**** Checkpoint FOR WED 13 MAY
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1700 to 1707 NEWS
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Napier's slain police officer Len Snee has been remembered as a colossal man who strode quietly around his profession and who will never be forgotten. He was killed instantly by gunman Jan Molenaar on Thursday. Senior Constables Grant Diver and Bruce Miller, and civilian Leonard Holmwood were critically wounded before a 50-hour siege that ended on Saturday. Around a thousand people crammed into Napier's Municipal Theatre, and many more stood outsiden and lined the streets as he was farewelled not far from where he died.
Kim Baker Wilson was there, he filed this report. PKG
365 homes are being demolished under the new one point four billion dollar plan for a controversial road that will sweep through the Auckland suburbs of Mount Albert and Waterview. The Transport Agency has revealed details for the Waterview connection after the government scrapped Labour's plan for twin tunnels saying the price tag of almost 2.8 billion dollars was too expensive. That means two hundred more homes will have to be bulldozed with most of the newly condemned properties along Great North Road by the Phyllis Reserve. The route is about 4 kilometres long, with a 1-point-5 kilometre tunnel and a second shallower underground stretch. The Chair of the Transport Agency's Board, Brian Roche, is with us now.
LIVER
Duncan McDonald, the chairman of the Avondale Community Board, is vowing to fight the motorway decision. He joins us now: LIVER
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1720 TRAILS AND BUSINESS WITH Amy Williams
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New Zealand on Air is urgently investigating whether the production company owned by National MP Melissa Lee made political advertisements with taxpayer money. Ms Lee's company Asia Vision gets funding from New Zealand On Air to make Asia Down Under, a programme that screens on TVNZ. Her company got around a million dollars for the 2008 series and in October last year got 1.2 million dollars to make the programme for 2009. TV3 has reported that she didn't tell the funding agency she was standing for National, and that the company went on to produce and run a National Party election campaign ad featuring National MP Pansy Wong. I asked Ms Lee if any NZ on Air money was used for the U tube video. PREREC
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17.30 HEADLINES
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A jury has heard that Laniet Bain told a fellow prostitute that she had given birth to a white baby in Papua New Guinea that had been fathered by Robin Bain. The woman gave her evidence in the High Court in Christchurch, where David Bain is on trial for the murders of Laniet and Robin and 3 other members of his family. Monique Devereux reports: PKG
A truckie sacked for being overweight has had his day in court and won. In 2007 Bruce Douglas lost his job with Godfrey Haulage after just one week, because "he was too big for the job". The Hastings man was also told he should consider joining a gym and getting his stomach stapled. The Employment Relations Authority has awarded him 14 and a half thousand dollars. Bruce Douglas' lawyer Tony Snell - he's with us now. LIVER
The Finance Minister Bill English has repeated his intention to scrap many of the spending promises made by the former Labour-led Government last year. But he says because many of those promises were not funded, the National-led Government will make no savings from scrapping them. Here's our political editor Brent Edwards. PKG
The police say well in excess of 2-million dollars has been fleeced from at least 1000 companies nationwide in an advertising scam.
The scammers charge companies for advertising they say has been taken out in magazines like On the Road, Rural Trade and Full On Safety. It's only later when the ads don't appear that companies discover the magazines don't exist - but their names are very similar to real publications. Wellington Detective Ash Johnstone, has been investigating the scammers. PREREC
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17.45 TRAILS
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WAATEA
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The police say the Napier gunman Jan Molenaar died from a self inflicted gun shot. They've released the post mortem results which show none of the shots fired by the police during the 50 hour stand-off hit Molenaar. Detective Superintendent Rod Drew spoke at a media conference earlier today. READER plus CUTS
The Reserve Bank says banks are reaping unprecedented profits from floating mortgages and is repeating its call for lower interest rates. Releasing its six-monthly financial stability report today, it also called on the banks to make increased provisions for bad loans to farmers. Here's our economics correspondent, Nigel Stirling: PKG