In the news

Hawaii will receive nearly $7.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve ferry service between Maui and Molokai and Lanai. The grant from the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Program Grant will fund ferry projects, including fixing ferry terminals and piers, at the Kaunakakai, Manele...

More than $3 million for runway drainage improvements at Molokai Airport and more than $1 million for runway lighting at Lanai Airport are part of a package of grants for Hawaii from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Transit Administration, Hawaii U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz said last week. The $3,022,148 from the...

Hawaii will again be sharing locally grown avocados with mainland consumers, after an overhaul of federal rules that had restricted the fruits from export to other states for more than two decades. The U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized new rules Wednesday making it viable for Hawaii farmers to export Sharwil avocados to most states. The move...

Most of Hawaii's representatives in Washington, D.C., moved quickly to proclaim where they stood on a U.S. strike on Syria. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz got out front on the issue. Soon after President Obama called for a military strike, Schatz called for sanctions against Syria but never explicitly backed a military strike. More recently,...

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE (HawaiiNewsNow) - For the second time in three months the Secretary of Defense has stopped in Hawaii. Secretary Chuck Hagel left Washington DC this morning starting an eight day trip to Southeast Asia. He kicked off the trip by speaking to about 200 Marines and Sailors at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii. A casual...

PUHI — Not too long ago, Kawaikini charter school had classes under large tents. Today, the Hawaiian immersion school’s 125 students learn in style, inside two state-of-the-art energy-efficient buildings and several structures on a 10-acre property next to Kauai Community College in Puhi. “I was here to see what they’re...

Hawaii’s four-member congressional delegation issued statements recently urging Hawaii lawmakers to pass immediately a state measure for marriage equality. The Honolulu Advertiser reports U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono saying that same-sex couples “should not have to wait” for the civil right. The push comes after June’s U.S....

Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PHNSY & IMF) graduated 132 apprentices from its apprentice program at a ceremony held Aug. 9 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The graduates, representing 25 shops and 19 trades, completed four-year, full-time, paid apprenticeships that combined academic study with on-the-job...

HONOLULU — Momilani Loveland still vividly recalls the sights and sounds of her dad preparing each morning for his supervisor position at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard — his lunchbox squeaking as he peered inside to see what was in store for the day, his keys jingling against his workbag, his shoelaces being threaded on his steel-toed...

West Hawaii residents will have two opportunities a month to meet with a Social Security representative without driving to Hilo. The meeting won’t happen in person, but via a computer and video connection between the Social Security Administration’s Hilo office and an office at the West Hawaii Civic Center. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii,...

U.S. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii’s first female senator and the first Asian-Pacific American woman elected to the U.S. Senate, is one of five outstanding female attorneys who will be honored with the American Bar Association’s 2013 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. The award is given annually by the American Bar...

Hawaii BioEnergy LLC is getting $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a Kauai-based biofuels energy project that will produce algae oil through a photosynthetic open pond system, the DOE said Thursday. The project aims to demonstrate pre-processing technologies that reduce energy use and the overall cost of extracting lipids and...

The U.S. Department of Education announced today that Hawaii’s been cleared from high-risk status in its Race to the Top grant. That means the state DOE is now in good standing and no longer at risk of losing its $75 million in federal education funding.  Hawaii’s grant was put on high-risk status in December 2011 after the DOE...

Sen. Mazie Hirono announced Tuesday that the Honolulu International Airport will receive $6.7 million in federal funds. The U.S. Department of Transportation grant will fund the replacement of 12 existing passenger loading bridges in the Main Overseas Terminal that are outdated and have reached the end of their useful lives. “Honolulu...

Sen. Mazie Hirono and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard praised today’s surprise announcement by Republican senators Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and Ted Cruz, of Texas, supporting a bill aimed at curbing sexual assaults in the military. The bill, pushed by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, would take the decision about investigating sexual abuse reports out of...

Representative Nicole Lowen (Kailua-Kona, Holualoa, Kalaoa, Honokohau) today praised U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono for successfully securing $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to fight the coffee berry borer beetle that has been a blight on Hawaii Island coffee growers for the past three years. Rep. Nicole Lowen This past...

HONOLULU — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $1 million to fight the coffee berry borer, a pest plaguing coffee farms in the Big Island's Kona district, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono announced Thursday. The pest has affected up to 80 percent of coffee farms, Hirono said, leaving some coffee fields in such bad shape that they've been...

The state and federal governments are teaming up to take on a tiny pest that has been ravaging Big Island coffee farms since 2010. US Sen. Mazie Hirono today announced the first major federal initiative to battle the coffee berry borer. The US Department of Agriculture has agreed to spend at least $1 million to fight the pest, Hirono said in a...

In our lives, we’re probably given more than a million words of advice. Almost everyone feels free to dispense it, even if we don’t ask for it, but much of it is trivial and soon forgotten. The advice that resonates and sticks is worth sharing. We asked a wide range of prominent people about the best overall advice or the best career...

Mazie Hirono, Hawaii’s newest U.S. Senator, met with U.S. Secretary of Transportation and former Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to discuss the essential air service for Kalaupapa. The meeting, held during the second week of June, also covered the importance of Honolulu’s rail system, for which the city secured a full funding grant...