Woman sues Hilton over nightly resort fee

A Maui woman filed a lawsuit Thursday in Hawaii Circuit Court claiming Hilton Worldwide Inc. "deceptively raises base room rates" by charging customers a mandatory resort fee.

Kathleen Soule of Kahului made a reservation to stay two nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in February and was charged a $25 per night resort fee, the lawsuit said. Soule was not informed of the resort fees when she booked the room on Hilton.com, the suit said.

Certain hotels add resort fees as a daily charge for amenities and services, such as Internet hookups, fitness-center access and bottled water in the rooms.

"Because the ‘resort fees’ are mandatory, there is no reason to omit them from the base room rate, other than to deceive consumers," the lawsuit said.

Hilton’s spokeswoman in Hawaii, Cynthia Rankin, said the company cannot comment on a pending lawsuit.

The suit was filed by two Honolulu law firms — Perkin & Faria and Bickerton, Lee, Dang & Sullivan — and one Washington, D.C., firm, Tycko & Zavareei LLP.

Hawaiian Air to expand Los Angeles flights

Hawaiian Airlines will offer its first-ever nonstop service from Los Angeles to both Hawaii island and Kauai next summer.

The flights between Los Angeles and Kauai will be four times a week, while Los Angeles-Kona service will be three times a week.

The seasonal service will be from June 26 through Sept. 19. Both routes will be served by Hawaiian’s 264-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft.

The new service will add more than 22,000 seats to both markets over the 12 weeks of service and will complement the new Oakland service that also will start next summer with direct flights to Lihue and Kona for 10 weeks.

Officials will discuss kosher certification

Two officials from one of the country’s top kosher certification agencies will lead workshops in Hono­lulu and Hilo next week for local companies interested in entering the kosher market.

The workshops, sponsored by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, are geared toward agribusiness, food and restaurant businesses seeking to obtain kosher certification for food products to be sold both domestically and internationally.

The workshops will be led by Rabbi Yechez­kel Auer­bach and Rabbi Bin­yo­­min Lisbon from Kosher Supervision of America, a nonprofit certification agency based in Los Angeles.

The workshops are scheduled for Monday at the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council in Hilo and Tuesday at Foreign Trade Zone No. 9 in Hono­lulu.

Both workshops are scheduled to run from 9 to 11:40 a.m.

Register online at tinyurl.com/HDOAExport.

Wal-Mart worker fired for rescuing woman

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. » A Michigan man says he was fired from his job at Wal-Mart after he tried to help a woman being assaulted in the parking lot of one of the retail giant’s stores and ended up fighting with her attacker.

Kristopher Oswald told WXYZ-TV in Detroit that Wal-Mart has policies against workplace violence to prevent employees from assaulting co-workers or tackling a shoplifter, but that it appears that nothing allows for them to assist in situations of imminent danger and self-defense.

A spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. told The Associated Press on Thursday that while the company understood Oswald’s intentions, his actions violated company policy.

"We had to make a tough decision, one that we don’t take lightly, and he’s no longer with the company," company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said.

Oswald, 30, said he was in his car on his break about 2:30 a.m. Sunday when he saw a man grabbing a woman. He said he asked her if she needed help and the man started punching him in the head and yelling that he was going to kill him. Oswald said he was able to get on top of the man, but then two other men jumped him from behind.

Livingston County sheriff’s deputies arrived and halted the fight.

Oswald had worked for Wal-Mart for about seven weeks and said he would not have been considered a permanent employee until after his 180-day probation.

"The last thing I expected was to not have a job," Oswald said.

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ON THE MOVE

The Queen’s Health Systems has named:

>> Kathleen A. Green vice president of patient services. She was previously a director of perioperative services for the Queen’s Medical Center. 

>> Kathy K.N. Mori­moto vice president of strategic planning. She was previously a director of strategic planning for the Queen’s Health Systems. 

Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has announced the following new physicians and medical specialists: 

>> Dr. Kerry Biggs as a doctor in Hospital-Based Medicine at Moana­lua Medical Center. 

>> Dr. Robert Hinz as a doctor in Hospital-Based Medicine at Moana­lua Medical Center. 

>> Dr. Michael Banitt as a doctor in ophthalmology at the Hono­lulu Medical Office. 

>> Bonny Hinz in midwifery at the Hono­lulu Medical Office and Hilo Clinic. 

>> Dr. Rennia Cabal as a Family Medicine doctor at Maui Lani Medical Office. 

>> Dr. Kristina Dimova as a doctor in optometry at Hilo Clinic.

Ship Ahoy!

Today’s ship arrivals and departures: