Hawaii’s race relations look better than most

Hawaii ranks as the nation’s most black-and-white integrated state, according to an analysis conducted in honor of next week’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In the study, which compared states and the District of Columbia in three categories — employment and wealth, education and civic engagement, and health — Hawaii turned in top scores for lowest gap in high school graduation, business ownership and poverty rates.

The survey, by the personal finance website WalletHub, also noted that more than five decades after King declared his dream of a colorblind nation, nearly half of U.S. voters (46 percent) expect worse race relations under the Donald Trump administration.

Kauai trades sugar for solar energy

There is something to cultivate on Kauai land formerly planted by Big Sugar: energy. Actually, this crop would be the solar energy that’s collected there, rather than grown. AES Distributed Energy Inc. proposes to build a utility-scale solar farm, one that would yield enough electricity to power about 8,500 homes and has signed a contract with Kauai Island Utility Cooperative. This is land in south Kauai owned by Alexander and Baldwin Inc.

Meanwhile, on Maui where A&B still has water rights on its old sugar land, the company is researching replacement crops. Solar? Stay tuned.