Steven Alm has earned seat on court bench

The good news is that Gov. Ben Cayetano is not letting Steven Alm get away. The larger community would have been ill-served if he had been forced to return to the private practice of law.

Alm was appointed U.S. attorney for Hawai'i in 1994 by President Clinton. His accomplishments have been outstanding.

Indeed, the transition in Washington may place Hawai'i in an awkward position as George Bush fills the important patronage jobs here — U.S. marshall, Farm Service and Department of Agriculture positions, Alm's job, a U.S. District Court judgeship, and long-nourished hope for a slot on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

There were some early hopes that Bush might be prevailed upon to retain Alm, but as is normal practice, all of the U.S. attorneys were asked to resign.

Alm's office prosecuted high-profile figures like former state Sen. Milton Holt and former state House Speaker Danny Kihano, as well as a number of police officers gone bad. We must hope that the Republicans come up with a replacement every bit as effective.

Perhaps Alm's most enduring contribution will be the "Weed and Seed" program, which first slashed crime and increased civic involvement in Chinatown-Palama, and now is at work in Waipahu.

We say perhaps it will be an enduring contribution because there's no word yet on whether the Republican Bush administration will continue to support "Weed and Seed." As it has unfolded here under Alm's leadership, anything other than a strong commitment to continue it would indeed be a shame.