Maybe retirement needs redefining

Don Horner, retiree? Fat chance.

The chairman and chief executive officer of First Hawaiian Bank will retire from his CEO position at the end of the year. For many executives, that would be the first step toward a well-cushioned life of leisure.

Horner’s heading in the opposite direction. As chairman of the state Board of Education and a member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, he arguably has more visibility now than he ever did walking the corridors of the state’s largest bank.

And possibly more influence, too. The outspoken Horner has not been shy about pushing his businesslike views on public bureaucracies.

Who said bankers are boring?

Yes, they count; no, they don’t

For something that consists only of neat lines on a flat sheet of paper, election maps are fairly messy items. The one under Hawaii’s microscope this year, the reapportionment plan that redraws the state legislative boundaries, could get hung up over which military residents should be part of the official population counts.

The state Reapportionment Commission originally contended that these people are immersed in community life, just like anyone else, so they should be counted the same.

But critics say some are registered voters elsewhere so shouldn’t be counted in two places. It made sense that the commission revised the plan to exclude the 16,000 it could prove were registered out of state.

Just because the compromise seems reasonable doesn’t mean it will stand, of course. Groups are poised to get the courts to consider it.