Ahualoa man facing more charges Ahualoa man facing more charges ADVERTISING Police filed additional charges against an Ahualoa man who was arrested Wednesday morning on warrants after police received an anonymous tip about his whereabouts. Adrien Haena Kalani, 49, was
Ahualoa man facing more charges
Police filed additional charges against an Ahualoa man who was arrested Wednesday morning on warrants after police received an anonymous tip about his whereabouts.
Adrien Haena Kalani, 49, was charged with unsworn falsification for providing a false identity to a police officer during a traffic stop in Honokaa Aug. 9.
Thursday afternoon, he was charged with unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle in connection with a 1991 Toyota pickup truck that was taken from a home in Waimea on Sept. 19.
Kalani’s bail was set at $10,500. He was being held in the police cellblock pending his initial court appearance Friday on the unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle charge.
Missing Hilo man
found in Kailua-Kona
Police have located Richard Gomez, 48, of Hilo, who was reported missing after entering the water in a rowboat Sept. 20.
He was found in good health Thursday in Kailua-Kona.
Kona man facing drug, firearms charges
A Kona man is in custody on more than a half million dollars bail after being found in possession of methamphetamine and a loaded gun.
On Wednesday, Area II Vice officers served a search warrant on a car off Palani Road in Kailua-Kona. The vehicle was occupied by Danny Campogan, 36, of Kailua-Kona and a 27-year-old woman who has no permanent address. Police recovered 15.7 grams of a crystalline substance packaged in amounts consistent with meth distribution, a loaded handgun and several rounds of unspent ammunition.
Campogan and the woman were arrested and taken to the Kona police cellblock while detectives continued the investigation.
Thursday, police released the woman from custody pending further investigation. Campogan was charged with promoting a dangerous drug, meth trafficking, drug paraphernalia and 18 firearms related offenses, including being a felon in possession of a firearm. His bail was set at $593,000. He remained at the cellblock until his initial court appearance on Friday.
Website allows
citizens to monitor inmates’ status
The Hawaii Police Department has added a link to its website that allows citizens to monitor the status of Hawaii inmates in jail or prison.
The Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification system is powered by the nationwide Victim Information and Notification Everyday system. It offers victims and concerned citizens free, anonymous and confidential access to timely information and notification on the custody and parole status of offenders under the jurisdiction of the State of Hawaii Department of Public Safety.
This service does not apply to inmates in federal prison or suspects being held at a police cellblock before going through the court system.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons offers its own website, bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp, to locate inmates incarcerated in federal prisons.
Interested individuals at the state site can look up an incarcerated offender’s status online or sign up to receive phone, email or text messages when that offender’s status changes. This service is particularly valuable to crime victims who want advance notice when their offender will be released from prison or up for a parole hearing.
The link can be found on the police department’s website on the Related Links page. It can also be accessed by going to vinelink.com and then clicking on the Hawaii portion of the map.
Man sentenced
to 9 months in
Kauai copper theft
LIHUE, Kauai — A Lihue man convicted of stealing copper from an old Kauai sugar mill has been sentenced to nine months in jail.
Shawn Kamaka Cremer will serve four years of probation with Hawaii Opportunity Probation with Enforcement. The Garden Island reports the program is a more strongly supervised probation for high-risk offenders.
Cremer pleaded no contest June 24 to felony theft of copper.
Deputy county prosecutor Rebecca Vogt said Cremer was arrested on March 25 and charged with counts stemming from the theft of copper Feb. 17 from the old Kekaha sugar mill site.
She says more than 150 pounds of copper were found in his vehicle.
Defense attorney Michael Soong says Cremer committed crimes to support a dependency to methamphetamine and that he’s trying to enter drug rehabilitation.
Power rates increase throughout Hawaii
HONOLULU — Hawaii residents are paying more for electricity this month.
Residential rates rose on Oahu increased in October and the increase was tied to a higher cost of fuel and power purchased from independent producers, according to Hawaiian Electric Co.
Rates jumped on other islands also, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
A household on Oahu using 600 kilowatt hours of electricity paid in $208.32 in October, up $5.26 from September, according to Hawaiian Electric. The newer rate is 33.2 cents a kilowatt hour.
Low-sulfur fuel oil makes up more than 50 percent of a customer’s bill, according to the utility.
Electricity in Hawaii costs nearly three times the national average.
Hawaii residents in July paid an average of 36.6 cents a kilowatt hour, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The national average is 12.6 cents per a kilowatt hour.
Washington state, with power largely produced by hydropower, had the lowest rate at 8.9 cents per kilowatt hour.
In Hawaii, rates are highest on Kauai. Homeowners paid 42.3 cents per kilowatt hour in September and 42.9 cents in October.
On Hawaii Island, the rate increased from 40.4 cents to 41.4 cents.
Maui Electric Co. increased rates from 36.3 cents to 37.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
The high rates have led to customers using solar photovoltaic systems. Hawaii electrical utilities last year led the nation in solar energy penetration, according to a Solar Electric Power Association report. Maui Electric Co. had 5.4 percent of its customer base owning or leasing a photovoltaic solar system. Hawaiian Electric was second at 5.2 percent.
University of Hawaii mulls construction moratorium
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii’s board is considering freezing construction to give the school an opportunity to address a half-billion dollar repair and maintenance backlog.
Board of Regents member Benjamin Kudo proposed the moratorium on Thursday.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports he’s concerned that spending too much on new projects is affecting the school’s ability to take care of the rest of its buildings.
Repair and maintenance needs across the 10-campus system total $487 million. More than 80 percent is on the flagship Manoa campus, many of them dating from the 1990s.
In recent years the school has opened a $120 million cancer research center in Kakaako and has been building a $43 million information technology center in Manoa.
A few more projects are in the design phase: a College of Pharmacy building at the Hilo campus budgeted at $28 million, an administration building for the new West Oahu campus expected to cost $19 million and $32 million Culinary Institute of the Pacific at Kapiolani Community College.
“All new buildings, all new proposals, are worthy, and it’s difficult for us to say no, but at some point we have to delay or hold off and slow down so that we have a chance to catch up,” Kudo said.
Interim UH President David Lassner called the word “moratorium” scary but said the university agrees the backlog needs to be addressed.
Lassner cited concerns about other campuses potentially suffering when the bulk of the repairs are needed in Manoa. Lassner hopes decisions will be made in the best interest of individual campus if a moratorium is put in place.
Regent Barry Mizuno volunteered to vet the proposal at a public meeting of the Planning and Facilities Committee.
Kudo said he’d like to have the full board make a decision at the regents’ Nov. 21 meeting to be held at the Maui College campus.
By local and wire sources
