State Rep. Gene Ward took issue with my recent dark view of our state and country’s discord and sent a thoughtful note arguing that “America is bigger and stronger than all of the wrinkles, disputes and differences between us.” Read more
My head these days is full of a song from my young folkie days called “The Merry Minuet,” written by Broadway composer Sheldon Harnick and recorded by the Kingston Trio in the late 1950s. Read more
Aloha Stadium Manager Ryan Andrews bashed Gov. David Ige’s decision to scrap a convoluted public-private partnership for a new stadium and entertainment district in Halawa, opting for a simpler path focused on the stadium. Read more
It’s the last Sunday of September and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
Money has context only in relation to what it buys, and big numbers thrown at us — especially by government — often come with so much spin the context is hopelessly obscured. A couple of examples: Read more
Every election, some candidates call for local government to be run more like a business while others say it can’t be done because government is a different animal from private business. Read more
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My uncle and aunt, Hank and Es, as they called each other, exemplified the emerging middle class after World War II. Read more
It’s the last Sunday in August and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
Voters rebuffed a vicious $2 million campaign by the Hawaii Carpenters Union to defeat Rep. Sylvia Luke in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, in retaliation for her refusal as House finance chair to permanently extend the 0.5% excise tax surcharge for the union’s cherished Honolulu rail project. Read more
My first election night was 1964 in Hilo, featuring the race for county chairman between Democrat Shunichi Kimura and Republican Elroy Osorio, relative upstarts who would both go on to distinguished careers. Read more
State Rep. Patrick Branco is running for Congress as a candidate of fresh ideas, but his most prominent idea is an awful one: using disreputable tactics to solicit outside special interests to attack his opponent, former state Sen. Jill Tokuda. Read more
It’s the last Sunday in July and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
Since the local Carpenters Union super PAC spent $3 million smearing former Gov. Ben Cayetano in his 2012 anti-rail mayoral race against Kirk Caldwell — for which it apologized after attaining its goal — politicians have tread lightly around the carpenters and rail lest they be next in the crosshairs. Read more
Just when we thought the lying and denying might end in the Red Hill fuel crisis that threatens Oahu’s major aquifer, we got a new shock: that despite Navy denials, there was video of November’s massive leak that fouled the drinking water of military families near Pearl Harbor. Read more
One reason I enjoy reading The New York Times is its writers appear to be under instruction to send even reasonably well-educated readers scrambling for the dictionary at least once in every article. Read more
The Democratic primary for governor has mostly been a dry affair involving the same slick TV ads played at numbing frequency. Read more
It’s the last Sunday in June and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
In these politically conflicted times, folks are constantly on the lookout for reasons to be suspicious of government. Read more
Now Mayor Rick Blangiardi says he can complete a functional system for $10 billion, but only if it ends two stops short of Ala Moana Center at Halekauwila and South streets and jettisons a Pearl Highlands parking garage key to opening the system to Central Oahu commuters. Read more
A month ago I wrote that it bordered on dereliction how the Honolulu Police Commission outsourced to a $145,000 mainland consultant most of the selection of a chief to replace Susan Ballard — and took a year in the process as the department swirled in disorder. Read more
It’s the last Sunday in May and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
