During the still-ongoing construction phase, headlines about cracks in need of repair on the concrete elevated guideway and supports, and about rail and wheel widths not quite matching up gave an already skeptical public more reason for worry. Read more
For students nationwide over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic brought despair and difficulties, causing the deepest educational upheaval in U.S. history — and unfortunately, Hawaii was no exception. Read more
= On Jan. 23, a large passenger jet and a Cessna cargo plane came within 1,173 feet of each other on runway 4L at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Read more
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Mid-century modern structures, created between 1945 and 1969, continue to be prized and appreciated world ’round. But there’s little appreciation for aging public facilities created during the last century, if they’re not maintained and upgraded to meet present-day needs. Read more
Public parks are prized recreational assets for local residents and, especially at the beach locations, an iconic draw for thousands of tourists on any given day. Read more
A proposed care facility on a residential lot in the Mahinui community at Kaneohe Bay Drive has been granted a conditional use permit from Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP), provoking heated opposition from neighbors. Read more
The city appears to be on the job — at last — where policing the rules about vacation rentals are concerned. Read more
To put it bluntly: The time is not right to raise salaries for Honolulu’s top officials and City Council members, nor for top administrators of the state’s Department of Education. Read more
Where land is a precious commodity, as it is statewide and certainly on Oahu, decisions about how to use as much as 243 acres demand intense scrutiny. Read more
An aging system at an Oahu military base, with deteriorating facilities and equipment. An operation with spills that are fouling Hawaii’s environment. And military resistance to regulatory oversight that’s clouding needed transparency. Read more
In 1881, the year King Kalakaua circumnavigated the globe, William Purvis was in Australia, collecting seeds that would grow into the first macadamia nut trees in Hawaii. By the early 1920s, the rich, oily nuts were in commercial production here. Read more
Walmart’s closing creates an immediate challenge for Downtown. But the trends that induced Walmart to close can also drive a Downtown transformation — and all is far from lost. Read more
Sometimes a quick fix is all that’s needed. But all too often in Hawaii, where deferred maintenance has been the rule rather than the exception, deeper problems that go unsolved can cause damage far worse than the cost of a full repair. Read more
Hawaii’s low payments to health care providers who serve low-income and disabled Medicaid recipients are a problem for the state. When combined with its high cost of living, the paltry payments are a major factor in the state’s troubling physician shortage. Read more
Honolulu is heading in the right direction in its gun regulations, erecting some robust protections by defining areas where carrying a firearm outside the home will be barred. Read more
Real estate was always at the heart of the Native Hawaiian trust fund the Office of Hawaiian Affairs administered because the basis of the trust is a share of revenue from Hawaiian kingdom lands that were ceded to the U.S. upon annexation. Read more
Hawaii is at a precarious point in its tourism recovery, on two levels. The natural resources that draw visitors here are in need of recovery, with the increasing impact of travelers on shorelines, mountain trails and other attractions. Read more
Senate Bill 1, approved by the Legislature on Friday, is a legal fortress built to protect a person’s right to access or provide abortion services in Hawaii, even as that right is disappearing on the mainland. Read more
Deep into his lengthy State of the City speech this week, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi offered some welcome love for the West Side, addressing two of the area’s most contentious issues: traffic and the Waimanalo Gulch landfill. Read more
For Hawaii, seeing March 22 on the calendar as World Water Day, the annual United Nations observance, stirs anxieties as environmental hazards emanate from the Red Hill fuel storage facility. Read more
It’s just four months away, hard as that is to believe. And Honolulu wants to believe what Mayor Rick Blangiardi and his transit team promise for the long-stalled rail project — that it will start becoming useful in July. Read more
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