Honolulu Hale pushing tax hikes, Hawaii renters pay the most, Big Island bans smoking when kids in car, H1N1 hits Maui school, more top Hawaii news

A 3-cent increase in the tax on gasoline and a 30-cent hike in the real property tax rate for non-occupant homeowners advanced yesterday as Honolulu City Council members crafted their budget with a wary eye on lawmakers in the state Legislature.

After 8 hours of testimony, Honolulu City Council members are still in disagreement over the city budget.

At a time when Hawai'i families are weathering pay cuts and job losses, here's more gloomy news: The income needed to afford a modest two-bedroom rental in the Islands rose by nearly $3,000 this year to $64,396 annually — $26,000 more than the national average, a report on housing affordability shows.

State House and Senate leaders will likely turn to the state's Hurricane Relief Fund to eliminate teacher furloughs after budget negotiators agreed last night to remove furlough money from the state budget draft.

Hours after a breakthrough agreement yesterday to give counties the option to ban fireworks, lawmakers learned that the deal could fall through because of an obscure rule governing the negotiations.

State lawmakers on Wednesday agreed on a bill that is poised for final approval to allow the counties to come up with their own fireworks prohibitions stricter than the state's.

The Honolulu City Council has endorsed a proposal to support federal recognition for Hawaiians.

Pakalolo was the hot-button topic Tuesday when Police Chief Harry Kubojiri and other top cops met with the public in Volcano Village.

Police will have greater access to downtown Kailua-Kona next month when officers begin patrolling the Alii Drive area on mountain bikes.

It probably won't be enforced, proponents conceded, but a ban on smoking in cars when kids are present will be the law following a Hawaii County Council vote Tuesday afternoon.

An outbreak of H1N1 in two classrooms at a Maui elementary school has prompted state health officials to remind residents of the continued need to be vaccinated against the virus.

Tourism ending year on high note, Kilauea is scientists' focus, H1N1 vaccine still scarce

A difficult year for tourism is ending on a high note thanks to two large back-to-back conventions and the Honolulu Marathon, but the good news is being tempered by the lack of big-attendance events in the first half of 2010.

Signs increasingly point to Sony shortly announcing an extension of its sponsorship of the Sony Open in Hawai'i golf tournament that will take it at least through 2011.

Kilauea's ongoing eruption -- 27 years in January -- will be highlighted at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting Dec. 14-18 in San Francisco.

A top aide to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Hawaii is the only state to furlough teachers and cut instructional days as a budget-cutting move.

One of the highest ranking education officials in the country is touring some of Hawaii's public schools. He is here to listen and learn and also meet with the state and teachers union about the 17 furlough days a year, which reduced Hawaii's school year to the fewest days in the country.

The state health director told KITV on Monday that her department is suffering from a lack of accurate information about how much H1N1 flu vaccine has been shipped to Hawaii and how much doctors and other health care providers have actually used.

More doses are on the way. It's Hawaii's biggest-yet shipment of H1N1 vaccine, and not a moment too soon for anxious parents who've been hunting for those shots all over town.

The Maui Fire Department on Monday called off the search for a Hana couple that disappeared on Thanksgiving Day.

Sometime in January, Maui Economic Opportunity will forge ahead with a project that will allow the community, its youth groups and former prison inmates to take part in activities on a parcel of land in Waihee while learning about agriculture, Hawaiian culture and life skills.

A pair of Cost Control Commissioners submitted their resignations in September in light of the Board of Ethics’ position on Charter Section 20.02D, further showing how ethical concerns can impact participation in and productivity of government.

West Hawaii keiki can get an eyeful of candy this holiday season by making a quick trip to The Fairmont Orchid.

Kauhola Lighthouse coming down, US-Japanese missile tests off Kauai, H1N1 slow coming to islands

The U.S. Coast Guard has determined that the best course of action for a lighthouse sitting on a rapidly eroding site on the Big Island is its removal.

Honolulu needs to improve the way it documents commuter rail contract awards to improve transparency and public confidence in the project, according to a study by city auditor Les Tanaka.

George Lanakilakekiahiali'i Naope, co-founder of the Merrie Monarch hula festival, died yesterday in Hilo after a lengthy illness.

Three warships from the Japanese and U.S navies will attempt another midflight missile interception today with the destroyer JS Myoko scheduled to launch an SM-3 missile from waters off Kauai's Barking Sands missile range.

A Japanese navy ship with a state-of-the-art, American-built, missile-defense system will attempt to shoot a target missile out of the sky this afternoon.

State health officials said it is just a matter of time before there is a swine flu outbreak in the islands.

Hawaii County is hoping to give sagging Big Island employment numbers a lift by helping to deliver people to job sites and worker-training classes.

You know you’ve reached Kamilo Nui when you pass the last California-style subdivision and have to brake suddenly when an entire family of feral pigs walks calmly, in single file, across the road that leads up the tiny, picturesque valley in the back of Hawaii Kai.

Top Hawaii Headlines: Tuesday morning edition

Faced with a projected deficit of close to $2.6 million for the fiscal year ending today, University of Hawaii athletic director Jim Donovan is looking to hold the line on the budgets for the school's sports teams while keeping ticket prices at current levels.

Battered by what he termed "one of the toughest economies we've ever faced as an athletic department," University of Hawai'i athletic director Jim Donovan said he expects to report a $2.58 million deficit for the fiscal year that closes today.

The first swine flu death in the state and the hospitalization of another person raised concern about the spreading infection that has stricken 545 people in Hawaii.

The state Department of Health yesterday confirmed Hawai'i's first swine flu death, saying the H1N1 virus contributed to the death of a person at Tripler Army Medical Center 11 days ago.

Hawaii motorists have until Tuesday night to beat a gas tax credit expiration that will cause the price to go up 12 cents a gallon.

The earthquake that shook Maui on Sunday night was the most powerful to originate under the island in more than five years, but no damage was reported, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The March 2006 Ka Loko Reservoir Dam disaster that claimed seven lives and wrought untold millions of dollars in property damage also had a considerable impact on the farming operations of the surrounding Kilauea area, a new report shows.

A woman who was sexually assaulted by her mentor and spiritual leader for at least seven years starting when she was 12 years old watched a judge sentence Manuel Guillermo Taboada to 10 years in prison yesterday.

It was his longest statement but short of an apology to the girl he sexually assaulted in the name of religion.

Maui Community College enrollment is up by 56 percent.