Ellison has bought about 98% of Lana'I, the sixth-largest island in Hawaii -- and one that's more than 1, 000 times larger than the private island that Branson owns in the British Virgin Islands.
Alaska was slightly cooler and wetter than normal, while nearly two-thirds of Hawaii's island chain faced moderate to exceptional drought conditions by December, NOAA said.
She began her trip in Hawaii and island-hopped her way to Fiji then Australia, taking surf lessons, diving the Great Barrier Reef and visiting eucalyptus rainforests along the way.
Five states -- Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island -- allow civil unions that provide rights similar to marriage.
It's a three-day race covering 320 miles on the big island of Hawaii, including a 10-kilometer ocean swim, more than 260 miles by bike and a double marathon run.
The governor of Hawaii confirmed the sale of the 140-square mile island Wednesday, but didn't say how much it went for.
At 42 years old, I competed in the Ultraman World Championships, a grueling three-day uber-endurance triathlon circumnavigating the Big Island of Hawaii that involves 6.2 miles of swimming, 260 miles of cycling and culminates with a 52.4-mile double marathon run.
The tsunami that wrecked northern Japanese fishing villages and small cities also travelled across the Pacific and hit the Hawaiian islands, causing tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to boats, docks, beach homes and led to the closing of the famous Kona Village Resort, a picturesque minimalist string of high-end bungalows on the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.
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Eight such states have civil union or strong domestic partnership laws-- Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island.
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Thanks to its commitment to renewable energy, Hawaii is now also becoming something of a test bed for renewable energy technologies, from the study of various geothermal and algae-based biofuel technologies happening at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority on the Big Island to smart grid experiments the state is conducting along with representatives from Japan and China.
FORBES: Hawaii: Our Very Own Island Nation, Battling Climate Change Via Innovation
Many other states, including New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island and Hawaii, have legalized domestic partnerships and civil unions for such couples -- a step designed in most cases to provide the same rights of marriage under state law.
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Nine other states, including California, New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island and Hawaii, have legalized domestic partnerships and civil unions for such couples -- a step designed in most cases to provide the same rights of marriage under state law.
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The consequence of these cumulative problems is that Puerto Rico, the Caribbean's best-marketed island, has just 9, 000 hotel rooms, compared with 80, 000 in Hawaii, a place of similar size.
That's what the Hawaii university researchers say happened -- even if few realized that a distinctive sign language existed for decades on the island until now.
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