The Alabama bill establishing a near-total abortion ban was signed into law on Wednesday, but does not take effect for six months. In the meantime, as its supporters had apparently hoped, the restrictive measure is touching off a flurry of potential challenges that could produce a legal case that overturns Roe v. Wade.

Three years before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down that landmark decision, in 1973, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortion as a largely elective procedure. The new Alabama law harkens back to the repealed Hawaii statute, enacted in 1871, that permitted abortion only if a woman’s life was in danger.

Too many still homeless, data show

The most recent statistics on Oahu’s homelessness crisis, already a sad talking point, became a bit sadder on Wednesday. The annual Point In Time Count, a census of those unhoused and in shelters, in January was unveiled showing a 4% drop in overall homelessness.

But as sometimes happens, better figures from shelters came in subsequently, with the result that the homelessness decline was only 1%.

Even a tiny improvement is a life-changer for real people, of course. But we must pick up the pace.