Honolulu County | featured news

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said Tuesday that shark expert George Burgess of Florida confirmed that an eel, not a shark, bit a surfer in waters off Waikiki on Saturday.

Police are looking for the driver of a gray sport utility van that hit a woman walking on Waialae Avenue early Tuesday morning.

The parents, wife and minor son of a man who died after being shot with an electric stun gun by police in mid-March are suing the city and the three Honolulu police officers they maintain were involved in the incident.

High surf is expected to affect all eastern shores of the Hawaiian Islands as a result of a weakening Hurricane Olaf.

The state has begun to scrutinize proposed contracts with private companies to determine whether they comply with an 18-year-old court decision that limits privatization of government services in Hawaii, and officials so far have identified 99 contracts that may need to be phased out because they conflict with that ruling.

Stories are going around about how difficult it is to get a safety check — particularly in the Kaimuki area.

A U.S. District Court judge will decide Friday whether an election will go forward next month to choose delegates to a convention that aims to consider proposals for Native Hawaiian self-governance.

Oahu residents could have the option to light up a limited number of fountain-type fireworks this New Year’s Eve under a bill that a Honolulu City Council committee approved Tuesday.

A Federal Communications Commission member sharply criticized his own agency this week, saying that for years “it turned a blind eye” to Honolulu telecommunications executive Albert Hee’s apparent use of ratepayer money to fund a lavish lifestyle of personal massages and family trips to Tahiti, France, Switzerland and Disney World, as well as college tuition for his kids and “salaries” to family members.

The 2013-14 school year marked the second year Hawaii's public schools were evaluated under Strive HI, a new accountability system that replaces outdated requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.