president of Cambra Movie Production Trucks Inc.
Tavares was convicted last month in federal court for conspiring with Cambra to burn trucks belonging to the Takakis in 1991 to take control of the movie and TV production industry in Hawaii.
Cambra pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy. He testified he provided Tavares with diesel fuel and gasoline to burn the trucks. Both face sentencing in October.
William Takaki competed with Cambra and another company whose trucks also were torched to provide movie equipment and trucks for mainland producers filming in Hawaii.
The suit claims Cambra and his parents conspired to hide his assets from creditors and to prevent them from being seized if he was found responsible for the fires.

New leaders join LeMahieu team
School Superintendent Paul LeMahieu says he wants to get to work with his leadership team, which includes these new members who start today:
Patricia Dang as Honolulu district superintendent and Raelene Chock as her deputy. Dang was principal of Kalakaua Middle School and Chock was principal of Kaimuki High.
Darrel Galera and Bruce Nugawa as Leeward deputy district superintendents. Galera was principal of Aiea Elementary before becoming an advanced technology research specialist last year. Nugawa was principal of Nanakuli High and Intermediate.
Dan Sakai as Hawaii district superintendent with Valerie Capellas as the deputy in Hilo and Alvin Rho as the deputy in Kona. Rho was interim deputy, while Capellas was principal of Keonepoko Elementary in Puna.
Annual salaries for the district superintendents will be $80,136, while deputies will be paid $72,886.

Flesh-eating piranha handed over to state
A flesh-eating piranha is the latest illegal alien turned in to the state Department of Agriculture.
The six-inch fish was relinquished to officials at the state Plant Quarantine Station Wednesday morning by an anonymous man. The red-bellied piranha, which is sold in the pet trade, is a native of the Amazon and other South American rivers.
The department will safeguard the creature until a suitable home is found, according to a department release.
The department offers an amnesty program that waives the penalties if owners turn illegal pets in to humane societies, zoos or state quarantine facilities.

UPDATE

Market shrinks
Response to a call for vendors so far has been lackluster, leading to a reduction of the first Chinatown Night Market on Saturdays starting July 17.
That hasn't dimmed the enthusiasm of Sun Hung "Sunny" Wong of the Chinatown Merchants Association , event organizers. The group is shutting down a portion of Maunakea Street on Saturday evenings for a street market with food and craft booths and entertainment.
About 15 vendors were signed up as of yesterday, half of what the association sought.
"It seems like a lot of people are taking a wait-and-see attitude," Wong said.
Partly as a result of the slow response and partly because of criticism about tying up traffic, the event has been reduced.
Originally intended to run the three blocks between South King and Beretania streets, the event on its first night will be along just one block between South Hotel and Pauahi streets, Wong said.

By Gordon Y.K. Pang, Star-Bulletin

Corrections
In a Today story on stress in Monday's Star-Bulletin, Police Chief Lee Donohue's name was misspelled, and a quote attributed to Pastor Bill Stonebraker of Calvary Chapel Honolulu should have read, "King David wrote it and he experienced every emotion that we could possibly experience."
Former state Sen. Fred Rohlfing's name was spelled incorrectly in a View Point column that appeared in the Star-Bulletin July 3.

Police, Fire

By Star-Bulletin staff

Police arrest suspect in robbery, beating death
Police yesterday arrested a man for attempted murder and first-degree robbery in connection with the April 1994 beating of James Insco, who died in 1998 after spending 47 months in a coma.
The suspect was a juvenile when the incident took place.
Several other suspects, all of whom were adults when the beating took place, have previously been arrested or indicted.
Insco was 59 years old when he died. He suffered head, neck and spinal injuries from the beating.
Following Insco's death, the case was reclassified to a homicide investigation.

In other news...
KAILUA-KONA -- Police are holding a 43-year-old man who shot and wounded his 45-year-old brother following an argument at their South Kona home. Police gave the case a preliminary classification of attempted murder.
WAIMEA -- A grassland and pasture fire which blackened 400 acres at Waikii on the west slope of Mauna Kea remained contained but with some hot spots still smoldering during the night, the Hawaii County Fire Department said.The fire of an started Wednesday morning in the drought-stricken area.
WAILUKU -- A fire caused by an electrical short circuit caused $12,500 in damages to a floral shop in an industrial area in south Maui last night, Acting Assistant Chief David Kamalani said.
Nobody was injured in the blaze at Get Fresh Event Design & Production, Kamalani said.

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