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Business / In Brief • May 22, 2013

Aloha Beer bid disrupts bankruptcyHONOLULU - An unexpected bid for a bankrupt Big Island brewery has postponed a court auction and set up a possible bidding war for the microbrewery.The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday that Aloha Beer Co. offered to buy Hawaii Nui Brewing LLC for $325,000 but did so outside the court-approved bidding process.Aloha missed a deadline last week set by U.S. Bankruptcy Court, but Hawaii Nui attorney Chuck Choi said the company thinks Aloha has the best offer."I like the new bid," Choi said.A former Hawaii Nui partner, Dustin Shindo, formally ...

Public pension employees skip Hawaii conference

HONOLULU - Organizers of an annual conference for people who manage more than $3 trillion in public sector pension funds in the U.S. and Canada say a significant number of administrators are skipping this year's meeting in Hawaii to avoid the perception they're wasting money by heading to the island paradise.Roughly 650 people are coming to this year's weeklong National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, compared with about 1,000 attendees at last year's meeting in New York, executive director Hank Kim said Monday.Kim said that trustees and others from around the country ...

Business / In Brief • May 21, 2013

The total of Maui's new vehicle registrations is up 7.2 percent in the year's first quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the Hawaii Auto Outlook report sponsored by the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.Through March this year, there were 1,181 new vehicle registrations in Maui, compared to 1,102 last year. New registrations for light trucks were up 1.4 percent, but registrations for the "Detroit Three," or Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, were down 2.5 percent.Toyota manufactured the top-selling vehicles in the state and on Maui through March.Oahu saw the ...

Business / In Brief • May 16, 2013

Maui Tech Night to be held FridayMbloom, a Maui technology incubator, will be collaborating with the international networking series MaiTai Global to host Maui Tech Night beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the company's Kahului headquarters.MaiTai Global, which began Wednesday and runs to Saturday, is four-day event for entrepreneurs, innovators and athletes started by venture capitalist Bill Tai and professional kiteboarder Susi Mai.There will be music by Derek Sebastian, speeches, presentations from startups and a post-event reception.In addition to MaiTai and Maui's tech community, ...

Burger index not good news for Hawaii, Alaska

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Residents of Alaska and Hawaii always suspected they pay higher prices, and now the hamburger proves it.The Juneau Empire reported that residents of Alaska's capital city pay the highest price in the nation for a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese.The basic cost of living guide is from the consumer advocacy website NerdWallet, which ranked the costs of living in cities across the nation based on the price of the McDonald's burger.The average price in Juneau, according to NerdWallet's QPI - or Quarter Pounder Index, was $4.82.The survey also ranks Anchorage, ...

Business / In Brief • May 15, 2013

The Paul Brown Kahului Salon at the Queen Ka'ahumanu Center closed April 30, said Todd Vines, the center's marketing manager, on Tuesday.Paul Brown officials on Oahu said the salon at the mall was the only one on Maui. But, in Hawaii, the salon continues to operate four sites on Oahu.Six Maui employees were affected by the closure, officials said, although some were already transitioning to other jobs. Two or three employees were placed with another salon locally, Paul Brown officials said.The salon had been at the shopping center for eight years, company officials said.The reason for ...