Space station visible in isle skies this evening

If the weather cooperates, the International Space Station will make a spectacular 10-minute pass across Hawaii skies early this evening.

The space station will rise in the southwest at 7:14 p.m. and proceed almost straight up.

At 7:19 p.m. it will pass near the top of the sky, or zenith, a spot almost precisely occupied by Mars. Saturn will be high in the east, and Venus, the “;evening star,”; will be low in the west.

The sky will still be light, but the space station will be visible as a bright point that does not blink. It will set in the northeast at about 7:24 p.m.

The station is at an altitude of 217 miles and moves at nearly 18,000 mph, circling Earth every 80 minutes or so. Aboard are Russians Oleg Kotov, Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, Americans Timothy Creamer and Tracy Dyson, and Soichi Noguchi of Japan.

Kolekole Pass to close for military training

Kolekole Pass, which connects Schofield Barracks to the Leeward Coast through Naval Magazine-Lualualei, will be closed tomorrow and Friday for military training.

Motorists should plan alternate commutes and allow additional travel time, Army officials said.

Chinese-speaking voters sue over mail-in ballots

Two Chinese-speaking registered Hawaii voters are suing the state because they say the ballots the state is mailing out in the special election for Neil Abercrombie's old congressional seat do not include instructions in Chinese, Japanese or Ilocano.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday in federal court, names as defendants the state Office of Elections, Chief Election Officer Scott T. Nago, the state Elections Commission and commission Chairman William Marston.

The state Office of Elections will mail the ballots to registered voters in the 1st Congressional District on Friday.

Abercrombie gave up his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to run for governor.

Man gets 10 years for child enticement

A Hawaii Air National Guardsman and former karate instructor has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to get a 14-year-old girl to have sex with him.

A circuit judge sentenced Matthew Lewis to the mandatory term Monday, two months after a jury found him guilty of child enticement.

Lewis was arrested in 2008 after making contact online with someone he thought was an underage girl and arranging to meet her for sex. His contact was really an undercover police officer.

Lewis' attorney questioned the fairness of the sentence, saying his client never intended to go through with the encounter.

The prosecutor says the sentence is appropriate because Lewis exposed himself online, had online chats of a sexual nature and arranged the meeting.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Big Isle halts free pickup of e-waste

HILO » Hawaii County says it cannot afford to continue its electronic-waste program.

That means Big Island residents will have only until Friday to turn in their old TVs, computers and other e-waste for free at drop sites in Hilo and Kailua-Kona.

The county says it does not have the money to renew its $575,000 contract with Bay Side Computer Shop, which operates the drop-off sites. In the past nine months, the program has collected 260 tons of waste.

After Friday, residents will be charged to unload their e-waste at the drop-off sites. For example, it will cost $10 to get rid of a computer tower or laptop.

E-waste is not accepted at county-operated transfer stations because it poses an environmental hazard.