Hawaii

Hawaii Sen. Hirono Wins Democratic Primary for Third Term

Published

4 months ago

August 11, 2024

Hawaii Sen. Hirono Wins Democratic Primary for Third Term

HONOLULU — U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and the state’s incumbent congressional representatives won their races in the Democratic Party’s primary election on Saturday.

Hawaii is a vote-by-mail state. Ballots were mailed to registered voters who must return them through the mail or to drop-off boxes located around the islands. Voters also were given the option to cast ballots in person at a handful of voter service centers in each county.

Ballots had to be received by county elections offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Here’s a look at key Hawaii races:

U.S. Senate

Hirono is seeking a third term after first being elected to the office in 2012 to replace Daniel Akaka, who was the first Native Hawaiian to serve in the U.S. Senate after statehood.

She won a three-way race against Ron Curtis and Clyde McClain Lewman. Curtis lost to Hirono in the general election six years ago when he was the Republican nominee for the same seat. Lewman placed seventh in the Democratic primary for governor in 2022 with 249 votes.

Hirono became a state legislator in 1980, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor in 1994 and a member of the U.S. House in 2007.

She underwent surgery for kidney cancer in 2017, a year before she was last elected to a second six-year term in the Senate.

Former state Rep. Bob McDermott beat five lesser-known candidates for the Republican nomination for Senate. McDermott last ran for Senate two years ago when he lost to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, in the general election by a 44-point margin.

U.S. House

U.S. Rep. Ed Case won the Democratic Party primary to represent Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District in Congress by defeating Cecil Hale.

Case was first elected to the seat representing urban Honolulu in 2018, after previously representing Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District from 2002 to 2007.

Patrick Largey ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

In the 2nd Congressional District race, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda was unopposed in the Democratic primary and Steve Bond was unopposed in the Republican primary. The district covers suburban Honolulu and the neighbor islands.

State House

House Speaker Scott Saiki faces a tough race against Kim Coco Iwamoto, who is running once more after losing to Saiki by just 161 votes two years ago and 167 votes in 2020.

Their state house district covers downtown Honolulu and Kakaako, where a construction boom has transformed warehouses into high-rise condos.

Saiki, an attorney, has been House speaker since 2017 and a state representative for three decades. His campaign website touts legislation passed this year that he said would provide a 70% tax cut to working-class families.

Iwamoto is an attorney who represented Oahu on the state Board of Education from 2006 to 2011. Her website says she is fighting to expose government corruption and waste and to provide sufficient shelter and social workers to address homelessness.

Iwamoto was the highest-ranking openly transgender person elected in the country when she first won her education board seat 18 years ago.

Source link

Related Topics:Democrats Featured News Desk wire

Click to comment

Hawaii

Man surrenders after 5-hour barricade at busy Honolulu store

Published

31 minutes ago

December 19, 2024

Press Room

Man surrenders after 5-hour barricade at busy Honolulu store

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – After five hours, a barricade at the Don Quijote store on Kaheka Street ended peacefully Wednesday night.

The incident started just after 5 p.m., prompting the evacuation of shoppers and employees at what is one of the busiest stores at any time of year, but especially during the holidays.

We’re told that the man started a disturbance and then attempted to start a fire, which activated the fire sprinkler system.

Sources said he barricaded himself in a storage room at the back of the store.

He surrendered and was taken into custody without incident at 10:10 p.m.

Dozens of people waited in the parking lot — a mix of shoppers whose search for bargains and holiday gifts got interrupted, those arriving to shop, and employees.

Many only heard about what happened, or were caught by surprise by the huge police presence surrounding the building.

Michael Brewster said he was on his way in when “one worker down the road at the restaurant said, ‘You can’t go in. Somebody went cuckoo, throwing bottles in the aisles and stuff.‘”

The police department had a large presence at the scene, including someone who appeared to be a crisis negotiator and Specialized Services Division officers.

There were also Emergency Medical Services personnel in full protective gear.

Kaheka and Poni streets were closed during the incident.

Source link

Hawaii

It’s Official: Redeem AAdvantage Miles on Hawaiian Airlines Mainland-to-Hawaii Flights After a 9-Year Hiatus! – View from the Wing

Published

8 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

It’s Official: Redeem AAdvantage Miles on Hawaiian Airlines Mainland-to-Hawaii Flights After a 9-Year Hiatus!

by Gary Leff on December 18, 2024

American Airlines has long partnered with Hawaiian Airlines. Hawaiian has now been acquired by American’s ‘West Coast Alliance’ and oneworld partner Alaska Airlines. And so a change has been made to using American AAdvantage miles on Hawaiian Airlines: you can now redeem AAdvantage miles to fly to Hawaii!.

In September 2015, American stopped allowing AAdvantage members to redeem miles between Hawaii and the mainland U.S..
Airlines frequently partnered with Hawaiian for their intra-Hawaii flights, and to some extent their route network beyond Hawaii. However awards to Hawaii are popular and partner redemptions there are expensive.
Hawaiian is on its way towards being integrated into Alaska Airlines. They will achieve a single operating certificate, at which point the carrier will be part of oneworld. Alaska will retain a separate brand identity for Hawaii flights, but it will be one airline. We’re going to get these redemptions eventually, anyway – likely 2026. It’s good to see it now!

Hawaiian award availability, especially from the West Coast (and Austin, while it lasts), is better than award availability to Hawaii on American or Alaska. I do expect Alaska’s revenue management to change this over time, as well as to better sell these flights.

You can use Honolulu as a one-stop gateway across the Pacific as well. Hawaiian currently flies to,

Auckland and Sydney
Fukuoka, Tokyo Haneda and Narita, and Osaka in Japan
Seoul
Papeete, Pago Pago, and Raratonga

One thing American needs to do is fix mileage-earning on Hawaiian Airlines. I’ve heard from several readers who are affected by Alaska and Hawaii shifting their flying between the two airlines.

American AAdvantage members were encouraged to travel on Alaska Airlines, because that earned both miles and status credit in the AAdvantage program. However, schedules shifting such that Hawaiian will now operate a planned flight means this changes.

There are people purchasing tickets for a flight on Alaska, who will learn that the flight is going to be a Hawaiian flight. This is going to happen more and more prior to a single operating certificate on the two carriers. But they only bought the ticket because it was going to earn them credit with American.

Unfortunately, Hawaiian Airlines flights with a Hawaiian flight number do not earn Loyalty Points (credit towards AAdvantage elite status). That’s a gap which should be addressed.

Nonetheless, it’s great news today that there’s more mileage-earning and much more flexibility with mileage redemption on Hawaiian Airlines now than there’s been in the last nine years.

Source link

Hawaii

Who is Kamaka Air? Here’s what we know

Published

16 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Press Room

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Kamaka Air Inc. was founded in 1993 as a local airline.

It is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as an inter-island airline and logistics company for per-pound air cargo services and non-scheduled charters.

Its recent history is an example of consolidation happening in the general aviation industry across the country.

In February 2022, RLG Capital and Trinity Private Equity Group acquired an 80-percent majority stake in the airline.

Most of its aircraft are single-engine Cessna Caravan’s like the one that crashed on Tuesday. These are extremely reliable aircraft with the capability of short landings and takeoffs needed to serve airports especially on Molokai and Lanai, so they are essential in serving those small communities.

The one that crashed on Tuesday was not particularly old. It was built in 2011.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

When Mokulele airlines — which provides essential air service to Molokai and Lanai — had trouble meeting its schedules last year, Kamaka Air began offering charter flights for passengers as well.

In January 2023, a Kamaka Air flight crashed near the Molokai airport. The plane was totaled but the pilot and copilot walked away with minor injuries.

In May 2024, Kamaka Air put out a press release saying it was under new ownership and new leadership with complete support of the existing leadership of Kamaka.

It promised a smooth transition but ran into trouble filling key jobs, including a chief pilot and director of flight operations.

That made the FAA uncomfortable, so the company shut down temporarily and returned to service within a couple of weeks.

Kamaka Air is proud of its history in serving during hard times. Their planes were used to deliver emergency supplies of COVID tests to Lanai and food to Kauai during the pandemic, and food and other emergency supplies to Maui after the wildfires.

As federal aviation authorities investigate, the airline will be scrutinized for its operations and safety protocols, and whether it was fully in compliance with FAA certification requirements.

David Hinderland, Kamaka Air CEO, issued the following statement:

“It is with heavy hearts that Kamaka Air confirms the loss of two members of the Kamaka Air family in an accident at 3:13 this afternoon near the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. We are not releasing the names of the pilots until family members have had a chance to process this tragedy, and we hope the media will give them the same consideration.

In the meantime, we are making ourselves available to the Hawaiian Department of Transportation, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Federal Aviation Administration for investigation into this accident, and we will also share appropriate information with the media as it is confirmed over the coming hours and days.

At this time, we ask for your patience, as you know the urgency of getting correct information that not only offers a clear understanding of what happened, but to assure that the information is handled appropriately.”

“It is with heavy hearts that Kamaka Air confirms the loss of two members of the Kamaka Air family.”

Source link