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The Maui Chamber of Commerce is now accepting nominations for the Annual Mayor’s Small Business Awards in 2024. All nominees and winners will be honored during an event on Sept. 19, 2024.

The inaugural Mixed Plate Music Fest, presented by Smooth Moves Entertainment, will be happening at the South Maui Gardens in Kīhei from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 18.

The Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute hosts a reef cleanup at Kamaʻole Beach I on Saturday, June 1, from 9 to 11 a.m. 

The national recruitment for the next president of the University of Hawaiʻi 10-campus system will officially begin in late May 2024 after the UH Board of Regents approved the position description and leadership profile at its May 16 monthly meeting.

Hawaiʻi has formally received a Sentinel Landscape designation, the Trust for Public Land announced today. Hawaiʻi’s designation ensures that, under existing federal conservation and the Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration programs, the state’s key conservation efforts will receive priority consideration for funding. 

A new 14-passenger bus based in East Maui was officially blessed May 1 outside the Maui Economic Opportunity office in Hāna. MEO Hāna driver Kane Kanakaʻole, the great grandson of famed kumu hula Edith Kanakaʻole, conducted the blessing with lei made for the bus. Following the blessing, Kane and Tuks Medeiros drove bus around town.

Op-Ed: A plan to phase out more than 7,000 transient vacation rentals that have been operating legally in Maui apartment districts since 1989 likely has a long and rocky road ahead of it, according to The Grassroot Institute of Hawai’i.

The US Senate unanimously passed a resolution introduced by US Sen. Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) to mark May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month.

A Brown Water Advisory has been issued for West Maui from Honokōwai Beach Park to Pāpalaua Beach Park; and in South Maui from Māʻalaea Bay to Keawakapu Beach Park

Sales and Marketing Executives Honolulu (SME Honolulu) named Chad Buck as the company’s distinguished recipient of its Salesperson of the Year award for 2023. Buck is credited as the driving force behind multiple successful enterprises, including the Hawaiʻi Foodservice Alliance; and for his community outreach including his work to bring food and aid to Maui following the Lahaina wildfires.

The Maui Hotel & Lodging Association awarded a total of $53,500 in scholarships to graduating students of Lahainaluna, Maui High, Baldwin High, Kamehameha Schools Maui and Maui Preparatory Academy, as well as students currently attending post high school institutions.  Thirty-five outstanding individuals were awarded through three scholarship programs: the UH Maui College Hospitality and Culinary Program, the Academy of Hospitality Program and the MHLA Member Program.

The 20th Annual Ian Walsh Menehune Mayhem was held May 4 and 5, 2024 at Ho’okipa Beach Park. The event, hosted by Maui surfer Ian Walsh is a nonprofit event that’s designed to hone the skills of up and coming Maui surfers, and prepare them for success on a larger scale.

Hawai‘i Leadership Forum welcomed 16 local leaders into the ninth cohort of its Omidyar Fellows program. The program seeks to cultivate the conditions in which Hawai‘i thrives by equipping leaders with the skills and cross-sector relationships necessary to affect societal change.

The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Maui Island was 4.3% in April 2024, compared to 4.9% the previous month, and 2.6% at the same time in 2023. The data was included in a new report released today from the Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. 

The US Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors are planning to do a test blast this afternoon, May 16, at approximately 1-3 p.m. weather permitting, at the Kilohana temporary housing site for wildfire survivors on Maui. Kilohana is a 34-acre site is located off of a cane haul road near Wahikuli Road in Lahaina. USACE is grading the land, installing utilities and preparing the site for 169 temporary housing units.

Maui’s newly crowned Savannah Gankiewicz, visits Lahaina today on her first day as Miss USA 2023. She was crowned during a special ceremony in Honolulu last night by Gov. Josh Green.

Nearly 150 fifth grade haumāna from Kamehameha School Kapālama will share their live stage production, “Ka Malu ʻUlu o Lele: The Shaded Breadfruit Grove of Lele,” with the Maui community. The one-of-a-kind show explores Lahaina’s rich history and serves as a tribute to the resilience of the community. No tickets are needed for the free performance taking place on Tuesday, May 21 at 4:30 p.m. at the Baldwin High School auditorium. The annual fifth grade play is a student-led project that started 31 years ago at the Kapālama campus. 

The Maui County Council’s Housing and Land Use Committee voted 8-1 Wednesday to recommend passage of a bill to allow a 500-square-foot increase in the size of secondary farm dwellings in agricultural districts on Maui and Lānaʻi.

The EP was signed on Wednesday and allows the Adjutant General to activate units of the National Guard to work in coordination with local authorities, emergency management agencies and other relevant stakeholders to mitigate the impact of the kona low storm.

A kona low north to northwest of the state will bring the potential for heavy rain and thunderstorms through at least Friday. Forecasters say all islands in the Flood Watch area should be prepared for the possibility of flash flooding, including Kauaʻi, Niʻihau, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe and Maui.