Maui News

One year after a luxury yacht caused extensive damage to the reef in Honolua Bay on Maui’s northwestern coast, staff and volunteers with the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute continue to care for coral fragments collected from the reef.

Kīhei Charter School will hold open house informational meetings beginning at 5 p.m. Feb. 27 at the school campus located at 650 Lipoa Parkway in the Maui Research & Technology Park. Other informational meetings are scheduled for March 6, 14 and 27.

Some topics that will be covered are discussions on the current state of housing across the United States focused on efforts to improve housing availability, affordability, and homelessness, and reimagining models of disaster preparedness and Maui’s recovery. 

The 54th annual Maui Marathon scheduled for April 21 will look a lot different this year. After devastating fires impacted Lahaina and Kula, the Maui Marathon that historically stretched from Puʻunēnē to Kāʻanapali will host a new route and only include the half marathon, 10k Run/Walk, and 5k Run/Walk. For 2024, the 26.2-mile race is canceled, and the start/finish line for the other distances is moved to the Maui Tropical Plantation in Wailuku.

The Hurley Pro Sunset Beach, Stop No. 2 of the 2024 World Surf League Championship Tour, is ON today and will see the world’s best surfers get their Sunset campaigns underway in clean four-to-six-foot waves.

Maui County will resume its Lahaina Disaster Recovery Community Update meetings beginning 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the Lahaina Civic Center with an update on survey results for a permanent disposal site for wildfire ash and debris and cesspool information.

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to lease Maui rental units to Maui wildfire survivors who lost their homes, the FEMA Direct Lease program is turning away property owners who illegally force tenants out so landlords can gain higher rents from the FEMA program.

Another affordable housing proposal is headed to the Maui County Council, but this one is not “shovel ready.” It’s built already, although it’s going to be a multimillion-dollar fixer-upper.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, the State of Hawai‘i Museum of Natural and Cultural History, announces a new original exhibition coming to its Castle Memorial Building in May: “Ka ʻUla Wena: Oceanic Red.”

TY Management Corporation held a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony of its Kapalua Village Temporary Housing Project for Kapalua Golf employees on Monday morning, Feb. 19. This project signifies one of the first privately funded temporary housing projects on Maui to assist individuals and families impacted by the Maui wildfires.

The new Pāʻia Floral shop opened its doors over the weekend, offering a fresh find for flower seekers on Maui’s North Shore. The business is Native Hawaiian and wahine-owned, and is a sister company to Pukalani Floral and Kanuihele, a business focused on music, dance and craft.

As part of a beach and reef clean-up initiative, the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute has partnered with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to kick off their initial beach clean-up at Sugar Beach on Saturday, March 9, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The Maui Arts & Cultural Center will present next month, for the first time on Maui, a performance of a historical dramatization about the life of Prince Kūhiō.

Last week, experts from the US Forest Service wrapped up ignition training by conducting a field exercise on former agriculture lands in south Kaua‘i. Hundreds of acres here are covered in invasive grasses, the most common fuel for wildfire in Hawai‘i. Some 25% of the land across the state is covered by these grasses, adding to the overall potential for devastating wildfires.

Seventy percent of all jobs in Hawaiʻi in 2031 will require postsecondary education beyond high school and 36% will require at least a bachelorʻs degree, according to a new report by Georgetown University, “After Everything: Projections of Jobs, Education, and Training Requirements through 2031.”

The reproduction of giant sea spiders in Antarctica has been largely unknown to researchers for more than 140 years, until now. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists traveled to the remote continent and saw first-hand the behaviors of these mysterious creatures.

The public interest, nonprofit law firm, Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice says Hawaiʻi lawmakers have an opportunity to tailor the sales tax on real property so that it reinvests nonresident wealth into island communities through affordable housing development.

Hawaiʻi is one of only eight states to have outperformed the national average in terms of its students earning their bachelor’s degree after transferring from a community college.

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez, along with a coalition of 20 attorneys general, urged the US Food and Drug Administration to take decisive action to safeguard infants and young children across the nation from exposure to lead and other harmful metals in baby food.

Gov. Green signed the Hawai‘i Project Labor Agreement which he said will ensure a steady labor supply to help rebuild Lahaina and meet the state’s growing affordable housing pipeline.