A victory for transparency in campaigning

Sometimes no news is good news. Or, in the case of the U.S. Supreme Court, no ruling is a good ruling.

On Monday came word that the justices won’t hear an appeal challenging Hawaii campaign finance laws. The appeal was filed by an electrical construction firm that spent about $9,000 on political ads in the 2010 cycle and opposed a law requiring registration as a political action committee.

The law sets a $1,000 campaign-contribution threshold for PACs, which must “go public” and register above that point. In this age of super-PACs, that cash amount may seem trivial. Regardless, we all must celebrate that a law promoting public transparency will stand.

Colorado Springs shooting hits home

Mass shootings on the mainland have become depressingly routine these days. So it came as a brutal shock to learn that one of the three victims of Friday’s shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., was one of our own — Waianae native Jennifer Markovsky.

Markovsky, 35, leaves behind a husband, Paul, and two children. She was remembered by family and friends as a cheerful, outgoing person who loved to make jokes, a caring mom who put her kids first. Someone who went to the clinic to support a friend.

The shooting sparked the usual debates over abortion and gun control. But they seem insignificant next to the homegrown memories of Markovsky, and her tragic loss.