Salary Commission finalizes double-digit raises for state officials
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura said it’s too soon to say whether legislators in future sessions would vote against accepting their raises. Read more
Dan Nakaso
Dan Nakaso is the Capitol Bureau chief at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He has been an editor and reporter in Hawaii for nearly 30 years, starting at the former Honolulu Advertiser and now at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
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Before then, he worked as an editor or reporter at the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Examiner and San Jose Mercury News (twice). Prior to becoming a professional journalist, Nakaso was a reporter and the top editor at the San Jose City College student newspaper before becoming a reporter and the top editor at the San Jose State University Spartan Daily newspaper. He attended San Jose City College and San Jose State University simultaneously to get as much newspaper experience as possible. During his college years, Nakaso had six professional newspaper internships, including two at the Los Angeles Times and was hired as a full-time reporter two weeks into his second internship at the Times.
At the Star-Advertiser, Nakaso covers a wide range of stories but has focused on coverage of homeless issues since 2015. He is currently assigned to the Star-Advertiser's Capitol bureau.
Latest Stories by Dan Nakaso
UH not on ‘chopping block,’ Green says
Double-digit raises considered for state officials
The Commission on Salaries on Thursday will consider finalizing recommendations that would give the governor a series of pay raises totaling 27% until mid-2030, in addition to 44% overall pay increases for state legislators over the next five years. Read more
Plan to raise hotel room tax for climate change among surviving bills
Perennial efforts to allow different forms of gambling, such as a lottery, and legalize adult recreational marijuana use, however, once again appear dead, among hundreds of other bills that have stalled. Read more
Green looks for common ground with Trump to help Hawaii
Gov. Josh Green said he has chosen a more conciliatory, collaborative approach with President Donald Trump if it means preserving as much federal support for Hawaii as possible. Read more
U.S. Rep. Tokuda documenting fallout of federal firings
U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda remains alarmed over ongoing job cuts among Hawaii-based federal workers, which could lead to more workers leaving the islands while residents lose access to federal services they rely on. Read more
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Tokuda wears opposition to Trump on her pink sleeves
Hawaii Rep. Ed Case called Trump’s address “by far the most divisive, polarizing and destructive” out of 11 he’s witnessed while in Congress, including seven by Republican presidents and four by Democratic presidents. Read more
Shelter’s focus on health care redirects homeless patients’ lives
The new Aala medical respite shelter on North King Street has taken in and treated some of Oahu’s oldest and most seriously ill homeless patients and gotten several lives pointed in positive directions so that 14 have been reunited with their-once estranged families, mostly on Oahu, and another six have gone back to the mainland in barely nine months since opening. Read more
Hawaii delegation urges FEMA to extend Maui rent subsidies
About 30 percent of survivor households live below the poverty line in West Maui, where landlords continue to drive up rents following the August 2023 wildfires that destroyed nearly 4,000 structures, most of them homes. Read more
Newest shelter targets homeless trauma, mental health
The first of 24 homeless patients are scheduled to move into the newest joint state-city homeless shelter of its kind focused on treating mental health, memory and brain injuries. Read more
Housing, clean energy bills pass key Hawaii legislative committee
Legislators in both the House and Senate are working to move out bills ahead of the March 6 deadline to send bills that originate in the House or Senate to the opposite chamber . Read more
Trump policies threaten University of Hawaii ethnic studies programs
Trump’s attack on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility places a target directly on UH, according to political analyst Neal Milner. Read more
Hensel details confusion and impact of Trump’s executive orders on UH
The University of Hawaii has joined other Hawaii institutions forced to respond to President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders to eliminate diversity and race-based programs and practices — while also putting at risk over $386 million in federal funding used to pay thousands of UH employees, UH President Wendy Hensel told the 10-campus system Tuesday. Read more
UH students on the hook for $42M in COVID hazard pay to employees
University of Hawaii regent Neil Abercrombie is pressing for answers on how much UH employees would receive in back pay for putting themselves at risk while working during the COVID-19 era. Read more
Hawaii GOP hopes era of cooperation leads to new laws
A handful of House Republican bills have passed out of their initial committee hearings for the first time in a decade, giving Republicans hope that all of the talk this year of cooperation between majority Democrats and minority Republicans in both the House and Senate may be real — and that their ideas could become reality as new state laws. Read more
Gabbard’s intelligence role will be tested immediately
Gabbard’s meteoric rise from local politics in Hawaii to a Cabinet-level position in the second Trump administration was on the minds of island politicians of all stripes. Read more
Returning homeless to the mainland could become permanent
Popular and successful efforts that have returned over 800 homeless people to the mainland since 2015 would become permanent if either of two bills in the state Legislature becomes law this session. Read more
Bill requiring medical students to stay in Hawaii dies in House
A Senate bill remains alive that would require University of Hawaii medical school students to remain in Hawaii for two years after they complete their residencies, but the House version has died. Read more
Coalition releases Hawaii’s first plan for water safety
Hawaii’s first water safety plan has been released in an effort to reduce drownings in an island state with America’s highest rate of visitor drownings and second highest for residents. Read more
UH Cancer Center backs bills to boost cigarette tax 2 cents
The University of Hawaii Cancer Center would receive a welcomed funding boost if the Legislature increases the state’s cigarette tax by another 2 cents, while a separate Senate bill would have forced the center to merge with the UH medical school, which UH previously said would jeopardize the center’s accreditation. Read more
Senate committees move fireworks bills as sixth Aliamanu victim dies
On the same day that a sixth victim died following the Aliamanu New Year’s fireworks blast, various state Senate committees passed bills Wednesday that would increase fines and penalties for people who fire off illegal pyrotechnics and also make it easier for law enforcement to cite and arrest them and for prosecutors to win convictions. Read more
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