Obama Center hits a legal snag

Now that a federal judge has green-lighted the legal challenge of the Obama Presidential Center’s Chicago site, surely some other also-ran contenders for the project are dusting off their proposals.

Honolulu was one bidder, but it seems the former president’s birthplace will be home to the Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific Leaders program, but not the library itself. Obama launched the program with the first cohort of honorees in January.

Even the plaintiffs don’t oppose building the center, just not at Jackson Park. So the safe money is on a center in Chicago — eventually.

Rise of the drone warship in Hawaii

With assorted unmanned aerial vehicles now dotting the skies and autonomous cars undergoing road tests, the idea of a self-driving ship no longer seems far-fetched.

Proving that point is the U.S. Navy’s $23 million drone warship nicknamed “Sea Hunter,” which has navigated autonomously from San Diego to Pearl Harbor and back. Designed for anti-submarine warfare, the 132-foot vessel — first displayed by the military in 2016 — is undergoing testing that’s slated to continue this year. How will the expansion of drones change warfare strategy? No doubt that is undergoing testing, too.