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FAST FACTS HAWAII
HAWAII
Native Hawaiian biz wins high honors
Plant seller
Hui Ku Maoli Ola LLC was named Native Hawaiian Business of the Year by
American Savings Bank yesterday.
The Waimanalo-based company sells more than 100 species of native Hawaiian plants through wholesale and direct-to-consumer outlets, provides landscaping consulting services and plant surveys, and restores degraded habitats by removing invasive species and planting native species, among other services.
"It is quite an honor to be awarded for the work we do," said Matt Kapaliku Schirman, co-owner. "We sell plants, but our passion is really in our educational program."
The company designs and builds educational gardens and provides lectures, field trips and guided tours.
Previous winners of the award include Native Books/Na Mea Hawaii in Ward Warehouse and Manuheali'i, apparel and accessories stores in Kailua and on Punahou Street in Honolulu.
[HAWAII INC.]
AWARDS
» American Business Women's Association has awarded
Myrtle Ching-Rappa as one of its 2007 top 10 business women, which also will make her eligible for the association's 2007 American Business Woman Award. Ching-Rappa is director of the Student Employment and Cooperative Education office at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a member of the Na Kilohana O Wahine Chapter of Honolulu.
» Sally Lampson-Kanehe has been inducted into the University of Hawaii Founders Club for her years of contributions to the UH School of Social Work. Lampson-Kanehe is is a major supporter of the school, and a member of school dean's board of advisors.
» New York Life Insurance Co. has named Kyle Shimoda and Helen Yee-Rosen members of its 2006 career development conference. Shimoda and Yee-Rosen are associated with New York Life's Honolulu general office. As members of the conference, Shimoda and Yee-Rosen will receive advanced training in the counselor selling process.
ON THE BOARD
» The American Bar Association has appointed Honolulu attorney
Marvin Dang to its thirteen-member Coalition for Justice. Dang is the managing member of Law Offices of
Marvin S.C. Dang LLLC. He has been an attorney in Hawaii for 28 years.
NATION
PayPal settles consumer claims
SAN JOSE, Calif. »
EBay Inc.'s PayPal online payment service is paying $5.2 million to resolve claims by attorneys general from 28 states, including Hawaii, and some customers that PayPal didn't sufficiently let consumers know what their rights were.
PayPal said yesterday it agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit by some of its customers. The company also will cover $1.7 million in costs incurred by the attorneys general for a separate investigation.
In the agreement with the states, PayPal committed to streamlining its user agreement and providing more information on consumer protections. The suit in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn claimed the company didn't clearly communicate consumers' rights in specific transactions, PayPal said.
One complaint from customers was that PayPal would withdraw money from a bank account to pay for an online purchase when the user had requested a credit card be used, said a statement from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
30-year rates at 6-month low
WASHINGTON » Rates on 30-year mortgages dipped this week to the lowest level in more than six months.
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said yesterday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent this week, down from 6.40 percent last week.
The latest drop puts the 30-year mortgage at the lowest level since it stood at 6.24 percent in early March. Rates on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, averaged 5.98 percent.
Laptop battery recall is No. 4
WASHINGTON » Consumers are being asked to return 526,000 laptop batteries made by
Sony Corp. because they could catch fire, the latest in a record-setting recall involving nearly 7 million computers.
IBM Corp. and Lenovo Group, the world's third largest computer maker, were seeking the recall of rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries purchased with ThinkPad computers. A laptop caught fire at Los Angeles International Airport this month.
It is the fourth recall in recent weeks involving Sony laptop batteries. In August, Dell asked customers to return 4.1 million batteries and Apple recalled 1.8 million batteries worldwide, warning they could catch fire. Last week, Toshiba said it was recalling 340,000 laptop batteries due to a problem that caused the laptops to run out of power.
Hewlett-Packard's top lawyer resigns
SAN JOSE, Calif. » The purging of
Hewlett-Packard Co. reached higher into its executive ranks yesterday with the resignation of the company's top lawyer, who helped oversee covert efforts to root out the source of boardroom leaks.
It's unclear whether General Counsel Ann Baskins authorized third-party detectives to use the subterfuge known as "pretexting" to dupe telephone companies into sharing detailed telephone records for directors and journalists. She claimed not to know that any potentially illegal tactics were being used.
Nonetheless, the 24-year HP veteran became the highest-ranking executive to fall in a scandal that has prompted the departure of three board members -- including leak-hunting Chairwoman Patricia Dunn -- and two other senior employees intimately involved in the investigation.
787 Dreamliner gets up to $3.6B in orders
Boeing Co., the world's second-largest commercial aircraft maker, received as much as $3.6 billion in new orders from unidentified customers, including bookings for its 787 Dreamliner.
BUSINESS PULSE