bigislandtoyota.com
$
25
,
640
*
2015 TOYOTA
TACOMA
F580114
DOUBLE CAB
4x2
*ONAPPROVEDCREDIT,NOTALLAPPLICANTSWILLQUALIFY.MUSTPURCHASE/TAKEDELIVERYBETWEEN1/1/15AND2/28/15.APROFFERS LIMITEDTOSTOCKONTHE LOTANDWILL
NOTBEAPPLIEDTOBACKORDERS.VEHICLESELECTION ISSUBJECTTOAVAILABILITY.DOWN PAYMENTMAYBEREQUIREDONCERTAINMODELS.NOTCOMBINABLEWITHANYOTHER
SPECIALFINANCINGRATES,DISCOUNTS,REBATES,EMPLOYEEPRICESOROTHEROFFERS.RESTRICTIONSAPPLY.VEHICLESMAYNOTBEEXACTLYASPICTURED.OFFERENDS5/30/15.
SUNDAY,
MAY 24, 2015
WESTHAWAIITODAY.
COM
$1.50
HI
83
LO
70
WEATHER, PAGE 12A
Annie’s Mailbox . 6B Classified. 1D Home. 1C Nation & World. 7A Opinion . 6A Sports . 1B
INDEX
7
7
58551 00781
VOL. 47, NO. 144
56 PAGES
PONY
MEMORIAL DAY
TOURNAMENT
SPORTS, 1B
Many gays drawn to Big Island to marry
Since the state legalized
same-sex marriage, hun-
dreds of gay couples have
tied the knot on Hawaii
Island, with a majority of
them coming from out of
state.
As of March 2, 444
same-sex couples wed on
the Big Island following
the state’s marriage equal-
ity law went into effect on
Dec. 2, 2013. Those cou-
ples accounted for 13.7
percent of all marriage
licenses issued on Hawaii
Island, according to data
provided by the state
Department of Health.
Meanwhile,
more
than 60 percent of the
same-sex weddings on
the Big Island involved
couples in which one
or both members were
nonresidents.
In a July 2013 research
paper, Sumner La Croix,
an economics profes-
sor with the University
of Hawaii, predicted
that additional visi-
tor spending across the
state because of marriage
equality could total $217
million during the 2014-
16 period.
Via
email on
Monday,
La Croix
said
he
had not
yet had
time
to
crunch
the latest numbers, but
a cursory look at the data
showed the possibility of
an even larger impact.
“AquickcheckofHawaii
DOH figures on numbers
of same-sex marriages
in Hawaii shows 3,457
same-sex marriages from
December 2013 thru
February 2015,” he wrote.
“The U.S. Census in 2010
shows 3,262 gay/lesbian
couples in Hawaii. My
earlier reports predict-
ed 1,957 would marry by
December 2016.”
“If my prediction about
in-state couples is cor-
rect, this shows about
1,500 out-of-state cou-
ples officially marrying
here — considerable for
15 months.”
Judith I. Leong, a non-
denominational ordained
minister based in Kailua-
Kona, said Tuesday that
the vast majority of the
BY COLIN M. STEWART
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
Tropical cyclone season
“off to a busy start” in eastern Pacific
The harbingers of the
2015 hurricane season
are slowly taking shape in
a body of warm water just
east of the boundary of
the Central North Pacific
Basin. The location — far
west and near to Hawaii
for this time of year —
has tropical weather fore-
casters from Hawaii to
Miami scrutinizing the
disturbances.
The closest mass of
unstable weather, located
about 1,600 miles east of
Hilo, has a 70 percent
chance of forming into
a tropical cyclone in the
next day or two as it
moves slowly northwest.
Beyond that time, it is
not expected to intensify
much as the energy of the
system is sucked away by
another developing sys-
tem just to the northeast.
That second distur-
bance has a 60 percent
chance of becoming a
tropical cyclone over the
next few days as it tracks
northwest at 10 to 15
mph.
“We typically don’t
see a lot of activity this
time of year in that area,”
said Derek Wroe, a fore-
caster with the National
Weather
Service
in
Honolulu. “We have not
had a tropical cyclone
form in the Central
Pacific in May since 1971.
It would be a very rare
thing if it happened,
but sometimes Mother
Nature plays by her own
rules.”
And while meteorol-
ogists are eyeing these
first manifestations of
what could be a hurri-
cane-friendly, El Nino-
fueled season, they’re
not yet sounding an
alarm.
That’s because there’s
a large band of water
BY BRET YAGER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
SEE
MARRIAGE
PAGE 9A
SEE
CYCLONE
PAGE 9A
A satellite photo shows the location of two potential
tropical cyclones east of the Central North Pacific Basin.
Leong
Data courtesy Hawaii Department of Health Vital Statistics
Keauhou Founder’s Day Regatta
Teams lineup to pull their canoes out of the water after Saturday’s regatta at Kailua Bay.
RICK WINTERS/
WEST HAWAII TODAY
For full
race
coverage
see
PAGE 1B
