OHA awards grant to charter school in Waimea
WAIMEA, Hawaii >> Kanu o ka 'Aina charter school in Waimea has received a $110,250 grant from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to study the effectiveness of education based on Hawaiian culture, the school announced.The kindergarten-through-12th-grade school opened in 2000 as the first public school based on teaching methods that combine academic rigor with Hawaiian cultural standards, the school said.
Kanu o ka 'Aina is allied with 11 other charters schools with similar orientations in an organization called Na Lei Na'auao -- Native Hawaiian Charter School Alliance.
The school will use the OHA grant to study the effectiveness of native-designed and-controlled education in the 12 schools, Kanu o ka 'Aina said. The study also will seek to identify "best practices."
Japan-America Society to aid cleanup in Waikiki
The Japan-America Society of Hawaii and visitors from Japan will join the Waikiki Ohana Workforce today in cleaning up Waikiki Beach.Volunteers will meet at the Duke Kahanamoku statue at 7 a.m. and will be issued gloves, trash bags and cleaning supplies to tackle the job.
For the sixth year in a row, members of the Japan-America Society of Miyakonojo, Kagoshima prefecture, and first-time participants from the Fukuoka society of Fukuoka prefecture will work with the local society members.
The volunteers will also include the St. Louis High School Japanese club.
For more information on the cleanup or future society events, call 524-4450 or e-mail ayoshiko@jashawaii.org.
The Japan-America Society is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote understanding and friendship between the peoples of Japan and the United States.
Fed grant helps service for mentally disabled
A project that could reduce unemployment rates for mentally and emotionally disabled native Hawaiians was awarded a $175,412 grant Thursday, U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink announced.The Waianae Coast Community Alternative Development Corp.'s "Chance to Work" project aims to train native Hawaiians with mental and emotional disabilities to aquafarm.
The program will combine the employment training with mental health treatment.
The grant will help the program expand and hopes to lower native Hawaiian unemployment rates for mental and emotionally disabled, which has historically been above 70 percent, say the project's creators.
UH anthropologist named as Chinese expo delegate
University of Hawaii anthropology professor Nina Etkin recently was distinguished as the official delegate to the opening ceremony of the China Beijing International High-Tech Expo held in the Great Hall of the People.She was an invited guest of the International Conference on Science & Technology in Biodiversity Conservation and Utilization. Her hosts appointed her as the official delegate to the Expo ceremony.
Etkin gave a major address at the conference on "Contributions of Traditional Knowledge and Practices to the Conservation of Biodiversity," concerning how indigenous cultural practices involving medicinal and food plants foster conservation of those species.
Etkin was among dignitaries introduced to Zhu Rongji, premier of China, and she was a guest of Dr. Wang Kui, director of foreign affairs at Xi Yuan Hospital, which integrates Western and traditional Chinese medicine.
Internationally recognized in ethnopharmacology and medical anthropology, Etkin is former president of the International Society of Ethnopharmacology, fellow of the Linnean Society and past recipient of the UH Regents' Medal for Excellence in Research.
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>> Alexander & Baldwin Inc.'s purchase of the Mililani Shopping Center covers only the 13-acre center and does not include any other part of the 15,000-home master development. A photo caption on the front page of the Hawaii Inc. section yesterday said incorrectly that A&B bought the shopping center and the master development. Corrections and clarifications
>> Former state Senate President John James Hulten's last name was misspelled in a photo caption in a Page C9 obituary yesterday. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Managing Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffHonolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
Teen thrown from pickup dies at Kauai hospital
LIHUE >> Joanne Apilado, 16, who, along with a teenage boy, was thrown from the back of a pickup truck June 8 when the driver made a sharp U-turn, died Thursday, Kauai police said yesterday.Police identified the driver only as an unlicensed juvenile. They did not give the condition of the other victim.
The accident took place at 10 p.m. on Kaumualii Highway just outside the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range.
That section of road is the only lengthy straightaway on Kauai.
Ex-journalist found dead was killed, police say
LIHUE >> Kauai police said yesterday they have determined the death of Walter Robert "Fig" Mitchell II, 60, was a homicide.Mitchell was found dead Monday in his bed at home. Neighbors said he had suffered a head injury.
An autopsy was conducted Thursday.
Mitchell was a former sports editor of the now defunct weekly Kauai Times, worked as a radio sports announcer on several Kauai radio stations and coached several sports on the island.
Police gave no further information about his death.
Request for defibrillator latest Big Isle phone scam
Big Island police are warning residents about another apparent telephone scam.Police received a report from a Hilo resident yesterday morning that an unknown person had called him and asked him for a contribution to purchase a defibrillator for the Hawaii County Police Department. The caller requested a donation of $50 to $100.
The Police Department is not soliciting donations for a defibrillator, a police spokesman said, and residents should be on guard against the telephone scam.
