Reader Rep: When Marketing Replaces The News
The Washington Post added an operations-wide mantra – “Democracy dies in darkness” – during the first 100 days of this disaster drill of a presidency. The media company hadn’t needed a catchy slogan in...
View ArticleWhat Makes North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un Tick?
Kim Jong Un is a “smart cookie,” President Donald Trump said recently of North Korea’s leader. “He’s 27 years old,” Trump mused. “His father dies, (he) took over a regime. So say what you want but that...
View ArticleStopping Bad Behavior On TheBus
The post Stopping Bad Behavior On TheBus appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.
View ArticleWhy It’s Taking So Long To Open Hawaii’s Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
It’s been almost two years since Hawaii legalized medical marijuana dispensaries and nearly a year since the first were expected to open. It’s still unclear when the first one will. None of the the...
View ArticleArguments Conclude On Hawaii’s Challenge Of Trump’s Revised Travel Ban
SEATTLE (AP) — The Latest on the appeal of President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban (all times HST): 10:05 a.m.: At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to address...
View ArticleIf Property Taxes Are Raised For Rail, A Real Rebellion May Result
It is perhaps fitting that on Mother’s Day, as I reflect on my life as a mother, I feel compelled to write once again about the Honolulu rail fiasco. I wonder what kind of tax burden my boys (and...
View ArticleFederal Judges Question Whether Trump’s Travel Ban Is A ‘Muslim Ban’
The Trump administration faced tough questioning from a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the second time in four months as it defended its revised executive order on immigration. In...
View ArticleSocial Media Helps Spot Public Health Threats — But Only For The Rich?
Think of the last time you had food poisoning. Did you tweet about it? Did you Google your symptoms? Or did you write an angry review on Yelp? Every day, people use the internet to seek and share...
View ArticleDenby Fawcett: ‘The Reports Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated’
I clicked on my computer early last Tuesday to see if any news stories had been posted about the death of my Vietnam War reporting friend, Anne Morrissy Merick. They had, and in some cases, I was...
View ArticleTrump’s Review Of National Monuments Panned In Public Comments
The Trump administration’s review process for 29 national monuments, including the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, is sparking some outrage. The official public comment period began Friday,...
View ArticleWhy The Demise Of Political Parties In Hawaii Costs The Public Its Voice
It was easy for Democrats to be smug when Hawaii Rep. Beth Fukumoto resigned from the Republican Party over her colleagues’ unfriendly response to her criticism of the misogynistic carney huckster and...
View ArticleDid Hawaii Lawmakers Just Give Public Worker Unions Too Much Power?
Hawaii lawmakers with little fanfare passed a bill this session that, if signed into law by Gov. David Ige, would fundamentally shift the power balance between the government and public employee unions...
View ArticleMazie Hirono Diagnosed With Kidney Cancer
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono on Tuesday announced that she has kidney cancer. “During a routine pre-operative physical for my eye surgery, my doctor discovered an abnormality on my chest X-ray,” she said in...
View ArticleACLU: 10 Questions For The Next Honolulu Police Chief
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii wants to make sure Honolulu takes seriously its duty of selecting its next police chief. On Tuesday, the ACLU sent a four-page letter to the Honolulu Police...
View ArticleFee Increases For Parking Meters, Bus Fares Clear Another Hurdle
Proposed increases in parking meter fees, bus fares and the vehicle weight tax were moved ahead Tuesday by the Honolulu City Council Budget Committee. The committee postponed action until Wednesday...
View ArticleHART Sues State Blood Bank To Take Land For Rail
The agency in charge of the Honolulu rail project has filed a lawsuit to take property where the state’s non-profit blood bank manufactures, stores and distributes Hawaii’s blood supply. The Honolulu...
View ArticleCity Leaders Must Face The Realities Of Rail
The city’s rail project is in trouble. The trouble is not that the Legislature “failed” to approve billions of dollars in new taxes. The real trouble is that the Mayor and certain council members seem...
View ArticleTad Bartimus: Maui Grads Bring Passion To Problem Solving
Every generation looks over its shoulder at the one gaining on it and thinks the whippersnappers will take the world to hell in a hand basket. This assumption is easily disproved at celebrations like...
View ArticleSaying ‘That’s Just Hawaii’ Doesn’t Cut It Anymore
It’s funny how far human patience can go. Hawaii residents can be extremely tolerant of the conditions around them. For instance, the cost of living here is high by comparison to the mainland. We call...
View ArticleHow House Leaders Scuttled Better Pay For Foster Parents
As a foster care parent for a quarter of a century, Raynette Ah Chong has seen a lot of kids — 108 to be exact — come through her Kahaluu home in Windward Oahu. Ah Chong and her husband Edward love the...
View Article