SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM 75¢
Trump: US, allies attacking
Syria to stop chemical weapons
Republican candidates speak Friday night at the West Hawaii Republican Rally and Convention at the
West Hawaii Civic Center. From left: John Carroll, for governor; Ray L’Heureux, for governor; Steve
Lipscom, for Lt. governor; and Marissa Kerns, for Lt. governor. PHOTOS BY LAURA RUMINSKI/WEST HAWAII TODAY
KAILUA-KONA — A small but
enthusiastic contingent of Hawaii
Island Republicans gathered at the
West Hawaii Civic Center Friday
night to get to know their party’s candidates
for governor and lieutenant
governor, as well as to rally support
for the conservative cause in Kona.
808-464-6277
Tax &
Accounting
www.kona.tax
Before introducing the candidates,
Hawaii Republican Party State Chair
Shirlene Ostrov kicked off the night
with a speech to a couple dozen
attendees, saying simply the party
needs to learn how to win and the
answers won’t be “sexy.”
“What we have to do is organize
a grassroots,” she said. “We can have
the best platform in the world, but if
we don’t have anybody in those seats,
it doesn’t matter.”
She bolstered spirits by mentioning
low voter turnout in recent elections,
saying political offices are more
winnable than many believe.
“The party who is better organized,
they’re going to win elections,” Ostrov
continued. “And guess what? The
Democrats are not even trying.”
HILO — Should I stay
or should I go?
That’s the question
that’s hung over the
Thirty Meter Telescope
since protests and a legal
challenge put construction
atop Maunakea on
hold about three years
ago.
But, without clearance
to resume building
in Hawaii or at a
backup site in Spain’s
Canary Islands, the
TMT International
Observatory’s board
had no choice but to
defer a final decision on
the future home of the
next-generation observatory,
TIO Executive
Director Ed Stone said
Friday.
“We clearly appreciate
the support and the
growing
support,
and we
feel that
we’ve
been
good
neighbors,”
he said
in a phone interview.
“… I think in that sense
we are encouraged,
but clearly the timing
is becoming more and
more of an issue for us.”
TIO about two years
ago set April 2018 as a
deadline for resuming
construction, which
became a target for making
a decision between
Hawaii and La Palma
in the Canary Islands,
located off the northwest
coast of Africa.
Maunakea is considered
a superior site for
astronomy and remains
the preferred choice.
Stone said there is no
new deadline; a choice
will depend on how
the approval process
moves forward in both
locations.
“We can’t make a
choice until we have a
permit,” he said.
In Hawaii, the $1.4
billion project faces two
appeals before the state
Supreme Court. One
applies to the land use
permit the state Land
Board reissued last fall.
Legal briefs have been
filed.
Another appeal pertains
to whether a contested
case should be
required for the project’s
sublease with the
University of Hawaii
for about 6 acres on
Maunakea. Oral arguments
occurred in
March.
Meanwhile, TIO
says an environmental
impact assessment for
a proposed site on La
Palma was submitted.
KAILUA-KONA — More
than two weeks after a deadline
to submit bids for a surf school
pilot program at Kahaluu Bay,
local surf schools said they haven’t
heard anything from either
the county or the nonprofit
picked to manage the program.
“It just leaves us in limbo,”
said Wesley Moore, who owns
Kona Town Surf Adventures.
The six-month pilot program
is intended to regulate surf lessons
taught at Kahaluu Bay
by restricting the number of
businesses allowed to operate
to four. Concessionaires are to
be selected through a bidding
process with a minimum bid of
$3,000 a month, and the deadline
for bids was March 27.
State administrative rules
explicitly identify a portion of
Kahaluu Bay as a surfing zone
and forbids any commercial
water sports instruction from
being conducted in the bay’s
waters without a state permit.
Those rules also say the
Department of Land and
Natural Resources may issue no
surf instruction
and
limit each
surf school
to a maximum
of eight
students per school in the
water at a given time, with a
maximum one-to-four ratio of
instructor to students.
But many local surf school
operators pushed back against
the proposal, often citing the
minimum bid as a deal breaker
for business.
Moore said he didn’t submit a
bid for the pilot program, saying
WASHINGTON — The United
States, France and Britain launched
military strikes in Syria to punish
President Bashar Assad for a suspected
chemical attack against civilians
and to deter him from doing
it again, President Donald Trump
announced Friday. Explosions lit up
the skies over Damascus, the Syrian
capital, as Trump spoke from the
White House.
Syrian television reported that
Syria’s air defenses, which are substantial,
have responded to the
attack. After the attack ceased and
the early morning skies went dark
once more, vehicles with loudspeakers
roamed the streets of Damascus
blaring nationalist songs.
Trump said the U.S. is prepared
to sustain pressure on Assad until
he ends what the president called a
criminal pattern of killing his own
people with internationally banned
chemical weapons. It was not immediately
clear whether Trump meant
the allied military operation would
extend beyond an initial nighttime
round of missile strikes.
“The evil and the despicable
attack left mothers and fathers,
infants and children, thrashing in
pain and gasping for air. These are
not the actions of a man; they are
crimes of a monster instead,” Trump
said.
British Prime Minister Theresa
May said in London that the West
had tried “every possible” diplomatic
means to stop Assad from using
chemical weapons. “But our efforts
have been repeatedly thwarted” by
Syria and Russia, she said.
INDEX Annie’s Mailbox . . . . . . 4B Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5B Nation & World . . . . . . . . .3A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4A Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B
Do you know if you are insured properly?
Call the professionals at Aloha Insurance!
75-5931 Walua Rd., Kailua-Kona Call us 808-334-4705 info@alohainsurance.com
Excellence, Our Vision Exceeding Your Expectations
Tad Nottage
President
Insurance
Services,
Inc.
INSIDE
SMALL BALL
FOR THE WIN
Waveriders edge
out Wildcats 7-6
Sports, 1B
▼
SOMETHING
STINKS
Big Island Dairy
accidentally
contaminates
stream with
manure
PAGE 6A
▼
HI 84 LO 74 WEATHER, PAGE 6A
VOL. 50, NO. 104 16 PAGES
ROBERT BURNS
ZEKE MILLER
AND JILL COLVIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEE SYRIA PAGE 5A
OUT OF THE LOOP OFFICIALS MUM SO FAR ON SURF SCHOOL
PILOT PROGRESS AT KAHALUU
BY CAMERON MICULKA
WEST HAWAII TODAY
cmiculka@westhawaiitoday.com
more than four permits
for that zone for
SEE SURF PAGE 5A
An artist’s rendering of the Thirty Meter
Telescope. COURTESY IMAGE
Decision deferred
WITH NO CLEARANCE OR BACKUP
LOCATION, TELESCOPE PROJECT
DELAYED BY POLITICAL PROCESS
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE TMT PAGE 6A
Stone
Republicans rally
CANDIDATES FOR STATE OFFICE STUMP IN KONA
BY MAX DIBLE
WEST HAWAII TODAY
mdible@westhawaiitoday.com
SEE GOP PAGE 6A
/www.kona.tax
link
link
link