Hawaii Wedding

Hawaii Wedding Resort - Best Honeymoon Resort - Resort Info - Weddings - Overview The best wedding and honeymoon resort, Mauna Lani Resort at Kalahuipua'a welcomes you. It would be an honor to welcome you and your friends & family to Mauna Lani on this very special occasion. Our beautiful weather and tropical sunsets will truly compliment your special day. We offer comprehensive services for weddings, vow renewals and honeymoons. We’ll create and take the worry out of weddings and replace it with adventure, romance and the maximum quotient of nuptial bliss. For guest accommodations, please call Hotel Reservations at (800) 367-2323 for promotional rates. Please call the Wedding Department directly if you would like to book 10 or more guestrooms per night, as we offer Wedding Parties special group room rates at substantial savings. As guests of Mauna Lani Bay, you may select one of the many beautiful sites: panoramic ocean views, ancient royal fishponds, tropical garden settings and many others reminiscent of Old Hawaii. printable information Honeymoon / Wedding Registry: Register your wedding/honeymoon for free and show your family and friends all that you want to enjoy at Mauna Lani Resort. It works just like a gift registry, except that your friends and family can give you money toward your dream honeymoon instead of, say, a toaster! The perfect, unforgetable gift. You can register for free, and your friends and family can either contribute towards your stay at Mauna Lani, or your favorite extras (Spa treatments, Rounds of Golf, Dining, etc.) Aloha! Do you have a question about weddings we can personally assist you with? Site Map

Hawaiian City Garden

StopMoskowitz :: The Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem Support the Coalition with your Donation Donation Amount $25.00 $50.00 $100.00 $250.00 $500.00 $1000.00 thank you The Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem P.O. 67903, Los Angeles CA 90067 310 553-1146 email -- How Moskowitz Profits from his Hawaiian Gardens Non-profits A Detailed Analysis of Irving Moskowitz's Non-profit Operations in Hawaiian Gardens nonprofit (non·prof·it) adj. 1. not conducted or maintained for the purpose of making a profit <a nonprofit organization> - noun 2. a nonprofit organization, institution, corporation or entity. These days, Dr. Irving Moskowitz is seldom seen in Hawaiian Gardens but his presence is everywhere. A banner bears his name in a picture of the Little League team that runs in the local paper. Senior citizens attending a city council meeting sport t-shirts with Moskowitz's name emblazoned across the back. Moskowitz may be hundreds of miles away at his home in Miami Beach but he is ubiquitous in the community as a businessman and benefactor who has pumped millions of dollars into the city. And there is no question Hawaiian Gardens is in need of help. The unemployment rate is high in this largely immigrant slice of LA County where half of all adults lack a high school diploma. And where close to one out of every four Hawaiian Garden residents lives below the poverty line. 1 But Irving Moskowitz's track record of less-than-charitable activity in Hawaiian Gardens belies his image as a philanthropist - a careful examination of his financial records and those of his non-profit foundation show that the majority of his contributions resulted in either financial gain or increased political influence for himself. Dr. Moskowitz, it seems, has engaged in non-profit profiteering in Hawaiian Gardens. Since posting this report on our website, more information has come to light that strongly suggests that Moskowitz's non-profit Tri-City Regional Medical Center is in violation of Internal Revenue Service rules qualifying health care providers for tax-exemption. (Click here to read more) Putting the 'profit' in Non-profit healthcare Tri-City Hospital sign greets motorists entering Hawaiian Gardens saying the "community" facility serves all health needs - as long as you're not poor or pregnant. Take Tri-City Regional Medical Center in Hawaiian Gardens. In 1996, when its balance sheets were beginning to look less-than stellar, 2 Moskowitz decided to spin off this privately owned hospital as a non-profit, while retaining ownership of the building and land. 3 Immediately after converting Tri-City Regional Medical Center into a non-profit, the Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation 4 donated $4.9 million in tax-free proceeds from its Hawaiian Gardens bingo to the hospital. 5 Moskowitz then began collecting the money back by charging the hospital $95,000 a month in rent, payable to his private landlord company. 6 Those payments now exceed $110,000 per month. 7 California state financing records show that in 2000 the foundation made an additional transfer of funds to Tri-City. 8 The hospital's fidelity to the concept of charitable trust 9 is tenuous at best. This could perhaps be forgiven if the hospital was meeting the health care needs of the local community. But despite its non-profit status, Tri-City is less than solicitous when it comes to the health of Hawaiian Gardens. When the hospital applied for non-profit status in 1997, it made a commitment to provide pre-natal care. 10 Recent patient discharge data published by the state of California shows that Tri-City has stopped delivering babies - none were born at the hospital in either 2000 or 2001. 11 It isn't for lack of demand for services. Last year residents of Hawaiian Gardens brought home 98 newborn babies. 12 While small in size (the city's population is a little under 15,000 13 ), Hawaiian Gardens is a young, largely immigrant community - recent census data indicates the average age of its resident is 26. More than half of the households have children under the age of 18. And as of 2000, a little more than 10 percent of the population was under the age of 5. The women of Hawaiian Gardens are having babies - they are just not having them delivered at the hospital in their own neighborhood. Tri-City's failure to fully address the health care needs of the poor may be a factor. Again, nearly one out of every four resident of Hawaiian Gardens lives below the poverty line and many are immigrants who do not qualify for state programs such as MediCal (although MediCal is available to cover prenatal care and deliveries for undocumented immigrants, making the hospital's failure to provide these services all the more shocking). Stomach stapling accounts for a large part of Tri-City Hospital's tiny patient census. When it turned non-profit the hospital made a commitment to provide free or reduced cost care to the indigent 14 - and yet in recent years Tri-City has provided zero dollars in charity care. 15 State health care data shows the other four non-profit hospitals of comparable size in LA County provided a combined total of two million dollars in charity care in 2001 (the most recent year that statistics are publicly available). 16 Tri-City's failure to pull its own weight when it comes to helping out poor patients has little to do with its bottom line - in 2001 the hospital's gross patient revenue exceeded $72 million and its net income was slightly more than two million dollars - despite the fact that its occupancy rate in 2001 was an abysmally low 19.6 percent. 17 The average occupancy rate for other hospitals of comparable size in the state of California that year was 52.16 percent. 18 How does the hospital manage to stay afloat with such low patient volume? The answer may be as close as the sign in front of Tri-City's main entrance announcing it is also the home of "The Center for the Surgical Treatment of Obesity." Tri-City, it seems, has gotten into the lucrative business of stomach stapling. The Center, run by the somewhat famous Dr. Mathias Fobi provides surgical stomach shrinking services to patients clinically termed morbidly obese, that is, those who are 75 to 100 pounds or more overweight. (In what is perhaps an unfortunate display of poor taste, his website's motto is "lighten up." 19 ) According to a CBS News Report profiling his practice, Fobi performs surgery on up to 600 patients a year. 20 While Fobi charges for the surgeries he performs, the hospital also bills patients for the use of its operating and recovery rooms and other medical services it provides. In 2002 patients who underwent the surgical procedure at Tri-City, on average, racked up $50,000 in hospital charges. 21 State health care data shows that at least 439 Tri-City patients underwent the stomach stapling procedure last year, that is, more than one out of every four patients that received some sort of surgical treatment at the hospital had their stomach stapled. 22 Total charges for those patients was $21,936,400 - representing close to a third of the hospital's gross charges for the year. Tri-City's 2001 income tax forms (the most recent that are publicly available) indicate that by far its highest paid independent contractor that year was FOCA Management Company, a private company registered to Dr. Mathias Fobi. 23 Tri-City paid Fobi's firm $2,293,044 - more than its next four highest paid contractors combined. 24 Dr. Fobi has made numerous national television and radio appearances touting his surgical techniques and his patients come from as far away as Alaska, 25 but the obesity center appears to be of little value to the community where it is based: last year not one Hawaiian Gardens resident made the short trek across this mile-wide city to receive the procedure. 26 One former City Council member recalls that when the hospital was first built, Hawaiian Gardens welcomed it as the solution to the community's unmet health care needs. But citing the high cost of treatment at Tri-City and the lack of charity care, he said few use the hospital now. State health care data backs that assertion up - despite its proximity only 13.7 percent of all Hawaiian Gardens residents who were hospitalized in Los Angeles County last year were admitted to Tri-City Regional Medical Center. 27 Hawaiian Garden residents admitted to the hospital represented an even smaller percentage of Tri-City's total patient census - just 5.4 percent. 28 Since posting this report on our website, more information has come to light that strongly suggests that Moskowitz's non-profit Tri-City Regional Medical Center is in violation of Internal Revenue Service rules qualifying health care providers for tax-exemption. (Click here to read more) Banking on Bingo Bucks Moskowitz earns more than $1.3 million dollars annually as landlord of what is ostensibly a non-profit hospital. But his money-making off non-profits doesn't end there. In 1988, the city of Hawaiian Gardens granted the Irving I. Moskowitz Foundation a license to operate a non-profit bingo within its city limits in exchange for a commitment to spend the majority of the funds generated by the bingo on the local community. The foundation, which had existed mainly to own a piece of land in Northern California and seldom got much cash, was suddenly taking in more than $30 million annually from bingo games. But the foundation's bottom line wasn't the only beneficiary. 29 Moskowitz is the managing general partner (for practical purposes, the sole owner) of Cerritos General Hospital Company, the private firm that owns the land where his bingo is situated and the building in which the game is played. 30 It is not possible to tell from the foundation's IRS 990 forms (which non-profits file instead of income tax returns), exactly how much Moskowitz's foundation is paying him for use of the land, but even by conservative estimates, the total comes to several hundred thousand dollars a year. The Moskowitz Foundation's 2000 and 2001 990 forms show that in both years it paid total occupancy costs (defined by the IRS as rent and utilities) of over $900,000 for services and programs. The bingo is the foundation's only activity -- apart from writing checks. If even half its occupancy costs went to paying rent on the bingo hall as opposed to covering the costs of electricity, gas and water, it's safe to say Moskowitz is paying himself roughly $450,000 a year for the privilege of holding his own bingo games. On top of the bingo's rental payments, Moskowitz also drew more than half a million dollars in salary ($322,880 in 1999 and $184,503 in 2000, respectively) from the Moskowitz Foundation. 31 By contrast, the Moskowitz Foundation takes advantage of a state law requiring bingo workers to be volunteers for the non-profit operating the bingo. To run the bingo, Moskowitz uses mostly immigrant workers who have no ties to, or even knowledge of, the aims of his foundation, compensating them with nothing but the opportunity to get tips from bingo winners. 32 Workers say that their nightly shifts sometimes bring in as little as $20, even though the "volunteers" essentially function as full-time employees. 33 The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is currently suing Moskowitz's bingo on behalf of 24 unpaid bingo workers. 34 continued on page two View all news reports 2003 the Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem

Lanai Travel Go Hawaii

All About Maui, Molokai and Lanai Hawaii  You are here: About > Travel > Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors > Maui / Molokai / Lanai Travel Go Hawaii Essentials Which Hawaiian Island Suits You Best? Clickable Map of the Hawaiian Islands Beach Guide Hawaii Pictures Clickable Map of Maui, Hawaii Topics A Hawaii Vacation Planner Big Island of Hawaii Kauai Maui / Molokai / Lanai Oahu / Honolulu / Waikiki South Pacific Culture, History & Language Hawaii Lodging Hula Luau Maps and Weather Pearl Harbor Photos, Video & Cams Recipes Shopping and Gifts Buyer's Guide Tastes of Paradise from Hilo Hattie HilHilo Hattie Dresses and Sarongs Multi-Day Guided Tours Top Hawaii Guidebooks Top Maui / Molokai / Lanai Guidebooks Forums Help FREE Newsletter Sign Up Now for the Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors newsletter! See Online Courses   Search Hawaii / South Pacific for Visitors > Maui / Molokai / Lanai All About Maui, Molokai, and Lanai Our picks for the best accommodations, activities, sightseeing, dining, entertainment, and luaus on Maui, Molokai and Lanai. We also include our picks for the best live cams and maps of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. We offer hundreds of photos of each of these islands. Subtopics Lanai (59) Molokai (50) Maui (328)   Topic Index | Email to a Friend Our Story | Be a Guide | Advertising Info | Work at About | Site Map | Icons | Help User Agreement | Ethics Policy | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy ©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company . All rights reserved. Around About Tips to Losing Weight Guide to Distance Learning How to Travel for Less PHOTOS: Italy PHOTOS: Hybrid Cars What's Hot Top Picks in Hawaiian Coffee Kamehameha the Great Kalua Pig Waikiki Beach, Oahu - Life's a Beach in Hawaii - Hawaii Beac... Best Beaches 1999 Headlines 2006 Special Packages on Kauai For travelers considering a visit to the Garden Isle of... Plumeria Photos from Hawaii Plumeria is the most common flower that you'll find in... You Won't See This Sign at Home! This certainly isn't a sign that you've ever seen near... Atlantis Submarine Tour Maui Since I had just experienced the Atlantis Submarine Tour on...

Hawaiian quilts are ulu,

sample sample What plants and supplies made Hawaiian quilts? When and how did the start?The Hawaiian quilts first started when the hawai'ians held their first sewing circle on Sandwich Island. The first time they met was on April 3,1820. The ladies came from Boston and started the sewing circle. The plants used to make the designs for the Hawaiian quilts are ulu, pineapple, mum, hibiscus, wood rose, anthurium, white ginger, laua'e, heliconia, torch ginger, bird of paradise and kukui. To make the design, they study the shape of the plants and then create an exaggerated form of pattern which is beautifully symmetrical. The tools that the makers used were quilting hoops, sharp pins, bees wax, needles, art gum, scissors , dritz maker, ruler, thimbles, thread, stem ripper, pens and pencils. The quilting hoops come in all kinds of sizes. Sharp pins need to be ordinary straight pins and perfect silk pins will do the job but quilting pins are better. The art gum for cleaning spots or light penciled lines. The ruler comes in handy. Your middle finger is the pushing finger. Thimbles are important to use for your middle finger and for your thumb. It will be easier to use a thinner needle so the appliqueing of the quilt will look better. When you make the curves and points it will be hard to make when you are quilting.Here are10 words in hawaiian and defenitions: HAWAIIAN WORDS AND THEIR DEFINITIONS 1.kuahonu: turtle back 2.lau: pattern 3.pili: lining of the quilt 4.pulu: soft glossy yellow wool on the base of tree fern stalks, sometimes used for filling 5.ku: motifs 6.koana: ridges made by quilting 7.kalaunu: a crown 8.kapa moe: a blanket for sleeping 9.kapa pohopoho: a patchwork quilt or a crazy quilt10.kuiki kulipu `u: zigzag quilting

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Bed and Breakfast, Hawaii B & B, Volcano Hawaii: Volcano Rainforest Retreat Home Page Guest Cottage Forest House Sanctuary Bamboo Guest House Gathering Hale Counseling / Reiki Healing Schedule of Events Volcano Area & Activities Hawaiian Links Information / Booking Relax and unwind... in one of four very private and distinctive cottages, the Guest Cottage and Forest House with access to the Jacuzzi hot tub in the Forest Pavilion, the Sanctuary cottage with a private o'furo (soaking tub) in the outdoor bathhouse; the Bamboo Guest House with a private o'furo ( soaking tub); and the Gathering Hale , the Golden's private, personal residence. Heal and deepen your life... with massage , energy healing, counseling , personal growth workshops, and guided spiritual retreats. Discover and explore... local attractions and other Volcano area activities. See also our Hawaiian Links ... As featured in the New York Times. Kahu Malama 'aina Hosts and caretakers Intimate Getaways Peaceful Retreats Wander the magical paths... of this serene retreat, secluded in a lush native rainforest on the Big Island of Hawai`i, adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park , 3800 feet above the sea on the slopes of Kilauea, the most active volcano on earth. Volcano Rainforest Retreat is 28 miles (35 minutes) from the Hilo Airport and 103 miles (2 1/2 hours)from the Kona Airport. Need Directions? Map it out here . Kathleen and Peter Golden have created the retreat in this primal and sacred place and invite you to share in their aloha`aina, love of the land. View our guest cottages next the Guest Cottage the Forest House the Sanctuary the Bamboo Guest House the Gathering Place or go directly to our Booking Information. For fastest response to your Reservation Request please use our Information Form See also our Hawaiian Links P.O. Box 957 Volcano, Hawaii 96785 Local/ FAX (808) 985-8696 Toll Free (800) 550-8696 email: volrain@volcanoretreat.com