Hawai'i briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Hotel cook ordered to trial in slaying

A former cook who is accused of stabbing his boss to death at the Sheraton-Waikiki hotel Dec. 1 was declared fit to stand trial following a hearing in District Court yesterday.

A trial for Tam Van Huynh, 39, on second-degree murder charges is scheduled to begin the week of Sept. 4 in Circuit Court. Huynh is accused of killing hotel executive sous chef Tom Matsuda, 49, following an argument over a work schedule.

A three-doctor panel examined Huynh and found him fit to stand trial.

Disabled residents may be due money

Nearly 400 disabled Hawai'i residents collecting Supplemental Security Income are owed money and may be eligible to receive higher Social Security disability payments.

An average of $2,000 each is owed to the 400 SSI participants, said Tim Walsh of the Honolulu Social Security Administration office.

Nearly 200 of those owed the increased payments live on O'ahu.

Because Social Security disability benefits pay more than SSI, the disabled person could qualify for monthly payments up to $20 higher than they received under the SSI program.

The underpayments were discovered during an internal national audit of the Social Security Administration. Nationally, 130,000 low-income disabled people are affected.

The Social Security Administration will contact affected clients.