Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Car sales help families visit injured Marines
The Hawaii Dodge Chrysler Jeep Dealers Association will launch a drive to help military families visit Kaneohe-based Marines who are injured in combat.The association will donate $25 for each car sold between tomorrow and New Year's Day to a travel fund.
"When the injured return, many of their family members don't have the means to visit them. It is important for them to get this kind of support," said Dave Gomez, executive director of the Honolulu Armed Services YMCA.
Association officials estimate the gift could total $8,500.
Verizon Hawaii has donated 1,000 phone cards valued at $10,000 to the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry. The cards will be distributed to soldiers to help them keep in touch with loved ones. Some 600 members are training in Texas before deployment to Iraq next year.
Boyd acquires 13-acre Vegas site
LAS VEGAS >> Boyd Gaming Corp. has bought a 13-acre site next to the Stardust hotel-casino, land that could be used to redevelop the aging Las Vegas Strip property.The $43 million deal increases the size of the Stardust site to 63 acres, according to documents filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Boyd Gaming has yet to say when the redevelopment would start or how much the project might cost. The company also has not disclosed the project's possible size or scope. About 80 percent of Boyd's customers come from Hawaii.
"We are in the very early stages of beginning to master plan the Stardust site," Boyd spokesman Rob Stillwell said yesterday.
Stillwell said the additional land "gives us a more complete footprint."
The purchase price of the property includes the assumption of approximately $16 million in debt.
The Stardust is home to "Mr. Las Vegas," singer Wayne Newton.
