Slom joins Senate
Ways and Means

Star-Bulletin staff

Sen. Sam Slom (R-Hawaii-Kai) has been quietly lobbying to be included on the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

As Senate minority leader of his three-member Republican group, Slom has had the chance to have the last GOP word on legislation but has missed out on the state budget.

But now he joins Sen. Fred Hemmings on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which is charged with setting Senate budget policy and helping to write the state's budget.

Ways and Means also divvies up the legislation given to each district and is considered one of the key assignments in the Legislature.

Mililani checkmate: State Rep. Guy Ontai is keeping one eye on the Legislature and another on the chessboard.

The Mililani freshman Republican is following the remarkable progress of a group of Mililani chess players, including 10-year-old Robert Lau, who competed in the National Open Championship and Chess Festival last week in Las Vegas.

Also winning, according to Ontai, were Karel Kon and Emily Lau, also from the Mililani Chess Club.

Also scoring in the championship was Benjamin Udarbe.

[Winners & losers]

WINNERS:

>> Evan Dobelle: He is named president of the University of Hawaii at an annual salary of $420,000. Dobelle told the search committee he's been coming to Hawaii since he was a youngster.

>> Gamblers: Those looking to make a score in Hawaii had their hopes raised last week when Senate President Robert Bunda said he would ask the senate to call a special committee to study the issue this summer.

>> University of Hawaii: Its checking account will be getting a little fatter now that the UH regents approved a $200 per semester tuition increase.

Students, however, says they are the losers.

LOSERS:

>> Gary Rodrigues: He was forced to temporarily step down from the nine-member judicial selection commission after being indicted on 43 counts of secretly taking money from his union, the United Public Workers.

>> Gov. Ben Cayetano: He is expected to hear the public school teachers vote for a strike next month, but the nearly unanimous rejection of Cayetano's latest wage offer was still a blow to his labor strategy.

>> UH Lab School: Students are finding that the state is losing interest in keeping the public school open. A new loss of funding from the University of Hawaii has educators worrying if the school will remain open.

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