Watergate and a younger Inouye

It’ll be another year before the obligatory news reports marking 40 years since the U.S. Senate Watergate hearings in the summer of 1973. But one Hawaii figure is already getting the spotlight in all the coverage about the anniversary of the burglary that set the political scandal in motion.

The name of Hawaii’s senior Sen. Daniel Inouye — the senior U.S. senator overall — came up in a trivia question on MSNBC Tuesday. The query: Which sitting senator was in on the hearings?

Most Hawaii kamaaina remember that Inouye got a measure of fame from that chance to question Watergate witnesses.

Newsman Luke Russert gave the answer to the quiz, pointing out that when Inouye was first elected to the Senate in 1962, "JFK was president … wow."

It must smart a bit to be reminded of his antiquity by a young whippersnapper, but at least Russert was polite enough to act impressed.

The evolution of Moiliili and UH

The Moiliili area across H-1 from the University of Hawaii-Manoa was made a "college town" development priority a decade ago by then-UH President Evan Dobelle, but that faded away shortly afterward with his departure.

Kamehameha Schools, which owns several buildings that include Puck’s Alley, now has tentative plans for a "new town center" consisting of 250,000 square feet of retail space, including a theater to replace the former Varsity Theater.

"Moiliili has a transitional quality to it," Dobelle said in 2002, "and can be made into a real destination in Honolulu by being a college town with bookstores, coffee houses and that kind of energy level." Call it what you will, but it’s revitalization, then and now.