That helped push the statewide average to a record $2.590 a gallon. In Hilo on the Big Island, it averaged $2.599 a gallon, while in Wailuku, Maui, regular gas averaged $2.794 a gallon.

The highs come amid near-record prices for Vietnamese, Indonesian and Malaysian crude oil, which were the top three sources of locally refined oil last year.

Bill raising minimum wage becomes law

A bill to increase the minimum wage in Hawaii by $1 an hour over two years became law yesterday without Gov. Linda Lingle's signature.

Under the measure, the state's current hourly minimum wage of $6.25 will increase to $6.75 on Jan. 1, 2006, and to $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2007.

A job should be "a bridge out of poverty, an opportunity to make a living by working," the bill said. "But for minimum wage workers, especially those with families, it is not."

The inflation-adjusted value of the state's minimum wage is 24 percent lower today than it was in 1979, and recent increases in the minimum wage have not restored the lost value, the measure said. The federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has not changed since 1997.

Commercial Data Systems lands military contract

Honolulu-based Commercial Data Systems today said it received a $2.3 million dollar contract from the U.S. Central Command to provide a range of hardware and software solutions known as a multi-level security system.

The agency's current technology requires one personal computer per network per person. Those will be replaced by the new system, which allows simultaneous access and transfer of data among multiple secure networks.

CDS, a computer consultant and systems integrator, employs about 60 people in Honolulu, and elsewhere.

Timber company misses state deadline to raise funding

Seattle-based Tradewinds LLC missed a Board of Land and Natural Resources July 1 deadline to raise at least $1 million in binding investment agreements by July 1. The company now faces losing the rights to harvest 12,000 acres of eucalyptus and maple planted in the Waiakea Forest Reserve in the 1960s.

Tradewinds plans to build a timber-processing plant on the Big Island, however, the project has been delayed by fundraising difficulties. The board isn't expected to discuss the proposed Tradewinds project until Aug. 12.