As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated,” and the state Legislature is attempting to do just that with a bevy of new laws focused on ethics and other issues.

Hawaii County has been awarded a $2 million grant from the state Ohana Zone funds to further homelessness relief programs on the island.

A Waimea man currently serving time for attacking a Waikoloa man with a knife is suing the county and two police officers in federal court for arresting him on charges he kidnapped, tortured and raped a Puna woman while he was allegedly wearing a pretrial ankle monitor he claims demonstrated his innocence.

Some 18 months after the county called a halt to filling citizen boards that advise the government on planning and design because the administration wanted to take a hard look at how the boards can best be used, the county has filled some of the regional boards but is actively searching for volunteers for the Kona and Puna boards in particular.

Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole was ranked by Forbes Advisor as the second-best airport for holiday travel in the nation, the financial media outlet announced last week.

More than twice as many property owners appealed their tax assessments this year than last year, according to the 2022 report of the county Real Property Tax Board of Review.

A long-dormant $170 million Kona project has returned to the Leeward Planning Commission, who on Thursday heard more than 20 residents express their concerns before punting the project to the county Cultural Resources Commission after a four-plus-hour meeting.

Two island residents have filed ethics complaints against Planning Department staffers, saying they were laughed at and disrespected when they opposed developments in Pepeekeo and Keaukaha.

The county Board of Appeals has determined that laws governing state and county agriculture project districts don’t prohibit landowners from using their farm dwellings for short-term rentals, as long as they also live on the property.

More than two years after the County Council passed building code revisions increasing bureaucratic hurdles for locally constructed factory-built housing, a project that would have mass-produced such housing has stalled, as the county Building Division works to streamline a process that regulates the new requirements.

The issue of vacation rentals in the state agriculture district is back up for discussion, this time by the county Board of Appeals.

A commission created to recommend ways to stem the tide of corruption in Hawaii state and local government has released an ambitious agenda that includes 31 proposals for the 2023 Legislature that convenes next month.

There’s a new day coming for the Hawaii County Council, with a freshly minted chairwoman, three freshman members, newly named committees and a more progressive agenda.

The county could be posting the paperwork as early as this week to sell $14.4 million in bonds to provide sewer service to a 100-unit affordable housing project at Kaloko Heights.

A proposed revamp of the county’s vacation rental law includes registration — for the first time — of hosted accommodations and new regulations and fees for both hosted and non-hosted rentals.

A 21-acre Kaloko Drive parcel that had been approved for rezoning 24 years ago got a new lease on life recently, when the Leeward Planning Commission agreed to a five-year time extension for the new owners to complete the conditions of the rezoning.

One family’s attempt to subdivide a 5.29-acre parcel off Kuakini Highway has escalated into a battle with longtime Native Hawaiian inhabitants of the area.