Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, January 29, 1997
Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, January 29, 1997
America Online subscribers in Hawaii and 36 other states will be reimbursed for the hard time they've had connecting with the online service, under an agreement reached today. America Online
offers refund to clientsSteve Levins, senior attorney in Hawaii's Office of Consumer Protection, said AOL has agreed to a no-questions-asked policy to give a cash refund or free time online for those who want to keep the service but felt cheated.
In a pact between the company and attorneys for the 37 states, AOL also agreed to make it easier for subscribers to cancel the service and to put a disclaimer in its advertising to warn potential subscribers that connecting may not be easy, Levins said.
The settlement is in response to a rash of complaints against the nation's largest online service that it signed up hundreds of thousands of new users without the means to handle the increase. Subscribers in Hawaii and other states experienced difficulty in connecting after America Online Inc. in December switched to unlimited Internet access for $19.95 a month.
Levins said his office has had about 10 complaints from AOL subscribers but expects more calls after today's announcement.
AOL customers should call the toll-free number: 1-888-265-8003.
Hawaii's unemployment rate last month was 5.1 percent, up slightly from 5 percent in December 1995 and higher than the U.S. average for the ninth month in a row. Isle unemployment rate
ends year at 5.1%Nevertheless, Hawaii's jobless rate in December was lower than any other month in 1996, a year in which unemployment peaked at 6.8 percent in June, according to the state Department of Labor.
The U.S. unemployment rate last month was 5.0 percent.
For Hawaii, last month also was a strong improvement over the 5.8 percent rate in November, when heavy rains put a crimp in construction hiring. December's better weather led to a 1,900-job increase in construction, the department said. Holiday season hiring also added 1,400 retail jobs.
Government employment was boosted by 1,100 jobs in education and social services.
The department said 30,700 people were unemployed in December, out of civilian labor force of 597,100.
Oahu had the lowest December jobless rate, 4.2 percent, but it was higher than December 1995's 4 percent level. Maui's rate was flat at 6.2 percent. Big Island rate fell to 7.5 percent from 7.9 percent. Kauai's rate was 10.6 percent, up from 9.9 percent, and Molokai's 13.3 percent level was up from 9.7 percent.
A separate department survey found the state was still losing jobs, with the statewide job count down 1.3 percent at 531,400 nonagricultural wage and salary jobs last month, a loss of 6,900 positions from 538,300 in December 1995.
Cornet Stores closed its Wahiawa variety store last week, the company's second store closing in two years. Cornet Stores
closes its Wahiawa outletBut Pasadena, Calif.-based Cornet, which is selling all four of its isle properties, plans to keep its Kailua and Waipahu stores open for now, said Al Pierce, general manager of Cornet's Kailua store.
Pierce said he didn't know how many employees were affected by the closing of the 30,138-square-foot Wahiawa store. He also didn't know whether any of the Wahiawa workers would be transfered to the two remaining locations.
Calls to Cornet's mainland offices were not returned.
Cornet has been a fixture in the isles' retailing scene since the early 1950s. Back in July 1995, the company closed its 169,000-square-foot Makaha store, ending 35 years of business at the leeward Oahu site.
The Wahiawa store had been a part of the central Oahu community since it opened back in 1960. Cornet recently put the store on the market for $3 million. Cornet also is selling its 36,019-square-foot Kailua store for $4 million and its 17,670-square-foot Waipahu location for $3 million. The company also listed its Makaha store last year for $2.9 million.
Mainland and Canadian calls to the Hawaii Visitors & Conventions Bureau's "1-800-GO-HAWAII" line will be answered by live operators in Hawaii, the HVCB said today. HVCB upgrades info line
for potential touristsPreviously, callers were connected to a recording that asked them to leave an address so they could get the HVCB's "Islands of Aloha" travel guide or a call back. Paul Casey, HVCB president, said the bureau is fulfilling a promise made last year to get real people answering the phone.
The HVCB will use operators at Hawaiian Airlines to handle the calls.
The estate of Samuel Mills Damon and the Robinson family are among the largest landowners in the country, according to Worth magazine. Isle landowners
cited in Worth magazineThe Damon Estate's 121,000 acres of land in Hawaii and California made it the 66th largest family or individual landowner in the country, according to the magazine. The Robinson family's 100,000 acres, mostly on Niihau and Kauai, made it the 93rd largest landowner.
Worth's list of the top 100 landowners - which was largely based on number of acres owned and not the dollar value of the land - named media mogul Ted Turner as the country's largest individual landowner with 1.3 million acres of real estate in New Mexico, Montana and other states.
Absent from Worth's listing: the Richard Smart Trust, whose 140,000 acres makes it the state's second largest private land holder behind Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate which owns about 336,000 of real estate in Hawaii.
