The Hawaii Tourism Authority is poised to fill three top leadership posts this month. The new leaders will have their work cut out for them.

HTA has been going through a rough patch lately. The Legislature cut the authority’s budget by $13 million in May. Current CEO and President George Szigeti will leave Oct. 31, after the HTA board voted to fire him. Besides a new CEO, the board will need to hire a chief administrative officer and a vice president for marketing and product.

All this at a time when visitor arrival and spending numbers had been soaring. In fact, it took Hurricane Lane and the Kilauea eruption to slow down tourism growth in August. That’s a lot for HTA’s new leaders to chew on.

Remains of South Korean soldiers returned

Last week, dozens of flag-draped wooden boxes were carefully placed in a Republic of Korea aircraft in a hangar at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. One was ceremoniously transferred from the Oahu-based Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to the United Nations to South Korea.

The sets of remains of fallen South Korean soldiers who fought alongside U.S. troops in the 1950-53 Korean War were part of recoveries made by the accounting agency in North Korea between 1996 and 2005 — before the missions stopped due to North Korean nuclear provocation. Here’s hoping that the Republic of Korea will successfully identify their heroes.