MIDLER FACES FINE FOR FELLING TREES

Entertainer Bette Midler is expected to be fined by the state for cutting down more than 230 trees around one of her properties on Kaua'i.

The staff of the Board of Land and Natural Resources is recommending $6,500 in fines for having the trees felled and for building a graded road without permits required for the land zoned for conservation use.

Max W.J. Graham, an attorney representing Midler, said she will pay the fines and follow a replanting program.

Midler didn't realize permits were needed to remove the trees on a vacant 58,000-square-foot parcel of land on Kaua'i's North Shore, Graham said.

A botanist hired by Midler said 120 Java plum trees, 100 octopus trees and 10 to 20 Madagascar olive trees that were cut down were all non-native species. Some native trees also were removed from the property, the botanist said.

MISSING KAYAKER IS LANA'I MAN, 39

Maui County authorities yesterday identified the man who has been missing since a Sunday kayak outing from Lana'i as David Lorenz, 39.

Lorenz and a friend left Kaumalapau Harbor at 8:30 a.m. Sunday. The Coast Guard rescued the other man Monday about 25 miles off from the harbor. The Coast Guard located an unoccupied kayak about two miles south of where the first kayaker was spotted.

Lorenz was described as 5 feet 8 and 160 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information on him is asked to call the Maui Police Department at 244-6400 or the Lana'i police station at 565-6428.

FOUR TEENS IDENTIFIED AS ARSON SUSPECTS

Big Island police have identified four teenagers suspected of starting the April 2006 fire at Waiakea High School that caused $1.5 million in damage, according to a police arson investigation report.

No arrests have been made, but police have contacted the juveniles, Lt. Randall Medeiros said in a news release. It will be up to prosecutors to file charges, he said.

A detective working on an unrelated case developed information leading to the arrest of the teenage boys, all of them Hilo residents. One boy is now 18 years old while the others are 17, police said.

WORKER KILLED BY PNEUMATIC ROLLER

The worker killed Monday in an apparent industrial accident at the general aviation area of Honolulu Airport was run over and crushed by a pneumatic roller that was backing up, police said.

The driver of the roller did not see the victim, who was working behind the machine, police said.

The state departments of Transportation and Public Safety and the Occupational Safety & Health Division are handling the investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration is also involved.

The medical examiner's office was not naming the victim until his identity is confirmed.

General contractor Jas. W. Glover Ltd., the man's employer, said the victim was 51 years old and from Hilo, Hawai'i, but also declined to identify him.

The man is survived by his wife, two daughters, a grandson, mother, brothers and sisters, the company said.

The man was working on a taxiway repaving job, state officials said.