Overflow crowds turned out Monday to support or attack the hotly debated vacation rental phase-out bill, but the action started early, on the sidewalk outside the Kalana O Maui Building in Wailuku. Wearing red Lahaina Strong and yellow ILWU shirts, supporters of Bill 9 formed a circle and prayed. Their signs read “Maui People First,” […]

Citing Maui’s severe post-wildfire housing crisis, the Bissen administration presented its formal case to a County Council committee to phase out approximately 6,000 short-term vacation rentals mostly in West and South Maui. “We simply can’t build fast enough to meet the scale of demand we’re facing,” Mayor Richard Bissen told members of the Housing and […]

Lifeguards have extended hours this year, but with only 12 towers on Maui, dozens of beaches still don’t have protection.

After a tense 90-minute debate, the Maui County Council voted 6-3 on Friday to give its staff a 15% pay increase, plus an additional 5% for experience and performance-based “step” increases.

Work on the state’s $25.5 million Puʻunēnē Avenue road widening project is around 40% complete, according to state Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen in an email Wednesday. The projected timeline for the entire project to widen the roadway from two to four lanes is either late third quarter or early fourth quarter of 2026. […]

Three sites have been selected for up-close plans: Olowalu town, Mile Marker 14 and Ukumehame Beach Park.

Council members ended their work on the fiscal 2026 budget Tuesday, giving final approval to a $1.558 billion spending plan that sets the course for Maui County government beginning July 1.

West Maui state Rep. Elle Cochran missed 51 of 60 House floor sessions — an 85% absence rate — during the 2025 legislative session while collecting $22,725 in per diem payments intended to cover off-island living expenses, according to House records. Her near-total absence from legislative proceedings in Honolulu, coupled with her acceptance of these taxpayer-funded […]

Gov. Josh Green, M.D., today announced the appointment of Dori Booth as Hawaiʻi’s new State Fire Marshal, reviving a critical public safety position that has been vacant for nearly 46 years. The original Office of the State Fire Marshal was abolished by Act 241 of the 1978 Session Laws of Hawaiʻi, with its responsibilities devolved to the counties as of July 1, 1979.

The West Maui Improvement Foundation started advocating for a fire station in Olowalu after the 2018 Lahaina fire destroyed 21 houses in the area. 

With the diligent help of the community, the sign was recovered and the members of Lahaina Rotary Club and Lahaina Restoration Foundation re-installed the sign on Friday. The second sign which stood across from Puamana Park will be installed at a future date.

The state Department of Transportation conducted a groundbreaking ceremony for the $46 million Kahului Airport South TSA Checkpoint Project. The project is expected to be completed in December 2026.

The state Department of Education held a blessing and groundbreaking ceremony Thursday morning for a $20 million rental housing development for educators and school staff in Lahaina. The project addresses a critical workforce housing shortage and supports efforts to stabilize and retain staff at West Maui schools following the August 2023 wildfires.

The County of Maui Office of Recovery, Lahaina Filipino fire survivors and community members gathered to celebrate the official launch of the Lahaina Filipino Fire Survivors Association on Tuesday. LFFSA, an initiative of the Hawaiʻi Workers Center, is a grassroots organization of directly impacted worker leaders organizing for a long term recovery that addresses the most crucial needs of Lahaina’s Filipino fire survivors in the aftermath of the 2023 wildfires.

Gov. Josh Green, M.D., signed historic climate impact legislation into law on Tuesday. Act 96 (Senate Bill 1396) is a first-in-the-nation initiative that establishes a climate impact fee, or “Green Fee,” creating a stable source of funding for environmental stewardship, hazard mitigation and sustainable tourism in Hawaiʻi.

Applications are now being accepted for Hale O Piʻikea I, the first phase of a County-supported, three-phase affordable rental housing initiative by ʻIkenākea Development that will deliver 223 rental homes upon completion. 

In actuality, the typical household can comfortably afford a $379,000 house. But in 2024, there were zero homes sold within that price range, and only a half dozen single-family transactions under $500,000, according to the LCLT report.

Several Hawaiʻi-born actors are hitting the big screen in the live-action “Lilo & Stitch” when it opens in theaters this Friday, May 23. Among them is Kaipo Dudoit of Oʻahu who plays the role of David Kawena.

The Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, through its Maui Strong Fund, has committed up to $8 million to help restore a vital emergency shelter and affordable housing facility in Lahaina, closing a critical funding gap for Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Centers Inc., one of the island’s longest-standing service providers for Maui’s unhoused.

The complex will prioritize families displaced by the August 2023 wildfires, offering stability to a community hit hard by both the disaster and Maui’s ongoing housing crisis.