General News

According to a new Point in Time Count, the overall number of homeless individuals and families has decreased on the neighbor islands since last year. 

Maui Mayor Michael Victorino on Tuesday named Moana Lutey to head the corporation counsel's office. Lutey, a county deputy corporation counsel, was nominated to the top post after the resignation of Patrick Wong and a decision by the state attorney general's office to drop domestic abuse charges against Wong.

NORTH KOHALA — Big Island firefighters could not recover a body floating offshore because a shark pulled it underwater on Sunday, emergency officials said.

HONOLULU — Hawaii lawmakers eager to gather tax revenue from the state's flourishing, yet mostly unpermitted, vacation rental sector on Tuesday passed legislation that would require websites like Airbnb to collect and pay taxes on behalf of short-term rental hosts.

If you have been procrastinating on doing your taxes, here's a friendly reminder that they are due pretty soon. The deadline to file your federal income tax return is next Monday, April 15th. But the state deadline to file is a week later, on April 22nd.

HILO — The former vice chairman of the Hawaiʻi Real Estate Commission has been sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years of court supervision, according to authorities.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Relatives say the remains of a sailor who died when the Japanese sank the USS Oklahoma during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor will be brought back to Wyoming for reburial.

LIHUE, Hawaii — A foreign citizen living legally in Hawaiʻi is suing the state over laws preventing him from obtaining a gun license, according to court documents.

KAILUA-KONA — The parents of a child who died in foster care have filed a lawsuit accusing the caregivers and associated agencies of negligence, according to court records.

Officials say an 18-year-old University of Hawaii student has died after he collapsed during a workout at the recreation center on the Manoa campus.

Two Honolulu police officers arrested Friday are innocent of allegations they forced a man to lick a urinal, a defense attorney said.

Officers John Rabago and Reginald Ramones were charged with depriving a man of his civil rights.

Federal authorities knew about the allegations for more than a year before the officers were indicted, said , Megan Kau, Rabago's defense attorney.

"This is not a complicated case," she said. "This is a case of one man saying that two police officers forced him to a lick a toilet bowl."

A key Hawaiʻi legislative panel has passed a bill that would reduce penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Legislation to preserve rights for private users of Hawai’i’s fresh stream water died yesterday.

Hawaii lawmakers killed a proposal that would have banned flavored electronic smoking devices and e-liquids, saying they suspected teenagers would continue to get the products online even if sales were prohibited.

The governor of Guam has signed into law recreational use of marijuana on the U.S. island territory.

State lawmakers are looking for ways to improve healthcare for Micronesian residents, many of whom seek care at Hawaiʻi emergency rooms which often results in the state paying for their treatment.

A state Senate committee deferred a decision Thursday on Gov. David Ige’s nominee to head the Department of Public Safety.

City officials reopened Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve on Thursday after testing showed bacteria in the water of the beach park had dropped to safe levels.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — A doomed Ethiopian Airlines jet suffered from faulty readings by a key sensor, and pilots followed Boeing's recommended procedures when the plane started to nose dive but could not avoid crashing, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the Ethiopian government.

Honolulu City Council members are urging police commissioners to reconsider a decision to pay legal fees for an ex-police chief fighting corruption-related charges.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has upheld its conviction of Guam's ousted archbishop for sexually abusing minors, exiled him from the Pacific island and barred him from presenting himself as a bishop.

But it stopped short of defrocking him in a decision that again raised questions about whether the Vatican was truly embracing a "zero tolerance" policy for sex abuse, since it allowed Archbishop Anthony Apuron to remain in the ministry.

A Micronesia government official has pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge in Hawaii.

Hawaii would be the latest state to overhaul its bail system to make it fairer for the poor if bills before the state Legislature become law.

WAILUKU — A March 11 riot at a Maui jail left staff "scared for our lives," according to a letter signed by the jail's staff.

City parks officials are planning to close Hanauma Bay Wednesday after the state health department found bacterial levels exceeded its established threshhold.

Whale researchers say it's premature to draw any conclusions from the latest count that wrapped up over the past weekend.

Homelessness advocates rallied yesterday at the State Capitol to demand legislative action on affordable housing and homeless services.

Hawaiʻi's Kona crab fishery is healthy enough to expand the catch brought to market, according to an assessment by a federal marine science agency.

If you get your TV signal over the air, you may need to take steps to continue to watch your programs for free. One thousand television stations across the country are in the process of changing their broadcast frequencies, Hawaiʻi stations among them, and this means there will be changes.