Newswatch
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Star-Bulletin staff and wire
EASTER SEALS' NEW WHEELS
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Rescued Navy men to take a few days off
Two off-duty Navy men who were rescued by the Coast Guard and a boater off the Waianae Coast on Sunday were identified as Petty Officer 2nd Class Gary Chavez, 28, and Petty Officer 1st Class Martin Lane Mantz, 36.Both men treaded water in their life jackets for about 20 hours after their 21-foot boat sunk Saturday afternoon.
The men were expected to arrive at a harbor at Hickam Air Force Base later that day after sailing to the Waianae Coast.
Chavez was rescued by the Coast Guard nine miles southwest of Pokai Bay Sunday morning, while Mantz was rescued shortly afterward by a boater in a vessel named Nani G., about four miles south of Pokai Bay.
Chavez and Mantz are instructors at the Center for Naval Engineering Learning Site at Pearl Harbor.
Chavez, originally from Valpo, Ind., has been in the Navy for seven years and stationed at Pearl Harbor for the last seven months. He is a haul technician second class at the engineering center.
Mantz, originally from Center, N.D., has been in the Navy for 15 years and stationed at Pearl Harbor for the last 2 1/2 years. Mantz is a haul technician first class at the engineering center.
Both are expected to take a few days off from work, said Navy spokeswoman Agnes Tauyan.
Humpback sighting is reported off Maui
LAHAINA » The first humpback whale of the migration season has been seen in waters off West Maui, according to the nonprofit Pacific Whale Foundation.According to the foundation, Capt. Thomas Miller of Aerial Sportfishing Charters said he saw a humpback whale accompanied by a dolphin Saturday in waters six miles off Launiupoko on the southern end of Lahaina.
While most whales migrate from Alaska to Hawaii between December and May, there have been early arrivals in the past.
The foundation said last year's first sighting occurred on Oct. 21, and during 2002 the first sighting was on Nov. 3.
On the list of federal endangered species, humpback whales in the North Pacific have rebounded from a low of between 1,200 and 1,400 in the 1960s to estimates as high as 10,000.
Isle grant to help change mental care
Hawaii has received $236,958 for the first year of a program to train personnel in mental health care facilities to forgo the use of restraints and seclusion on patients.The Substance and Mental Health Services Administration will award $5.3 million in grants to several states during the next three years as an incentive to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of restraints and seclusion.
The grants will help states adopt alternative practices, and include staff training, organizational development strategies and peer review.
The Hawaii program is expected to receive $237,000 in each of the two remaining funding years, bringing the three-year total to $710,958.
[Taking Notice]
» Doctoral English student Ku'ualoha Ho'omanawanui of Kauai, now at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was one of 35 in the nation to receive the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship this year. She received $21,000 for her research and analysis of literature about the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, and on publishing and translation during 19th-century Hawaii.» The Salvation Army has selected Jennie Onitsuka for its first-time Territorial Youth Service Award in the western territory. She is a graduate of Mililani High School and has been volunteering with the Salvation Army since she was 7.
» Kapalua Maui Charities Inc. has awarded $21,000 to 24 community programs with funds raised during the 2004 Mercedes Championships. The charity organization hosts the PGA tour's season-opening event. The grants went to senior and family services, educational programs, historic restoration, youth activities, environmental programs and civic organizations.
» Valley of Rainbows (Making Dreams Come True) has received $48,900 in grants to continue its mission of assisting youth in West Oahu. Contributors include the Office of Hawaiian Affairs ($25,000), National Football League Charities ($10,000), Hawaii Community Foundation ($7,400), ABC Stores Inc. ($5,000), and American Savings Bank ($1,500).
The funds will be used to coordinate a Youth Leadership Conference in January and provide assistance to prepare 200 students from Waianae and Nanakuli high schools to enter college.
» The Farrington Chapter of the Family Careers and Community Leaders of America was awarded $2,500 from the First Hawaiian Foundation, the charitable arm of First Hawaiian Bank. The money was used to assist students attending the FCCLA National Leadership Meeting in Chicago last summer.
By Star-Bulletin staff
WAIKIKI
Man who allegedly took safe survives fall
A 33-year-old Waikiki man who allegedly broke into a storage room and stole a safe survived a five-story fall at a vacant Waikiki hotel early Sunday, police said.A security guard checked the rooms on the fifth floor of the Ohana Edgewater at 2168 Kalia Road after hearing banging sounds.
He told police he saw a man jumping from balcony to balcony. When the suspect tried to drop to a lower floor, he fell, hitting a ledge that broke his fall before he hit the ground. The man, who was arrested for second-degree burglary, was hospitalized with major injuries.
Police said a safe and money were missing from a storage room.
HONOLULU
Woman arrested after attack in apartment
Police arrested a 38-year-old downtown woman who allegedly pushed her way into a man's apartment, punched him and threatened him with a hammer Sunday morning.Police said the woman knocked on the man's Pauahi Street apartment door at 5 a.m. and forced her way in.
Police said she hit him with her fist, then pulled out a hammer and threatened to kill him. Police said she accused the victim of paying her girlfriend's bills.
The man fled and informed building security. Police arrived and arrested the suspect for first-degree burglary and first-degree terroristic threatening.
Honolulu Police Department Crimestoppers