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HAWAII

Hoku Scientific will go public next week

Hoku Scientific Inc., a Honolulu-based fuel-cell technology developer, is planning to go public next week, according to Informa Global Markets EquityWatch.

The 4-year-old startup disclosed in a filing earlier this month that its stock would be priced between $11 and $13 a share and could raise up to $62.8 million for the company. Hoku will issue 4.2 million shares of common stock and will give its underwriters the option to purchase an additional 630,000 shares.

Hoku officials and advisers either declined comment or didn't return phone calls yesterday. Companies about to offer stock for the first time are restricted in their public statements.

The company, co-founded by Dustin Shindo and Karl Taft, will become the first Hawaii company to conduct an IPO in six years and will trade on the Nasdaq National Market under the ticker symbol HOKU.

Dental college still plans to open

The dean of the planned Hawaii College of Dental Medicine said the school intends to open next year, despite the filing of a state lawsuit against the school's parent company.

This week the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection sued Pacific Educational Services, alleging it had engaged in unfair business practices at the Hawaii College of Pharmacy, a separate school the company owns in Kapolei.

Ray Rawson, dean of the Hawaii dental college and a former Nevada state senator, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the troubles at the pharmacy college should not affect the dental school. He said he has no plans to sever ties with the dental college, barring "evidence or convictions."

Case seeks labeling for nut origins

A bill introduced this week by U.S. Rep. Ed Case could boost Hawaii's $40 million macadamia nut industry in the U.S market.

The measure would require products made from flavored and roasted macadamia nuts to label their country of origin, preventing companies from implying their products are 100 percent Hawaii-grown when they contain nuts from other sources. Macadamia nuts used for candy or ingredients in other food would not be covered by the bill.

Honolulu Magazine appoints editor

Honolulu Magazine has promoted its managing editor, A. Kam Napier, to editor to replace John Heckathorn, who resigned his 21-year career at the magazine on July 1.

Napier, born and raised in Hawaii, joined the magazine's staff as associate editor in 1994 and was promoted to managing editor in January 2001.

Upon his departure, Heckathorn said he was told that publisher PacificBasin Communications LLC wanted to change the direction of the magazine and wanted a new editor.

Heckathorn has since returned to a new company related to PacificBasin, aio Interactive.

Starr Seigle keeps contract to lure U.S. visitors to Japan

Honolulu-based Starr Seigle Communications has won a third consecutive contract to help lure U.S. tourists to Japan. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

The Japanese government contract aims to correct a major imbalance between the number of people who visit Japan, 5 million in 2002, and the number of Japanese who go abroad, 16.5 million in the same year.

The visitor campaign, which started in April 2003, aims to double the number of overseas visitors to Japan to 10 million by 2010.

NATION

New airline's lawyer submitted false documents

Pan Am Clipper Connection arrived at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport last month with a handful of flights and big promises for the future.

But the tiny airline's expansion plans, perhaps even its existence, could be in jeopardy after disclosures that the parent company's top lawyer filed false financial statements to the Department of Transportation.

This week, Boston-Maine Airways Corp. of Portsmouth, N.H., wrote the agency that former general counsel John Nadolny "apparently altered" a bank statement filed in May to verify the amount of working capital the company had available.

Nadolny resigned June 3 after admitting responsibility for another fake document: a bond that guaranteed payment of a $320,000 lawsuit settlement to the union representing several former pilots. Great American Insurance Co. denied issuing the bond.

Verizon having tense talks with Florida union

Labor negotiations are rarely easy but it's been a particularly tense round of contract talks this week for Verizon Communications and Local 824 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Florida.

As of late yesterday, the phone company and IBEW, which represents about 5,000 Verizon repair personnel, call-center employees and other workers, were far apart in their efforts to reach an agreement.

Even if the union were to strike -- something that hasn't happened in the Florida service territory of Verizon and its local predecessor GTE for at least four decades -- landline phone service would continue. Verizon spokesman Bob Elek said the company is prepared to use Verizon managers from the local area and other parts of the country to take "extraordinary measures to keep things business as usual."

Sticking points in the negotiations include provisions for job security, workplace flexibility and health-care costs. Formal talks about wages hadn't begun late yesterday.

If the sides fail to narrow their differences, the union could opt to continue working without a contract until a settlement is reached, as it did in 1999.

The talks between Verizon and Local 824 mark the first time the IBEW is negotiating a labor contract in a market where the dominant phone company has launched an aggressive effort to install fiber-optic lines to offer new services, according to Martha Pultar, director of telecommunications at the union's headquarters in Washington, D.C.