Students at three Hawai'i universities soon will be able to buy a discounted city bus pass good for an entire semester.

The new U-pass, valid for use on any city bus route seven days a week, is being promoted as part of a pilot program to offer alternatives to driving to campus, city officials said.

The pass, which costs $100, will be valid from the first day of classes in August through the end of the fall exam period in December at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, Chaminade and Hawai'i Pacific University.

"More bus use means fewer parking problems and fewer cars on our congested roads," Mayor Mufi Hannemann said.

Buying regular monthly bus passes for the same period would cost $160. A typical UH parking pass for the semester costs $134, UH officials said.

The bus pass stickers, which can be put on a student identification card, go on sale at campus sites Aug. 15.

Students need to show a validated fall student ID at the time of purchase.

FALSE-REPORT ARREST MADE

Police have made their first arrest under a new state law that prohibits the abuse of the 911 emergency phone system.

The man made close to 40 calls to 911 over a nine-day period ending Monday, police said. On Sunday alone, the 53-year-old man made 14 calls in three hours, they said.

He would ramble incoherently while tying up emergency lines, police said.

The Legislature passed the law this year, because police get so many false emergency calls.

Police said in any given week, they receive 400 so-called dropped calls, where people dial 911 and then hang up. If operators can't get the callers back on the line, police officers must be dispatched.

Under the new law, causing a false alarm or making a false complaint is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison.

STATEWIDE

TEAM SENT TO U.S. WWII CRASH SITES

A recovery team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will go to Washington state this week to look for remains at two World War II plane crash sites.

The first such mission in the continental United States since 1996 was recommended by an investigation team that visited the sites in the northern Cascades last year, the command said.

One site, in the Wenatchee National Forest, is associated with an SBD-5 Dauntless reported missing Feb. 15, 1945. Two men were on board when it departed from the U.S. Naval Air Station in Seattle.

The second excavation site is in the Okanogan National Forest. It concerns a P-38 that went missing in 1942.

The pilot from the 54th Fighter Squadron, 343rd Fighter Group took off from Elmendorf Air Base, Alaska, on a maintenance flight, but failed to arrive in Plain Field, Wash.

MISSING PROPERTY? PROGRAM CAN HELP

State officials will help residents find if they have any unclaimed property due them at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Filipino Community Center, 94-428 Mokuola St. in Waipahu.

The state Unclaimed Property Program receives and holds abandoned or unclaimed property such as money, bank accounts and financial documents that have remained inactive for at least five years.

For more information, visit www.unclaimedproperty .hawaii.gov or call 586-1589.

KAUA'I

ORCHID SALE AIDS HILLSIDE SHRINES

LIHU'E — A sale of potted orchids to benefit the Lawa'i International Center is being held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and tomorrow and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Kaua'i Museum on Rice Street in Lihu'e.

It is the eighth annual orchid sale to support the century-old valley sanctuary, where 88 shrines sit on a hillside, copied after the pilgrimage site in Shikoku, Japan. The site is under restoration.

For more information, visit www.lawaicenter.org.

UTILITY TO CONDUCT SERVICE SURVEY

LIHU'E — The Kaua'i electric utility will be conducting telephone surveys of Kaua'i Island Utility Co-op members through the end of July, the third such survey to assess satisfaction levels of power company customers.

The phone survey is being done by National Rural Electrical Cooperative Association Market Research Services, said Faye Akasaki, the KIUC vice president of member services.