C&C wins use of water for Lanai links

LANAI CITY » Castle & Cooke Resorts can continue using brackish water drawn from Lanai's high-level aquifer to irrigate the Challenge at Manele golf course.

Lanai environmentalists were disappointed by the decision issued Friday by the state Land Use Commission.

But supporters of Castle & Cooke say Lanai's struggling economy needs the golf course to remain viable in order to preserve jobs.

The water dispute tracks back to the Land Use Commission's approval of the Manele project district in 1991, and has included the state Supreme Court.

Commissioners voted unanimously Friday to adopt a proposal by Castle & Cooke to define nonpotable water according to the amount of chlorides it contained. The definition allows the company to continue using its brackish wells.

State tax revenues fell in late 2009

Revenues from Hawaii's excise and income taxes declined during the last half of 2009, compared with the same period in 2008.

A report from the state Department of Taxation yesterday said receipts from Hawaii's general excise and use taxes from July through December dropped 9.7 percent, compared with the same period in 2008. The agency says that was a reflection of continued economic weakness.

Individual income tax revenues decreased by 9.3 percent compared with the last half of 2008. But transient accommodation tax collections rose 1.5 percent. Those taxes are primarily paid by tourists and other visitors to the islands.

In all, state general fund revenues were down 8.3 percent during the last half of 2009, compared with the same period in 2008.

Accused passenger wanted 'a laugh'

PORTLAND, Ore. » An Oregon man who FBI agents say was angling for frequent-flier miles has made his first court appearance on a charge of interfering with a Hawaiian Airlines crew by filling out a comment card that talked about crashing into the ocean.

Federal authorities charged 56-year-old Joseph Hedlund Johnson of Salem on Friday after the jetliner turned back in midflight Wednesday to return to Portland—accompanied by two F-15 military jets.

The pilot said he was alarmed because Johnson wanted to be near his carry-on luggage and filled out a comment card that wondered “;what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight,”; an FBI affidavit said. Johnson told an agent the card was intended as a joke and, because it was sealed, was not to be read during the flight.

“;He told me that he thought the card was going to be taken back to an office somewhere, opened, and everyone in the room would 'get a laugh' from it, and that perhaps he'd even get some frequent flyer miles out of it,”; FBI agent Michael Torphy wrote in an affidavit.

Authorities said they found no link between Johnson and terrorists, nor any dangerous devices on him or in his luggage. Johnson did not make a plea yesterday and is due back in court next week.

Public records show Johnson has a record of assault and theft convictions dating to 1995. The comment card also contained references to the 1960s TV sitcom “;Gilligan's Island,”; about a group of castaways on an island in the Pacific.

Reproduced in the affidavit, the card reads, “;I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet, landing in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet, end up on someplace like Gilligan's Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters. “;