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IN HAWAII

Spirent cuts more isle jobs

Spirent Communications has cut more Hawaii jobs, but the company will not say how many.

Spirent, formerly known in Hawaii as Adtech, eliminated 75 jobs systemwide. The positions came from a variety of departments, said Cathi Lane, the company's California-based director of public relations.

Spirent, headquartered in the United Kingdom, has five offices in the United States and one in Ottawa, Canada. It also maintains offices in Switzerland and China.

Lane said tough economic times in the industry necessitated the cuts.

"The company is doing this to remain cash generative and profitable," she said.

Lane said Spirent has no plans to close its local office.

"We still have a lot of assets in Hawaii and some of our best people are here. We are very committed to them," she said.

Last year, the company laid off 42 Hawaii employees out of a staff of 170. In July 2001, Adtech had 340 employees in Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, Spirent began eliminating local employees and moving company functions to the mainland.

Apple to open Hawaii store May 17

Apple Computer Inc. has made it official. It will open its first Hawaii retail Apple Store at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 17. Apple's Web site, www.apple.com, says the opening festivities for the Ala Moana Center store will include free Apple T-shirts for the first 1,000 customers in the store and a prize drawing from entry forms dropped in a box in the store from May 17 through May 31.

The top prize is a bundle consisting of an iMac computer, a digital still camera, a printer and a digital video camera. The store, in the old Pocketbook Man on the mall level across from Shirokiya and near Macy's, will offer free classes in the use of Apple computers and software, hands-on tryouts of equipment and free technical help.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., has 48 Apple Store outlets across the country.

Princess adds South Pacific cruise

Announcing its new schedules for this fall, Princess Cruises said it will offer a 24-day California-Hawaii-South Pacific cruise starting Nov. 1. The trip on the 2,600-passenger Star Princess starts at $4,895 per person.

The cruise will begin in Los Angeles and go to Honolulu, then Maui, the Tahiti destinations of Bora Bora and Papeete, Pago Pago in American Samoa, Suva in Fiji and the New Zealand ports of Tauranga and Auckland, before winding up in Sydney.

No new talks in nurses strike

With no new talks scheduled, more than 60 registered nurses who have been on strike since Monday continued picketing today at Wahiawa General Hospital.

Hospital officials and representatives from the Hawaii Nurses Association met with a federal mediator April 30. A nurse proposal was rejected by the hospital at that time, HNA representatives said.

With the mediator out of town this week, no new talks have been scheduled. Wahiawa officials said that business continues as usual at the hospital, although elective surgeries have been postponed or canceled.

Management may buy Edison Schools

NEW YORK >> Edison Schools Inc., the country's largest private operator of public and charter schools, today said its management may offer to purchase the company.

Edison said it hasn't received any offer, nor any indication of what a possible price might be.

Shares of the New York-based company rocketed up 73 cents, or 57 percent, to $2 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

According to a Jan. 30 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chief Executive Christopher Whittle owned 8.7 million shares of Edison, a 15 percent stake.

Edison hasn't turned a profit since it was founded in 1992.

In other news ...

>> The judge overseeing Enron Corp.'s bankruptcy today approved $137.6 million in fees for lawyers, accountants and other professionals hired to help reorganize the failed energy trader.

>> More Americans are optimistic that the economy will improve now that the war with Iraq is over, says a new poll, but they are not convinced President Bush's tax cut plan will help.

>> Richard Ketchum, president and deputy chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, has resigned to join Citigroup Inc. after the exchange passed him over a second time in naming a new chief executive officer.