In an apparent effort to collect revenues in the face of a lean fiscal year, the Maui County Real Property Tax (RPT) office sent letters to thousands of ag owners over the past two months, seeking ...

So now we’ve married the War on Terror with the War on Drugs, and have picked as the central staging ground a country affectionately dubbed “the graveyard of empires” (just ask...

It’s wonderful to hear that Rep. Joe Souki can change hats so easily, working hard for the interests of his Central Maui constituents one minute and shilling for his big business cronies the next. To ...

A few items of interest on the renewable energy (RE) front bubbled to the surface this week. Since the Energy Expo a month ago, I’ve been following a curious cover-up locally by...

Some of the most interesting moments at Liquor Control meetings happen on the margins, when board members and department officials aren’t directly addressing the cases at hand, but other...

I’ve always found the phrase “God-fearing” to be simultaneously sad and telling. It’s not “God-loving” or “God-revering”; rather, the motive for worship is all too often...

For those wondering if Halloween in Lahaina is happening this year, the answer is: yes and no. Yes, in the sense that there will be a keiki parade, during which the street will be closed to traffic, and ...

“Nobody remembers serving her,” a representative from Lulu’s Lahaina told the LC Adjudication Board at the September 3 hearing. The “her” in question was a...

As with many other things in life, we tend to take water for granted. Yet water is amazing, and deserving of our great respect and stewardship. An upcoming march in support of restoring in-stream flows ...

An interesting thing about the ag inspector layoffs is that, while they’re being sold by Gov. Lingle as a belt-tightening measure, they may end up costing the state far more than the $3.8 million they ...

16.2 percent Portion of Hawaii workers who carpool to their jobs, the highest in the nation ...

Any way you look at it, the concept of inertia is tricky. When things are in motion, they invariably are kept in check by other forces, notably gravity and friction. In the big world around us, government ...

Between the grooves of the knotted root system of a thick, shady tree at Launiupoko Beach Park, Matt Lane is resting comfortably. It’s the first time we’ve sat all day. He picks up a wandering roly poly ...

HYPER LOCAL...

$6,000 Amount the Environmental Protection Agency fined Oahu-based Roberts Hawaii, which operates the Maui Bus system, for failing to provide information about diesel storage ...

Restore integrity v. Something the political party that’s out of power always promises to do; somehow, it remains an elusive goal....

In the years we’ve covered the LC, we’ve never seen anyone look happy to appear before the Adjudication Board. But since the recession hit, business owners have been especially jumpy. It’s understandable: ...

“What we have now is not a plan; it is a series of recommendations. We need a master plan.” - Wayne Axelson, Chair, Maui County Energy Alliance Working Group-3 (Energy and Transportation Infrastructure) ...

$10 Fee Hawaiian Airlines will charge for the first checked bag, effective September 14 ...

Diversify v. A positive-sounding action often associated with a ...

Let’s face it: fast food rules. In Hawaii, where fish and poi were once the preferred diet of warriors and kings, good nutritional options have long since taken a backseat to ...

HYPER LOCAL Gov. Lingle touched down on the Valley Isle this week to address the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce at the Grand Wailea. Her remarks were broad in scope if not vision, and contained ...

Usually, we equate free speech with unfettered communication—the right to say what we want, when we want. But sometimes, and just as importantly, it’s about the right to ...

Partnership n. A relationship between two business entities—often heavily publicized at consummation—that can, like all relationships, quickly ...

380 Number of full- and part-time employees at the Maui Prince Hotel; Prince Resorts Hawaii announced this week it will cease ...

HYPER LOCAL With the Makena Resort in foreclosure and Morgan Stanley and Everett Dowling’s high-end dreams in ruin, let’s hop in the time machine and take a trip back to Wailuku circa Friday, December ...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and state Department of Land and Natural Resources held a meeting in Kihei this week to answer questions about revised Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM), ...

The first two parts of our series, “Revisiting the Visitor Industry,” sparked a lot of feedback. Here’s a sampling:  ...

Top priorities n. A label given by politicians to things they want the public to perceive as their top priorities; often accompanied by heavy-handed PR stunts but rarely tangible results....

You’re at home on a sunny Upcountry morning, enjoying the peace and quiet. Suddenly, a barely audible drone cuts through the birdsong, becoming increasingly louder until the “whomp, whomp, whomp” of a ...

Most people keep tabs on politicians, especially at the local level, only when they’re actively campaigning or embroiled in a scandal. But elected officials don’t go into hibernation the rest of the time, ...

Given the chance to jump in a cage and swim with sharks, watching them approach from the ocean depths just below your pruning toes, would you?  If you answered “yes,” you’ll have to go to Oahu, because ...

The title of this week’s column is an homage to a December 2006 LC Watch. Why? Because the subject matter is almost identical; only the date and a few details have changed....

We are all wondering where to go from here. Will Hawaii and Maui crawl out of this depression and go back to business as usual? Can more of the same save us? We staked everything on tourism (and the ...

Discover the world n. A slogan used by large travel companies that, in reality, offer extremely insulated, limited experiences....

$2,101.98 Amount the average Hawaii resident spends annually on gasoline ...

As I write this, the remaining bluster of former-Hurricane Felicia is churning steadily toward Hawaii. It shall soon be known whether it will smack Maui with tropical storm fierceness, or if we’re merely ...

HYPA LOCAL Most people keep tabs on politicians, especially at the local level, only when they’re actively campaigning or embroiled in a scandal....

Corazon Aquino, the former President of the Republic of the Philippines who led a peaceful urban revolution that ousted U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos, died on August 1 at Makati Medical Center ...

Of the two things the LC likes to bust venues for, one is easy to identify, the other is (potentially) difficult. The first, of course, is selling to someone under 21 years old....

Maui tourism is down—way down. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that. For the first quarter, visitor arrivals declined more than 22 percent from last year, which was also down ...

Re the July 2 Rob Report about cane burning: I was sitting in church yesterday morning and ash was drifting in all around me and everyone else. It was all over the carpets and people’s hair and clothing. ...

The election is still more than a year away, but Hawaii’s gubernatorial candidates are in full-on cash-acquisition mode. Campaign contribution and expenditure reports filed last week revealed robust ...

44 Hawaii’s volunteerism rank among the 50 states, according to a recent report; 23.4 percent of Hawaii residents volunteered in 2008, almost ...

Herbicide-tolerance n. A genetically engineered trait that allows crops to be doused with large quantities of poison that would otherwise...

In his number one bestseller, The World is Flat , socio-political author Thomas L. Friedman skewered the topic of globalization with the directness of the boy in the crowd exclaiming...

These days, reporting grim economic news is the very definition of “fish in a barrel”; there’s just no sport in it. The latest example comes courtesy of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association . HADA’s ...

Much has been made (by us and Maui Dance Advocates, mostly) about the LC’s restrictive...

Interesting wrinkle in the ongoing tussle between Gov. Lingle and Hawaii’s labor unions : As reported in today’s Maui News , the state’s mayors are joining forces against...

Publisher sees Dog the Bounty Hunter in a public parking lot, publisher starts filming Dog the Bounty ...

After much talk, discussion and debate, the County of Maui officially banned plastic bags in January ...

No other cop on the Maui force comes even close to Taguma in terms of parking tickets. If we curse and ...

Interesting choice! On the face of it, Councilmember Mike White has no trouble, as back in the spring ...

Come on people, really? We're not saying the Craigslist forum doesn't offer amusement, diversion and ...

You haven’t really lived (on Maui at least) until you’ve been ticketed by Officer Taguma. As notorious ...