---

[ FAST FACTS HAWAII ]

---

BACK TO TOP
|

HAWAII

Verizon Wireless adding 25 jobs

Verizon Wireless is creating 25 more retail sales jobs in the islands, boosting its work force to more than 150 people.

The cellular phone company, which said it has had record customer growth nationally, is offering paid training, tuition reimbursement, and a 401(k) plan with a dollar-for-dollar match up to 6 percent of salary and profit sharing.

For more information, call 837-8870 or visit www.verizonwireless.com/careers.

Homes up for sale at Mauna Lani

Some 137 single-family resort homes will go up for sale this month on the Big Island at the Mauna Lani Resort.

The development, called KaMilo, includes detached and semi-attached homes on 30.5 acres surrounded by the Mauna Lani North Golf Course.

KaMilo is a joint venture between A&B Properties and Brookfield Homes Hawaii.

NATION

California investigates gas prices

SACRAMENTO » State Attorney General Bill Lockyer launched an investigation yesterday into possible price gouging by gas and oil companies following Hurricane Katrina.

He said the inquiry was prompted by complaints from California residents about rising gas prices after the hurricane, which destroyed oil platforms and damaged refineries along the Gulf Coast.

"Hurricane Katrina has broken families, devastated communities and destroyed lives," Lockyer said in a written statement. "To unjustly profit from tragedy is unconscionable."

His investigation will examine whether oil companies or retailers violated antitrust or unfair business practice laws. It also will examine whether they broke a state law that bars retailers from raising prices more than 10 percent during government-declared emergencies.

Lockyer said he plans to subpoena records from oil refiners and examine how gas station owners set the price at the pump. He asked consumers and employees of gas stations and oil companies to contact his office if they have information about gouging or other practices that may be illegal.

Inspector raises safety allegations

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. » The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation are investigating safety allegations at Northwest Airlines raised by an FAA maintenance inspector who has been reassigned to a desk job.

In a letter to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey yesterday, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., sought assurances that a thorough investigation will be conducted because the flying public needs to know that "Northwest Airlines is meeting all necessary standards of reliability and safety" in its maintenance operations.

Dayton's request came as Northwest and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association reached the two-week point in the union's strike against the airline. The Eagan, Minn.-based carrier is using licensed replacement mechanics to keep operating.

Judge blocks nurses strike

SACRAMENTO, Calif. » A judge yesterday extended his prohibition against nurses striking UC Davis Medical Center and other University of California hospitals.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren E. McMaster issued a preliminary injunction barring a walkout by the California Nurses Association. The ruling effectively bars a strike until negotiations are complete between the nurses and UC hospitals.

Analyst says Delta Air may be on verge of filing bankruptcy

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. may be moving closer to bankruptcy as the damage from Hurricane Katrina pushes the price of fuel, their second-biggest expense, to record levels.

Damage to refineries, oil-drilling platforms and pipelines has sent the price of jet fuel, which is refined from crude oil, up 20 percent since Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast on Monday. Delta, the third-largest U.S. airline, and Independence Air, a discount carrier unit of FLYi Inc., may file bankruptcies as soon as this weekend, said Benchmark Co. analyst Helane Becker.

"I just don't see how they can continue to operate," Becker said in an interview from New York. "It's insane. It just seems more likely to me that they file. They need to preserve their cash position."

Delta and St. Paul, Minn.-based Northwest, the fourth-biggest U.S. airline, have been struggling this year to avoid following UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. into Chapter 11 protection.

WORLD

U.S. may need to stockpile gas, not just oil

PARIS » The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina could force the United States to reconsider its oil stockpiling policy, the deputy head of the International Energy Agency said yesterday as 26 governments agreed to release emergency reserves to cope with the disaster.

The Paris-based IEA, a club of mainly industrialized oil importing countries, said member states unanimously backed a decision to release the equivalent of 2 million barrels per day from their strategic stocks -- equivalent to the refining capacity that Katrina has shut down. The measures will take effect for an initial period of 30 days.

The damage to crude oil production was lighter, at 1.5 million barrels per day, the IEA said, urging member countries to release refined products such as gasoline rather than crude.

But Katrina may have exposed a flaw in the 700-million-barrel U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is almost entirely crude oil and contains no gasoline, according to the IEA's American deputy head, William Ramsay.

Until now, "it's always made more sense economically to have the crude on hand and then refineries can turn it into products depending on the requirements of the market at that time," Ramsay, a former U.S. ambassador to Congo, told the Associated Press in an interview.

"But this particular incident is probably going to raise questions that maybe some product stocks would be in order," Ramsay said.

Dutch beer brewers fixed prices, EU says

BRUSSELS, Belgium » The EU head office charged Dutch brewers yesterday with running a cartel that fixed beer prices from 1996 to 1999.

The European Commission said it had evidence that rival beer companies in the Netherlands agreed on prices, allocated customers, discussed individual customers and exchanged commercially important and confidential information.

The EU antitrust regulator never names the companies suspected of operating a cartel. Royal Grolsch NV, Heineken NV and the Dutch arm of InBev SA confirmed they had received formal charges but refused to comment.