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ASD Staff

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Classic interrogation technique</title>

Today's social media find comes from waikikipd, on how to get the truth out of some low-life.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Classic interrogation technique

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Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

A Hawai‘i senator has introduced a federal bill that would require AI-generated content to be clearly labeled as such.

Sen. Brian Schatz co-introduced last week the 

 as an effort to improve transparency as AI-generated content becomes more and more common in everyday life.

The measure that requires any AI-generated digital content — whether an image, video, audio or chatbot — include clear disclosures embedded within the content itself identifying it as AI-generated.

Those disclosures must also include a machine-readable disclosure, an invisible “stamp” embedded within the file’s metadata, that also describes the system that generated the content, and when it was generated.

All providers of generative AI systems would be required to ensure that their outputs’ disclosures are detectable by widely available AI-detection tools. Social media platforms would also be required to ensure that the disclosures are still visible when AI-generated content is viewed on their sites, and would be prohibited from obscuring or removing them.

The measure also includes a host of prohibitions against distributing AI content that doesn’t include the disclosures, or against adding disclosures to non-AI-generated content. People or entities who violate those prohibitions could be sued for up to $2,500 per violation.

“People deserve to know whether or not the videos, photos, and content they see and read online is real or original,” 

said Senator Schatz in a statement Tuesday.

 “Our bill is simple – if any digital content is made by artificial intelligence, it should be labeled so that people are aware and aren’t fooled or scammed.”

When introducing the bill, Schatz’ office specifically referenced a 2023 AI-generated photo of an explosion near the Pentagon, which triggered a dip in the stock market.

This wasn’t the only AI bill introduced last week. The 

 would require AI developers to report to the Secretary of Commerce any potentially harmful action autonomously taken by an AI model.

For instance, the bill requires that developers notify authorities if there is any sign that an AI model “is attempting to evade human oversight, deceive evaluators or operators … resist shutdown or modification … enable or accelerate the development, acquisition, or use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive weapons,” or other behaviors.

Neither bill has been voted on in Congress so far.

Meanwhile, the House voted last week to pass the 

Small Business Administration Artificial Intelligence Utilization Act

, a measure requiring the SBA to publish regular reports about how it uses AI. No representative voted against the measure’s passage.

Other bills the House passed last week include:

Native American Entrepreneurial Opportunity Act

, which establishes within the SBA an Office of Native American Affairs that would work to promote SBA programs with Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. The bill passed the House with no objections.

, which requires the SBA to report to Congress about the number of COVID loan fraud cases that have been reported and resolved. The bill passed the House with no objections.

Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act

 would allow agricultural producers to receive reimbursements for up to 75% of the cost of replacing farm or conservation structures following a natural disaster through the Emergency Conservation Program and Emergency Forest Restoration Program. The bill passed 368-19, with Hawai‘i Reps. Jill Tokuda and Ed Case in support. The bill has been enrolled to President Donald Trump’s desk.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

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<title>CONGRESS WATCH: Schatz introduces bill requiring labels on AI content</title>

U.S. Congress considered AI measures and other legislation last week.

CONGRESS WATCH: Schatz introduces bill requiring labels on AI content

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Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

A new center launched earlier this year by Bank of Hawai‘i aims to help business owners plan for growth, transition and the future.

The Center for Family Business & Entrepreneurs was created for family-owned and closely-held businesses, an announcement from BOH noted.

"Bank of Hawai‘i created the Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurs, as we've really come to discover that for business owners, particularly family business owners and our closely held business owners, at some point in their business-owning journey, their decisions become deeply interconnected for both the business, the family, their personal wealth," CFBE Director Agatha Viernes-LeGros told Aloha State Daily in June. "We really see that there's a need to support these business owners as they evaluate different milestones on their journey — particularly as they look toward succession and exit of their business."

The center formally launched in April, but Viernes-LeGros says the idea has been percolating for much longer.

"I give credit to our executives here at Bank of Hawai‘i for recognizing that our business owners have needs outside from core banking services," she says. "They have needs as it relates to their business succession and personal wealth strategy and planning, so it's taken a bit to get to this point. ... It's been probably a year-and-a-half, maybe even almost [a] two-year journey, and that's really been because we wanted to be thoughtful about how we're sharing with our community what we're doing."

Viernes-LeGros says CFBE aims to provide education, advice and hands-on execution of planning services to clients in a confidential manner, bringing together expertise in commercial banking with what the bank does in the wealth management space, "to really provide these comprehensive and connective services to our business-owning community."

The center finds that as clients start to evaluate major decisions, whether it's continuing to reinvest in their business or stepping away, they often times don't know how to do so, she told ASD.

"We find these business owners, they're the ones that built their business up from the ground up, and as much as they're skilled at running their business, they're not skilled at what comes next," Viernes-LeGros says. "... You oftentimes hear businesses closing their doors, and that's unfortunately becoming an all-too-common story these days, and that could be because they may not have a named or a known successor. We see that family businesses, they've done a great job of building wealth — not just for their own families, but also in their communities, reinvesting in their communities — and as their own children grow up, they find that they've got other interests, start other careers and they don't really have this ability to come back and run the family business. That leaves business owners with not really understanding what's the next step for them."

CFBE has resources to help those business owners look at and evaluate what options are available.

, research shows that as much as 70% or more of their personal wealth is tied up in their companies, which makes decisions about succession, transition and continuity "deeply personal as well as financial."

When asked what these business owners should know about or be mindful of during the succession planning process, Viernes-LeGros says the biggest pitfall they see business owners fall into is waiting until the last minute.

"I think that is a critical aspect of thinking through one's succession and transition is that you really should be doing it well in advance," she told ASD. "We're talking even up to years in advance of when you really intend on exiting a business because there's certain tax strategies, changes to the way your business is organized, gifting strategies ... that require planning in advance to make sure you can best take advantage of the different tax benefits out there. If they wait to the last minute and they make these changes say a year, six months out from when they plan to exit their business, they may not be able to get the full benefit of the tax strategies that they're trying to implement."

Additionally, Viernes-LeGros says it can sometimes take years to empower a successor and remove owner dependency from a business.

"That's another area where we can see some pitfalls for business owners as they think about exiting, is they're so critical to the day-to-day ... but if they get all of their ideas, get the secret sauce down on paper, so to speak, maybe locked away, but out of their head and onto paper, that really helps for a business to succeed and continue on, and well into the future."

Want to learn more? You can get more info at the 

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<title>Center for Family Business & Entrepreneurs helps businesses plan for growth, transition</title>

The new center was launched earlier this year by Bank of Hawai‘i, created for family-owned and closely-held businesses. CFBE Director Agatha Viernes-LeGros told Aloha State Daily that the center aims to provide education, advice and hands-on execution of planning services to clients in a confidential manner.

Center for Family Business & Entrepreneurs helps businesses plan for growth, transition

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

Columnists

If you're like me, you probably think about doing two things on Independence Day.

First, you'll consider watching the film "Independence Day." If you're lazy (like me), you'll veer off to YouTube instead and find the clip where the president gives that inspiring speech. If you're still too lazy to even search for the video, here's the 

Secondly, you'll read the Declaration of Independence.

I know I'm a nerd, and I know that a lot of people don't normally read the Declaration of Independence. That's too bad, because it's shorter than you might imagine. 

, it succinctly justifies a country’s existence. 

In its day, the Declaration functioned as a newspaper column with serious weight. It was read in communities aloud as a physical declaration of a country’s right to exist. 

It's a statement of a people's frustration with the lack of freedom and liberty. It's also an expression of their desire for a new form of government. 

It’s a rejection of an unjust, unelected government and its sovereign. It’s also an acknowledgement of a community’s obligation to one another as the guarantors of their common well-being. 

It begins with an explanation of how governments are formed, the dignity of people, and a government’s right to exist only with the “consent of the governed.” It proceeds to then justify the right of a people to declare their independence from Great Britain before fully resolving to secure such independence. 

The document was written by imperfect people, but their idea was nearly perfect. Their words became universal. If you don't believe me, look at Vietnam's declaration of independence by Ho Chi Minh in 1945. Ho 

 the promise of the Declaration to justify Vietnam's War of Independence against the dying French Empire.

Like the Americans at Yorktown in 1781, the Vietnamese won their War of Independence at 

 in 1954. Tragically, Northern Vietnam's communist leanings divided the Vietnamese people, resulting in a brutal civil war that tore the country apart.

The promise of the United States is what inspired Hawai‘i’s unprecedented fight for statehood in 1959. No other territory in the American Union had ever been non-majority white. To pursue such a fight as Jim Crow persisted in the U.S. South was brave.

It was also born not out of a vision for the future tethered only to reality’s injustices, but out of what Hawai‘i’s residents demanded of this country. It was a product of the idealism first folded into the Declaration. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The Declaration’s Promise"}]

The Declaration teaches us that being an American is difficult. Nevertheless, being an American is full of promise. 

One writer, Carlos Bulosan, an Ilocano immigrant from the Philippines, painfully reckoned with this promise for the 

Being an American is a process of becoming. It is also not set to occur in the course of one generation, or even one century. It’s a perpetual journey. 

In Bulosan’s eyes, the process of realizing the Declaration’s promise was a march against circumstances. The country’s progression contained “many strands of fear and hope, that snarl and converge at several point in space and time.” 

Beyond the dueling periods of fear and hope, there was still a promise, bounded by a pragmatic optimism, affixed to the country’s destiny. Such promise is what drives Americans to believe in the future. It’s not naked hope, but earnest faith in the power of a person’s agency. 

“We march on, though sometimes strange moods fill our children,” he wrote. “Our march toward security and peace is the march of freedom—the freedom that we should like to become a living part of. It is the dignity of the individual to live in a society of free men, where the spirit of understanding and belief exist; of understanding that all men are equal; that all men, whatever their color, race, religion or estate, should be given equal opportunity to serve themselves and each other according to their needs and abilities.”

It’s that idea that propels the vision of the Declaration. It is an expression of a society’s faith in the power of its people. The people of the United States are the ones who declared independence. They are the ones endowed by a Creator with certain unalienable rights. 

Those rights are tools. They are weapons. They are responsibilities. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a noble, immortal guarantee that is only secured by a free people. It is also incumbent on every generation to truly cherish such rights. Loosing our sense of such rights is when they begin to disappear. 

“The America we hope to see is not merely a physical but also a spiritual and an intellectual world,” Bulosan wrote. “We are the mirror of what America is. If America wants us to be living and free, then we must be living and free. If we fail, then America fails.”

Despite all the discrimination he faced, Bulosan never gave up on the idea of the United States. It was a country to be realized, even if it did not yet exist. 

As Bulosan reminds us, it’s alright to be proud of one’s identity as an American while still reckoning with its flaws. As he painfully learned, the flaws are real and deep. That doesn't mean you give up on the promise of being an American. You embrace your country’s flaws and appreciate its nuance. 

That’s the inherent promise, after all, of our political system. We strive to be more perfect, even where we fail to meet our own standards. 

Like a relationship, America is full of promise. Like a relationship, America will certainly disappoint you. However, that doesn't mean you just give up on the relationship.

If you don’t believe me, take five minutes. Read the 

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<title>On the Fourth, read the Declaration</title>

If you really want to understand why we're celebrating Independence Day, go back to the source and read the Declaration of Independence, says ASD political historian Perry Arrasmith. It's only one of the most important documents in history!

On the Fourth, read the Declaration

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

Last week, Roosevelt High School publicly unveiled its brand new, state-of-the art gymnasium for the first time. 

The $35 million facility spans 55,000 square feet and features amenities such as a video board, an upstairs mezzanine and all-purpose area for indoor sports. 

Roosevelt's new gym was the first part of a master plan to have its facilities up to Hawai‘i Department of Education standards. The school is currently constructing an $18 million music building, currently projected for a 2028 opening. 

Other features of Roosevelt's new gym include a weight room, mat room, first aid room, offices, locker rooms and a concession stand. 

The blessing of Roosevelt's new gym on Wednesday, June 24, began with Rev. Ryan Souza blowing into a conch shell, followed by a prayer. After Hawai‘i DOE superintendent Keith Hayashi, Roosevelt principal Sean Wong and Roosevelt athletic director John Chung participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony outside the gym, guests were allowed to enter and observe the gym for the first time. 

Hayashi, Wong and Chung all delivered speeches on the new gym floor. Wong and Chung both teared up when explaining what the project meant to them. 

Wong, who had been Roosevelt's principal for 11 years, is departing the school to become the DOE's secondary principal in residence on July 1. 

"Definitely mixed feelings," Wong told Aloha State Daily following the ceremony. "Obviously just seeing everybody's time and effort put into this, I'm just fortunate to have been a part of this project that students will enjoy for generations. Just thank you to the community, and thank you to everybody for their commitment and dedication to our school."

To Wong and Chung, a new gym at Roosevelt was decades in the making. Chung in particular remembers hearing those complaints back when his father, Stanley, was Roosevelt's athletic director. Stanley Chung, who retired as Roosevelt's AD in 1988, died at 94 in 2025. 

Despite graduating high school from Saint Louis, Roosevelt has always been near to John Chung's heart. In 2007, he got the job as Roosevelt's AD and has held the position ever since. 

John Chung expressed Wednesday that his father would have loved the school's new digs and is undoubtedly proud of the progress made over the years, which ramped up in intensity following the draft of a master plan in 2014 and the demolition of the old gym in 2023. 

When Roosevelt's student body steps into the gym for the first time, "they're gonna notice that the gym is a lot cooler than what they're used to," Chung said. "Our old gym, we'd just be sweating. Our old gym felt kind of tight, squeezed in. . ... I think they're gonna be excited. I hope they are, because this is for them. Not just for athletics, but for the whole school."

Roosevelt will host an open house for the public to peruse its gym on July 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

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<title>Roosevelt High School unveils brand new gymnasium</title>

The $35 million project was part of a master plan to have the school's facilities up to DOE standards.

Roosevelt High School unveils brand new gymnasium

Food & Dining

A sign in Honolulu's Ala Moana neighborhood has been announcing for a while now that LongHorn Steakhouse is coming soon — but how soon?

[{"type":"text","text":"Aloha State Daily was curious, so we reached out to ask."}]

A spokesperson for parent company Darden Restaurants told ASD in an email last week that the company's Hawai‘i LongHorn franchisee, Union MAK Corp., was still in the permitting process, but did not share any other details.

Vince Espino, president of Union MAK Corp., said the same in a separate email to ASD.

"LongHorn is still in the permitting stage," he wrote. "We're targeting to open summer of 2026 should permits align."

Information from the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Planning and Permitting notes the plans review is in progress. 

 also show that the estimated value of the work is $1 million.

 employs 195,000 in more than 2,100 restaurants across the country. In addition to LongHorn, its family of restaurants include 

Olive Garden has two locations on O‘ahu — one in Ala Moana Center and a second in Kapolei at Ka Makana Ali‘i; Yard House can be found at Waikīkī Beach Walk; you can find Ruth's Chris Steak House in Honolulu and Wailea; and Capital Grille is expected to open in Līlia Waikīkī 

. Today, there are more than 500 locations.

Longhorn 071425

<title>What's up with LongHorn Steakhouse?</title>

A sign in Honolulu's Ala Moana neighborhood has been announcing for a while now that the restaurant is coming soon — but how soon? Aloha State Daily was curious, so we asked.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Classic interrogation technique

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Classic interrogation technique

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Reporter

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