General News

Seventy-one public schools will be offering free meals to students starting Friday and extending through the summer, the Hawaii State Department of Education announced. The food service program aims to help low-income children receive nutritious food that they might not otherwise have.

HILO — Applications for two new geothermal wells at the site of a power plant that was put out of operation by the Kilauea eruption are under review, officials said.

WAILUKU — A county in Maui has established a free vehicle disposal program in response to car dumping, an official said.

Illegal car abandonment along highways in Maui has increased by at least three times in six years, The Maui News reported Sunday.

KAILUA — Hawaii firefighters have recovered the body of a man believed to be a missing swimmer, officials said.

The body found on the shore at Kailua Bay on Oahu Sunday matches the description of the person who disappeared on Friday, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday.

BEIJING — Thirty years since the Tiananmen Square protests, China's economy has catapulted up the world rankings, yet political repression is harsher than ever.

A final decision on where the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory will be located remains months away, U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said last week during a visit to the Big Island.

U. S. Sen. Mazie Hirono announced on Thursday that the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory will remain on Hawaii Island following a commitment she said she received from the director of the U.S. Geological Survey.

A Honolulu City Council committee voted Thursday to challenge city funding of attorney fees for former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha.

An ex-Honolulu prosecutor testified Thursday that his former supervisor assigned him her uncle's criminal case without telling him they were related and at odds over money.

Several City Council members are urging Mayor Kirk Caldwell to stop work on changes to the Waimanalo Bay Beach Park.

Authorities say searchers have found the body of a man believed to be a hiker who went missing on a remote trail on Maui 10 days ago.

Starting Monday, a new pilot program for bulky trash collection takes effect for Honolulu's urban core. City officials say it's an effort to prevent illegal dumping in neighborhoods, and minimize trash on curbs and sidewalks.

A record number of minority medical students have graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi medical school, officials said.

HAGATNA, Guam  — A drug possession case in Guam involving a Grammy Award-winning singer has been closed, officials said.

A retired Honolulu police officer testified Tuesday that he lied about evidence regarding a mailbox reported stolen from a former chief's home.

WAILUKU — Three volunteer rescuers who found a hiker more than two weeks after she disappeared in a Maui forest described their elation and relief after spotting her near a waterfall in deep vegetation.

Javier Cantellops, Chris Berquist and Troy Helmers said Monday that they saw Amanda Eller from a helicopter Friday, 17 days after the 35-year-old physical therapist and yoga instructor went for hike on a Maui trail.

The number of tourists coming to Hawai'i has grown in the past three decades, but their spending in real dollars has remained the same. While visitors make up the state's major industry, their presence adds to the wear and tear on the roads, parks and trails, and there's often no charge for their use. 

MAUI — The California man killed by a shark in Hawaii over the weekend was a frequent visitor to the islands and an avid scuba diver who had recently retired, a friend said.

U.S. Census Bureau estimates show urban Honolulu's population declined for the fourth straight year last year.

Hawaii News Now reports newly released census estimates put the district's population at more than 347,000 people in 2018. That's down about 1.2% from more than 351,000 in 2015.

The agency defines Urban Honolulu as extending from Aliamanu to Kahala on Oahu.

A trial is expected to resume for three Honolulu police officers accused of using excessive force on a man shot with a stun gun who later died.

The Maui hiker missing for 16 days was found injured but alive in the Makawao Forest Reserve, according to media reports and a Facebook post on her search page Friday afternoon.

A Honolulu police sergeant has requested a jury trial after pleading not guilty to charges he abused and harassed his estranged wife, a report said.

There have been three new cases of rat lungworm disease contracted by visitors to Hawaiʻi, officials said.

KEAUHOU — Federal officials are in the final review stages of rules that would ban swimming with Hawaiian spinner dolphins, officials said.

KAILUA — In Kailua, the sand is soft and white, the water is clear and calm, and the view is exactly what you would expect from a beach in the Hawaiian Islands.