‘Off the Map’ attracts more viewers

ABC’s "Off the Map" attracted its largest overall audience in three weeks, as the doctors in the jungle drew 5.6 million viewers for the drama’s Wednesday night episode, according to Nielsen ratings released yesterday by the network.

CBS TV’s "Blue Bloods" drew 11.8 million viewers, followed by NBC’s "Law & Order: SVU" with 7.9 million viewers.

The Hawaii-based drama, which is shot in Whitmore Village and at Kualoa Ranch, attracted 5.4 million viewers last week and 5.1 million the week before.

Among adults 18 to 49 years old, "Off the Map" attracted 1.9 percent of the total TV viewing audience this week and 5 percent of those who were watching TV at the time.

"Off the Map" airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on KITV.

Hawaiian Air rated tops in U.S. again

Hawaiian Airlines ranked as the top domestic airline for on-time performance for the seventh year in a row, according to the Air Travel Consumer Report issued yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The airline arrived on schedule an average 92.5 percent of the time in 2010. In December it led the 18 listed carriers with an on-time performance of 87.6 percent.

Hawaiian also had the industry’s best overall score for fewest canceled flights in 2010, ranking first in 10 of the 12 months. Hawaiian had 55 flight cancellations out of 67,649 total flights during 2010, an average of about 0.1 percent for the year. In December, Hawaii was first with nine cancellations out of 5,578 total flights, or approximately 0.2 percent.

The airline ranked second last year for mishandled baggage with 2.23 per 1,000 passengers and ranked sixth in December with 3.78 per 1,000 passengers.

House OKs foreclosures moratorium

The state House of Representative has passed a measure that would prohibit nonjudicial home foreclosures for five months.

The House voted 50-1 yesterday to approve the bill, sending it to the Senate for additional consideration.

Democratic Rep. Bob Herkes said the legislation would provide a "timeout" that prevents predatory lenders from foreclosing on homeowners unjustly.

Foreclosures that are reviewed by the courts could proceed during the moratorium.

Republican Rep. Gil Riviere opposed the bill because he said it would hurt a mortgage lending industry that is already having a hard time clearing home loans.

The bill is intended to allow homeowners to stay in their homes and work with their mortgage companies through mediation, loan modifications, negotiations or a forgiveness process.

Moana Surfrider tower case delayed

A hearing on a planned oceanfront hotel and condominium tower next to the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki has been pushed back to May 19.

Kyo-ya Hotels & Resorts received approval from the city Department of Planning and Permitting on Dec. 1 to position a new tower within ground- and airspace-setback areas prohibited under zoning rules.

However, four environmental advocacy groups and an individual appealed the decision which would allow the hotelier to build Waikiki’s first new shoreline tower in decades. While members of Hawaii’s visitor and construction industries have favored the project, the opposition has argued that a bulky building in the shoreline setback is bad for users of a public beach. A contested case hearing on the matter was originally slated for April 21. The five-member Zoning Board of Appeals approved the schedule change yesterday.

HELCO to buy more geothermal power

Hawaii Electric Light Co. has signed an agreement to buy electricity that will be generated from the expansion of Ormat Technologies’ geothermal plant on the Big Island.

Ormat is adding an additional eight megawatts of generating capacity to the 30-megawatt plant operated by its subsidiary, Puna Geothermal Venture Inc. The expansion is nearly complete and is expected to begin supplying power to the grid by the third quarter, HELCO said in a news release.

The power purchase agreement is subject to approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.

Google and Facebook may purchase twitter

NEW YORK » Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have both held low-level talks with Twitter Inc. about purchasing the privately held social networking service, according to a report published yesterday. The talks have valued Twitter at $8 billion to $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The Journal said the company had 2010 revenue of $45 million but lost money as it hired and invested in data centers.

ON THE MOVE

» Hotel Hana-Maui has hired Leigh Drewry as senior sales manager. She will be responsible for supporting hotel operations, managing national sales and developing new business. Drewry previously was associate director of sales at Grand Wailea as well as director of national accounts for JW Marriott Ihilani at Ko Olina and held sales management positions with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. in Florida, California and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

» Angie Golis-Yamamoto has been appointed director of development for Honolulu Waldorf School. She will be responsible for organizing, supervising and planning all activities that support nontuition funding. Golis-Yamamoto’s experience includes working as director of development for Damien Memorial School, Academy of the Pacific, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Foundation, as well as development and marketing specialist for Easter Seals Hawaii.

» Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing has announced David A. Abadir as associate with the firm. He will practice in the areas of bankruptcy, representing debtors, creditors’ committees and other creditor constituencies from pre-case counseling through litigation. Abadir was previously an associate at Pachulski Stang Ziehl and Jones LLP in New York, and he is currently licensed to practice only in New York.