Honolulu Star-Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • B1

CITY EDITOR: Marsha McFadden mmcfaddenstaradvertiser.com 529-4759 SUNDAY 7713 LOST DOG FOUND IN ISLES A microchip helps reunite a Boston terrier with her owner in Illinois after eight years B2 NEIGHBOR ISLANDS B2 OBITUARIES B4-5 Paying for police raises could be 'challenging' UH research ties stronger El Nino to global warming Honolulu leaders say they hope to fund the increase without hitting property taxes By Sarah Zoellick szoellickstaradvertiser.com In light of Mayor Kirk Caldwell's announcement Friday that the state's unionized police officers will be earning 16.8 percent more by 2017, Honolulu leaders are looking for creative ways to raise city revenue. City Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said Saturday that the Council hopes to in crease the city budget without affecting residential property taxes. Kobayashi said city leaders were initially caught off guard by the arbitration agreement with the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, which represents roughly 2,900 police personnel in Honolulu and the counties of Kauai, Maui and Hawaii, but that enough money was set aside in the budget that began July 1 to cover this year's salary increases. SHOPO members will receive 4 percent raises each year, amounting to an overall 16.8 percent increase, but other terms are not yet known, she said. that temperatures dropped because volcanic ash blocked the sun, followed by unusual warming the next year.

"In the year after a large tropical volcanic eruption, our record shows that the east-central tropical Pacific is unusually cool, followed by unusual warming one year later," said Li, a professor at the University of Hong Kong. "Like greenhouse gases, volcanic aerosols perturb the Earth's radiation balance. This supports the idea that the unusually high El Nino-Southern Oscillation activity in the late 20th century is a footprint of global warning." Xie, who is also a climate science professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said climate models diverge and their study adds more evidence to the picture. "We kind of knew it would be about that, but we didn't know how many years and it's compounding," Kobayashi said. "When you think about all that, plus the amount we have to put into the health fund, it's challenging." Among 10 bills related to amending Honolulu's property tax laws that will be up for first reading at the City Council meeting Wednesday are proposals that would amend property tax exemptions for certain nonprofit organizations, government employee unions, federal credit unions, and other groups to be a percentage of the property's assessed value, rather than PHOTOS BY CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL Saturday's event was the first of its kind at the palace, and Kinimaka family members said the site couldn't have been more appropriate.

Inspired by what he had seen during an 1881 voyage around the world, Kalakaua commissioned the palace not merely as a vanity project, as his detractors have argued, but as a symbol of Hawaii's sovereignty and independence at a time when forces inside and outside the kingdom were agitating for annexation by the United States. "There has been a rebirth in Hawaiian language and culture and it's great to know that our family will always be linked to David a complete exemption. The measures would also change the "hotel and resort" real property class to "hotel, resort and transient," and classify all real property used as transient vacation, bed-and-break-fast, time share and fractional ownership units as such. "We've been talking about it, wondering what the final number would be, so we've been preparing for this," Kobayashi said. SHOPO President Tenari Ma'afala said he could not confirm the figures announced by Caldwell because the union isn't Please see RAISES, B3 CRUSSELLSTARADVERTISER.COM Kalakaua," said Arlette Mookini, 47, of Waimanalo.

"So many more people speak Hawaiian now than they did 10 years ago. My daughter Kawaiola goes to Punana Leo (Hawaiian-language immersion school) and she teaches me what she learns. It's like coming full circle." The gathering included a royal court procession and a tour of the palace. It was the first time 8-year-old Kawaiola had ever set foot inside the palace. "It was unbelievable to see her make that connection," Mookini said.

The event also included family members performing hula to a mele composed by David Leleo Kinimaka's daughter, Mary Ha'aheo Kinimaka, for Queen Lili-uokalani. Branches of the family were distinguished by colored T-shirts. Syd and Kristy Kinimaka brought their daughters, Ko-ral, 4, and Kiryn, 1. "Growing up, I always had an idea of how our family was connected to the monarchy, but I never took it seriously until I got older," said Syd Kinimaka, 35. "It's a little overwhelming to think about, but I feel honored to be here." By Susan Essoyan sessoyanstaradvertiser.com An analysis of thousands of tree rings from around the Pacific Rim reveals that El Nino activity is at its highest level in seven centuries, and researchers at the University of Hawaii suggest that is likely due to global warming.

El Nino, which involves warmer sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, can trigger droughts, floods and other weather disturbances worldwide. In Hawaii, it typically leads to drier winters and a more active hurricane season in the summer. A team of scientists led by Jinbao Li and Shang-Ping Xie at UH-Manoa's International Pacific Research Center analyzed 2,222 tree-ring growth records from Asia, New Zealand and North and South America. Tree rings are good proxies for rainfall and temperature measurements. The study, "El Nino modulations over the past seven centuries," was published July 2 in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Because El Nino is a tropical phenomenon, the researchers were eager to include tropical trees, along with other ancient trees from cooler climates that are often studied. But most tropical trees do not have rings. After hiking for days, Li and co-author Edward R. Cook were able to track down some specimens in Indonesia that allowed them to look back in time 700 years, Xie said in a telephone interview. "We were able to find trees in the tropical regions with clear rings that's quite rare," Xie said, noting that the researchers used drills to peer inside so as not to harm the trees.

Evidence of El Nino activity encoded in the tree rings corresponded closely with data from equatorial Pacific corals and other temperature reconstruction data, producing what the authors described as a record of "unprecedented accuracy." "Trees and corals don't talk, yet we still find correlations between the two," said Xie, a meteorology professor in UH's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. "One lives on the mountains and one lives under the sea. The only reason they agree is because they are both influenced by El Nino." The data indicated that El Nino, known in the scientific world as El Nino-Southern Oscillation or ENSO, has been most active in recent decades, when compared to records dating to the 1300s, Xie said. "Our data indicate that ENSO activity in the late 20th century was anomalously high over the past seven centuries, suggestive of a response to continuing global warming," the authors wrote. The scientists analyzed volcanic activity over the centuries to help assess how disturbances in the atmosphere might affect El Nino.

Immediately after a major eruption, they found Hundreds of descendants of David Leleo Kinimaka, the hanai brother of King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuo-kalani, attended a family reunion Saturday at 'Iolani Palace, where Kinimaka was commander of the King's Guard. A group photo on the steps of the palace reveals the color-coded branches of the family tree. Kinimaka clan celebrates royal ties "Nobody knows exactly what the future holds, but the nature of science is to look into the past the best way we can and try to improve the model to predict the future." Shang-Ping Xie University of Hawaii meteorology professor "Many climate models do not reflect the strong El Nino-Southern Oscillation response to global warming that we found," Xie said. "Our results now provide a guide to improve the accuracy of climate models and their projections of future ENSO activity. If this trend of increasing ENSO activity continues, we expect to see more weather extremes such as floods and droughts." "Nobody knows exactly what the future holds," Xie added, "but the nature of science is to look into the past the best way we can and try to improve the model to predict the future." In related news, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization announced last week that the planet has warmed faster since the turn of the century than ever recorded, Bloomberg News reported.

The 2000-10 decade was the warmest yet for both hemispheres, and about 94 percent of countries logged their warmest 10 years on record, according to Bloomberg News. "Rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are changing our climate, with far-reaching implications for our environment and our oceans," Michel Jarraud, the organization's secretary general, said, according to Bloomberg. "Given that climate change is expected to lead to more frequent and intense heat waves, we need to be prepared." Sheana Mata, left, Amy Sato, Nicole Lee, Tavehi Tafiti and Ala Aquiza of Na Hula Kaohikukapulani performed in front of the Kinimaka royal court. By Michael Tsai mtsaistaradvertiser.com As a child, Nani Kinimaka-Davis would sit on the grass outside 'Iolani Palace with her siblings, ice cream running down her hands, and listen to her father, Joseph, speak of the old days of the Hawaiian monarchy and the service their forebears provided to King David Kalakaua. On Saturday, more than 400 members of the Kinimaka family gathered at the palace for a massive family reunion that also doubled as a celebration of Hawaiian history and culture reclaimed.

"It's a very heartfelt occasion for me, as it is for each and every one of us here, to see everyone and to know that we are all part of the same family, and that we all come from the same place and the same culture," said Kinimaka-Davis, who spent the past two years organizing the event. Dozens of family members from Florida, Texas, Utah, California, Mississippi and other states flew in to attend the three-day reunion, which kicked off Friday with a reception at the Ala Moana Hotel and will conclude today with a picnic at Ala Moana Beach Park. The fete at 'Iolani Palace was especially poignant given the Kinimakas' long association with the site which Kinimaka-Davis said rests on a portion of the Kinimaka clan's ancestral lands and with Kalakaua himself. According to genealogical research performed by family member Pattie Hitchcock, the Kinimaka family extends back 17 generations in Hawaii. Attendees at this weekend's reunion have a common ancestor in David Leleo Kinimaka, hanai brother of Kalakaua and Lili-uokalani, who served as commander of the King's Guard at 'Iolani Palace during Kalakaua's reign..