Population shifts across the island could mean big changes to County Council districts next year, with West Hawaii population increases likely to outweigh population changes in most of East Hawaii.

Recently released census data does not support an eighth seat in the state House for Hawaii Island, the state Reapportionment Commission was told Thursday.

State Rep. Nicole Lowen said she’ll continue pursuing increased producer responsibility for the waste their products produce, despite the failure to get her colleagues’ support of a bill she sponsored this year.

The county Merit Appeals Board voted Monday to send a complaint over the selection of the fire chief to the state Labor Relations Board to determine if the county board has jurisdiction.

Closing parks and beaches and canceling the Ironman World Championship are among measures being considered by Mayor Mitch Roth as the administration works to tamp down a surging coronavirus pandemic on the island.

The Board of Ethics last week ruled Leeward Planning Commissioner Mark Van Pernis violated the county ethics code requiring officials treat everyone respectfully, even as he faces one final County Council vote Wednesday to oust him as a commissioner.

Hawaii Island topped the 200,000 population mark and Oahu passed one million people in data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A rejected nominee to the Leeward Planning Commission has filed an ethics complaint against four of the five council members who voted not to confirm her, claiming they discriminated against her because she’s a real estate professional.

Improvements, but not an increase in wind turbines, are coming to the Hawi Energy wind farm at Upolu Point as the company proposes a 20-year extension to its power purchase agreement with Hawaiian Electric Co.

Mayor Mitch Roth’s administration has officially ruled out land owned by a politically connected Pahoa resident as the site for a bus hub, overturning steps taken by the previous administration.

Would you be willing to pay a few extra cents — or a few extra dollars — toward disposing of the products you purchase and the packaging they come in?

Big Island water well installation and repair projects are moving forward more slowly, as everything from cement shortages to site access to permit issues snarls progress.

The county’s paperless permit system went live Monday, and it is EPIC.

Owners of a 4-acre North Kona parcel will have to wait a little longer before they’ll know whether the County Council will give them permission to rezone it from agriculture to urban and subdivide it into six residential lots.

After almost six hours of extremely detailed and sometimes tense debate, the County Council on Wednesday first killed, then resurrected, a new residential building code.

The number of nonresident military families and students to be extracted from population counts before state House and Senate seats are allocated to islands is down significantly from the 2010 census, a factor that could affect the distribution of legislative seats for the coming decade.