State briefs for March 30

Ex-GOP Trump critic to run for Congress

HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii lawmaker who left the Republican Party last year after criticizing President Donald Trump says she will run for Congress.

State Rep. Beth Fukumoto is launching her campaign to represent Honolulu in the U.S. House on Thursday.

Fukumoto joined the Democratic Party after leaving the Republicans. She plans to run for Congress as a Democrat. Her competition includes one other state representative, a state senator, a city councilman and the lieutenant governor.

Fukumoto switched parties when Republicans voted her out as House Minority Leader after she called Trump a bully in a Women’s March speech. She said many of Trump’s remarks were racist and sexist.

Police name man who died during rescue

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii authorities have identified the Montana man who died after saving his 15-year-old daughter who was swept into the ocean off the coast of Maui.

Maui police have identified the man as 46-year-old Brian Lazorishak of Whitefish, Montana.

A large wave carried his daughter into the ocean at Olivine Pools on Tuesday.

Fire department officials say Lazorishak jumped in and brought his daughter back to the rocky area where bystanders tied towels together to help pull the girl out.

Lazorishak was then observed to be unresponsive.

He was airlifted and rescue personnel attempted lifesaving measures. He died at the scene.

Reinhardt, liberal circuit court judge, dies at 87

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a liberal stalwart on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for nearly four decades, died Thursday in Southern California. He was 87.

Reinhardt died of a heart attack during a visit to a dermatologist in Los Angeles, court spokesman David Madden said.

He was considered to be one of the most liberal judges on the 9th Circuit. Reinhardt wrote a 2012 opinion striking down California’s gay marriage ban.

Last year he wrote in an opinion that a Trump administration order to deport a man who entered the country illegally nearly three decades ago and became a respected businessman in Hawaii was “inhumane” and “contrary to the values of the country and its legal system.”