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Today is officially the last day of Honolulu City Lights.
Displays inside Honolulu Hale can be viewed from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Spectators will still be able to take in Shaka Santa, Tutu Mele and the other outdoor Honolulu City Lights attractions through the weekend, however, because city crews won’t begin taking them down until Monday, city spokesman Adam LeFebvre said.
Radio personality Abbot dies at age 55
Longtime morning radio show host and disc jockey Phil Abbot died Monday at the age of 55.
Abbot, host of the 107.9 Hawaii’s Kool Gold “Morning Show,” was a respected “Old School DJ,” Salem Media Group said in a news release. He was a Hilo High School graduate and had pursued a journalism degree at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
Salem Media said Abbot died of natural causes.
Abbot was well known in the radio industry in Hawaii and on the mainland for more than four decades, according to Salem. “Some of Abbot’s biggest radio stints were alongside KIIS-FM Los Angeles legend Rick Dees and also in Honolulu at KPOI’s 98-Rock,”according to the release. “Abbot was part of the legendary 98-Rock ‘Rabbett & Abbot’ Morning Show.”
He had been with Salem Media Group in Hawaii since February 2012, as morning show host on 107.9 Hawaii’s Kool Gold and as KKOL’s program director. While he was program director, KKOL reached the No. 3 spot in the Honolulu metro market
Abbot is survived by his wife, Joyce, and two sons, Justin and Eric Miyamoto. Services are pending.
Vacation leads to felony larceny charge
STAMFORD, Conn. >> A vacation in Hawaii not only cost a former Connecticut police officer his job, but also led to criminal charges being brought against him.
The Stamford Advocate reports Donald Chen was granted two weeks off from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15 by the Stamford Police Department so he could report for training with his U.S. Army Reserve unit.
Eight days into Chen’s military leave, police received a call from the Army asking where he was. After initially telling a lie involving his “sick” father, police said, Chen admitted that he was vacationing in Hawaii with his girlfriend.
Chen, who resigned from the force on Dec. 14, is facing charges of felony larceny and defrauding a public community. He turned himself in to police on Tuesday.
Chen’s attorney declined comment.
NEIGHBOR ISLANDS
County offers Christmas tree recycling
Hawaii County is accepting Christmas trees for recycling through Jan. 17.
The Solid Waste Division of the Department of Environmental Management is offering the free service to residential customers who can leave trees at any county waste facility, except for the Miloliii and Ocean View transferstations, during normal business hours.
More information, including a map and directions to drop-off locations, is available online at hawaiizerowaste.org/facilities/.
Commercial customers must recycle yuletide trees at either the East Hawaii Organics Facility in Hilo or the West Hawaii Organics Facility in Waikoloa.
All decorations, stands, lights, tinsel and ornaments should be removed. Artificial or flocked trees and trees with tinsel are not recyclable and may be disposed of in the regular trash chutes.
Also, kadomatsu decorations — typically a combination of bamboo, pine and flowers — are recyclable.
For more information about recycling in Hawaii County, visit hawaiizerowaste.org or call the county’s Solid Waste Division Office at 961-8270.
Hawaii isle prosecutors get extra funds
The state has released an additional $45,000 in funding to Hawaii County’s Office of the Prosecuting Attorney’s victim/witness program and career criminal prosecution program.
The appropriations were the result of Act 83, special legislation approved during Hawaii’s last legislative session. The money will support salaries and other costs associated with victim/witness advocates, who provide services andsupport to victims of crimes and witnesses to crimes, as well as staff prosecutors, who handle career criminal prosecution cases, according to a county news release.
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