Patrick DeLeon, the top assistant to U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye in Washington, D.C., was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Shriners Hospital in Honolulu, which provides care at no charge for children with orthopedic conditions, received $50,000 from Island Insurance to help build a new $73 million hospital. The first of three buildings, now under construction on Punahou Street, is scheduled for completion in April.

  Mobi PCS donated 20 cellular phones with free service for use by families who are staying at Hawaii's Ronald McDonald House.

Mobi will provide unlimited local calling, nationwide long distance, voice mail, text messaging, caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling and international text messaging.

Ronald McDonald House provides a home away from home for families in Hawaii and other areas of the Pacific whose seriously ill children are undergoing treatment.

  Hawaii Public Radio's fall fundraiser drive, “;Celebration 2008,”; exceeded its goal of $741,000 by $2,747, for a record-breaking total of $743,747.