Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
HAWAII
Nurses union settles suits The Hawaii Nurses' Association and its collective bargaining arm have settled a series of federal lawsuits over management issues, officials said yesterday.
The union had sued last year on behalf of HNA's 3,700 members claiming the organization's board and executive directors failed to supervise its longtime fiscal officer.
The Hawaii Nurses Association is the professional organization representing the state's nurses. Its collective bargaining unit handles all salary and benefit negotiations with the nurses' employers.
Last week, at a Special House of Delegates meeting of the HNA, delegates approved new articles of incorporation for a united nurses' group that keeps the name Hawaii Nurses' Association, the union said in a news release. Delegates from the collective bargaining unit did the same.
By agreeing to the articles of incorporation, both sides have settled the lawsuits, the organization said.
The united Hawaii Nurses' Association will be headed by a transition board of directors until new officers and directors are elected in January, the organization said.
Phone company buyer selects name
Hawaiian Telcom will become the new name of Verizon Hawaii if the local phone carrier's purchase by the Carlyle Group goes through.Carlyle Group managing Director William Kennard said yesterday the new name "reflects the Carlyle Group's commitment to create a local, stand-alone company by returning key functional areas back to the islands."
In May, the Carlyle Group proposed buying the phone company for $1.65 billion.
The deal has received the approval of the Federal Communications Commission but still needs the blessing of the local Public Utilities Commission.
Big Isle gets $700K orchid grant
The Big Island is getting a $700,000 federal grant to build an orchid laboratory, creating 70 jobs and boosting the local floral industry, U.S. Rep. Ed Case said.The grant, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will help the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council to construct a prefabricated steel lab and office at a site to be determined, Case said.
NATION AND WORLD
Supreme Court upholds do-not-call WASHINGTON >> The Supreme Court turned away a challenge yesterday to the federal do-not-call registry, ending telemarketers' bid to invoke free-speech arguments to get the popular ban on unwanted phone solicitations thrown out.
The court, without comment, let stand a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld the registry of more than 64 million phone numbers as a reasonable government attempt to safeguard personal privacy and reduce telemarketing abuse.
Under the 2003 federal law, businesses face fines of up to $11,000 if they call people who sign up for the registry -- unless they have recently done business with them.
AIG statements were misleading, SEC says
American International Group, one of the world's largest insurers, continues to clash with regulators, but Wall Street seems more puzzled than alarmed.The company disclosed yesterday that the SEC had warned that it was considering taking formal action against AIG because of press releases about continuing investigations, releases that the commission, as well as the Justice Department, consider "false and misleading."
The warning follows disclosures in the last two weeks that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are investigating transactions that a unit of AIG arranged for a bank, PNC Financial Services Group, three years ago. PNC agreed last year to pay $115 million to settle allegations that it used the transactions to inflate earnings for 2001.
AIG said yesterday in a statement that any contention that the "press releases are or may be false or misleading is without merit," and added that "any action by the SEC would be unwarranted." Joe Norton, a spokesman for AIG, would not elaborate on the company's statement.
Air Canada shares rise
Shares of the newly reorganized Air Canada pushed higher as they began trading yesterday, gaining nearly 25 percent from their issue price of $20. Shares of ACE Aviation Holdings, the airline's new corporate parent, closed up $4.80 at $24.80 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The shares had changed hands for about $26 on the gray market before trading began on the TSX.
