Oracle's Ellison to buy, invest in Hawaii's Lanai

Labels: WRLTHD World News

By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press  

HONOLULU (AP) — Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison is closing in on a purchase even lottery winners can only dream about — 98 percent of Hawaii's pineapple island, Lanai.

Ellison hasn't said what he plans to do with the vast majority of the island's 141 square miles, but the sellers said he plans substantial investments that will create jobs and stimulate tourism to the island once owned in the 1920s by the founder of Dole Foods Co.

Attempts to reach Ellison through Oracle after business hours Wednesday were not successful. Ellison's involvement in the deal was publicly announced by Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

With nearly 50 miles of coastline, two resorts and zero traffic lights, Lanai boasts plenty of unspoiled charm. Tourism officials tout the luxury at its Four Seasons hotels and rugged rural areas that can only be reached by vehicles with four-wheel drive.

 If all goes as planned, most of the island that is home to 3,200 residents and near Maui will be owned by Ellison — the world's sixth-richest billionaire, according to Forbes.

The outspoken Silicon Valley software magnate is known to race sailboats and make occasional unusual purchases. He once, for example, bought a tennis tournament to keep it in the United States.

The land's current owner, Castle & Cooke Inc., filed a transfer application Wednesday with the state's public utilities commission, which regulates utilities on the island that serve its two resorts.

The sale price for the property was not immediately clear. Lawyers for the seller redacted a copy of the sale agreement signed May 2, saying it includes confidential information that would competitively hurt Ellison and the seller if disclosed. The Maui News previously reported the asking price was between $500 million and $600 million.

Self-made billionaire David Murdock, who owns Castle & Cooke, said he would keep his home on Lanai and the right to build a wind farm, a contentious project that would place windmills on as many as 20 square miles of the island and deliver power to Oahu through an undersea cable.

Murdock said in a statement that selling Lanai was not an impulsive decision, but he has been looking for a buyer who would have the right enthusiasm, commitment and respect for the island's residents.

"I have learned in life that change is inevitable and can be quite positive when guided in the right direction," Murdock said.

Ellison co-founded the Redwood City, Calif.-based business software company in 1977. Forbes ranks him as the third-richest American, with a net worth of $36 billion as of March.

Abercrombie said Ellison has had a longstanding interest in the island.

"We look forward to welcoming Mr. Ellison in the near future," Abercrombie said. "His passion for nature, particularly the ocean, is well known specifically in the realm of America's Cup sailing."

Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa wished Murdock well and said he looks forward to meeting Ellison.

The deal involves 88,000 acres of land, plus two resorts, two golf courses, a stable and various residential and commercial buildings, lawyers for Murdock told the utilities commission in its application.

Ellison plans to pay cash, and the deal should result in new jobs, economic stimulus and a reinvigorated local tourism industry, the application said.

"The buyer anticipates making substantial investments in Lanai and is looking forward to partnering with the people of Lanai to chart the island's future," Castle & Cooke lawyers said in the application.

Lanai is Hawaii's smallest publicly accessible inhabited island, with some 3,200 residents. It is known as the "pineapple island" even though Murdock closed its pineapple operations to make way for luxury resort and home development. The majority of the island was once owned by James Dole of Dole Food Co. Inc., who bought it in 1922.

Murdock bought out fellow Castle & Cooke shareholders for nearly $700 million in 2000 and took the company private.

According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, more than 26,000 people visited the island from January to April of this year, a 6 percent decline from the same period last year.

The utilities commission is reviewing the prospective deal because it involves indirectly transferring public utilities Castle & Cooke owns on the island — a water company, a bus and shuttle service, and the island's wastewater utility. Castle & Cooke asked for interim approval by June 26.

Hawaii law requires commission approval to transfer public utilities, and the commission will try to make its decision by that date, said Sean Mikell of the PUC's research division, which is considering the application. The commission does not have jurisdiction over the sale of the island, aside from the transfer of public utilities.

J. Kalani English, a state senator who represents Lanai in Hawaii's Legislature, said he's hopeful the sale to Ellison will mean a return of agriculture to the island.

"I'm relieved because he's one of the richest people on the planet, which means he knows he'll lose a lot of money in the beginning and he can sustain that," said English, a Democrat.

English said Ellison has been known to vacation on Lanai.

Robin Kaye, president of Friends of Lanai, said he wasn't surprised to hear who the buyer is because Ellison's name has been floating around the island lately.

Before Murdock announced he would keep wind farm rights on the island, Kaye said he hoped Ellison wouldn't pursue the project.

"Lanai is worth more than supplying power to Oahu," Kaye said.

Seventh-generation Lanaian Sol Kahoohalahala said he hopes to see an end to high unemployment and more opportunities for economic development beyond tourism.

"I look at this as a potential opportunity for us to get the new owner to look at Lanai in terms of an island that needs to work at sustaining itself," he said. "Tourism cannot be the only economic engine on Lanai."

Kahoohalaha's family managed to hold on to some Lanai land. The 2 percent Ellison isn't buying is owned by the state, county and private residents.

Associated Press writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu and Lisa Leff in San Francisco contributed to this report.

President Asserts Executive Privilege in Bid to Forestall Contempt Vote

By CHARLIE SAVAGE and JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday invoked executive privilege to withhold from a Congressional oversight committee some documents and communications among his advisers regarding the failed gun enforcement operation known as “Fast and Furious,” in which weapons purchased in the United States were allowed to cross into Mexico.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. spoke to reporters on Tuesday after meeting with Representative Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

It was the first time since Mr. Obama took office that he has asserted the privilege, and it sharpened considerably the long-festering dispute between Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Representative Darrell Issa of California, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The panel had been threatening to find Mr. Holder in contempt for refusing to hand over some documents.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in a letter to Mr. Issa that the president was claiming privilege over the documents, although he suggested that there might yet be a way to negotiate the release of some of the contested documents.

“We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee’s concerns and to accommodate the committee’s legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious,” the Justice Department letter said. “Although we are deeply disappointed that the committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the department remains willing to work with the committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues.”

But Mr. Issa said that the House had received no letter from Mr. Obama himself or a log specifying what was being withheld. He also raised doubts about whether executive privilege covered internal deliberative documents that did not relate to confidential communications involving the president himself.

“Our purpose has never been to hold the attorney general in contempt,” Mr. Issa said. “Our purpose has always been to get the information the committee needs to complete its work — that it is not only entitled to, but obligated to do.”

Democrats said the committee should delay its vote to consider the assertion of executive privilege and whether to challenge it in court. They accused Republicans of being intent on citing Mr. Holder with contempt in order to inflict political damage during the run-up to the presidential election.

“I treat assertions of executive privilege very seriously, and I believe they should be used only sparingly,” said Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the panel's ranking Democrat. “In this case, it seems clear that the administration was forced into this position by the committee’s unreasonable insistence on pressing forward with contempt despite the attorney general’s good faith offer.”

Because Republicans hold a majority in the House and on the oversight committee, it appeared likely that the committee would vote to recommend holding Mr. Holder in contempt. Such a vote would place before Speaker of the House John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, the choice of whether or when to bring up the proposal for a vote in the full House of Representatives.

On Wednesday, Mr. Boehner's office immediately denounced the president’s action.

“Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding Fast and Furious were confined to the Department of Justice. The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the cover-up that followed," said Michael Steel, the spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio."The administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?”

Democrats argued that Republicans were rushing to do something unprecedented in American history: citing the highest law enforcement official in the land for contempt. (In 1998, the Republican-led oversight committee voted to recommend holding Attorney General Janet Reno in contempt over documents related to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, but the measure was never put before the full House for a vote.) But Republicans said Mr. Holder had no legal right to withhold the documents, and they needed the information to complete the investigation.

Oil drives ND reserves to $2B

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's financial reserves are expected to grow to more than $2 billion a year from now.

State budget director Pam Sharp briefed North Dakota lawmakers on the figures Tuesday. She spoke to members of the North Dakota House and Senate committees who write the state government budget.

North Dakota's budget office is projecting the state will have a surplus of almost $850 million in its general treasury in June 2013. In March, the surplus prediction was $592 million.

Then there is $1.2 billion in reserve funds. They include an oil tax trust fund, another fund that benefits schools and a pot of money that lawmakers are setting aside for local property tax cuts.

Sharp says state income, sales and oil tax collections are running well ahead of projections.

Militants cross into Israel from Egypt, 1 killed

JERUSALEM (AP) - Militants crossed from Egypt's turbulent Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel on Monday and opened fire on civilians building a border security fence, defense officials said. One of the Israeli workers was killed, and two assailants died in a gunbattle with Israeli troops responding to the attack.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which underscored the growing lawlessness in the Sinai desert since longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was toppled by a popular uprising last year.

Military spokeswoman Lt. Col Avital Leibovich said the assailants have not been identified but acknowledged that defense officials suspected Palestinian militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which also borders the Sinai desert in that same area, might have been involved.

Several hours after the attack, an Israeli airstrike killed two men riding a motorcycle in the northern Gaza Strip near the Israeli border. The Islamic Jihad militant group said the men were members on a "reconnaissance" mission and vowed revenge. Military officials said the incident was not connected to the earlier infiltration from Egypt.

Israeli security officials have grown increasingly anxious about the security situation in the Sinai since Mubarak's ouster. Continued political turmoil in Egypt, weak policing in the Sinai and tough terrain have all encouraged Islamic militant activity in the area. The mountainous desert now harbors an array of militant groups, including Palestinian extremists and al-Qaida-inspired jihadists, Egyptian and Israeli security officials say. The tumultuous situation surrounding Egyptian elections, in which Islamic groups made a strong showing, has added to Israeli unease.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Army Radio that there has been "a worrisome deterioration of Egyptian control" over the Sinai. Barak said he expected the winner of this week's presidential elections in Egypt to honor the country's international obligations - an apparent reference to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood has said it would respect the historic peace accord but that it would also seek modifications.

Vice Premier Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister and military chief, said he hoped Israel could conduct a security dialogue with the Egyptians and demand more forceful policing in the Sinai.

"No doubt Sinai has become a security problem," Mofaz told Army Radio. "Today's incident ratchets it up a notch."

There was no immediate comment from Egypt on the attack.

Following Mubarak's ouster, Israel stepped up construction of a security fence across the 230-kilometer (150-mile) border with Egypt in a bid to keep out both militants and illegal migrants from Africa. The government has said it expects the fence to be completed by the end of the year.

In Monday's attack, two civilian vehicles carrying construction workers were driving toward the security fence when militants activated a roadside bomb and opened light arms and anti-tank fire at them, said Leibovich, the military spokeswoman.

One of the vehicles was struck and turned over into a nearby ditch, killing one worker, she said. Israeli troops rushed to the area and engaged in a gunbattle with the militants. One militant, who was carrying a large explosive device, blew up, she said. Another militant, and possibly two others, also died, but other gunmen may have escaped back into Egypt, she said.

The militants were carrying camouflage uniforms, flak jackets, helmets and assault rifles, she said. There was no word on their identities or membership in any of a wide range of armed groups.

Leibovich said Israelis living in five small communities in the area were instructed to lock themselves inside their homes, and two major southern roads were closed to civilian traffic while troops scoured the area for other militants. The military later concluded no other gunmen were in the area.

Israel had been bracing for the possibility of more attacks from the Sinai after two rockets believed fired from there struck southern Israel over the weekend, though Leibovich said it was unclear whether the two events were related.

The magnitude of the growing threat from Sinai was driven home last August, when gunmen from Sinai infiltrated Israel and ambushed vehicles on a desert highway, killing eight Israelis. Six Egyptians were killed in Israel's subsequent hunt for the militants, causing a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbors that ended with an Israeli apology.

The deadly August attack shattered decades of calm along the frontier area, prompting officials on both sides of the border to examine security arrangements and pushing Israel to speed up construction of the border fence.

As part of its landmark first peace treaty with an Arab state, Israel agreed in 1979 to return the Sinai, captured in the 1967 Mideast war, to Egypt, but insisted the vast desert triangle separating Asia from Africa be significantly demilitarized. As the frontier area grew more volatile following Mubarak's ouster, Israel allowed thousands more Egyptian troops to police the area and has beefed up its own military deployment along the border.

The reinforced security deployment has not quieted the Sinai, however, and democratic elections for parliament and president did not resolve the instability in Egypt, which has Israel worried about the future of the 1979 peace accord.

The ruling Egyptian military dissolved the newly elected parliament and assumed sweeping powers subordinating the president and ensuring their hold on the state. The Muslim Brotherhood, which declared early Monday that its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, won this week's presidential election, has challenged the military's power grab, raising the prospect of a power struggle between Egypt's two strongest forces. 

Beach Boys beat the Beatles for Billboard 200 record

Labels: WRLTHD Music News

Gary Trust / Billboard

Fifty years into their career, the Beach Boys are still making waves on the Billboard charts. This week, they bested the Beatles for a Billboard 200 album chart record. As their reunion album, "That's Why God Made the Radio" (their first album of all-new material since 1992), bursts onto the chart at No. 3, the Beach Boys break a record by expanding their span of Billboard 200 top 10s to 49 years and one week. They first graced the top 10 with "Surfin' U.S.A." the week of June 15, 1963.

The Beach Boys' stretch between their first week in the Billboard 200 top 10 to their most recent is now the longest among groups, passing the Beatles, whose top 10 span covers 47 years, seven months and three weeks.

The Fab Four first entered the top bracket when "Meet the Beatles" rocketed 92-3 on the Feb. 8, 1964, chart at the blastoff of Beatlemania. The group most recently appeared in the top 10 with "1" the week of Oct. 1, 2011. The Rolling Stones are pushed to third among groups with the longest top 10 span on the Billboard 200. Their 45-year, six-month top 10 span ranges from the week of Dec. 12, 1964 ("12 x 5"), through June 12, 2010 ("Exile on Main St.")

Among all acts, Frank Sinatra boasts the longest top 10 span on the Billboard 200: 52 years, two months and one week. Sinatra first entered the top tier with "Songs for Swingin' Lovers!" the week of April 7, 1956, and last ranked in the region on June 14, 2008, with "Nothing but the Best." The Billboard 200 launched as a weekly chart in the pages of Billboard magazine the week of March 24, 1956.

Upon its arrival, "Radio" becomes the Beach Boys' highest-charting album since 1965's "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)," which reached No. 2. The new release is their 14th top 10 and first since 1976's "15 Big Ones." The Beach Boys have topped the Billboard 200 with two titles: 1964's "Beach Boys Concert" (for four weeks) and 1974's "Endless Summer" (one week).

Ruth Bader Ginsburg predicts 'sharp disagreement' on eve of rulling

With a wry smile, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg laid waste Friday to all those rumors about the fate of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court.

“Those who know don’t talk. And those who talk don’t know,” she quipped Friday night at a conference hosted by the American Constitution Society at the Capital Hilton.
Ginsburg said she was responding to a "steady stream of rumors and fifth-hand accounts" about the court's deliberations on the law.

Careful not to tip her hand on the court’s ruling — expected in the next two weeks — Ginsburg described the oral arguments in the case as unprecedented for the number of “press conferences, prayer circles, protests and counterprotests” that occurred on the courthouse steps.

Although she offered no insight into the tightly held decisions of her colleagues, Ginsburg did indicate that many of the court’s decisions over the next two weeks — which are also expected to include an FCC indecency ruling — might be close.

The 21 remaining decisions, she said, were “many of the most controversial cases” that the court reviewed this term.

“It is likely that the sharp disagreement rate will go up next week and the week after,” she said.

Although the oral arguments on the ACA spanned six hours over three days, she noted that a case cited during those arguments — McCullough v. Maryland — featured oral arguments that spanned nine days over two months.

Ginsburg noted that one ACA-related question the court must decide is whether the whole law must fall if the individual mandate is unconstitutional — “or may the mandate be chopped, like a head of broccoli, from the rest of it?”

But no, she didn't drop any hints about what the answer will be.

'Madagascar 3' Tops Box Office Food Chain

By RAPHAEL CHESTANG June 17, 2012

Madagascar 3 continued to captivate audiences over the weekend, returning to the top of the box office for its second week out.

RELATED: Madagascar 3 Tramples Prometheus

The animated family film pulled in $35 million, bringing its cumulative to $120 million domestically. While the third installment of the Madagascar franchise was enjoying the limelight, Rock Of Ages found a difficult time filling theater seats, landing in third place behind Prometheus.

The sci-fi drama reeled in $21 million, while the big budget musical earned just $15 million over the weekend.