HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hundreds of ballet dancers tiptoed their way into the record books in New York City, including a 10-year-old girl from Hawaii.

Aila Ing, of Ewa Beach, was among 353 ballet dancers to set a new Guinness World Record this week for the most dancers en pointe in one place.

The group beat the old record set back in 2019.

The ballerinas, between ages 9 to 19, are with the Youth America Grand Prix.

Last week, Ing shined on stage at the Lincoln Center, competing in the Youth America Grand Prix Finals.

Ing first started dancing in 2020 at the Salvation Army Kroc Center Hawaii’s Kroc Dance Academy.

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Power outages that left thousands of Oahu and Hawaii Island residents in the dark last weekend have prompted state Senate leaders to urge the Public Utilities Commission to investigate Hawaiian Electric’s ongoing reliability issues.

In a letter to the PUC, Sens. Glenn Wakai, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental an Military Affairs; Jarrett Keohokalole, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection; and Lynn DeCoite, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development and Tourism, called on the commission to exercise its investigative powers to protect the public interest.

“The PUC has the statutory responsibility to regulate Hawaiian Electric proactively in the public interest and can use its investigatory powers pursuant to Section 269-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to ensure that electric utility services are delivered in a safe and reliable manner,” the senators wrote. “The lack of reliability due to insufficient energy generation, HECO’s aging equipment, unreliable oil-fired power generation, and immediate and long-term solutions should be investigated.”

In the letter, dated April 16, the senators noted that one outage on Oahu knocked out power to 13,000 HECO customers, prompted the closure of four East Oahu school and triggered the release of 237,500 gallons of sewage into the ocean when the East Honolulu Treatment Plant lost electricity. They also noted the loss of power to 21,500 customers on Hawaii Island.

On April 14, HECO reported that heavy rains and severe weather damaged one of the main transmission lines that bring power across the Koolau mountain range into East Honolulu. According to the utility, about 4,000 feet of 46-kilovolt line fell across a second transmission line, taking both lines out of service. Repair efforts were hampered by steep terrain and the inability to use a helicopter due to continued bad weather.

The same evening, HECO asked residential and business customers on Hawaii Island to reduce their electricity use to prevent further rolling outages after more than 21,000 customers experienced a 30-minute outage.

HECO explained that the request was prompted by the unavailability of several large generators. HECO’s Hill 5 steam unit tripped offline the previous day. Its Puna steam unit and CT01 combustion turbine unit are under repair and its Keahole CT-5 unit is offline for annual overhaul until the end of the month.

According to HECO,  these units generate about 62 megawatts combined. In addition, independent power producer Hamakua Energy, the island’s largest generator, was offline and wind and solar resources were forecast to be lower than normal, HECO reported.“These unplanned rolling outages and calls for conservation showcase Hawaiian Electric’s struggle to provide safe and reliable energy to customers,” they wrote. “Even worse, HECO expects more blackouts in the months ahead, without any indication of when these energy reliability issues will be resolved.”

The senators asked the PUC to investigate the matter to better understand “the nature, duration and resolution of these outages.”

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – It was the most dramatic day so far of the federal Mike Miske organized crime trial. On Thursday, in tearful testimony, 29-year-old Ashley Wong described the day in 2016 she believed Miske had kidnapped and killed her boyfriend — Johnathan Fraser.

Witnesses say Miske blamed Fraser for the death of his son, Caleb, in a crash.

Miske is charged with killing Fraser as part of a federal racketeering conspiracy.

There has never been any physical evidence of what happened to Fraser, but Wong said she believes believes the father of her child was kidnapped and murdered by Miske after he lulled the couple into a sense of security, providing free housing and a car after Caleb’s death.

The final gift was a spa day for Wong; she believes it was to get her out of the way.

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Wong arrived at federal court Thursday wearing a big smile and carrying a “Justice for Johnny” tshirt. She had been campaigning for justice since August 2016, when she taped posters around the island seeking any sign of her missing boyfriend. Fraser survived the crash that killed Caleb.

In 2016, she told Hawaii News Now that even though Fraser was still recovering from his injuries and depression, he wasn’t suicidal or likely to run off. “He was just really blessed to be alive at this point because the accident was really bad and we are expecting,” she said.

“His main goal was pretty much to recover and to become better than he was before.”

On the witness stand, Wong said on July 30, 2016, Miske gifted her and Caleb’s wife, Delia, a spa day at Ko Olina. But she became more worried and frantic when she couldn’t reach Fraser all day.

By evening, when friends couldn’t find him, she concluded they’d been set up for a kidnapping.

“To me, this wasn’t happening. There was no freaking way,” she said. “Why would he give us that car? Why would he put us in the house? Why did I not see all these things? I was pissed off. It came to me instantly — all of the red flags that anybody could have seen.”

During a frantic search that evening, she drove to Miske’s home in Kailua at nearly midnight, hoping Fraser might be there. She found the house was dark and deserted so she called Miske.

“When he answered the phone I asked him if he knew where John was,” she said.

“But before that, I asked him where he was. He told me that he was at home. I didn’t believe that,” she said, adding that the carport was empty and the house was dark.

After she began a social media campaign to find Fraser, Miske sent her an all-caps text that warned her to stop encouraging people to believe Caleb Miske was the driver in the accident.

She said she felt threatened.

She also testified she was told to leave the home Miske paid for shortly after Fraser disappeared.

Wong said after Fraser disappeared she began recording phone calls with Miske. One played in court Thursday included him telling her that he didn’t want police in the condo without him or Delia standing by. She said she hoped one day the recordings would be evidence against him.

After two days on the stand, she faces cross examination Friday by defense attorneys who deny Miske had anything to do with Fraser’s disappearance.

So far in the trial, there has been no eyewitness or physical evidence of what happened to Fraser.

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