Stewart Yerton reports on business and the economy for Honolulu Civil Beat. Those are subjects he spent more than a decade reporting on — at publications in New York, New Orleans and Honolulu.
He’s written about the U.S. treasury bond market, the business of big law firms, controversies surrounding the world’s largest gold mine on the island of New Guinea and corruption in the Louisiana casino industry. His reporting on the human cadaver trade, published in The Times-Picayune newspaper, won the Society of American Business Editors & Writers 2005 Best in Business Award for Enterprise Reporting in the large newspaper category.
Stewart’s first big newspaper story, for The Birmingham (Ala.) News, was about a political battle between a small-town mayor and the volunteer firefighters who were trying to oust him from office because of the mayor’s 30-year-old conviction for making moonshine whiskey. The story briefly thrust the tiny town of Brookside, Ala., into the national spotlight when The Washington Post came to write about the comic-gothic brouhaha.
A member of the Hawaii State Bar Association since January 2012, Stewart graduated cum laude from University of Hawaii’s William S. Richardson School of Law, where he earned the environmental law certificate. His paper “Procedural Standing and the Hawaii Superferry Decision: How a Surfer, a Paddler, and an Orchid Farmer Aligned Hawaii’s Standing Doctrine with Federal Principles” was published in the Asian Pacific Law & Policy Journal in 2011. In law school, Stewart externed for U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra and served as the law school’s first Jarman Environmental Law Fellow. Stewart also has worked as an analyst with the Hawaii State Auditor’s office.
When not working, Stewart can often be found practicing yoga and Argentine tango, attempting to play guitar, and chauffeuring his two daughters around Oahu.
Hundreds of Lahaina fire victims came out strongly against a bill that could allow HECO to impose a new fee on customers to help prevent wildfires.
While the public awaits Maui County's official report on the cause of the fire, lawyers for victims and insurers say Pole 7A set off a cascade of events that led to a wall of flame.
Some legislators want an independent investigation because the state and Maui County are both involved in litigation over the August fires.
A long-awaited official cause for the Lahaina fire is being left to Maui County to determine, with help from the federal ATF.
The measure would expand the power of Hawaii's "insurers of last resort."
It's still not clear how much information about the fund or its applicants will be made public although settlements will be filed in court.
Hawaiian Electric Industries on Monday lost its bid to remove the cases to federal court.
The Hawaii Senate unanimously passed a bill to turn over much of West Maui to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, despite growing opposition to the idea.
The venue for dozens of wildfire lawsuits could be determined as soon as Monday.