Travelocity.com expands Hawaii cruise offerings

Travelocity.com has signed an agreement with American Classic Voyages Co. that gives the Web site the rights to offer cruises aboard United States Lines' ms Patriot and American Hawaii Cruises' Independence.

"We're delighted to add the Hawaiian itineraries of United States Lines and American Hawaii Cruises to our cruise offerings, all of which are completely bookable online," said Chris McAndrews, senior vice president of leisure travel and media for Travelocity.com.

"These cruise lines, with their established history and expertise in Hawaii, bring a valuable resource to our customers, offering a new way to see more of Hawaii."

The marketing agreement includes targeted advertising placements for both United States Lines and American Hawaii Cruises rotating in all of Travelocity.com's Hawaii destination pages.

"It's very exciting to have the opportunity to work with such a successful travel provider and online leader as Travelocity.com," said Maria Isabel Molina, vice president of marketing for American Classic Voyages Co.

The Patriot and the Independence offer seven-night cruises to Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island.

Las Vegas casinos help avert more blackouts

LOS ANGELES >> The lights burned a little dimmer and some gamblers may have sweated a little more than usual in Las Vegas yesterday, as casinos cut back on their energy use to head off a second day of precedent-setting blackouts for Nevada residents.

The casinos took their actions after a shortfall of about 50 megawatts -- enough to supply about 50,000 homes -- forced Nevada Power Co. to cut electricity to some homes Monday. It was the first time in recent history that the power company had been forced to impose blackouts due to insufficient supply.

Bankoh places ATMs inside cruise ships

Bank of Hawaii has installed an automatic teller machine onboard the cruise ship ms Patriot, the United States Lines' newest and largest vessel.

Through satellite uplinks, the ATM is able to connect to the cruise line's headquarters on the mainland from where data is sent back to the company's Honolulu office and Bank of Hawaii's transaction processing center.

Bank of Hawaii said it is one of the nation's first financial institutions to put ATMs aboard a ship.

The 1,200 passenger Patriot, which is home-ported in Honolulu, visits Kauai, Maui and the Big Island.

ILWU says it will keep protesting job loss

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union says it plans to keep protesting the loss of more than 200 of its members' jobs at the Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel, renamed the Aston Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel after Aston Hotels & Resorts took over management Sunday.

Ray Camacho, the union's Oahu district director, said that after handing out information leaflets at the mayor's Fourth of July celebration in Kapiolani Park last night the union will sporadically picket the hotel and make other protests.

Kelvin Bloom, chief operating officer of Aston, said the layoffs were done by a court-appointed receiver before Aston took over the management and the ILWU is just wrong when it says the new owner, a subsidiary of New York-based investment firm Leucadia International Inc., inherited the union contract when it bought the hotel in a foreclosure auction. The process terminated all contracts, Bloom said.

He said staff was reduced to about 100 from 274 because the hotel will be in a scaled-back mode for the next 10 months while it goes through a $30 million renovation.

A state Circuit Court judge has yet to rule on whether the laid-off ILWU members are entitled to severance pay and compensation for unused vacations.

Dot-com carnage claims 53 more companies

San Francisco >> The Internet industry suffered another bloody month in June as 53 companies closed or declared bankruptcy, pushing the casualty count 46 percent higher for the first half of this year than all of 2000.

So far, 330 Internet companies have failed in 2001 compared with 225 last year, according to Webmergers, a San Francisco research and advisory service.

The total for June is slightly lower than the 60 tallied in May. But the data is in line with every month since November, when dot-com casualties first reached 40 and then never declined.

UAL reduces quarterly dividend to 5 cents

CHICAGO >> UAL Corp. announced yesterday that it reduced its quarterly dividend to 5 cents per share, down more than 26 cents from last quarter.

The dividend will be paid by Aug. 1 to anyone holding shares on July 16. The last dividend rate was 31.25 cents per share.

UAL Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James E. Goodwin blamed a "current weak economic environment and the uncertain outlook" for the company's performance and the reduction in revenue across the airline industry.

Apple to stop making Power Mac G4 Cubes

CUPERTINO, Calif. >> Apple Computer Inc. said yesterday it will suspend indefinitely production of the Power Mac G4 Cube.

The company said there is a small chance it will reintroduce an upgraded model of the computer in the future, but that there are no plans to do so at the moment.

[Taking Notice]

New Jobs

>> Jeff Nasrallah has been named director of research at Grubb & Ellis. He will be responsible for assembling a Honolulu research department. Nasrallah had served in the same capacity at the company's Los Angeles office since 1999.

>> Yasuo Uesaka has been named principal at AM Partners. He will be responsible for the company's major projects. Uesaka had been joint venture partner at the company before assuming his new position.

>> Russell Miyashiro has been named senior vice president and residential loan division manager at Finance Factors Ltd. He will oversee retail and wholesale residential loan production, branch production and the company's call center. Miyashiro previously served as General Mortgage Corp.'s president and general manager.

Promotion

>> Roberto B. Yumol, AIA has been named associate architect at AM Partners. He is also studio director at the firm. Yumol has more than 30 years of architectural experience.