Marine may get life in prison ADVERTISING Marine may get life in prison KANEOHE, Oahu (AP) — A military jury has recommended that a Marine who killed a prostitute in his Hawaii hotel room serve a life sentence and be
Marine may get life in prison
KANEOHE, Oahu (AP) — A military jury has recommended that a Marine who killed a prostitute in his Hawaii hotel room serve a life sentence and be dishonorably discharged.
The jury’s recommendation on Saturday will be reviewed by the Marines commander and the court-martial’s convening authority, who will either agree with the sentence or reduce the penalty.
Marine Master Sgt. Nathaniel Cosby was convicted Thursday of murder, obstruction of justice and patronizing a prostitute.
He admitted to killing Ivanice “Ivy” Harris in May last year, but his lawyers argued it was in self-defense.
Cosby was in Hawaii on a temporary assignment from Japan at the time of the killing. He remains in confinement at the brig on Ford Island.
Harris’ family said they were grateful to investigators and prosecutors for bringing Cosby to justice.
Tourists from China in focus
HONOLULU (AP) — The CEO of Hawaiian Airlines says Hawaii’s hospitality industry must do more to make Chinese visitors feel welcome.
Mark Dunkerley told a retailers’ convention on Thursday that the state is unprepared for the potential number of Chinese visitors the state could receive. A survey found that Chinese visitors do not see Hawaii as a friendly destination, he said.
“We start at ground zero in relative terms,” Dunkerley said. “And the very same exercise of building a visitor experience which appeals to the Chinese visitor, who is very different than the Japanese visitor, is as much a task and a challenge today to the Chinese as it was in the ’70s and ’80s as we started getting the Japanese visitor coming.”
Dunkerley noted several obstacles for Hawaii to tap into the potentially vast Chinese market. Those include a lack of mid- and low-priced hotels, not enough promotion in China and too few Mandarin speakers in Waikiki.
“For us to be a good destination of Chinese visitors, the level at which Mandarin-speaking services are available in the community has got to expand dramatically,” he said. “It’s got to be represented in the restaurants, not just on the menu, but also in the ability of wait staff to speak in Mandarin.”