StarBulletin.com

Business briefs


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POSTED: Friday, October 02, 2009

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Star-Bulletin staff

 

HawTel increases its cash holdings

Hawaiian Telcom reported yesterday that its cash holdings for August went up to $112.6 million, a 3.9 percent increase from $108.4 million in July.

Operating revenue came in at $33.2 million, similar to $33.6 recorded in July. Operating expenses remained the same as in July, at $25.3 million. The company, however, posted a net loss of $10.8 million, similar to July, due to a higher interest expense, bankruptcy reorganization costs and a high depreciation amount of $13.6 million.

A confirmation hearing for HawTel's reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court has been pushed back about a month to Nov. 9.

 

Comedian joins KCCN for mornings

Local stand-up comedian and radio veteran Augie Tulba will join Lina Girl as a morning show co-host on KCCN-FM 100.3, effective Monday.

The two will host the show from 5 to 10 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, while former morning show co-host “;Pipi”; (Jason Rezentes) will move to nights.

Tulba, who lives on Oahu, most recently voice-tracked morning shows for neighbor island stations owned by Maui-based Visionary Related Entertainment.

 

Walgreens to open full store on Maui

Walgreens will open its first full-service store in Lahaina on Sunday.

The 15,238-square-foot store, which is at 342 Keawe St., will be the fifth full-service store in the state. The other four are on Oahu.

Grand-opening festivities will be held at 11 a.m., and the store will open at 11:45 a.m.

The full-service store complements the three pharmacy-only locations on Maui — two in Wailuku and one in Lahaina — that Walgreens opened in January. A fourth pharmacy-only location in Lahaina will close today and be consolidated along with all of its employees into the full-service Lahaina store.

There also is a pharmacy-only store in Waipahu on Oahu which opened in April.

The Lahaina store will be open from 7 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, with the pharmacy open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

 

Dentists event to generate $113M

The annual session of the American Dental Association being held this week at the Hawai'i Convention Center is expected to produce statewide spending of about $113 million, generating some $11 million in state tax revenue.

More than 700 Hawaii dentists are attending the five-day event, which began Wednesday and has attracted 24,000 people, including dentists and their staff, their spouses and families.

The event will provide more than 180 relevant and topical continuing-education courses to help dentists from Hawaii and around the country remain current on the latest advances in the industry.

“;With attendance numbers in the 700s, that's almost 75 percent of all the dentists in the state of Hawaii,”; said Calbert Lum, member of the Hawaii Dental Association and chairman of the ADA's committee on local arrangements.

 

ON THE MOVE

; The nonprofit Close Up Foundation in Washington, D.C., has hired Kellie James as Hawaii-based community coordinator to increase support for Hawaii schools' efforts to travel to Washington on weeklong educational trips. She previously was a college adviser at Native Hawaiian Scholars Program, a subsidiary of the College Connections Hawaii charity.

The East-West Center said Leslie M. Tsou has joined as a visiting research fellow and diplomat-in-residence for one year. She previously was a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in London.