Sears hangs on in Hawaii, for now

Sears has come a long way since its first Honolulu store on Beretania Street opened in 1941. The company gave up its anchor-tenant spot at Ala Moana Center in 2013; the much-smaller Sears Appliance & Mattresses store opened less than a year ago.

Neither that store, nor the other three in the islands, were among the 142 pegged for closure, amid Sears’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The concept of a one-stop place where people come to fulfill every need is being replaced by 21st-century shopping, increasingly conducted online. Sears is hanging on in Hawaii at present — but for how long? It may be just a matter of time.

Doctor is in for free-roaming cats

Kudos to the teamwork effort underway between the Hawaiian Humane Society and scores of feline colony caregivers. Together, they aim to further curb the overpopulation of “free-roaming” cats on Oahu by seeing to it that thousands of felines get sterilized each year at the nonprofit’s new $1.1 million Community Spay/Neuter Clinic at the Moiliili shelter.

The facility is now providing surgeries for cats and dogs. The bracket of free-roaming cats includes socialized strays and feral/unsocialized cats as well as indoor-outdoor companion pets. Since 1993, the local Humane Society has sterilized more than 58,000 cats falling into that group, and it supports a trap-neuter-return-manage strategy.