Some birthers haven’t heard we’re 50th state

A new poll by Vanity Fair and "60 Minutes" shows that 24 percent of Americans don’t think that Hawaii-born Barack Obama was born in the United States and 14 percent are not sure.

But the truly galling finding? That 6 percent of poll respondents think that Hawaii is not one of the 50 United States, and that 4 percent are not sure.

It’s sewage water under the bridge? We’ll see

It seems there’s peace in the valley again, as the old warriors of the Environmental Protection Agency and the city’s administration lay down their swords over the issue of Honolulu’s wastewater system.

What a difference three years makes. In April and May of 2007, the city argued in newspaper ads that "an over-zealous expenditure to solve a questionable environmental ‘problem’ is not fiscally prudent or environmentally sensitive."

Fast-forward to this week, when Mayor Mufi Hannemann held out the olive branch, saying: "This carefully negotiated agreement will put past disputes behind us and eliminate the regulatory maze of decrees and orders that currently bind the city."

That was then, this is now.