Nahko in Great Spirit video

HAWAII ISLAND: The talented artist hui of Nahko Bear, known well to fans of band Medicine for the People, and the Walczuks have produced another viral visual and aural masterpiece.

The music video Great Spirit features the music of Nahko, is directed and edited Dominik Walczuk, and features the cinematography of Mikotaj Walczuk.

The short film contains imagery common to the ongoing collaborative. Masked figures wading through ferns, dancers who appear talented in the arts of yoga over scenic vistas, and of course Nahko himself, singing the thoughtful lyrics that have inspired fans around the island and the world.

The video also features some of the finer points of Hawaii Island. Towering trees, fantastic waterfalls, and even the sacred summit of Mauna Kea.

For more info, check out www.grototote.com and medicine4thepeople.org

As Yagong explained in his council office in Hilo on Tuesday, the bill does many things, most of all redefining the geothermal relocation and community benefits program, with a renewed focus on safety rather than infrastructure improvements.

With a newly resurgent opposition to plan for increased geothermal development, there has also been increased scrutiny over the relocation process. Puna residents like Aurora Martinovitch have said the current process is failing the residents most effected by the Puna Geothermal Venture plant.

Yagong’s bill will also atempt to tighten up the rules for relocation.

Yagong admits the council made a mistake in the past by altering the language of the program. He says its a wrong he intends to fix.

But thats not the only geothermal measure coming down the pike. At a recent, well attended hearing in Pahoa, residents described the community confusion when the well blew out in 1991. Yagong says his next bill will mandate that Civil Defense must create a specific emergency plan for the community located near the geothermal industrial sites.

That could include a relief shelter built on land donated by the Leilani Estates Community Association subdivision, an idea brought forward by Puna Councilman Fred Blas. Or it could not, says Yagong.

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii: Scientists with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory are reporting a  relatively high lava lake level at the Halema`uma`u crater vent over the past two days, following a summit inflation at Kilauea.

According to Tuesday’s Kilauea activity report:

The summit tiltmeter network recorded another DI deflation around 5 pm last night when the lava lake level started to drop; a laser rangefinder measurement yesterday placed the lava lake surface about 67 m (220 ft) below the Halema`uma`u Crater floor – a pretty high level.

The lava has been close to the level of the deep inner ledge. A photo released by HVO (above) shows continuous spattering at the southern lake margin tossing spatter onto the crusted lake surface as well as onto the rim of the ledge, building a steep spatter rampart (left side of image).

HVO says the summit lava lake is deep within a 520 foot diameter cylindrical vent with nearly vertical sides inset within the east wall and floor of Halema`uma`u Crater. The lava level level fluctuates from about 200 feet to a level that puts it out of sight below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater. The vent has been mostly active since opening with a small explosive event on March 19, 2008. Most recently, the lava level of the lake has remained below an inner ledge (200 ft below the floor of Halema`uma`u Crater on May 9, 2012) and responded to summit tilt changes with the lake receding during deflation and rising during inflation.

This video by Baron Sekiya, Hawaii247.com,  captures the busy sorting of foodstuffs that carriers collected along their routes and at Post Offices. The same scene played out at local food banks across the country.

All food collected on the Big Island will go towards The Food Basket to feed individuals and family on the island.

Here at the Hilo Airport Post Office volunteers from the Postal Service, HSTA teacher’s union, Boy Scouts and other volunteers spent the day unloading food donations from postal vehicles, sorting them and preparing them for transport to The Food Basket.

According to Chantelle Belay of The Food Basket, the need on the island is still great. Anyone wanting to donate food can still drop off supplies at The Food Basket offices in Kona and Hilo along with any fire station.

(Video by Baron Sekiya, Hawaii247.com | Voice of Stephanie Salazar)

The branch has served the Kohala community for more than 90 years, and according to the Kohala Mountain News, the announcement in January of its impending closure was met with disbelief and anger by many in the community.

However, shortly after the bank closed in April, it was confirmed that Bank of Hawaii would be donating the property to the county, specifically for use by the Parks and Recreation Department and Office of Aging for community programs.

Possible future uses of the building include senior classes and workshops, videostreaming County Council meetings, and providing a central place for announcements during natural disasters. Long-range plans include using the site for educational classes and intergenerational programs.

As a condition of the donation, the bank is requiring the county to leave the automated teller machine and night depository in place and accessible to customers.

Ippy Aiona cooks on TV

WAIMEA, Hawaii: Waimea resident Philip ‘Ippy’ Aiona is hitting the culinary big time. He is one of the finalists in the nationwide TV program “The Next Food Network Star: Season 8″ and has made it through the first round of competition.

The 23 year old Hawaii Preparatory Academy graduate is the executive chef of Solimene’s in Waimea.

On the most recent episode, Aiona’s warm mushroom salad and diners impressed the judges enough to make it through the first round of competition.

As he stated in this introductory promotional video, Aiona injects Pacific ingredients into traditional European cuisine.

The show airs 6 p.m. Sundays on the Food Network channel.

Joseph Amormino, from HPD

HILO, Hawaii: Hawaii County Police have charged 72-year-old Joseph Amormino in connection with a Panaewa shooting on Sunday, and have also charged him in another incident that occurred about twenty minutes before the shooting in Hawaiian Paradise Park.

From Big Island police:

Joseph Amormino of Hawaiian Beaches was charged at 3:23 p.m. Tuesday (May 15) with first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree attempted murder, burglary, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, place to keep ammunition, and two counts of place to keep firearms.

He was also charged with three counts of terroristic threatening for an unrelated incident that occurred about twenty minutes before the shooting. In that case, Amormino allegedly waved a handgun at a 52-year-old Mountain View woman, a 48-year-old Mountain View man and a 14-year-old Mountain View girl after reportedly tailgating their vehicle on Highway 130 near the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision.

Amormino’s bail was set at $656,000. He remains at the Hilo police cellblock pending his initial court appearance scheduled for Wednesday (May 16).

Daniel DeJarnette, from HPD

HAWAIIAN OCEAN VIEW ESTATES, Hawaii: Daniel DeJarnette, a reported former Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, was arrested Monday, after a Grand Jury indicted him for murder in the 2006 death of his wife.

The 59 year old Ocean View resident is facing a charge of second-degree murder, five years after Yu DeJarnette was found dead on the side of a lava embankment near her home in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision. Based on a preliminary investigation of the discovery by patrol officers on November 12, 2006, detectives were summoned and conducted a more thorough investigation. Police say an autopsy conducted on the victim indicated that she died from extensive head injuries. The case was reclassified from a home accident to a murder. Two days later, detectives arrested Daniel DeJarnette on suspicion of murder and held him in custody pending further investigation. But, after consulting with county prosecutors, he was released on November 16, 2006 pending additional investigation.

This Monday, a Kona Grand Jury indicted DeJarnette on one count of second-degree murder. His bail was set at $200,000. Police arrested him at his Ocean View home at 4:55 p.m. Monday and held him at the Kona police cellblock until his initial court appearance on Tuesday. DeJarnette reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charge. A trial date is set for October 30, 2012.

The LA Times reports that DeJarnette moved to the Big Island after his retirement from the LAPD in 2003. He joined the force in 1982, where he worked as a homicide detective.

Cathrine Kessaris, from HPD

ORCHIDLAND, Hawaii: Hawaii County Police are reporting a heroin and weapons bust in Puna last week.

From HPD:

A Puna woman was arrested last week and held on $1 million bail after being charged with heroin and weapons offenses.

On Thursday (May 10), Vice officers served a narcotics search warrant on a Melekule Street home in the Orchidland subdivision, where they recovered approximately a pound of heroin, digital scales, packaging materials, two firearms and $5,200 in cash.

Officers arrested two women at the scene. Cathrine R. Kessaris, 58, of Orchidland was held at the Hilo police cellblock while detectives continued the investigation. A 52-year-old Keaʻau woman was released without charges.

On Friday, Kessaris was charged with promoting a dangerous drug, drug paraphernalia and ownership prohibited. Her bail was set at $1 million. She remained at the Hilo cellblock pending her initial court appearance on Monday (May 14).

Police line up in Hilo to remember the fallen

HILO, Hawaii: Monday began an important week for law enforcement on Hawaii Island and around the country, as police remember fallen officers during Police Week.

In Hilo, the week of remembrance started with a ceremony at the police station. The Hawaii Police Department issued this media release, along with the video from the ceremony (above):

Members of the Hawaiʻi Police Department and the public celebrated Police Week on Monday (May 14) at the Hilo police station.

A 21-gun salute, “Taps” and a candle-lighting ceremony were part of the tribute to the four Hawaiʻi Police Department officers killed in the line of duty since 1918. They are Manuel Cadinha (1918), William “Red” Oili (1936), Ronald “Shige” Jitchaku (1990), and Kenneth Keliipio (1997).

In an outdoor ceremony, Hawaiʻi County Managing Director William Takaba read a mayoral proclamation declaring May 13-18 as Police Week in the County of Hawaiʻi and May 15 as Police Officers Memorial Day.

Chief Harry Kubojiri told the audience that Police Week ceremonies are taking place this week at police departments all across America—including one in the nation’s capital attended by approximately 25-thousand law enforcement officers. “In size, that event is more massive than ours,” Kubojiri said, “but in sentiment, ours is equally grand.”

The chief noted that he never knew Officers Cadinha and Oili, but said both Jitchaku and Keliipio were his co-workers who laughed with him one day and were gone the next. “I still miss them and I know many of you do, too,” he chief said. “We can only begin to imagine the loss their families still feel.”

The chief added that Police Week also honors officers injured in the line of duty, noting that 61 Big Island officers were hurt on the job last year. He thanked his officers for working to make the Big Island communities safe and said he prays that each one returns home safely to their loved ones at the end of each workday.

A similar ceremony will be held Thursday (May 17) in Kona.

This artist’s impression shows BD+01 2920B in the foreground (on the right hand side), with its host star in the background. The colour and banded atmosphere of the brown dwarf result from atmospheric gases and turbulence (click the image for a high-resolution version). Credit: J. Pinfield, for the RoPACS network at the University of Hertfordshire.

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii: The UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii is helping an international team of astronomers advance the understanding of brown dwarf and giant planet detection.

The following media release is from the Royal Astronomical Society:

An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. Described as ultra-cool, it has a temperature of just 400 degrees Celsius and its discovery could be a key step forward in helping astronomers distinguish between brown dwarfs and giant planets. The researchers publish their work in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Brown dwarfs are star-like objects with insufficient mass to ignite hydrogen fusion in their cores. Over time they cool to temperatures of just a few hundred degrees. Formed like stars from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud a few hundred light years across, brown dwarfs in binary systems such as this have the same atmospheric chemistry as their host star.

In contrast, giant planets form with a more diverse chemistry. Those in our own solar system first formed as large solid cores, which then accreted gas from the disk around them. This led to a different chemistry in their outer layers. For example, when the Galileo spacecraft entered Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1995, it found the proportion of heavier elements (astronomers call these ‘metals’) to be three times higher than in the Sun. Such differences allow astronomers to discriminate between planets and brown dwarfs and reveal their formation mechanisms.

Dr Pinfield and his team detected the brown dwarf using data from the Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WISE) satellite, the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) in Chile. He carried out this work as part of his European (FP7) Initial Training Network RoPACS which studies planets around cool stars.

The newly discovered object, known as BD+01 2920B, is about 35 times more massive than Jupiter. It orbits its host star at a distance of 390 billion km or about 2600 times the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Searches for planets around other stars find many possible planets through the gravitational pull of the candidate objects on the stars they orbit as well as direct imaging using the latest (and future) optical technology on the largest telescopes. The problem is that compact brown dwarfs share many characteristics with giant planets, so astronomers struggle to confirm the nature of what they detect.

The new work has been made possible by combining data from ground- and space-based surveys, says Dr Pinfield. “Surveys from telescopes like VISTA and UKIRT and orbiting observatories like WISE are giving us an unprecedented view of ‘ultra-cool’ bodies in our neighbourhood.”

‘By finding these rare objects in orbit around nearby stars, we get a handle on the bigger picture; that we live in a galaxy where both giant planets and brown dwarfs are commonplace.”

The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey observes the near infrared northern sky (just beyond the wavelength range of the human eye) using the UK Infrared Telescope and its wide-field camera atop Mauna Kea on Hawaii Island.

HONOLULU, Hawaii

This past September, the health department issued a Notice of Violation and Order against Koyo USA Corp. for utilizing an unapproved manufacturing process for its bottled water from July 7, 2006 to May 19, 2011. Koyo is required to adhere to a specific process in making bottled water from the ocean. At the time, the state said a penalty of $5,044,193 was issued.

Today, the state says they have reached a settlement with the company. From a media release:

Koyo has agreed to pay the department a total of $2 million in two installments. The first $1 million payment was received by DOH on May 2, 2012. The second and final payment is due to the department no later than August 31, 2013.

The DOH Food and Drug Branch began an investigation of Koyo USA Corp. on May 18, 2011 in response to an anonymous complaint. The investigation confirmed Koyo USA Corp. had not adhered to the process for filtering ocean water approved by DOH in 2006. Instead, the company purposefully diverted concentrated ocean water that had been rejected by its reverse osmosis system and, through bypass piping, blended it into their final bottled water product. The department issued an Order to Cease and Desist on May 19, 2011. The DOH Food and Drug Branch in cooperation with the Safe Drinking Water Branch conducted an inspection of three other state-permitted deep sea water bottling companies in Kona and found them in compliance with state regulations. Destiny, Hawai‘i Deep Marine and Kona Deep brand bottled waters have not violated their permits and are not part of this notice and penalty.

Again, from the health department:

No recall or embargo of the Koyo bottled water product was initiated by DOH. Test results from independent laboratories and the state laboratory confirmed that consumption of the affected bottled water product did not pose an immediate and/or substantial risk to human health. Koyo performed a disinfection process prior to their water product being sold.

“The Koyo company staff and leadership have been cooperative in correcting the unpermitted drinking water filtration process,” said Gary Gill, Deputy Director for Environmental Health. “The settlement payments are being dedicated to support the department’s drinking water, food safety and laboratory programs.”

Koyo remains permitted by the DOH to filter ocean water at its Kona facility and produce a bottled drinking water product, which is marketed to consumers in Japan, Hawai‘i and elsewhere.

According to state, the DOH Food and Drug Branch “protects public health by ensuring food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices and related consumer products within the state are safe, effective and properly labeled. The DOH Safe Drinking Water Branch monitors drinking water quality and regulates water systems throughout the islands. The state laboratory tests water and food for contamination and performs a wide range of public health support functions. These programs and others within the department work together to ensure the health and safety of the people of Hawaii.”