HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Troops return from deployment
Advertiser Staff
Approximately 300 Hawai'i Marines and sailors with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment arrived home last night to a brass band and excited families after completing a five-month deployment to Afghanistan.
The Kane'ohe battalion, which also fought in Iraq during a deployment in 2004 and 2005, has been arriving back in waves after being relieved in eastern Afghanistan by the Army's 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, N.Y.
Another 100 to 150 Marines from the approximately 900 that deployed to Afghanistan are due back tomorrow.
The troops deployed in January, following tours of about seven months by Kane'ohe Bay Marines from the 3rd Battalion and then the 2nd Battalion.
Three Marines and a Navy corpsman from the battalion were killed in Afghanistan.
SPECIAL EDITION RAISED $54,000
Celebrities and volunteers selling special edition copies of The Honolulu Advertiser for Kids Day 2006 raised $54,000 for Parents and Children Together.
The proceeds help support PACT's community family-oriented programs, including early childhood education and child care, child abuse and domestic violence prevention and treatment, teen development, children's mental health, community building and economic development.
Classrooms received about 13,000 issues of the Kids Day edition, which featured children's writing and artwork on the theme "Does Older Mean Wiser?"
The rest were sold on the streets by volunteers.
KCC STUDENT NAMED ALL-USA
Jose Carlos Tome, a Kapi'olani Community College student majoring in education, was selected by USA Today, The American Association of Community Colleges and Phi Theta Kappa for the All-USA Academic Team — a prestigious academic honor.
Tome is one of 20 students named to the team out of nearly 1,500 applicants nationwide. He will receive a $2,500 stipend. He was also named a New Century Scholar, worth $2,000. AARP workshop on scam tactics
AARP Hawaii will hold a consumer fraud education workshop at Ala Moana Hotel today. The morning and afternoon sessions are designed to familiarize seniors with the tactics scam artists use to defraud people.
The workshop also will include a session with fraud expert Doug Shadel. Register by calling 1 (877) 926-8300.
EAST HONOLULU
FREE KID ID KITS AVAILABLE AT MALL
The state Department of the Attorney General's Missing Child Center will provide free Keiki Identification Kits for children up to age 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Kahala Mall center stage.
The kit will include a current photo, complete set of fingerprints, a current description of the child, a DNA hair sample and dental information.
The event is to commemorate the annual National Missing Children's Day.
MAUI
20-YEAR SENTENCE IN PHOTOS OF CHILD
WAILUKU — A Kahului man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for taking photos of a 7-year-old girl in various sexual poses.
Steven A. McAvoy, 42, told police he took the eight photos last May in the living room of his Harbor Lights condominium "just for the heck of it," according to court records. The photos were discovered in August in a briefcase in a closet.
Following a nonjury trial, 2nd Circuit Judge Joel August in March convicted McAvoy of eight counts of promoting child abuse in the first degree. On Wednesday, August sentenced him to concurrent 20-year terms on each of the charges.
KAUA'I
BURNED BODY IN CAR IDENTIFIED
LIHU'E — A woman found dead Monday in a burning car in Hanapepe Valley was identified yesterday as Elizabeth Rose Davis, 52.
Police said the cause of death was smoke inhalation. Police are not saying whether they believe the death was accidental, a suicide or a homicide.
