Neil Abercrombie News

School's out for Fridays. Hawaii's 256 public schools have switched to a four-day school week as part of statewide cost cuts.

Last week, small-business advocates once more tried, and failed, to get new consumer protections for credit cards extended to small-business cardholders.

By Ben Pershing Less than a week after the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, multiple congressional probes of the incident have already begun to take shape.

Small businesses make up around 98 percent of all Hawaii businesses. Most of them rely heavily on part-timers. But some, including Nalo Farms may be forced to cut these workers.

While local Democrats waxed ecstatic over the House's passage of a $1.2 trillion health care bill, one Republican state senator sees no cause for celebration.

An estimated 46,900 people in Hawaii will benefit after the U.S. House of Representatives today voted 403-12 to extend unemployment benefits for 14 weeks to 1.3 million jobless Americans who will exhaust all their unemployment benefits by the end of the year, Hawaii Congressman Neil Abercrombie said in a news release today.

Police guard Fort Hood's East Rancier Avenue gate after Thursday's shootings. Investigators are expected to examine whether the attack could have been averted if more attention had been given to possible red flags from the suspect or better security measures.

Investigators on Friday bore down on the possible motives of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspected Fort Hood gunman, to determine whether his actions were driven by stress related to his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan or an Islamist political ideology.

WASHINGTON - A health care overhaul bill that the House could vote on as soon as tomorrow contains language to ensure that Hawaii's expansive health coverage requirements wouldn't be weakened.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and the Big Island Press Club have added their voices to Media Council Hawaii in expressing either outright opposition to, or concern about, the combined operation of KGMB-TV and KHNL/KFVE-TV that is now under way.

Hawaii's congressional delegation said bills in both the U.S. House and the Senate will protect Hawaii's system of employer-paid health insurance, but that worries many local employers who said health insurance costs soaring higher each year are a huge burden.

Neil Abercrombie, the 10-term Democratic U.S. House member representing most of Honolulu, told The Associated Press in an interview that a recently signed labor contract for teachers could be reopened.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Honolulu a $3.8 million energy efficiency and conservation block grant.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote governors a letter last April explaining the purpose of $48.6 billion in federal stimulus money meant to stabilize public education during the recession.

With public anger rising over teacher furloughs in Hawaii, two of the four expected candidates for governor next year offered ways on Tuesday that the controversial moneysaving program could be halted or reduced.

National health reform bills in the U.S. Senate and House would exempt Hawaii, protecting the state's 35-year-old Prepaid Healthcare Act, which has led to one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country and low premiums for workers.

WASHINGTON >> Trumpeting a victory against careless spending, President Barack Obama today signed a defense bill that kills some costly weapons projects and expands war efforts.

About 43,000 federal employees in Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. territories will receive an increase in retirement benefits under the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act.

President Barack Obama signs a defense bill Wednesday a the White House. From left are, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm.

With public anger rising over teacher furloughs in Hawaii, two of the four expected candidates for governor next year offered ways on Tuesday that the controversial moneysaving program could be halted or reduced.