The federal government is transferring 80 acres on Oahu, with the potential to provide homesteads for 200 to 400 Native Hawaiian families, to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, top Biden administration executives announced Monday.

The Big Island is moving into 2018. The 2018 international building code, that is.

“Bradley Hollister, dba Paradise Taxi!” “Luana Limousine, dba Laura’s Taxi!” “Shaka Taxi!” “Kelly Does Kona LLC, dba World’s Coolest Cab!”

Leeward Planning Commissioner Mark Van Pernis was in the hot seat again Wednesday, this time before the county Board of Ethics.

A revised environmental impact statement from a commercial aquarium collectors’ group states it will rely on fish population trend data and projected population trends to implement catch quotas along the West Hawaii coast.

Equipment for firefighters, repairs at parks, beefed up computer systems, more hours of community policing, four additional vehicle registration and licensing clerks and money for council contingency accounts added $1 million to Mayor Mitch Roth’s proposed operating budget, bringing the final tally to $610.1 million after final passage Thursday by the Hawaii County Council.

Hawaii County has received its first installment of a $39 million federal stimulus package and County Council members are brimming with ideas on how to spend it.

Many of the citizen boards charged with advising the county on planning issues are getting by with holdover members whose terms have expired, and two don’t have enough members to make quorum, but progress is being made, Planning Department staff told a County Council panel Tuesday.

A decade ago, the Big Island won an additional seat in the state Senate following the 2010 census. This year, it’s poised to win an eighth House seat.

The acting fire chief who was passed over for the permanent position is appealing the Fire Commission’s selection process.

A shortage of qualified administrators has hit home for the county Department of Water Supply, which on Tuesday was given permission to add a superintendent position to its operations division to help shoulder the load.

Should the county continue pumping money into tourism promotion when tourists seem to come here anyway?

A Hilo road repaving project that’s ballooned from $7.4 million to $12 million had the County Council Finance Committee on Tuesday asking the Department of Public Works to get a better grip on estimating the cost of roadwork.

Stark philosophical differences among County Council members, coupled with limited funds and a lot of funding requests, led to some tense moments Thursday that threatened to blow up a special session on the budget but ultimately culminated in compromise.

Contract negotiations with Waste Management Inc. have already resulted in some savings, a county official told the County Council on Wednesday.

County Council members are once again casting around to find money for their individual contingency accounts that were zeroed out in the mayor’s budget.

Two years into negotiations with garbage giant Waste Management Inc., county attorneys say they’re running out of money for outside legal counsel, and they’re coming to the County Council to ask for more.