It’s the last Sunday in January and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused:
>> The Legislature convened with the Capitol enclosed in construction barriers and the public locked out for the third straight year. We’d be safer if it was steel bars locking the Legislature in.
>> Gov. David Ige gave his last State of the State speech and choked back emotion at the end. He realized it wasn’t a graduation speech and he still had a year to go.
>> There was an awkward pause when Ige’s teleprompter went blank and he silently waited for it to be fixed. He wanted to improvise, but couldn’t remember the words to “Cry Me a River.”
>> Melodrama reigned as UH football coach Todd Graham quit under pressure from griping players and grandstanding legislators, June Jones’ public lobbying for his old job fell incomplete and former QB Timmy Chang picked up the ball. A referee would have thrown flags for encroachment, unnecessary roughness, illegal procedure and unsportsmanlike conduct.
>> Chang promised talented assistants and exciting football. He could hire Sen. Donna Mercado Kim to coach body blows.
>> Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz demanded still more investigation to assign blame for the university’s woes. Let’s start with Dela Cruz helping leave UH without a stadium, slashing its academic budget and diverting $42 million of its building funds to a community center in his district.
>> Mayor Rick Blangiardi scorched UH leaders for “a major failure of leadership on multiple levels.” Says the leader who won’t comment on his city’s Red Hill water crisis and held a news conference on the omicron surge to say he wouldn’t act.
>> Blangiardi insisted he wasn’t commenting on UH football as mayor. He was commenting as a guy who coveted the UH athletic director job but got passed over.
>> The Hawaii Tourism Authority is refocusing to attract big-money visitors who’d volunteer to spend their vacations planting trees, cleaning beaches and clearing fish ponds. Next we’ll target tourists who get a kick out of being mugged and panhandled.
>> Councilman Augie Tulba said he sees no conflict of interest in continuing his comedy work while serving on the Council. What other comedian has a day job that provides so much material?
>> Dean Hazama resigned as a volunteer director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to take a $170,000-a-year executive position with HART. As taxpayers drown in rail’s red ink, its overseers keep swimming in gravy.
>> Blangiardi named former Fire Chief Kenneth Silva to the Police Commission as it faces widespread controversies and struggles to appoint a new chief. You know HPD is in trouble when it needs a fireman to douse the heat.
>> Honolulu resembled a war zone on New Year’s Eve as police said their hands were tied on illegal fireworks. And their eyes blindfolded and ears plugged.
And the quote of the month … from Timmy Chang: “I think this state’s at its best when we’re winning football games.” There’s something sadly true about that.
