IN HAWAII
Honolulu ranked ninth most expensive
Honolulu is the country's ninth-most expensive city for professional and executive workers, according to a new survey.Honolulu's cost of living is 39.5 percent above the national average, according to the survey by ACCRA, a national association of community and economic development researchers.
Honolulu's cost of living is comparable to Long Beach, Calif., Boston and Washington, D.C., the survey said, but lower than New York City, San Francisco and Chicago.
Over the years, Honolulu's price gap has narrowed. In a 1996 survey, for example, Honolulu's cost of living was 74 percent higher than the national average. However, the city was the most expensive for a standard basket of grocery items, 55 percent more than the national average.
The ACCRA survey of 307 urban areas is designed to reflect living costs for high income individuals. The Honolulu portion of the survey was conducted by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.
Finova sues to claim Lex Brodie's
The Arizona lender that bought Lex Brodie's Tire Co. in a foreclosure earlier this year has filed suit to enforce its ownership of Lex Brodie's Kalihi property lease.A unit of Finova Group Inc. filed the complaint Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court against National Tire of Hawaii Ltd., Lex Brodie's former owner. The bankruptcy court placed National Tire into Chapter 11 last month after creditors sued.
Finova acquired Lex Brodie's and its leases in April, after National Tire defaulted on a $2.2 million loan. Finova did not assume any of National Tire's debts, which are estimated at $5.7 million. National Tire's only remaining asset is a 1999 Dodge Viper worth $50,000.
Several creditors are seeking to undo the sale of Lex Brodie's station leases to Finova. They allege that the leases were not Finova's collateral.
In its lawsuit, the Finova unit argues the Kalihi lease had no value to National Tire, and its acquisition of the lease did not cause a loss to creditors. Finova also argues it was not a creditor of Lex Brodie's, since a separate Finova unit issued the loan to Brodie's. Finova says it gave value to National Tire by assuming Lex Brodie's obligations under the lease.
MAINLAND
Airlines cut flights scheduled for Sept. 11
NEWYORK >> U.S. airlines will cut more than 3,200 domestic flights on Sept. 11, a sign of the public's reluctance to fly on the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the Financial Times reported, according to Bloomberg News.Transatlantic flights will also be reduced as European and U.S. carriers ground a large proportion of their long haul planes, the paper said. On North Atlantic routes, service levels between the U.S. and Europe will fall by 10 percent on Sept. 11, to 557 flights, the FT said. Domestic U.S. services will fall by 11 percent, it said.
Traffic fell by as much as one-third on some routes after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
JAPAN
Audit rule may be hard for foreign companies
TOKYO >> Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp. and other Japanese companies listed in the United States will have a tough time complying with the new U.S. accounting law which threatens to delist companies that fail to establish independent audit committees, lawyers say."The biggest impact on (Japanese) companies listed is they will have to have very independent audit committees," Anthony Zaloom, senior counsel at Mori Sogo Law Offices, a Tokyo law firm, told Bloomberg News. Similar reforms which were expected in Japan a couple of years ago failed to materialize.
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[ HAWAII INC. ]
New Jobs
>> The USTA Hawaii Pacific Section has hired Arnold Yuen as part-time director of recreation. He will focus first on building USA Schools programs on Oahu. In 2003, his time will be split between Oahu and the neighbor islands setting up school and college programs. Yuen recently retired from the Federal Fire Department in Pearl Harbor, where he was the assistant chief in the training division. Since 1988, he has been an independent tennis instructor. USTA Hawaii Pacific Section is a nonprofit, volunteer-based tennis organization committed to providing recreational and competitive opportunities for individuals of all ages and ability levels. It is an affiliate of the United States Tennis Association.
Promotions
>> Castle & Cooke Hawaii has promoted Laura Kodama to senior project manager. Sherman Wong and Calvin Mann were named senior project coordinators. Kodama, who has been with the company since 1993, will be responsible for overseeing architectural, governmental, community relations, and engineering activities pertaining to the company's Koa Ridge project. Wong and Mann, who both joined the company in 2000, will oversee the planning, engineering, and governmental and community relations of residential neighborhoods in Mililani Mauka.
Recognition
>> Jayne Henley-Davis of Jayne Henley & Associates was one of three certified residential specialists nationwide to receive a Lifetime Achievement Medallion Award recently from the National Association of Realtors. The Honolulu real estate agent has served as CRS Hawaii Chapter president and received the CRS of the Year award from the local chapter. The Medallion award recognizes people who have excelled at their careers and through volunteer service to the CRS council.