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HPU sees another year of growing enrollment
Hawaii Pacific University celebrated its 35th anniversary with increases in its fall student enrollment.Enrollment at the university's downtown and Windward campuses grew 3.1 percent.
The overall enrollment, including satellite campuses, grew 3.3 percent to 8,874 students.
HPU President Chatt G. Wright said this was the 28th straight year that the university posted enrollment gains.
Graduate enrollment in HPU's nine master's programs grew 10 percent. The master's of business administration and professional degree programs, including the master's of science in information systems, remain the most popular graduate majors.
The school is offering two new graduate programs this year: the master's in communication and the master's in teaching English as a second language.
Enrollment of local students grew 11 percent. About half of incoming students are first-time freshmen. The other half are transfer students. The grade point averages of 62 percent of these new Hawaii students is over 3.0.
"We saw more students making the decision to stay here in Hawaii, as well as local students transferring from mainland colleges to complete their degrees at HPU," said Scott Stensrud, director of admissions.
Federal funds earmarked for Hawaii parks
A total of $17.5 million in federal funding is headed to Hawaii for national park and conservation initiatives.The money is part of fiscal 2001 appropriations for the Department of the Interior and related agencies that are contained in a bill approved by the House and Senate. It now requires President Clinton's signature to become law.
At U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye's request Congress approved up to $350,000 for emergency ambulance services at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, $4.2 million to preserve historical sites and support commemorative events relating to World War II, and $33 million for government operations in American Samoa.
The bill includes funding for programs to protect threatened and endangered species and to create, restore and expand refuges. It also contains innovative projects such as an initiative to construct a new facility for the Astrophysical Observatory on the Big Island.
Council OKs bill banning liquor ads near schools
Stores within 500 feet of schools or preschools will be barred from advertising liquor from their storefronts under a bill approved yesterday by the City Council.The measure, co-introduced by members Duke Bainum, John DeSoto and Andy Mirikitani, is less stringent than the original bill, which called for stores within 1,000 feet to fall under the prohibition.
Violators would be fined up to $500.
Despite a smaller prohibition area, the bill still will accomplish its purpose -- for students to be able to travel to and from school "and not be bombarded by liquor advertisements," Bainum said.
"If this law prevents just one child from drinking, we will have done right," he said.
Representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the group called Faith Action for Community Equity testified in favor of the measure.
$650,000 Maunalua Bay canoe halau gets Council approval
A canoe halau at Maunalua Bay Park opposed by nearby residents has been approved by the City Council.At issue was a 50-foot-by-50-foot facility with walls eight feet high and a roof 20 1/2 feet tall that would be built for $650,000 and is expected to be used primarily by the Hui Nalu Canoe Club.
The Council unanimously approved the facility despite objections raised by residents of the Gateway Peninsula and The Moorings townhouse complexes.
Residents said the complex would block views and be unsightly.
Hui Nalu members said the halau is needed.
93 schools get $10,000 each to raise literacy
The Department of Education yesterday formally launched a comprehensive $2 million approach to raising reading levels across the state.Officials said 93 elementary schools have committed to take the literacy challenge.
Each school is being given $10,000 to help with its plans to improve reading.
"It's an additional shot in the arm," the department's Francine Grudzias said.
In return, the schools agree to monitor their students' progress every three months and engage in professional development.
The money will also be used to organize a conference later this year with national reading specialists and Hawaii native Edward Kame'enui of the University of Oregon and other reading experts.
U.S. agriculture grant to fund research center
A $17.18 million federal bonanza for Hawaii agriculture will finance construction of a U.S. Pacific Basin Agriculture Resource Center and support a number of other initiatives.U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, in announcing the $5 million center allocation, said in part: "I am especially pleased that my colleagues in the Congress approved my request to construct the U.S. Pacific Basin Agriculture Resource Center. The research conducted at this center will address the concerns of growers in tropical and subtropical environments such as Hawaii and the U.S. territories of the Pacific."
The Senate approved a House-Senate conference committee report yesterday by an 86-8 vote. Since the House approved the report earlier, the fiscal 2001 appropriations bill now goes to the White House for the president's signature.
Also at Inouye's request, the bill includes an amendment that earmarks a $7.2 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help Maui and Kauai sugar plantations offset low sugar prices and high costs of getting sugar to market.
The bill also provides substantial sums for other research projects and pest control.
Tomorrow
Some events of interestNoon, UH-Manoa, Campus Center: Several speakers from campus organizations speak out against police brutality in observance of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. Contact: 944-3106.
Police, Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffHonolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
Highlands kids arrested after bomb threats made
Three students at Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City were arrested yesterday for allegedly making bomb threats in two separate incidents last month.A girl was arrested for a Sept. 5 bomb scare, which caused school to be canceled, police said. She gave another student money and the school's phone number to call in the threat, police said.
Two other boys were also arrested yesterday for a bomb threat on Sept. 12. They had conspired to make the threat in hopes of having school canceled, police said.
Man held for firing rifle inside an apartment
A 30-year-old man was arrested yesterday for allegedly firing an assault rifle inside a Honolulu apartment, threatening the lives of four people.The suspect used an AK-47 assault rifle to hold his former girlfriend, 36, and her mother, 76, against their will from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. yesterday, police said. At one point, police said, he fired the weapon into the wall, endangering the lives of two neighbors.
He faces several felony offenses, including terroristic threatening, kidnapping and reckless endangerment.
Police officer arrested on sex-assault charges
A 26-year-old Honolulu police officer was arrested Saturday on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.The officer, who has not been charged, is on desk duty while police Internal Affairs investigates, police said. He has five years with the department and is assigned to patrol in District 1 or urban Honolulu.
The arrest was made after a woman, 20, reported she was sexually assaulted by the man at an Ewa home on Friday, police said. The officer was off duty at the time.
Sources say the woman has accused at least one other police officer of sexual misconduct several years ago, but the claim was found to be unsubstantiated.
The officer was arrested at his home in Kunia at 6:20 a.m. Saturday and was released about an hour later pending further investigation, records indicate.
Burglars in stolen trucks hit businesses in Kona
KAILUA-KONA -- Police are looking for a group of suspects who use stolen trucks in burglarizing Kona businesses.The third such incident took place before daybreak today when burglars driving a stolen truck attempted to enter a Honda dealership in Kailua-Kona, police said.
They were foiled by a burglar alarm and left, abandoning the truck. On Oct. 12, using the same truck, burglars stole goods valued at $2,644 from Stealth Audio. On Oct. 7, the same suspects are believed to have stolen a state Department of Land and Natural Resources truck by crashing it through a gate at Honokohau Harbor.
