Best Read Hawaii Headlines
Headlines from our Hawaii Topic Page with the most time spent reading.
#1 Insurance Prices Threaten an Affordable Housing Oasis In Hawaii
Oct 24 2024 // Lahilahi Heen has lived for decades in a three-bedroom house surrounded by a carefully groomed garden in the lush Hawaiian Shores subdivision in Lower Puna. It’s also downslope from Hawaii’s most active...
#2 Hawaii Plans to Increase Hotel Tax to Help It With Climate Change Mitigation
May 2 2025 // In a first-of-its kind move, Hawaii lawmakers are ready to hike a tax imposed on travelers staying in hotels, vacation rentals and other short-term accommodations and earmark the new money for programs to cope with a...
#3 High Condo Premiums a Top Issue in Hawaii Legislative Races
Jul 17 2024 // Jillian Anderson was planning to make fighting crime in Waikiki the top issue in her campaign for a seat in the Hawaii House of Representatives. Then came the letter from her condo association announcing a 300% increase in...
#4 Deadly Accident Has Hawaii Officials Asking to End Amateur Fireworks Shows
Jan 6 2025 // In recent years, occasions large and small — parties, Super Bowls, mixed martial arts fights, even Thanksgiving — have provided a reason for residents across Hawaii to set off illegal fireworks. The increasingly...
#5 Rescuers Describe Scene at a Hawaii Home After Deadly Fireworks Blast
Jan 3 2025 // Emergency crews arrived to a chaotic and gruesome scene in a Honolulu neighborhood after a large New Year’s firework tipped over after being lit and ignited a fiery, shrapnel-studded blast that killed three people...
#6 Hawaii Agrees to ‘Groundbreaking’ Settlement of Youth Climate Change Case
Jun 21 2024 // Hawaii on Thursday agreed to take action to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045 to settle a lawsuit by 13 young people alleging the U.S. state was violating their rights under its constitution with infrastructure...
#7 What’s Tying Up $4B Settlement for Hawaii Wildfire Victims
Feb 11 2025 // Hawaii’s Supreme Court heard arguments last week over insurance issues that are tying up a potential $4 billion settlement over Maui’s catastrophic 2023 wildfire, the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a...
#8 Toxic Debris from Hawaii Wildfire Could Fill 5 Football Fields 5 Stories Deep
Sep 10 2024 // Hinano Rodrigues remembers being 4 or 5 years old, carrying a bucket across a highway to the ocean in the Maui community where he still lives. At dawn, he would accompany his grandmother to a reef at low tide, where she...
#9 Hawaii Attorney General Probe into Deadly Wildfire Won’t Lead to Criminal Charges
Nov 4 2024 // An investigation by the Hawaii attorney general’s office into the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, which destroyed most of the historic town of Lahaina, won’t lead to any criminal charges. Hawaii...
#10 Safer Buildings Vs More Housing: How New Building Codes May Impact Hawaii
Nov 22 2024 // A month after wildfires ravaged Maui in August 2023, Gov. Josh Green issued an emergency proclamation to postpone the adoption of any new building codes that might exacerbate a housing shortage that had just gotten...
#11 Hawaii Lawmakers Seek Tougher Fireworks Enforcement Following Explosion
Feb 13 2025 // State senators have declined to move forward with a statewide ban on all fireworks, and instead are working to significantly strengthen law enforcement’s ability to investigate and prosecute fireworks cases. Within...
#12 Tropical Storm Hone Sweeps Past Hawaii; Rain Amounts Ease Wildfire Fears
Aug 27 2024 // Hone passed south of Hawaii and weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Sunday, dumping so much rain that the National Weather Service called off its red flag warnings that strong winds could lead to wildfires on...
#13 Hawaii Fireworks Injuries Comparable to Those Seen on Battlefield, Doctor Says
Jan 22 2025 // Some wounds suffered by six Hawaii residents flown to Arizona for medical treatment after a deadly illegal fireworks explosion on New Year’s are comparable to battlefield injuries, the doctor overseeing their care...
#14 Hawaii High Court Agrees to Weigh in on Issues Holding up $4B Wildfire Settlement
Oct 1 2024 // Hawaii’s Supreme Court will consider questions about issues that threaten to thwart a $4 billion settlement in last year’s devastating Maui wildfires. A Maui judge last month agreed to ask the state high court...
#15 Hawaii Lawmakers Pass HECO Bill to Invest in Wildfire Mitigation
May 2 2025 // Hawaii lawmakers this week passed a bill intended to help shore up Hawaiian Electric Co.’s credit rating despite strong opposition from House and Senate committee chairs who helped vet the measure. The bill would...
#16 Hawaii Wildfire Victims Spared From Testifying After Deal Over $4B Settlement
Jan 31 2025 // Lawyers representing victims of a deadly Hawaii wildfire reached a last-minute deal averting a trial that was scheduled to begin Wednesday over how to split a $4 billion settlement. The agreement means victims and...
#17 Hawaii Islands Sinking Faster in Some Areas, Increasing Flood Risk
Mar 24 2025 // Parts of Hawaii are sinking faster than others, according to a recent study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, highlighting the flood risk to infrastructure, businesses and communities in low-lying...
#18 Bristol Myers, Sanofi Liability in Hawaii Plavix Case Grows to $916 Million
May 23 2024 // A judge in Hawaii on Tuesday ordered Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi to pay more than $916 million to the state for failing to warn non-white patients of health risks from its blood thinner Plavix, up from an earlier...
#19 Hawaii Lawmakers Wrangle Bills to Rescue Utility Hit by Wildfire Suits
Apr 14 2025 // Hawaiian Electric Co. is making a final legislative push this month, asking lawmakers to help shore up its financial foundation, which crumbled after the 2023 Maui wildfire that killed 102 people and destroyed much of...
#20 Judge to Ask Hawaii Supreme Court About Barriers to $4B Wildfire Settlement
Sep 4 2024 // The Hawaii Supreme Court will be asked to weigh in on an issue that threatens to thwart a $4 billion settlement in last year’s devastating Maui wildfires. Judge Peter Cahill on Maui agreed to ask the state high court...
