HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Warning issued for Onomea Bay
Advertiser Staff
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources yesterday warned the public to stay out of the ocean near Onomea Bay north of Hilo after receiving a report that about 4,000 pounds of fish from the wrecked Seven Stars fishing boat may be entering the water and therefore likely to attract large predators.
"The presence of dead fish would continue to attract sharks to the area for the next several days," DLNR chairman Peter Young said. "We strongly urge the public to refrain from entering the water at Onomea Bay and surrounding areas until we have determined that sharks are no longer in the area."
The Seven Stars, a 69-foot commercial fishing boat, lost power and ran aground about 7 miles north of Hilo shortly before 5 a.m. Friday.
KA'U CRASH VICTIM WAS WOMAN, 24
Hawai'i County police have identified the person killed in a two-car crash in Ka'u as Rodalyn G. Abellera, 24, of Pahala.
Police said Abellera was driving a 2000 Honda south on Hawai'i Belt Road near the 60-mile marker and tried to pass a vehicle.
Abellera saw an oncoming car and returned to her lane. But she lost control of her car, crossed the center line and hit an oncoming Honda sedan.
Abellera was pronounced dead at 1:15 p.m. at Kona Community Hospital. The driver of the other car, a 34-year-old Na'alehu man, suffered minor injuries.
IWILEI
NONE INJURED IN INTENTIONAL FIRE
Honolulu firefighters quickly extinguished an intentionally set fire yesterday in an Iwilei apartment.
No one was injured in the 6:33 a.m. fire at 607 N. King St., said Capt. Kenison Tejada, Fire Department spokesman.
The small fire was in a fourth-floor apartment of a four-story walk-up. Tejada said firefighters discovered that it had been intentionally set.
FIRE DAMAGES 3 COMPANY TRUCKS
Police were investigating the cause of a fire Sunday that damaged a new dump truck and a new tanker truck at BEI Hawaii Environmental Services at 311 Pacific St.
An older truck also was damaged. The new trucks were valued at more than $100,000 each, police said. The total damage from the 8:15 p.m. fire was estimated at $162,000.
HONOLULU
DEAD MAN FOUND FLOATING IN HARBOR
Officials last night were seeking the identity of a middle-aged man whose body was found floating off Pier 21 in Honolulu Harbor yesterday morning, the city medical examiner's office said.
Two harbor pilots found the body floating in the water shortly after 7 a.m. Police were notified and the body was taken to the medical examiner's office, where an autopsy was to be performed.
MAYOR TO STUDY RAIL IN PHILIPPINES
Mayor Mufi Hannemann's quest for a mass transit system on O'ahu is taking him to the Philippines.
Hannemann said he is scheduled to travel to the Philippines on Nov. 26 to promote Honolulu and study a light rail transit system in Manila. The mayor recently returned from Japan, where he also studied that country's rail lines.
Hannemann has said construction on a new transit system on O'ahu — possibly a rail line connecting West O'ahu and downtown — could begin as early as 2009.
The goal of the five-day trip is to strengthen cultural and economic ties, Hannemann said.
Hannemann will meet with Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Manila Mayor Jose "Lito" Atienza Jr. and business leaders before returning home on Dec. 1.
All 20 Honolulu officials making the trip, including council members Nestor Garcia and Romy Cachola, will pay their own way, Hannemann said.
KALAKAUA RELICS GO ON CITY DISPLAY
Personal mementoes of King David Kalakaua will be on display beginning tomorrow in the reception area of the mayor's office at Honolulu Hale, city officials said.
The display of historical treasures, which will run for seven weeks, will feature items loaned to the city by the Free and Accepted Masons of Hawai'i and the Lodge Le Progress de l'Oceanie. Chartered in 1843, the Hawai'i Masonic lodge was the first west of the Rocky Mountains.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann and members of the lodge will mark the occasion tomorrow with a 9 a.m. ceremony at King Kalakaua Park, at Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues in Waikiki.
PEARL HARBOR
MIGHTY MO CLOSED TOMORROW
The Battleship Missouri Memorial will be closed to visitors tomorrow while the ship is outfitted with Desert Storm-era Harpoon missile canisters.
The four missile launch canisters were donated by the Boeing Co.
The memorial will re-open Thursday.
The memorial is normally open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular admission is $16 for adults and $8 for children ages 4-12. Military and kama'aina rates are $10 for adults and $5 for children. For more information, call 973-2494 or visit www.ussmissouri.org.
KAILUA
POLICE SAY SON BEAT MOTHER
Police were investigating possible second-degree assault charges against a 48-year-old man after his mother was beaten Saturday morning.
The man and his mother, 79, were at the Kailua home they share when the victim began to "express herself" about 7:30 a.m., police said. She was upset that her son had loaned her car to his girlfriend, police said.
The man hit his mother in the face several times, fracturing her jaw and breaking her nose, police said.
MANOA
ACUPUNCTURE TALK ON SATURDAY
The Hawai'i Cancer Lecture Series will present a workshop on the role of acupuncture in health and healing Saturday at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.
The workshop will be from 3 to 5 p.m. at Spalding Auditorium. Admission is free. Dr. Gary Deng from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Boston will lead the workshop.
For more information on the Hawai'i Cancer Lecture Series and directions to the auditorium, visit www.turningpointcancercenter.com or call 941-8253.
