Hawai'i briefs
Advertiser Staff
HONOLULU
Checkpoints set for holidays
Police across the state are conducting sobriety checkpoints during the holidays as part of the "You Drink & Drive ... You Lose" enforcement campaign.
All four county police departments will hold random checkpoints through Jan. 5 to discourage motorists from driving while intoxicated and to remind them to wear seat belts.
So far this year, 51 people have died in alcohol-related crashes in Hawai'i, compared with 48 killed in all of 2002.
Last year's figures made up approximately 40 percent of the 119 overall state traffic fatalities.
Fund-raiser to benefit youth
The Adult Friends for Youth will celebrate its 17th anniversary today with a fund-raising auction and dinner at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
More than 1,200 items valued at $600,000 will be available for bid, including two tickets to Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston.
A silent auction will be held from 4:45 to 7 p.m.
AFY is a nonprofit organization aimed at helping troubled youths. The AFY's clinical staff conducts therapy groups in several schools, works with youth gangs, provides individual therapy and offers parenting classes.
AFY officials hope to raise between $325,000 and $350,000.
The event is open to the public. Tickets are $100. For more information, contact Judie Rosen at Adult Friend's for Youth, 833-8775 or 395-6008.
Doctor to talk about ice issue
The Rotary Club of Honolulu will hold the third of a four-part speaker series on Hawai'i's ice epidemic Tuesday with Dr. Bill Haning of The Queen's Medical Center discussing the medical view of the problem.
Andy Anderson of Hina Mauka and two recovering addicts will discuss the human impact at the Dec. 9 meeting.
The series is being held at noon in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Monarch Room. Cost is $18 for a buffet lunch.
For more information, call Debbie Jenkins at 922-5526.
Runway work to mean more noise
The state Department of Transportation will close one of the runways at Honolulu International Airport today through Monday for barrier maintenance work.
Runway 4 Right will be closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for work that originally was scheduled for last weekend.
Residents in the 'Ewa area will hear more aircraft noise during the maintenance work.
EAST HONOLULU
HECO to inspect power lines
Hawaiian Electric Co. will use a helicopter today to perform inspections of its transmission lines from Palolo Valley, along Wa'ahila Ridge, to the University of Hawai'i.
HECO advises nearby residents that the flights will begin at around 10 a.m.
STATEWIDE
Sen. Kim attends travel trade show
State Senate Tourism Committee chairwoman Donna Mercado Kim, who has criticized the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, accompanied two officials of the agency to a travel industry trade show in London.
Kim said she was invited on the five-day trip to the World Travel Market by Rex Johnson, president of the HTA. Also on the trip was marketing director Frank Haas.
Kim said her travel expenses, estimated at $1,600 or less, were paid by the state Senate.
Kim held a series of Senate hearings last summer on an audit critical of the tourism authority.
She said that on the London trip she met with travel officials, talked with former Hawai'i travel promoters and attended a news conference given by Hawai'i promoters.
"The trip was a real eye-opener," Kim said.
Johnson said the trip was designed to review how the state's promotions were handled in Europe and whether the state could draw more visitors.
While Hawai'i once picked up about 300,000 visitors a year from Europe, primarily the United Kingdom and Germany, Johnson said the number has declined to about 110,000.
