It is, overwhelmingly, good news that the adult smoking rate in Hawaii has dropped to the third lowest in the nation, to 14.1 percent, compared with the national average of 15.1 percent. After all, the health risks of cigarettes are well known: lung cancer, stroke and heart disease. The state has made a big push over the years to help smokers quit; call the Hawaii Tobacco Quitline at 800-QUIT-NOW or hawaiiquitline.org.

The initiative’s overall success does come at a price, however. Ironically, funding for the University of Hawaii Cancer Center — much as it cheers the health strides — decreases as more folks quit. That’s because a portion of the cigarette tax makes up a key portion of the center’s budget.

A quick, secretive reburial for Marcos

Well that was quick — though technically, it took 27 years.

One-time Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was quickly buried late last week in a military heroes’ cemetery in Manila, decades after his September 1989 death in Honolulu. It was done in secrecy amid growing opposition to a ruling by that nation’s high court allowing the burial there; many were preparing to protest given the former dictator’s controversial, murderous reign. For four years after his death, Marcos’ body was kept in a temperature-controlled private mausoleum at Oahu’s Valley of the Temples, before making it back to his hometown of Ilocos Norte.