Police ID dead woman found near Hilo
Police ID dead woman found near Hilo
Police say the body found in Hilo over the weekend was Jodi L. Masutomi, 48, of Hilo.
She was identified through fingerprints during an autopsy conducted today. The autopsy also revealed that her injuries were consistent with a fall from a height, but a determination about her cause of death was deferred pending a toxicology report, police said.
A fisherman discovered the body along the shoreline off Hawaii Belt Road in the Wainaku area shortly before midnight Saturday.
Police have not been able to locate Masutomi’s car, a tan 1997 Toyota Camry sedan, license plate HXP413.
Police ask anyone with information about the car or anything else about this case to contact Detective Norbert Serrao at 961-2383 or nserrao@co.hawaii.hi.us.
Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous may call the islandwide Crime Stoppers number at 961-8300 and may be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000. Crime Stoppers doesn’t record calls or subscribe to caller ID. All Crime Stoppers information is kept confidential.
Isle charter schools to be honored
Several Big Island charter schools will be honored May 15 during the 2013-14 Hawaii Charter Schools Awards presented by the Hawaii Public Charter School Network.
Na Wai Ola Waters of Life Public Charter School, located in Mountain View, has been selected charter school of the year.
Kona Pacific Public Charter School, located in Kealakekua, and Ke Kula o Nawahiokalaniopuu Iki Lab Public Charter School, located in Keaau, will be honored for creating new best practices.
Leesa Foreman, a teacher at West Hawaii Explorations Academy Public Charter School in Kailua-Kona, and Jonathan Kissida, a teacher at Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science in Pahoa, will be honored with circle of teaching excellence awards.
Proposed flight training center bill deferred
A state Senate bill looking for funds for a proposed flight training center at Hilo International Airport was deferred last week.
The state House of Representatives passed SB 3092 earlier this month, but the measure did not make it out of conference committees last week.
The bill did not include a funding amount, but an earlier version of the measure asked for $450,000 for fiscal year 2014-15. Supporters of SB 3092 were hoping the Legislature would have decided a final appropriation amount and the effective date before the end of this year’s legislative session, scheduled for May 1.
Last year, $100,000 was appropriated to begin the first steps toward launching the Hilo International Flight Training Center, which would also create a Baccalaureate of Science in Aeronautical Science at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and serve Hawaii Community College students, as well.
State wants Hawaiian Electric to develop plans
HONOLULU — The state Public Utilities Commission is ordering Hawaiian Electric Co. to reduce energy costs and accommodate more renewable energy on the grid.
Commissioner Michael Champley said Tuesday Hawaiian Electric must submit its plans for carrying out the orders within four months.
The commission said the utility must address the inability some consumers have in connecting rooftop solar panels to the grid because so many of their neighbors have done so already.
Champley said the utility must accommodate more photovoltaic panels.
The commission also wants Hawaiian Electric to retire inefficient fossil fuel plants to cut costs.
The commission’s three members announced the orders together with Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
Hawaiian Electric said in a statement it welcomes the commission’s clear direction. It says it’s been working on many of the initiatives.
Jurors weigh whether ex-soldier gets death
HONOLULU — Jurors began hearing testimony to determine whether a former Hawaii-based soldier convicted of murder in his 5-year-old daughter’s killing should be sentenced to death.
The penalty phase began Tuesday for Naeem Williams in a Honolulu federal courtroom where jurors last week convicted him of murder in the 2005 beating death of his daughter, Talia
Even though Hawaii abolished capital punishment in 1957, Williams faces the death penalty because it’s a federal case. The fatal beating occurred on military property, allowing Williams to be tried in federal court.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, only seven of 59 inmates on federal death row are from states that didn’t have the death penalty at the time the sentence was imposed.
Hawaii’s last recorded execution was in 1944.
Kauai charter could become more difficult to alter
LIHUE, Kauai — A Kauai Charter Review Commission member wants to make it tougher to alter the county’s charter.
Commission Vice Chairman Jan TenBruggencate has introduced a proposal that would quadruple the number of signatures required to petition an amendment to the charter. He wants to change that number from 5 percent to 20 percent of registered voters.
The Garden Island reported the commission discussed and deferred the proposal for one month.
TenBruggencate said changing the basic organizational document of county government should be more difficult than passing a law.
Commissioner Ed Justus said he can’t imagine voters backing something that makes it harder to change their government.
Petitioning an amendment with the proper amount of signatures puts an item on the ballot for voters to consider.
Maui County’s proposed budget calls for tax cuts
WAILUKU, Maui — Maui County Council’s Budget and Finance Committee chairman is proposing to cut property tax rates by 3.1 percent in the fiscal 2015 budget.
The Maui News reported that chairman Mike White also wants to cut county overtime pay, eliminate any new county positions and keep trash collection fees flat.
White discussed his proposed budget on Monday.
White’s proposal calls for a $594 million budget. That’s $29 million lower than Mayor Alan Arakawa’s proposed budget of $623 million.
The Maui County Council approved a $559.3 million budget last year.
White told committee members that property tax rates are currently rising, so rates should be lowered as well.
He also said there are many reasons for reducing the budget, noting the county is not yet on “solid economic footing.”
Lawmakers extend time for sex abuse cases
HONOLULU — The Hawaii Legislature has approved two bills that would give victims of child sex abuse more time to file complaints and prosecutors unlimited time to file criminal charges.
House Bill 2034 would completely remove the statute of limitations for continuous sexual assault of a child or abuse in the first and second degrees.
Senate Bill 2687 would extend the deadline for civil filings to 2016.
Victims had been given a two-year window to file lawsuits in cases that had passed the statute of limitations. But that window closed last week.
A flurry of lawsuits were filed before that, including one against “X-Men” director Bryan Singer. Singer has denied the allegations.
Lawmakers vote to end police prostitution loophole
HONOLULU — Hawaii lawmakers have passed a bill that will end an unusual exemption in state law that allowed police to have sex with prostitutes.
Police still may solicit sex in the course of their investigations. But House Bill 1926 now makes sexual penetration and sadomasochistic abuse by police officers a crime.
Members of the House and the Senate passed the bill unanimously Tuesday.
Earlier in the session Honolulu police lobbied successfully to keep the exemption. The House amended the bill after police testimony, keeping the exemption.
Media coverage called attention to the change. A Senate committee responded with another amendment that removed the exemption.
Honolulu police dropped their opposition to the change. The police insist their officers do not have sex with prostitutes and would be disciplined if they did.
Stowaway’s father arrives on Oahu
HONOLULU — A Hawaii state official says the father of a 15-year-old boy who stowed away in a jetliner’s wheel well has arrived on the islands from California.
Spokeswoman Kayla Rosenfeld of the Hawaii Department of Human Services said Tuesday that Abdilahi Yusuf has arrived in Honolulu.
Rosenfeld says the department’s child welfare unit won’t disclose any information on the release of Yahya Abdi because of privacy concerns and confidentiality.
A spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in San Francisco who had been speaking for the family declined comment beyond reiterating a statement earlier this week that Yusuf wanted to see his son soon.
Abdi survived a 5½-hour flight from San Jose, Calif., to Maui after hopping an airport fence and climbing into the wheel well of a Boeing 767.
China to bring 4 ships to Hawaii naval exercises
HONOLULU — China will bring four ships to Hawaii this summer as its vessels participate in the world’s largest naval exercises for the first time.
A U.S. Third Fleet spokeswoman said Tuesday China is expected to bring the Peace Ark, a navy hospital ship, as well as an oiler, a frigate and a destroyer.
Lt. Lenaya Rotklein said the exercises will begin June 26 and last through Aug. 1.
The U.S. hosts the Rim of the Pacific exercises, which are also known as RIMPAC. They began in 1971 and are now held every other year.
Twenty-three countries are expected to participate this year, including Canada, India, Japan and South Korea.
China sent military observers to watch the drills in 1998 but has never sent ships before.
By local and wire sources