BUSINESS BRIEFS
Three join state tourism board
Advertiser Staff and News Services
The Hawai'i Tourism Authority yesterday announced three new members to its board of directors: Kelvin M. Bloom, president of Resort-Quest Hawaii, LLC; Patricia A. Ewing, owner of Kong Lung Company; and Michael K. Kobayashi, president of Kobayashi Travel Service, Ltd.
The new board members will serve four-year terms through June 30, 2010. Three board members were also reappointed to serve until 2010: John J. Toner, executive vice president of the Resort Group, owners of the Ko Olina and Princeville Resorts; Vernon Fook Leong Char, senior partner of Char Sakamoto Ishii Lum & Ching; and Kawaikapuokalani K. Hewett, an independent consultant in the health and Hawaiian cultural fields.
HMSA SELECTS NEW CHAIRMAN
Allan Landon has been named chairman of the board of directors of the Hawaii Medical Service Association.
Landon, chairman and chief executive of Bank of Hawaii, succeeds Roger Wall, who served as chairman of HMSA for the past two years.
HMSA also named Carla Nip-Sakamoto as the new vice chairperson.
NEW VERIZON STORE OPENING
Verizon Wireless will open its latest Hawai'i store today at Pearlridge Center.
The grand opening ceremony will include a maile lei untying, a live radio broadcast and giveaways. Verizon Wireless says it has invested $77 million in its Hawai'i operations over the last four years.
TRADE DEFICIT FALLS TO $62B
WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than two years, the U.S. trade deficit has declined for two months in a row. The main reasons: record U.S. exports and a big drop in the country's foreign oil bill.
The trade gap narrowed to $62 billion in March, the smallest deficit in seven months, the Commerce Department said yesterday. It was down from a $65.6 billion imbalance in February and an all-time high of $68.6 billion in January.
ANTITRUST EFFORT 'DISAPPOINTING'
WASHINGTON — Citing Microsoft Corp.'s lapses under a landmark antitrust settlement, the Justice Department said yesterday it wants to extend by two years its oversight of some of the company's business practices until at least November 2009.
Microsoft has agreed to the lengthier scrutiny by the department and 17 states under a proposal that still must be approved by a U.S. judge. The company has struggled with a key provision in the 2002 antitrust settlement requiring it to disclose sensitive details about some of its software.
Court papers filed yesterday described Microsoft's efforts under parts of the settlement as "disappointing" and "not very encouraging."
