From performances to classes and so
much more, there’s defi nitely something
fun to get you up and out the door
CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S CALENDAR ON PAGE A4 TO GET MORE DETAILS
Contested Saturday, October 6, 2018
case hana hou?
Kilauea alert level lowered
DLNR seeks hearing officer for TMT sublease
HVO: Longest period without surface lava activity in 32 years
By TOM CALLIS
March 11, 2017
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
The Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory reduced
Kilauea’s alert level Friday
as the volcano remains
relatively quiet following
months of devastating lava
flows on the lower East Rift
Zone and dozens of caldera
collapses at the summit.
The change from a watch
to an advisory occurred
after the passing of 30 days
without seeing lava on the
surface, along with low rates
of earthquakes, ground deformation
FLORES SIMONS
and only minor gas
emissions. There have been
no active lava flows since
August, though lava was seen
inside fissure 8 in Leilani
Estates as recently as Sept. 5.
According to
HVO, resumption
of the eruption
in lower
Puna or summit
collapses is
“unlikely in the
near-term.”
Tina Neal, HVO scientist
in-charge, defined
‘Hawaii
is home’
that time scale as weeks or
months; she noted they can’t
be “super specific” about it.
That doesn’t mean
there’s no sign of activity.
Neal said there are signs
of inflation, which indicate
buildup of magma, on the
rift zone between Pu‘u ‘O‘o
and Highway 130. She said
it’s not “anything we are
very concerned about.”
“It’s the most movement,
the most inflation we are
seeing anywhere on the
volcano right now,” Neal
said. “It doesn’t look like
magma is very shallow. The
rate of refilling is not so
great that we think it means
something is imminent.
“If the rate would suddenly
pick up or we started seeing
earthquakes there, it would
be more of a concern.”
One thing is clear:
Kilauea remains active
and cyclist use the section of the Hilo Bayfront Trails near the soccer fields on Kamehameha Avenue on
Hilo.
IVY ASHE
Tribune-Herald
the Hilo
Trails continues
unexpected
grant cycle
organizers
priorities.
phase of the
last October
new multiuse
Mooheau
Banyan
well as a path
the soccer
Kamehameha
Pauahi Street.
second phase
to extend
Wailoa River State
Area, but when
went to apply for
they learned
parks division
Department of Land
Resources could
is the agency
of the land.
Budding ballerina
11-year-old Vasilisa Ampleyeva, formerly from
Pahoa, accepted into famed Russian academy
The Hilo Bayfront
Trails group now is applying
for grant funding for
a different segment of
the master trails plan in
order to keep momentum
going, said Roy Takemoto,
Photos by HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald
executive assistant for
Mayor Harry Kim.
“The idea is to do
another segment along the
Waiolama Canal so that
walkers could loop back
around the (soccer field)
parking lot and restroom
area,” he said.
A second segment would
connect the parking lot
area with downtown Hilo,
TOM CALLIS
Tribune-Herald
Department of
Natural Resources
first step toward
contested case
the Thirty Meter
sublease on
by seeking applicants
hearing officer.
remains unclear
the quasi-judicial
— the third
be held.
The lower court ruling
requiring a hearing for the
sublease with the University
of Hawaii at Hilo is under
appeal, and the department’s
solicitation for applicants is
noncommittal. The deadline to
apply was Friday afternoon.
The job notice says the agency
seeks qualified applicants
“in the event it is decided to
hold a contested case hearing
and use a hearing
officer.”
“This solicitation
is made
for the purpose
of identifying
qualified candidates
if and as
necessary,” the notice says.
A hearing officer would
need to devote a “substantial
amount of time in the next six
to (12) months,”
according to the
department.
Supporters
and opponents
of building the
large observatory
on the
mountain said Friday they
had not received instructions
from the department on how
to proceed. No additional
information was available from
the department by deadline.
The hearing, if scheduled,
would be separate from the
contested case covering the
$1.4 billion project’s conservation
district use permit.
That hearing, a replay of a
previous contested case from
2011, concluded witness testimony
March 2. A decision
from hearing officer Riki May
Amano could be months away.
Index
Internet
Big Isle History B4
Calendar A6
Classified B6
Comics B5
Issue No. 70
16 Pages in
2 Sections
Today’s
weather
Page A2
Commentary A4
Community A5
Crossword B4
Cryptoquote B4
Dear Abby B4
Horoscope B4
Nation A2
Obituaries A2
Sports B1
Stocks A2
Surf Report A2
World A2
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the Web at:
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to get you up and out the door
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US SUPREME COURT
State’s few Muslims thrust
into spotlight because of
challenge to travel ban
The beginning of the Hilo Bayfront Trails path on Pauahi Street that connects the
soccer fields off Kamehameha Avenue.
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Associated Press
HONOLULU — Hawaii has 5,000
or so Muslims — less than 1 percent
of the state’s population — who are
finding themselves thrust into an international
spotlight after the state’s top
lawyer launched a challenge to President
Donald Trump’s revised travel ban,
saying it contradicts the islands’ welcoming
culture that values diversity.
Named as a plaintiff in the federal
lawsuit fighting the ban is Ismail
Elshikh, the imam of Oahu’s only
mosque — a converted plantation-style
house in a hilly Honolulu neighborhood
a few miles from Waikiki. Muslims
who gather in the prayer room know
they’re facing Mecca when the view of
iconic Diamond Head is at their backs.
Elshikh’s mother-in-law is a Syrian
living in Syria who won’t be able to
visit her relatives in Hawaii because
of the ban, and that will deprive the
rights of Elshikh, his wife and their
children as U.S. citizens, said state
Attorney General Doug Chin.
It was difficult for the shy and
reserved Elshikh to make the decision to
join the lawsuit and he is not speaking
publicly because of legal reasons and
fears for his security in a state that has
Associated Press
Literature is seen inside the prayer room
Thursday at the Muslim Association
of Hawaii building in Manoa Valley in
Honolulu. The mosque has been serving
Hawaii for nearly 50 years, according to
the group.
UNFORESEEN TURN
Funding twist alters plans for next phase of Hilo Bayfront Trails
See TMT Page A3
See SPOTLIGHT Page A3
See TRAILS Page A8
Pradeepta Chowdhury MD
KAVANAUGH
See KAVANAUGH Page A10
NOW ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS
HMSA, UHA, HMAA, TRICARE, HMA
961-3404
670 Ponahawai St., Ste. 116 • Hilo, HI 96720
Index
Big Isle history B4
Calendar A4
Classified B6
Comics B5
Issue No. 279
18 Pages in
2 Sections
Today’s
weather
Page A2
Commentary A6
Community A8
Crossword B4
Cryptoquote B4
Dear Abby B4
Horoscope B4
Letters A6
Nation A3
Obituaries A2
Sports B1
State A3
World A7
Visit us on the Web at:
www.hawaiitribune-herald.com
NEAL
See KILAUEA Page A9
Courtesy photo
Pier Sircello trains 11-year-old Vasilisa Ampleyeva during a one-on-one lesson earlier this year.
By MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Like many 11-yearold
girls, Vasilisa
Ampleyeva wants
to be a ballerina.
Unlike most 11-yearold
girls — or, indeed,
most people at all — the
former Pahoa resident is
studying ballet at one of
the most prestigious ballet
academies in the world.
In August, Vasilisa was
accepted into the Vaganova
Academy of Russian Ballet
in St. Petersburg, Russia,
a highly rigorous ballet
school only a handful of
students are qualified to
attend, and even fewer have
the discipline to graduate.
Vasilisa’s mother, Anna
Ampleyeva, said Vasilisa’s
admittance to Vaganova
was still more impressive
considering her training:
Vasilisa had only studied
ballet for two years.
“I was very surprised
because usually it’s about
the parents’ passion, not the
child’s,” Anna Ampleyeva
said. “Usually the ones
who get accepted start
training at 4 (years old),
and you don’t know if
they ever chose to do it.”
When Vasilisa began
See BALLERINA Page A10
Kavanaugh
all but assured
confirmation
By ALAN FRAM
and LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
Brett Kavanaugh seems
assured of surviving a
Supreme Court nomination
fight for the ages
after two wavering senators
said they’d back
him despite weeks of
shocking accusations,
hardball politics and
rowdy Capitol protests.
Announcements
by Republican Susan
Collins of Maine and
Democrat Joe Manchin
of West Virginia that
they’ll support the conservative
jurist made
today’s confirmation
vote a formality, an anticlimactic
finale to a battle
that riveted the nation
for nearly a month.
While Democrats’
defeat was all but
certain, the Senate
remained in session
overnight, though the
chamber was mostly
empty. Today’s roll call
seemed destined to be
nearly party-line, with
just a single defector
from each side capping
a contest fought
against the backdrop of
the #MeToo movement
and President Donald
Trump’s unyielding
support of his nominee.
Kavanaugh’s opponents
raised concerns
that he’d
push the
court further
right,
including
possible
sympathetic
rulings for Trump.
But for the past few
weeks, the battle was
dominated by allegations
that he sexually
abused women decades
ago — accusations he
emphatically denied.
Collins told fellow
senators Friday that
Christine Blasey Ford’s
dramatic testimony
last week describing
Kavanaugh’s alleged
1982 assault was
“sincere, painful and
compelling.” But she
said the FBI found no
MORE INSIDE
>>> President Donald Trump lashes out at female
protesters who confronted senators about Supreme
Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. A2
>>> Though they reached opposite conclusions, Alaska
Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, both
Republicans, faced similar political pressure heading into Friday’s
procedural vote on Kavanaugh’s high court nomination. A10
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