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Despite last-minute pleas from historians, Union Pacific has demolished the 1874 train shop in West Oakland that was among the last relics of the transcontinental railroad. The three-story building, visible from BART and Interstate 880, met the wrecking ball Oct. 1 at 5 a.m., according to Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza. By Sunday, the site - where thousands of locomotives and train cars had undergone repairs for 128 years - was nothing but a vacant lot littered with a few bricks, witnesses said. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/08/BAS41FPBKA.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz11qklvvQY

A struggling Hawaii bank received a $135 million federal bailout last fall two weeks after staff from the office of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, a big investor in the bank, called federal regulators about the aid application, according to a report in ProPublica Tuesday. Bank regulators had designated Central Pacific Financial as a marginal candidate to receive federal assistance, according to documents cited in the report. But soon after the phone call from Inouye's office, the Treasury directed millions of dollars to bolster the bank's capital reserves. Inouye, D-Hawaii, owns shares in the bank that totaled between $350,000 and $700,000...

Hawaii senator helps bank he founded get aid Central Pacific Financial did not meet criteria, holds bulk of Inouye's wealth June 30, 2009 WASHINGTON - Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth. The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.,...

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth. The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided that it didn't meet the criteria for receiving a favorable recommendation and had forwarded the application to a council that reviewed marginal...

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's staff contacted federal regulators last fall to ask about the bailout application of an ailing Hawaii bank that he had helped to establish and where he has invested the bulk of his personal wealth. The bank, Central Pacific Financial, was an unlikely candidate for a program designed by the Treasury Department to bolster healthy banks. The firm's losses were depleting its capital reserves. Its primary regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., already had decided that it didn't meet the criteria for receiving a favorable recommendation and had forwarded the application to a council that reviewed marginal...

Inouye reported ownership of Central Pacific shares worth $350,000 to $700,000, some held by his wife, at the end of 2007 [5]. The shares represented at least two-thirds of Inouye's total reported assets. Inouye has requested a delay in filing his annual financial disclosure for 2008, which was due this spring, and he declined to provide the current value of his investment. Since the end of 2007, the bank's stock has lost 79 percent of its value. Central Pacific was founded in 1954 by a group of World War II veterans including Inouye who were emerging leaders in Hawaii's Japanese...

<p>As Hurricane Jimena moves closer to the southern tip of Hawai'i, Big Island civil authorities are preparing for action and asking residents to do the same.</p> <p>In expectation of dangerous surf conditions, Hawai'i County Civil Defense closed beaches in Puna and Ka'u last night, and police were monitoring conditions from Kumukahi Point to South Point. Those steps were taken after the Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for the island.</p>