Cloak and dagger, Honolulu style

Who knew Honolulu was Spooksville? Not scary, like in the children’s books and the coming cable TV series of that title. Spooks, like spies.

Hawaii seems to have such trouble pitching itself as anything but a sun-and-surf tourist mecca. So it seems strange, somehow, that the Aloha State has attracted the community of contractors that serve intelligence agencies. Edward Snowden is the second Hawaii civilian contractor in the last few months to come under the gun for talking too much.

Not that we’re alone in this, of course, and there’s a certain sense in being close to a hub of military bases such as ours.

But it’s natural to wonder whether the contractors are here at least partly as a legacy of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Hey, jobs are jobs, and Inouye was always good at snagging them for his home state.

Kalama Brothers are winners, too

Rising as Native Hawaiian music stars in California’s Orange County, Ryan and Kai Kalama — The Kalama Brothers — took home $50,000 from Monday night’s preview edition of NBC’s "The Winner Is …"

The singing brothers won the studio audience’s vote in their first two matches to stay alive for a chance at a $1 million grand prize. Competitors are given an opportunity to accept cash instead of a chance on advancing to the next round.

When the brothers saw the audience vote of 91-10 in the third round, they wisely chose the lesser money, reckoning correctly that the lopsided majority of the 101 voters preferred their competition, Katie Ohh. Even so, they were all smiles.