Injured man's status checked

The state is looking into whether a man in his 30s who was critically injured when scaffolding fell on him Thursday in Waipahu was working as an employee at the time.

“;We're trying to determine whether or not we have jurisdiction,”; said Darwin Ching, director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Ching said to have jurisdiction, the state must determine that the man was an employee and not just a friend or volunteer.

A state investigator went to the scene, but it could take months for the investigation to be finished.

The man was taken to the hospital in critical condition after the accident about 7:30 a.m. at 94-134 Waipio Point Access Road.

Authorities said the man was on the scaffolding about 10 feet above ground when it collapsed.

The state did not have an update on the man's condition.

'Five-O' show rare coin pulls $3.7M

A rare coin, featured in a “;Hawaii Five-0”; episode titled “;The $100,000 Nickel,”; sold at an Orlando, Fla., auction Thursday for more than $3.7 million, the auctioneer reported.

Only five 1913 Liberty Head nickels are known to exist. The coin sold Thursday, called the Olsen specimen, is considered the most famous of the five because of its starring role in the “;Hawaii Five-0”; episode that originally aired in 1973.

In a description of the coin, Heritage Auction Galleries said the original coin was seen only in close-ups. For other scenes, the coin had a “;stunt double.”;

In the episode, Victor Buono played a thief who used a slight-of-hand trick to steal the 1913 nickel from a coin auction at the Ilikai Hotel. The thief drops the coin into a vending machine, but the money from the machine is collected before he can retrieve it.

The Olsen specimen is also well known because of its previous owners, who included Egypt's King Farouk and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.

Ala Moana Boulevard work starting

A sewage line construction project is expected to disrupt traffic from the evening to early-morning hours along a section of Ala Moana Boulevard from Atkinson Drive to just Ewa of Piikoi Street starting tomorrow.

City officials hope to minimize the inconvenience for most motorists by authorizing work away from the daylight rush-hour periods, city environmental services spokesman Marcus Owens said.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said his administration was fulfilling its promise to repair “;our long-neglected”; sewer system with these major capital investments.

Owens said the old lines were corroded from underground salt water.

The work is to take about 12 months and includes removing and installing nearly a half-mile of sewage pipes under the left lane in the Ewa-bound direction from Atkinson Drive to the Nauru Tower.

The city is paying about $8.9 million for the Ala Moana Boulevard Sewer Reconstruction project, and the state about $821,000 to resurface the road, Owens said.

Pohakuloa bird hunting areas open

Certain approved sections of the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island are open today and tomorrow for bird hunting.

Hunters must check in and out at the Department of Army police post across the PTA main gate. Check-in begins at 5 a.m. Check-out closes at 7 p.m.

Army officials said they suspended hunting at Pohakuloa last month after a recent act of vandalism, theft and destruction of government property. Their investigation is continuing.

People can call the PTA Hunters' Hotline at (808) 969-3474 for hunting guidelines and updates on the hunting suspension.

Immigration office raided in Samoa

Law enforcement agents in American Samoa have raided the U.S. territory's Office of Immigration seeking evidence of human trafficking in a case that could involve victims from China, the Philippines and South Korea, authorities said.

The agency is suspected of helping to illegally bring Asians into the South Pacific territory through Samoa, Lt. John Cendrowski of the Office of Territorial and International Criminal Intelli- gence and Drug Enforcement said in a search warrant that was executed Thursday.

It's possible that hundreds of victims were brought to American Samoa from last May to Dec. 15, Cendrowski said. Many were women apparently being used by a prostitution ring that is plaguing the South Pacific, while the men found work in warehouses, restaurants and stores, he said.

One man from China told investigators he paid $20,000 to get to American Samoa via Samoa, Cendrowski said.

After arriving, the migrants were ordered to pay additional fees for their plane trips, ID cards and housing, Cendrowski said.

No charges have been filed in the case, but any defendant could be prosecuted in territorial court. The case could also go before federal court in Hawaii if any defendant is alleged to have violated federal law.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Kauai wants dam payout to be public

LIHUE » Kauai County has asked Circuit Court to reveal the county's portion of a global settlement of lawsuits filed in the wake of the deadly 2006 Ka Loko dam break.

County Attorney Alfred Castillo said Thursday that the request was made in the interest of public disclosure.

Judge Kathleen Watanabe has already granted a state request to unseal its portion of the confidential settlement that was reached in October.

The lawsuits were filed by the families of the seven people who were killed and by property owners who suffered damage when the dam failed.

The state, the county and other landowners, including James Pflueger, were named as defendants.

The 83-year-old Pflueger is awaiting trial on seven counts of manslaughter and one count of reckless endangering.