On Sunday, the latest six-member crew to help show how a journey to Mars might work will step into Mauna Loa’s cool, fresh air after spending eight months confined in a dome-like tent there. Read more
Honolulu officials recently canceled their long-stalled effort to award the construction contract for rail’s final 4.3 miles and eight stations into town, opting to start over instead. Read more
With the stroke of a pen, Honolulu’s rail line no longer appears stalled at Middle Street. Read more
Four months after their initial efforts collapsed, state House and Senate majorities have swiftly passed a $2.4 billion funding deal, hoping it will finally be enough to get rail all the way to Ala Moana Center. Read more
Based on a procedural voice vote Thursday, rail’s controversial bailout bill appears poised to easily pass the House today. Read more
The latest bill to bail out Honolulu’s woefully over-budget rail transit project has cleared another key hurdle, with the state Senate advancing the measure to the House, where it’s expected to pass handily. Read more
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Senate Bill 4, the vehicle that looks to bail out rail with a $2.4 billion funding deal, narrowly passed the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee Monday. Read more
With hostilities escalating over rail this week, state lawmakers are accusing Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and city leaders of “padding the budget” with an 11th-hour increase to their estimated costs that could derail the project. Read more
The Hokule‘a kicked off its “Mahalo, Hawai‘i” sail last week with a stop at Olowalu reef, an important but imperiled marine refuge that just became Hawaii’s first globally recognized “Hope Spot.” Read more
Two months after safely returning from what the University of Hawaii’s president called an “audacious, bold and slightly crazy” voyage around the world, the Hokule‘a is venturing back to where it all began. Read more
With the special session on rail looming in two weeks, legislators still don’t have a deal. But leaders from both chambers appeared open to raising the state’s hotel room tax to help rescue the beleaguered transit project during a marathon hearing Monday. Read more
On Tuesday, the warehouse that Bryan Hoernig has owned since 2002 became the rail project’s first official casualty of eminent domain. Read more
Much of the first rail-condemnation case to go to trial hinged on the testimony of two experienced, local dueling appraisers: Jon Yamaguchi and Steven Chee. Read more
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has selected Andrew Robbins as the next, permanent executive director to lead the island’s financially challenged rail transit project. Read more
The conditions recommended for the Thirty Meter Telescope this week by a former Hilo judge are virtually identical to those in the controversial project’s original 2011 permit for work atop Mauna Kea. Read more
The state Land Board will listen to oral arguments Sept. 20 in Hilo on whether to issue a key permit for the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope, which a consortium of universities and astronomy institutions has proposed to build atop Mauna Kea. Read more
The Honolulu rail board is in final talks to hire as its new top executive a rail technology firm manager who once battled the city over its most expensive rail contract, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. Read more
Hawaii residents can stay up-to-date on more than 170 highway and road projects with a new interactive online map unveiled this week by the state Department of Transportation. Read more
A federally mandated blueprint that’s supposed to guide completion of the Honolulu rail transit line hasn’t been updated since 2012 — even though local officials pledged to do so by December 2014. Read more
When all is said and done, officials say, the state will have spent nearly $71 million to help the Hawaii Superferry — a privately owned company that went kaput eight years ago after briefly providing interisland service. Read more
The Hawaii Superferry has been kaput for about eight years, but a new audit shows the state won’t finish paying off its more than $70 million in harbor upgrades and interest for the privately owned service until 2028. Read more
