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Star-Bulletin staff

HawTel increases its cash holdings

Hawaiian Telcom reported yesterday that its cash holdings for August went up to $112.6 million, a 3.9 percent increase from $108.4 million in July.

Operating revenue came in at $33.2 million, similar to $33.6 recorded in July. Operating expenses remained the same as in July, at $25.3 million. The company, however, posted a net loss of $10.8 million, similar to July, due to a higher interest expense, bankruptcy reorganization costs and a high depreciation amount of $13.6 million.

A confirmation hearing for HawTel's reorganization plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court has been pushed back about a month to Nov. 9.

Comedian joins KCCN for mornings

Local stand-up comedian and radio veteran Augie Tulba will join Lina Girl as a morning show co-host on KCCN-FM 100.3, effective Monday.

The two will host the show from 5 to 10 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, while former morning show co-host “;Pipi”; (Jason Rezentes) will move to nights.

Tulba, who lives on Oahu, most recently voice-tracked morning shows for neighbor island stations owned by Maui-based Visionary Related Entertainment.

Walgreens to open full store on Maui

Walgreens will open its first full-service store in Lahaina on Sunday.

The 15,238-square-foot store, which is at 342 Keawe St., will be the fifth full-service store in the state. The other four are on Oahu.

Grand-opening festivities will be held at 11 a.m., and the store will open at 11:45 a.m.

The full-service store complements the three pharmacy-only locations on Maui — two in Wailuku and one in Lahaina — that Walgreens opened in January. A fourth pharmacy-only location in Lahaina will close today and be consolidated along with all of its employees into the full-service Lahaina store.

There also is a pharmacy-only store in Waipahu on Oahu which opened in April.

The Lahaina store will be open from 7 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, with the pharmacy open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Dentists event to generate $113M

The annual session of the American Dental Association being held this week at the Hawai'i Convention Center is expected to produce statewide spending of about $113 million, generating some $11 million in state tax revenue.

More than 700 Hawaii dentists are attending the five-day event, which began Wednesday and has attracted 24,000 people, including dentists and their staff, their spouses and families.

The event will provide more than 180 relevant and topical continuing-education courses to help dentists from Hawaii and around the country remain current on the latest advances in the industry.

“;With attendance numbers in the 700s, that's almost 75 percent of all the dentists in the state of Hawaii,”; said Calbert Lum, member of the Hawaii Dental Association and chairman of the ADA's committee on local arrangements.

ON THE MOVE

The nonprofit Close Up Foundation in Washington, D.C., has hired Kellie James as Hawaii-based community coordinator to increase support for Hawaii schools' efforts to travel to Washington on weeklong educational trips. She previously was a college adviser at Native Hawaiian Scholars Program, a subsidiary of the College Connections Hawaii charity.

The East-West Center said Leslie M. Tsou has joined as a visiting research fellow and diplomat-in-residence for one year. She previously was a political officer at the U.S. Embassy in London.