Duckworth positioning herself for political run?

Former Hawaii girl Tammy Duckworth ruled out a congressional run to represent Hawaii when she was here recently for Memorial Day and National Golden Age Games events. But now that she’s resigned her prestigious job as an assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs, the buzz is mounting on a Congress race — for a redrawn district in IIlinois, her present hometown.

The decorated Iraq War veteran, 43, ran and lost to Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam in 2006. Asked last month in Hawaii about a congressional run, Duckworth said: "As honored as I am by all those who’d like me to run here … my home and my National Guard unit are in Illinois. And if I run for office again, it’ll be there."

If she does, friends and family still here — her mom lives in Mililani — will be watching.

Electric cars charging up

How many people would buy a $33,000 all-electric car? Enough to keep making them, it turns out.

Nissan has ramped up production of its Nissan Leaf and hopes to sell up to 12,000 of the environmentally friendly cars worldwide by the end of this year, according to autoblog.com. That’s not a lot by conventional standards — in Hawaii alone, consumers bought about 34,000 cars and light trucks last year. And even with a $7,500 tax rebate, the cost of an electric car may be a little steep for the average consumer.

But in a place where driving distances are short and gas is really expensive, electric cars have a promising future.