Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Hawaii travel site gets fresh look
The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau has updated its travel Web site, GoHawaii.com, to make it easier to navigate and more graphically appealing.The new site provides the weather for each island, e-mail postcards and a jukebox that can play Hawaiian music. The site is available in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, German and Spanish.
Talks start to sell casino properties
LAS VEGAS >> Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Caesars Entertainment Inc. have begun negotiations to sell four casinos to a group led by a real estate investment company, a move intended to help reduce antitrust concerns involving their recent merger agreement, two sources familiar with the negotiations said.The deal involves selling the Harrah's casinos in Tunica, Miss., and East Chicago, Ind., to the group led by Colony Capital LLC, one source said yesterday.
The other two properties are the Caesars-owned Bally's casino in Tunica, Miss. and the Atlantic City Hilton, the other source said.
That source confirmed that Los Angeles-based Colony has signed an agreement with the gambling giants that gives it the exclusive right to offer a bid on the four properties for a period of time less than 30 days.
But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Colony is not the only company interested in buying the properties.
The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site late yesterday that the deal was worth about $1.26 billion, citing several people familiar with the talks.
Harrah's and Caesars spokesmen declined to comment yesterday.
Official disputes air marshal report
The government hired air marshals who had been involved in cases of misconduct and doesn't hold them to a high enough disciplinary standard, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general says."Many federal air marshals were granted access to classified information after displaying questionable judgment, irresponsibility and emotionally unstable behavior," Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin said in a report released yesterday.
Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary, disagreed with the report's conclusions.
In a written response, Hutchinson said new standards and guidelines have been set for determining whether applicants are suitable to be air marshals, whose job is primarily guarding planes while they are in flight.
Thousands of air marshals were rushed into service after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Pilots say they guard only a small percentage of daily flights.
