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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Have you ever had a burrito with a side of surf?

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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Taco Bell surf thru</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @Lenny.Bros with an epic lunch.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Taco Bell surf thru

Have you ever had a burrito with a side of surf?  Make sure you follow @Lenny.Bros on Instagram!

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Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

The woman charged with murder after allegedly fatally shooting a man in Kailua last weekend was turned in by her father the day of the event, according to a Honolulu police report.

Hilinaikailimakualopali Keeno, 24, was charged on Sept. 30 with second-degree murder, carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony and improperly keeping a pistol or revolver. She is being held pending a $1 million bail.

An HPD document — which was submitted on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to the Honolulu Circuit Court to establish probable cause to detain Keeno without a warrant — states that Keeno’s father brought her to the Kailua Police Station less than an hour after 

was declared dead of a gunshot wound to the neck in the Kailua Target parking lot.

The report states that HPD special duty officers, who were working security at the Kailua Fall Festival that day, were called to assist with a group of festivalgoers involved in an argument at about 8:26 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Officers escorted the group out of the festival and watched them head toward the Target parking lot, only to hear another altercation begin among the group minutes later.

During this new altercation, a pop resembling a gunshot was heard, and officers saw two men — one of whom was Keeno’s brother — assaulting a third. Both assailants were placed under arrest for disorderly conduct, while officers discovered Malone on the ground, covered in blood.

[{"type":"text","text":"Malone was declared dead at the scene by 8:43 p.m."}]

At 9:39 p.m., Keeno was brought to the Kailua Police Station by her father, who told police she was involved in the incident and wanted to provide a statement in the presence of her attorney.

According to the HPD report, no interview was conducted with Keeno that night. Subsequently, HPD sought photographs and videos from the public to help piece together the event and identify the shooter.

On Sept. 28, another witness identified Keeno as the shooter, and HPD confirmed that Keeno has one firearm registered in her name, a Sig Sauer P365 handgun.

[{"type":"text","text":"Following this, Keeno was placed under arrest."}]

Keeno’s preliminary hearing, when she will plead guilty or not guilty to the charges, will take place Monday, Oct. 5. She remains in custody.

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<title>Woman charged in Kailua shooting turned in by father</title>

Hilinakailimakualopali Keeno faces a $1 million bail for a second-degree murder charge.

Woman charged in Kailua shooting turned in by father

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Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

The 11 months since Diana Birkett Rakow has taken the controls at Hawaiian Airlines has been full of change for the carrier.

Formerly the senior vice president of public affairs and sustainability at Alaska Airlines, she was 

 of Hawaiian in September 2025 and stepped into the role on Oct. 29, 2025.

Her appointment came nearly two years after Alaska Air Group Inc. and Hawaiian Holdings Inc. 

 that Alaska Airlines would acquire Hawaiian Airlines in a deal that was valued at approximately $1.9 billion, including $900 million of Hawaiian’s net debt, according to an announcement at that time. The acquisition was 

As she approaches the one-year mark in the role, Birkett Rakow says that one of the biggest challenges has been “just navigating through the volume of change.”

“The flip side of that is that I think people have, certainly our teams have, just navigated through a lot of change with a ton of resilience and grace,” she told Aloha State Daily during a recent interview at Hawaiian Airlines' Honolulu headquarters. “And I appreciate our guests going on that journey with us and it’s really satisfying to get to a place where there is more seamlessness in the experience; there is more stability. It’s a dynamic industry and a dynamic world, so there’s always going to be continued change, but we have the opportunity now with the full-value proposition after our reservation systems came together, full-value proposition for our guests to really make sure that people understand that, appreciate it and are bringing more of their travel into our ecosystem.”

[{"type":"text","text":"In the last year:"}]

Birkett Rakow started in the CEO role the same day that Alaska Airlines received a 

 from the Federal Aviation Administration, a major milestone in the efforts to integrate the operations of the two airlines.

 called Atmos Rewards weeks before she stepped into the role, another milestone in the combination).

At the start of the 2026, Hawaiian Airlines and state officials announced the 

, which includes investments of more than $600 million over five years “to modernize airport spaces, aircraft cabins and technology for both guests and employees, expanding loyalty benefits for Hawai‘i residents and continuing our deep investment in community and sustainability statewide,” Birkett Rakow said at that time.

launched a unified Alaska Hawaiian mobile app

transitioned to a single passenger service system

 on April 22. Hawaiian also joined oneworld alliance, a global airline network that 

In March, Chef Dell Valdez was tapped as Hawaiian's new executive chef, bringing his "modern interpretation of Hawaiʻi’s diverse culinary identity to the airline’s First Class dining program while continuing to oversee the airline’s Featured Chef Series," an 

The airline also did away with complimentary meals in the main cabin of most domestic flights this summer, instead 

 with a menu curated by Maui-based chef Sheldon Simeon.

unveiled plans to invest in the premium travel experience for both the Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines brands.

For Hawaiian, that means new interiors for its A330 widebody aircraft, a fleet of 24 that serves destinations in Asia, Oceania and select North America routes, a recent announcement from the airline noted. That work begins in 2028 and includes 22 Leihōkū Suites for travelers on international business class and domestic first-class flights, the announcement says. The updates are part of the Kahu‘ewai investment plan.

As part of broader investments in core guest experiences, Alaska Air Group also will introduce premium reserve, a new premium economy cabin that debuts in 2028 on Alaska's 787-9, 787-10 and select 737-10 MAX aircraft, and on Hawaiian’s A330 fleet, “providing guests with more room, comfort and choice on longer flights,” the announcement notes.

In addition to the recent changes, Birkett Rakow says that particularly stormy year — with the Kona Low storms in March and a hurricane season that has brought storm-related damage and destruction to the Islands — has also been a challenge, not only for the airline, but for the community and the tourism industry.

“The flip side of that is it prompts good conversations about how do we continue to make this industry as resilient as it needs to be to power local jobs in the economy and support broader economic diversification and community," she says.

 serves as the central reservation technology that connects the digital tools and programs used by guests and employees, was one of four major integration milestones that also included the launch of 

 from the Federal Aviation Administration; and joint collective bargaining agreements for the airlines’ various unions.

“From a guest perspective, that was really the big unlock for people to experience us as one airline with two strong brands and a combined loyalty program,” Birkett Rakow says. “The integration went really smoothly and it’s been sort of great to hear people’s relief that they don’t have two confirmation codes; the system works really well.”

The combined labor contacts is the remaining key milestone in the Hawaiian and Alaska combination, she says, noting that’s “more of an employee-facing milestone, but it is one that we’re working toward with negotiations with all of our labor groups.”

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<title>Nearly a year into the role, Hawaiian Airlines CEO talks challenges, changes</title>

The 11 months since Diana Birkett Rakow has taken the helm of Hawaiian Airlines has been full of change for the carrier.

Nearly a year into the role, Hawaiian Airlines CEO talks challenges, changes

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A. Kam Napier

Columnists

Government & Politics

Aloha State Daily received a press release today from a Mainland-based national interest group, U.S. Term Limits (USTL), letting us know that “2026 Hawai‘i state senate candidate, Wallyn Christian (District 13) has committed support for term limits on Congress by signing the term limits convention pledge.”

Why does this matter to that organization? “(USTL, the leader in the national, non-partisan movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering support from state lawmakers across the nation,” the statement says. “Its mission is to get 34 states to apply for an amendment proposal convention specific to term limits on Congress.”

Term-limiting Congress is a popular idea, and USTL cites a 

 that, “An overwhelming majority of adults (87%) favor limiting the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve. This includes a majority 56% who strongly favor this proposal, just 12% are opposed.”

The idea emerges often for local politicians, as well. Civil Beat has found public support for term limits to be as high as 70% in a 2018 poll of likely voters, a stat Honolulu Civil Beat resurfaced 

 of the lawmakers themselves to see where they stand on the idea of limiting their own time in office. “Nearly half of House members and more than a third of senators say they support term limits. There are enough undecideds in both chambers to give it a good shot if they held their position for two years,” CB found.

Respectfully, all of these people are wrong. Well intentioned, but they're aiming term limits at the wrong people.

I mean, I totally understand where the frustration is coming from. We elect people, nationally and locally, then are disappointed in their results. We could end their terms ourselves by simply not reelecting these people and yet obviously a lot of the people who say they want term limits do something very odd: They seem to reelect the lousy politicians they say they want to term limit.

You want to limit someone’s term? You’re just a month away from your next opportunity to vote for someone else!

So we’ve always had the power to fire politicians with every election, but don’t, then remain convinced that what we need is more turnover in government to make it more efficient, effective and responsive. Somebodies’ terms need limiting, but who?

Easy: The workforce. The bureaucrats. See, I want term limits, too, but I want them on the people staffing all the departments and agencies that we’re perpetually frustrated with. 

Consider, to cite just one example, how many different mayors you’ve seen over the past 20 or 30 years promise to reform the departments of planning and permitting in each county. The mayors have term limits. They come and go. Have any of them succeeded at this reform?

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has done more than any predecessor but there’s a long way still to go.

How many Hawai‘i governors — term-limited governors — have promised Hawai‘i a public education second to none? Which of them succeeded? Who is still in place, immune to reform?

What happens in real life is, candidates make bold promises of reform, we elect them, then they announce bold plans for reform and those plans run headfirst into a culture of unfirable civil servants shielded by union protections. These folks don’t even have to noisily and aggressively oppose the reform, all they have to do is … not do it. And wait. Four years later, or eight years later, their antagonist is gone, the staff remains, with its culture of job security over excellence safely intact.

[{"type":"text","text":"We, the taxpayers and voters, then sit around wondering what happened."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Two Hawai‘i’s"}]

What’s happened is simple: Since statehood, Hawai‘i’s people have steadily split into two camps, those who work for government and everybody else. The appeal of Government Hawai‘i is the security and benefits — lifelong employment, if you want it, totally protected from market forces and competition, with solid benefits like healthcare and retirement, paid for by the rest of us in Real Hawai‘i.

If you think the security and the bennies of government jobs are a trade-off to compensate for low pay, guess again. Government Hawai‘i earns more than Real Hawai‘i.

The annual average wage of a non-government job in Hawai‘i is 

 from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The average annual wage in state government? 

What does Real Hawai‘i get in return? One of the highest tax burdens in America for one thing, and then very little to brag about in high-quality government service. (

I would say that that two Hawai‘i’s have hardened into opposing camps, except that’s not exactly true. Government Hawai‘i drives an Us vs Them dynamic, that was never clearer to me than it was during Covid, when Government Hawai‘i showed us that it will shut the rest of down for years at a time given the slightest opportunity. It will also protect itself first, at the expense of the public is supposedly serves, as we see in the lingering effects of the schools closing for so long. That policy made no one safer, but it did mess up the kids. (And have you noticed ever since then, Government Hawai‘i takes the day off for even bad weather like it never did before, while the rest of us soldier on with our work?)

Out here in Real Hawai‘i, we grumble but otherwise settle for apathy (i.e., low voter turnout) or outright flight to states where it feels like a good life is more possible. I don’t know who Government Hawai‘i is going to tax when the last of us moves to Vegas.

With all that in mind, term limits on government service seem like the one revolution we haven’t tried, haven’t even discussed, but should. Say 10, 15 years max, total lifetime employment in government at any level. We want people to stay long enough to learn the ropes and finish things they’ve started, not so long that they just settle in and kill time until retirement.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The upsides:"}]

Breaks up all the pockets of resistance to change. Turnover would occur systemwide, one person at a time, as they age out. Reformers at the top have a chance building support in the workforce among newer staff.

[{"type":"text","text":"Brings in new people and new ideas in government at every level."}]

Opens up more opportunities for Government Hawai‘i and Real Hawai‘i to trade places and live in each other’s worlds. This may be the biggest upside — more of us would get a chance to feel like we had a chance to change the system from the inside and deliver the service we’ve always wanted, while more of them would be forced to realize that Real Hawai‘i is something more than subjects to be ruled and tax cows to be milked.

Forces a revolution in how government hires. Using Mayor Blangiardi again as an example, he’s talked about how it took people six months on average to get hired by the City & County of Honolulu when he assumed office. 

, he had cut that down to three months. Compared to the speed at which the private sector can hire, that’s still an eternity, and that would have to change immediately to deal with the kind of turnover we need.

(To be fair, government is not alone on this front. In my decade at Pacific Business News, I heard executives at Hawai‘i’s larger companies talk endlessly about a labor shortage. At the same time, I knew plenty of talented people who could not land great jobs. Something is seriously broken in the hiring process, and I suspect HR, especially using automated keyword-based filters on resumes, is to blame. Make Direct Hiring by Managers Great Again!)

Loss of expertise, I suppose, but we’ve seen what the accumulated expertise gets us: A chief elections officer who thought a lauhala basket suited the dignity of a Hawai‘i electoral tie-breaker and ended getting his office sued — successfully — and 

. Scott Nago has worked at the Office of Election for nearly 26 years, almost 17 of those years as its chief election officer. As Civil Beat 

, it’s just about the only place he has ever worked in his life. Well, in the private sector, you can lose your job for bungling things so badly you get sued. Under my plan, the private sector is where he would’ve been sent years ago. Had someone else, perhaps with a wider range of life experience, been at the helm, maybe that person would've made better decisions.

[{"type":"text","text":"So, OK, there are no downsides."}]

Term limits on government service. If you like this idea, spread the word. We’d be moving a mountain to make it happen. But that’s got to be better than carrying the mountain of Government Hawai‘i on our shoulders forever.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

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People take time out of their lives to participate in the democratic process by testifying before committee hearings. Too often, the committee isn't there.

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Pipikaula Corner: Invisible Legislators

It's not getting much media attention, but the private diaries of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been published online by Sen. Rand Paul in advance of his hearings this week into Fauci and Covid-19. What they reveal across thousands of pages is man in love with the adulation he received, who privately knew that many of things he said publicly about the pandemic were wild exaggerations.

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Pipikaula Corner: Fauci revealed as fear-mongering, fame-loving fraud

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms</title>

It's an election year, and some people are running on the popular idea that legislators and Congress should have term limits to prevent lifers from working the system. ASD Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier argues this is a great idea, with the wrong target. What if it's actually the government workforce itself that needs a term limit?

Pipikaula Corner: Limiting the wrong terms

Real Estate

Situated above the Pacific Ocean along Hawai‘i Island’s Hāmākua Coast, the aptly named Hāmākua Hotel is for sale with a $10 million asking price.

 is located about 20 minutes north of Hilo on 3.4 fee simple acres at 28-3514 Hawai‘i Belt Road in Honomū. According to 

, it’s the only permitted hotel along the 55-mile Hāmākua coastline.

The hotel operated as a bed-and-breakfast called Palms Cliff House for 25 years, 

. It was acquired by Eric and Lori Lochtefeld during the Covid-19 pandemic and, for a few years, was used as their home and to host private retreats, the site states. But an anniversary trip to Italy in the summer of 2023 inspired the couple to transform the property into a luxury hotel “with a focus on great culinary and storytelling.”

The property underwent a $2.5 million renovation completed in 2024, which added an infinity-edge pool and spa barn, upgraded guest rooms and modernized infrastructure, the listing notes. Meanwhile, “an exclusive option to acquire 22 contiguous acres unlocks the ability to create a 25.5-acre oceanfront estate with nearly one mile of coastline.”

Kevin Aucello, principal with Powell & Aucello, a Honolulu-based hotel brokerage and consulting firm, has listed the property. In an email to Aloha State Daily, he says that now the hotel is operating smoothly, the owner “understands that new ownership and fresh ideas will help the property continue evolving while also giving him the flexibility to pursue other interests.”

It's not often that a property of this nature becomes available.

“Oceanfront, fee-simple hotels in Hawai‘i almost never come to market — especially those nestled on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, a setting that makes this offering even more exceptional,” Aucello says. “Being the only permitted hotel along this coastline further underscores its rarity.”

When asked about the visitor demand for hotels like this on Hawai‘i Island, Aucello answers the question with one of his own: “Who wouldn’t want to stay in a boutique hotel that feels like it belongs in ‘Architectural Digest’ — a place perched above the Pacific, where every meal feels intentional, personal and deeply connected to Hawai‘i?

“Travelers today aren’t just looking for a bed, they’re looking for moments,” he continued. “And when a hotel pairs incredible design with cuisine that honors local ingredients and the island’s food culture, it creates the kind of memories people come back for year after year.”

Aucello says that demand for boutique hotels that offer “this level of authenticity, setting and culinary craft,” has long outpaced the supply on the Big island.

“Guests are drawn to properties that feel rooted in place — where the views, the architecture and even the meals tell a story,” he says. “Those are the hotels that consistently outperform and build loyal followings.”

And from an investor’s perspective, Aucello says interest is just as strong.

“Boutique hotels are a rare niche with high barriers to entry and limited inventory,” he continued. “But what truly sets this segment apart is the type of buyer it attracts. These opportunities don’t typically draw private equity or institutional money — they resonate with hoteliers who have an entrepreneurial spirit, people who love the craft of hospitality and want to shape something unique and meaningful.”

According to Aucello, the property’s 2024 renovation and reopening as Hāmākua Hotel created a “turnkey opportunity with immediate operating momentum.”

“It’s an ideal investment for an individual, couple or entrepreneurial group looking to own a truly distinctive luxury boutique hotel — one that blends lifestyle appeal with strong guest demand,” he says. “It’s also a small enough operation that a new owner can immediately infuse their personality, creative ideas and vision into the guest experience, something rarely possible in larger hospitality assets.

“At the same time, the property is perfectly suited for a small luxury brand seeking to expand its presence in Hawai‘i, offering a rare combination of oceanfront positioning, thoughtful design and personalized hospitality that aligns with experiential luxury.”

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Taco Bell surf thru

Kady Pascual

Social Media & Marketing Manager

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Taco Bell surf thru

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media & Marketing Manager

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

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