Maui News

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center today confirmed a date for the upcoming John Legend concert.  The five-time platinum album selling Legend will perform on Maui at the Castle Theater on September 10, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.  The venue has listed a six ticket limit with sales to the general public beginning this Saturday, June […]

A brush fire burned an estimated 2,500 acres since it was first reported shortly after noon, Saturday, August 29, 2009.  The fire was located above the town of Kaunakakai and continued to burn in the mauka direction at nightfall. Three helicopters assisted crews from the Molokai’s Kaunakakai, Hoolehua and Pukoo fire stations. Air operations included […]

A brush fire above Kaunakakai on Molokai burned 60 acres by 3:30 Saturday afternoon, August 29, 2009. The fire was first reported at 12:05 p.m. in a town located above Kaunakakai. County officials say the fire was burning in the mauka direction. Three helicopters were dispatched to the scene for water drops as well as […]

Governor Linda Lingle will hold an emergency meeting with her cabinet directors over the weekend to identify additional spending reductions needed to close the growing budget shortfall.  Today, Lingle said reductions will likely include additional layoffs in order to realize labor savings. The meeting comes on the heels of a reduced revenue forecast that is […]

The county’s Water Resources Committee will consider a bill to permit use of water from the Hamakuapoko wells during times of drought. Under the bill, customers in on the Upcountry water system would be permitted to utilize the resource during dry conditions that warrant a drought declaration. Committee Chair, Mike Victorino, who scheduled the bill […]

Hawaii’s four county mayors will join state and county tourism officials next week for a special marketing campaign in Los Angeles to promote Hawaii as a visitor destination. The special promotional campaign is entitled “Hawaii: A Thousand Reasons to Smile,” and was organized in part by the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, and is set […]

West Maui Lawmaker, Angus McKelvey testified Wednesday before the Board of Education to reject a proposal by the State Librarian that seeks the closure the Lahaina Library. McKelvey says the library serves the entire area of West Maui, which on any given day has a population of about 20,000 people.  State Librarian Richard P. Burns […]

By Wendy Osher Members of the Hawaii Carpenters Union staged a small scale protest at two different sites on Maui today.  Banners were placed in front of the old Pizza Hut and future Wallgreens site in Kahului, a separate site in Lahaina and four Wallgreens locations on Oahu. Hawaii Carpenters Union Assistant Business Rep. Lance […]

The Maui Nui Botanical Gardens hosts a Native Hawaiian Plant Sale on Saturday, August 29, 2009.  Maui residents will have the opportunity to purchase Hawaiian plants to help support the ongoing conservation and educational programs at the Gardens. Come and learn about water conservation, plant care and plant maintenance from top experts. Participating vendors include: […]

A new county run program aims to increase home ownership for low-income families.  The Homeownership Option Program (HOP) will allow Section 8 HUD rental assistance participants to apply rental housing assistance payments toward mortgage payments instead.  The program is being launched by the County Department of Housing and Human Concerns. There are currently 1,360 participants […]

The Maui County Fair will host two new contests this year created exclusively for  students. The Parade Grand Marshall Contest will honor outstanding educators by inviting students (grades K-12) to nominate their favorite teacher as 2009 Maui County Fair Parade Grand Marshall. The winning educator in each category (Elementary I, grades K-2; Elementary II, 3 – 5; Intermediate, grades 6 […]

Hawaii is set to receive more than $7.6 million for Native Hawaiian education initiatives including cultural programs, curriculum expansion, tutoring, and resource development.  In announcing the funds, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye said the money will come through a series of 14 grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The largest appropriation of $1,016,255 goes […]

Three time Grammy® Nominee and multi Nā HōkÅ« Hanohano award winner Amy Hānaiali’i released her latest project titled Amy Hānaiali’i: Friends & Family of Hawai’I today. The album features duets with 16 well known male vocalists and musicians of Hawai’i-including Palani Vaughan, Keali’i Reichel, John Cruz, Kaumaka’iwa Kanaka’ole and FIJI.  Hānaiali’i remains the highest selling […]

By Wendy Osher The Maui Economic Opportunity community action agency is currently operating seven stimulus fund initiatives and expects nearly $4 million in federal funding. Maui Economic Opportunity CEO, Sandy Baz was among the list of people who testified today (Monday, August 24, 2009) before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.  Today’s hearing was organized […]

Maui Council Chair Danny Mateo is being honored as one of 20 Outstanding Filipinos Abroad in 2009 by the national Filipino Image Magazine.  Mateo is recognized as the first person of Filipino descent to be elected as chair of the Maui County Council. Mateo is the eighth born of nine children and was raised in […]

By Wendy Osher The Maui High Performance Computing Center dedicated a new Supercomputer today that doubles the center’s computing power.  The Dell platform system has 103 TeraFLOPs (103 trillion Floating operations per second),  That’s 13 thousand times the computational capability of the original 8-giga FLOP (8 billion Floating Point Operations per second) system that was […]

Governor Linda Lingle is among the people set to testify on Monday on the progress of Hawaii’s spending of federal stimulus funds. More than $1 billion was appropriated for Hawaii in February through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations is being held to gauge the progress […]

Hawaii’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate declined to 7 percent in July-that’s an improvement of 0.3 percentage points below the previous month.  All islands saw improvement in rates in July, with Maui Island improving to 9.2 percent down from the 9.7 percent the month before.  Maui’s outer islands did better as well, but remained in the […]

Tickets were made available to the public this morning (Thursday August 20, 2009) for the 2009 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational Basketball tournament.  Booster Tickets are good for entry to all three Tournament games in which a particular school will participate. In addition, the following remaining ticket types also went on sale today, Aug. 20: Courtside […]

All County of Maui offices will be closed on Statehood Day, Friday August 21, and on Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2009 in observance of the holidays. Statehood Day: Lanai Landfill: closed Central Maui Landfill: open 6 a.m. – noon Olowalu Recycling & Refuse Center: open 9 a.m. – noon Hana Landfill: open 8 a.m. […]