4 fire stations open this weekend to accept illegal fireworks

Honolulu residents have one last opportunity to dispose of illegal fireworks Saturday and Sunday at four Oahu fire stations through an amnesty program.

The Honolulu Fire Department’s program, supported by the Honolulu Police Department, allows Oahu residents to turn in any illegal fireworks without any repercussions.

This weekend from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., fireworks can be dropped off at the following fire stations: Hawaii Kai, Kakaako, Kalihi and McCully/Moiliili.

Some 2,205 pounds of fireworks was collected this past weekend, making it a total of 6,400 pounds since June, police said.

$50,000 cancer research grant goes to UH faculty member

A University of Hawaii faculty member has won a $50,000 cancer research grant.

The university’s Cancer Center said last month that Andrea Fleig is this year’s recipient of the Weinman Innovator Award. Fleig is a faculty member in the center’s cancer biology program and director of research and development at the Queen’s Medical Center.

The grant is to support research to develop new diagnostic or therapeutic approaches to cancer.

New Hawaii license plate honors families of fallen soldiers

A new Hawaii license plate design is being created for family members of fallen soldiers.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie recently signed into law a measure creating the new license plates, which will show a gold star surrounded by a purple circle and the words “gold star family” to the left of the plate number. The plate will be available by Oct. 1 to children, parents, grandparents, spouses and siblings of fallen soldiers. Forty-seven states and Guam already have star plates.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Court program has short leash for probationers

Kauai Circuit Chief Judge Randal Valenciano has warned six felony probationers that positive testing for drug use would result in mandatory jail time.

The Garden Island newspaper reports the probationers are the first to enter the Kauai court’s new Hawaii Opportunity Probation with Enforcement, or HOPE, program. From now on, said Valenciano, anyone in the program who tests positive for drugs or misses an appointment with their probation officer will automatically go to jail.

“In short, sex offenders, domestic violence and drug offenders in HOPE are being monitored and supervised closer and more frequently than ever before and held to a higher level of accountability,” Valenciano said last week. “HOPE will keep offenders out of prison, save taxpayer dollars and increase public safety.”

According to the Judiciary, the goal is to have 20 high-risk probationers in the Kauai program.

Maui wooing South Korean sister city

Maui County officials are in South Korea working on establishing a sister-city relationship.

Mayor Alan Arakawa and Council Chairman Danny Mateo have met with the mayor of Seo-gu to formally extend the sister-city invitation. Arakawa says Seo-gu has four universities specializing in fields that are of interest to Maui County, including tourism and nursing.

Seo-gu’s mayor has told the Maui officials he is receptive to the idea. They are expected to return from the weeklong trip on Wednesday.