Maui News

Beginning Oct. 30 and continuing throughout the Halloween holiday weekend, motorists can expect to see saturation patrols and impaired driving checkpoints, which will include the use of unmarked patrol vehicles.

A brown water advisory has been issued for the island of Maui. The state Department of Health Clean Water Branch says heavy rain has resulted in stormwater runoff entering into coastal waters.

A sixth Bayanihan food distribution will be held Saturday, Oct. 31 at the Binhi at Ani Filipino Community Center in Kahului. The drive-through food distribution is open to the public and will begin at 9 am and continue until the supplies of produce and assorted groceries are gone.

Michael Keppel, president and managing partner at Acura of Maui in Kahului, was nominated for the 2021 TIME Dealer of the Year award. He is one of 41 nominees from among 16,000 dealers nationwide and will be honored at the 104th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Show that will be held virtually Feb. 9-11, 2021.

“I’m very confident in keeping it under control… I think we’ve gotten the brunt of it and hopefully over the next week we’ll see a steady decline and leveling off… where the positivity rate will be dropping,” said Mayor Victorino.

Paws Across the Pacific will fly over 600 shelter dogs and cats from Hawai’i to the U.S. Mainland on Oct. 28, making the pet rescue flight the largest in history. The flight was made possible in coordination with Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency, Greater Good Charities and Wings of Rescue.

The Federal Communications Commission approved a grant that would provide the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands ownership of broadband spectrum to deploy wireless internet services on Kaua‘i, Lāna‘i, Moloka‘i and Maui.

The Liquor Control Commission selected Layne Silva today as director of the Department of Liquor Control. He succeeds Glenn Mukai, who has retired.

The Maui County Department of Environmental Management Solid Waste Division is reminding the public to observe best practices when disposing of solid waste during the COVID-19 pandemic. These best practices include: double-bagging waste that was used to care for sick people at home; and maintaining a physical distance of at least 6 feet from solid waste personnel.

Gov. David Ige welcomed about 50 out-of-state healthcare workers Monday at St. Francis Healthcare System in Liliha, where they are learning the operations of Hawaiʻi’s long-term care facilities. There are a total of 170 visiting healthcare workers, funded through the federal CARES Act, in Hawaiʻi to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Maui Mall today announced the opening of the Maui Candy Company’s pop-up shop through the holidays.

Five teenagers have been recovered in “Shine the Light,” a cooperative effort between federal, state and local agencies, including four non-profit organizations.

Starting Friday, Nov. 6, travelers from Japan may bypass the State of Hawaiʻi’s mandatory 14-day quarantine if they take a COVID-19 test from a trusted testing partner in Japan. The test must be taken no earlier than 72 hours prior to departure and the test must be negative.

There were 66 new COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i today, including 50 on O‘ahu, nine on Lānaʻi, three on Hawai‘i Island, two on Maui Island ( in Wailuku and Haʻikū) and two in Hawaiʻi residents diagnosed outside of the state. Kaua‘i and Moloka‘i had no new cases today. On Lānaʻi, the nine new cases bring the total number of infections associated with the recent outbreak to 87, since the outbreak was first reported on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020.  

US District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi sentenced Anthony T. Williams, 49, of Pineville, LA to 20 years in prison for wire and mail fraud in connection with a bogus mortgage relief scheme.

The Hawaiʻi State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations today announced that it would launch Federal-State Extended benefits beginning today, Tuesday, Oct. 27 to Hawaiʻi workers who have exhausted their state and federal jobless benefits. 

The coffee leaf rust pest was tentatively identified on coffee plant samples collected on Maui. The Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture received preliminary results from University of Hawaiʻi, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources identifying the fungus on plants collected from managed and wild coffee in the Haʻikū area.

The 45-year-old Wailuku man was located outside the surf zone by Ocean Safety crews aboard Jet Ski 10.  Department officials report the kayak was filling with water amid rising large surf.  

A 31-year-old Texas man was airlifted to safety after suffering a leg injury during a fall at Twin Falls on Sunday.

Volunteers with the American Red Cross responded to a residential fire on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. The fire was reported at 5 p.m. in a home on Manini Place in Kīhei.