A quasi-judicial hearing over a Kilauea property owner’s plan to build an upscale house on environmentally sensitive coastal land started with an all-day session yesterday at the Mo‘ikeha Building.
County Planning Commission Chair Steven Weinstein presided over the contested case, expected to resume April 1, acting as a judge while attorneys questioned witnesses ranging from building [...]

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Hawaii’s verdant volcanic peaks and crystalline waters have made tourism the state’s biggest industry. But not all Hawaii residents are thrilled by the millions who flock to their shores.
They complain that some of the visitors renting homes and rooms in their residential neighborhoods create noise, drive up home and rental prices and destroy the sense [...]

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The Ag Moratorium Bill was killed at Wednesday’s Council meeting by way of Council Member Rapozo making a motion “to receive” and Kouchi seconding immediately (vote tally below).
How the Public Testified
Every person to testify during the public comment period was IN SUPPORT of the temporary moratorium bill. A council member later stated that there were [...]

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This winter’s candlelight vigils and banner-waving protesters are gone, their legal challenges exhausted. Soon, bulldozers could roll past Koloa’s wooden sidewalks, clucking chickens and stop sign plastered with a “Die Developers Die” bumper sticker, ready to transform a ragtag grove of monkeypod trees into a shopping center.
But here in Hawaii’s oldest sugar plantation town, little [...]

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View video of people on Kauai resisting the Superferry …
Day 1   -   Day 2

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The Hawaii Superferry’s Alakai won’t be traveling to Kauai this week despite a Coast Guard’s new fixed security zone in place at Nawiliwili Harbor.
No decision has been made yet as to when service to Kauai will resume, company spokesman Terry O’Halloran said. He said the company is working closely with the Coast Guard to determine [...]

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As the Hawaii Superferry cruised into Nawiliwili Harbor around 5:45 p.m. yesterday on its maiden voyage to Kaua‘i, more than a dozen local surfers paddled out to block the 350-foot “Alakai” from reaching port, while 500 protesters backed them up onshore.
The blue and white four-deck catamaran stopped in a stalemate some 20 yards short of [...]

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North Shore residents rallied again yesterday morning near Black Pot Beach Park in Hanalei to wave signs and shout slogans at customers departing on Na Pali Coast boat tours.
The five-week protest stems from resumed commercial activity at a privately-owned boatyard, now serving as the center of a 20-year-old controversy over gray area in regulation rules.
The [...]

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During a rally outside the Historic County Building Wednesday, a handful of residents urged visiting state legislators to halt genetically modified organism laboratory testing of taro by the University of Hawai‘i.
“We want to make our intentions known to Kaua‘i that we don’t want GMO crops, especially GMO taro, on our island,” said Jeri Di Pietro, [...]

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Ka-ume ka-iwa, the beautiful beach between Moloa‘a and Kilauea, derived its modern name, Larsen’s Beach, from the manager of the Kilauea Sugar Plantation in the 1920s.
Larsen’s has claimed two lives in the last few months.
One was a visitor from Bellingham, Wash., who left behind a pregnant wife. The other was one of our fine local [...]

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