Hearing set on Hawaii judicial nominee

Assistant U. S. Attorney Derrick Watson’s nomination as a U.S. district judge is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday at the Senate office building in Washington D.C., according to the committee.

Watson was nominated by President Obama for a vacancy created when U.S. District Judge David Ezra became a senior district judge last year.

The nomination to the lifetime position requires Senate approval.

Watson would be the fourth full-time federal district judge here.

The committee will also consider judicial nominations for three other federal district court positions in New York and Colo­rado and another nomination to the U.S. Court of International Trade, according to the committee.

Patrick Leahy, Demo­cratic senator from Vermont, is the committee chairman.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Kauai to benefit from settlement of pesticide suit

The Kauai County Department of Water said it has received $6,693 from a Swiss pesticide manufacturer as part of a class-action lawsuit regarding the pesticide atrazine.

The money will help the county pay for testing the water supply for the common weedkiller.

The Water Department said it has conducted tests for atrazine since the 1990s and has found the level of the pesticide in Kauai’s water systems to be either well below the EPA maximum contaminant level of 3 pbb or nondetectable.

Syngenta of Switzerland agreed to a $105 million settlement with 1,085 water systems, including Kauai County’s.