David Shapiro: Josh Green’s knack for building support should serve him well
Josh Green’s election as Hawaii’s next governor was an impressive show of strength by any measure. Read more
Volcanic Ash
David Shapiro: Legal marijuana would bring us little high from tax bounty
State legislators appear more primed than ever to legalize recreational marijuana in their upcoming session, and it could shape up as a big oversell. Read more
David Shapiro: Big money makes Hawaii elections look more like auctions
It’s the last Sunday in October and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
David Shapiro: Hawaii must work to keep national political ugliness away
The current ruckus over alleged election irregularities reminds me of a 1972 dispute when former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi demanded a recount in his race against Andy Anderson — not because he lost, but because he didn’t win by as big a margin as he expected. Read more
Volcanic Ash: Election lacks oomph despite many threats to democracy
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
David Shapiro: Whistling in the darkness of a world driven by antipathy
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
David Shapiro: Gov. David Ige gets it right on new Aloha Stadium in his final days
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
David Shapiro: Hawaii’s political riddle: Guilty conscience or none at all?
It’s the last Sunday of September and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
David Shapiro: Our public spending has more spin than Las Vegas slots
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
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David Shapiro: Mayor Rick Blangiardi moves to get Honolulu Hale down to business
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
David Shapiro: Healing our national divide must start with group therapy
My uncle and aunt, Hank and Es, as they called each other, exemplified the emerging middle class after World War II. Read more
David Shapiro: Lackluster candidates, absent voters dim primary election
It’s the last Sunday in August and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
David Shapiro: Carpenters union lost a battle on rail tax, but war still on
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
David Shapiro: Voting is easier than ever, yet democracy fights to live on
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
David Shapiro: To curtail dirty political campaigning, don’t help it succeed
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
David Shapiro: Voters crave clean government before pols clean us out
It’s the last Sunday in July and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
David Shapiro: Hawaii Carpenters Union wields oversize political hammer
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
David Shapiro: The Navy keeps getting sunk by its own lies on Red Hill
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
David Shapiro: How raining anchovies help us understand Hawaii politics
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
David Shapiro: Democrats’ first governor’s forum wakes up a quiet race
The Democratic primary for governor has mostly been a dry affair involving the same slick TV ads played at numbing frequency. Read more
David Shapiro: It would be a comedy of errors if they weren’t so real
It’s the last Sunday in June and time to “flASHback” on the month’s news that amused and confused: Read more
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