Protester arrested after disrupting mayor
Police arrested a Native Hawaiian practitioner and member of Occupy Honolulu on Tuesday after she tried unsuccessfully to speak with Mayor Peter Carlisle during the city’s May Day ceremony at Kapiolani Park Bandstand.
Laulani Teale was charged with disorderly conduct at about noon, and released on $150 bail paid by Occupy Honolulu supporters several hours later.
Video shot by fellow Occupy Honolulu member Doug Masuoka shows Teale blowing a conch shell as Carlisle spoke to the audience, and trying to approach the mayor afterward. Her path was blocked by police officers who told her it was “not the time and place” to talk to Carlisle.
Teale, on a blog post Monday on Masuoka’s website, said she would protest the city’s seizure Sunday of a banner painted by artist Raul Gonzalez to celebrate Kanawai Mamalahoa, the law of the splintered paddle. Originally decreed by Kamehameha the Great, the splintered paddle decree is the concept that people should be allowed to lie by the roadside in safety. The words are part of Article IX of the state Constitution and is being cited by Occupy Honolulu as justification for its right to camp at Thomas Square.
Teale said the banner was not tagged by city officials 24 hours before seizing it as required by a city ordinance, and that its taking was a violation of the state Constitution.
Activists tossed from Capitol sue Hanabusa
Civil rights activist Mitchell Kahle and his friend Kevin Hughes filed a Circuit Court lawsuit Friday against former Senate President Colleen Hanabusa over Kahle’s ouster from the state Capitol after he objected to opening the Senate session with a prayer.
Kahle and Hughes reached a $100,000 settlement earlier this year with the state in their lawsuit against Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Ben Villaflor, his subordinates and sheriff’s deputies.
Kahle was arrested in connection with the April 2010 incident but later acquitted of a disorderly conduct charge. Hughes video recorded Kahle protesting the prayer and said several sergeant-at-arms employees attacked him and broke his camera.
Friday’s suit is against Hanabusa, president of the Senate at the time.
Richard Rapoza, a spokesman for Hanabusa, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said they have not seen the lawsuit and cannot comment without reading it.
2-car crash on Saddle Road kills Hilo man
A 31-year-old Hilo man was fatally injured early Tuesday in a two-vehicle collision on Saddle Road, Hawaii County police said.
Police identified the victim as Calsey B. Santos. He was pronounced dead at Hilo Medical Center at 8:07 a.m. Tuesday. Santos suffered massive head injuries, the Hawaii County Fire Department said.
Police said Santos was driving a 1994 Nissan four-door sedan toward Hilo when he crossed the center line and sideswiped a Kona-bound flatbed tow truck at 5:24 a.m., three-tenths of a mile west of the 19-mile marker. The driver of the tow truck, a 48-year-old Kailua-Kona man, and his passenger, a 58-year-old Hilo man, were not injured.
Traffic investigators opened a negligent-homicide investigation and ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of Santos’ death.
Saddle Road was closed in both directions between the 19- and 20-mile markers for about three hours while firefighters worked to free Santos and clear the scene and police investigated the crash. The road was reopened at 8:36 a.m.
It was the 12th traffic fatality on Hawaii island this year, compared with eight at this time last year.
2 Kauai pools closed Thursday after 11:30 a.m.
The Kapaa and Waimea municipal swimming pools will be closed Thursday afternoon to allow staff to attend an islandwide meeting.
Both facilities will be open to the public from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Both facilities are closed on Mondays and holidays.
For more information, go online to www.kauai.gov/parks or call the Kapaa swimming pool office at 822-3842 or the Waimea pool office at 338-1271.
