The University of Hawaii is giving us an object lesson on money-walking and BS-talking as we plant tongue in cheek and "flASHback" on the week’s news that amused and confused:

» UH athletic director Jim Donovan was cleared of wrongdoing for losing $200,000 in the Stevie Wonder concert scam and then given a cushy new $200,000-a-year job. If he’d known that’s how it works, he would have lost $400,000.

» UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple described Donovan’s job transfer from the athletic department to the academic side as a "compromise." Right, a compromise between a whitewash and a cover-up.

» Apple, newly hired by UH for $439,008 a year, outlined the deal at a news conference described in the media as "bizarre," "bewildering" and "puzzling." This leadership gives new meaning to the old faculty joke: What do you call an administrator with half a brain? Gifted.

» UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, who promised accountability for the lost concert money, was nowhere to be seen as the week’s turmoil played out. She sets the tone for failure and lets others work out the details of rewarding it.

» In political news, state elections chief Scott Nago said primary election blunders by Hawaii County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi undermined public confidence in our electoral system. It’s usually the candidates who get credit for that.

» Voter turnout in the primary was down to a dismal 42.3 percent, and nearly half who participated voted absentee. The 21st-century electorate is divided between permanent absentees and the permanently absent.

» Tulsi Gabbard quit the City Council to focus on her campaign for Congress, leaving a dozen primary losers, former lawmakers and Carlisle administration refugees eyeing the seat in a November special election. It’s like an early Thanksgiving feed for the politically indigent.

» Some supporters of the $5.26 billion rail project worry Gabbard’s departure could temporarily leave the Council a vote short to move the plan along. Chairman Ernie Martin won’t know for sure until he counts his rubber stamps.

» Martin removed Councilman Tom Berg from two committees after his verbal dust-up with Transportation Chairman Breene Harimoto that resulted in police being called. A smart mom would have settled it by giving Berg a pacifier and Harimoto a bigger rattle.

» Another Statehood Day passed with a muted official observance. We remain in a state of confusion about whether we want to be one.

And the quote of the week … from Tom Apple on Jim Donovan’s job shift out of athletics: "Both Jim and I feel that it’s time to move forward in new areas. What more does Jim have to accomplish as athletic director?" Hmmmm, a winning football team? A basketball team whose players don’t flee the jurisdiction? Booking the Rolling Stones?