Attention, chocoholics! The first-ever Hawaii Cacao Festival is set to take place this Sunday in Haleiwa. Besides samplings of chef creations, there will be a recipe contest, keiki activities, and tours of the Waialua Estate Cacao farm on the North Shore to learn firsthand how chocolate is grown and harvested.

The last couple of seasons of "Lost" began with a whimper, slowed by the writers strike that temporarily crippled the television industry into early 2008 and a faltering economy that precluded any notion of gala parties and premieres in 2009.

Police arrested a 27-year-old man who was involved in a scuffle with a DFS Galleria Waikiki security officer who died shortly afterward.

Prosecutors have charged a Chinatown travel agent with 49 counts of second-degree theft for allegedly taking a total of $130,000 in cash from numerous customers, then failing to provide the airline tickets to the Philippines as agreed upon.

The National Park Service says boats at the USS Arizona Memorial will not be operating for most of next week due to construction work on the docks.

A state jury deliberated just four hours before finding Joshua Gonda not guilty yesterday in a 2008 freeway shooting that left a 16-year-old boy paralyzed from the chest down.

QUESTION: Yesterday morning there was a major accident on the H-3 freeway, town-bound, near Halawa. The webcams showed traffic backing up into the tunnel and more cars coming up behind them.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has decided to continue sugar operations at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. through 2010.

Frustrated in the waning days of what was supposed to be smooth-sailing Democratic control of Congress, President Barack Obama offered a State of the Union address with several proposals that should have satisfied Republicans.

Building legislative support for a tax increase on Hawaii's richest residents is the top priority for the Hawaii State Teachers Association's new interim executive director, who long ago helped build the union into a political powerhouse.

WASHINGTON » Declaring "I don't quit," President Barack Obama fought to recharge his embattled presidency with a State of the Union vow to get unemployed millions back to work and to stand on the side of Americans angry at Wall Street greed and Washington bickering.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association is proposing to increase taxes on upper-income residents to eliminate Furlough Fridays and provide support for public education.