Hawaii's economy is showing signs of recovery, but uncertainty remains about how long it will be before the state fully emerges from recession.

Businesses in Hawaii are getting immediate relief from the nation's largest increase in unemployment taxes after Gov. Linda Lingle signed the tax help into law yesterday.

The accrediting agency that six years ago raised serious concerns about the University of Hawai'i's operations is praising UH-Manoa for a big turnaround, saying the campus has "emerged from a difficult past," benefited from "stable" leadership and shows promise on meeting its goals.

The state Council on Revenues delivered mixed news yesterday: No need for any more state budget cuts to get through the fiscal year that ends in June, but the state will have to find more money to stay out of the red next year.

Thirteen of the 25 state senators yesterday sent a letter to Gov. Linda Lingle urging her to review and accept the final environmental impact statement for the Honolulu rail-transit project in a timely manner.

WAI'ANAE, HI — Construction of thousands of affordable family rental units was going to be the solution to the homeless crisis on O'ahu that began during the boom times of the early and mid-2000s.

The sweeping ruling shot down the arguments of a Sacramento atheist who has been trying in the courts for a decade to end the morning practice because he considers it government endorsement of religion.

Both political parties are taking tea party activists seriously and are wary of offending them – if they are not already actively wooing them for state races this fall. Just look at the governor’s election in Ohio. Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich openly touts his tea party credentials in his bid to defeat incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland. “I think I was in the tea party before there was a tea party,” Kasich famously told a Columbus crowd earlier this year. “This is a real movement with a real message about people’s frustrations by broken promises that leaders on both sides of the aisle would be foolish to ignore,” he went on to write in a blog posting.