CIVILIAN MEDALS OF VALOR
KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Michael Lee, above left, received a Civilian Medal of Valor yesterday from the Honolulu Police Department for risking his life by pulling a driver out of a burning vehicle after an accident. He also helped pull a second vehicle, whose occupants were trapped inside, away from the burning car. Police Chief Lee Donohue is at right.
KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Dean Tsukada, center, was also awarded the Medal of Valor yesterday for risking his life in helping officers Michael Fisher, left, and Ryan Kalahiki, right, pull a suicidal woman back from a freeway overpass railing. The Medal of Valor is the HPD's highest award presented to civilians.
Forum to discuss Maui's services in oral health
An Oral Health Community Forum will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Wailuku to discuss county and statewide planning efforts to increase oral health services on Maui.The forum and a complimentary buffet dinner will be at Hui No Ke Ola Pono's Simply Healthy Cafe, in the Cameron Center at 95 Mahalani St., Room 21.
The event is open to anyone interested in the oral-health planning process.
Participants will include members of the Maui County Dental Health Alliance; Hui No Ke Ola Pono's Oral Health Outreach Initiative; the Maui District Health Office; Hawaii Rural Health Association; Office of Planning, Policy and Program Development; and the Hawaii Dental Association.
Those attending should call 808-244-7428 by tomorrow.
Foundation awards $110,000 in grants
The Hartley Foundation has given $100,000 to Easter Seals of Hawaii as the second installment of a $1 million pledge the foundation made last year.Michael J. Hartley presented the money Friday to Easter Seals Hawaii President John Howell in continued support of the organization's efforts to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities or other special needs.
The foundation also contributed $10,000 to the Research Center of Hawaii, a private nonprofit agency established in 1975 to serve developmentally disabled citizens.
Sandra T. Hartley presented the grant Nov. 4 to Dr. George Omura, president and chief executive officer of RCH, to benefit its clients and support its operations.
The foundation's purpose is "to assist those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in desperate circumstances." Grants are made to tax-exempt organizations that primarily serve Hawaii residents.
Public warned of lead poisoning in children
On the 10th anniversary of the 1992 Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act and as part of Children's Health Month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reminds Americans that housing with pre-1978 lead-based paint could be a health risk for children.Children 6 years old and under are most at risk from lead poisoning because their bodies and nervous systems are still developing. Lead poisoning in children, even at low levels, can cause developmental problems, learning disabilities, impaired hearing and behavioral problems. The primary sources of lead exposure for children are deteriorating lead-based paint, lead-contaminated dust and lead in residential soil.
To protect children, parents should ask their health care providers about testing children for high levels of lead in the blood.
Homeowners may contact the National Lead Information Center at 800-424-LEAD (424-5323) for information on how to find professionals to test houses for lead. Tenants can also consult with their landlords regarding testing.
For more information about lead poisoning, contact the National Lead Information Center at 800-424-LEAD or see the EPA's Web site at www.epa.gov/lead.
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>> Junior Achievement of Hawaii's new board of directors are community leaders Greg Cabanting, of Anheuser-Busch; Robert Cundiff, Weyerhaeuser; Norman Doi, First Hawaiian Bank; Carolyn Fujioka, state Farm Insurance Cos.; Patrick Kozuma, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Hotel; Ann Mahi, Hawaii State Department of Education; Corlis Nihei, Hawaii State Federal Credit Union; and Cheryl Takitani-Smith, Hawaii Dental Service. [Taking Notice]
Officers are Cid Inouye, chairman; Peter Kashiwa, vice chairman for board development; Craig Matsuda, vice chairman for education; Robert Schuster, vice chairman for resource development; Willis Sanburn, secretary; and Marcia Wolff, treasurer.
>> The Maui Memorial Medical Center Foundation has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the First Hawaiian Foundation, the charitable arm of First Hawaiian Bank, for an angiography and cardiology unit. The grant will be paid over three years.
>>Philip Morris Companies Inc. has donated $15,000 in emergency funds to the Hawaii Foodbank, which has increased its distribution of food by one million pounds over last year to needy people.
The grant was part of a $1 million donation to America's Second Harvest, the largest hunger-relief organization in the country, with more than 215 affiliate foodbanks, including Hawaii's
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>> St. Francis Medical Center, which had previously offered the Hawaii Nurses Association a 2 percent wage increase during the first year of a three-year contract, changed its offer Monday to a one-year contract with a 4 percent increase. An article on Page A4 on Tuesday incorrectly said the union had requested the three-year contract with a 2 percent wage increase in its first year. Corrections and clarifications
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
Indicted isle liquor agent held in Manila
MANILA >> Immigration agents said today that they have arrested a 72-year-old American fugitive who faces extradition for allegedly taking bribes from hostess bars and strip clubs in Hawaii.Eduardo Mina, a U.S. citizen of Filipino descent, was an employee of the Honolulu Liquor Commission who allegedly took payoffs in return for ignoring liquor license violations by the establishments, officials said.
Mina faces extortion, bribery and racketeering charges and was arrested Monday night in his daughter's home in the Manila suburb of Quezon City, said Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo.
Domingo ordered Mina's arrest after being told by the U.S. Embassy in Manila that his passport was canceled by the U.S. State Department. He is scheduled to be deported within the week to Guam where he will be picked up by FBI agents and taken to Hawaii, Domingo said.
Mina and eight other defendants were indicted in the U.S. District Court in Hawaii on May 22. Since then two defendants have entered plea agreements with federal prosecutors while six have pleaded not guilty. Mina was the only defendant who remained at large.
LEEWARD OAHU
Tire theft investigation brings second arrest
Police arrested the second suspect Tuesday in the theft of some custom rims and tires last week from the Goodyear Auto Service Center in Waianae.The 25-year-old man was booked for second-degree theft. Police said the suspect and a 25-year-old man Makaha man loaded the rims and tires valued at $3,500 into their car on Nov. 19 and fled without paying.
The Police Department's helicopter tracked down their car and guided officers on the ground to where the suspects were. Waianae police arrested the first suspect on Lualualei Homestead Road. They located the second suspect at a home in Lualualei about 1 p.m. Tuesday.
WAIKIKI
Police seek male who robbed tourist couple
Honolulu police are looking for a man who attacked and robbed a tourist couple from Japan in a Waikiki hotel room last month.
Police said that at about 9:40 p.m. on Oct. 14, the suspect pushed his way into the couple's room, took the wife's wallet and then punched the husband in the face. Police said the victim lost four teeth and suffered a dislocated shoulder as a result of the attack.
The suspect is described as in his 20s, 6 feet, 160 pounds, with an athletic build, short black hair, brown eyes, a tan complexion and a clean-shaven face. He was last seen wearing a red T-shirt and dark-colored long pants.
A composite sketch of the suspect was provided by the Ibaragi-Ken Hitachi City Police Department northeast of Tokyo, where the couple live.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Taro Nakamura at 529-3382 or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellular phone.
CRIMESTOPPERS PHOTO
Police want help in identifying suspects who used two stolen credit cards at the American Savings Bank in Kailua.
WINDWARD OAHU
Stolen credit cards used in Kailua ATM
Police want help identifying the suspects who used credit cards stolen from a vehicle parked at Kailua Beach Park last month.The break-in happened at about noon on Oct. 17 at the beach at 20 Lihiwai Road. Police said the cards were used at 12:18 p.m. in the automated teller machine of the American Savings Bank at 200 Hamakua Drive.
Bank surveillance cameras recorded images of two male suspects using two different stolen credit cards. Both suspects are described as in their 30s, 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 10, with medium builds and wearing light-colored fisherman's hats.
One suspect was last seen wearing a plaid short-sleeved dress shirt, while the other suspect was wearing a dark-colored "AllBus" T-shirt.
Anyone with information can call Detective John McCarthy at 261-6106 or CrimeStoppers, 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellular phone.
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[The Courts]
Murdered chef's family sues owners of hotel
The family of slain Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel chef Thomas Matsuda filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Circuit Court yesterday against Tam Van Huynh, the subordinate employee convicted of Matsuda's murder.Also named in the lawsuit are Sheraton hotels owner Kyo-ya Co. and manager Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Huynh stabbed Matsuda in the ribcage on Dec. 1, 2000, at Matsuda's office in the hotel after the chef informed him about a schedule change.
The suit, filed by attorney David Minkin, says Kyo-ya and Starwood continued to employ Huynh despite their knowledge that Huynh suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and of previous incidents where Huynh threatened two other employees with a chef's knife.
The anger management program Huynh was required to attend in 1999 was not set up to help a person suffering from a mental illness such as paranoid schizophrenia, according to the lawsuit.
The family is asking for punitive damages to be determined by the court.
The family was dealt a second blow this year when Matsuda's oldest son, Warren, died in a 200-foot fall at Makapuu during a Sept. 27 fishing trip.
High court holds DOE liable in molestation
The state Department of Education should be liable for 100 percent of the $861,451 in damages awarded in a civil suit filed by the families of two girls who accused a Mokapu Elementary teacher of molesting them, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled.In a lengthy decision issued yesterday, the high court sent the case back to the trial court to enter a new judgment.
Teacher Lawrence Norton was acquitted of sexually assaulting the two girls. He was convicted of fondling a third girl, not involved in the lawsuit, sentenced to a year in jail and fired.
Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna had ruled in March 2000 that Norton was liable for 51 percent and the state Department of Education liable for 49 percent. The girls' parents appealed, saying the state should be liable for 100 percent.
The state argued that it was protected from paying the entire judgment by a statute that says a government entity is only responsible for a percentage share of damages that can be attributed to it.
The court agreed with the parents of the girls that the state should pay for the entire judgment.
