4 Kaneohe Marines hurt in Hummer

Four Marines were critically injured yesterday morning in a vehicle accident involving a Marine Hummer at the Kaneohe Marine base.

Police said the accident occurred at 7:43 a.m. as the vehicle exited the main gate of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, traveling mauka on the H-3 freeway.

The Hummer was traveling in a military convoy and was transporting several Marines when the accident occurred.

Four Marines were thrown from the vehicle and taken in critical condition to the Queen's Medical Center.

Marine Corps police are investigating the accident since it occurred on Marine Corps property, Honolulu police said.

Accused bank robber left trail

A man charged with robbing or attempting to rob three banks in two days left his cellular telephone at one bank and was wanted for cashing a forged check at another bank, federal law enforcement officials said.

Honolulu police arrested Ronald Manning on Feb. 18 for robbing First Hawaiian Bank's Pearl City branch, attempting to rob First Hawaiian's Moanalua branch and robbing American Savings Bank's Kalihi branch during the previous two days.

Federal authorities said Manning handed a teller at the Pearl City branch of First Hawaiian a demand note Feb. 16, told the teller he had a gun and fled with $1,200 cash. The teller recognized Manning as the same person who cashed a forged check about a week and a half earlier.

The following day, federal authorities said Manning approached a teller at First Hawaiian's Moanalua branch, put a cell phone on the counter and handed the teller a demand note and an envelope. When the teller asked Manning to speak up, Manning fled with the demand note and envelope but left the phone.

Later that day, federal authorities said Manning approached a teller at American Saving's Kalihi branch, wrote on an envelope instructions to give him money and handed the envelope to the teller. Manning left with $1,050.

Manning confessed to the robberies after police arrested him in Waipahu, officials said.

Mayor, councilman talk rail in D.C.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann and City Council Chairman Todd Apo were in Washington, D.C., yesterday to discuss the city's $5.5 billion rail transit project with federal transportation officials.

Hannemann issued a news release saying the meeting with Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff was productive, focusing on the project's final environmental impact statement. “;We discussed the status of the FEIS, and we were assured by Administrator Rogoff of the FTA's commitment for expeditious processing of our rail transit project,”; Hannemann said.

The FTA has included $55 million in President Barack Obama's budget for the project, with a total of $1.55 billion promised from the federal agency.