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Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Thursday, January 20, 2000

Symphony's Tiknis
leaving the job in June

Michael Tiknis, executive director of the Honolulu Symphony, is resigning, effective in June.

Tiknis, who in his five-year tenure brought the orchestra back from financial disaster to financial and artistic prosperity, was to make the surprise announcement this afternoon to the board of directors.

He is moving to Texas with his wife, Sharon, and son to care for his ailing parents. Tiknis, 48, is an only child.

Tiknis has been credited, along with Symphony music director Sam Wong, for extending the season to 33 weeks of classical and pops concerts and selling more tickets this year than have been sold in the orchestra's 100-year history.

Group sponsoring 5 internships
for aspiring journalists

Five full-time paid summer internships will be sponsored by the Hawaii chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Interns will be paid $3,000 for 10-week internships at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, KGMB News, Pacific Business News, Honolulu Publishing Co. and Trade Publishing Co.

Hawaii residents who have finished their sophomore year at an institution of higher learning by June and are interested in careers in journalism are eligible to apply.

To be considered for the internships, students must provide letters of application, samples of work and a college transcript. The letter should include the applicant's career goals, interest in journalism, and full address and phone numbers.

Applications must be postmarked by Feb. 21. They should be mailed to John M. Black, Society of Professional Journalists --Hawaii Chapter, c/o Rainbow Pacific Publishing Co., 1270 Queen Emma St., Suite 1102, Honolulu, HI 96813. Late applications will not be considered, and application materials will not be returned.

Finalists will be notified on or around March 1. Contact Black by phone at 521-8877, fax at 521-8876 or e-mail at lublack@prodigy.net.

Weather may foul up view of 'red' moon

Cloudy skies and scattered showers may mar tonight's viewing of the first lunar eclipse of the century.

The moon, to be in the eastern sky, will look red due to light bending in Earth's atmosphere. The National Weather Service said "there may be a few holes in the clouds," but other than that, the weather doesn't seem too promising.

The best area on Oahu, weather permitting, could be the wide, flat leeward areas from Hawaii Kai to Kaena Point between 6:30 and 8 p.m.

Oahu woman convicted of welfare fraud

An Oahu woman extradited from New York has been convicted of fraudulently obtaining state welfare benefits.

Susan Ines was convicted on Jan. 6 in Circuit Court of first-degree theft and sentenced to five years' probation, with special conditions that she be imprisoned for 64 days.

Ines also was ordered by Circuit Judge Marie Milks to pay the state $29,229 and reimburse it $5,276 for her extradition costs. The state maintained that Ines claimed her children lived with her when they did not.

FBI offers reward in Hilo bomb case

HILO -- The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons who set off a pipe bomb outside the Social Security Administration office in Hilo Jan. 7.

The bomb broke a window but did only minor damage.

Police add that CrimeStoppers may pay up to $1,000 for information on any of the three other recent pipe bomb explosions in Hilo.

One on Dec. 30 damaged a parked vehicle. That was followed by the Social Security incident, then by a bomb that went off in bushes next to the parking lot of Ken's House of Pancakes Jan. 11.

Anyone with information should call the FBI at 329-5106, police at 935-3311, or CrimeStoppers at 961-8300.

Youth, 17, hunted; left suicide note at home

Authorities have issued an alert to help find a possibly suicidal 17-year-old boy.

The boy took his parents' 1989 white Nissan Sentra and left his Kukui Street home at 11 a.m yesterday after leaving a note stating he was going to kill himself, police said.

He is described as Hawaiian/Japanese, 5 feet 3 inches tall, 130 pounds with bleached blond hair. He is believed to be driving the Sentra, which has license plates EEY-831.

If anyone has seen the boy, call detectives at 529-3394 or the Missing Child Center of Hawaii at 753-9797.

Corrections A public hearing for the Schofield Barracks Wastewater Treatment Plant will be discussed at a hearing at 10 a.m. tomorrow. A story in yesterday's late edition said incorrectly that the hearing was scheduled for today.

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Police, Fire, Courts



By Star-Bulletin staff

Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers

Pedestrian killed
in marked crosswalk

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
A police officer holds an umbrella in front of the
body of a woman struck by a car and killed this
morning on Ala Moana, near Piikoi Street. A witness
told police that the woman, whose identity was not
released, was in a marked crosswalk when she was
hit at about 6:45 a.m. The investigation closed a
small stretch of Ala Moana for two hours.

Man, woman arrested in torture, kidnap case

Police arrested a 27-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man, who allegedly kidnapped and tortured his ex-wife, in an airport hotel room.

The two suspects and another man, who is still at large, barged into an Ala Moana apartment on Tuesday evening, beat and tied up a man with duct tape and kidnapped the woman, police said.

Police were notified yesterday morning at 1 a.m. when the man broke free.

At 7:30 a.m. yesterday, police received a call from a friend of the missing woman who said she had received a call from the woman and that the alleged kidnap victim was being held at the Pacific Marina Hotel near the airport.

Police located and arrested two suspects at the hotel.

The missing woman reported she was tortured with a electric "stun gun." She had injuries on her legs that were consistent with her report, police said.

Two men held for threats against police officers

Two men were arrested yesterday for allegedly threatening two police officers in the parking lot of the Makiki Zippy's.

An off-duty police officer who was trying to break up a fight was threatened by a 28-year-old man waving a crowbar, police said.

When another officer arrived, both officers are allegedly threatened by another suspect, 52, wielding a knife, police said.

Both suspects were booked on three counts of first-degree terroristic threatening against a police officer.

Attempted-murder case suspect surrenders

Police have arrested a 20-year-old Waimanalo man for attempted murder in connection with a Dec. 16 incident on the H-3 freeway involving a car that backed into Officer Mason Kuaiwa after a traffic stop.

The man, who may have been driving the stolen car, surrendered to police at 5:30 p.m. yesterday.

A 16-year-old boy, who had escaped last November from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, is also a suspect in the Dec. 16 case.

The youth was captured Jan. 7 when police say he crashed a stolen car into a fence at Hawaii Kai Golf Course.