OK, so it wasn’t the Mormons

With praise, former President Bill Clinton told CNN last week that Hawaii has "totally equal public school funding … because before Hawaii was a state, the Mormons and others, but primarily Mormons, came there and set up these schools."

Not quite. In fact, Kamehameha III was persuaded by missionaries in 1840 to create a school system and decided in 1844 to place the school under one system. However, those missionaries were not Mormons. The first Mormon missionaries to come to Hawaii arrived in 1850, according to church historians. But President Clinton’s comments were nonetheless flattering to Hawaii’s school system.

Hawaii helps heal penalized teams

Call it the Probation Bowl. When Alabama’s football team was banned by the NCAA from playing in a post-season bowl game, the Crimson Tide scheduled a 13th game on its 2002-2003 calendar against the University of Hawaii Warriors at Aloha Stadium. Now it could be Penn State’s turn to use the exemption for a 13th game to be played in Hawaii.

Penn State Coach Bill O’Brien said the team is considering a schedule that would include "a potential bowl game against a big-time opponent or the University of Hawaii at the end for the year." The Nittany Lions are banned from playing a real bowl game for four years, and UH has openings for all those years. E komo mai — Welcome to Hawaii — where players can regroup and heal from an institution’s troubles and past mistakes.