Gregory Tartamella, the Kaiser High School football parent tried for a 2017 assault of a coach and other outbursts, surely is relieved that Circuit Judge Faauuga Tootoo gave him four years’ probation instead of jail time. The judge credited Tartamella’s apology and noted the family embarrassment.

But other sports parents truly should heed this case as a cautionary tale. What may feel at the time as justifiable outrage over a child’s athletic event can lead to such a sticky end.

Please, folks: It’s a game.

Sucking up tiny plastic bits

Kudos to the Hawaii Wildlife Fund for its recent effort to bring student innovators from Quebec’s University of Sherbrooke to Hawaii island’s Kamilo Point, nicknamed “Trash Beach” or “Plastic Beach,” to test a microplastics vacuuming device.

Since the nonprofit formed in 2003, it has collected some 250 tons of debris through beach cleanups.

Still, despite vast improvement in beach appearance, pollution has lingered in the sand at Kamilo and elsewhere in the form of barely visible microplastics, delivered by currents tied to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Here’s hoping this technology can serve as an effective “marine plastic magnet.”