Pearl Harbor vet gets prime seat

When Lt. Jim Downing endured the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, he could barely expect to survive for five minutes, let alone beyond the century mark.

But among the many unpredictable events in his 101 years on the planet, Downing can now count being honored by the president of the United States as the oldest known living survivor of that terrifying chapter in American history.

At Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, Downing, a resident of Colorado Springs, Colo., was the guest of his state’s U.S. senator, Michael Bennet.

But the Pearl connection led Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz to contribute his office’s only guest ticket so Downing’s daughter Marobeth could join her father there. Downing retired in 1956.

It would be fascinating indeed to hear the view of someone with Downing’s life experience on the state of the union today.

Maybe there’s a way to blame IRS

Say it ain’t so, Sam.

The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit foundation headed by state Sen. Sam Slom because the foundation failed to file a federal tax return for three years.

The Small Business Hawaii Entrepreneurial Education Foundation owed no federal taxes, but like other charitable organizations was supposed to file the forms to ensure that its beneficial tax status was warranted.

Slom, the only Republican in the state Senate, is an outspoken advocate for government transparency and integrity, making this lapse all the more disheartening.