Kudos to HPD for introducing ‘crime map’

Hats off to the Honolulu Police Department: The Crime Mapping utility linked to its Web site (www.honolulupd.org) is just plain cool.

For those who still haven’t tried it, simply type in an address and see the property crimes that have been reported recently, a mile or more in any direction. It’s just a pilot project, and police are leery of posting more than reported thefts, burglaries, car break-ins and the like. But in a city that’s been hungry for greater transparency in law enforcement, this is a good start. And at $100 a month, HPD’s subscription to the service is a steal. Figuratively, that is.

Hawaii to star again in national TV series

There’s been a lot of attention paid to the revived "Hawaii Five-O" television series that debuted this year and now is one of the most popular TV shows in the nation. But now comes "Off the Map," another series being filmed here that could similarly gain a significant national audience — and provide additional economic stimulus to our sluggish state economy.

In production here since August, the action-adventure series is about volunteer doctors in Third World countries, but ABC, which already has ordered 13 episodes of the show, decided Hawaii would work just fine as a stand-in for South America and other such locations, just as it worked as the backdrop for the hugely popular show "Lost," which also supposedly wasn’t set in Hawaii.

ABC will premiere "Off the Map" on Jan. 12 as a midseason replacement, with hopes that it will become a regular series. Here’s hoping that "Off the Map" goes off the charts in popularity.