Surfing the 3- to 4-foot waves, Ramey, of Po‘ipu, won Heat 17 of Round 2, with a score of 15.70, edging out Roy Powers of Hanalei (14.50). Powers still advances to the next round with his second-place finish.

Kilauea’s Jesse Merle-Jones won his heat yesterday over an international field. Merle-Jones (15.17) defeated Florida’s Gabe Kling (14.43), New Zealand’s Jay Quinn (14.34) and fellow Hawai‘i surfer Gavin Beschen (9.80).

Maui’s Kevin Sullivan, Ian Walsh and Kieran Horn were the other Hawai‘i surfers to win their heats. Others who are still in the competition are Ola Eleogram, Torry Meister, Kiron Jabour and Dusty Payne.

Meister, of Kona, was involved in one of the more exciting heats of the day yesterday, surfing against Brazil’s Jadson Andre (see full story on today’s Surf page on B2.) Both scored consistently high scores battling out for the lead.

Hawai‘i’s Tonino Benson and Casey Brown also competed yesterday, but did not finish in the top two of their heats and therefore did not qualify for the next rounds.

Hawai‘i’s Megan Abubo of Hale‘iwa and Melanie Bartel’s of Makaha remain in the U.S. Women’s Open, also at Huntington Beach. That competition should see three rounds of surfing going off today.

(Source: Lanaly Cabalo, Kauai Garden Island News)

The field for the Sept. 20 primary and Nov. 4 general election is now set.

Three incumbents are not seeking reelection to the council and all seven seats on the legislative body are up for grabs.

Council members JoAnn Yukimura and Mel Rapozo are running for mayor against county Parks and Recreation Director Bernard Carvalho. A fourth mayoral candidate, Kapa‘a resident Rolf Bieber, filed on Monday.

The top vote-getter will take office Dec. 1 for the remaining two years of the late Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s second term.

More than 150 residents rallied yesterday evening on the lawn in front of the Historic County Building where Rapozo delivered a statement on why he is running for mayor.

“What matters most is not your name, your race, your color … but what you do for others,” he said, a bit choked up. “I’ll set the priorities. I’ll set the direction.”

Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, who attended Rapozo’s event, is running unopposed for county prosecutor.

Of the 22 candidates running for council, eight filed their nomination papers yesterday, according to the uncertified 2008 candidate filing information. Candidates have until 4:30 p.m. today to withdraw from the race, according to state law.

Read more …

(Source: Nathan Eagle, Kauai Garden Island News)

Rescue crews found 21-year-old Cody Kimura, after he apparently fired two shots in the air.

Search and rescue had flown over him several times over the weekend but did not spot him.  Conditions in the area were overcast which hampered efforts.

Kimura says he fired his gun but the helicopter was too loud for rescuers to hear. 

Monday morning, Kimura fired two shots that were heard by searchers. They went in the general direction of the gun fire and found him.

Kimura said he had run out of food and water and was living off berries. 

(Source: KHNL 8 News)

Hawaii State Fishing Records

Cody Kimura of Lihu‘e was reported missing at around 11:20 p.m., Saturday, after efforts to find him by his hunting party were unsuccessful.

Police officers, law enforcement officers from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Kaua‘i Search and Rescue Team have been searching the Sugi Grove area on foot while fire fighters and rescue specialists from the Kaua‘i Fire Department were conducting an aerial search on Air-1.

Kimura had gone goat hunting in Koke‘e with his 15-year-old brother and a male friend at 2:45 a.m., Saturday. He left them at around 9:30 a.m. to retrieve an item from their vehicle.

When Kimura did not return, his brother and friend went looking for him. They encountered another hunting party who said they had passed Kimura on the trail.

They continued their search into the night, but were unable to locate him. They then notified police that he was missing.

(Source: Kauai Garden Island News)

Todd Rundgren may keep a low profile, but his legacy lingers

Rundgren might be best known for a song that slipped away, which is fitting since Rundgren’s 40-year career as a musician and producer has had a pinball-like quality to it.

Even he admits of Bang on a Drum All Day, “Everybody knows the song, but they have no idea who recorded it.” He says his label didn’t think much of the song, which was never promoted as a single.

When local classic-rock station 93.7 FM The Arrow played its catalog of songs from Z to A last weekend, Rundgren’s Bang on the Drum All Day arrived shortly after Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.

He produced that one, too.

Still, Rundgren is a name more recognized than known. He doesn’t sound bothered by it.

As he says about Drum, “Once you get a song to that level, it has penetrated the cultural consciousness in a way that something like a Top 10 single hasn’t. It’s likeHappy Birthday. Everybody knows Happy Birthday.”

Sabotage is a strong word for what he’s done to his career, but Rundgren, 60, doesn’t reject the term. He’s long had a tendency to clear a path only to abandon it for the thicket.

“I have a short attention span,” he says. “And I’m creatively restless, I guess, in a way. It’s not me trying to consciously confuse the audience. It’s just that I listen to my own records and eventually get bored with them, and then I have to do something that doesn’t resemble the last record I made. It’s inevitable.”

He laughs. “And yeah, in some ways it’s prevented me from having that scale of success. But it’s brought me a loyal audience, and here I am 40 years later able to make a living in music, and that’s important to me.”

Read more …

(Source: Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle)

The fire broke out at around 1:45 pm near Kukuihale Road, below the site of a new Department of Hawaiian Home Lands subdivision.

Eleven firefighters from the Kapa’a, Lihu’e and Kalaheo stations and Battalion Chief Teddy Williams responded. Air-1 also assisted.

The fire was under control at 3:30 pm.

Firefighters remained putting out hot spots.

(Source: Honolulu Advertiser)

Search-and-rescue controllers from the Coast Guard’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Honolulu received a distress signal from the 15-foot fishing vessel, Dauntless, at about 9 a.m.

A Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter crew was launched immediately from O’ahu. All three fishermen were hoisted aboard the helicopter at 11:27 a.m.

The helicopter rescue crew had arrived at Hanalei Bay at approximately 10:30 a.m. and sighted the three fishermen on top of the overturned fishing vessel. The vessel was already submerged.

A rescue swimmer was lowered into the water and sent each fisherman up to the helicopter in a rescue basket.

All fishermen were reported to be wearing life jackets and are in good condition. The fishermen used a Personal Locator Beacon to send a distress signal.

“Had they not had a PLB, we wouldn’t have gotten the notification until hours later when they would have failed to show up at home,” said Chief Petty Officer Seth Haynes, the Coast Guard District 14 search and rescue control chief.

“We were able to respond in 10 minutes rather than several hours.”

The weather at the time was reported as strong, blustery tradewinds at 20 knots out of the north-northeast and seas of seven feet.

(Source: Honolulu Advertiser)

The deal, which also includes the Happy Talk Lounge, has not yet cleared escrow. Moffat said the sale is expected to close in three weeks.

“The goal is to sell the restaurant. That is what we’re moving toward,” Hanalei Bay Resort General Manager Jim Braman said.

Moffat declined to comment on the purchase price; however, he said the plans include a $1.5 million remodel of the entire lounge and restaurant. The former is expected to close for three months and the latter for six.

Bali Hai closed for renovations late last year, about the time that 40 resort and restaurant workers were furloughed due to cash shortages with the resort’s management company, Quintus Resorts LLC.

Bali Hai did not subsequently re-open, and the upgrades did not take place.

Moffat said he’d planned a new venture for almost a year, and just in the last six months did the unlisted space become available.

The plan is to re-open as a classic French bistro with a white-table-cloth sensibility and regional, simple fare three meals a day, seven days a week. There are plans for a 400-label wine bar and nightly jazz and Hawaiian music.

(Source: Blake Jones, Kauai Garden Island News)

The new mayor will focus on the issue of tour boats in Hanalei Bay

With his family and friends in attendance and his new employees looking on from outside their offices at the Moikeha Building, Bill “Kaipo” Asing was sworn in yesterday as Kauai mayor, taking the place of the late Bryan Baptiste.

Just a few hours later and across the street, County Council members unanimously picked his replacement on the Council: Daryl Kaneshiro, a cattle rancher and former councilman.

Both will hold their positions until Dec. 1, when those elected in the fall will take their place.

Asing, who filed his Council resignation just before the ceremony, said “there’s a lot of work to do” and that he will likely not get everything done in the next 3 1/2 months.

“What (we want) to accomplish may not be done in the next 137 days, but let us begin now,” he added.

To begin, Asing said his first priority will be to go back to the past — and solve the controversy surrounding tour boats in Hanalei Bay.

“The Hanalei Bay situation will receive my immediate attention,” he said.

It is an issue that has been brewing for decades, after North Shore residents fought to keep out more than 30 boat companies from working the Na Pali Coast from the North Shore.

Right now a number of tour companies are working in the bay, even after the county planning department issued a cease and desist order last year.

Asing, who said he grew up on the North Shore and spent years hiking along the Na Pali Coast, said the boating issue is about preserving the rugged coastline.

Read more …

(Source: Tom Finnegan, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)