Manhole's sewage flows into stream

Warning signs are posted near Auwaiolimu Stream in Pacific Heights after a sewage spill Saturday.

A sewer manhole overflowed, spilling 1,750 gallons of sewage into the stream, a city news release said.

At about 8:50 a.m., grease blocked a 6-inch terra cotta pipe, sending sewage up through the manhole and into a storm drain leading to the stream, the city said.

Crews cleaned and disinfected the area. The state Department of Health posted warning signs and took water samples.

Waterways face flood inspections

Flood-risk streams in Manoa, Makiki and Palolo will be investigated this month by the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The field investigations—set to run from Friday to Jan. 22—are being conducted for a feasibility study to improve the overall quality of the Ala Wai watershed while minimizing the risk of flooding.

The investigations will include observing stream conditions and to identify potential opportunities for ecosystem restoration and flood-risk management measures. For more information, visit www.alawaiwatershed.com.

Grants will go toward job training

Public housing agencies in Hawaii will receive a total of $384,335 in federal money to provide low-income residents with job training.

The grants from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development allow the agencies to work with welfare groups, schools, businesses and other local partners to develop a comprehensive program for job training.

The city will receive $126,976 of the funds.

Students may apply for Thailand trip

Public high school students can apply for a travel scholarship to Thailand in June.

The applications for the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council's summer study tour can be downloaded from http://www.paachawaii.org and must be postmarked by March 10.

Twenty scholarships will be awarded through a program funded by the Freeman Foundation.

The students on the tour will visit a school for hill-tribe children in the north, chat with monks in Chiang Mai and live with a local family in a fishing village on Koh Yao Noi.

For more information, contact Natasha Chappel at 944-7759 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Hirono and Abercrombie back salary legislation

Hawaii's two U.S. House members have helped advance two pieces of legislation aimed at ending the discriminatory practice of paying men and women different wages for performing the same work.

U.S. Reps. Mazie Hirono and Neil Abercrombie joined most of their fellow Democrats in supporting the two bills Friday. One bill would close what critics have called loopholes that have enabled employers to evade a 1963 law requiring equal pay for equal work. The other measure would reverse a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made it more difficult to sue over past pay discrimination.

Hirono says the measures would help women in Hawaii who earn 69 cents for every dollar a man makes for the same work.