School grant to aid military families

Hawaii's public school system will get an extra $3.8 million in federal funds to help cover the cost of educating students whose parents are in the military, officials announced last week.

State Rep. K. Mark Takai (D, Newtown-Pearl City) secured the money through an obscure provision in the Federal Impact Aid law that boosts funding to school districts when military dependents are moved off base during housing renovations.

The additional funds will come on top of $43.3 million that the Hawaii Department of Education was anticipating. Over the past six years, the increase of impact aid resulting from the law's provision totals $31.7 million.

'Five-O' actor, 87, dies in Brooklyn

NEW YORK » Harry Endo, the actor who played a forensic scientist on the long-running TV show “;Hawaii Five-O,”; has died at the age of 87.

Family members say he suffered a stroke and died Friday afternoon at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

Endo played the character Che Fong on the popular show. He was one of the original cast members on the crime drama that began in 1968.

Daughter Leslie Baker says her father was born in Colorado but spent much of life in Hawaii, where he worked for a bank. While doing a commercial for the bank, he was approached to play the role of Fong. After the show ended in 1980, he played a couple of small parts on “;Magnum, P.I.”; He retired from show business in the late '80s.

Endo enlisted in the U.S. Army in late 1941, serving in Europe as a radio operator with an infantry unit. He was married for more than 60 years.

He is survived by his wife, Myrtle, daughter Leslie Baker of Brooklyn and Scott Endo of San Diego.

Isle absentee voting lags, study says

A new study says Hawaii is one of 25 states that need to improve their absentee voting process to ensure the votes of military personnel stationed overseas will be counted.

The Pew Center on the States says 16 states and the District of Columbia don't provide enough time for overseas military voters and election officials to complete each step of the absentee voting process. Pew researchers found three states are at risk of not allowing enough time.

And they say Hawaii and five other states provide enough time, but only if military personnel overseas return their completed absentee ballots by fax or e-mail. Pew says the requirement raises concerns about access to technology and the privacy and security of votes.