Shark sighting prompts warning

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources posted warning signs off Lanikai Beach after a man reported seeing a shark about 8 to 10 feet long yesterday morning.

The beach remained open, but the fire department helicopter and lifeguards on personal watercraft searched the area between Kaneohe Bay and Bellows Beach.

No sharks were seen, said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Earl Kealoha.

A man on a Boston Whaler reported seeing the shark at about 8 a.m. near the Mokulua Islands, he said.
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Bag-ban veto looks override-proof

HILO » A measure that sought to ban plastic shopping bags on the Big Island lacks enough votes on the County Council to override a veto.

Acting Mayor Dixie Kaetsu vetoed the plastic bag ban, and some members of the County Council planned to try to force the measure into law.

But it appears the veto override attempt can muster only four votes, short of the six favorable votes needed.

The measure was recently approved on a 5-3 vote before the veto.

Councilmembers who supported the ban say plastic bags cause environmental problems, but Kaetsu was concerned it would have a negative effect on nonprofit groups and school organizations that regularly use plastic bags.

$2.5M grant helps vets cemetery

The Big Island's West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Kailua-Kona will receive a nearly $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for grave sites, columbaria, a storage facility and a fenced service yard, a road, landscaping, a memorial walk, an assembly area and a committal shelter.

The VA said the grant will pay for the development of 288 in-ground cremation burial sites and 192 columbaria niches at the 62-acre cemetery, which will provide service for 7,000 veterans on the Big Island.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the money will honor “;veterans who have served us honorably deserve an honorable burial, and a resting place that memorializes their service.”;

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a World War II combat veteran, added: “;I am pleased to have helped secure this grant. ... All of our veterans deserve a final resting place that properly respects their service and where they can be long remembered.”;