How Christmas Came to Hawaii

Find common ground to foster holiday cheer

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted December 23, 2023

Merry Wet Christmas for Honolulu BWS

Hawaii's outward migration confirmed in U.S Census Bureau's report

Debt: Hawaii Ranks #1

The More Green Talks About Homelessness, the Less He Does

Borreca: … Green knows he heads a state with problems; the biggest, mostly costly and apparently unsolvable one is housing. No governor has ignored the high cost of housing Hawaii’s citizens, but no one can walk or drive without seeing the peril of those living without secure housing. Just last week Honolulu emergency services rescued seven homeless people living under a bridge who were swept into a raging stream near Kapiolani Boulevard.

In that constitutionally- required budget message, Green 14 times used the word “homeless,” which gives one an understanding of what is top of mind for Hawaii’s chief executive….

No Hawaii official has found an immediate solution for the Maui crisis, or replaced the thousands of homes destroyed in the fire. (CLUE: ‘FEMA Trailers’) And even if there was a solution for the homes burned, it would not change the permanent problem of affordable housing for local families statewide…..

• SA: Column: A looming monster wave of homeless older adults
• Housing Emergency Designed to Fail 
• Total Fail: After Closing Sole ‘Kauhale’, Green’s Homeless Coordinator Is Leaving Post

read … On Politics: Gov. Green’s retooled budget keeps eye on housing, statewide

Hawaii lags in preparing kids for kindergarten, state DOE report shows

SA: … On the Johns Hopkins University Ready for Kindergarten assessment, 29.6% of the kindergartners earned overall scores that classified them as “demonstrating readiness”; 39.5% were in the second tier, “approaching readiness”; and 30.9% were in the third tier, “emerging readiness.”

But results varied widely by school complex and island, often reflecting socioeconomic and demographic differences between neighborhoods — ranging from single-digit percentages of children demonstrating readiness for kindergarten in the Farrington, Waianae, Lanai and Hana complexes, to 58% in the Kaiser complex in East Oahu….

read … Hawaii lags in preparing kids for kindergarten, state DOE report shows

Lahaina Fire News:

• Lahaina Family Counts Christmas Blessings Despite The Uncertainty Ahead - Honolulu Civil Beat

• Jonathan Okamura: Hawaii Will Be A State Of Inequality For At Least The Next Decade - Honolulu Civil Beat 

• What made the Lahaina Fire so deadly? This is what scientists think (sfchronicle.com)

Legislative News:

• New report on cycle of poverty in Hawaii urges state lawmakers to find solutions | News | kitv.com

• It ‘shows a lot of disrespect’: Council OKs Puna route study after initially rejecting bill

• December 23, 2023 issue of The Environmental Notice

• John Pritchett: Stocking Stuffer - Honolulu Civil Beat

• Editorial: Array of housing success depends on funds | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

• U.S. Rep. Ed Case pushes bill to protect ornamental reef fish | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

• Will the new crackdown on illegal fireworks be successful? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

QUICK HITS:

• Hawaii DOE | Purple Star NORBERT Hawai'i Award presented to 12 schools by Joint Venture Education Forum (hawaiipublicschools.org)

• One bird’s story of hope lifts spirits of conservationists

• Overheated Leeward Park To Get Shade Trees — And Volunteers To Water Them - Honolulu Civil Beat

• Column: The need for peace, from Lahaina to Gaza | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)