February 2013

Susie Yong, our longtime office administrator, has died. She passed away the night of January 10 at her home in Hilo. She had celebrated her 63rd birthday just three days earlier. Her work at Environment Hawai`i was part-time, but no … Continued

Dead in the Water: Queen’s Treasure — the 65-foot luxury catamaran custom-built for Ka`anapali Tours, LLC — won’t be plying the Ka`anapali coast any time soon. On December 21, U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi issued an order vacating the jury … Continued

While development of the Villages of `Aina Le`a is mired in proceedings before state and federal courts as well as the Hawai`i County Board of Appeals, a gated residential development on agricultural land just a short distance away seems to … Continued

You might think managers of the reserves in Hawai`i’s Natural Area Reserves System would have unfettered authorization to kill feral ungulates in the reserves’ forests, which are supposed to be the state’s best. You would be wrong. “Kaua`i’s seasons are … Continued

Eight years ago, on February 2, 2005, a 555-foot-long freighter ran aground on the reef outside Barber’s Point harbor. Over the next nine days, a team of workers hastily put together by the Coast Guard, the ship’s owners, and the … Continued

Hawai`i County wants a do-over. That, at least, is what it has told Judge Elizabeth Strance of the 3rd Circuit Court, who is hearing a challenge to the county’s acceptance of a final environmental impact statement prepared for the Villages … Continued

It’s been several years since the state Board of Land and Natural Resources would stop public testimony at once and refrain from voting on a matter the instant anyone requested a contested case hearing. “If the board acted like it … Continued

To grow tobacco on public lands or not? That was the question at last month’s Agribusiness Development Corporation board meeting, where a local high-end cigar maker proposed testing his tobacco crops on three acres of the agency’s land in Kekaha, … Continued