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Newswatch
Star-Bulletin staff and wire
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Legal Aid Society extending free help
The Legal Aid Society of Hawaii is extending its free legal services starting today, opening its offices daily and providing help on issues beyond family law in its Courthouse Assistance Project.
The office, open from 8 a.m. to noon, is on the second floor of the Circuit Court in a room adjacent to Family Court Management Services. The legal staff will provide help ranging from counsel to advice on issues such as housing referral, landlord-tenant disputes, Social Security, public benefits and consumer and debt issues.
Legal Aid attorneys can also help draft simple motions, answers and prepare exhibit lists.
Attorneys will continue to provide help on Family Court issues, a pilot program created in 2000 for low-income people with divorce, custody, child support and alimony matters.
Legal Aid will also expand its Family Court project, where attorneys talk to both parties, judges and bailiffs to see if they can reach a settlement before their hearing. If they cannot, the attorneys accompany them to hearings as observers. They also help draft any necessary orders and child support worksheets after the hearing.
For more information on this project, contact the Legal Aid intake hot line at 536-4302.
UH names first winner of planning award
Jim Bell of Belt Collins recently received the first "Planner Who Has Made a Difference" award from the University of Hawaii-Manoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
Department Chairman Karl Kim said Bell "has had a major impact on land use and development in Hawaii and has helped to set a standard of excellence wherever he has worked."
Bell, a landscape architect, joined Belt Collins in 1967 and eventually became the firm's chief planner, president and chairman, overseeing expansion into offices throughout the Asia and Pacific region.
Under his leadership the firm has won more than 100 awards for projects and plans from the American Planning Association, American Society of Land Architects, Urban Land Institute and other organizations.
Bell is a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and American Society of Landscape Architects.
The "Planner Who Has Made a Difference" Award was established to recognize outstanding contributions and leadership planning in Hawaii.
Taking Notice
» State Rep.
Kirk Caldwell (D, Manoa-Manoa Valley-University) and
Christine Lau have been elected to the board of directors of the Friends of the John A. Burns Medical School.
Lau, who was co-chairwoman of the 2004 Punahou Carnival, and her husband, Bertram, operate the firm Island Veterinary Care. Their daughter, Briana, is a University of Hawaii medical student.
Caldwell, a state representative since 2002, is a private attorney and a 1984 graduate of the UH law school.
The Friends of the Medical School is a nonprofit volunteer group headed by attorney Beadie Dawson that organizes activities to support the school's educational and research mission.
» Darlena Chadwick has been named vice president of patient care, oncology, women's health and professional services at the Queen's Medical Center.
Before joining Queen's, Chadwick was executive director of Oncology Service Line from 2003 to 2005 at Hawaii Pacific Health. From 1999 to 2003, she was at Kuakini Health System, holding positions as an oncology nurse, nursing supervisor, manager of endoscopy and managing director of diagnostic and treatment services.
ASIA
7.1-magnitude quake strikes near Fiji
SUVA, Fiji » A powerful earthquake struck deep under the South Pacific near Fiji yesterday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it did not expect the quake to trigger a damaging Pacific-wide tsunami.
The 7.1-magnitude temblor hit at 12:13 p.m. about 60 miles north-northeast of the remote Fijian island of Ndoi.
Lasarusa Veutibau, a seismologist at Fiji's Mines and Resources Department, said the quake was too deep to have been felt anywhere in the Fiji islands.
Police, Fire, Courts
By Star-Bulletin staff
WAIKIKI
Alleged rifle threats result in 5 arrests
Police arrested five men after they allegedly threatened others with three assault rifles in a Waikiki parking structure at about 3:40 a.m. Sunday.
A 24-year-old man filed a complaint against the men, ages 21 to 24, who allegedly challenged other cars that were stopped behind them in the structure.
Police said at least one shot was fired in the air.
Witnesses gave the car's license plate to police officers, who located the suspects in a nearby hotel.
The men were arrested for various offenses, including suspicion of first-degree terroristic threatening, reckless endangerment and possession of prohibited weapons.
HONOLULU
Unresponsive man, 18, found at mall dies
A 18-year-old man died late Sunday night after he told his parents that he was not feeling well earlier in the day.
He went to the movies with his friends but left during the show to go to the bathroom at about 10:55 p.m., police said.
About 25 minutes later, Pearlridge Mall workers found him in a bathroom stall near McDonald's and the theaters and called 911. The man was unresponsive and taken to Pali Momi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just before midnight, police said.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy today to determine the cause of death.
