By AUDREY McAVOY

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s governor signed legislation Tuesday that boosts a tax imposed on hotel room and vacation rental stays in order to raise money to address eroding shorelines, wildfires and other consequences of climate change.

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The signing, which comes nearly two years after a Maui wildfire killed 102 people and wiped out almost all of Lahaina town, marks the nation’s first such levy to help cope with a warming planet.

Officials estimate the tax will generate nearly $100 million annually. The money will be used for projects like replenishing sand on eroding Waikiki beaches, promoting the use of hurricane clips to secure roofs during powerful storms and clearing flammable invasive grasses like those that fueled Lahaina’s wildfire.

Gov. Josh Green, speaking at a bill signing ceremony, said Hawaii needs to build more firebreaks and pay a fire marshal, a new position created after Lahaina that Green expects to be staffed within the next two months.

Green said other states and nations will need to act similarly to address climate disasters roiling the planet.

“There will be no way to deal with these crises without some forward-thinking mechanism,” Green said.

The measure adds an additional 0.75% to the daily room rate tax starting Jan. 1. Green said this amounts to an extra $3 tax on a $400 hotel room rate.

It also levies a new 11% tax on cruise ship bills starting July 2026, prorated for the number of days the vessels are in Hawaii ports, to bring cruise ship taxes in line with room taxes on land.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, surrounded by lawmakers and supporters, signs legislation in Honolulu on Tuesday, May 27, 2026 that raises the state’s tax on hotel rooms and other short-term accommodations to raise money to help the islands cope with climate change. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

Travelers to Hawaii already pay a significant room tax. With the new law, the state’s existing 10.25% tax on short-term accommodations will climb to 11%. Together with other state and county taxes, visitors will pay a nearly 19% levy on their accommodations — one of the highest rates in the country.

Hawaii’s hotels ultimately supported the bill, saying it would help improve the visitor experience. Green said the industry looked at “the greater good” for tourism, Hawaii and the planet.

Green initially proposed a bill that would put revenue from the tax increase into a dedicated fund, but lawmakers instead put the money into the state’s general fund. Their compromise measure calls on the governor to request funds from the Legislature for projects in the following areas: protecting native forests, plants and animals; enhancing climate resilience; and mitigating the effects of tourism on the environment. Green said they will collaborate to implement the law.

State Rep. Adrian Tam, the chairperson of the House tourism committee, said the state must earn the public’s trust that it will spend the money transparently and in the best way possible. He noted Hawaii’s tourism economy relies on a brand that’s in part dependent on a pristine natural environment.

“The visitor industry will struggle if we do not take action now,” said Tam, a Democrat representing Waikiki. “There will be nothing left for them to showcase to the rest of the world if our beaches are decimated, wildfires have taken over our towns and hikes left unmanaged.”

Four Minnesota teams with Olympic experience have qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials, including East Metro-based women’s squad, Team Peterson.

Team Peterson qualified by being one of the top three U.S. teams in the world rankings, No. 31 overall. The comprises sisters Tabitha Peterson and Tara Peterson, who grew up in Burnsville and cut their teeth at the St. Paul Curling club, as well as Cory Thiesse, Vicky Persinger and Taylor Anderson-Heide.

The Trails are scheduled for Nov. 11-16 in Sioux Falls, S.D., and feature four men’s and four women’s teams. The winning men’s and women’s teams will represent the U.S. at the Olympic Qualification Event in British Columbia, Canada, Dec. 6-19, where they will compete for the final two berths in the 2026 Games.

Duluth-based Team Shuster earned its berth last spring by winning the 2024 U.S. men’s nationals and finishing in sixth at the 2024 world championships. Skip John Shuster was part of teams that won an Olympic gold medal in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and a bronze medal in Torino, Italy, in 2006.

Team Peterson competed in the 2022 Beijing Games and in Pyeongchang, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively.

Also qualifying from Minnesota were men’s sides Team Dropkin (Duluth) and Team Dropkin (Chaska).

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White Bear Lake’s free, outdoor summer concert series Music on the Lawn returns this year at White Bear Lake United Methodist Church.

Organized by contemporary music director John Koziol, performances are on the first Sunday of each month — June through September. They will take place on an outdoor stage at 4 p.m. on the church’s north lawn at 1851 Birch Street. Performances will be indoors in cases of bad weather.

“The Music On the Lawn outdoor concert series has become an important part of our community outreach, a way to invite people to get to know more about us, and for us to celebrate music and the great outdoors together,” Koziol said.

On June 1, The Craig Clark Band will perform. On July 6, the event will feature Jennifer Grimm and Joe Cruz, a duo that plays jazz, R&B, and Latin standards. On Aug 3 Hitchville, a Midwest country band featuring Heidi Owens and Matt Kneefe, will play. And, on Sept. 7 the event will feature The Beatles Ensemble, a quintet of local musicians playing music by The Beatles.

For more information contact the church at office@wblumc.org or visit wblumc.org.

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By KATHY McCORMACK

A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher from immigration custody as she deals with a criminal charge of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.

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Colleagues and academics also testified on Kseniia Petrova’s behalf, saying she is doing valuable research to advance cures for cancer.

“It is excellent science,” Michael West, a scientist and entrepreneur in the biotech industry, testified on Petrova’s research papers. He said he does not know Petrova, but has become acquainted with her published work, citing one in which she explains that “by mapping embryonic development, novel ways of intervening in the biology of regeneration and aging.”

West said that Petrova’s medical research skills are highly sought after and that he himself would hire her “in a heartbeat.”

Petrova, 30, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana. She is expected to be brought to Massachusetts as early as Friday in preparation for a bail hearing next week on the smuggling charge, lawyers said in court.

Petrova had been vacationing in France, where she stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples to be used for research.

As she passed through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint in Boston Logan International Airport in February, Petrova was questioned about the samples. She told The Associated Press in an interview last month that she did not realize the items needed to be declared and was not trying to sneak anything into the country. After an interrogation, Petrova was told her visa was being canceled.

After being detained by immigration officials, she filed a petition in Vermont seeking her release. She was briefly detained in Vermont before she was brought to Louisiana.

Petrova was charged with smuggling earlier this month as U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss in Burlington set the hearing date on her petition. Reiss ruled Wednesday that the immigration officers’ actions were unlawful, that Petrova didn’t present a danger, and that the embryos were non-living, non-hazardous and “posed a threat to no one.”

Petrova’s lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, had asked Reiss to issue an order to stop the possibility of ICE re-detaining her if she is also released from detention in Massachusetts.

Reiss said she was reluctant “to enjoin an executive agency from undertaking future actions which are uncertain” and would rely on U.S. Department of Justice attorney Jeffrey Hartman’s comments that the government has no intention at this time to re-arrest Petrova.

Romanovsky had said Customs and Border Protection officials had no legal basis for canceling Petrova’s visa and detaining her.

The Department of Homeland Security had said in a statement on the social media platform X that Petrova was detained after “lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country.” They allege that messages on her phone “revealed she planned to smuggle the materials through customs without declaring them.”

Harvard had said in a statement that the university “continues to monitor the situation.”