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[ HAWAII INC. ]

PROMOTIONS

>> Bank of Hawaii has named executive vice president Bob Crowell portfolio manager of Hawaiian Tax-Free Trust. He has been with the bank for 33 years and has extensive experience in managing fixed income investments.

>> The National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii has promoted Sharon Arneson from senior programs coordinator to programs director. She will oversee the foundation's prevention, community outreach, medical research and education efforts. She has worked for the organization since it was founded in 1992.

>> Charter Funding of Hawaii has promoted Darren Upchurch to sales manager at its Pearlridge branch. He was hired as a loan officer in May 2002. Charter Funding is a mortgage banker with offices on Oahu, Maui, the Big Island and Kauai.

NEW JOBS

>> Kyo-ya Co. Ltd. has named Ernest K. Nishizaki executive vice president and chief operating officer. The 32-year veteran of the Hawaii visitor industry was most recently general manager of support services for Sheraton Hotels in Waikiki. Kyo-ya owns the four Waikiki Sheraton Hotels, as well as the Sheraton Maui, the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and the Hyatt Grand Cypress Resort in Florida. Nishizaki is responsible for overseeing the business interests of Kyo-ya in Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and Japan. Kyo-ya is a subsidiary of Japan-based Kokusai Kogyo Co.

>> Channel 2 News has hired Alema Harrington as sports director, replacing Jai Cunningham, who will move to weekend news co-anchor and weekday general assignment reporter. Harrington will anchor the sports segments of Channel 2's 6 and 10 p.m. weekday news shows. Also, as executive producer of Hawaii Sports Final, Harrington will oversee the weekly program and co-host with weekend sports anchor John Veneri. Harrington has spent the past six years at KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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HAWAII

A&B buys California commercial building

A&B Properties Inc., the real estate arm of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., has purchased a two-story, one-tenant commercial building in Valencia, Calif., for an undisclosed price. The property, 51,000 square feet of leasable space on 1.8 acres of land, is occupied by Vista Controls, a subsidiary of Curtiss-Wright Corp., A&B said.

The property was acquired as a Section 1031 exchange, which allowed A&B to buy it with profits from properties it sold earlier in the year and defer capital gains taxes.

A&B, which owns 91,000 acres in Hawaii, now has a portfolio of properties in Hawaii and on the mainland with a total of more than 5 million square feet of leasable space.

Oceanic cable raises rates

Oceanic Time Warner Cable, citing increased expenses and additional channels in its standard lineup, has increased rates for its basic and standard packages by at least 5 percent.

The increases, which went into effect Tuesday, boosted the price 54 cents to $11.34 a month for the 22 basic channels. Basic cable consists of local channels such as the network affiliates and primarily includes channels on the lower end of the dial.

Standard service, which covers 69 channels and includes such networks as CNN and ESPN, increased $1.96 to $35.95.

Oceanic also said it was raising the price $1 for a primary addressable cable box with remote to $5.70 a month and increasing the price 30 cents for an additional box to $4 a month.

Monthly prices for digital cable and digital encore service went up 4 cents to $10 each while the price for both of them rose to $13 from $12.96.

Oceanic also raised its prices last year.

Trolley adds Aloha Tower stop

The Hilo Hattie Trolley, the free bus that runs tourists from Waikiki to the retail store in Iwilei, now stops at Aloha Tower Marketplace.

Shoppers can get on the trolley at any of 10 stops at hotels in Waikiki and ride free to Aloha Tower, pick it up later and go to Hilo Hattie, or go back to Waikiki from either shopping destination, all free. Service runs every 20 minutes, the merchants said. The partnership between Aloha Tower Marketplace and Hilo Hattie went into operation Tuesday.

Tsui named chairman of isles' Towne Realty

Real estate development firm Towne Realty Inc. has appointed former First Hawaiian Bank chief operating officer Jack Tsui as chairman of its Hawaii development subsidiary.

Tsui retired this year as president and COO of First Hawaiian Bank. He is still a director of First Hawaiian and its parent, BancWest Corp. Towne, based in Milwaukee, has commercial and residential projects throughout the islands and on the mainland. The Towne commercial portfolio includes more than 5 million square feet of office and light industrial/warehouse space as well as residential communities and senior housing.

Hawaiian, American Air now sharing e-tickets

Hawaiian Airlines and American Airlines have begun sharing electronic ticketing.

Since yesterday, each airline has been able to issue e-tickets for the other, for flight itineraries that use both airlines. Previously, a shift to a paper ticket was required when changing from one of the airlines to the other.

Hawaiian said that by April 23 most U.S. travel agencies will be able to e-ticket for trips using American and Hawaiian, such as an American flight from the mainland linking to a Hawaiian interisland flight. Hawaiian said it hopes to reach similar e-ticketing agreements with other airline partners as the year progresses.

MAINLAND

HealthSouth begins layoffs

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. >> HealthSouth Corp. cut 20 percent of its headquarters staff today as five more executives agreed to plead guilty in a huge accounting fraud that has the health care giant teetering on bankruptcy.

The layoffs of 165 people was HealthSouth's first mass personnel cut since the government accused it of overstating earnings by at least $1.4 billion since 1999 to make it appear the company was meeting Wall Street forecasts.

The company, which calls itself the largest U.S. provider of diagnostic imaging, outpatient surgery and rehabilitation services, said the workers were being laid off from marketing and other departments that do not deal with patients. HealthSouth eliminated about 1,000 of its 50,000 jobs last year. It has nearly 1,700 locations in all 50 states and abroad.

In court, five more HealthSouth executives admitted taking part in a scheme that already had resulted in guilty pleas from three top executives and a criminal probe of founder Richard Scrushy, ousted this week as chairman and chief executive office.

Goodyear posts huge loss on tax charge

CHICAGO >> Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. today reported one of its largest quarterly losses ever due to a one-time charge, but said it would return its North American tire unit to profitability this year.

The company reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of $1.1 billion, or $6.30 a fully diluted share, after taking a previously announced charge to write down the value of tax credits. The $1.08 billion non-cash charge, equal to $6.17 a share, was taken because tax credits can only be used to offset profits. Because Goodyear has now lost money for the past two years, it must assume the credits are worth nothing.