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The state said yesterday its seeking bids from companies to conduct an environmental impact statement for an undersea power cable that would connect the islands of Lāna'i, Moloka'i, O'ahu, and Maui.A global settlement of multiple Kaloko Dam lawsuits was announced yesterday in Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe's courtroom. Good-faith settlements have been reached and approved in state court in various wrongful-death and property-damage cases regarding the March 2006 breach of Ka Loko Reservoir Dam near Kilauea.The governor and some legislative leaders and parents are searching for other solutions including urging teachers to reopen their contract negotiations to come up with something less stressful on students.While the expected December groundbreaking for the city's $5.3 billion rail transit project is being pushed back by a month, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann says he does not see it as a setback.An alternative rail plan for Honolulu that promises to save taxpayers an estimated $1.7 billion in cost, shave 1.5 years off construction time–and, last but not least, promises to spare the heart of the city the monstrous effects of overhead concrete rail lines and stations–has been outlined in a July 15 report commissioned by Kamehameha Schools, owner of extensive real estate along the proposed train’s route.Central Pacific Financial Corp., expecting enforcement action to be levied against it by federal and state regulators, staggered to a $183.1 million loss in the third quarter as it took two big charges tied to the bank's exposure to the struggling California and Hawaii commercial real estate markets.Hawaii residents still taking trips to the Ninth Island but not spending as muchMore than 1,000 Hawaii County employees have agreed to unpaid furloughs next year and possibly this year as well.A nonprofit think tank is recommending Hawaii County take its agricultural base seriously by elevating an agriculture director to a Cabinet-level position and adding staff.The name of the Renaissance Wailea Beach Resort could turn out to have been prophetic because Kobayashi Group LLC wants to bring the hotel, closed since September 2007, back to life.Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd has a little problem with the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.
Creeping lava is no longer threatening a public viewing area near Kalapana, but officials said there's still plenty of activity from the Kílauea eruption, now in its 27th year.As light Kona wind persists, an increase in vog has spread from the Big Island across the entire state.Just when parents thought things in Hawaii's public schools couldn't get much worse, Department of Education officials warned yesterday that "thousands" of DOE employees will be laid off if a federal judge blocks teacher furloughs.Facing an unprecedented reduction in school days and deep budget cuts, state Board of Education members got more bad news: They need an additional $32 million in the next two years to meet rising student transportation costs.Facing accusations of making backdoor deals and bending to the will of the mayor, Honolulu City Council Chairman Todd Apo defended his last-minute change of heart that revived a proposal to create a new "homeowners" classification for property tax assessmentsPart diplomat, part cheerleader, Governor Linda Lingle is heading to China this Friday for a two-week visit to six cities, including Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.The Waikiki Aquarium is nurturing 20 live coral specimens recently harvested from the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, also known as the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
It's usually difficult to re-create the comforts of home while staying in a hospital for any length of time. It's more difficult still when trying to rest and recover from an illness or injury in an unwelcoming, aged environment that requires beeping equipment, frequent public address system pages and bustling health care workers.The $250 million expansion of the Grand Wailea Hotel Resort & Spa received a special management area permit Tuesday, with seven ayes and one "reluctant" nay from the Maui Planning Commission.Maui County's visitor count ticked up by 1.8 percent in September to 134,932, but deep discounting by lodging providers and price cutting by other vendors drove per person per day spending down by 4.9 percent to $167.The state’s four elected county executives discussed a broad range of issues from agriculture to collective bargaining to the 2010 legislative session at their monthly Hawai‘i Council of Mayors meeting Wednesday.
A pod of humpback whales was spotted yesterday morning off the coast of West Maui, the first reported sighting statewide marking the beginning of whale season, according to an official with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.Molokai residents flew to Oahu to protest a federal agency's removal of a nearly blind Hawaiian monk seal from waters off Kaunakakai.A pair of federal lawsuits filed on behalf of special education and other students have the potential to keep some public schools open tomorrow despite the state's plan to furlough teachers on 17 Fridays, attorneys for the plaintiffs said yesterday.At the public school in Manoa where President Barack Obama, parents are planning to join hundreds of parents across the state to protest at the State Capitol on Friday, the first day of public school teacher furloughs.Just last month Hawaii's teachers agreed to take 17 furlough days. But already, an area school is using strategy to help students survive the cuts.Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann yesterday awarded the first construction contract for the city's planned $5.5 billion elevated commuter rail line.Abandoned fishing nets and other derelict fishing gear recovered in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is powering homes on Oahu.Hawaii County should attempt to sell 737 acres in Paauilo mauka to help finance government operations, according to an initial 5-4 vote by a County Council committee Tuesday.Working late into Tuesday evening, the Hawaii County Council Finance Committee was scheduled to get its first look at a critical audit of the county Department of Public Works.
Aerosmith concertgoers said they expected to experience one of the band's best concerts ever Tuesday night, especially since members of the rock band were under court order to perform on Maui after they canceled a concert here two years ago.The Hawaii Supreme Court affirmed Tuesday that Maui County Council Member Sol Kaho'ohalahala is a resident of Lahaina - not Lanai, the island from which he holds the council's residency seat.A land deal years in the making came to fruition Wednesday when the Kaua‘i County Council unanimously approved a plan that will secure 138 oceanfront acres on the Ninini Coastline near Lihu‘e Airport for public use in perpetuityRoad repairs, flooding and drainage issues, and traffic safety were among the pressing issues addressed when Mayor Billy Kenoi spoke with the residents of Holualoa recently.Sen. Daniel K. Inouye today becomes the third-longest-serving senator in U.S. history, a landmark for the powerful lawmaker who has held a seat in Congress for as long as Hawaii has been a state.
Leaders from arts organizations across the state say the loss of 10 employees — about one-third the staff — at the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts would be a destructive move that jeopardizes not just arts programs, but the economy and education as well.It's possible to recycle nearly half of Hawaii Island's garbage, but achieving that higher diversion rate will cost taxpayers plenty, according to a $525,000 study commissioned by Hawaii County.Homeless shelters are seeing an influx of people who have lost their jobs or seen their hours cut — a trend providers warn will only get worse as job losses mount and laid-off workers exhaust their unemployment benefits and savings.A former acting Israeli prime minister will be a featured speaker at Tuesday's 6th Annual International Women's Leadership Conference hosted by Gov. Linda Lingle.Hawaii schools soon could face furlough days -- 17 Fridays with no one working at the schools or drawing a paycheck. The savings would add up to about $5 million for every furlough day.In just over a year's time, the varroa mite, an ectoparasite that feeds on honeybees, has spread from the Hilo Bay area north to Onomea and around south to Pahala, researchers say."We don't want nobody to give huhu," said ILWU business agent Wallace Ishibashi. "We agree to disagree on that issue...."If you felt the earth trembling on Oahu, that was the U.S. Air Force putting on quite a show in Hawaii's skies.
Although she expressed serious concerns and a lack of con- fidence in the state Office of Elections' ability to carry out next year's elections, the head of the Senate's money com- mittee stopped short of saying the agency's chief should be fired.A tentative agreement for public teacher furloughs could shorten the school year by as many as four weeks.A state Board of Education committee rejected a more than 100 percent increase in school bus fares yesterday, but Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto said she will have to look elsewhere for the money that would have been raised, and "that creates challenges."
Hawai'i's health insurance premiums grew an estimated 3.7 times faster than worker earnings during the past decade, according to a new report from a group advocating affordable health care.The state Health Department is seeking a $43,500 fine from the Chevron Hawaii Refinery for alleged water quality violations.Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. signaled his support for a stalled bill that would outlaw plastic checkout bags at retail stores across Kaua‘i, sending a letter to the Kaua‘i County Council that counters business community opposition that caused a deferral last week.
An alternative rail plan advanced by Kamehameha Schools could save money in the short-term but would create safety, traffic and other problems, according to the city.About 30 people spoke up Monday night at a special hearing on a proposed reorganization of the Hawaii County Council, with nearly as many in favor as opposed.Opponents of a County Council reorganization slightly outnumbered supporters Monday evening during a public hearing that brought several first-time testifiers to the microphone.
Maui Planning Commission members were unable to agree where to designate growth boundaries in South Maui, but they did make some progress in Kula.
Planning and design work for a long-awaited, multimillion dollar improvement project for Diamond Head State Monument is finally expected to wrap up this fall, and work could start early next year.The number of people who have flu-like symptoms is so great, the Hawaii Department of Health has stopped testing for the H1N1 virus.Education officials have few explanations for what they consider to be a disturbing trend — year after year Hawai'i's high schools struggle to make "adequate yearly progress" under the federal No Child Left Behind law.The days of discount movie theaters on Oahu are gone, for now.Proposals for the county's general plan would add thousands of new housing units to West Maui, making it one of the top areas for growth on the island over the next 20 years.Retrofitting county facilities with photovoltaic systems and composing a monthly “green column” for The Garden Island are just two of the many projects the county is working on to “move forward” with sustainability, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. said at the most recent Apollo Kaua‘i meeting.On June 26, 2000, state officials awarded a $1.5 million contract for a system to monitor taxi traffic at Honolulu International Airport. Nine years later, the state has spent $1.3 million and the system is still not finished.A memo dated July 8 from Police Chief Harry Kubojiri to County Council Chairman J Yoshimoto said that "Counter Cannabis" field operations were flown June 29 in East Hawaii and June 30 in West Hawaii. Voters in November passed a law making adult personal use of marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority, which said the council "shall not support the acceptance of any funds for the marijuana eradication program."
Remote, unimproved and isolated O'ahu beaches have become the newest homeless refuge for some of those forced to vacate Wai'anae Coast park encampments in recent months.Former Bishop Museum director Don Duckworth was fond of calling Hawaiian Hall a "museum of a museum." When it was constructed during the closing years of the 19th century, it was a grand example of Victorian design, a lofty poem in crafted basalt and carved koa, an intricate jewel case created solely to show off what still could be collected of Hawaiian prehistoric culture.
Group pushing Hawaiians for census: In the 16th century, Big Island ruler Umi a Liloa made sure all native Hawaiians on the island were counted.
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