Learn financial basics

People can get information on consumer credit, homeownership, money management for senior citizens and other topics Tuesday during a free “Financial Literacy Fair” at Tama­rind Park in downtown Hono­lulu. The fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is sponsored by the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The department also announced it will be open on state furlough days in April, May and June.

Governor chooses new OIP director

Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed Cheryl Kakazu Park yesterday director of the Office of Information Practices, which administers state open-records and meetings laws.

Park replaces acting director Cathy Takase, who had suggested that the governor must release names of judicial candidates. Abercrombie has refused to do so, but his spokeswoman has said Takase’s position was not related to the decision to replace her.

Park, a 1981 graduate of the University of Hawaii law school, was a partner with the Honolulu law firm of Watanabe Ing  & Kawashima before moving to Europe in 1992 and Nevada in 1995, according to the governor’s office.

She had been a staff attorney with the Nevada Supreme Court since 2003 and has returned to Hawaii, the office said.

Man to serve 30 years for stabbing wife

A Lihue man who fatally stabbed his sleeping wife two years ago will have to serve at least 30 years of his life sentence, the Hawaii Paroling Authority ruled.

Joseph Hoapili pleaded guilty last year and was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Fred­lynn Hoa­pili, his wife of 35 years.

Hoapili stabbed the woman 18 times with a large kitchen knife, the prosecution said.

The couple’s son, John Hoa­pili, testified earlier in District Court that he saw his father stab his mother multiple times on the morning of March 3, 2009, in his parents’ bedroom and tried to get him to stop.

“The defendant’s cruel and callous actions ended the life of Fred­lynn Hoa­pili, a beloved mother, a daughter, a grandmother, a sister, an aunt and a friend,” county Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho said in a news release Thursday.

The paroling authority set Hoa­pili’s minimum term to expire in 2039, crediting him with two years previously served.

Kona man’s body found off Pawai Bay

The body of a 52-year-old Kona man was found floating in waters off the Kona coast today.

Hawaii County police identified the man as George Nalimu, who had been picking opihi when last seen alive.

Police said a dive boat found Nalimu’s body about 100 yards from the shore off Pawai Bay in front of the Queen Liliu­oka­lani Children’s Center at about 10:15 a.m.

He was pronounced dead at Kona Community Hospital.

Nalimu’s opihi knife and a bag of opihi were found on his body, police said.

Police have ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death.