Honolulu is seventh-greenest car market
The most environmentally conscious car buyers are in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area of California, according to a new ranking by Cars.com.
Honolulu ranks No. 7 among cities with green car shoppers, behind No. 2 Monterey-Salinas and No. 3 San Diego, Calif.; No. 4 Portland, Ore.; No. 5 Eureka, Calif.; and No. 6 Washington, D.C. Rounding out the top 10 are No. 8 Lima, Ohio; No. 9 Medford-Klamath Falls, Ore.; and No. 10, Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto, Calif. The list was assembled by analyzing data from millions of Cars.com visitors who searched for hybrids or other environmentally friendly cars.
Walgreen to open store in Ewa Beach
Walgreen Co. said Friday it will open a drugstore in Ewa Beach at the end of summer or early fall, shortly after opening at the Nuuanu Shopping Plaza. The Deerfield, Ill.-based drugstore chain plans to open at a Safeway-anchored mall being built by Property Development Centers, an affiliate of the California-based grocery store chain.
Walgreen spokesman Robert Elfinger added that there were no other projects to confirm at this time. The company also plans to build a store in Lihue on Kauai.
RevoluSun to reward Earth Day participants
Honolulu-based RevoluSun is sponsoring an Earth Day promotion that encourages its employees and the general public to document themselves doing "sustainable acts," like walking to work, recycling, planting a garden and picking up trash.
In past years, RevoluSun had limited the Earth Day event to employees at its offices in Hawaii and Massachusetts. This year it opened the promotion to the general public.
Participants in the promotion are asked to take photographs or videos of their activity and post them to RevoluSun’s Facebook page and their own Facebook page between Monday and Friday. The company will award two prizes in Hawaii and two in Massachusetts based on the number of "likes" the pictures and videos receive on the RevoluSun Facebook page by May 1. The prizes are backpacks equipped with solar panels.
RevoluSun’s Facebook pages can be accessed at www.facebook.com/RevoluSun?fref=ts/Hawaiioffices and www.facebook.com/RevolusunMA?fref=ts/Massachusettsoffices.
FAA OKs resumption of Boeing 787 flights
WASHINGTON » Federal officials intend to lift the order grounding the beleaguered 787 Dreamliner after accepting Boeing’s revamped battery system even though the root cause of battery failures that led to a fire on one plane and smoke on another remains unknown.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it would send airlines instructions and publish a notice next week lifting the 3-month-old grounding order that day. Boeing will then have the go-ahead to begin retrofitting planes with an enhanced lithium ion battery system.
Dreamliner flights could resume within a week, the agency told members of Congress. Boeing said it has stationed teams around the world to begin installing the fix.
Pessimism on economy gaining, poll finds
WASHINGTON » For the third year in a row, the nation’s economic recovery has hit a springtime soft spot. Reflecting that weakness, only 1 in 4 Americans now expects his or her own financial situation to improve in the next year, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. The sour mood is undermining support for President Barack Obama’s economic stewardship and for government in general.
The poll shows just 46 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the economy, while 52 percent disapprove. That’s a negative turn from an even split last September — ahead of Obama’s November re-election victory — when 49 percent approved and 48 percent disapproved.
GE earnings up on NBC sale; Europe drags
NEW YORK » General Electric’s first-quarter results were dragged down by deteriorating economic conditions in Europe, highlighting the danger that the region’s struggles still pose to the global economy.
GE CEO Jeff Immelt said he expected results in Europe to be bad in the quarter — and they were worse. Revenue from the region fell 17 percent compared with last year.
While GE’s results were roughly what analysts expected and Immelt said the company remained on track to meet its financial goals for the year, his gloomy comments about Europe and the weak performance of the company’s core industrial operations sent GE shares tumbling 92 cents, or 4 percent, to close at $21.75 Friday. This even though the company’s earnings rose in the first quarter, helped by the sale of NBC Universal and increased profit from selling aircraft engines and transportation equipment. GE reported net income of $3.5 billion, or 34 cents a share, on revenue of $35 billion. During last year’s first quarter, GE earned $3 billion, or 29 cents a share, on $35.2 billion in revenue.
Suitors back away from Dell bids
Buyout specialist Blackstone Group LP is dropping its effort to acquire Dell, and billionaire investor Carl Icahn is reportedly unlikely to follow through on his preliminary acquisition offer, as suitors digest studies showing a staggering decline in PC sales.
The Wall Street Journal said Icahn will now likely wait to see whether shareholders approve a February deal for the company to be taken private by a group that includes founder and CEO Michael Dell for $24.4 billion. The newspaper, citing an unnamed person familiar with Icahn’s thinking, said that if the deal is rejected, Icahn might pursue a hostile takeover.
On the Move
Kamehameha Schools has announced new members of its Commercial Real Estate Division:
>> Lee Cranmer as senior development manager. He worked nine years at Lend Lease LLC, managing construction and development of privatized housing for the Army on Oahu.
>> Luigi Kai as acquisitions and leasing manager. He was previously an associate director in the investment banking division of UBS in New York.
Hawaii First, an Associa Company, has announced Steve P. Pherigo as its senior community association manager. He was previously part of the executive team for more than nine years at Hawaiiana, which included serving as a management executive, senior management executive and team leader, director of training and finally as vice president in 2010.
