Business Briefs Star-Bulletin staff and wire services

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HAWAII

Oahu in top Labor Day locales

Online travel services company Priceline.com named two Hawaii locations in its sixth annual list of the top 50 Labor Day travel destinations, released yesterday.

The list, which took a sampling of hotel room booking requests made by priceline.com customers for the Labor Day weekend, ranked the Waikiki beach area as 28th and the Waikiki beach marina area as 47th.

New York City's Time Square/Theater District took the No. 1 spot, followed by its Chelsea neighborhood. The Las Vegas Strip was third, while planned visits to the Strip's northern end took 16th.

Beach attendance is lighter than expected for the second year in a row, the report said, with big cities across the country topping popular destinations for Labor Day travel.

Punahou licenses Web system

Secure Computing Corp., an enterprise gateway security company based in San Jose, Calif., said yesterday that Punahou School has entered a three-year agreement to license its Secure Web filtering and security system.

The school chose Secure Computing because of its environmentally friendly features, best-in-class malware and URL filtering, and built-in reporting capabilities, the company said.

"Secure Web gave us all of the features we needed without adding to our carbon footprint," David Parrish, chief architect of Punahou School's IT network, said in a statement. "That's very important to us here in Hawaii where energy costs are particularly high."

Bank extends award deadline

American Savings Bank's community development department is accepting nominations for its 2008 Native Hawaiian Business of the Year award through Friday. The award recognizes for-profit businesses that meet the following criteria: Involved in the community; promotes Native Hawaiian values; innovative; demonstrates need or demand for the venture as well as business opportunity.

The award will be presented at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement's seventh annual Native Hawaiian Convention, which will be held Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 at the Hawaii Convention Center. Past recipients of this award include the Dawson Group, Inc. and Native Books/Na Mea Hawai'i.

For more information or to obtain a nomination form, please contact Scott Watanabe, community development coordinator, at 539-7131 or swatanabe@asbhawaii.com.

NATION

Borders narrows loss for quarter

PORTLAND, Ore. » Bookseller Borders Group Inc. said yesterday that it narrowed its losses and slashed its debt during the second quarter, but continued to see sales slow as consumers limited their discretionary spending.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company said it lost $9.2 million, or 15 cents a share, for the quarter ending Aug. 2. That compares with a loss of $25.1 million, or 43 cents a share for the same quarter of last year.

The company, which has been restructuring and selling some business units, said it lost $11.3 million, or 19 cents a share, from its continuing operations, compared with a loss of $18.1 million, or 31 cents a share, last year.

Citi to pay $18M for card practice

NEW YORK » Citigroup Inc. will pay nearly $18 million in refunds and settlement charges for taking $14 million from customers' credit card accounts, California's attorney general said yesterday.

Citigroup will make refunds to the 53,000 customers affected, and pay $3.5 million in damages and civil penalties to the state of California, which had been investigating the questionable practices for three years, the attorney general said.

The bank also will pay 10 percent interest to California customers, who accounted for $1.6 million of the money "swept" out of accounts and into a Citi fund between 1992 and 2003.

BRIEFCASE

FEWER FLIGHTS: Southwest Airlines Co., which had resisted the kinds of capacity cuts being made by other carriers, will will cut 196 flights while adding only six new ones in its schedule that takes effect Jan. 11.

EATING COSTS: Smithfield Foods Inc. swung to a loss in its fiscal first quarter as high commodity costs hurt the nation's largest pork producer and processor.

PLANT PLANS: Ford Motor Co. said it will spend $75 million to retool its Michigan truck plant to make small car bodies, part of the automaker's previously announced plan to convert some truck factories to make smaller vehicles.

TAKING NOTICE

Promotions / new hires

» Young Brothers, Limited/Hawaiian Tug & Barge has promoted Dean Kapoi to vice president, human resources and labor relations. His experience in the company includes manager of freight operations, Honolulu operations manager and labor relations specialist.

» Carlsmith Ball LLP has hired Christopher J. Cole as partner in the Honolulu office. He rejoins the firm after serving as a partner at McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon and as a member of its hiring committee. He first joined the firm in 1991 as a summer clerk when the firm was known as Carlsmith Ball Wichman Murray Case & Ichiki and became an associate in its labor and employment section upon receiving his law degree.

» Atlas Insurance Agency has promoted Michael Kinoshita to senior vice president of its construction services division from vice president. He has 30 years of experience in the insurance industry with professional designations including Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS).

» Accuity LLP has named Joan Fujita as a managing director at the Honolulu office. Her 20 years of tax experience in both the public and private sectors include Kamehameha Schools and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Los Angeles.

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