Kahoomiki wins Hogan competition

Kahoomiki's Obesity Prevention Program was named winner of the fourth Nonprofit Business Plan Competition yesterday by The Hogan Entrepreneurial Program at Chaminade University.

The organization, whose mission is to support lifelong physical activity for Hawaii residents, took home a first-place prize of $12,000. Lanakila Pacific received a second-place $6,000 award for its Printing for Good Project and Hawaiian Hope's Internet Cafe took third and was awarded $4,000. The Waianae Clubhouse Productions program by the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii won the most compelling project prize and received 100 hours of communications services, a $12,000 value, from Loomis-ISC.

“;In previous years, we have seen some of the finalists use their prizes as seed money and grow into successful ventures,”; said John Webster, director of the Hogan Program. “;In the current climate when nonprofits are hard-hit by budget cuts, we hope this competition, the prizes and the relationships that are built through participation prove encouraging to all.”;

The awardees were chosen from 57 business plans, and prize money came from American Savings Bank.

Closing of Advertiser deal nears

Black Press expects to complete its acquisition of The Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett Co. within two weeks, according to Dennis Francis, Star-Bulletin publisher and president of its parent company, Oahu Publications Inc. Francis said yesterday that a couple of tasks remain to be completed and that a specific closing date will be announced soon.

Site to monitor rental car tickets

The website eHawaii.gov has launched a system that monitors traffic citations rental cars get.

The Vehicle Monitoring System provides a weekly report of vehicles in a company's fleet that have violations over the last 31 days. This allows fleet owners to quickly account for citations on any vehicle. This is in response to renters not reporting a citation, which clogs up the state judiciary and sticks the car company with the citation. The system is at vms.ehawaii.gov.

Subscriber surge boosts Netflix profit

SAN FRANCISCO » Netflix Inc.'s movie subscription service attracted 1.7 million more customers during the first quarter to fuel a torrid growth streak that has turned the company into a stock market star.

The results announced yesterday are the latest evidence of Netflix's rising popularity. The service has picked up more than 5 million subscribers in the past 18 months as more households embrace Netflix's DVD-by-mail and Internet video packages that start at $9 per month. That has helped Netflix boost its earnings by at least 22 percent in each of the past six quarters. Netflix's stock price has more than tripled during that span, and the strong first-quarter performance persuaded more investors to buy the shares. The stock gained $1.32 in extended trading yesterday after ending the regular session at $86.98, down 9 cents.

On the Move

Aqua Engineers has announced the following promotions:

—Hugh Strom to senior vice president/business development, overseeing and supporting the Army operations manager from vice president and manager of the company.
—Lyle Tabata to Kauai operations group manager from vice president and general manager of Briant Construction.

» Aloha Air Cargo has promoted Paul Apuna to Honolulu station manager for ground operations from operation supervisor. He has more than 30 years of experience in the travel and air freight industry.

» The Hawaii Developers' Council has announced new officers and board members for 2010: Lance Wilhelm, president; Craig Okamoto, vice president; Joe Fadrowsky, treasurer; Cathy Camp, secretary; and Shane Peters, former president. New members to the board of directors are: Bruce Barrett, Linda Chinn, Lance Parker and Walter Thoemmes.

» University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law has awarded the 2010 Patsy Takemoto Mink Legislative Fellowship to Melanie Legdesog. The fellowship enables a Richardson law student interested in public policy and social justice to intern at a congressional or Senate office in Washington, D.C.