WAI-PI-O! WAI-PI-O!

Does Hawaii produce great athletes, or what? This time it’s the Little League team from Waipio, which for the second time in three years is headed to the league’s World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

Waipio won the Little League World Series in 2008, and now will compete in it after winning the West Region final Sunday over Southern California champion Huntington Beach, 4-1. In 2005, the Little League World Series was won by another team from Hawaii, Ewa Beach.

So kudos to Waipio – its players, coaches and supporters – for great play so far. Its next game is Saturday, against Columbus (Ga.) Northern.

Kudos also to ESPN, which by now has learned that the Hawaii team is actually from Waipio, not Wahiawa, and which seems to be making an effort to pronounce the diverse names of the Waipio players correctly. It even put an okina in the word "Hawai’i" when listing where the West contenders were from.

A pec-tacular diversion

President Barack Obama set no precedent when he went shirtless into Hawaiian waters, but he seems reluctant to be caught with his chest bare again. Photographers were led into a hotel by White House staff over the weekend while, unbeknownst to them, Obama played in the ocean waters off Panama City Beach in Florida.

The official White House photog documented Obama’s swim, but the one photo offered up to the media showed the president only from the shoulders up. It remains to be seen whether the pec-tacular prexy will resurface in his hometown of Hawaii.