Looting Main Street : Rolling Stone

If you want to know what life in the Third World is like, just ask Lisa Pack, an administrative assistant who works in the roads and transportation department in Jefferson County, Alabama. Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while. The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt — meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff’s precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid.

Looting Main Street : Rolling Stone

Hawaii and Related Agriculture Daily Charts for the week ending 03-26-2010

hawaii-agriculture-logo

The annual charts have bee updated. CLICK HERE to view.

The 360 day comparative price, line and histogram charts, page has been updated also. CLICK HERE to view.

Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP) 03-26-2010
Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP)

Whole Food Markets (WFMI) 03-26-2010
Whole Food Markets (WFMI)

Calavo Growers (CVGW) 03-26-2010
Calavo Growers (CVGW)

Alexander and Baldwin (ALEX) 03-26-2010
alexweek032610

Monsanto (MON) 03-26-2010
Monsanto (MON)

Syngenta (SYT) 03-26-2010
Syngenta (SYT)

DUPONT E I DE NEM (DD) 03-26-2010
Syngenta (SYT)

Business Briefs – Hawaii Business – Star Bulletin

star

Maui Pine auction has good prices

KAHULUI » Maui Land & Pineapple Co. auctioned off a $23 million fresh fruit processing line for just $125,000.

Company President Ryan Churchill didn’t expect many bidders for the equipment because it is so specialized.

The auction held Tuesday at the Maui Beach Hotel drew more than 300 bargain hunters, with many more bidders online.

Maui Pine held the auction to sell off warehouses full of equipment after closing Maui’s last pineapple plantation late last year.

The company already has sold or leased some of its land and equipment to Haliimaile Pineapple Co. Haliimaile is trying to revive pineapple on a smaller scale.

Business Briefs – Hawaii Business – Starbulletin.com

Shares of Whole Foods fall on downgrade – Yahoo! Finance

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Whole Foods Market Inc. fell Wednesday after an analyst downgraded the upscale grocer’s stock, saying its shares are unlikely to keep rising fast.

Whole Foods shares dropped 83 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $35.13 in afternoon trading.

They have risen 35 percent since December, but Longbow Research analyst Alton Stump said they are approaching his target price of $38 so he downgraded them to "Neutral" from "Buy."

In a note to clients, he wrote that "we cannot justify recommending investors put additional money into the shares at this time."

Still, he said sales at Whole Foods stores that have been open at least a year seem to be rising, thanks to heavier customer traffic, better economic conditions and increased discounting. The figure is considered a key measure for retailers because it is not skewed by results from stores that opened or closed during the year.

Shares of the company, based in Austin, Texas, have ranged between $16.13 and $37.10 over the past 52 weeks.

Shares of Whole Foods fall on downgrade – Yahoo! Finance

Last pieces of Maui Pine sold at auction – The Maui News

maui-news-ad

Going, going — now it’s gone

KAHULUI – The $23 million fresh fruit processing line that three years ago was supposed to represent the new future of Maui Pineapple Co. was auctioned Tuesday for $125,000.

"It’s so specialized," said Maui Land & Pineapple Co. President Ryan Churchill, noting that there weren’t likely to be a lot of buyers for the equipment.

More than 300 bargain hunters and looky-loos crowded the Elleaire Ballroom at the Maui Beach Hotel for an all-day extravaganza of hope that kept three auctioneers chattering in relays, as many more bidders were online, following the action from around the world.

ML&P closed down its Maui Pine subsidiary at the end of last year, selling or leasing some of its land and equipment to Haliimaile Pineapple Co. But the unwanted leftovers went on the block Monday, ranging from wrecked golf carts to never-used office equipment to a generating station that could power a city of 50,000.

It was a day when the complete newbie could go head to head with the experienced auction-goer and come away a winner.

Like Becky Woods, chief executive officer of Maui Economic Concerns of the Community, which runs Ka Hale A Ke Ola and other island homeless shelters. She noticed pictures of golf carts on the front page of The Maui News on Tuesday morning and decided to check it out.

Hawaii Rally, Protesters Bandy Tax Hike Proposal – NY Times

HONOLULU (AP) — Advocates for the poor and labor union workers rallied Tuesday for an increase in Hawaii’s version of the sales tax as anti-tax protesters urged the government to back off.

More than 200 people gathered at the state capitol to ask lawmakers for a 1-percentage point increase in the general excise tax imposed on goods and services. The tax, known as GET, is currently 4.5 percent on Oahu and 4 percent elsewhere in Hawaii.

They waved colored signs saying ”GET” and urged lawmakers not to eliminate jobs and services.

”The cuts are too deep. They are damaging the economy,” the Rev. Bob Nakata, a Methodist minister, told the crowd. ”It’s not just the bleeding hearts that are saying this needs to be done.”

Hawaii’s money troubles have resulted in less government support for public schools, child protective services, mental health, social service providers and agriculture inspectors. Hundreds of public employees were laid off, and the rest are taking pay cuts through furloughs.

Two Senate committees have approved the tax hike, but Senate financial planners intend to kill the proposal, which would raise about $458 million annually toward the state’s $1.2 billion projected budget deficit through June 2011.

Amphibious caterpillars discovered in Hawaii – LA Times

Scientists aren’t sure how the 12 species spend weeks underwater without breaking the surface. They don’t have gills and they don’t hold their breath.

Moths of the Hawaiian genus Hyposmocoma are an oddball crowd: One of the species’ caterpillars attacks and eats tree snails. Now researchers have described at least a dozen different species that live underwater for several weeks at a time.

"I couldn’t believe it," said study coauthor Daniel Rubinoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu, of the first time he spotted a submerged caterpillar. "I assumed initially they were terrestrial caterpillars . . . how were they holding their breath?"

Corals up for protection | Straits Times

DOHA – THE UN wildlife trade body on Sunday was to debate controls on commerce in precious coral, harvested in the Mediterranean and the western Pacific and then crafted into jewellery mainly in Italy.

With finished necklaces retailing for up to US$25,000 (S$34,970), red and pink coral is among the world’s most expensive wildlife commodities.

A proposal to list the deep-water, reef-forming organism under Appendix II of the Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), meeting in Doha until Thursday, would require nations to track exports and show that coral is extracted sustainably. Co-sponsored by the United States and the European Union, the move is opposed by Japan, which last week lobbied successfully to shoot down a bid to ban trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna.

The new measure targets seven species in the Coralliidae family, one growing in the Mediterranean and the others in the western Pacific, including Hawaii.

Honolulu officials knew year ago that rail route too close to airport | The Honolulu Advertiser

honadv

The vacant land area from Waipahu to Kapolei is described by UH soil experts as the most valuable agricultural land in Hawaii and possibly the world.

The soil is a type of vertisol and invaluable for agriculture- and unsuitable for housing because "the shrinking and swelling of vertisols can damage buildings and roads, leading to extensive subsidence" -Wikipedia.

UH soil experts say this valuable topsoil must be removed and replaced with coral or material for the land to be suitable for buildings and streets.

The addition of 12,000 homes slated for Ho’opili would totally overwhelm any beneficial effects on traffic of the proposed rail line.

Honolulu officials knew year ago that rail route too close to airport | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser