Travel-ban restraint is appealed

The Department of Justice has appealed a Hawaii court order that brought President Donald Trump’s travel ban to a national halt.

The government has argued that the president was well within his authority to restrict travel from six Muslim-majority countries and put a pause on refugee resettlement.

The appeal Thursday to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came a day after U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu refused to dismiss his temporary block of the travel ban that he issued March 15.

With the appeal, the government is fighting to reinstate the travel ban in two appeals courts on opposite ends of the country. That increases the likelihood that one of the cases will make it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Concrete removed from Waimea Bay

The City and County of Honolulu said a crew removed a large concrete structure from the shoreline at Waimea Bay at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

The curved concrete piece was deemed a public safety hazard by the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Emergency Management.

Workers used an excavator to pull the piece out of the water and move it up the beach. The city said the piece is too large to remove from the area until it can be broken into smaller pieces.

HAWAII ISLAND

Pair sought over mayhem in Puna

Hawaii County police want to question two women in the wake of a Wednesday incident in Puna in which officers saw a 54-year-old Keaau man struck by a vehicle and fired shots at the fleeing car.

Police want to question Jerrilyn Ann Rego and Larissa Naleikailima Padamada, both 26, of Kau.

Rego is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall, 120 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, and lightly tanned. She has numerous tattoos, including “Rego” on the right side of her neck, a tribal tattoo on her upper right arm and “Chelbie” on her outer right forearm.

Padamada is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall, 200 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, and tanned.

On Wednesday at about 10 p.m., officers said, they responded to a request for assistance at a convenience store parking lot in Kurtistown. Upon arrival an officer saw the Keeau man standing outside a four-door sedan and struggling with a female in the driver’s seat. The officer said the car, which had a female passenger inside, struck the man.

While fleeing, the driver then allegedly struck the officer’s vehicle, prompting the officer to fire two shots, police said in a news release, adding it was “in response to the imminent danger.”

The Keaau man was taken to the Hilo Medical Center, where he was treated and released.

The vehicle was later found abandoned in the Glenwood area.

Assistant Chief Henry Tavares said that both the female driver who was involved in the struggle and a female passenger are suspects in the second-degree assault case, and they want to question Rego and Padamada. Police are also including several traffic violations in the investigation.

The Office of Professional Standards is also conducting an administrative probe, as is standard procedure in any police-involved shooting.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Detective Dean Uyetake at 961-2379 or email dean.uyetake@hawaiicounty.gov.

Anonymous calls may be made to 961-8300.