Top Hawaii Headlines: Friday morning edition

The Health Department may increase the Hawaii beverage container deposit by a half cent, which could result in retailers rounding up a whole cent for consumers.

A proposed tax of $1.05 on each barrel of oil sold in Hawai‘i, which would inevitably be passed on to drivers at the pump, would go to fund energy and food self-sufficiency in the state.

Oahu's neighborhood board election is making history because it is the world's first election being conducted entirely on the Internet and by telephone.

Maui's Island Dodge on Hana Highway in Kahului is among the 789 dealerships nationwide Chrysler LLC wants to eliminate by early next month, according to a bankruptcy court filing today.

A former Kaua'i mortgage broker who admitted to defrauding more than 50 people out of $30 million drove his truck off a cliff into a ravine in Washington state, killing himself yesterday, the day he was due in federal court in Honolulu for sentencing, according to law enforcement officials

State Sen. Fred Hemmings' wife, Lydia, pleaded not guilty to felony theft charges yesterday and is free on $5,000 bail pending trial in July.

A scientific study of shark-cage dive tours in Hawai'i indicates they pose little risk to public safety, largely because they operate at least three miles offshore and are frequented by Galapagos and sandbar sharks, two species rarely involved in attacks on humans.

The Army Reserve in the Pacific will get its first female leader: Brig. Gen. Michele Gillen Compton, who has been a reservist for more than two decades.

Derelict fishing nets are turned into electricity

While local officials cast about for ways to plug a growing budget hole, at least $10 million in salaries and benefits for vacant positions sits idle in Hawaii County coffers.

Kaua‘i’s Board of Ethics took significant steps toward a more transparent government Thursday morning.

After selling one of its bulldozers as surplus for $52,083, Hawaii County will have spent $427,025 renting it back by the time its recently extended contract expires June 31.

The Maui County Council on Wednesday approved keeping property tax rates at existing levels for the next year.

School officials are investigating how a Keaau Middle student managed to pull up an Internet pornography site on a school computer.

A Keaau couple accused of commercial promotion of marijuana claims their arrest was unlawful because both are medical marijuana patients.