Lahaina Halloween goes smoothly

LAHAINA » Maui police say fewer people showed up at Lahaina's annual Halloween party this year after officials sought to tone it down.

Police were out in full force, keeping revelers off a main street and making sure vehicle traffic kept flowing.

The Maui County Cultural Resources Commission denied permits last summer for many events previously held at the Halloween party because the festivities were deemed to be culturally insensitive to the town that was once the seat of the Hawaiian monarchy.

Several residents complained that public drunkenness, lewd behavior and risque costumes insult the legacy of the historic town.

Some people still dressed up for the Lahaina celebrations, but events such as a costume contest, outdoor entertainment stages and craft booths were missing.

Satellite City Hall to reopen

The Fort Street Satellite City Hall will reopen at 8 a.m. tomorrow after emergency roof repair is completed.

The office at 1000 Fort St. was closed Oct. 2 and was originally slated to reopen last week.

Alert system to be tested

The monthly siren test and emergency alert system will be conducted statewide at 11:45 a.m. tomorrow.

The siren test is a 45-second steady tone and is used to alert the public of any emergency that could pose a threat to life and property. The emergency alert system is used to alert the public of natural and technological disasters and terroristic threats and acts.

The siren tests and the emergency alert system are conducted simultaneously on the first working day of the month.

Palin's ties to isle families traced

KAILUA-KONA » A Big Island couple who founded a genealogy service company has tracked GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's family ties to Hawaii and to actor Alec Baldwin.

Bruce and Kristine Harrison founded the Family Forest Project in 1995, and since have mapped the ancestral histories of thousands of political leaders, celebrities and historical figures, as well as everyday people.

“;While watching Sarah Palin and Alec Baldwin talking together on 'Saturday Night Live,' I couldn't help wondering if they had any idea they are related to each other,”; Harrison said.

He said Palin and Baldwin are “;fairly distant cousins”; because their first ancestral connection is many generations back.

Harrison has connected Palin's family to several prominent Hawaii families, including the Cooke family of Bank of Hawaii, the Waterhouse and Alexander families of Alexander & Baldwin, the Atherton family of Atherton Foundation and the Monty Richards family of Kahua Ranch.

Earlier, Harrison claimed he found links between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and previous presidents, including George Washington, James Madison, Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter.

Harrison said his ancestry research program now has enough data to map generation-by-generation ancestral pathways to the ancestors of up to 2 billion people.