A resort that’s so Mickey Mouse

There were rough spots in bringing Hawaii’s own "happiest place on Earth" to life over the past few years of economic doldrums. Ground was broken on Aulani, Disney’s 840-room luxury hotel and timeshare complex at Ko Olina, in the depths of a global recession, and not even Tinker Bell could make that difficulty disappear.

But a sunnier era dawned this week, following a sunrise opening ceremony held on Monday. The emphasis at Aulani is supposed to be on Hawaiian environment and culture, so it wasn’t surprising that the first sounds of celebration was the oli delivered by chanter Kahulu DeSantos.

Still, Mickey, Minnie and other Disney icons made their appearance, and each guest room is equipped with a Mickey surfer lamp and subtle signs of the mouse in the bedding design.

No amount of tropical decor can camouflage those ears.

PBS Hawaii $5M closer to its goal

Wait, hear that? It sounded like cheering coming from Dole Street — specifically, the PBS Hawaii facility across from the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

If hollering was heard, blame the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, which just gifted PBS Hawaii $5 million toward building a new TV studio and offices at the old KFVE studios on Nimitz Highway.

PBS is moving because UH-Manoa wants to expand. The public broadcasting station has a fundraising goal of $30 million for renovation and relocation by 2014; this donation ups the total to $17 million, a psychological boost past the halfway mark.

Fans of public TV, keep those pledges coming.