Governor signs repeal of land agency
Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed Monday a bill to repeal the Public Land Development Corp., erasing the 2-year-old law before the agency developed a single project.
"As with any new law, public understanding and support are essential," Abercrombie said in a news release. "In the case of the PLDC, best intentions and the potential for public good could not be reconciled with public concerns."
The Legislature gave final approval to a repeal of the PLDC this month.
Created in 2011, the PLDC was to work with the private sector on development projects on underused state land. Opponents, including environmentalists, some Native Hawaiian goups and labor activists, attacked it as a government overreach, citing the broad exemptions from land-use regulations granted to the PLDC.
Following vocal opposition during the public rule-making process for the agency, lawmakers who had voted overwhelmingly for the PLDC two years ago uniformly agreed to abandon the agency.
Training will increase noise at Schofield
Neighbors of Schofield Barracks might hear more noise this week due to training exercises being held at the Army post.
The 25th Infantry Division said in a news release that the training will last through Friday.
Most training will be held during the day, but residents might hear noise until 10 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, when the 3rd Brigade Combat Team conducts field artillery certification exercises.
Charges filed in pellet attack at golf course
Police charged a suspect in a pellet-gun shooting over the weekend in which a Maui golfer was injured.
The Maui News reported that a 49-year-old man suffered an injury to his upper right arm Sunday afternoon while golfing at the Maui Country Club in Spreckelsville. The man was shot while waiting to tee off.
Maui Police Department Sgt. Karen Wong said dispatchers received calls of shots being fired near the country club at 12:24 p.m. The newspaper said the injured golfer was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center.
Alan Engling, 59, who is homeless, was charged with six counts of attempted second-degree assault, nine counts of first-degree terroristic threatening, first-degree assault on a police officer, attempted first-degree assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. He was released pending further investigation.
National parks’ superintendent will start in June
Tammy Duchesne has been selected as the new superintendent of Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park and Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park on Hawaii island. She replaces Kathy Billings, who was named superintendent of Death Valley National Park.
Duchesne will begin her new job in June. She is superintendent at Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
She has collaborated with the anthropology faculty at the University of Hawaii to shed light on how World War II songs and chants captured the essence of the war experience for Micronesians.
