State gets a harsh lesson in early education

Let’s all take a moment to heave a sigh at this bit of discouraging news: Hawaii ranked almost at the bottom of the pile of states vying for a federal grant to improve its early-learning network.

The state’s plan for doing so was waved off by Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge evaluators, who called parts of it "minimally implemented" and "low quality." Harsh words, especially falling on the ears of state officials who have made early education advancement a major policy goal.

State lawmakers and leaders need to come up with better strategies, and do it in the coming legislative session. Learning from mistakes would be a good down payment on early-education efforts, at this point.

Putting the super in supermarket

Safeway’s newest Honolulu store opened to the public last weekend in a building likened in size and offerings with California metro outlets. It’s half a block away from the store’s old location at Pensacola and Beretania streets, which closed its doors as the new one opened.

Curiosity could lure customers from even outlying areas to the 65,000-square-foot store, more than double the area of Safeway’s previous store. The California-based company says the "podium" outlet — with parking at ground level and the store on the second floor reachable by wide elevator or escalator equipped with food carriers — is only the second with that design, the other being in Washington, D.C.