Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 44
KAAAWA, Hawaii (AP) — Ryan Wesley Routh portrayed himself online as a man who built housing for homeless people in Hawaii, tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and described his support and then disdain for Donald Trump — even urging Iran to kill him. "You are free to assassinate Trump," Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published book in 2023, "Ukraine's Unwinnable War," which described the former president as a "fool" and "buffoon" for both the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the "tremendous blu...
HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Hone increased to a Category 1 hurricane while continuing its steady approach toward Hawaii late Saturday, forecasters said. Hone (pronounced hoe-NEH) had top winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to an 11 p.m. advisory by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. The minimum threshold for a hurricane is 74 mph (119 kph). A tropical storm warning remained in effect for the Big Island as the storm moved west at 12 mph (19 kph) about 105 miles (170 kilometers) south of Hilo, Hawaii, and about 275 miles (...
HONOLULU (AP) — Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102. Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said, adding she was beside him along with two of her brothers, James and Jeff. The Arizona lost 1,177 sailors and Marines in the 1941 attack that launched the United States into World War II. The battleship's dead account for nearly half of t...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — Ira "Ike" Schab had just showered, put on a clean sailor's uniform and closed his locker aboard the USS Dobbin when he heard a call for a fire rescue party. He went topside to see the USS Utah capsizing and Japanese planes in the air. He scurried back below deck to grab boxes of ammunition and joined a daisy chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun up above. He remembers being only 140 pounds (63.50 kilograms) as a 21-year-old, but somehow finding the strength to lift boxes weighing almost twice t...
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Charles Nahale spent a restless night trying to sleep in the back seat of his pickup truck after a wildfire destroyed his home and the town of Lahaina. The next two nights weren't much better: The singer and guitarist put his feet on one chair and sat in another as he took refuge on the grounds of an evacuated hotel where he once performed for guests. Nahale eventually found a timeshare condo with a bed, shower and kitchen — lodging he was able to keep until Friday, when, yet again, he had to move, this time with off...
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Authorities in Hawaii pleaded with relatives of those missing after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains discovered in the ashes. Some 1,000 to 1,100 names remain on the FBI's tentative, unconfirmed list of people unaccounted for after wildfires destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina on Maui. But the family assistance center so far has collected DNA from just 104 famili...
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — The search of the wildfire wreckage on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday revealed a wasteland of burned out homes and obliterated communities as firefighters battled the stubborn blaze that has already claimed 36 lives, making it the deadliest in the U.S. in five years. Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the fire started Tuesday and took the island by surprise, racing through parched growth and neighborhoods in the historic town of Lahaina, a tourist destination that dates to the 1...
HONOLULU (AP) — Ken Potts, one of the last two remaining survivors of the USS Arizona battleship, which sank during the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102. Howard Kenton Potts died Friday at the home in Provo, Utah, that he shared with his wife of 66 years, according to Randy Stratton, whose late father, Donald Stratton, was Potts' Arizona shipmate and close friend. Stratton said Potts "had all his marbles" but lately was having a hard time getting out of bed. When Stratton spoke to Potts on his birthday, April 15, he w...
HONOLULU (AP) — One of the world's most prestigious and storied surfing contests is expected to be held Sunday in Hawaii for the first time in seven years. And this year female surfers will be competing alongside the men for the first time in the 39-year history of The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. The event — alternatively known simply as The Eddie — is a one-day contest held in Waimea Bay on Oahu's North Shore only when the surf is consistently large enough during the winter big wave surfing season from mid-December through mid-M...
HONOLULU (AP) — For more than 50 years, telescopes and the needs of astronomers have dominated the summit of Mauna Kea, a mountain sacred to Native Hawaiians that's also one of the finest places in the world to study the night sky. That's now changing with a new state law saying Mauna Kea must be protected for future generations and that science must be balanced with culture and the environment. Native Hawaiian cultural experts will have voting seats on a new governing body, instead of merely advising the summit's managers as they do now. T...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A few dozen survivors of Pearl Harbor and other veterans gathered Tuesday at the site of the bombing 80 years ago to remember those killed in the attack by Japan that launched the U.S. into World War II. The USS Chung-Hoon, a guided missile destroyer, passed in front of the pier with its sailors "manning the rails," or lining the ship's edge, to honor the World War II veterans present. David Russell, a 101-year-old from Albany, Oregon, who survived the attack while on the USS Oklahoma, stood to salute to the d...
HONOLULU (AP) — When Japanese bombs began falling on Pearl Harbor, U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class David Russell first sought refuge below deck on the USS Oklahoma. But a split-second decision on that December morning 80 years ago changed his mind, and likely saved his life. "They started closing that hatch. And I decided to get out of there," Russell, now 101, said in a recent interview. Within 12 minutes his battleship would capsize under a barrage of torpedoes. Altogether 429 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma would perish — the greatest dea...
HONOLULU (AP) — William Edward Mann enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school in rural Washington state. A guitar player, he picked up the ukulele while stationed in Hawaii. He's been presumed dead since Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor and set off a massive explosion that sank his battleship, the USS Arizona, launching the U.S. into World War II. Now, his niece is among some families of crew members who are demanding the U.S. military take advantage of advances in DNA technology to identify 85 sailors and Mar...
HONOLULU (AP) — An organization that searches for the remains of U.S. servicemen lost in past conflicts has found what officials believe are the graves of more than 30 Marines and sailors killed in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. A team working on the remote Pacific atoll of Tarawa found the graves in March, said Mark Noah, president of the nonprofit History Flight. The remains are believed to belong to Marines and sailors from the 6th Marine Regiment killed during the last night of the three-day Battle of Tarawa. The Defense P...
HONOLULU (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday called on the Federal Aviation Administration to tighten its regulations governing parachute operations as Hawaii officials released the names of seven of the 11 victims killed when their skydiving plane crashed last week. The NTSB recommended to the FAA more than a decade ago that it strengthen its rules on pilot training, aircraft maintenance and inspection, and FAA oversight, board member Jennifer Homendy told a news conference in Honolulu. She said the FAA hasn't acted on t...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — About 20 survivors gathered at Pearl Harbor on Friday to pay tribute to the thousands of men lost in the Japanese attack 77 years ago. They joined dignitaries, active duty troops and members of the public in observing a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the time the bombing began on Dec. 7, 1941. John Mathrusse was an 18-year-old seaman second class walking out of the chow hall on Ford Island to see a friend on the USS West Virginia when the bombing began. "The guys were getting hurt, bombs and shells going off in t...
The federal government sent supplies to a U.S. territory in the Pacific that was ravaged by a super typhoon as residents of the Northern Mariana Islands dug through crumbled houses, smashed cars and fallen utility poles two days after the deadly storm. Military planes brought in food, water, tarps and other supplies, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Gervino said. The agency is focused on helping restore power, opening sea and air ports, and ensuring cell towers can operate on emergency power until electricity returns, he...
HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard has evacuated four workers from a remote wildlife refuge in the path of a powerful hurricane in the Pacific. A Coast Guard plane from Hawaii picked up the Fish and Wildlife Service workers on Monday from Johnston Atoll, which is about 825 miles (1,300 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu. Hurricane Walaka was crossing the island and heading north on Tuesday with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph (240 kph). Derek Wroe, a meteorologist at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, said Johnston would feel the s...
HONOLULU (AP) — In an emotional and solemn ceremony, the remains of dozens of presumed casualties from the Korean War were escorted by military honor guards onto U.S. soil on Wednesday, 65 years after an armistice ended the conflict and weeks after President Donald Trump received a commitment from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for their return. The U.S. military believes the bones are those of U.S. servicemen and potentially servicemen from other United Nations member countries who fought alongside the U.S. on behalf of South Korea during t...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — Ray Emory survived the early morning attack on Pearl Harbor that killed nearly 2,400 servicemen in shower of bombs and explosions nearly 80 years ago. The 97-year-old never forgot those who died that day, spending the past few decades doggedly pushing for the remains of those buried as unknowns to be identified and returned to their families. Clutching a walker and stepping tentatively, Emory returned to Pearl Harbor for one last visit before he leaves his Hawaii home to live in Boise, Idaho, with his son. He e...
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has captivated people around the world by shooting lava high into the sky and sending rivers of molten rock pouring down hillsides into the ocean over the past month. But Kilauea is only one of many volcanoes in Hawaii. Here's a look at some of the others. WHY DOES HAWAII HAVE SO MANY VOLCANOES? The Hawaiian Islands are a chain of volcanoes formed over millions of years. They've developed as the Pacific Plate — one of more than a dozen tectonic plates on the earth's outer layer — slowly moves north...
HONOLULU (AP) — Scientists in Hawaii have captured rare images of blue flames burning from cracks in the pavement as the Kilauea volcano gushes fountains of lava in the background, offering insight into a new dimension in the volcano's weeks-long eruption. Volcanos produce methane when hot lava buries and burns plants and trees. The gas flows through the ground and up through existing cracks. "It's very dramatic. It's very eerie," Jim Kauahikaua, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, told reporters. He said it was only the second time he's e...
HONOLULU (AP) — Blue flames from burning methane are the latest natural phenomena being seen at the eruption of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. Nighttime photos released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey show the flames spouting from cracks in the pavement in the Leilani Estates neighborhood where the volcano has been gushing lava on the big island of Hawaii for the past three weeks. The volcano produces methane when hot lava buries and burns plants and trees. "The methane gas will flow through the ground, through the cracks that are a...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — The eruption of Kilauea volcano in Hawaii sparked new safety warnings about toxic gas on the Big Island's southern coastline after lava began flowing into the ocean and setting off a chemical reaction. The molten rock started pouring into the sea over the weekend. It's been generating plumes of lava haze or "laze" as it interacts with seawater. It's just the latest hazard from a weeks-old eruption that has so far generated earthquakes and featured gushing molten rock, giant ash plumes and sulfur dioxide. The eruption has d...
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is pouring into the sea and setting off a chemical reaction that creates giant clouds of acid and fine glass. The lava haze, or "laze," is created when molten rock hits the ocean and marks just the latest hazard from a volcano that has been generating earthquakes and spewing lava, sulfur dioxide and ash since it began erupting in Big Island backyards on May 3. The dangers have forced at least 2,000 people to evacuate and destroyed more than 40 buildings. It's also created anxiety for t...
