$44 million blunder, bankruptices at 4-year record, police laser gun use in jeopardy, bugs count

The interior of Hulihee Palace glowed on Tuesday as members of the Daughters of Hawaii and Calabash Cousins ushered visitors through its renovated rooms.

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Extending a lifeline from across the Pacific, federal and state disaster relief workers and volunteers arrived here last night on a Hawaiian Airlines flight with 40,000 pounds of water, food and clothing to help people cope with a deadly earthquake and tsunami.

Maui was spared a tsunami hit Tuesday, but parts of the island saw unusual tidal activity as a result of a massive earthquake earlier in Samoa.

Already facing a deficit approaching $1 billion for the current two-year budget cycle, the state now finds itself $44 million deeper in the hole after the recent discovery of a clerical error in accounting records.

A miscommunication between two state agencies is tacking an additional $44 million to the estimate of the state's already daunting $1 billion budget shortfall, the Lingle administration said yesterday.

The Hawai'i Supreme Court has thrown out a man's conviction for excessive speeding, a ruling that could put in jeopardy dozens of cases in which drivers have been pulled over by police officers armed with a laser gun.

Event makes native insects count

Hawaii bankruptcy filings in September soared to their highest monthly level in nearly four years.