Council Rejects Proposal To Ban All Plastic Bags At Checkout Counters
The Honolulu City Council chose not to pass a bill Wednesday to close a loophole in the city’s plastic bag ban. Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga opposed the full ban, saying the council should consider the...
View ArticleNeal Milner: I Wish I Could Be As Hopeful About The Future As Al Franken
Minnesota Sen. Al Franken’s new memoir, “Al Franken: Giant of the Senate,” is both seriously informative and very funny. But after just a few pages it became surprisingly personal for me, affecting the...
View ArticleBig Island Coffee Farmer Gets 30-Day Reprieve From Deportation
(AP) — A Big Island coffee farmer who entered the United States illegally from Mexico nearly three decades ago has been granted a 30-day reprieve on a deportation order. Andres Magana Ortiz, 43, must...
View ArticleState Board Delays Decision On Kakaako Housing Rules
Under pressure from developers and other opponents, a state board charged with managing development in Kakaako has rejected rule changes intended to make sure certain housing units always remain...
View ArticlePeople Who Have The Most to Gain From Rail Are Still Skeptical
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of an occasional series, Living With Rail, in which Civil Beat will visit communities along the 20-mile rail route from Kapolei to Ala Moana to hear...
View ArticleHawaii Teacher: The Reasons My Fellow Instructors Are Saying Goodbye
Each year I have taught, I have begun to dread the end of the school year more. The light at the end of the tunnel often induces an aura of carefree optimism among students and teachers. This is...
View ArticleHawaii Must Step Up In The Fight Against Climate Change
When Sen. Brian Schatz posted a photo of an almost overflowing Ala Wai canal on Facebook recently, he included a caption that read, “Only a foot or so from flooding. Barely any rain, just the tide....
View ArticleVIDEO: What It’s Like To Be A Cop In Honolulu
Last year the Honolulu Police Department launched an initiative to demystify police work and strengthen relationships with the community. “Coffee With a Cop” in Honolulu began in April 2016 amid...
View ArticleA Later Start Time May Be Helping This School’s Students Succeed
Kaimuki High School is the latest-starting public school in Hawaii, and according to a preliminary study, students there think the later morning bell may make for better health and academic...
View ArticleThe Sorry State Of Many Honolulu Parks
In the 1980s, Donald Kapaku coached his son’s baseball team at Kalanianiole Beach Park in Nanakuli. On a June afternoon almost 40 years later, he sat in the same dugout with his bat and gear, waiting...
View ArticleReader Rep: When Public Officials Hide Information From The Public
Hawaii wouldn’t even need an Office of Information Practices, if public servants simply followed the open-government intent of state law. Instead, the overworked, underfunded and understaffed OIP...
View ArticleSurvey Of Homeless Kids To Include Sexual Orientation Information
A national study estimates 40 percent of homeless youths identify as LGBTQ, but outreach workers don’t know if that’s true in Honolulu. That’s about to change. The University of Hawaii Manoa’s Center...
View ArticleThe Ocean Belongs To All Of Us
Last week we celebrated World Oceans Day against a backdrop of monumental challenges, from the U.S. backing out of the Paris Climate Agreement, to the highest-ever (410 ppm) carbon dioxide reading at...
View ArticleAppeals Court Upholds Hawaii’s Challenge To Trump Travel Ban
SEATTLE (AP) — Another U.S. appeals court stomped on President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban Monday, saying the administration violated federal immigration law and failed to provide a valid reason...
View ArticleChin ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ Supreme Court Will Back Hawaii On Travel Ban
President Donald Trump’s revised executive order on immigration suffered another major setback Monday, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in favor of...
View ArticleDenby Fawcett: Church Can’t Seem To Stop Using Name Of Pedophile Priest
Sometimes people call me with information that’s so maddening I wish I had never heard it. Such was a call I received recently from a friend who told me St. Anthony of Padua Church in Kailua is still...
View ArticleMedical Bills Exceed $1 Million For Woman Accidentally Shot By Cop
Hyun Ju Park, a bartender at King’s Sports Bar, was accidentally shot in the stomach by an off-duty Honolulu police officer in 2015 while he was drinking there with colleagues. Newly filed court...
View ArticleWorld Youth Congress Comes To Honolulu
A global initiative for innovative ideas began in our islands and created a bold blueprint for youth to be agents for social change and sustainable development. The World Youth Congress is a global...
View ArticleIs Hawaii Aquarium Fishing Headed For A ‘Slow-Motion Shutdown’?
Commercial aquarium fish collection may no longer be a viable career in Hawaii unless Gov. David Ige can be convinced to take out his veto pen in the next two weeks. Senate Bill 1240, which the...
View ArticleHow TV Cultivates Authoritarianism – And Helped Elect Trump
Many gallons of ink (and megabytes of electronic text) have been devoted to explaining the surprise victory of Donald Trump. Reasons range from white working-class resentment, to FBI Director James...
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