The Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter yesterday endorsed U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka's re-election and former Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono in the 2nd Congressional District.

Lance Holter, the chapter's political chairman, said environmentalists are highly critical of Akaka's votes for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska but are encouraged by the senator's willingness to return to Alaska next summer and revisit the issue.

The Sierra Club endorsed Hirono, a Democrat, citing her commitment to strengthening federal environmental laws.

BUSINESS GROUP ENDORSES LINGLE

The National Federation of Independent Business SAFE Trust has endorsed Gov. Linda Lingle's re-election.

The trust, the political action committee of NFIB/Hawaii, said the governor has distinguished small businesses from big businesses when setting state policy.

"Small businesses are not smaller versions of big businesses," Melissa Pavlicek, NFIB/Hawaii's state director, said in a statement. "They have distinctly different difficulties in remaining solvent, and Governor Lingle has a fundamental appreciation of this very vital fact for the state's economy."

PAUOA

MAN, 43, HELD IN THREATS TO FAMILY

A 43-year-old man who allegedly threatened his parents Monday with two knives and prevented them from leaving their Pauoa home was being held at a Honolulu Police Department cellblock.

The man was arrested at the Hi'ilawe Street home, where he also resides, at 6:10 p.m. and booked on two counts each of first-degree terroristic threatening and kidnapping. The man's father, 79, and mother, 76, were not injured, police said. Police responded to the home after being contacted by a relative.

MISSING WOMAN FOUND AT BUS STOP

An 18-year-old 'Ewa Beach girl missing since Friday was located yesterday in Pearl City.

An anonymous tip led police to Belle Star Doyle, who was found at 10:30 a.m. sitting at a bus stop. Police missing persons investigator Philip Camero said the girl was not injured and is with her family.

PUNCHBOWL

INFANT INJURED IN ROCK-THROWING

Charges are pending against a 26-year-old man who allegedly threw a rock through the bedroom window of his Punchbowl residence on Kauila Street, injuring an infant.

The 3-month-old boy's injuries were not life threatening, police said.

According to police, the man returned home intoxicated at 3:20 a.m. and was locked out of his residence. He allegedly threw large rocks at the bedroom, shattering the glass louvers. The infant was asleep near the window.

HE DIDN'T PASS THE GENDER TEST

Imagine the surprise on the cashier's face when a 51-year-old man with a stolen credit card tried to pass himself off as a 20-year-old woman.

The suspect tried to use the credit card about noon Monday when the cashier noticed the card was in a woman's name and the person in front of her was no woman, police said. The cashier then asked the suspect for a Hawai'i driver's license and the suspect handed over the woman's stolen license.

Police were called and the suspect arrested for investigation of unauthorized use of personal information, fraudulent use of a credit card, fourth-degree attempted theft and third-degree identity theft. Charges are pending.

WITNESSES SOUGHT IN FREEWAY CRASH

Police are looking for additional witnesses and a car that may have been speeding alongside another vehicle that spun out of control, killing a passenger late Sunday.

Passenger Joahl Mirafuentes, 19, of Waipahu, was killed when the driver lost control while reportedly speeding and driving erratically on Moanalua Freeway. Mirafuentes and a 21-year-old male driver were in a gray 2004 Infiniti traveling east about 11:55 p.m. Sunday when the driver lost control about a half-mile before the Ala Kapuna overpass on Moanalua Freeway. The car rolled several times before landing on its roof in a grass culvert. The woman died at the scene, police said.

Traffic investigators suspect another vehicle, possibly a dark blue Toyota compact, was involved in the accident. Witnesses are asked to call 529-3068.