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House Speaker Scott K. Saiki today announced that the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives will form working groups to discuss critical issues pertaining to Red Hill, and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands’ execution of $600 million to address the needs of Native Hawaiians on the Department’s waitlist.

A Maui firefighter who was swept into a storm drain during flood response in Kīhei Friday, continues to fight for his life. A GoFundMe account has been established to help.

The US Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Integration Program is awarding Hawai‘i $7,123,851 to protect and restore rare species of plants and animals found only in Hawai‘i. These actions will be conducted on lands near military training installations.

An injunction was lifted this week in a case filed by opponents of commercial aquarium fishing. The decision does not itself authorize any aquarium fishing.  That question may now be taken up by the DLNR, which is the agency charged with managing the State’s aquatic resources, according to Deputy Attorney General Melissa Goldman.

In celebration of Mahina ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, Hawaiian Language Month, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, together with Native Hawaiian organizations, will host Ola Ka ʻĪ events, Hawaiian language fairs, on O‘ahu and Maui.

Maui Arts & Cultural Center will again broadcast The Big Game on two large screens Sunday, Feb. 12. The game starts at 1:30 p.m. and gates open at noon.

In a marathon Maui County Council meeting of nearly 15 hours Friday and into Saturday, the council unanimously voted to approve Alice Lee’s re-election as chairperson. 

Maui had a 95.1% recovery in visitors in 2022, compared to 2019, with 2.9 million people visiting Maui last year.  Total visitor spending was $5.69 billion in 2022, up 11% from 2019.  The year-end data was released by the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism.  

Preliminary data from the National Weather Service shows rainfall from Jan. 27-30 was measured at 23.61 inches at Puʻu Aliʻi, Molokaʻi, and from 5 to 15 inches over parts of Maui.

The Kīhei Aquatic Center will be closed on Wednesday, Feb. 1, to accommodate the rescheduling of the Maui Interscholastic League High School Swimming Championships after the two-day meet was postponed due to weather events. The activity will now be done as a single-day finals event.

A Maui firefighter injured during storm response in Kīhei remains hospitalized in critical condition, and is making “positive and promising signs of progress,” according to county officials. Tre Evans-Dumaran, 24, has been with the department for more than three years.

“Today we lost the patriarch of our family. A man known by his supreme talents for storytelling, an unrelenting passion for Hawaiʻi and the teams and athletes that represent it, and a lifelong love for the craft of sports broadcasting… “

Up to 20 blue-ribbon merit winners of the Maui County science and engineering fair will be invited to participate in the 2023 Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair to be held April 5 and 6 on Oʻahu.

With increased whale activity around the islands, NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and state managers remind boaters to be on the lookout for humpback whales and their calves.

Over the next two weeks, work will take place to remove large fallen trees and hazardous branches from Mākena State Park in South Maui. Due to the large equipment that will be used for this project, the DLNR Division of State Parks will close off sections of the park.

This closure was set to be nightly in both directions between Kaonoulu Street and Piʻikea Avenue from 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, through 5 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1. This work will be rescheduled for a later date. 

The County of Maui announced that as of 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023, the Central Maui Landfill is open for service to the public. The Olowalu Convenience Center is also open for its normal hours today from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

World Plate and Paniolo Grill are both open this semester, doubling the number of lunch options from last semester at UHMC’s Pā‘ina Market. Both of these outlets are run by students in the college’s award-winning culinary arts program.

On Maui, the Great Whale Count by Pacific Whale Foundation was only able to report from one of 12 designated sites due to ongoing heavy rain. The single Great Whale Count site on Maui was able to report 41 whales. A total of nine whales were observed during the 10-10:15 a.m. time period, the most of any time period throughout the day’s count.

The Lt. Governor started her visit by greeting students in Korean and sharing with them her own language experiences and stressing the value of speaking the language of one’s culture.