In Case You Missed It

Music legend Kris Kristofferson who is remembered as an artist, singer, songwriter, actor and activist, passed away peacefully surrounded by family in his home on Maui, Saturday, Sept. 28. He was 88 years old.

Upcountry residents have relied for years on cesspools, which are required under state law to be eliminated by 2050.

For nearly two decades, HNU Energy CEO Dan O’Connell has been quietly revolutionizing Maui’s solar scene, now claiming to have outdone the Tesla Powerwall with his HiVE Home Energy Storage Stackables.

Maui High graduate Rachel Kondo and husband Justin Marks captured a record 18 Emmys for the series, which was hammered out through a pandemic, work stoppages and plenty of arguments in the writers’ room.

A lack of fresh water resources has long held back housing development on Maui. And now that there’s a post-disaster housing shortage, the Maui County Council will consider Friday a resolution calling for increased production and expansion of recycled wastewater use to make more potable water available for human consumption.

As West Maui rebuilds from the 2023 wildfires, Kā‘anapali Beach Resort has expanded its commitment to restoring the region’s ecosystem through Treecovery’s reforestation efforts. With four new grow hubs across the resort and more than 1,600 trees donated, Kā‘anapali Beach Resort is nurturing the community’s long-term ecological and cultural resilience.

More than 100 coral fragments were rescued from the bay over a year ago and coaxed back to life in the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute’s saltwater tanks.

A Maui man who was on trial for the second degree attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend’s infant, was found guilty instead of a lesser first degree attempted assault charge. The verdict in the trail of Christian Rosete was reached on Monday afternoon (Sept. 23). The jury found Rosete guilty as charged of separate first and second degree assault charges, and a charge of felony abuse against a family or household member. Another second degree assault charge for Count 3 was reduced to a third degree assault conviction.

The middle East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea that began on Sunday, Sept. 15 has ended and is unlikely to restart, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Lahainaluna, Kamehameha Maui and Maui High win in football, while Baldwin and Seabury stay undefeated in volleyball.

A team of fishers and marine resource advocates are working to overhaul reef fishing rules — but they say it needs to come with tougher penalties.

Maui’s economy will only gradually recover from its post-wildfire downturn while visitor industries in other counties across the state will continue to operate at high levels, according to the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s (UHERO) third quarter forecast for 2024.

Work on the parcel originally started to clear a firebreak following concerned neighbor complaints, but a conservation group says it’s gone far beyond that and put wildlife habitat at risk.

Maui police have launched a shooting investigation after the death of a motorist in Waikapū early Monday morning. Police have since identified the victim as Shawn Lewis, 42, of Lahaina. Lewis was reportedly driving along the Honoapiʻilani Highway in Waikapū early Monday morning when he crashed shortly after midnight on Sept. 16, 2024, near Waiolu Place, forcing the closure of the highway for five hours while police conducted an investigation. The cause of death is pending autopsy.

More than 20 years after he moved onto his homestead land on Moloka‘i, Woodrow Poepoe has a home to live in, complete with electric lights and running water. Born and raised on Moloka‘i, “Uncle Blue” got a lease from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) at Nāʻiwa Homestead in 1986 and immediately moved onto his five rural acres. Now in his seventies, he has made do camping and getting along without access to infrastructure.

The Lahaina wildfire that killed at least 102 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings did not stem from a single cause, according to the phase-two Lahaina Fire Incident Analysis Report released Friday and prepared by the independent Fire Safety Research Institute for the state of Hawaiʻi.

August 2024 saw Maui’s housing market exhibit contrasting trends, with single-family homes experiencing both a rise in sales and an increase in median prices, according to the latest data from the Realtors Association of Maui. The median sales price for single-family homes increased by 10.4% compared to August 2023, reaching $1,325,000, indicating continued demand at higher price points. Meanwhile, condominium sales dropped by 34.7%, though the median price for condos surged to $1,000,000, a 33.3% increase.

Four people were injured when a commercial catamaran ran aground on Kāʻanapali Beach in West Maui on Tuesday evening. The incident was reported at 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2024. DLNR reports that the vessel was removed this morning with no release of any hazardous materials reported.

Whaler’s Fine Jewelry owner Tien Doan is no stranger to adversity. A survivor of Pol Pot’s “Killing Fields” in Cambodia, Doan lost his Front Street family home to last year’s wildfire, along with two vacation rental properties — reduced to ashes.

AES Hawaiʻi held a blessing ceremony on Friday to launch Kūihelani solar-plus-storage, Hawai‘i’s largest solar facility, which is producing electricity for Maui at 8-cents per kilowatt hour, the lowest renewable energy cost in the state. The facility produces 60 MW of renewable energy, enough to power 27,000 Maui homes.