Big Island police identified a 64-year-old Kurtistown man who apparently drowned Wednesday in Puna as Hamilton Manley.

Police responded to a 9:43 a.m. call of a swimmer in distress in waters off the Kapoho Vacationland subdivision off Waiopae Road. A family member told emergency personnel that Manley was found floating in the water 10 minutes after going snorkeling.

Arriving officers found bystanders had pulled Manley from the water and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Emergency personnel continued CPR efforts. Manley was taken to Hilo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11 a.m.

Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Whether you’re stuck in traffic on the H-1 Freeway, or waiting in line at the grocery store, it’s easy to get bogged down with life. But there’s a place on the leeward coast that gets down to the basics and teaches people how to live off the ‘aina.

Deep in the heart of Wai’anae valley lives a place untouched by modern technology. No iPods here. Just a guitar in your arms, and a song on your lips.

Folks at Ka’ala Farm live the way native Hawaiians did hundreds of years ago.

“Their ancestors are the ones that survived in these areas,” said Butch Detroye, who helps run Ka’ala Farm. “They sustained life for generations inside here and all of that aloha they put to sustaining life, that’s the aloha that’s still here.”

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Source: KHNL 8 News

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth.

The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm’s losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided that it didn’t meet the criteria for receiving a favorable recommendation and had forwarded the application to a council that reviewed marginal cases, according to agency documents.

Two weeks after the inquiry from Inouye’s office, Central Pacific announced that the Treasury would inject $135 million.

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Source: Paul Kiel and Binyamin Appelbaum, The Wall Street Journal

Photo Source: OpenSecrets.org

TheBoat made its last run yesterday.

“I’m a little sad that it’s going away, because the people on the west side need alternatives,” said TheBoat project manager Darin Mar.

About 200 people crowded the dock at Aloha Tower Marketplace yesterday afternoon hoping to catch one last ride to Kalaeloa. Makakilo resident Hannah Lima is one of many regular commuters upset to see the end of the ferry service. She rode TheBoat five days a week to work since It’s start on Sept. 17, 2007. Before that, Lima drove to work.

“It’s upsetting,” said Lima. “I have to go back on the road, and there’s a lot of traffic to deal with. For many of us, it was a means to get to work and come home from work without the traffic.”

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Source: Darin Moriki, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Hawaii residents filed 64.4 percent more bankruptcy cases last month than in June of last year, according to preliminary figures from U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

As of yesterday afternoon, 268 bankruptcies had been filed, versus the 163 filed last June.

The 1,473 filings for the first half of this year dwarf the 889 cases filed in the first six months of last year, a rise of 65.77 percent.

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Source: Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Amazon.com Inc. has informed its marketing affiliates in Hawaii that it is ending its business with them in order to avoid collecting sales tax in the state.

Following in the footsteps of North Carolina and Rhode Island, lawmakers in Hawaii have passed legislation that would require companies to collect sales tax if they have marketing affiliates in the state. Affiliate marketers run blogs or Web sites and get a sales commission by featuring links to outside e-commerce sites.

Hawaii’s governor has until July 15 to potentially veto the legislation, but it has an effective date of July 1.

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Source: Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Wall Street Journal