In a welcome move, a team of Hawaii government hospital administrators, Hawaii Health Systems Corp., is tasked with taking over a site linked to about 20% of all coronavirus deaths statewide. As of Monday, 26 residents at Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo have died in connection with COVID-19.

Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said in a written statement: “The transition plan to a new management team must put the health and safety of patients and staff first.” Also, that plan should require candid cooperation and accountability on the part of the exiting team, Utah-based Avalon Health Care, which continues to manage two facilities on Oahu.

Hirono will face court nominee again

Hawaii court-watchers will want to hear what U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono says in the confirmation hearings on U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

In 2017, when probing Barrett’s nomination to her current job as a federal judge, Hirono asked how Barrett’s Catholic faith would affect her jurisprudence.

Hirono said this line of questioning is still on point, that it’s any personal views, religious or otherwise, that can affect decisionmaking. It should be possible to discern that with aloha, right?