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Police, Fire, Courts
Star-Bulletin staff and wire
Hannemann campaign returns contributions
Mayoral candidate Mufi Hannemann announced this past week that his campaign has returned $15,000 in contributions that were identified by the campaign as being in excess of contribution limits."Our campaign has never knowingly nor will we ever accept illegal contributions. In instances where this has happened without our knowledge and we were alerted to it by the Campaign Spending Commission, we returned the money immediately, and that will continue to be our policy," Hannemann said in a news release.
Hannemann ran for mayor against Mayor Jeremy Harris in the 2000 election. His campaign was among several identified by the commission as receiving thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions by city contractors and others.
Education conference set for this weekend
Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto and Gov. Linda Lingle will give opening remarks to kick off a statewide summit, "Reinventing Education for the 21st Century," on Saturday at Kapolei High School.The keynote speaker will be Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of "Making Schools Work -- Reinventing America's Schools."
The conference, planned by the Board and Department of Education, will focus on three areas of education reform:
» Empowering principals and school communities."Education reform in Hawaii includes a great amount of common ground," said Board of Education Chairman Breene Harimoto. "The summit is an opportunity to focus on areas of agreement and recognize the importance of working together to bring about improvement in our public schools."» Increasing parental involvement in education.
» Building public-private partnerships.
The day-long summit will also feature the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District and the chief architect of their weighted student formula for budgeting, a system that Hawaii is close to adopting.
More than 300 people have been invited to participate in the summit, about one-third from the Department of Education. The conference will include breakout sessions on nearly 20 topics and will culminate in a report to be issued in early April.
For more information, call the summit hot line at 808-386-5325.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staffHONOLULU
Two men who led police on a two-hour, islandwide car chase Friday have been charged with auto theft.
Men in islandwide car chase chargedFrederick J. Morales, 25, and Brandon Ikaika Molina, 22, were also both charged with first-degree robbery.
Molina was being held on $250,000 bail yesterday. Morales was being held on $50,957 bail, a small portion of which stems from two previous warrants against him.
Molina was also charged with first-degree attempted assault, while Morales was charged with possession of dangerous drugs and drug paraphernalia.
The men were first spotted by police Friday in Aiea, trying to hide in a stolen car.
The pair took off, and in the process of trying to escape police, they hit numerous cars, were shot at by police, hijacked a second vehicle and nearly circled the island before getting caught.
Morales was arrested first in Punaluu. Molina was later arrested in Waipahu.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
For a third day today, rescue personnel will search for a swimmer missing off Waipio Beach on the Big Island.
Search resumes today for missing swimmerThe man, in his 20s or 30s, was last seen Saturday in 8- to 10-foot surf.
Fire crews on land and in the air searched for the man from sunrise to sunset yesterday. The search stretched from Polulu Valley to Paauilo along the shoreline and also went two miles out to sea.
The search was expected to resume at first light this morning.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers
