HECO investigates outage in Liliha, Aala

Hawaiian Electric Co. was investigating the cause of a power failure in downtown Honolulu.

Company spokesman Darren Pai said the outage affected about 1,200 customers in scattered areas that included Liliha and Aala.

Power was restored at 3 p.m. yesterday, about 2 1/2 hours after the outage, Pai said.

At 85, Inouye earns new title: grandpa

Eight-five-year-old U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye has become a grandfather for the first time.

Inouye's granddaughter, Mary Margaret “;Maggie”; Inouye, was born yesterday morning in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of Inouye's son, Ken, and his wife, Jessica.

The Democratic senator from Hawaii says he has been waiting to become a grandfather for many years. He said he is happy that Maggie is beautiful and doing well.

Maggie is named after three women in Inouye's family named Margaret and Mary, including the senator's first wife, Maggie, who died in 2006.

Scott named to lead Fort Shafter command

Col. William J. Scott will be the next commander of the 311th Theater Signal Command at Fort Shafter, replacing Brig. Gen. Alan Lynn.

Lynn has been selected to be the next commander of the Army Signal Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon in Georgia.

Scott has been coordinator of LandWarNet/Battle Command Office in the office of the deputy chief of staff for the Army.

From 1995 to 2006 the 311th was a Ready Reserve Theater Signal Command with the mission to deploy and provide command and control to signal units operating in the Pacific and on the Korean peninsula. It was converted to an active operational force in 2006.

Scott was commissioned through the Army ROTC program after graduating from the University of Utah.

He commanded the 72d Signal Battalion, 7th Signal Brigade, 5th Signal Command, from 2000-2002 in Germany. From 2005-2006, Scott led the 60th Signal Brigade in the Combined Force and Component Command in the 3rd Army in Kuwait.

Prevedouros joins GOP in run for mayor's office

University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros, who is running for Honolulu mayor, has joined the Republican Party.

Prevedouros said in a statement yesterday that he switched from being an independent on Thursday. He is a critic of the commuter rail project that is championed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

He said there are simply too many Democrats and lawyers and too few Republicans and engineers in Hawaii.

Hannemann is expected to leave his post in July to run for governor. Prevedouros is among several people who are expected to run later this year to fill the remaining two years of that term. The other potential candidates include Honolulu Managing Director Kirk Caldwell, City Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz and city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle.

Man accused in plane mishap to give apology

PORTLAND, Ore. » The U.S. government has agreed to drop a charge against an Oregon man accused of interfering with a Hawaiian Airlines jetliner crew.

The Oregonian newspaper reports that under an agreement signed yesterday by a federal magistrate, the charge will be dropped if 57-year-old Joseph H. Johnson of Salem, Wash., completes a six-month diversion program. That includes writing an apology to the airlines and his fellow passengers.

The FBI says Johnson was flying from Portland to Maui on Jan. 6 when he handed a flight attendant a comment card that asked, “;What if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight?”; The pilot became alarmed and returned the Boeing 767 to Portland.

Johnson says the card was intended as a joke.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Tiger shark takes a bite of surfboard

HANALEI, Kauai » A Kauai surfer had a close encounter with a tiger shark believed to be 14 feet long.

Jim Rowlinson was surfing Monday at the point in Hanalei Bay when the shark took a bite out of his board.

Fellow surfer Leslie McTaggart said he yelled for help because he mistakenly thought the shark had pulled Rowlinson underwater. But Rowlinson apparently dived off his board to undo the leash fastened around his ankle.

Based on the teeth marks in the board, marine biologist Terry Lilley of Save Our Seas believes the shark was 14 feet long.

Lilley suspects the shark was likely chasing a sea turtle when it mistakenly bit the surfboard.

The incident occurred near an area where surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm in a shark attack in 2003.