Deputy sheriff fatally shoots man at state Capitol
HONOLULU — A deputy sheriff shot and killed a man during a struggle Monday at the state Capitol.
The state Department of Public Safety says the deputy sheriff was conducting routine patrols at the Capitol in downtown Honolulu on Monday night when he encountered a man with a bottle of alcohol.
Honolulu police say the man was “physically combative” with the deputy despite numerous warnings.
The department says sheriffs performed CPR until emergency medical workers arrived to take the man to a hospital, where he died.
The Honolulu medical examiner’s office said Tuesday the man’s identification was pending.
The Public Safety Department is conducting an internal investigation. Honolulu police also are investigating.
The sheriff division is responsible for protecting state facilities, including the Capitol.
Not guilty plea
in crash that killed three pedestrians
HONOLULU — A suspected drunken driver police say plowed into a crowded Honolulu intersection and killed three pedestrians pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
Alins Sumang was arraigned Tuesday via video from jail, where he’s being detained on $1 million bail.
Trial is scheduled for April.
Sumang is charged with three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of Casimir Pokorny of Pennsylvania, Reino Ikeda of Japan and William Lau of Honolulu.
Police say the truck Sumang was driving last month veered across three lanes, climbed a traffic island, hit six pedestrians and then crashed into another truck. Three people, including the driver of the second truck, were hospitalized, and one was treated and released.
Car sales down and expected
to drop more
HONOLULU — Hawaii consumers are buying fewer new vehicles, according to a recent report.
New vehicle registrations declined 4.4 percent in 2018, and sales are projected to soften even further this year, according to a quarterly study by Hawaii Auto Outlook.
The 2018 car sales drop marked the state’s first decline after seven consecutive years of growth.
“There are a few signs pointing to a market slowdown,” said Jeff Foltz, editor of Hawaii Auto Outlook.
He added, however, that a strong labor market, combined with a steady stream of new products, should prevent a sharp decline during the next 18 months.
The 56,520 registrations last year were the lowest since 2014 when there were 54,039 vehicles registered statewide, according to the report produced for the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.
There were 59,137 registrations in 2017. Hawaii Auto Outlook forecasts this year there will be 54,750 registrations. That would mark a second consecutive decline but the sixth consecutive year with 50,000 or more registrations for the state.
The figures are based on county Department of Motor Vehicles registrations.
Utility wants customers to pay for unused solar power
WAILUKU, Maui — Maui Electric Co. asked the state Public Utilities Commission to allow the utility to pass a $155,000 cost for 1.4 gigawatt hours of solar power that was produced but not used.
The utility in a Jan. 31 filing said it paid South Maui Renewable Resources $110,359.33 for 997.8 megawatt hours of “compensable curtailed energy” per its power purchase agreement.
South Maui Renewable Resources has an annual energy contract for 6.75 gigawatt hours, according to the filing.
Ku‘ia Solar, a 2.87-MW solar project, billed Maui Electric for $44,803.80 for 405.1 MWh of compensable curtailed energy.
The filing said its total annual contract for energy is 6.6 GWh.
Low-load modifications to heat-recovery steam generators on two of its Maalaea plant units also were cited by MECO in its filing as a method to integrate more wind and solar power. Modifications were made to the largest units at the Maalaea plant to allow them to run at loads lower than originally intended.
