City prepares Lei Day events
Honolulu’s 85th annual Lei Day Celebration will feature a lei making contest, entertainment and the coronation of the May Day Court.
This year, Hawaiian artisans will also share their crafts throughout the day.
The event will be held 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. May 1 at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand.
Entertainment, including a steel guitar concert, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Lei will be on display from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Children can hear stories at Tutu’s Hale, play Hawaiian games and learn songs, hula, lei making and lau hala weaving.
The deadline to submit ribbon or fabric creations for the "lei lipine" contest entries is Saturday. Other lei must be submitted between 7:30 and 9 a.m. May 1. Visit www.honoluluparks.com or call 768-3041.
Photos of Iran go on display
A University of Hawaii-Manoa exhibit features photographs of Iran taken by a student.
Tehran-born Maseeh Ganjali took the photos on trips to Iran in 2010 and 2011. He moved to Hawaii at age 13 and is in his last semester of his undergraduate studies in UH-Manoa’s Theater and Dance Department.
He received a research grant award and a Roshan Cultural Institute Fellowship to travel to Iran and then photograph and conduct research on Iranian arts, history, heritage and culture.
The exhibit is featured in Hamilton Library’s Elevator Gallery and will be on view into the summer, when the building is open to the public.
Maui regains entomologist
Maui County has a state entomologist again after the position was lost to budget cuts in 2009.
Mach Fukada picked up where he left off three years ago because the state Department of Agriculture’s Plant Pest Control Branch deemed it a priority to have someone searching for invasive bugs that could wreak havoc on Hawaii’s delicate ecosystem, the Maui News reported last week.
During his absence, entomologists from neighbor islands traveled to Maui periodically to do critical work, said department spokeswoman Janelle Saneishi.
Since returning to his position last month, Fukada has been searching for the banded cucumber beetle, which he found by accident before he lost his job. The beetles probably came to Hawaii from South or Central America, he said. The larvae feed on roots of plants such as sweet potatoes and corn, while the adults feeds on crops such as beans, peppers, eggplant, cotton and okra.
Fire scorches garage of home
Hawaii County firefighters extinguished a structure fire that damaged the garage of a single-family house Sunday afternoon on Kekauonohi Place in Pahoa.
The home was unoccupied when the fire broke out in the roofed garage, which was used as an outside kitchen, according to a county news release. Neighbors tried to extinguish it before retreating when the flames came in contact with propane tanks stored in the structure.
Firefighters arrived to find flames and smoke. They brought the fire under control within 10 minutes and had it extinguished in less than an hour.
Damage was estimated at $1,000. No injuries were reported.
