There’s no escaping the sewer sludge unless you’re a mayor with an airplane ticket as we plant tongue in cheek and "flASHback" on the week’s news that amused and confused:

» The Carlisle administration and the City Council held separate briefings on a controversial plan to truck raw sewage sludge around Oahu, but there was no sign of a resolution. Our wheels of municipal government turn like … well, sewer sludge.

» City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger said trucking sludge from the overloaded Sand Island sewage plant can’t be avoided because "failure … is simply not an option." Is he sure? A little constipation might be just what we need right now.

» Leaving the sewer sludge behind, Mayor Peter Carlisle was off on a weeklong promotional visit to Japan after making similar official tours of China and South Korea in recent months. This is the Peter Principle on frequent-flier miles.

» Gov. Neil Abercrombie went to the Big Island looking for a little political love but was met by sign-waving protesters at his events. Did he think the "I’m not your pal" thing he started wouldn’t work both ways?

» Ethics Commission Executive Director Les Kondo infuriated lawmakers by saying task forces formed by the Legislature must follow the same ethics rules as other state boards and commissions. Kondo must have missed the special punctuation mark that legislators wrote into the ethics code: the winking smiley face. 😉

» Hawaii’s public schools started the new year with students facing higher national learning standards and teachers working for lower pay. This year’s science lesson: What happens when our irresistible keiki meet a huhu object?

» The Honolulu Police Department is boasting that it has gotten 1,289 "likes" already on its month-old Facebook page. The cops have an unfair advantage. Their "like" button says, "Click it or ticket."

» A team of scientists from around the world, including astronomers in Hawaii, discovered a Trojan asteroid that shares Earth’s orbit without ever intersecting. It’s kind of like the Legislature and ethics.

» Congratulations to Hawaii’s special son, President Barack Obama, who celebrated his 50th birthday as the national debt crisis wound to a close. It seems like only yesterday that we were fabricating his birth certificate.

And the quote of the week … from Councilman Stanley Chang, defending the Council’s delay in expanding the Sand Island sewage plant: "Responsible governments think locally and globally about issues they face. Sometimes that means taking a step back to evaluate whether the quick solution or the short-term cheaper solution to the problem is a long-term cost saving or efficient solution for taxpayers."

That’s spreading it pretty thick for a kid who looks young enough to collect his sewage sludge in a diaper.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.