Posted on: Saturday, January 8, 2005
HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Two injured in Makakilo crash
Advertiser Staff
Two people, including a Honolulu police officer, were injured last night in a two-car collision near Makakilo.
Ambulance personnel said the officer, 36, was responding to a call when his sport utility vehicle and another vehicle collided. The accident occurred shortly after 10 p.m.
The officer and the 23-year-old female driver of the other car were taken by the medevac helicopter to The Queen's Medical Center. Their conditions were not available last night.
State deputy sheriffs yesterday captured a 34-year-old inmate who walked away from the Laumaka Work Furlough Center Sunday night.
Louie Saya was arrested in Kalihi. Saya left the work furlough program in Kalihi on Sunday without permission, and told prison officials through his girlfriend that he would return.
But Saya failed to return, and he was declared an escapee. He faces an additional five years in prison if convicted on the escape charge.
Meanwhile, police and sheriffs continue to search for Jeffrey Chevalier, who left Laumaka on Monday night. He was serving time for burglary and drug convictions.
Chevalier, 36, is 5 feet 8 and 145 pounds.
Anyone with information on Chevalier is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, *CRIME on a cellular phone or Sheriff's dispatch at 538-5696.
State officials are revising their timetable for the reburial of the human remains unearthed during construction of the new Honolulu Wal-Mart complex, concluding that the archaeologists won't be able to finish work on the bones by a tentative deadline set for Monday.
Melanie Chinen, administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division, said the vacation schedule of the archaeologists working on the inventory of remains meant the work couldn't be finished in time, but a new deadline has not been set.
The progress on the inventory of the 44 to 50 sets of remains and on plans to rebury them will be discussed Tuesday during the O'ahu Island Burial Council meeting, set to begin at 9 a.m. at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
State Attorney General Mark Bennett is urging lawmakers to support funding for 30 new staffers to handle the growing number of child support cases, noting that its case workers have one of the highest caseloads in the country.
"The national average is 305 (child support cases per caseworker), and our average is 520, which is 60 percent higher than the national average," Bennett told the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday.
The Child Support Enforcement Agency has 194 positions, unchanged in the past six years. Meanwhile, Bennett said, the number of cases has increased 13 percent.
Bennett said it would cost the state about $400,000 to hire the 30 new workers, with federal sources picking up the remaining $800,000.
Frequent blood donors got to hear from two people who were helped by blood transfusions: shooting victim Eric Kawamoto and Janne Mason, who needed blood during childbirth.
The Blood Bank of Hawaii yesterday honored its most loyal blood donors at an annual recognition lunch at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Inmate captured; another at large
Vacations delay reburial of bones
Case worker shortage cited
Blood Bank honors donors
