SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2015 | WEST HAWAII TODAY
WEATHER
6A
City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W City
Hi/Lo/W
Weather(W): s-
sunny,
pc-
partly cloudy,
c-
cloudy,
sh-
showers,
t-
thunderstorms,
r-
rain,
sf-
snow flurries,
sn-
snow,
i-
ice.
TODAY’SWEATHER KONA TIDES TODAY SUN ANDMOON
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown is today’s weather.
Temperatures are today’s
highs and tonight’s lows.
NATIONAL CITIES TODAY
SATELLITE VIEW
First
Time
Height
Second
Time
Height
Hanalei
Kapaa
Waialua Laie
Lanai
Hana
Kapaau
Honokaa
Hilo
Naalehu
Captain Cook
Kailua-Kona
Mountain View
Kihei
Wailuku
Mokapu
Honolulu
Kaunakakai
Ewa Beach
Kalaheo
Kekaha
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and
precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
As of 3 p.m. yesterday.
Moon
Rise
Set
Sun
Rise
Set
Oct 4 Oct 12 Oct 20 Oct 27
Last
New First
Full
Albany, NY
52/47/c
Albuquerque
78/57/s
Amarillo
63/47/sh
Anchorage
48/40/r
Atlanta
63/58/r
Austin
84/54/pc
Baltimore
60/55/r
Billings
53/39/sh
Birmingham
66/56/sh
Bismarck
59/44/c
Boise
71/49/pc
Boston
53/50/r
Buffalo
52/46/c
Charleston, SC
77/68/r
Charleston, WV
65/56/r
Charlotte, NC
65/63/r
Cheyenne
61/41/c
Chicago
57/51/c
Cincinnati
56/53/r
Cleveland
52/49/r
Columbia, SC
70/67/r
Dallas
79/57/pc
Denver
69/46/c
Des Moines
65/43/pc
Detroit
56/49/r
Duluth
53/37/s
El Paso
86/64/t
Fairbanks
42/35/sh
Fargo
63/44/pc
Grand Rapids
54/47/c
Green Bay
57/43/pc
Honolulu
86/77/c
Houston
82/58/s
Indianapolis
56/50/c
Jackson, MS
74/55/s
Jacksonville
74/62/pc
Juneau
49/36/c
Kansas City
65/43/pc
Key West
86/78/pc
Lansing
54/45/c
Las Vegas
88/68/s
Little Rock
73/54/s
Los Angeles
84/66/s
Louisville
58/54/r
Madison
59/42/pc
Memphis
67/55/s
Miami
89/72/pc
Milwaukee
58/50/c
Minneapolis
60/42/s
Nashville
60/54/pc
New Orleans
78/63/s
New York City
56/52/r
Norfolk
80/71/t
Oklahoma City
72/51/c
Omaha
64/41/c
Orlando
84/66/pc
Philadelphia
59/54/r
Phoenix
95/70/s
Pittsburgh
57/52/r
Portland, ME
55/41/c
Portland, OR
73/52/c
Providence
55/50/r
Raleigh
71/65/r
Reno
73/49/s
Sacramento
83/56/s
St. Louis
66/53/c
Salt Lake City
65/49/t
San Antonio
87/61/pc
San Diego
79/70/s
San Francisco
69/57/s
San Juan, PR
92/82/sh
Santa Fe
73/48/pc
Seattle
66/51/pc
Spokane
68/45/c
Syracuse
54/44/c
Tampa
82/71/pc
Tucson
91/69/s
Tulsa
72/48/pc
Washington, DC
61/57/r
Wichita
69/49/c
Wichita Falls
78/52/c
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc.
©2015
High
8:24 a.m.
1.9’
Low
12:52 a.m.
0.2’
High
7:40 p.m.
1.0’
Low
3:25 p.m.
0.7’
82/73
81/74
82/73
82/75
80/71
82/76
83/76
81/74
83/74
83/73
90/79
79/71
87/75
84/74
83/77
86/77
82/74
84/74
80/71
83/70
84/76
Today
6:16 a.m.
6:11 p.m.
Sunday
6:16 a.m.
6:10 p.m.
Today
11:28 p.m.
11:56 a.m.
Sunday
none
12:48 p.m.
NATIONAL SUMMARY:
Joaquin will continue to influence the weather in the eastern third
of the nation today with areas of heavy rain, flooding and beach erosion. The worst
inland flooding will be in the Carolinas and Virginia as sunshine basks much of the
Mississippi Valley and the West. Storms will target the High Plains and Rockies, and
showers will dot Oregon.
Negotiations on trade pact are extended
ATLANTA — Trade
ministers for 12 Pacific
Rim nations, including
the United States and
Japan, extended nego-
tiations into Saturday
on the biggest regional
trade pact in history, say-
ing Friday they believed
they were close enough
to resolution on an array
of differences to complete
a deal.
The willingness to
continue talks, which
began in a hotel here
Wednesday,
fueled
optimism among the
participating nations
— and apprehension
among critics hovering
in its halls and moni-
toring the negotiations
from afar — that the
elusive Trans-Pacific
Partnership was with-
in reach after years of
discussion.
Negotiators for the
United States and Japan
neared a compromise
over the length of a
phaseout of tariffs on cars
and trucks made in Japan
and sold in the U.S.
Yet sticking points
persisted, including over
compromise language
from the U.S. side on
protections for drugmak-
ers, an issue that stymied
previous talks in July in
Hawaii.
It remained unclear
whether
President
Barack Obama would
be able to claim an
achievement central to
his efforts to reorient
the United States toward
its fast-growing Pacific
neighbors (rather than
Europe and the Middle
East) or whether the
negotiators would once
again pocket the prog-
ress made here and even-
tually stagger through
another round of talks
as Obama’s presiden-
cy wound down. From
Washington,
Obama
continued to lend his
influence to his trade
representative, Michael
B. Froman.
If an agreement is
reached, Congress would
not render its verdict
for months, well into a
presidential
election
year in which anti-trade
rhetoric would be loud
among Republicans and
Democrats.
The talks also involve
Canada,
Mexico,
Vietnam,
Malaysia,
Singapore, Brunei, New
Zealand, Chile and Peru.
Together, the 12 nations
account for about two-
fifths of global economic
output.
By Friday, it seemed
clear than any agree-
ment would include pro-
visions for autos that
would phase out tariffs
between the participating
countries, require autos
to have a certain share
of parts made in treaty
nations, lift nontariff bar-
riers that effectively keep
U.S. autos out of Japan
and create a process for
settling disputes between
governments over sus-
pected violations of the
agreement.
Froman was particu-
larly embroiled Friday in
trying to settle the phar-
maceutical drug issues.
The most vexing question
was how long drug com-
panies could have exclu-
sive rights to data related
to their development of
so-called biologic drugs
(products made from
living organisms and
considered promising for
cancer treatments) before
they would have to share
the information with
generic manufacturers.
The United States,
which had insisted on 12
years to ensure drug man-
ufacturers have incen-
tives to innovate, recently
proposed an eight-year
provision as a compro-
mise. It would give com-
panies five years of exclu-
sive rights followed by a
three-year period of lim-
ited market-sharing. But
countries like Australia
and Peru balked, and out-
side groups in the hotel
corridors were quick to
object again Friday.
BY JACKIE CALMES
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Blowing through history
In the book “Tsunami!”
by Walter C. Dudley and
Min Lee, there’s a short
story about a teenager and
his family’s experience
during the 1946 tsunami
that hit Hawaii.
Wendell Leite, 17, a Hilo
High School student, lived
at Honolii Cove with his
four sisters, brother, par-
ents and Hawaiian grand-
mother, the story goes. On
April 1, April Fools’ Day,
they watched in astonish-
ment as the stream water
receded into the ocean.
George Myers, a truck
driver, was on the bridge
above and yelled to the
family, warning them
of an approaching tidal
wave. Moments after the
family fled, mountains
of water thrashed their
home, washing away
belongings and causing
severe damage. Everyone
was safe, but young Leite
lamented the loss of his
grandmother’s heirlooms
and what his parents had
worked so hard for.
Also gone was his new
Conn trombone, a gift
from his father.
Leite, pronounced “late,”
was in the school band
and one of the newest
musicians in the Hawaii
County Band. He played
in his first county band
concert six months earlier,
on a cool October evening
in 1945 at the Mooheau
Park Bandstand.
He remembers the
bandstand’s dim lights,
and people had parked
their cars all around the
pavilion. They performed
well, and he’ll never for-
get the response after
numbers.
“I remember people
honking their horns in
applause to the music,”
Leite said.
Leite has played the
tenor trombone with the
band ever since, perform-
ing through 70 years of
Hilo history. The former
transportation manager
for C. Brewer subsidiary
Hilo Transportation and
Terminal has seen and
played through it all, from
tsunamis,
hurricanes,
tropical storms, wars and
statehood, to the fall of
sugar, rise of tourism and
volcanic activity.
At noon Saturday,
Oct. 10, at Mooheau
Park, Leite, now 87, will
be honored by the band
and Hawaii County for
70 years of service. He
also will perform in con-
cert for the last time as
an employee and retire.
Leite is the longest-serv-
ing member in the band’s
132-year history with
thousands of rehearsal
hours and hundreds of
marching miles carrying
and blowing the nearly
4-pound instrument.
“He has active contin-
uous service since 1945,”
said band Director Paul
Arceo, marveling at Leite’s
musical
achievement.
Band members, with the
exception of the director,
are part-time employees.
“Statewide, that might be
the longest anyone has
been employed.”
“Seventy years with
the county band, that
will never be duplicated,”
Arceo says. “He was that
committed, that good
shape, 80s, marching
in parades with a trom-
bone. It’s remarkable, a
testament to his physical
condition.”
Leite started playing
the trombone at Hilo
Intermediate School. “All
the band sections were
filled, and no one wanted
to take that ugly-looking
thing,” he said.
Under teachers such as
Lorna Drake and Beatrice
Lau and eight county band
directors, Leite became an
accomplished player.
“Top notch” Arceo says.
“Playing the brass instru-
ment is physical, and at
87, he still is a really good
player.”
“It’s something I would
say is similar to a violin
… no frets or positions,”
Leite said, describing the
trombone, which means
“large trumpet” in Italian.
With its tubular, elongated
“S” shape and unique slide,
the sound is “broad, whole-
some, can be brassy or very
smooth. It has tremendous
variations with what you
can do with it.”
“The trombone is real-
ly an instrument that’s
vibrant and can be very
melodic, versatile, used in
Dixieland bands,” he said.
With his presence in the
band and transportation
career, Leite is one of the
most recognizable figures
in Hilo.
“You
should
have
seen him in the Merrie
Monarch parade,” said
Susanella Noble, a flutist
and band member since
2002. “Every other person
along the route knew him
and said hello. He’s one of
those kinds of people.
“He’s always happy, has
a kind word for every-
body. He always takes a
backseat to the rest of the
band. Very modest, very
gifted, so humble.”
As much as Leite loves
playing trombone, his
wife, Shirley, is his true
love. He fell in love with
the girl from Hanamaulu,
Kauai, when she returned
from nursing school with
his sister. Shirley Leite
retired as a nurse at Hilo
Medical Center and the
two have been married 62
years. And music always
filled their Wailuku Drive
home.
A month before observ-
ing Leite’s accomplish-
ment, however, the Leite
family suffered a momen-
tous loss. Preferring not to
go into detail, Leite said a
few days after she took a
walk, she passed away on
Sept. 4. She was 83.
“She loved music,” Leite
says, looking to the din-
ing room table graced by
photographs of Shirley,
the frames adorned with
lei, and a wood urn con-
taining her ashes. “She
enjoyed the band. The
people, the instruments,
performances, the good
balance of sound.”
When asked what music
Shirley enjoyed listening
to, Leite and his daugh-
ter, Harvelee Leite-Ah Yo,
went to a full rack of CDs
and pulled out a few of her
favorites.
“In the morning she
loved to listen to four
Italian singers,” Leite
said, holding “Il Divo, A
Musical Affair.” She also
liked the group, “Il Volo”
and selections from “Les
Miserables.”
Stepping outside into
the lanai area on a warm
afternoonwith a light rain,
Leite gestures to patio
chairs where he would sit
and practice playing the
trombone. He would blow
out into their beautiful-
ly landscaped backyard,
the notes flowing over the
lush green grass, bonsai
plants, ponds and bridge.
Shirley completed the
Eden ensemble.
“She would come out
and listen, make some
comments, always posi-
tive. But sometimes if it
didn’t sound right, she
would say ‘What was
that?’”
More than 70 fami-
ly members and friends
gathered in the cou-
ple’s garden of music for
Shirley Leite’s wake.
Now, there is still great
pain — and loneliness.
Leite’s words, like the
low notes on his trom-
bone, come out softly.
“Love … loss. That was my
happiness.”
Leite took some time off
from the band — relax-
ing, gradually healing and
grieving. On Sept. 22, he
returned to rehearsals
at Waiakea Recreation
Center for his finale. Arceo
said the band is playing it
low-key — just the way
Leite wants it.
A few seats away from
Leite on Saturday will be
a talented French horn
player from Keaau High
School, 17-year-old Philip
Palmore, the youngest
band member, perhaps
starting a 70-year run of
his own. The music will
include a selection of
marches, hymns, classical
pieces, pop or Hawaiian.
Arceo says they’ve added
a special piece to the play
list, a trombone quartet
called “Musical Slides.”
Leite will perform
with a heavy heart, but
Shirley will be listening
and maybe there will be
some horn honking by an
appreciative audience to
help raise his spirits.
BY RICHARD COUCH
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
TROMBONE PLAYERWENDELL LEITEMARKS 70TH YEARWITHHAWAII COUNTY BAND
Hawaii County Band band director Paul Arceo,
second from left, stands with trombonists
Rodney Wong, Wendell Leite and Curt Haraga.
HOLLYN JOHNSON/
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
