Hula Planet:What To Do In Hawaii

Thousands "Just Go With It" and audition, Hulihee Palace opens years after earthquake, cockfighting debate in Legislature, man gets 20 years…

Ringed rice coral appears strikingly modest for a species that is caught in the struggle over greenhouse gas emissions. Failing to implement “common-sense measures” and neglecting to secure an incidental take permit to help mitigate the deaths and injuries to rare native seabirds led conservation groups to file a lawsuit last week against Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, court documents show. State lawmakers are again looking to raise the barrel tax on petroleum products to finance food and energy security programs, but this year there is a twist: most of the new revenue could initially help reduce the state's budget deficit. About 200 Chinatown residents gathered at the Sun Yat Sen Cultural Center on Kukui Street yesterday to show their opposition to a proposed city project for chronically homeless people. Thousands of people turned out in Maui for a chance to appear in the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston movie "Just Go With It." The prospect of being an extra in the upcoming Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston movie "Just Go With It" drew people like locusts Saturday to the Lipoa Center in Kihei. It was a tribute to a trailblazer. A distinguished crowd turned out in downtown Honolulu Sunday afternoon to celebrate the life of the late congressman and broadcaster Cec Heftel. Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states, but the practice continues in Hawaii. State lawmakers on Monday are expected to consider a resolution that recognizes the cultural, financial and historical aspects of the activity without making it legal again. Animal rights groups are protesting a resolution before Hawai‘i lawmakers supporting the recognition of cockfighting as a cultural activity. The Hawaii County Council will be sharpening its pencils next week, as the Finance Committee goes line-by-line over Mayor Billy Kenoi's spending plans for the fiscal year that starts July 1. It's an age-old problem: You move into a new place, and none of your old stuff looks right in it.Hawaii County's solution: Spend another $400,000 on furniture and window treatments on top of the $24.6 million already spent to renovate the County Building on Aupuni Street. New energy-efficiency building standards Hawaii County plans to start enforcing in May will be expensive, possibly unnecessary and may outlaw common home designs, says Puna Councilwoman Emily Naeole-Beason. An Ocean View man convicted of manslaughter for shooting and killing an intruder was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison. Shoes and slippers lined Hulihee Palace's entryway Saturday as residents and visitors meandered about the 172-year-old royal vacation home taking in its history and beauty for the first time since the museum closed its doors to the public more than three years ago. With the housing market still wobbling like a Front Street reveler on Halloween, West Maui continues to have a glut of market-priced homes. Jean Souza, the Kaua‘i programs coordinator for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, said she received a call from Kaua‘i police dispatch reporting calls of a whale being born in the harbor. Hawaii is in a position to develop as a model for holistic care in the new health care reform movement, says Shirley Otis-Green, a national authority on palliative care.

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Air travel smooth, smoking down, whale finally freed, First Family vacations, unions drag feet, more news

Despite increased security at airports following two scares in Detroit, many passengers arriving in Honolulu Sunday said they did not experience any unusual travel delays. The quarantine station at Honolulu Airport is seeing a lot of international passengers arriving with swine flu but no illnesses requiring quarantine or isolation, say Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials. A series of tobacco tax hikes are helping to curtail local sales of cigarettes and cigars. Businesses in Kailua said they have seen a surge in customer traffic since the first family arrived for the holidays. It seems the teachers union, along with blue-collar workers, are dragging their feet in hopes that they can make it to the finish line called the legislative session and make their case before lawmakers that they should not have to take a hit. A whale entangled in fishing gear off of Maui was freed on Christmas Day by rescuers led by the Hawaiian Islands Entanglement Response Team. Whale expert Ed Lyman of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary said he believed the team freed the whale of most or all of the material it was dragging, which included an anchor; but that he could not be sure because he didn't get a chance to look under the animal before it swam away. The Christmas shopping season was a mixed bag for Hilo merchants, some of whom did strong sales, while others are hoping for better business in 2010. As the number of homes in foreclosure grows larger and larger, so do the problems caused by an increasing number of homes sitting vacant, ownerless and uncared for in neighborhoods around Maui. Living in a grass hut, tepee or igloo may not be ideal for most people, but these structures provide the fundamental concepts of sustainable living that have been around “a lot longer than we have,” said architect and sustainability consultant Peter Arsenault.

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