Candidate sues over debate

Libertarian candidate for governor Jeff Davis is suing Hawaii News Now and the parent company of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for preventing him from attending last week’s televised gubernatorial debate.

Davis filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Thursday.

He was not invited to participate in the debate that was held at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and aired Oct. 15 on KHNL. Hawaii News Now and the Star-Advertiser sponsored the debate.

Davis also names as defendants UH and the state of Hawaii.

Star-Advertiser President and Publisher Dennis Francis had no comment on what he termed a "frivolous suit."

Mark Platte, news director of Hawaii News Now, parent of KHNL and KGMB, said he had no comment, as he had not been served with the lawsuit.

Science group wins awards

A team of students from Hawaii won the "Outstanding New Chapter" award and two individual research awards at the 2014 national conference of the Society for the Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

The Ilima SACNAS Chapter at the University of Hawaii, formed in February 2013, represented the Aloha State at the conference, which was held in Los Angeles on Oct. 16-18.

James Murphy, a master’s student at UH-Manoa, won the Marine Biology Graduate Student Award for his presentation on antioxidant enzyme activity in Hawaii corals. Melanie Keliipuleole, a student at Kapiolani Community College, received the Genetics Undergraduate Award for her study of sea urchins.

The Ilima Chapter has more than 100 members, including students from UH-Manoa, UH-West Oahu, Kapiolani Community College, Honolulu Community College and Chaminade University of Honolulu.

"A lot of students have gone individually to SACNAS conferences," said Austin Shelton, chapter president and a doctoral student at the UH Kewalo Marine Laboratory. "We decided to start the chapter up in February of last year, and now we go together."

The Hawaii chapter sent 33 people to the conference, which attracted 3,500 attendees, including industry employers and graduate schools on the lookout for recruits.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

GMO ordinance challenge heard

A lawyer representing a group seeking to invalidate Hawaii County’s law restricting the use of genetically engineered crops is asking a judge to make the same decision he recently made on Kauai’s law.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren heard arguments Thursday in the group’s lawsuit. He was the judge who ruled that a Kauai County ordinance requiring companies to disclose use of pesticides and genetically modified crops was invalid. He ruled state law pre-empted the Kauai ordinance.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Margery Bronster said the same ruling should be made for the Hawaii island law. She said banning new cultivation of any genetically modified crop is more onerous than the Kauai law. 

Deputy Corporation Counsel Katherine Garson said the law allows for exemptions, such as for papaya.

Future trash site draws dumping

KAILUA-KONA >> Illegally dumped trash is piling up in the Hawaii island subdivision of Ocean View.

People are leaving refrigerators, tires and even bags of diapers on a road to the future site of a refuse transfer station.  

Ocean View Community Association President Fortune Otter told West Hawaii Today some people don’t want to drive the 12 miles to the Waiohinu transfer station. 

Residents may dispose of trash for free on Saturdays when the county sets up containers at a park. But the wait to do so can run 30 minutes. 

The lack of a transfer station has been a sore point with Ocean View residents.

County Councilwoman Brenda Ford said she’s disgusted by the trash and displeased the station hasn’t been built.