Hawaii County News

A federal judge sentenced a Big Island special-education teacher yesterday to five years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi's proposal to sell 737 acres of land to help balance the county's budget has been approved by the Hawaii County Council.

The body of an unidentified scuba diver reported missing Monday was recovered later that evening by Hawaii County fire personnel in waters off South Point.

Fire destroyed a single-family home in Kailua-Kona early today, according to the Hawaii County Fire Department.

The National Weather Service this morning updated its statewide flash-flood watch to include Hawaii County starting this afternoon.

Alaska Airlines is expanding service to and from the islands. The carrier touched down in Kona Tuesday for its inaugural flight from Oakland.

The first winter storm of the season is expected to dump rain throughout the Islands until the weekend and may produce floods, a small-craft advisory and even snow.

Big Island police are looking for the thieves who stole four laptop computers from Kau High School over the weekend.

An evening of song and dance -- in the manner that the hula master would have enjoyed -- marked Friday's celebration of life of the man the world knew as 'Uncle George.' The Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo was decked with thousands of flowers -- both on the stage and on the people -- and dotted with paintings of George Louis ...

New lava flows from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano have reached the ocean, creating a new lava tube separate from the main tube, geologists said.

Hawaii County police are asking the public's help in a sexual assault investigation.

Naeole has informed Council Chairman J Yoshimoto she will be off island from last Saturday to this coming Friday because she's honeymooning on Maui.

A tsunami evacuation in Hilo was just an exercise on Monday. At the sound of the Civil Defense warning sirens, community volunteers and Hawaii County Police officers escorted about 800 people out of the low-lying coastal area of Keaukaha.

Department of Transportation's Airports Division will participate in the mock evacuation.

Maui County's visitor count ticked up by 1.8 percent in September to 134,932, but deep discounting by lodging providers and price cutting by other vendors drove per person per day spending down by 4.9 percent to $167. Statewide, the head count was up 7.2 percent to 494,376, but spending was down to $171 per person, down from $186 in the depressed ...

Nine schoolchildren avoided injury Tuesday when their small school bus overturned after being struck by a car in Hilo, Hawaii County police said.

Creeping lava is no longer threatening a public viewing area near Kalapana, but officials said there's still plenty of activity from the Kilauea eruption, now in its 27th year.

Hawaii County is hoping to give sagging Big Island employment numbers a lift by helping to deliver people to job sites and worker-training classes.

QUESTION: Whatever happened to the pilot project to hold Hawaii's first comprehensive publicly funded elections? ANSWER: Plans are proceeding for the public to finance campaign expenses of some candidates running for Hawaii County Council next year, according to the state Campaign Spending Commission.

A developer hoping to turn a test well into a production well received approval of the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply, despite a national park official's concern that the well could damage park resources, West Hawaii Today reported.