Happy days taking a little longer to be here again

Is it possible? It’s likely, in fact. Hawaii’s budgetary woes might persist.

The sobering prediction derives from a somewhat dreary forecast from economist Leroy Laney, who told a business gathering on Thursday that the local economy is "somewhat more downbeat" than he’d thought only a few months earlier. Whether you put the blame on the European debt crisis or problems of America’s making, forecasters are all revising their projections downward. Connecting the dots, a sluggish economy doesn’t produce as many tax dollars, so it will be interesting to see the next Council on Revenues report — and furrowed brows among the number-crunchers in the Legislature.

Big shots in Bali don Indonesian dress shirts

After nation leaders were steered away from the tradition of posing for their "family photo" wearing local garb at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Honolulu, President Barack Obama and 17 other heads of state wore colorful embroidered Indonesian dress shirts Friday night at the resort island of Bali, at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). OK, so ASEAN had the shirts — but APEC had the beautiful Hawaiian scenery. So there.