HAWAII BRIEFS
Schools to vie for world robotics title
Staff and News Reports
Four Hawai'i schools have earned spots at the Robotics World Championship to be held in Atlanta next month.
A three-team alliance of McKinley, Maui and Moanalua high schools won the Hawaii Regional Robotics Competition held Friday and yesterday at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. Waialua High School won the Regional Chairman's Award.
All four Hawai'i schools qualified to advance to the World Championship.
NEW COURTHOUSE OPENING IN HILO
HILO, Hawai'i — A new $91.7 million courthouse is due to open this week in Hilo.
The building named Hale Kaulike, or "House of Justice," has seven general-purpose courtrooms, two family courtrooms, a law library and holding cells.
It also has meeting rooms for witnesses, attorney interviews and grand juries.
The estimated cost for the building was $60 million when it was proposed in 2003. That included $53 million for construction and $7 million to buy the land on Kilauea Avenue.
But the plan gained 35,000 square feet and had a new estimated price tag of $86 million when construction began in 2005.
The final $91.7 million cost excludes $600,000 for two works of art paid for by the state Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
SATELLITE CITY HALL IN KANE'OHE REOPENS
Seven months after closing for a move, the Kane'ohe satellite city hall reopened Friday at a new location at Windward City Shopping Center, across from McDonald's.
Furnishings for the $543,000 facility were plucked out of its former location, refurbished and rebuilt at the new location.
The city resurrected the old office furnishings and used internal manpower to keep costs down, the city said.
POLICE SAY NUDE MAN BROKE INTO HOUSE
Kaua'i police have charged a 29-year-old man with two counts of first-degree burglary and one count of indecent exposure.
Ronald Luna, who is homeless, is being held on $10,050 bail. Police said Luna entered a Puhi home about 6:45 a.m. Friday through the window of an unoccupied bedroom. He then allegedly knocked on the door of another bedroom, waking a sleeping couple.
When a woman came out of the bedroom, police said, she found the suspect naked. Luna fled, police said, and allegedly tried to enter another home through a window.
