Maui News

The US EPA has approved Hawaiʻi’s request for coffee growers to use a fungicide to control coffee leaf rust in the islands.

Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino is proposing to acquire approximately 545 acres in the Wai‘ale area of Wailuku for a historic cultural preserve.

The County of Maui issued a reminder to trans-Pacific travelers to Maui, saying that although fully vaccinated travelers are exempt from Maui County’s post-arrival testing requirement, they are required to provide documentation as proof.

Hawai‘i residents currently receiving unemployment insurance benefits will again be required to prove they are searching for work. Gov. David Ige and the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced the job search requirement that was suspended during the pandemic, will be reinstated starting May 30, 2021.

High winds and dangerous conditions in the Alenuihaha Channel may delay Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia’s departure from Lahaina until the weekend when crew, who are watching the weather closely, anticipate a possible window by Sunday. Until then, they have been training in the Pailolo Channel, between Maui and Molokaʻi.

The state Department of Health reports that there were 80 additional COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i on Thursday, including 59 confirmed cases and 21 cases that were identified as probable. The confirmed cases included: 50 on O‘ahu, five on Maui, three on Hawai‘i Island, and one in a Hawai‘i resident diagnosed while out of state.

For April 2021, Maui County hotels led Hawaiʻi counties in revenue per available room at $300, with the average daily rate at $483 and the occupancy rate at 62.1%, according to the latest Hawaiʻi Hotel Performance Report published by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority.

Miyamoto is recounting his story to try and convince swimmers, snorkelers, and paddlers to stay out of the ocean fronting O‘ahu’s Kaimana beach, where currently a mother seal named Kaiwi and her three-week old offspring are resting, in full view of hundreds of daily beach goers.

Maui County’s unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, dropped to 11.5% in April 2021. It is drastically lower than the 32.9% rate a year ago when the pandemic shutdown much of the island’s economy, and slightly lower than the 12.3% unemployment rate in March 2021, according to information from the Hawaiʻi State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations.

With hurricane season fast approaching, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its National Flood Insurance Program advise Hawai‘i residents to prepare now for hurricane-related storms and flooding.

Until pandemic school regulations enable more than 1,200 second-graders to go Upcountry again, Maui County Farm Bureau is offering a virtual version of its popular “Agriculture in the Classroom” program with video and an activity booklet featuring six lessons from local farmers, ranchers and agriculture educators.

For the season as a whole, 2 to 5 tropical cyclones are predicted for the Central Pacific hurricane region. This number includes tropical depressions, named storms and hurricanes. A near-normal season has 4 or 5 tropical cyclones.

“Seeing these other events unfolding and other things that are happening on our island and our state, these kids should be allowed to compete. I understand entirely, keeping professional events at bay, those draw large crowds…but I don’t think these kids should be punished – for lack of better words – because of the size of these professional events, because their events don’t draw the same amount of crowds,” said Walsh.

The 98th Maui Fair is canceled again this year due to ongoing public health concerns related to the continued presence of COVID-19 in the community.

The state Department of Health reports that there were 73 additional COVID-19 cases in Hawai‘i on Wednesday, including 58 confirmed cases and 15 cases that were identified as probable. The confirmed cases included: 41 on O‘ahu, seven on Hawai‘i, four on Maui, two on Moloka‘i, and four in Hawai‘i residents diagnosed while out of state.

The Maui Police Department today issued a statement saying the officers will continue enforcement of the mandatory mask mandate throughout the county as outlined in Maui Mayor Michael Victorino’s Public Health Emergency Rules.

An anatomy and physiology instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College STEM department was awarded the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching.

The Hawai‘i Commission on Water Resource Management announced today it has adopted instream flow standards for Honokōhau, Honolua, and Kaluanui Streams in West Maui and for Wai‘oli Stream, in Halele‘a, North Kaua‘i.

The Construction Industry of Maui announced two award recipients of the trade council’s Annual Bob Poulson Scholarships. This year each recipient was awarded $15,000.

The study focused on the four most frequently sighted species in Maui Nui — the Pantropical spotted dolphin, the spinner dolphin, the common bottlenose dolphin and the more elusive false killer whale — and revealed a concerning lack of applicable information regarding the distribution of these populations.