Posted on: Friday, January 7, 2005
HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Suspect indicted in three bank heists
Advertiser Staff
A federal grand jury yesterday indicted a 48-year-old man in connection with three armed bank robberies last month.
Urick Trueman is accused of robbing City Bank's Waipahu branch on Dec. 22, the Bank of Hawaii Kapahulu branch on Dec. 27, and the American Savings Bank Wahiawa branch on Dec. 30. He also was charged with using or possessing a firearm during the three robberies.
Trueman was arrested Saturday in Waialua by Honolulu police. He has 22 convictions, including a 1990 conviction for manslaughter, police said.
A 42-year-old man was in critical condition last night after he was beaten yesterday morning in Ala Moana Beach Park.
Police arrested a 46-year-old man in connection with the violence. He was being held last night and faced a charge of second-degree assault.
Police said the two men were arguing in the park at about 10:30 a.m. when one of them began to punch and kick the other in the head. The 42-year-old man suffered serious head injuries and was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
The other man was arrested at the scene.
The state Council on Revenues, which makes the income forecasts on which state officials base their spending, yesterday stuck with its earlier prediction of 8.8 percent growth for the current year, 5.3 percent growth for next year and 5.7 percent growth for the 2007 fiscal year.
Council member Jack Suyderhoud, an economics professor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, asked that colleagues entertain a higher forecast of 9.5 percent for the current year. During the first six months of the 2005 fiscal year, revenues are up about 18 percent. "Even if the rest of the year grows at 7 percent ... , we're going to come in at 11 percent (for the year)," he said.
But other members of the council, including chairman Mike Sklarz, said the different economic models they studied gave them no certainty that revenues will be able to continue at a higher clip.
Gov. Linda Lingle signed an executive order yesterday creating the Hawai'i Ocean and Coastal Council, a group of state, county and federal officials who will collaborate on ocean issues and help the governor with ocean policy.
The 25-member council will also work with similar groups on the Mainland to give Hawai'i more of a role in developing national ocean policy.
"There is so much in our state that is riding on our wise stewardship of the ocean and our coastal resources," Lingle said.
The council will look at issues such as shoreline erosion, water quality, public access, commercial use, the decline of fisheries, and public and private development in coastal areas. The council includes state land use, agriculture, business and tourism officials, along with representatives from federal agencies, the University of Hawai'i and the counties.
Peter Young, chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the agencies have overlapping interests and can work together on ocean concerns. The council, modeled after the Hawai'i Invasive Species Council, grew out of a group that last May prepared the state's response to the draft report by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.
Man, 42, beaten at beach park
Council retains growth estimate
New panel's goal is ocean policy
