ENTERTAINMENT
October 18, 2012 | By Meredith Blake
Let the breathless speculation begin: Don Draper and his wife Megan will travel to Hawaii in the Season 6 premiere of “Mad Men.” According to a report published in Deadline and confirmed by AMC, lead actors Jon Hamm and Jessica Paré, who play the photogenic couple in the drama, will travel to the 50th state this Sunday with a small crew to film scenes for the upcoming Season 6 premiere. Creator Matthew Weiner and producer Scott Hornbacher reportedly scouted locations for the episode back in September.
BUSINESS
June 21, 2012 | By David Lazarus
In case you were wondering: Yes, it's cool to be a billionaire. Oracle's way-rich CEO, Larry Ellison, is reportedly closing on a deal to buy 98% of Hawaii's pineapple island, Lanai. Yup, that's 141 square miles of Aloha State, all in the hands of one guy. Lanai has nearly 50 miles of coastline, two resorts and no traffic lights. About 3,200 people live on the island. Ellison is the world's sixth-richest billionaire, according to Forbes. The land's current owner, Castle & Cooke Inc., filed a transfer application Wednesday with state officials.
TRAVEL
April 22, 2012 | By George Fuller, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Hawaii loves to celebrate. There are festivals celebrating avocados, mangoes, coffee, craft brew, Chinese New Year, falsetto singing, taro, paniolo (Hawaiian cowboys), slack-key guitar playing and just about everything else you can hear, see or taste in the archipelago that Capt. James Cook called the Sandwich Islands. Come to think of it, the only one missing is a Sandwich Isles Sandwich Festival. Here is a look at some of the festivals you can attend in the islands throughout the year: Mele Mei Festival, Oahu.
BUSINESS
February 27, 2012 | By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times
Hawaii's rebounding tourism industry surged in January as the Aloha State posted a record $1.3 billion in visitor spending. The total was a 14% increase from the same month last year and the best one-month total on record, surpassing December's peak by $47 million, according to new statistics from the Hawaii Tourism Authority. State tourism officials attributed the record to more visitors and to a greater amount spent by each person. Hawaii attracted 643,616 visitors, a 7.7% increase from January 2011, and they spent an average of $192 per person, about 5% more than the $183 average a year earlier.
BUSINESS
January 31, 2012 | By Hugo Martín, Los Angeles Times
No need to fret for the state of Hawaii tourism anymore. Visitor numbers to the Aloha State dropped dramatically during the recession, and the state's tourism industry suffered another blow when an earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year stifled the flow of big-spending Japanese vacationers to the islands. But tourism in Hawaii is rebounding fast, with the state welcoming nearly 7.3 million visitors in 2011. Although that is still short of the state's record year in 2006, officials expect continued growth this year.
OPINION
June 21, 2010
Hawaii is one of six states that do not have any laws against human trafficking, and each one of them — Massachusetts, Ohio, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — is a hole in what should be a national safety net. Without strong and vigorously enforced statutes, these states not only risk becoming unintended havens for traffickers, but when confronted with the crime they are more likely to rely on outdated prostitution laws instead of...