TheBuzz Erika Engle

Anchor’s away from Island Television

She gave two weeks' notice on Tuesday and the station is letting her out of her contract, which would not have expired until next summer, according to Mike Rosenberg, KITV's president and general manager.

Kobashigawa is a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor at the station. Kobashigawa said yesterday she started thinking about leaving KITV in 2002. She had wanted to cut back to part-time work because she did not to work full time through another ratings period, but the station said that was not an option, Kobashigawa said.

Kobashigawa has a commercial pilot's license and said she is going to pursue a flying career.

Before joining KITV in February 2000, she worked as a general assignment reporter at KLAS in Las Vegas, according to biographical information on the KITV Web site.

She had previously worked in the newsroom at KGMB in Honolulu and as an intern at television stations in Seattle.

It is not true, yet

"They're rumors," said Steve Sofos, president of Sofos Realty Corp., Costco's broker in Hawaii.

"We looked at Hilo a year ago and Costco is still studying the market," Sofos said.

Right now, the giant discount retailer is trying to salvage plans for its first store on Kauai, where construction bids on a new warehouse store are 30 percent higher than Costco is willing to pay.

The company also is working to figure out a way to expand in Hawaii Kai that will assuage neighborhood concerns over plans to add a building and a gas station.