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Business/In Brief • July 24, 2014

Matson finalizes surcharge settlementHONOLULU - Matson Inc. will pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company misapplied fuel surcharges on military household goods shipped between the Mainland and Hawaii or Guam.The company announced Tuesday it signed a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and Mario Rizzo, who filed the lawsuit in California in 2010 on behalf of the federal government.The shipments were paid for by the Department of Defense.Under terms of the settlement, Matson will pay the government $9 million and Rizzo will receive about $2.6 ...

Business/In Brief • July 22, 2014

75K in Hawaii have no health careHONOLULU - State officials say the rate of people without health insurance in Hawaii has dropped below 6 percent since the implementation of President Barack Obama's federal health care overhaul.Officials told a joint House committee briefing on Monday that roughly 75,000 people in Hawaii don't have health care.Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito says the rate is down from about 8 percent before the push to enroll people last year.The new rates come as lawmakers discuss the state of Hawaii's troubled health insurance exchange, which can't financially ...

Makawao man finds sticky solution to a unslightly problem

Makawao resident Steven Tanouye has developed a sticker to hide the imprint of the old, previously used vehicle safety sticker.Tanouye said he first came up with the idea for "Stick it Solutions" in November when he took his mother's car to get a safety check. He noticed that the new safety sticker is much smaller than the old one and that the imprint with the sticky residue left behind did not look good.The former engineer at the old Maui Prince Hotel developed a white reflective vinyl sticker, which can be used to cover the imprint of the old sticker. A safety inspector can then place ...

Business / In Brief • July 17, 2014

HONOLULU -- A tentative agreement would give Honolulu paramedics raises and less overtime.The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that the tentative deal is expected to save the city more than $1 million in overtime.The average raise would be 10 to 12 percent.The tentative agreement reached between United Public Workers and the city would change 90 percent of paramedics' shifts from eight hours to 12 hours.Department of Emergency Services director Mark Rigg says that would dramatically cut down on overtime.The department last year spent $5.6 million in overtime for paramedics. That was more ...

Kauai resort owner sues to block nearby dairy farm

LIHUE (AP) - The owner of a Kauai resort has filed a lawsuit to stop the development of a proposed dairy farm on a nearby property.Progress on Hawaii Dairy Farms should cease until developers prove it won't negatively affect the surrounding environment, said the lawsuit filed Thursday by Kawailoa Development in Circuit Court in Lihue.Kawailoa owns the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa and the Poipu Bay Golf Course. It's the closest landowner to parcels where Hawaii Dairy Farms wants to place 1,800 milking cows on 582 acres, The Garden Island newspaper reported Tuesday.Kawailoa says its ...

Names & Faces

* Kokua Realty congratulates Mariah Brown, co-founder of the Da Kitchen restaurants and sales agent with Kokua Realty, for winning the Pacific Business News' Businesswoman of the Year in the for-profit category.Brown is a multimillion-dollar producer serving clients on Maui and Oahu, according to a news release from Kokua Realty.* Tom Bean, who has more than 20 years of professional experience in the restaurant industry, recently was named Ko restaurant's new manager.Bean oversees the daily operations of the award-winning restaurant at The Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui.Recently, Bean was the ...