Lawyers in cases awaiting trial are forbidden by rules of conduct from making statements that could prejudice public opinion and eventually influence a jury. However, a Honolulu prosecutor has gone too far in trying to keep secret from the public a video of a fatal shooting that certainly will be used as evidence in the murder trial of a State Department special agent.
Every summer kids celebrate their brief escape from the school campus, but in those months there's a chance to learn some of their most important lessons in a different kind of classroom.
By Vicki Viotti Lots of city officials breathed a huge sigh of relief May 4 when Hawaii's Supreme Court struck down a looming deadline: a state restriction against Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill accepting garbage after July 31. It doesn't mean the search for a new landfill site will end, however; it just means the city no longer has a gun held to its head.
Hawaii residents can find a lot to celebrate in the numbers coming out about joblessness in recent days, while still recognizing where we've fallen short: help for the long-term unemployed.
While much of the nation debates whether a couple of the same gender should be allowed to marry, Abercrombie administration officials have challenged matrimony between a state prison inmate and an opposite-sex civilian — a constitutional right that the U.S. Supreme Court protected 25 years ago.
Hawaii residents should take heart at the news that both the Hawaii Medical Center's shuttered hospitals, in Ewa and Liliha, have attracted serious interest from purchasers in the private sector.
Allotting bonus money to reward exceptionally effective school principals is a worthy program to test in Hawaii schools, so it's encouraging to see a commitment to such an experiment from both the state Department of Education and the principals' union.
Compensation packages for university executives have skyrocketed in recent decades and the University of Hawaii's regents must exercise increased care in assuring the right person for the job, at the right price.
The relocation of 2,500 Marines and their families from Japan to Hawaii is welcome for their addition to the economy, but the question is where to put them.
A weekend restriction on commercial activity at world-famous Kailua Beach Park is scheduled to begin on July 1, even as the City Council is feeling pressure from residents to adopt a total ban throughout the week.
By Lee Catterall After years of struggling to provide social services to Hawaii's needy, nonprofit organizations emerged from this year's Legislature with the means to carry out their functions near to what they sought. But they are far from complacent.
Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight — and who confronts the issue honestly — will have to admit that it is within their power to succeed, but that they are up against some truly terrible headwinds.
By Lee Catterall One of every five Hawaii residents has reached the age of 60, and the Legislature has recognized the influx by creating an Aging and Disability Resource Center to help the elderly find services ranging from health programs to transportation and housing.
Olympian archery medalist Khatuna Lorig trained 16-year-old actress Jennifer Lawrence for her bow-and-arrow role as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games," which has lured many newcomers to the nearest range.
The troubles of Hawaii's State Historic Preservation Division have been around almost long enough to become historic artifacts themselves. Bringing operations up to the levels insisted on by the National Park Service seemingly has become a Herculean effort.
The number of chronically homeless people has increased recently in Honolulu, prompting Mayor Peter Carlisle to launch an ambitious and needed project for the city to buy a building in urban Honolulu for their needs.
Hawaii's leaders never seem to get a firm grasp on one problem, despite the fact that it literally surrounds them.
There's particular, sad irony in the passage of one bill by state lawmakers last week, Senate Bill 2858.
Doctors and the medical malpractice lawyers who sue them have been at each other's throats for decades, further burdening a medical profession already struggling to manage escalating costs and a shortage of doctors.
The first full week of May is annually recognized as National Travel and Tourism Week, a tradition first celebrated in 1984 after Congress passed a joint resolution.
The state Capitol was a whirlwind of activity this year, not all of it in the clear view of the public.
Honolulu's Summer Fun program is one of the municipal legacies of the late Mayor Frank Fasi's long tenure in office, something that has simply become part of the city's recreational landscape.
The American Civil Liberties Union has come down in favor of legislation now before the City Council that seeks to amend the regulations that govern "expressive activities" in public parks.
One year has passed since the state Board of Education began operating as an appointed rather than elected body, and there are signs of discomfort.
OliverMcMillan, developers of the $380 million luxury condominium at 850 Kapiolani Blvd. named Symphony Honolulu, have persuaded state authorities and some community groups that their high-rise tower should be cleared for construction with the company’s preferred alignment: the broad face of the building along Kapiolani.
Aloha Stadium is among the nation's busiest sports venues, but swap meets bring in twice the revenue than from spectator events in the stadium.
Honolulu mayoral committee's recommended choice of Kailua as the site of a new landfill stunned residents of the area, but the admission that it was a mistake — that a site in Kahuku was the top spot — casts doubt on the whole process, especially since the rankings were not accompanied by full explanations of the choices.
By Vicki Viotti The community concern over a boulder perched above homes in Kalihi Valley in recent weeks served as a fresh reminder that Hawaii has a persistent problem because of its crumbling geological conditions.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye on Tuesday gave his home state its first heads-up on the big news: The U.S. Department of Defense intends to move more than 2,500 of its personnel from Japan to Hawaii, after paring back what had been a $21.1 billion military ramp-up in Guam.
Plastic bags can be carried by a breeze, littering the landscape and finding their way to the ocean, where they are a bane to the marine environment.
Hawaii's prisons have overflowed in recent years, spilling over inmates to private incarceration on the mainland, and state legislators finally are on the verge of taking a major step forward in reducing the population behind bars without compromising public safety.
Some state legislators have gone beyond what the Abercrombie administration has suggested is needed to kick-start the economy through shovel-ready public construction projects.
Perhaps looking for ways to expedite the progress of various projects as the state tries to emerge from recession, state legislators are considering bills that would minimize citizen participation.
Ford Island has been recognized as an important site in American history after the Japanese attacked it and Battleship Row on Dec.
Daniel Grabauskas, the rail project's newly arrived chief executive officer, has set a high bar for improving public engagement in, and disclosure about, the $5.27 billion project set to begin construction today.
By Suzanne Case As a professional conservationist, I'm haunted by the thought of a future retrospective on the most pressing environmental issue of our time: climate change.
By Lee Catterall Many Hawaii residents passing through Honolulu International Airport, which opened small in 1927 and became "international" in 1951, would agree that the sprawling facility is showing its age.
The Democratic primary race for one of Hawaii's most powerful political posts, a seat in the U.S. Senate, has national implications for the closely divided chamber.
By itself, the state fining the City and County of Honolulu for violations of any sort can result in shrugged shoulders for Oahu taxpayers who both pay and collect the fine.
Tax-exempt status is a deal that a nonprofit strikes with a government, state or federal. In exchange for receiving a public good from the nonprofit's service, the government gives up tax revenue.
The state Supreme Court's ruling in January that determined how boundary lines should be drawn for this year's election in August made scant reference to the agency created primarily for that purpose: the U.
Hawaii seems to be a late arrival where early learning is concerned. According to a recent national study, it is one of only 11 states that lacks publicly supported program that would make preschool broadly if not universally available.
Conflicts over two big issues — land use and liability — are all but inevitable in a state where both can add so much to the cost of doing business.
The solution to the rush-hour bottleneck along the three lanes in each direction of the H-1 freeway in Makiki seems temptingly simple: Grab the paint brush and turn the freeway into four lanes each way.
By Vicki Viotti A member of the public can keep track of a bill on the road to becoming a law, but it's akin to Hansel and Gretel following a trail of breadcrumbs through the dark forest.
As the Legislature moves into its final push to reconcile differences over the proposals that are still alive, things can get pretty frenzied and confusing — with most of the action obscured in the murkiness of the conference-committee process.
The city is looking into the possibility of building an ocean safety substation next to the Waikiki Aquarium along Kapiolani Park's beach, but the process may not be as easy as imagined. Nor should it be, given the precious nature of public waterfront sites.
At least as far as reforms in teacher evaluations are concerned, the ball has now landed back where it belongs: in the court of the state Department of Education and its overseers.
The state Land Use Commission looks poised to approve the reclassification of 768 square miles of active farmland to allow Castle & Cooke's proposed Koa Ridge housing development between Mililani and Waipio.
The state's troubled public charter school system is poised for an ambitious overhaul.
The City Council has clearly weakened in its resolve to curb the use of plastic bags in Oahu shops, to the point where the public has to wonder: What would be the point of enacting Bill 10 at all?
There's a long, bumpy road ahead before Oahu can claim it has bike-friendly roads, but Honolulu's cycling community wants everyone to know they're not turning back.
By Lee Catterall Five City Council members signed onto bold legislation in January that would yank the Honolulu Board of Water Supply from its semi-autonomous power and ask voters this year to place it under control of the city’s executive branch.
Where to start on a cluster of circumstances so tragic that outrage grows as each layer peels away?
More than 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those, and military physicians are challenged to examine each individually.
The preamble to the platform of the Democratic Party of Hawaii includes pledges to uphold a range of "ideas and values. No. 9 on the list is a commitment to government reform, "supporting transparency in government and free, fair, and democratic elections."
When there is an impulse to change people's behavior, passing a law is often seized on as a logical response.
When Act 1 was signed into law last year, supporters celebrated it as an affirmation that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, should have equal access to the protection and benefits afforded by state government.
Abuse of prescription drugs does not seem to be a problem of epidemic proportions in Hawaii — yet — but there is evidence that it is growing, as is the trend nationwide.
It was an extraordinary — nay, historic — accomplishment. A land settlement between the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state, approved by the Legislature on Friday, effectively settled Native Hawaiian claims on income from public trust lands from 1978 to 2012.
By Vicki Viotti Futuristic dreaming used to involves a lot of airy, skyborne images. Picture jet packs and all those iconic depictions from a half-century ago.
The chances that the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the constitutionality of the federal health care act are considered slim, judging from the justices' remarks in last week's three-day session.
Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
The recent settlement of the legal mess in the Office of Elections should be greeted with a huge sigh of relief by voters, because that particular state agency doesn't need any more complications in what will be an enormously challenging election season.
While there have been cases of private-sector employees losing their jobs because of absenteeism due not only to sickness but from situations stemming from domestic violence, government intervention would be an extraordinary and wrong reaction.
Public school teachers are under pressure this week to agree to an eventual performance-based compensation to survive the "high risk" status since Hawaii was included among select states winning Race to the Top grants.
The state Legislature handed the University of Hawaii the freedom two years ago to essentially extend construction projects to companies that had been involved in the design of the same project. The university wants to extend what amounts to an exemption from state procurement law, but legislators should be seriously questioning the objectiveness and fair competitiveness of what was regarded as a pilot project to kick-start a struggling economy.
Last week’s case of malfeasance and lax supervision of inmates on “work lines” by city parks supervisors — inmates who ended a brief work shift with an extended swim at a public beach — is wrong on so many levels it surely makes any rational person’s head spin.
The practice of state and county employees “spiking” their pensions by booking huge amounts of overtime late in their careers has angered Hawaii taxpayers and unnerved some legislators.
State legislators called for exempting state and county construction projects from the standard environmental review process early in the session because of the economic recession.
By Vicki Viotti The national uproar over health care reform, centering in Washington, D.C., has not echoed with anything approaching full volume in distant Hawaii.
By Vicki Viotti A list of some elements of the Affordable Care Act are already in effect and elements that have not yet been rolled out (most taking effect in 2014).
The Pentagon launched its Troops to Teachers program in 1994 as the American military was shrinking its post-Cold War forces and thousands of retiring members of the armed forces sought civilian jobs.
One of the key elements of the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act is creating health insurance exchanges — marketplaces in each state for insurance purchase by individuals and employees of small businesses who otherwise can't access coverage.
Congress has stumbled in its attempt to give permanent resident status to undocumented students brought into the United States illegally by their parents, but 13 states have stepped forward to provide them affordable college opportunities.
At some point, the time for talking comes to an end, and in the case of the Hawaii State Teachers Association labor dispute with the state, that moment arrived long ago.
Oahu residents await, with bated breath, the release of a final list of up to 22 proposed sites for a new landfill to replace or supplement the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill as it approaches capacity.
It's Monday morning, and we all know what that means to many people in Hawaii: Another work week gets off to a rough start, beginning with the bumpy ride to work.
For all his professed concern for the taxpayer in his fight against the planned rail system, former Gov. Ben Cayetano is not serving the public interest with his latest tactic of cherry-picking through old communications in his effort to turn public opinion against the project — and to boost his own candidacy for mayor.
By Lee Catterall With a new rail transit system in place, Honolulu's esteemed bus system will never be the same.
Even tolerant motorists have good reason to disdain those who run red lights or speed dangerously, but using traffic-camera technology to bring the reckless to justice carries its own risks.
The current turmoil in Oahu's emergency-services and overall medical care system has underscored with sharp clarity just how crucial, and vulnerable to economic shifts, these services are.
Hawaii has joined the roster of 17 states that have introduced bills proposing state-owned banks, as one means of addressing the crisis in the housing sector and the challenges of financing business growth.
Ten years ago, what's now called Sunshine Week — a public awareness campaign centered on the need for government to be open and accessible — had its start in Florida.
The state Department of Education's decision to expand its offerings of online courses is a welcome one, long overdue and signifying a determination to overcome unevenness in access to highly qualified teachers, one of the problems diminishing the quality of public school education.
Encouraged by Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Kakaako is being planned for ambitious development that includes transfer of waterfront acreage to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs and building of inland residential skyscrapers.
By Star-Advertiser staff The real mark of fiscal prudence is not what government does when the red ink's flowing, as it did in the wake of the economic recession. It's the actions taken when revenues improve, as they have begun to do.
Republicans in 10 states took part in Super Tuesday's presidential nominating contest, nudging Mitt Romney a step closer to the goal, but Hawaii GOP voters will have an opportunity next week to play a direct role for the first time.
The sound of sabers rattling is a fearsome one, particularly given that the weapons actually being contemplated are more destructive by many magnitudes.
A state commission that has redrawn political districts in Hawaii for the upcoming primary election -- and for the next 10 years -- has put election officials on ever-shorter notice to prepare for election day. If the new state map is approved by the commission today but challenged legally, the dissidents' arguments will need to be addressed quickly in court.
When is an 89-day temporary job contract not a temporary job contract? In Hawaii, it's when the contract gets extended time and time again for the same government worker, sometimes to the tune of 10 or 11 years.
In theory, the state's broadband initiative, championed by the Abercrombie administration, outlines goals that have wide appeal, that of "providing affordable, ultra high-speed Internet access for all of Hawaii's citizens," according to one description on the Web.
What part of "no" does OliverMcMillan not understand? The San Diego firm is the first to come up with a high-rise project since the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the quasi-independent state agency overseeing Kakaako redevelopment, last fall approved its new rules guiding that process.
By Vicki Viotti The way Victor Geminiani sees it, Hawaii's high cost of living has produced a kind of pipeline of homelessness. Many household budgets are so thinly insulated with emergency cash that a single emergency — loss of a job, most likely, or a health problem — can drain away the next rent payment, leaving the family on the streets.
By Vicki Viotti Among the expected advances in help for Hawaii's homeless is expected to be the city's "Pathways Project" aimed at providing housing and health and social services for the chronically homeless.
Many potential riders of the rail between Kapolei and Ala Moana were surprised, and dismayed, last year at the few seats planned for the two-car trains.
Schools across the country have come up short in providing supplies for the classroom, leaving to teachers the responsibility of filling the gap by purchasing everything from pencils to paper.
With a multibillion-dollar rail project resembling an 800-pound gorilla at his side, Mayor Peter Carlisle boasts "fiscal discipline" in the city's budget for the coming fiscal year.
Tourist attractions don't draw visitors by the sanitation of their public restrooms, but Waikiki beach is losing some of its world appeal because of their untidiness.
Incentives can be useful as a tool to grow a fledgling industry. The trick is to keep it from becoming an abject giveaway.