Hawaii

Slack-key master Raymond Kaleoalohapoina’oleohelemanu Kane, who as a youth caught fish off the Wai’anae Coast to trade for guitar lessons, died Wednesday night at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center. He was 82.

Kane shared his ki ho’alu artistry with students and audiences around the world, bringing old-world traditions to the limelight. He was well known for his musical dexterity as well as his roguish personality, virtues that made him a cultural ambassador and beloved icon of a generation.

“He was 7 or 8 when he first heard ki ho’alu, being played by a Hawaiian man,” recalled Bobby Moderow, a singer-musician with the group Maunalua who was both a pupil and a friend of Kane.

(Read the full post about ‘Slack-key virtuoso Uncle Raymond K. Kane, 82′…)

Viola “Vi” Dolman, a leader in the Hawai’i real estate community for more than 40 years and an active volunteer, died Tuesday night at the Hawai’i Medical Center. She was 87.

Dolman suffered a stroke on Dec. 19 and was working hard to recover, daughter Laura Dolman Andrews said. Dolman had just closed on a sale prior to the stroke and received a commission check three weeks ago.

“She never stopped. She never gave up,” Dolman Andrews said. “She loved real estate. It wasn’t work to her.”

Dolman was born Dec. 9, 1920, in Kansas. She attended Kansas State College and received a master’s degree in virology at Stanford University.

She moved to Hawai’i in 1953 to focus on her research in polio and cancer, but turned to real estate as a “diversion.” In 1970, she formed Dolman Associates Inc.

(Read the full post about ‘Real estate executive Viola ‘Vi’ Dolman, 87′…)

One of the reasons I started this blog was to make some noise about the problems facing the Puna District and to help bring ideas and possible solutions to the table. Among the most effective solutions is for residents to begin actively taking matters into their own hands.

Recently a group of local residents hoping to boost Puna’s fortunes by holding the County’s feet to the fires of its obligations to Puna has organized and will be meeting 2-5 p.m. this Saturday (March 1) at the Pahoa Community Center. Pahoa resident Rob Tucker, who moderates the Punaweb forum, is organizing the Friends of Puna’s Future and inviting everyone to the meeting.

Initially the group is eying ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act)-accessible sidewalks for Pahoa Village.

(Read the full post about ‘Be a Friend of Puna’s Future’…)

Rep. Rida Cabanilla, chair of the Committee on International Affairs, will congratulate and honor French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his recent marriage to Carla Bruni, an Italian model-turned-pop-singer.

Patricia Y. Lee, French Honorary Consul of Honolulu, will accept a congratulatory certificate on behalf of President Sarkozy.

When: Friday, Feb. 29, 11:30 p.m.

Where: State Capitol, Rm. 312

Photo: President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy at the Château de Versailles the day after their wedding. (Antoine Gyori/Reuters)

HONOLULU — Avid hikers are fighting to keep a popular east Oahu trail open.

The Koko Crater trail is in Hawaii Kai. Hikers gathered Tuesday night for a rally before confronting city officials who initially shut down the trail Feb. 15.

Hikers and other community members brought their signs and voices Tuesday night to the Hawaii Kai neighborhood board meeting to protest closure of the Koko Crater trail, which the city closed on Feb. 15 without prior notification. The city took down the closed signs later the same day in response to public outcry.

“It’s a safety issue,” Parks Director Lester Chang said at the crowded meeting Tuesday night.

Chang said two issues concern officials: former railroad tracks along the trail and a nearby rifle range, the Koko Head Shooting Complex.

“When the shooting range was built in the ’30s, it was isolated. (Read the full post about ‘Hikers Speak Out Against Closing Popular Trail’…)

EWA BEACH, Hawaii — Weeks after the massive meat recall that affected school lunch programs around the country, the state Department of Education said it has 266,000 pounds around the state headed for landfills.

The recall was triggered by evidence that a California meat company sent sick dairy cows to slaughter.

School officials said they do not know how much of the meat may have been eaten.

Hawaii school cafeteria managers said they will be glad to get the cases of Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. out of their kitchens.

The Department of Education said it has 266,000 pounds of the meat scattered across the state. (Read the full post about ‘DOE: 266,000 Pounds Of Recalled Meat Headed For Landfills’…)

HONOLULU — An Oahu roadway is being hailed as a modern marvel of construction.

The H-3 Freeway will be the focus on this week’s episode of “Modern Marvels” on the Discovery Channel. The freeway is being showcased along with several other roadways from around the world as part of the “Super Highways” episode.

The H-3 cost about $1.3 billion to build and is the single largest public works project in state history.

“Modern Marvels” airs Thursday at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the Discovery Channel.

HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii has been selected a co-leader in the creation of a new homeland security Center of Excellence for Maritime, Island and Port Security.

The university will receive a multiyear grant of as much as $2 million per year over a four- to six-year period.

Hawaii Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka said in a news release that UH will take the lead in providing the Department of Homeland Security with problem-solving research into maritime and island security issues.

Akaka said the selection of UH shows the university has the “intellectual muscle” to be on the front lines in helping to secure the U.S.

The other co-leader is Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. (Read the full post about ‘UH Picked For Homeland Security Project’…)

HONOLULU — The state’s Department of Agriculture took a first step on Tuesday to get approval to release tiny wasps from Taiwan and Tanzania to kill off introduced species in the islands, including another little wasp that has devastated plant life statewide.

At a meeting of the Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, the Plant and Pest Control Branch asked permission to proceed in the effort to breed two tiny wasps. Officials said one of the wasps would kill off a stinging nettle caterpillar by laying its eggs in the larvae of the caterpillar.

The other wasp officials want to introduce is one similar to the one that is killing wiliwili and coral trees across the state by laying its eggs on the leafs of the trees. (Read the full post about ‘State Looks To Use Wasps To Combat Insect Problem’…)

Conservative author and editor William F. Buckley Jr. died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn. He was 82 years old.

Buckley was a publisher, editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star of “Firing Line,” harpsichordist, trans-oceanic sailor and mentor to young conservatives. He once lost an election for New York City mayor.

He is perhaps most famous for founding the National Review magazine, which became a flagship conservative opinion journal. His first work on non-fiction, “God And Man At Yale,” in 1951, was an early critique that began a now common conservative complaint about liberalism on U.S. (Read the full post about ‘Pivotal Conservative Publisher Buckley Dies’…)