State offers Energy Star label help

The energy office of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is offering a new program that will help hotels and other tourism facilities be labeled Energy Star buildings. Buildings receiving the label are in the top 25 percent nationwide in energy-efficiency performance.

Property owners and managers interested in applying for the Energy Star building label can contact the Chong Group at mchong@thechonggroup.com, or by calling 791-9855. The deadline is Dec. 31.

ShakaNet offering free airport Wi-Fi

ShakaNet Inc. is partnering with FreeFi Networks Inc. to provide free wireless Internet access to passengers throughout the concourses, lounges and concession areas of Honolulu Airport.

The Honolulu-based company, founded in 2002, provides Wi-Fi at more than 60 locations on four islands.

First Wind providing scholarships

First Wind, a Boston-based wind energy company, is offering scholarships to Hawaii high school seniors living in the communities that they serve.

The company, which is building Oahu’s only utility-scale wind energy project in Kahuku, will make scholarship applications available online Wednesday. Applicants must have a 3.0 GPA and plan to enroll full time in an undergraduate program in earth, environmental sciences, technology or engineering. They must live near Kahului, Lahaina, Kihei, Wailuku, Kahuku, Wahiawa, Waialua, Haleiwa or Sunset Beach.

Applications must be received by Feb. 15. Winners will be announced in May.

For more information, visit www.firstwind.com/firstwindscholars.

TJX to ax A.J. Wright, lay off 4,400

NEW YORK » TJX Cos’ move to shutter its A.J. Wright discount stores and convert them to other brands such as T.J. Maxx will cut 4,400 workers — many of them part time — from jobs by mid-February.

Ninety-one stores will be converted into T.J. Maxx, Marshalls or HomeGoods stores, and 71 will close, along with two distribution centers. About 3,400 workers will remain employed at the converted stores.

TJX said the move allows the company, based in Framingham, Mass., to focus on its more profitable businesses. T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains have become better at attracting the lower-income customers that A.J. Wright targeted.

GE raises quarterly dividend 17%

NEW YORK » General Electric Co. said yesterday it is boosting its quarterly dividend by 2 cents to 14 cents per share, the second increase this year and a sign of better times for the company.

But the 17-percent increase falls short of recovering the ground lost when the industrial and financial giant slashed its dividend by 68 percent, from 31 cents to 10 cents, in February 2009. That was the first time the conglomerate cut its dividend since the Great Depression.