Nike severing ties to Livestrong charity

AUSTIN, Texas >> Nike, which helped build Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong cancer charity into a global brand and introduced its familiar yellow wristband, is cutting ties with the foundation in the latest fallout from the former cyclist’s doping scandal.

The move by the sports shoe and clothing company ends a relationship that began in 2004 and helped the foundation raise more than $100 million, making the charity’s bracelet an international symbol for cancer survivors.

But the relationship soured with revelations of performance-enhancing drug use by Armstrong and members of his U.S. Postal Service team.

Nike said Tuesday it will stop making its Livestrong line of apparel after the 2013 holiday season. Foundation and company officials said Nike will honor the financial terms of its contract until it expires in 2014.

Big Island Biodiesel upgrades fuel quality

Big Island Biodiesel has finished testing equipment that increases the quality of fuel produced at its refinery on Hawaii island.

The company partnered with the state-funded Hawaii Renewable Energy Development Venture to install the high vacuum distillation unit at the facility in Keaau with a refining capacity of 5.5 million gallons a year.

The HVD unit uses a technology that is able to recycle even the most highly degraded waste oils into premium-quality biodiesel, according to a news release from Big Island Biodiesel, a subsidiary of Maui-based Pacific Biodiesel.

Bob King, founder of Pacific Biodiesel, said the quality of the fuel produced at the Keaau facility is exceeding all of the biodiesel test component requirements of the American Society of Testing & Materials standards.

Consumer confidence, housing prices soar

WASHINGTON » Home prices are surging, job growth is strengthening and stocks are setting record highs. All of which explains why Americans are more hopeful about the economy than at any other point in five years.

Investors on Tuesday celebrated the latest buoyant reports on consumer confidence and housing prices, which together suggest that growth could accelerate in the second half of 2013.

Greater confidence could spur people to spend more and help offset tax increases and federal spending cuts. And the fastest rise in home prices in seven years might lead more Americans to put houses on the market, easing supply shortages that have kept the housing recovery from taking off.

Starbucks tip fight reaches top N.Y. court

ALBANY, N.Y. » Baristas, managers and Starbucks itself put in their two cents Tuesday before New York’s highest court in a tip-jar dispute that could have broad consequences for the state’s hospitality workers and, ultimately, employees at the coffee chain’s thousands of U.S. retail stores.

The arguments pitted low-level workers against assistant managers and the company over who is entitled to the cash tips coffee customers leave when picking up their daily pick-me-up.

A federal appeals court has asked the state Court of Appeals to interpret New York labor law and its definition of an employer’s "agent," who is prohibited from tip sharing, in connection with two lawsuits against Starbucks, which allows baristas and shift supervisors — but not assistant managers — to dip into the tip jar.

Improved sales give Tiffany a boost

NEW YORK » Tiffany & Co. reported a 3 percent increase in first-quarter net income, fueled by solid sales improvement across regions, particularly in Asia.

The results, announced Tuesday, beat Wall Street expectations, and its shares briefly rose to their highest level in almost two years in morning trading.

Tiffany is a barometer of luxury spending, so the latest results show the resilience among affluent shoppers despite economic challenges around the globe. Still, the company stuck to its profit outlook for the year, citing a weaker yen as well as ongoing weak sales in the North America region.

Walmart owes $81M for dumping waste

SAN FRANCISCO » Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $81 million after pleading guilty to criminal charges in the dumping of hazardous waste across California, a company spokes­woman said Tuesday.

Walmart entered the plea in San Francisco federal court to misdemeanor counts of negligently dumping pollutants from its stores into sanitation drains across the state, spokes­woman Brooke Buchanan said.

As part of the plea, the company will pay the substantial fine that also will cover charges in Missouri.

On the Move

Hawaii National Bank has hired and promoted: 

>> Derek Kanehira as vice president and director of the bank’s human resources department. He has more than 25 years of human resources experience in the insurance, airline and restaurant industries.

>> Se Kwon Kim as assistant vice president and loan officer in the bank’s mortgage department. He has more than 10 years of banking experience, including analyzing and underwriting consumer, commercial and residential mortgages.

>> Kathryn Fujitani to marketing officer. She joined the bank in 2007 as a management trainee.