Ellison calls security tracking ‘essential’
Larry Ellison, founder and chief executive of Oracle and owner of Lanai, believes the National Security Agency is "great" and "essential" for minimizing terrorist attacks.
He said during an interview on "CBS This Morning" that data have been collected about consumers long before the NSA, citing credit card data companies collect.
The line would be crossed, he said, if the government started using the data for political targeting rather than terrorism prevention.
Oahu housing inventory decline ranks high
The Honolulu housing market had among the largest declines in year-over-year for-sale inventories in July, according to the Realtor.com National Housing Trend Report.
Honolulu’s for-sale inventory was down 23.78 percent from the year-ago period, the fourth-largest decline among five market areas measured.
The largest decline in for-sale inventory was 30.21 percent in Detroit, followed by 28.91 percent in the Massachusetts market area including Boston, Worcester, Lawrence, Lowell and Brockton. Denver’s 25.10 percent decline was third, followed by Honolulu and then Naples, Fla., at 23.05 percent.
Nationally the 5.24 percent decline in housing inventory was the second consecutive month of single-digit declines.
Attendance soars for building industry exposition
Attendance was up 25 percent from a year ago for last weekend’s ninth annual BIA Remodel It Right, Remodel It Green Expo at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. The three-day event attracted 9,743 people with the final day drawing 4,311, the highest Sunday number since the event began in 2005.
The 500 members of the Building Industry Association of Hawaii are developers, contractors, suppliers, Realtors, architects, financial institutions and a host of other professionals who serve the building industry.
“Our exhibitors reported thousands of solid leads from attendees,” said Karen Nakamura, BIA-Hawaii CEO. “Popular topics included reducing energy consumption with solar photovoltaic panels, Energy Star appliances, windows and green products that save people money with lower utility bills, rebates and tax credits.”
Courtyard Waikiki gets energy reward
Courtyard Waikiki Beach by Marriott received Tuesday nearly $120,000 from a ratepayer-funded program for making a variety of improvements to increase energy efficiency and cut electricity use.
The improvements completed during the spring include the installations of split air-conditioning systems, a variable frequency drive for the pool pump, light-emitting diode (LED) lamps in guest corridors and guest room air-conditioning energy management control systems. In total, all four projects are estimated to save the hotel about $190,000 in electricity costs and 620,555 kilowatt-hours per year.
Officials from Hawaii Energy, the energy efficiency and conservation program for Hawaii, Honolulu and Maui counties, presented hotel management a $119,836 incentive check for making the improvements. Hawaii Energy receives its funding from a monthly surcharge on electric bills that is currently $4.75 for a household using 600 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month.
Icahn tells Apple to buy back more stock
NEW YORK » Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says Apple should buy back more stock.
Icahn said Tuesday on Twitter that he spoke with Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook and told him the computer company’s stock buyback needs to be boosted immediately. Icahn characterized the talk as a "nice conversation" and said he and Cook plan to speak again soon.
Icahn tweeted that he has a large position in Apple and believes the company’s stock is "extremely undervalued."
As often occurs after Icahn reveals an interest in a company, investors began snapping up Apple’s shares on the hope that the Cupertino, Calif., company might be forced to take steps to appease Icahn or risk the billionaire threatening an attempt to overthrow Apple’s board.
Apple’s stock surged $22.21, or nearly 5 percent, Tuesday to finish at $489.57 — its highest closing price in nearly seven months.
Credit card debt per borrower declines
LOS ANGELES » Americans remain stingy about carrying credit card balances and are making more of an effort to make timely payments, trends that have helped whittle the rate of late payments on credit cards down to the lowest level in nearly 20 years.
The rate of credit card payments at least 90 days overdue fell in the second quarter to 0.57 percent. That’s the lowest level since 1994, credit reporting agency TransUnion said Tuesday. The April-June card delinquency rate declined from 0.63 percent in the same period last year, and also was down from 0.69 percent in the first three months of the year.
The latest late-payment rate is the second-lowest recorded by TransUnion since the second quarter of 1994, when the rate was 0.56 percent. The firm’s records go back to 1992.
Eurozone’s recession appears set to end
LONDON » The recession that’s gripped the eurozone since late 2011 is likely over. Official figures due out today are expected to show that economic growth among the 17 countries that use the euro inched up 0.2 percent in the April-June quarter compared with the previous quarter.
The increase is slight. But it would end six straight quarters of a debilitating recession — the longest to afflict the single-currency bloc since its creation in 1999.
ON THE MOVE
Central Pacific Bank has promoted Dayna Matsumoto to vice president and controller. She joined CPB in 2006 and was previously a vice president and asset/liability manager. Before joining Central Pacific Bank, Matsumoto served as a senior associate at KPMG, which is a national financial advisory firm.
Dck pacific construction has named Kelvin J. Osborne vice president of operations, effective Aug. 1. He has more than 30 years of construction experience and was previously a senior vice president of Hawaii operations for Watts Constructors from 2005 to 2013.
Aio, a parent company of ESPN 1420 and NBC Sports Radio AM 1500, has announced that Kortney Borthwick has been named account executive. She was previously an account executive with Groupon in Hawaii and worked in the sales departments at KGMB and The Honolulu Advertiser.
