Maui Land to end retiree benefits

WAILUKU » Financially troubled Maui Land & Pineapple Co. says it will stop paying for life insurance and medical coverage for all its nonunion retirees.

ML&P Chief Financial Officer John Durkin called the move “;regretful”; but said yesterday that it was in the best interests of the company.

Maui Land & Pineapple has shrunk to the point where it has more nonunion retirees than active employees, not to mention many more retired union employees. Since union benefits were written into labor agreements, the company can't unilaterally cancel them.

The company said in December that its auditors had found its liabilities exceed assets by more than $60 million.

Tax court OKs sex-change expenses

BOSTON » The U.S. Tax Court has ruled that a Massachusetts woman should be allowed to deduct the costs of her sex-change operation.

Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, who was born a man, sued the Internal Revenue Service in 2007. The agency had disallowed a $5,000 deduction for $25,000 in medical expenses associated with the sex-change surgery. The IRS had said the surgery was cosmetic and not medically necessary. In its decision yesterday, the tax court said the IRS position was rebutted by medical evidence at the Boston trial.

Toyota loses out on rising car sales

DETROIT » The U.S. auto industry rebounded from last January's sales collapse with one big exception: Toyota, which lost an estimated 20,000 sales after it stopped selling eight models because of defective gas pedals.

Last month, U.S. sales of cars and light trucks rose 6 percent from a year earlier, thanks to increases in fleet sales and strong demand for newly redesigned vehicles such as the Hyundai Tucson SUV and Buick LaCrosse sedan.

Big winners included General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co., which all posted double-digit sales increases.

But Toyota's sales slipped 16 percent, and they could fall further as its sales stoppage drags into February. It was the first time since February 1998 that Toyota's monthly U.S. sales fell below 100,000 vehicles, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank.

Toyota's troubles helped to knock the Camry off its traditional perch as the top-selling car in the U.S. Last month the Camry ranked fifth in car sales, passed by Honda's Accord, Nissan's Altima, Toyota's Corolla and the Chevrolet Malibu. The Camry has been the top-selling car in the United States for the last eight years.

Toyota announced a recall of eight models, including the Camry, on Jan. 21 and halted sales of those models five days later because the accelerator pedals could stick and cause a crash. The recall has affected a total of 2.3 million vehicles in the United States.

Twitter accounts reset after hacking

Twitter Inc., owner of the third most popular social-networking site in the United States, said it has reset passwords for a small number of accounts that might have been compromised by a third party.

The company is investigating the matter and notifying the appropriate parties, Twitter spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said in an e-mailed statement, without saying how many accounts were involved.

Twitter provides a microblogging service that lets users write updates, or tweets, of as many as 140 characters. Updates were posted that indicated user names and passwords were given to “;untrusted”; third-party sites, Sampson said in the statement.

“;We do believe that the steps we've taken should ensure user safety,”; Sampson said. She didn't immediately return a phone message seeking further comment.

Facebook Inc. is the world's biggest social-networking site, followed by MySpace Inc. Twitter is based in San Francisco.

ON THE MOVE

Westaff's new owner and president is Tricia M.K. Evans. She started as a staff coordinator with the company in 2001 and was previously the senior account manager.

The New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel has named Lisa Reasoner director of sales and marketing, and she will continue to be in charge of group, wedding and meeting sales. She joined the hotel in 1997 as a guest services agent and held numerous posts in the hotel's front office, reservations and sales departments.

Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties has appointed Carrie Castle as chief financial officer. She has 17 years of accounting and finance experience including as controller for KGMB9, finance director and corporate controller for MSC Software Corp., and controller for Sony Trans Com Inc.

The Hawaii State Bar Association has elected Hugh Jones as president. He is a public-sector lawyer with experience working in the attorney general's office as well as on the Bishop Estate investigation.