Commission orders stream restorations
WAILUKU, Maui — The Hawaii water commission ordered the full restoration of flows to 10 Maui streams and ordered no or limited diversions for seven streams to restore habitats.
The decision Wednesday by the state Commission on Water Resource Management concludes a nearly two-decade battle about east Maui water rights that pitted Native Hawaiian taro farmers and practitioners against land owner Alexander &Baldwin Inc.
Na Moku Aupuni O Ko‘olau Hui, a group of taro farmers, fishermen, hunters and traditional practitioners, filed a petition in 2001 to amend the flow standards of more than two dozen streams that A&B historically diverted for its sugar cane fields. The group claimed diverting the water negatively impacted stream life, taro farming and other Native Hawaiian practices.
The commission estimated that its decision meets about 90 percent of the “reasonable irrigation needs” for 23,000 acres of important agricultural lands.
Flight returns to airport with gauge issue
PHOENIX — Authorities say an American Airlines flight from Arizona to Hawaii had to return to the Phoenix airport because of a problem with an exhaust gas temperature gauge.
They say Flight 692 circled Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport a few times Thursday to burn off fuel so an emergency landing could be avoided. The Boeing 757 with 185 passengers and six crew members aboard landed safely.
American spokesman Ross Feinstein says passengers were being transferred to another plane that was scheduled to arrive early Friday in Honolulu.
Sailor killed in attack reburied in Colorado
DENVER — A sailor who was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was reburied at a Colorado cemetery on Thursday after his previously unknown remains were identified through DNA.
Wallace Eakes was buried with full military honors at Fort Logan National Cemetery. About 100 people, mostly veterans with no other connection to Eakes besides their military service, attended the service, cemetery director Mat Williams said.
Eakes was a 22-year-old sailor on the USS Oklahoma when it was torpedoed and sank Dec. 7, 1941. He was buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. His remains were identified last year by the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
His nephew and next of kin, Gary Eakes of Tacoma, Wash., decided to have his uncle’s body reburied in Colorado because Eakes’ parents and sister moved there from Kansas and are buried in a private cemetery in the Denver area.
Man sentenced for in 2013 shooting
HAGATNA, Guam — A Guam man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting his girlfriend after an argument about burned rice in 2013.
Clifford San Nicolas was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to charges of manslaughter and possession of a deadly weapon.
Valene Borja was shot in the neck and died from complications a year after the attack. The bullet struck her spinal cord, paralyzing her from the neck down, according to court documents.
San Nicolas told authorities that he had been awake for five to six days on a drug binge on the day of the shooting, according to court documents.
San Nicolas will be eligible for parole after serving 80 percent of his sentence, said attorney John Terlaje.