Bringing you today’s stories on issues important to Native communities.  NewsClips is a complimentary service of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.  For information and updates on our training workshops and events, please visit our Web site at: www.hawaiiancouncil.org.

 

 

 

 

April 19, 2006

 

 

KAUAI HAWAIIAN HOMELANDS

 

April 15, 2006

 

New lease on life

 

The state begins a program to give Hawaiians 6,000 land leases over five years

 

By Mark Niesse
Associated Press

 

Hawaiian Henry Kupihea hoped for 23 years that the state would someday give him property to build a home.

 

He got his wish last weekend when the state awarded 160 land leases to Hawaiians on Kauai in an effort to put the islands' native people back on the land.

 

"I was always on the waiting list, waiting to come home," Kupihea said Thursday. "It's so beautiful there. The ocean and the mountains are five minutes apart."

 

Kupihea, who is 50 percent Hawaiian, said he and many other Hawaiians need this kind of help because they would have a hard time financing a home by themselves. He looks forward to escaping $1,400 monthly rents for him and his four children.

 

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands distributed the land leases for $1 per year last Saturday, part of an effort to give out 6,000 leases in five years, more than were issued in the first 80 years of the program, which started in 1921.

 

About 1,300 residential leases have been awarded since 2003.

 

The latest are part of Kauai's largest development for native Hawaiians.

 

The leases come from 200,000 acres statewide that were set aside by Congress in 1921, said Lloyd Yonenaka, spokesman for the department.

 

"The wrongdoings to the Hawaiian people put them at a disadvantage. There is a desire by many to see that wrong made right," said Micah Kane, chairman of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

 

Any resident who is at least 50 percent Hawaiian is eligible to sign up for the lease program. The state has been trying to give out the leases more quickly, and it is offering programs to help people finance the mortgages for houses built on the land.

 

The Hawaiians who receive the leases still must pay for the house, but it could cost less than half as much after the land is already purchased, Yonenaka said.

 

"The price of a home in Hawaii is astronomical," he said. "It'll help relieve the pressure on the market for affordable homes for everyone."

 

More than 700 people, including Gov. Linda Lingle, attended the meeting last Saturday when the state announced who would receive the leases. They were allocated first to the families who had been on the waiting list for the longest amounts of time.

 

The New Home Ownership Assistance Program provides home-buyer counseling and ownership readiness training. Another program gives Hawaiians more time to raise money for the home after they have been granted the lease.

 

About 18,000 people are on the residential waiting list for Hawaiian land leases, Yonenaka said.

 

"This provides incentives for families to improve their quality of life," Kane said.

 

The Piilani Mai Ke Kai subdivision will be built in three phases on 71 acres on the coastline in Anahola in eastern Kauai.

 

Infrastructure improvements such as waterlines, roads and electricity will be paid for by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Construction on the first 80 lots is expected to begin in a few weeks, and the first homes could be completed in about a year and a half.

 

"We're very happy for those who were awarded homestead leases," said Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste. "Many of them had been waiting years for this to happen, and now their dreams of owning a home have come true."

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, April 12, 2006

 

Native Hawaiian merchants polled

 

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

The Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce this month began asking the first of 1,000 Native Hawaiian business people what practices work — and which ones don't — to see if more Hawaiians can succeed in business.

 

"We want to know some of the impediments. Is it money? Is it social? What are the issues that prevent you from doing the very best?" said Warren Asing, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Fun Factory Inc., who is also president of the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce.

 

The last, similar survey of Native Hawaiian business people was conducted in the late 1980s, said Dirk Soma, whose company, DNS Consultants, has been contracted by the chamber to conduct the survey.

 

The survey is called "Ho'owaiwai I Ka Pono, Bring Prosperity Through Righteousness" and is a joint product of the chamber and Hawai'i Maoli, a nonprofit organization established by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs.

 

Out of a possible 1,000 responses, DNS will then conduct 250 interviews "to get a pulse on Hawaiian businesses," Soma said. DNS will then gather data on how Hawaiian businesses incorporate Hawaiian cultural values into their day-to-day operations, Soma said.

 

"It is important to know what the challenges are and learn from those, so we can help future businesses," he said.

 

Asing, 59, is 75 percent Hawaiian, and believes that some Hawaiian businesses fail because they cannot reconcile their cultural values with Western business practices.

 

"We have these values that are very endearing: laulima, working together; malama, caring; ha'aha'a, humility, and being a humble race of people," Asing said. "But how does that work when you say, 'I really appreciate you, but I really need to get paid.' In the Western sense, you go to the bill collector and say, 'Go get this guy.' In the Hawaiian culture, maybe they need to structure payments differently so they can still get paid. We need to figure out the problem and figure out ways to get around it.

 

"Most true Native Hawaiians want to impart their culture in the business.

 

"Now we need to marry their cultural values with that of the Western world to get to the next point."

 

Soma hopes to finish gathering data by the end of August and produce a final report in September, to be discussed at a conference focused on helping Native Hawaiians in business.

 

Eventually, Asing hopes the lessons will be used to help Hawaiians succeed in business at a proposed business center planned for the Community Center for Native Hawaiians in Kalaeloa.

 

To participate in the survey, call Soma at 294-8639 or e-mail him at dirksoma@yahoo.com. The survey also is available through the chamber's Web site, www.nativehawaiian.cc.

 

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2006

 

Akaka Urges President to Declare Hawaii a Federal Disaster Area

 

Honolulu, HI - Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) today sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to provide federal assistance to Hawaii. This letter is in support of Governor Linda Lingle's request that a major disaster be declared in Hawaii due to the heavy rains and flooding that have plagued the State for nearly two months.

 

Last month, Senator Akaka toured Kauai with Mayor Bryan Baptiste and State Civil Defense officials to assess the damage caused by the Ka Loko Dam failure. He was also briefed on the flood damage across the State and the crisis that many Hawaii farmers now face.

 

In his letter to the President, Senator Akaka said, "Hawaii endured heavy, unrelenting rainfall from the middle of February through the beginning of April, and as a result, a dam broke, lives were lost, and farms were destroyed.

 

"The Governor's request is supported by a preliminary disaster assessment that was conducted jointly between State Civil Defense and FEMA which estimates that the damage could exceed $50 million. This is the exact situation for which federal disaster assistance was designed."

 

 

 

 

April 15, 2006

 

Inouye presses for quick road fix

 

Round Top Drive: Long-term stabilization of the hill could cost more than $20 million

 

By Craig Gima
cgima@starbulletin.com

 

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye promised at least $1 million in federal funds to reopen Round Top Drive within six months, but a permanent repair is likely to cost millions more.

 

City and state officials estimated yesterday that repairing the road and stabilizing the sliding hillside could cost an additional $17 million to $20 million.

 

Heavy rain in February and March caused tons of sandy volcanic soil above Maunalaha Road to give way, spilling onto Round Top Drive and cutting a canyonlike channel into Maunalaha Valley, burying cars and threatening homes.

 

Round Top Drive has been closed at the 2700 block since the March 31 storm because water runoff and an ongoing landslide have undermined the road.

 

City spokesman Mark Matsunaga said city crews have removed more than 100 truckloads, or about 800 tons, of soil from Round Top Drive so far, and the soil is still falling on the roadway.

 

"We must resolve this emergency here. It can't wait for a year," Inouye (D-Hawaii) said yesterday after touring the landslide area near Round Top Drive with Mayor Mufi Hannemann and state officials. "It's not a question of should we or should we not."

 

Inouye said he will also try to get Defense Department funds to help the city fix the aging sewer system in Waikiki that sent about 50 million gallons of sewage into the Ala Wai Canal and Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

 

Inouye said Fort DeRussy in Waikiki will benefit from the sewer repairs, so he will discuss with the military whether federal money can be given to the city.

 

The $1 million in federal funds will come from an emergency supplemental appropriations bill, which also includes money for the war in Iraq, Inouye said.

 

He said diverting $1 million to flood relief will mean cutting money from other Hawaii projects. Inouye declined to say what might be cut.

 

Maunalaha Road residents got a chance to speak with the senator and said they were pleased that the city and state are working together.

 

The city owns Round Top Drive, and the state owns the hillside. The Maunalaha community is a native Hawaiian settlement that goes back several generations, and residents lease their land from the state.

 

Leinaala Lopes, a kupuna who has lived in Maunalaha all her life, said they are often "stuck between the city and the state" over who is responsible for their neighborhood.

 

"They are forgetting about us down in the valley," she said, concentrating instead on the "high muckamuckas" who live in the expensive homes further up Round Top Drive.

 

Hannemann estimated a permanent repair to Round Top Drive will cost about $10 million.

 

State Adjutant General Robert Lee said the state estimates another $7 million to $10 million is needed to stabilize the hillside and prevent future landslides.

 

Deputy Civil Defense Director Ed Teixeira said he expects the work will involve removing the loose soil that could slide down, stabilizing the remaining hillside and diverting future water runoff around the area.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, April 19, 2006

 

'They were part of our 'ohana'

 

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

In an unprecedented tribute yesterday, Hawai'i opened its arms and hearts to men and women with local ties who died while serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

 

"They were part of our 'ohana," Gov. Linda Lingle said of 120 service members who died between March 2003 and late February, "and I want to let you know how deeply we appreciate what they did for us as Americans so our way of life could continue."

Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser: Bruce Asato

With the hope that those who have died will never be forgotten, Lingle said, "I hope their children would one day appreciate the sacrifices their fathers made."

 

The governor could have been speaking to toddler Monica Williams, whose mother was 6 1/2 months pregnant with her when her father, Army Sgt. Eugene Williams, was killed on March 29, 2003.

 

Unlike her 6-year-old sister, Mya, who can recall playing with her father at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Ga., there are no memories for Monica.

 

"Hopefully, she'll remember this day," said Monica's mother, Brandy Williams of Waipahu. "We miss him terribly. Remembrances are all we really have left. So, I'm grateful I'm from a state where they don't forget because I know it's important to me."

 

Sgt. Williams, a New York native who was based at Schofield, was among the recipients of the Hawai'i Medal of Honor, awarded for the first time yesterday at the state Capitol.

 

A gathering of about 200, including family and friends of 48 of the honorees, attended the ceremony, which included a Hawaiian chant, and the singing of the national anthem and "Hawai'i Pono'i," in addition to the presentation of the medals. Lawmakers created the Hawai'i Medal of Honor last year.

 

There were tears and smiles, but most importantly for those who lost loved ones, there was a feeling that their sons, daughters and husbands are not forgotten. At a private gathering on the third floor of the Capitol after the ceremony, it was evident many had formed a bond — a new 'ohana circle with Hawai'i at the center.

 

"It's very meaningful to know that he's not been forgotten," said Julius Woods, a retired Navy man from Clarksville, Tenn., of the framed medal awarded to his son, Navy Petty Officer Julian Woods, 22, who served with the 3rd Marine Division detachment from Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe Bay. Woods was killed Nov. 10, 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq.

 

"He died a hero and I know he made a difference," Woods said.

 

TEARS FLOW

 

Laverne Woods, who is currently serving in Iraq, said what Hawai'i did for her stepson will be remembered by those fighting the war. "It's very important to go out there knowing someone is thinking about you," she said.

 

After the medal ceremony, Rosa De Peralta covered her face and cried. She had come to Hawai'i from San Diego with five family members to accept the medal for her son, Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, 25, who was killed Nov. 15, 2004 in Iraq.

 

"Very meaningful, very emotional for me," Peralta said before the ceremony.

 

Her son, 15-year-old Ricardo, will remember his brother as "a cheerful Marine, doing his job."

 

Marybeth LeVan also came from the Mainland with five family members. She received the medal for her son, Cpl. Kyle Grimes, a 21-year-old who wanted to go to college and work for the FBI when he got out of the Marines.

 

Weeks before he was to leave Iraq, on Jan. 26, 2005, the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter he was flying in crashed in a sandstorm in western Iraq. Onboard were 25 fellow Marines and a sailor from Kane'ohe Bay. All were killed.

 

Grimes had a sense of humor, and no matter what the situation in Iraq, no matter how dangerous or stressful, he could crack everybody up, relatives said. Being in combat in Fallujah underscored for him the importance of family, and he wondered in a letter home if he would someday have his own.

 

Grimes wrote: "The night before the attack on Fallujah, I spent part of the night watching the bombs ... light up the skyline of the city. ... After that, I laid on my rack and wondered if this would be my last night. Then, thinking how much I had to do in life yet — like fall in love, get married, children, etc. ... it hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes became teary and I wiped them off. ... I wanted to be ... unemotional on the night before the biggest event of my life. But I guess I couldn't help it. I have never known how precious life is until now."

 

LeVan said it's healing to be with the families of the fallen Marines, and a way to keep their sons alive in memories.

 

"I miss a lot of things about Kyle — his personality is so funny," said LeVan, of Baton Rouge, La. "He and I were so close."

 

SOLDIER LOVED HAWAI'I

 

For 79-year-old Cecelia Moncure of Long Beach, Calif., it was an honor to accept the medal on behalf of her grandson, Army Pfc. Stephen Castellano of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment from Schofield who was killed Jan. 28.

 

"I think it's just tremendous Hawai'i did something like this for him," Moncure said.

 

Castellano's uncle, Richard Moncure, added: "We received beautiful letters from Hawai'i. I just wish other states would do this. Steve loved Hawai'i and loved doing what he did. All we have are memories of him and we will not forget this."

 

Melisa Jack, widow of Army Spc. Derence Jack, and her friend from childhood, Tiara Evangelista-Lieto, whose husband, Army Sgt. Wilgene Lieto, was also killed in the war, said the trip from Saipan was worthwhile.

 

"My husband deserves every honor he gets and it's an honor for me to be here," Jack said.

 

On Oct. 31, Jack, 29, and Evangelista-Lieto, 26, lost their husbands, who were assigned to Hawai'i's 29th Brigade Combat Team. The women, who have three young children between them, said it has been tough going. "How we live our lives by going on will be the celebration of their lives," Jack said.

 

Tina Witkowski and her late husband, Army Spc. Philip Witkowski, who was killed May 1, 2004, spent only two years at Schofield so she was surprised Hawai'i would honor him. It's a gesture she will never forget.

 

"I honestly cannot believe they would go through all the trouble to make him feel special," Witkowski said. "This comes at a time when it has been a while (since her husband's death) so it makes you feel like they haven't forgotten."

 

Witkowski's son, Kaleb, 5, has memories of his father but his brother Kyle, 2, does not.

 

"Every time Kaleb sees a soldier, his eyes light up so you know he's proud," said Witkowski, of Puyallup, Wash. "He's asked to keep the medal in his room."

 

BOTH LOST AN ONLY CHILD

 

Both Richard Tsue of Honolulu and Tita Derrow from Chesapeake, Va. — who returned to Hawai'i for the first time since 1989 — lost their only child.

 

Marine Sgt. Daniel Tsue, 27, a Kahuku High graduate who was an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, was killed Nov. 1, 2 1/2 months after arriving in Iraq. "In the last e-mail I got from him," his father recalled yesterday, "he told me he was going to Iraq ahead of time. He volunteered to take someone else's place and he said it's better he goes than some married guy.

 

"The medal is nothing to me. I came to pick it up for him. You're never going to forget, never want to forget, any of them."

 

Derrow's son, Army Chief Warrant Officer Ian Manuel, 23, was born at Tripler Medical Center and lived in Hawai'i at Iroquois Point for nine years. He was a medevac pilot who was transporting five soldiers for a checkup when his Black Hawk was downed by a missile on Jan. 8, 2004.

 

"My son loved his years in Hawai'i and I have good memories of him here," Derrow said. "I'm honored by what the state is doing for him. As a medevac pilot, he saved other lives."

 

Solomon Suh, the father of Pearl Harbor-based Navy Quartermaster 2nd Class (SEAL) James Suh, recently moved from Hawai'i to Northern California. His 28-year-old son, who was killed last June 28 while on a rescue mission in Afghanistan, had purchased a home in Hawai'i and had planned to settle here, relatives said yesterday.

 

"This is a wonderful tribute to him," said Patty Schafer of Honolulu, whose brother is married to Suh's sister, Claudia. "Solomon was very proud of his only son, who was also his best friend."

 

Kristi Florita-Gouveia, sister-in-law of Army Spc. Kyle Fernandez, 26, of Pearl City, wiped away tears and said: "This means a lot to all of us but it doesn't bring him back. We still miss him. He was like an older brother to me and I know he'd say to us, 'Keep going, be strong.' "

 

A MARINE'S THOUGHTS BEFORE BATTLE

Here are excerpts from a letter written on Dec. 23, 2004, by Cpl. Kyle Grimes to his mother, Marybeth LeVan. Yesterday, LeVan received the Hawai'i Medal of Honor for her son, who died in Iraq on Jan. 26, 2005. In the letter, the 21-year-old Kane'ohe Bay Marine recounts his thoughts on the eve of the November 2004 U.S. air and ground assault on Fallujah, which was a major stronghold of insurgents, including al-Qaida in Iraq. Fallujah is now one of the most intensely guarded cities in the nation. The full letter can be seen at honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

Staff writer William Cole contributed to this report.

 

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

April 13, 2006

 

Native Hawaiian organization receives funds from DHHL and NAHASDA

 

Honolulu, HI – Nānākuli Housing Corporation (NHC), a Native Hawaiian non-profit organization received funds today from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA). The funds granted – nearly $ 155,000 – will be utilized to continue NHC’s sterling record of providing homeownership and financial literacy workshops for native Hawaiians on DHHL’s waitlist.

 

Nānākuli Housing Corporation began in 1989 to provide housing initiatives to native Hawaiians in the underserved community of Nānākuli. Today, NHC’s innovative work to advance native Hawaiians is island-wide and offers various initiatives and programs:

 

 

As a result of the generous grants, NHC will now be taking appointments to schedule FREE workshops on Homeownership and Financial Literacy. Workshops will be held during the months of April through July of 2006, the sessions will cover topics such as ways to improve credit, qualifying for a mortgage, keeping and maintaining your home and various loan products.

 

John Kaho‘ohanohano, NHC Board Chairman elated with the benevolent grants said, “We are extremely grateful to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and Micah Kane. This grant will enable us to continue to provide the necessary education and training to the native Hawaiian community in accordance with our vision.”

 

NHC’s vision is that every native Hawaiian family will have a home. The mission is that every native Hawaiian family, regardless of their income status, will build their personal assets through home ownership.

 

To schedule attendance for a session call 808.842.0770.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Wednesday, April 19, 2006

 

'Iolani Palace in financial straits

 

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

The longtime caretakers of 'Iolani Palace — the most enduring reminder of the Hawaiian monarchy and a symbol for the Native Hawaiian movement — are running into serious financial difficulties and are looking to the state, and even Abigail Kawananakoa, for help.

 

The Friends of 'Iolani Palace, established in 1966 by the late Lili'uokalani Kawananakoa Morris to help maintain the historic landmark, lost $165,197 from July through January, according to a financial statement submitted to the Legislature by the group. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser: Library Photo

 

The group is asking the Legislature for $604,000, about half of its operating budget, to augment revenues, which come solely from entry fees, gift shop sales, memberships and donations. The request for money from lawmakers is the group's first since 1998, when the state cut off money for operations.

 

The Friends is also seeking $900,000 in capital improvement money to replace old air-conditioning and security systems.

 

Friends' leaders yesterday walked the halls of the Legislature urging lawmakers to support their funding.

 

"The bottom line is that the palace is in need of financial relief from soaring costs," said a statement from Alice Guild, Friends president, that was distributed to elected officials.

 

The problems are the latest in a series of financial difficulties that have affected palace operations since 1995. That's when the newly installed Cayetano administration reduced the group's $500,000-plus annual subsidy over three years before entirely eliminating funding for operating expenses. Betty Lou Stroup, the Friends' treasurer during the mid-1990s, said the group was getting about 56 percent of its operating dollars from the state at the time.

 

The group also is seeking to renegotiate its lease with the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The Friends got a five-year renewal of its existing lease last summer.

 

"In the meantime, without a large endowment or state funding, I can foresee a day when the palace will simply be an untenable business," Guild's statement reads.

 

Complicating the picture is the resignation at the end of February of Deborah Dunn, who had been executive director of the Friends the past four years.

 

Both Dunn and Guild say the parting was amicable, and had nothing to do with financial difficulties at the palace. Dunn, in a written statement, said she resigned "to pursue other offers and interests."

 

Meanwhile, Abigail Kawananakoa, Morris' daughter and the one-time president of the Friends, confirmed to The Advertiser that she has given the organization $110,000 over the past two months to help pay its payroll and electricity bills.

 

Kawananakoa said that through the Abigail K. Kawananakoa Foundation, she gave $50,000 to the Friends on Feb. 17 to cover payroll and other expenses. On April 4, the foundation gave the Friends an additional $60,000 to cover delinquent electricity bills and other expenses, she said.

 

Descended from the family of King Kalakaua, who built the palace in 1882, Kawananakoa has a bittersweet relationship with the Friends group her mother started. The president of the Friends for more than 25 years, she resigned the post, as well as her position on the board, in 1998 in the wake of a furor that erupted after she sat on a royal throne while posing for Life magazine.

 

But the Campbell estate heiress has continued to maintain ties to the palace and the group, making several gifts of artifacts to the facility.

 

The Friends did not respond when asked to confirm whether Kawananakoa contributed the bulk of the gifts. Another contribution came from The First Hawaiian Bank Foundation, which gave $5,000 last month.

 

What has really put the Friends in dire straits over the past year is rising electrical costs tied to outdated air-conditioning and security systems, Guild said.

 

In about a year, she said, the electric bill has risen from about $13,000 a month to $20,000, she said. The Friends also is paying about $12,000 monthly in repair and labor costs associated with the air conditioning.

 

"We're probably looking at about $30,000 a month that is sort of eating us up, frankly," Guild told The Advertiser. "We're able to cover everything else. I mean, we can manage."

 

The Friends and its supporters are seeking funding from the state on two fronts.

 

A $900,000 capital improvements request for new air conditioning and security was being made through the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the state agency with which the Friends has its lease.

According to legislative budget staff, $250,000 was eyed for planning and $650,000 for construction.

 

With the Legislature winding down its session, the House version of the budget includes no capital improvements money for the palace, while the Senate budget provides $300,000.

 

Oswald Stender, a former president of the Friends and a longtime board member, said it makes sense for the state to foot the bill for at least the maintenance and operation of 'Iolani Palace, "the state's most precious historic building," just as it pays for such expenses for other state buildings it owns and manages.

 

"This is a historic treasure that the state owns and they don't contribute anything to it," he said.

 

Guild said the Friends has also been trying to capture additional dollars through fundraising. The Friends held two fundraisers last year, and has another scheduled for July.

 

Meanwhile, entry fees have gone up with the endorsement of the Board of Land and Natural Resources. General admission increased to $10 from $8 in 1998, to $15 in 1999 and $20 in 2000. Kama'aina pay $15.

 

The Friends has also raised money by bolstering its membership from 645 in 1998 to 1,162 this year, Guild said.

 

The Friends also has raised $1 million for a restoration project that transformed the building's basement into a series of galleries to draw more visitors.

 

Most recently, the group is in the midst of instituting audio-guided tours with the intent of expanding the number of hours the palace is open daily, Guild said. Under the $30,000 program that is expected to begin this summer, docent tours will continue in the morning, with audio-guided tours in several languages in the afternoon, she said.

 

The group's 990 IRS form, required of all nonprofit and tax- exempt organizations, showed a deficit of $297,122 in 2003, its latest filing.

 

When asked to explain what caused the large deficit, the Friends responded in a written statement: "This research is just beyond our staff's time restrictions at this point."

 

Other 990s filed show a profit of $8,278 in 2002, a profit of $46,656 in 2001, a deficit of $232,236 in 2000 and a profit of $181,733 in 1999.

 

Utility costs have gone from $130,997 in 1998 to $183,807 in 2005 and $249,570 so far this fiscal year, the Friends said.

 

At the same time, salaries, wages and benefits for employees have gone from about $651,409 to about $754,050 this year, the Friends said.

 

A profit and loss statement for the first seven months of the fiscal year that began July 1, 2005, that was submitted to lawmakers in January showed a $165,197.92 net loss. However, that amount has been reduced to $83,820.21, according to museum staff, based on "two major gifts that came in."

 

Friends' officials note that revenues rose from $829,334 in 1998 to $945,112 so far this year, not including $119,327 in gifts.

 

Just as the Friends leases 'Iolani Palace from the state, the nonprofit Daughters of Hawai'i leases both the Queen Emma Summer Palace in Nu'uanu and the Hulihe'e Palace in Kailua, Kona.

 

Like 'Iolani Palace, the state gives no operating money for either historic site but sometimes gives money for restoration and other capital improvements.

 

David Scott, the Daughters executive director, said the group gets by on admissions, fundraisers, rentals and "being very frugal."

 

Scott, however, said the two facilities he manages have not had to undergo the extensive renovations that 'Iolani has needed, and are not saddled by restrictions over what can be done there. A facility within the Queen Emma Summer Palace, for instance, can be rented, something not allowed at 'Iolani Palace.

 

That said, Scott believes it is appropriate to give dedicated state funding to the Friends.

 

Kawananakoa would like to see the state restore at least some funding.

 

"'Iolani Palace is an internationally recognized symbol of Hawai'i," she said in a statement. "When constructed, it demonstrated the sophistication of the Kingdom of Hawai'i to the world and has been at the center of much that has defined Hawaiian social, cultural and political life. I call upon the Legislature to provide the long-overdue financial support for this treasure."

 

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

April 17, 2006

 

Cruising for charity: goal revealed

 

Pacific Business News (Honolulu)

 

NCL Hawaii says it hopes to raise $400,000 at this year's charity cruise, featuring the new ship Pride of Hawaii on its arrival in June.

 

"We set aside a number of cabins and divide them equally among the four beneficiaries," said Denise Hayashi, NCL America director of community relations. "They sell them for a bit more than we normally sell them for. And it's all in a good cause."

 

All ticket revenue from the cruise this year will benefit four non-profits: Aha Punana Leo, Child and Family Service, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Hawaii Maritime Center.

 

"We hope to raise a significant sum for our Hawaiian immersion charity," said Lynn Watters, spokeswoman for Aha Punana Leo. "It's a really fun event, too."

 

The "Cruise to Nowhere" will take place June 4, the night before the ship's first seven-day itinerary in Hawaii waters. It is the fourth charity cruise in which NCL Hawaii donates the use of the ship, inclusive of all food, beverage and entertainment.

 

"We are very pleased to be able to support Hawaii organizations that deliver needed services and that make such positive contributions to our community," said Robert Kritzman, NCL's executive vice president and managing director of Hawaii operations.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Sunday, April 16, 2006

 

More doors close on state's homeless

 

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

 

Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Advertiser: Jeff WidenerAs homeless people continue to camp out on the lawns of City Hall and state legislators look for money and answers to ease Hawai'i's homeless problem, the availability of self-help housing — homes built by occupants and volunteers — is on the decline.

 

Two of the three main self-help housing organizations on O'ahu, Honolulu Habitat for Humanity and the Consuelo Foundation, have quietly gotten out of the business of self-help housing. A third group, the Self-Help Housing Corporation of Hawai'i, did not respond to several requests for interviews last week.

 

For years, Honolulu Habitat for Humanity and the Consuelo Foundation helped low-income families build and buy their own houses at a cost of about $70,000 per house, which today represents barely a down payment on the $650,000 median price of a single-family home on O'ahu.

 

Honolulu Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit affiliate of Georgia-based Habitat for Humanity International, now focuses on renovating the existing homes of low-income clients on O'ahu. The nonprofit can no longer afford the cost of land in Honolulu's red-hot real-estate market. Its last, new "self-help home" was built in 2000.

 

The Consuelo Foundation, which aids disadvantaged families in Hawai'i and the Philippines, stopped its program in 2004 after helping clients build 75 homes in Wai'anae. The foundation ended the program when its liability insurance premiums threatened to jump from about $30,000 a year to $275,000. The insurance covered the nonprofit in case unskilled clients got hurt building their homes.

 

"We've built 75 homes, but our general liability insurance would have gone up — or been canceled — if we continued to use nonprofessional, nonqualified builders," said San Vuong, chief financial officer for the Consuelo Foundation. "It's ridiculous. But we felt that money could be better used for other things than to pay for insurance."

 

Together, Habitat for Humanity and the Consuelo Foundation produced about 15 new homes a year for low-income people.

 

The number may be low, but the absence of the programs represents a symbolic blow for efforts to get homeless people into their own houses, said Laura E. Thielen, executive director of the Affordable Housing & Homeless Alliance.

 

"Being able to build and own your own home is a huge, huge boost for a person," Thielen said. "Now, people that might have been capable of home ownership are stagnated in the rental market, and that creates a bottleneck. So those people on our beaches don't even have room to get into the rental market."

 

State legislators are considering more than a dozen bills aimed at various aspects of the homelessness problem, potentially making this "the best legislative session ever," said Terry Brooks, president of the nonprofit Housing Solutions Inc. "It will be huge."

 

But none of the bills would directly help resurrect the self-help housing projects.

 

Rep. Mike Kahikina, D-44th, (Nanakuli, Honokai Hale), said it's probably too late in the session to address the issues holding back Habitat for Humanity and the Consuelo Foundation.

 

"I didn't know it was an issue," said Kahikina, chairman of the state House's Housing Committee. "I wish they came to see us to talk to us, to see if we could help. Legislatively, we should intervene to see that this sweat equity continues. But at such a late hour, we probably can't take it up until next year."

 

Kahikina called both groups "very successful.

 

Margot Schrire, public relations and volunteer manager for the Institute for Human Services, O'ahu's only emergency homeless shelter, said the issues "really boil down to economics."

 

"The cost of labor and construction material and land have created very big barriers to developing anything affordable," Schrire said. "There's no money in it, and right now developers are far more interested in other, lucrative projects. That's what we're up against."

 

If Hawai'i's homelessness picture could be illustrated as a pyramid, homeless people would be on the bottom, and homeless shelters and low-income rental housing would sit somewhere in the middle, said Janice Takahashi, chief planner for the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i, the state's housing agency in charge of both affordable housing and homeless issues.

 

Near the tip of the pyramid used to be self-help housing projects like the ones built by Habitat for Humanity and the Consuelo Foundation, Takahashi said.

 

"The sweat equity, self-help part was really an important piece for low-income families," Takahashi said. "They actually had an opportunity for home ownership that was far more realistic than a market-rate mortgage."

 

Gora-Aina, 47, and her husband, Saff Aina, 46, were among nine low-income families who together built nine single-family homes in Wai'anae from 1998 to 1999.

 

All of the families were examined for their potential to keep up with the mortgage and lease payments, and their commitment to work every Saturday and Sunday building all nine homes.

 

When the construction was complete, a lottery determined which family received which three bedroom, two-bath house.

 

"It's the very first home that we've ever owned," Gora-Aina said. "We love it."

 

Honolulu Habitat for Humanity followed a similar formula until the group ran out of ways to find new sources of land, said Anne Marie Beck, Honolulu Habitat for Humanity's executive director.

 

"We don't have any land, and we haven't been able to get land — either by purchasing it or getting it donated," Beck said. "So right now, we're not able to house the homeless, which is a big loss in the effort to get people into simple homes."

 

Unlike the Consuelo Foundation, Honolulu Habitat for Humanity is insured through the international Habit for Humanity. The group also has more than enough volunteer labor and money for construction materials.

 

"It's the land," Beck said. "So that leaves (qualified homeless people) waiting and praying for someone like us to get some land. Until then, it's tough."

 

With no sources of cheap land, Honolulu Habitat for Humanity instead has focused on rebuilding the existing homes of low-income families that meet federal poverty guidelines.

 

Quinten and Shannon Cuesta didn't work on their duplex in the Consuelo Foundation's Ke Aka Ho'ona subdivision in Wai'anae.

 

But the Cuestas received the same favorable rates when the original homeowners could not afford the mortgage of $550 a month and $30 lease payment.

 

Quinten and Shannon both have jobs — he's a maintenance worker at the University of Hawai'i; she's a tutor at Makaha Elementary and works weekends at the Nanakuli McDonald's. But they found themselves living on Tracks Beach in Nanakuli with their two children when their monthly rent leaped from $750 to $1,050 per month.

 

On Jan. 30, they finally moved into their new Consuelo Foundation duplex. With a 25-year mortgage he can finally afford, Quinten Cuesta now has a reason to be optimistic.

 

"It's beautiful, it's comfortable and I can actually do this," he said. "Before, we were having trouble paying for our utilities and rent and food. Now I can put food into the freezer and icebox and actually put a dollar or two aside. I thank the Lord for it every day."

 

Cuesta only wishes that more homeless people could get the same breaks. "With how the price of rent is increasing, I am sorry that they cannot continue to work more projects like this," Cuesta said. "It would be so helpful for all of the homeless people out there. I'm surprised there isn't more being done."

 

Imiola Gora-Aina lives in what may be one of the last homes on O'ahu built with sweat equity — and she considers it a tragedy that people like her may no longer have even the hope of building their own houses.

 

"I have a deep love and appreciation for the home that we live in," Gora-Aina said. "It's wonderful because we worked really, really hard on it — and on the other homes. If we were to go into the marketplace now, we would be houseless. We would never be homeowners."

 

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2006

 

Financial education for service personnel

 

Pacific Business News (Honolulu)

 

More than 600 military service personnel attended a financial education conference Wednesday at Hawaii Convention Center.

 

The event was set in motion by Sen. Daniel Akaka, who says service members and their families are being taken in by predatory lenders. This occurs near military bases where unscrupulous financiers are charging hidden fees, applying exorbitant interest rates and successfully marketing unnecessary products.

 

The event was sponsored by National Association of Securities Dealers Investor Education Foundation -- with involvement by the Hawaii State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Hawaii Council on Economic Education -- to help military personnel and their families manage their money with confidence. Akaka addressed 500 Kauai residents at an NASD forum in Lihue on Tuesday and was to speak to a similar gathering Thursday in Hilo.

 

"They should be equipped with the tools they need to make sound money decisions," Akaka said, "to pay their everyday expenses, to invest in sound ventures, and to save for the future."

 

The Honolulu conference was the first of such events that will take place across the country.

 

Akaka, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised the Windward Community Federal Credit Union in Kailua for developing an affordable alternative to payday loans.

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2006

 

Goals group told of tribes' economic impact

 

By Michael McNutt

The Oklahoman

Oklahoma's American Indian tribes provide a tremendous economic boost to the state, the chief of the Seminole Nation said Tuesday.

 

A study prepared five years ago showed the economic activity of tribes had a $10 billion economic impact on Oklahoma's economy, said Kelly Haney, who served in the state Legislature 22 years before being elected chief of the Seminole Nation seven months ago.

 

The development of Indian businesses and casinos in the last five years easily could double that estimate, Haney told members attending a forum sponsored by the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals.

 

"Collectively, tribal governments are the No. 1 employer in the state," he said.

 

Haney said state officials would offer tax incentives to attract an employer with that many workers to Oklahoma.

 

"We're already here," Haney said.

 

All the revenue earned by tribes stays in Oklahoma, he said, while some earnings of private corporations with headquarters in other states would leave the state.

 

Haney was one of three Indian leaders who spoke during the day-long forum. The session encouraged participants to look at the state's past to develop successful strategies. The Oklahoma Academy for State Goals is a private, statewide, citizen-based nonpartisan organization devoted to developing sound public policy recommendations on critical issues facing the state.

 

Asked how the state could improve relations with the tribes, Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, said, "The state of Oklahoma needs to keep its word."

 

The state and tribe are in arbitration over disagreements with a tribal compact signed two years ago; the state and the tribe disagree over how cigarettes with the wrong, cheapest tax stamps are being sold in tribally licensed stores in Tulsa.

 

The state's recent decision to pass emergency rules intended to crack down on the wrongful use of the cheap cigarette tax stamps has resulted in "ratcheting up the adversity" between the tribe and the state, Smith said.

 

Despite the tobacco tax flap, the Cherokees have a "great" relationship with the state, Smith said.

 

"We have several compacts with the state, and this is the only one that's turned sour," he said.

 

Bill Anoatubby, governor of the Chickasaw Nation, said those skeptical of the economic impact tribes have should look at his nation's "liberal immigration policy" that helped develop the United States into the world's most industrialized nation.

 

 

 

 

Posted on: Saturday, April 15, 2006

 

Grant to help Nanakuli pupils

 

Advertiser staff

 

An O'ahu elementary school is a recipient of a national award that provides money to upgrade cash-strapped libraries.

 

Nanakuli Elementary School is among 20 winners of the D.E.A.R Bookshelf Award sponsored by the National Education Association. The winners were announced this week as part of National "Drop Everything And Read" Day.

 

The 2.8-million-member NEA, the nation's largest professional employee organization, along with HarperCollins Children's Books, developed D.E.A.R. Bookshelf Awards to provide financial support to organizations that serve students, in an effort to rebuild public school libraries.

 

A total of $10,000 is being awarded.

 

The grants will be used for projects developed and carried out by young people.

 

The competition received 1,500 entries.

 

At Nanakuli Elementary, award funds are earmarked to purchase homework supplies, such as pencils and paper, for pupils, a majority of whom come from low-income families.

 

More than 20 percent of children across the U.S. live in poverty. Among low-income families, 61 percent of children have no books at all, according to the NEA.

 

D.E.A.R. Bookshelf Awards will help enrich book collections in classrooms and in school and community libraries, with a goal of increasing access to titles that will draw youngsters into taking up reading.

 

"In the time that it takes to watch a rerun of "Friends," parents can get a book off the shelf and engage their children in reading fun," NEA President Reg Weaver said in a statement released by the organization.

 

"To increase access to books, the D.E.A.R. Bookshelf Awards provide funding for public schools and libraries — and the communities they serve — to purchase books, supplies and materials so that everyone can make reading a family affair."

 

The National Education Association represents elementary and secondary school teachers, higher-education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.

 

For more information on NEA and D.E.A.R., visit www.nea.org and www.dropeverythingandread.com.

 

 

 

 

April 16, 2006

 

Trust puts its trust in Crabbe

 

Queen Liliuokalani Trust's new VP says she has been given a "great opportunity"

 

Star-Bulletin staff
business@starbulletin.com

 

Question: Why did you move from chief of finance to head of development?

 

Answer: I've been actually presented a really great opportunity by the leadership here at the trust, recognizing that I've been doing a large portion of it already. We're very thinly staffed here at the trust. We have six employees at the endowment side and most of our work is outsourced.

 

The leadership has given me an opportunity to stretch my wings, recognizing not just my commitment to the trust but the fact that I know the importance of the trust to the Hawaiian people. It's a tremendous responsibility. Photo courtesy of the Honolulu Star Bulletin: Craig T. Kojima

 

Q: How big are the trust's assets?

 

A: Approximately $400 million. We consider ourselves sort of a startup. In 2002, First Hawaiian Bank stepped down as co-trustee and asset manager. We are now totally self-governed and we had some reorganizing to do. We did have to lay off 25 percent of our staff at that time. Our rebound has been stronger than anticipated. We took our medicine and we have gotten better quicker than we thought we would. We're now at about 150 employees.

 

Q: What development are you considering for Keahuolu and Honohina on the Big Island?

 

A: Honohina, right now, none. We have 2,400 acres there. Our main focus now is Keahuolu, which is next to Kailua-Kona. We are in the process of master planning our 3,500 acres. ... Really, for us, we're a small trust. Keahuolu is really our future in terms of growing our trust, and the reason for this is the needs of native Hawaiian children are growing and that's the reason we exist.

 

We have some 16 acres in Waikiki that provide over 75 percent of our rental income.

 

Q: What kind of development are you looking at? Residential? Commercial? Hotel?

 

A: All of the above are potential uses, but no specific uses have been identified at this point.

 

Q: Will you need to seek land-use and zoning approvals?

 

A: We have some state land-use entitlements in place and county zoning as well but, yes, we will need to go back in.

 

Q: Is any development already taking place?

 

A: We've put in a new road, a small road, and that opened up 11 lots for leasing. We're holding back the final two for potential commercial development. We are in discussions with a party.

 

 

 

 

14 Apr 2006

 

Alaska Natives likely to be exposed to bird flu

 

Source: Reuters

By Yereth Rosen

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, April 13 (Reuters) - Alaska Natives may be the the most likely people in North America to be exposed to the avian flu virus because they depend for food on wild migratory birds from Asia, a health care expert said on Thursday.

 

Alaska is a probable point of entry for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, because it is at the crossroads of wild waterfowl and shorebird migration to and from Asia.

 

Native Alaskans are likely to come in contact with infected ducks and geese, but the government's advice for avoiding infection, such as washing thoroughly when handling hunted birds, makes little sense for people living and working in a wilderness environment.

 

"I don't know anybody in any of the villages who has rubber gloves in their hunting gear, or hand sanitizer," said Patricia Cochran, executive director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, at a pandemic flu planning summit organized by federal and state agencies.

 

"Sometimes we need ... a bit of a reality check," she said.

 

Alaska Natives are the indigenous Eskimo, Indian and Aleut people who make up about 16 percent of the state's population and traditionally hunt for their food. Most Native villages are located in rural areas of Alaska.

 

Worries about avian flu are acute among Native Alaska populations and there are memories of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which almost wiped out entire villages, said Cochran, an Inupiat Eskimo from northwestern Alaska.

 

Between 75,000 and 100,000 wild birds around the United States will be tested for the H5N1 virus, with much of that effort concentrated in Alaska, said Alex Azar, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 

The avian flu virus, which has killed at least 109 people worldwide, has spread since 2003 from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

 

Health officials noted, however, that the virus has proved difficult to spread from bird to human, and even more difficult to spread among humans.

 

"It will not be a cause for panic. It will not be a cause for people to stop hunting. It will not be a cause for people to stop eating poultry," said Azar.

 

 

 

 

April 13, 2006

 

American Indian leaders seek new opportunities

By Judy Gibbs Robinson
The Oklahoman

Tribes working to attract call centers for jobs

 

NORMAN - Kay Rhoads has a vision of someone with a broken cell phone or frozen computer calling for help and talking to an Indian. An American Indian, that is.

 

The Sac & Fox Nation chief is working on a deal to open calling centers in Oklahoma and Illinois, she said Wednesday during the 11th annual American Indian Symposium at the University of Oklahoma. The focus of morning sessions was tribal economic development.

 

"We're talking with a large corporation to bring a call center to Oklahoma so when you pick up those phones now... you're going to be able to reach somebody that speaks fluent English at the other end," Rhoads said.

 

She expects to close the deal within the year but could not predict how long it then would take the tribe's corporate partner to open the centers. Each would employ about 250 people initially, she said.

 

While the calling centers are a way to keep jobs in the United States, many gaming tribes are looking toward international business partners and markets as they diversify, speakers said.

 

For example, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians owns a car-parts factory in Mexico, said Chief Phillip Martin, who later shrugged off questions about his tribe's ties to former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

 

The Mississippi Choctaws have become the third-largest employer in their state with holdings that include a theme park, a water park and an industrial park with five manufacturing plants, Martin said.

 

"You have to get out there and get after it. It's not going to come to you. That's what we did," Martin said.

 

Finding international business partners is fairly easy for tribes, Rhoads said.

 

"As international companies come in, they're going to be looking to the tribes because of our land base," she said. "They want to work with us."

 

U.S. corporations and state and local governments also are attracted to the tax benefits that come from working with tribes, Rhoads said. The state of Illinois invited the Sac & Fox to establish a land base near their historic homeland, she said.

 

"It's very unusual for any tribe to be invited back," she said. The land will be used for a foreign trade zone, an area where imported goods can be stored or processed without being subject to import duties.

 

"It gives us another business, and that's what I'm really trying to do," Rhoads said. "It's really important that we diversify."

 

Tribes tend to have tunnel-vision when it comes to economic development, even though they are impacted by the international marketplace just like everyone else, Rhoads said.

 

"So stop and think. Allow your minds to go beyond gaming and expand to those other opportunities," she said.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday April 18, 12:34 pm ET

 

Federal Network Services and Alaska Native Technologies Form Strategic Alliance

WOODINVILLE, Wash., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Federal Network Services, a leader in IP communications, information security and network integration, today announced it has signed a teaming agreement with Alaska Native Technologies, LLC, of Anchorage, AK. The agreement calls for both organizations to identify and partner on a variety of federal government agency projects.

 

The partnership agreement enables Federal Network Services (www.fnsnet.com) to gain expanded access to government agency projects through the 8(a) procurement process while providing Alaska Native Technologies with the ability to offer a growing lineup of IP communications technology solutions and seek a wider range of new business opportunities.

 

"We are looking forward to our strategic alliance with Alaska Native Technologies," said Doug Chesler, President of Federal Network Services. "This teaming agreement offers Federal Network Services an additional avenue in providing IP communications networking and security solutions to our customers."

 

"Alaska Native Technologies is pleased to team with Federal Network Services," said Jackie Lythgoe, General Manager of Alaska Native Technologies. "We feel that this relationship will have a significant and positive impact on our company's ability to generate new business in an additional market segment". ANT was formed as a Limited Liability Company in December 2003 and is owned by the Native Village of Eyak Cordova, AK.

 

About Federal Network Services

 

Federal Network Services provides comprehensive IP communications networking solutions (supporting both product sales and services) and information security through engineering, operations, and maintenance management for technology integration and deployment services to Federal government and public sector customers under Federal mandates. Headquartered in Woodinville, WA, Federal Network Services serves clients throughout the United States. More information about Federal Network Services, Inc. can be found at http://www.fnsnet.com .

 

About Alaska Native Technologies

 

Alaska Native Technologies, LLC is an information technology-engineering firm that specializes in design, development, service and maintenance activities in support of our nation's defense. Founded in 2002, Alaska Native Technologies has offices in Anchorage, Alaska and Poulsbo, WA. The company is 8 (a) certified as a Small Business and Small Minority Disadvantaged Business by the U. S. Small Business Administration. More information can be found at www.alaskanativetech.com.

 

 

 

 

April 17, 2006

 

Hawaiians await bill on access to placenta

 

By Tara Godvin
Associated Press

As the birth of his third child drew closer and closer this fall, Kalehua Krug and his wife, Kihapai, knew they needed the cooperation of their doctor to perform an important Hawaiian birth ritual. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press

 

The Krugs told him they would need to take home their daughter's placenta, the organ that unites a mother and her child and is considered a part of the child in traditional Hawaiian belief.

 

Under the Krugs' family practice, the placenta is planted in the earth along with a tree that is watched as it grows to better understand psychological and spiritual changes in the child.

 

But while the Krugs had no problem getting back the placenta, known as "iewe" in Hawaiian, from two previous children born at another hospital, their doctor at Kaiser Permanente hospital refused to release material from the afterbirth, treated as medical waste.

 

Kalehua Krug said the doctor, whom he did not identify, told them that while he did not personally agree with the state rules, the hospital could not release the placenta. But it agreed to keep the placenta frozen in storage.

 

With the support of legislators and now the state Health Department, a law allowing the placenta to be released to birth parents in Hawaii appears set to become law. Passed by the Hawaii Legislature, it awaits Gov. Linda Lingle's signature.

 

Meanwhile, Krug said he feels the life of his daughter, Leleapao'o, is in suspension.

 

"This is a part of my child in essence being held captive -- kidnapped," he said.

 

After her birth, Leleapao'o developed a herniated belly button -- the point where she had been connected to the iewe -- which Krug said required him to visit the iewe and make a commitment to it that the family would get it back.

 

It took about four hours at the hospital to negotiate for access to the placenta for a short ceremony, he said, and a few days later the baby's belly button retracted.

 

"This comes down to being able to take care of your child in the way that we deem appropriate," said Krug, who trains Hawaiian immersion teachers at the University of Hawaii.

 

Hawaii's rule dates back to 1990, when AIDS was still an emerging threat and relatively little was known about the disease other than its connection to blood, said state Health Director Chiyome Fukino.

 

A request by a Hawaiian couple in the spring for the placenta of their child first made the department aware of the conflict between its rules and traditional practice.

 

The parents asked for their newborn's placenta, also at Kaiser Permanente, and were denied. The Health Department then sent out a memo to all hospitals clarifying that placentas cannot leave the hospital.

 

"The rules are in place for the health and safety of the public, and unfortunately this was an unforeseen consequence of these rules," Fukino said.

 

Fukino said that changing the rules without legislation would have taken longer because it would have required a lengthy rule-making process. While Hawaiian tradition is clear, no one can be sure once the placenta leaves the hospital that it will only be benignly buried in the ground, she said.

 

"You don't know what everyone's going to do with this," said Fukino.

 

The law would be a first in the United States. There are currently no state laws addressing the cultural need to take placentas from hospitals, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

 

The placenta's importance is not a concept exclusive to Hawaiian culture and is found in Polynesia, Asia, Africa and in Western counterculture.

 

In multiethnic California, for example, policies over whether to allow the release of the placenta are made by each hospital, said Lea Brooks, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services.

 

If the Hawaii bill is signed, the Krugs are still uncertain when they would finally be able to take their daughter's iewe from the hospital.

 

"Really, right now it's just a matter of waiting," Kihapai Krug said from her home in Waianae.

 

 

 

 

Posted: April 14, 2006

 

Airing the meth crisis is courageous and needed

 

by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today

 

Airing dirty laundry is uncomfortable, as Kathleen Wesley-Kitcheyan, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, indicated during the recent Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on methamphetamine use on reservations. But the meth problem is so overwhelming, she continued, it had to be done. Her brave and emotional testimony recounted an appalling string of personal tragedies, including the death of her own rodeo-champion nephew.

Indian country knows how painful it can be to share these stories with outsiders. The personal hurt is too often compounded by the incomprehension of the mainstream society. Well-intentioned interventions by non-Indians historically have caused even more disruption, turning tragedies into family and tribal catastrophes. And there are malevolent forces in the dominant culture that are more than happy to make propaganda out of the undeniable social ills. But these are risks that national Indian leaders have properly decided to take.

For more than a year, the National Congress of American Indians, the Inter-Tribal Economic Alliance and tribal leaders across the country have prepared a campaign against meth use. NCAI President Joe Garcia made it a plank of his State of the Indian Nations address and issued a ''Call to Action'' to Congress and the White House. The Senate hearing was part of the response. So are efforts to increase federal funding for drug treatment and law enforcement.

But the gamble has a downside. Some of the press ignored the hard work and complicated policy questions, preferring to sensationalize the problem. NCAI people, as well as officials at St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York, spent months trying to interest a New York Times reporter in the story. In the end she produced a New York Post-style story making lurid charges that border reservations had become havens for drug smugglers. Outright enemies of tribal economies picked up some of the looser language and are now talking about a ''new-style Indian Mafia.''

Maybe this reaction was predictable. The mass media tends to lose its head on drug stories. It hypes the threat, preferring loose rhetoric about ''epidemics'' to balanced assessments based on statistical evidence. A reaction has even set in among press critics. Jack Shafer, of the online magazine Slate, is making a habit of refuting major cover stories on the meth threat. Far from rising, he argues, meth use has stayed relatively flat in recent years. So far Shafer hasn't unleashed his skeptical analysis on the Times series, but a more balanced look would be welcome.

It would probably conclude that whatever the hyperbole in the mainstream press, meth use is a serious and growing problem for Indian country. In fact, it might be hitting reservations harder than the rest of the country. Gary Edwards, CEO of the National Native American Law Enforcement Association, gave the SIAC hearing several reasons why. In the first place, he said, meth use is correlated with alcoholism. Meth distributors target alcohol abusers ''as a primary consumer base,'' and the rate of alcohol addiction among Indian people is high. Second, meth is one of the cheapest of illicit drugs, making it the drug of choice in poor communities. Third, tribes are vulnerable through their geography.

Edwards said that the majority of the meth distributed in tribal communities seemed to be smuggled across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. Some 41 tribes have lands within 100 miles of these borders. A majority of these tribes told Edwards' group that they had encountered drug smuggling across their borders.

Matthew Mead, U.S. attorney for Wyoming, elaborated with case studies of drug cartels targeting reservations. He told the committee that members of a Mexican operation led by Jesus Martin Sagaste-Cruz hatched a ''business plan'' to market meth on Lakota reservations after reading a Denver Post article about the huge volume of liquor sales in Whiteclay, the Nebraska border town. Members of the drug ring actually moved to the vicinity of the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Yankton and Santee Sioux reservations to recruit meth dealers. According to Mead, they even romanced Indian women to turn them into addicts.

These operations relied on a fourth vulnerability: the splintered legal jurisdiction on reservations. This apparently technical problem is the least reported of all, but it is clearly the most important. In fact, the NCAI planned its anti-meth campaign as a way of dramatizing the fetters on reservation law enforcement. It could easily have used domestic violence or sexual predation on women and children as other examples. This problem is entirely the fault of the U.S. Supreme Court. In a string of its most racist decisions since the end of black/white segregation, the court has ruled that tribal courts and police do not have jurisdiction over non-Indians (Justice William Rehnquist's opinion in the 1978 Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe) or even over Indians who are not tribal members (Justice Anthony Kennedy in Duro v. Reina, 1990).

These widely berated rulings created an impossible situation, often prohibiting tribes from enforcing the law over a majority of the residents on their territory. Federal jurisdiction was supposed to cover the gap, but U.S. attorneys habitually gave reservation crime their lowest priority. The result has been a legal no-man's land, in which non-Indian criminals came to view the reservation as a sanctuary. The Duro case in particular completely ignored the reality of reservation life, where frequent inter-marriages have brought in substantial numbers of residents from other tribes. The case was so manifestly foolish that Congress quickly passed the ''Duro Fix'' law to restore tribal control over resident non-member Indians. But the constitutionality of this law remained in doubt until the Supreme Court backtracked in the 2004 U.S. v. Lara case.

When you add chronic underfunding of tribal law enforcement to this Supreme Court-induced anarchy, it's no wonder that reservations have a problem with lawless elements - not only in drug use but in domestic violence, attacks on women and ''quality of life'' issues in general. The wonder is that tribal officials have still managed to find ways of coping. In reporting on lurid tales of drug smuggling to the Lakota reservations, Wind River in Wyoming and elsewhere, the press often neglects to mention that the principals in these operations have been convicted and sentenced to long prison terms in part due to courageous work by tribal law enforcement. The most effective efforts against the smugglers have been joint operations combining federal, state and tribal departments.

Some tribes have come up with sovereignty-friendly solutions to the ''checkerboarding'' of jurisdiction. The International Association of Chiefs of Police strongly recommends cross-deputization agreements giving tribal police and their neighboring counterparts the power to act as agents for each other. (The chairman of the IACP Indian Country Law Enforcement Section when this report was drafted was Ed Reina, who as chief of police for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community was the respondent in Duro.) In its long article on smuggling problems at the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in New York, the Times neglected to mention that the state had just passed a bill giving St. Regis Tribal Police the authority of the State Police in dealing with non-Indian lawbreakers.

Meth use requires a variety of counter-measures, such as anti-drug education, treatment for addicts and continued public health campaigns against alcoholism. But it also requires a change in the irrational, anarchic legal structure created by the Supreme Court. Tribes need the power to control and punish law-breaking on their territory, even if the wrongdoers are non-member Indians or non-Indians. This is not only an inherent attribute of sovereignty; it is an urgent practical matter. The single most effective attack on the meth epidemic would be a Supreme Court ruling, or congressional action, overturning the Oliphant decision.

It might have been deeply embarrassing to publicize the sordid details of the meth crisis on reservations, but a return to more rational jurisdiction for tribal law enforcement would more than justify the pain.

 

 

 

 

Article published Apr 17, 2006

War claims would cost $180M

By Steve Limtiaco slimtiaco@guampdn.com
and Mark-Alexander Pieper
Pacific Daily News

 

Paying war claims to Guam residents would cost the federal government about $180 million over a four-year period, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office -- more than twice the $85 million expected.

 

There would be additional costs associated with the war compensation program, the budget office estimates, including $11 million to implement it and $5 million for a grant program to support activities in memory of the World War II occupation of Guam.

 

Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo, who introduced the Guam World War II Loyalty Act last April, said the increased cost estimate shouldn't hurt the bill's chances of becoming law.

 

But some survivors of the Japanese occupation of Guam don't share Bordallo's optimism, because war reparations are something they've been waiting for since the 1980s.

 

"This is something that is still in committee and any change could take even longer when you have survivors dying every day -- 10 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing," said Anthony San Nicolas, 61, whose mother suffered through the occupation, and some of whose uncles were killed while they were captives of the Japanese.

 

"I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens, but our people have suffered enough and they've been affected by this whole idea of war reparations that we've seen come up many times before but not one penny has ever been paid out. I want to be an optimist but then again you can't blame us for being pessimists."

 

How it works

The Congressional Budget Office determines the cost of proposed legislation, as well as its effect on state and local governments and the private sector. The estimates can influence the passage or defeat of programs, according to the budget office Web site, www.cbo.gov.

 

The bill, which is based on the findings and recommendations of the federally created Guam War Claims Review Commission, would compensate Guam residents for their suffering at the hands of the Japanese military, which occupied the island for more than two years during World War II. It calls for $25,000 payments on behalf of residents who died during the occupation and smaller payments for injury and forced labor.

 

Guam is seeking compensation from the federal government and not Japan because the United States forgave Japan decades ago.

 

The House Resources Committee, which lowered the amount of some types of compensation, approved the bill last November and it was expected to be picked up by the House Judiciary Committee this month for additional consideration.

 

Bordallo's Washington, D.C., office said the bill is still in the House Resources Committee but that the committee report to the full House will recommend passage of H.R. 1595, the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, as agreed to by a unanimous vote of the committee on Nov. 16, 2005.

 

Bordallo said she expected the cost to increase when the controversial 1990 cut-off date -- denying reparation to those who died before that year -- was eliminated. She feels that the Congressional Budget Office's new estimates are a reasonable projection of what the costs would amount to.

 

"In this projection, the costs are well within the available funds in the judgment fund," Bordallo said in an e-mail interview. "While the costs of H.R. 1595 is a concern for some members of Congress, I have worked very hard to build bipartisan support and have been able to secure 108 cosponsors to date and the support of key leaders in both parties."

 

Long wait

Still, former Agana Heights Mayor Juan E. Garcia, who was a teenager during the time of the occupation, is hurt that the reparation process has taken so long and continues to drag.

 

Garcia asked what purpose it served to have the war reparation hearings in 2002 and have so many recall the painful memories of the indignities Chamorros suffered during the war when the federal government always seems to put up another roadblock.

 

"Why are they questioning the Chamorro people about reparations when we suffered for staying loyal to the United States in a war that we didn't even start?" asked the 82-year-old, who survived the the Manenggon war camp toward the end of the occupation in 1944.

 

"We weren't even considered Americans then. But after the war it was the United States that forgave Japan and then we the people of Guam became Americans. Why couldn't we have just gone to the United Nations? Because if we could have, maybe this would have been taken care of already."

 

San Nicolas added the longer the federal government waits, the more complicated the issue will become, as there are many more heirs than there are survivors.

 

"The average household on Guam is about five people and when the survivors die then you're only looking at their direct heirs and that means you're looking at dividing it amongst three people," he said.

 

"Then some of that baby boomer generation has already died or is dying off and then you're looking at dividing it amongst the grandkids, so you're going to need a lawyer to sort through all of that. ... The longer it takes the more complicated it gets."

 

 

 

 

4/13/2006

 

Kupunas teach Easter and culture at once

By Brennan Purtzer

Molokai Island Times

Photo courtesy of the Molokai Island Times: Brennan PurtzerWhen it comes to teaching our children, our Kupunas know just as much about the Easter holiday as they do about making poi.

On Thursday morning, about 20 keiki from the Kamehameha Schools pre-school got one-on-one lessons in drawing, weaving, music, poi making and instruction on kukui nuts.

"These leaves you can make into a broom," said Aunty Gladys Jaoa. "These are what my great grandmother used to sweep with," she said.

Nearly every one of the kids, aged 4-5, was wide-eyed with full smiles.

They enjoyed learning a song and hula from Aunty Kaui Kapuni and the Kupuna singers who entertain every weekend.

Other helpers included Alex and Anne Bishaw, who taught about the significance of the Island's famous kukui nut, and also Uncle Butch Otsuka, who showed the pre-schoolers how to make poi.

The students' teacher, Noelani Helm said the 2nd annual Easter Celebration with the Kupunas was a successful event that everyone seemed to enjoy greatly.

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2006

 

Hapa Closes Mainland “Maui” Tour at the Hawai’i Convention Center

 

WHEN:  SATURDAY, MAY 6, AT 7:30 P.M.

 

HONOLULU, HI —The Hawai‘i Convention Center continues its series of Hawaiian Music Nights on Saturday, May 6, with Hapa featuring Barry Flanagan, Nathan Aweau, dancer Moea Defries and chanter Charles Ka‘upu.

 

With the recent release of their 6th album, "Maui," Hapa’s Barry Flanagan and Nathan Aweau embrace the wider cultures of the pan-Polynesian South Pacific in this wide-ranging performance. Flanagan describes the most recent work as "a soundtrack for 21st century Polynesia where native art, history and music are pulled together by the powerful force of Maui." In the concert, May 6, Charles Ka‘upu’s stirring chants and stories will mesh with dramatic and graceful Hula from Moea Defries to add cultural sinew to Hapa’s strong musical bones.

 

With a pulse and energy that make it entirely of today, Hapa’s groundbreaking music connects firmly to the Polynesian past, featuring poetic ballads about the sea, the lushness of the land, and favorite chiefs all told through melodies rich in harmony and backed by virtuoso guitar. Add their signature dose of American acoustic folk/rock, Celtic and world influences and you have the essence of Hapa music: "beautiful, fragile, spiritual, powerful" ---LA Times.

 

Hapa’s self entitled debut CD released in 1993, swept the 1994 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, becoming the biggest selling CD by a group or duo in the history of recorded Hawaiian music. The group’s virtuoso guitar and entrancing vocal harmonies have established them as the most recognized name in Hawaiian music internationally since their debut release, with sold-out shows from Tokyo to New York.

 

This concert closes a whirlwind mainland tour supporting the “Maui” release, of California, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington and Oregon.

 

The Hawai‘i Convention Center offers complimentary intermission refreshments in the beautiful Charlot Courtyard, included in the price of the ticket.  Parking is free.  The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $27.50 for general admission, on sale now from Honolulu Box Office at 550-8457 or www.honoluluboxoffice.com.

 

Hawaiian Music Nights is presented by the Hawai‘i Convention Center, produced by Tim Bostock Productions, and sponsored by Hawaii Tourism Authority, Hawaiian Airlines, and Kona Brewing Company.

 

Ranked as North America’s most attractive convention center in the METROPOLL X study (Gerard Murphy & Associates) and winner of eight consecutive Prime Site Awards, the Hawai‘i Convention Center marketed and managed by SMG offers more than one million square feet of meeting facilities including an exhibit hall, theatres, and expansive conference rooms in a prime geographic location for conducting business in the Pacific Rim. Recognized as a “living work of art,” the Center’s design captures the essence of the Hawaiian environment. Its soaring, glass-front entry – with a 70-foot misting waterfall and mature palm trees – embraces guests with aloha. The Center’s state-of-the-art technical features include fiber optic cabling, multi-lingual translation stations, satellite and microwave broadcast capability, and video conferencing. The facility also houses a $2 million Hawaiian art collection of unique pieces commissioned for specific locations within the building and features a rooftop outdoor function space complete with a tropical garden of native flora.

 

 

 

 

April 19, 2006

 

MA'O Organic Farms offers youth programs

 

THE ELECTRIC KITCHEN

 

Hawaiian Electric Co.

Honolulu Star Bulletin

 

YOU might have heard about MA'O Organic Farms. They're normally found at the KCC Farmers' Market every Saturday, although with all the heavy rains last month, MA'O will be out until May. The farm's produce is also carried at Kokua Market and 'Umeke Natural Foods -- and many restaurants feature their salad greens.

 

In honor of Earth Day, we wanted to share the good word about MA'O and the Aloha Café & Natural Foods. Both are part of the MA'O Community Food Security Initiative -- "A movement to develop a comprehensive and living local food system, to fight hunger, improve nutrition, strengthen local food security, and empower low-income families to move towards self-sufficiency."

 

This grassroots effort provides opportunities for Waianae's young people, offering leadership-development internships that include entrepreneurial, agricultural and educational experience. To simultaneously expand production of organic fruits and vegetables and increase educational/employment opportunities for youths ages 15 to 25, MA'O is working to expand youth programs at Waianae High School. MA'O is also working with Leeward Community College to expand its 10-month leadership training into a two-year college associates program, focused on training youth as leaders in diversified organic agriculture.

 

MA'O believes that Hawaii can become more self-sufficient through sound planning, team-building, a commitment to future generations and hard work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SENATE

THE TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2006

COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY AND HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS

Senator Colleen Hanabusa, Chair

Senator Clayton Hee, Vice Chair

NOTICE OF HEARING

 

DATE:

Monday, April 24, 2006

TIME:

9:00 a.m.

PLACE:

Conference Room 407

State Capitol

415 South Beretania Street

A G E N D A

 

GM 401

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Commission on the Status of Women, Gubernatorial Nominee, ROSEMARIE E. AQUINO, for a term to expire 9-12-2006.

JHW

GM 402

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Commission on the Status of Women, Gubernatorial Nominee, ROSEMARIE E. AQUINO, for a term to expire 9-12-2010.

JHW

GM 403

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Commission on the Status of Women, Gubernatorial Nominee, MAMO P. GRAHAM, for a term to expire 6-30-2010.

JHW

GM 404

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Commission on the Status of Women, Gubernatorial Nominee, MARGARET KURODA MASUNAGA, for a term to expire 6-30-2010.

JHW

GM 445

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Correctional Industries Advisory Committee, Gubernatorial Nominee, TAI SUK HAHN, for a term to expire 6-30-2010.

JHW

GM 446

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Correctional Industries Advisory Committee, Gubernatorial Nominee, THOMAS K. SING, for a term to expire 6-30-2008.

JHW

GM 468

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Island Burial Council, Island of Molokai, Gubernatorial Nominee, MALIA K.H. AKUTAGAWA ESQ., for a term to expire 6-30-2008.

JHW

GM 469

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Island Burial Council, Island of Oahu, Gubernatorial Nominee, T. KEHAULANI KRUSE, for a term to expire 6-30-2010.

JHW

GM 470

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Island Burial Council, Islands of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, Gubernatorial Nominee, DEE M. CROWELL, for a term to expire 6-30-2010.

JHW

GM 489

Submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Board of Registration of the Island of Hawai'i, Gubernatorial Nominee, CAROL M. JUNG, for a term to expire 6-30-2009.

JHW

 

Decision Making to follow, if time permits.

Persons wishing to testify should submit 25 (three-hole punched) copies of their testimony to the committee clerk, Room 227, State Capitol, 24 hours prior to the hearing. Testimony may also be faxed if less than 5 pages in length, to the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Office at 586-6659 or 1-800-586-6659 (toll free for neighbor islands), at least 24 hours prior to the hearing. When faxing, please indicate to whom the testimony is being submitted, the date and time of the hearing, and the required number of copies needed for submittal.

 

 

 

 

2006 Elections Present 101 Seats for Voters to Decide

 

WHAT:  Activating Voter Registration in 2006 to weigh in on 101 seats at the federal, state and county levels is on the minds of many in Hawaii today.  The seats that will come before the electorate in the fall of 2006 include the following:

 

 

 

 

For more information and a complete list of 2006 Contests and Incumbents, visit the Hawaii State Office of Elections Website at:  http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/

 

To register to vote:  http://www.hawaii.gov/elections/voters/registration.htm

 

 

 

In an effort to increase the usefulness of this service to our subscribers, CNHA is now including a section for Quiet Title Notices at the end of each NewsClips.

 

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE THIRD CIRCUIT STATE OF HAWAII SUMMONS TO DEFENDANTS LEPOLOA (k); HOOPII OLIVER (w); RICHARD N. OLIVER; PETER OLIVER; PIHIKULA MALAKAUA (w); LIVIA MALAKAUA (k); WILLIAM L. MALAKAUA; DAVID MALAKAUA; LEROY RASAY; AILANA NEAL; LEE ANN VERANO; DAVIDA MALAKAUA-RASAY; IDA NEALON; DONNA AWANA; ROBIN PANG-MAGANARIS (w); RAYE RAPOZA (w); RICHARD PANG III; ANA ALVIOR; DANIEL ALVIOR; MALIA NAKAPAAHU; MARCIA ALVIOR; RUTH CARVALHO; EMMA MALAKAUA-KELSO; ALBERT MALAKAUA; ELIZABETH KUPAHU; ELLEN DOMINICI; MOSES MALAKAUA; JAMES K. MALAKAUA; SHIRLEY RAMOS; EMMA VICTOR; JOSEPH VICTOR; GORDON VICTOR; GERALDINE SATO; PAMELA WANA; WILLIAM H. MALAKAUA; MARY ANN HUSSEY; AILEEN HUSSEY; JAMES HUSSEY, JR.; LEONARD HUSSEY; LAWRENCE HUSSEY; FRANCES ROCHA; ADRIAN HUSSEY; MOSES HIGA; MATTHEW HIGA; JOSEPH MALAKAUA; ROSE MALAKAUA; BRUCE MALAKAUA; JASON MALAKAUA; GARY MALAKAUA; ALICE HASHIMOTO; NOELANI MACANAS; JAMES S. MALAKAUA; PEARL MALAKAUA; RANDALL MALAKAUA; JAMES MALAKAUA JR.; WILLIAM K. MALAKAUA; DARRELL MALAKAUA; TRUDY YAMADA; JAMIE DESILVA; CAROLYN PFAHLER; MINERVA PANG; CHARLES MAKAENA; PHILOMENA SWANSON; DANIEL I. SWANSON; ROBERT SWANSON; DANIEL SWANSON; ROBERT I. SWANSON; WALTER SWANSON; JULITA SWANSON; JOHN SWANSON; LOUISE SWANSON; HENRY MAKAENA; MIRIAM MAKAENA; DAN MAKAENA; ABIGAIL HASSARD; PAULA KALANI SORGE; FRANCES GORDON; PETER MAKAENA; GLYNIS KAMEKONA; JOHN MAKAENA; GORDON MAKAENA; JONNIE LYNN MAKAENA; PAUL K. MAKAENA; PAUL K. MAKAENA, JR.; BYRON MAKAENA; SHEILA MAKAENA; CLIFTON MAKAENA; FRANCES NAONE; DAVID NAONE; ELLEN SANBORN; LEONE NIHOA (w); LUELLA NAONE; PETER KAHANANUI; MONA GOHIER; NANI MAHOE; MELE SPENCER; ANGELA MAHOE-YAMAMOTO; ALICE KAUPIKO; JOHN KAUPIKO; LEINA AWAI; RACHEL ONEHA; HARRY ONEHA; JOSEPH TAITANO; MAGNUS TAITANO; MAYDELL TAITANO; JESUS CAMACHO; ANTHONY LONG; EKEKELA KUA (w); ESTHER KUA; CARROLL OLIVER (k); RICHARD C. OLIVER; JOHN A. OLIVER; MYRA KAAIAI; RUTH OLIVER; CAROL CORTNER; OLIVER KUA; KEKUNA KUA (w); MALIA CRAVER; RUTH FLORES; LIBBY KUA; JOHN PAOO; REBECCA KUA; EMMA DEFRIES; JOSEPHINE KELIIKIPI; VIOLET ANAKALEA; JACOB KELIIKIPI; ANTOINETTE DEFRIES; WEST KELIIKIPI; LINDA KELIIKIPI; HELEN SHAM; VICTOR DEFRIES; FRANK DEFRIES; ARTHUR DEFRIES; ARTHUR DEFRIES, JR.; DAVID DEFRIES; ROLAND DEFRIES; TAMARA MERSBERG; ANNOLENE SPENCER; EDITH DEFRIES; GAYLEEN IDICA; HIRAM DEFRIES; NANCY DEFRIES; ALLAN DEFRIES; JOHN DEFRIES JR.; ELEANORA DEFRIES; JOHN DEFRIES III; JAMES DEFRIES; JERI-ANNE DEFRIES; JEROME DEFRIES; ROBIN HECKELBECK; JOSEPH DEFRIES; CHRISTY F. DEFRIES; BRANDON DEFRIES; JACOB DEFRIES; JON-NORMAN DEFRIES; DALLAS DEFRIES; ESTHER SMYTHE; MARION KELIIKIPI; MARION ESPINAL; CLARA COIT; LEVONNE KUKAHIKO; ANNA CRAIG; JOHN W. ESPINAL; GUADALUPE ESPINAL; HENRY DEFRIES; LORETTA DEFRIES; their respective heirs or assigns; and ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that Plaintiff Jeff John Silva has filed a complaint in the Third Circuit Court, State of Hawaii, Civil No. 06-1-97, to quiet title to: Apana 1 of Land Commission Award No. 10008 issued to LEPOLOA (k), on May 10, 1852, situate at Hionaa, Kau, Hawai i, within TMK No. (3) 9-5-015-005; and Apana 2 of Royal Patent Grant No. 1367 issued to Daniela Leohaalulu, also known as D.K. Napahi (k), on March 21, 1854, situate at Hionaa, Kau, Hawai i, within TMK Nos. (3) 9-5-015-12 & 13. YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to appear in the courtroom of the Honorable Glenn S. Hara, Judge of the Third Circuit Court, in his courtroom at 75 Aupuni Street, Courtroom No. 2, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, on June 2, 2006 at 8:00 A.M., or to file an answer or other pleading and serve it before said day upon Plaintiff's attorney, Philip J. Leas, whose address is Cades Schutte LLP, 1000 Bishop Street, Suite 1200, Honolulu, HI 96813. If you fail to do so, judgment by default will be rendered against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint. DATED: Hilo, Hawai i, April 3, 2006. P. TANAKA CLERK, THIRD CIRCUIT COURT (Hon. Adv.: Apr. 19, 26; May 3, 10, 2006) (A-392915) Posted on 4/19/2006

 

 

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