East Hawaii News

It’s been almost five years since the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption of Kīlauea volcano and resulting lava flow landlocked the Pohoiki boat ramp, yet the battle continues for funding to dredge the beach and reopen access to the ocean.

The official Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts & Crafts Fair that showcases and supports more than 150 of Hawai‘i’s best artisans and creators will be open one more day, on Saturday, at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium and Butler Buildings in Hilo on the Big Island.

Benjamin “Kawika” Jerin-Kealoha of Ka‘ū is also wanted in connection with other criminal investigations.

On Thursday night, a 21-year-old from Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, was swept over by emotions when she was announced as the Miss Aloha Hula 2023 at the 60th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival on the Big Island.

With 1,148 points, Agnes Renee Leihiwahiwaikapolionāmakua Thronas Brown, who dances with Oʻahu hālau Ka Lā ʻŌnohi Mai O Haʻehaʻe, won the title of Miss Aloha Hula 2023 on Thursday during the first night of competition for the 60th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo on the Big Island.

The historic and much-anticipated 60th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival officially kicked off at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium in Hilo on the Big Island with a Hōʻike Night for the ages.

The Merrie Monarch Royal Parade will be in Downtown Hilo on Saturday at 10:30 a.m., with than 100 horses gussied up to carry women dressed in long, colorful skirts (pāʻu) riding sidesaddle or as part of a private mount group.

Plans to renovate the Keawe Health Center in downtwon Hilo were ended when anomalies in the exterior concrete walls were discovered, leading to demolition of the building instead.

The Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park has announced its flight operations for April 2023, which will include several low-level helicopter flights.

Although the initial motivation for the Merrie Monarch Festival was to boost the economy of Hawaiʻi island through tourism, this event has come to serve a far greater purpose, which is perpetuating Hawaiian culture.

Get ready, world. The Merrie Monarch Festival returns next week with full regalia for the first time since 2019, and there’s just two days left until the celebration of hula and everything Hawaiian gets underway.

The Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources continues to seek a general fund appropriation from the State Legislature of at least $12.5 million for demolition of the once iconic and now condemned Uncle Billyʻs Hotel & Resort.

When Yachiyo Hamada and Jeanette Rhamsey were born in March 1922, Warren Harding was president, Wallace Farrington was governor of the Territory of Hawai‘i and Babe Ruth had already signed a three-year contract with the New York Yankees at $52,000 a year. Later that month, the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, USS Langley, was commissioned and the first airplane landed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Selflessness, dedication and hard work. Those qualities and others are why the Aloha Exchange Club of East Hawaiʻi selected Hawaiʻi Police Department Puna Patrol Officer Michael Sailer as its Officer of the Year for 2022 and Hawai‘i Fire Department Capt. Jon Wayne Boteilho as its Firefighter of the Year for 2022. The two men were honored during a ceremony March 25 in Hilo.

After conferring with the Hawai’i County prosecutor’s office Friday, detectives with the Hawai’i Police Department’s Area I Criminal Investigation Section charged 35-year-old Joseph Diego Soares with several offenses including first-degree reckless endangering, third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and other firearms offenses.

Community members who attended a public hearing March 24 about proposed changes to the Hele-On Shared-Ride Taxi Program left after 90 minutes frustrated, confused and even angry, with more questions than answers.

Cohlby Espaniola, 25 of Mountain View, was sentenced to a 20-year prison term in Hilo Circuit Court for a stabbing and robbery that occurred in 2018 at a residence on Leilani Street in Hilo.

It’s been a little more than three weeks since the lava supply to the lake within Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island ceased March 7 and the eruption paused.

Mana‘o-Akamai Ka‘aihue was last seen at 11 p.m. Friday, March 24, on Mahi Ko Place in Hilo wearing a black shirt, denim pants and white sneakers. He is described as 6 feet tall, weighing 145 pounds, with black curly hair and brown eyes.

Lilinoe Kahalepauole-Bustamonte and her husband helped law enforcement retrieve a nēnē gosling that was abducted from a Hilo state park in an onion bag and have it reunited with its parents.