How’s about a consolation prize?

Just in case there was any doubt: The chances for Hawaii winning the Barack Obama presidential library sweepstakes are looking all but officially nil.

With the Illinois Legislature’s approval of a bill allowing the library to be on park land, the final hurdle for Chicago as the site has been cleared.

It didn’t help Hawaii’s cause that Cassandra Francis, the president of Friends of the Parks and leading spokeswoman for the opposition, abruptly resigned her post. Reportedly it had more to do with her relations with the nonprofit’s board, but it sure seems a happy coincidence for the Chicago bid.

By the way, it had been down to Chicago and New York City, anyway. Hawaii is barely mentioned these days as an also-ran.

Good luck to Case on running DLNR

Oh, and also by the way, Hawaii has a new director of Land and Natural Resources.

The state Senate on Friday confirmed Suzanne Case as the department’s director and chairwoman of the Land Board.

The calm confirmation of Case was in stark contrast to Gov. David Ige’s first choice for the job, Carleton Ching. Strong environmental pushback on Ching, a lobbyist for developer Castle & Cooke, forced Ige to withdraw the nomination at the 11th hour, and later appoint Case, who was executive director of The Nature Conservancy.

Good luck to Case, whose DLNR/BLNR kuleana includes diverse concerns such as public access trails, boating and ocean recreation, forestry and wildlife, and, oh yes, Thirty Meter Telescope permitting.