Blog: www.kgmb9.com/howard

Video Headline: Hotel Occupancy

It's the weekly hotel occupancy report from Hospitality Advisors! Statewide occupancy through last weekend has been 68% on flat room rates, but the county by county picture differs a lot.
Kauai 72%+1%. $217-2%.
Oahu 71%-5%. $189+6%.
Maui 66%-8%. $276-3%.
BIsle 56%+5%. $185-14%.

Other Business Headlines:

Mortgage fraud arrests could multiply. There've been 400 nationwide - that's 100 more than we told you yesterday. And Ed Kubo says 80 people are under investigation in Hawaii, a state that didn't have that many subprime defaults. This is the key point, and the reason there could be more arrests: to sell a loan to someone who can't afford it, you have to falsify income data on the application form. In other words, there's a paper trail!

The new Hawaii jobless rate is 3.5%. It rose less than half as much as the national rate did. We have 640,000 employed and 23,000 unemployed.

Martin & MacArthur has decided to close its Whaler's Village store. There will still be one Maui locations, at The Shops at Wailea -- and two Oahu stores, at Ala Moana Center and inside the Hyatt Regency Waikiki.

From our Who's-New-at-That-Desk Desk -- Maui Land & Pineapple CEO David Cole quit the board of Hawaiian Electric, since his own company is getting deeper into renewable power -- his replacement on the HECO board is Alan Oshina, general counsel for Hawaiian Telcom.

Hoku Scientific has done a deal with its next-door neighbor in Idaho. A byproduct of polysilicon manufacture will be hot water. Great Western Malting Company will use that water for heating then return the water for re-use after it cools, saving both plants money.

So THIS is why the farmer's markets are so busy! The marketing research company Asterop reports Honolulu is the nation's top market for fresh produce. It counters a national trend toward cheaper canned vegetables.

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