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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Aloha means yield… sometimes."}]

SupahHellahChoke Traffic

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Shaka jam</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @ezraleii, witnessing aloha spirit — even in morning traffic.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Shaka jam

Aloha means yield… sometimes.  Make sure you follow @ezraleii on Instagram!

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Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

Improvisation is at the heart of keyboardist, composer, arranger, band leader, audio engineer and producer Kit Ebersbach’s new free jazz album,

“Ala Pōʻai,” from Lō'ihi Records, which launched with a vinyl release on Sept. 25.

Abe Lagrimas Jr. on drums, Mark Tanouye on bass, Gustavo DʻAmico on saxophone, with vocals by Maia Shizue and spoken word from Deborah Harada. The entire album came together in two days of recording.

We did a couple of takes of each,” Ebersbach told Aloha State Daily.

The album’s name, “Ala Pōʻai,” refers to a circular road. Many of the songs are named after places, such as “Short Cut (Cliff Street),” which references his first home in Haledon, New Jersey.

One of the tracks on “Ala Pōʻai” is titled

Māmane (Puʻu ʻŌʻō Trail),” named after his favorite trail on Hawaiʻi Island. 

“It’s unlike any other trail,” Ebersbach said, adding that it crosses lava fields and kīpuka, or areas of ancient, old growth rainforest that were spared from destruction.

[{"type":"text","text":"“And the birds are so sweet and everything.\""}]

share music from “Ala Pōʻai” and talk story at “Soundings: A Listening Party,”

 starting at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the ʻAwa Hou Kava Lounge. The event is presented by Lō'ihi Records and the Community Programs department of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Outreach College.

Michelle Huynh, assistant faculty specialist for the UH Mānoa Outreach College, is looking forward to offering this free event to the public.

“It's also exciting to partner with Lōʻihi Records and to have this event at ʻAwa Hou! Kava Lounge, a community-engaged venue easily accessible to UHM students,” she said in an email to ASD. “In addition, we'll have an amazing opportunity to talk story with artists spanning several generations, so this listening party kicks off what we hope will become an ongoing series where anyone in the community will feel welcome to gather and share in listening together.”

The idea for “Ala Pōʻai” came up after Ebersbach played piano with “Hawaiʻi to the World” talent competition winner 

, who will soon release a new album, also produced by Lō'ihi Records.

Ebersbach has been making music in Hawaiʻi for almost 60 years. He founded Don Tiki, a 

 in its first album, “The Forbidden Sounds of Don Tiki.” He is also the creator of 

“Aloha: Āina,” a 12-volume collection of field recordings

 capturing the sounds of nature across Hawaiʻi, including birds and frogs. These recordings, which combine environmental noise and nature sounds with music, started as part of Hawaiian Airlines in-flight programming, which Ebersbach has curated for 

Ebersbach said he started making up songs as a kid. 

While studying linguistics at Yale University, he began to take music more seriously.

“But what was really great was somebody had gifted Steinway [& Sons] pianos to all the residential colleges,” he said.

Eventually, the chairman of the linguistics program went on to start a department at the University of Hawaiʻi, and Ebersbach followed, seeking a higher degree.

He moved to Hawaiʻi in the late 1960s, playing piano to make ends meet. Ebersbach said his National Defense Foreign Language grant was not enough to cover his living expenses, so he turned to music.

During a recent walk through of his Pacific Music Productions recording studio in Chinatown — where 

Ala Pōʻai” was created — a wall of CDs appeared behind his desk.

He explained it is "just so that I can keep track of what I use and I don't use the same things over and over again, I put the ones that I use over here."

He also previously performed alongside his wife, Gerry, in 

And for more than two decades, Ebersbach played and recorded music with the late 

Now, he occasionally accompanies the singers 

, Rachel Gonzales, Angeli Cabrera and Sandy Tsukiyama.

 for $30 at Lōʻihi Records, or find it at

. Albums can also be purchased at Aloha Got Soul's brick-and-mortar shop at 2017 S. King St. in Honolulu. 

Kit Ebersbach

<title>Kit Ebersbach shares how free jazz album came to life</title>

This Renaissance man with almost 60 years of experience playing music in Hawaiʻi just released "Ala Pōʻai," a new album from Lō'ihi Records. Learn more about the places that inspired his music and the listening party taking place this week near UH Mānoa.

Kit Ebersbach shares how free jazz album came to life

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Crime & Courts

Another organization has sued Hawai‘i over Act 11, the law passed this year that limits corporate spending in political campaigns.

Act 11, which Gov. Josh Green signed into law in 

, limits “artificial-person powers” granted by the state to corporations; in particular, the law rescinded the power of corporations to spend money on political campaigns.

The law challenges the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court verdict in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, wherein the court found laws prohibiting corporate political spending violates corporations’ First Amendment. Proponents of Act 11 have argued that the law does not impede corporations’ 

The Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America disagrees. Last month, the national chamber 

 state Attorney General Anne Lopez and Nadine Ando, Director of the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, over Act 11 in U.S. District Court.

In its complaint, the Chamber argues that the law “extinguishes the power to speak on certain topics and viewpoints, enforces that … prohibition with significant corporate penalties up to involuntary dissolution … in direct defiance of binding Supreme Court precedent.”

The Chamber claims that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the fundamental premise of Act 11 — that a corporation’s “powers” conferred by the state are distinct from their “rights” — in Citizens United. It adds that Act 11 applies to foreign entities that Hawai‘i has no authority over.

Furthermore, Act 11 is discriminatory, the Chamber argues, because it permits media corporations to publish content concerning political campaigns while simultaneously prohibiting other corporations from doing the same.

Because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce regularly participates in political speech — including repeated endorsements of Rep. Ed Case and a planned voter-education tour this year about “the virtues and benefits of free enterprise and the dangers of socialism” — the Chamber argues that it has been directly harmed by Act 11.

The Chamber’s complaint notes that its arguments are not original. In fact, it points out that Lopez 

 testified against the bill as it passed through the state Legislature, calling it “likely impossible to defend” and warning that passing the law would all but guarantee costly legal challenges.

, filed in June by Grassroot Institute of Hawai‘i, followed much the same arguments. Progress in that case has been slow; a hearing for a proposed preliminary injunction that would suspend Act 11 until the case is resolved, which was proposed in June, is scheduled for Oct. 13.

The Chamber has also moved for a similar preliminary injunction in its case, but no hearing has yet been scheduled on the matter.

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<title>National Chamber of Commerce sues Hawai‘i over corporate spending law</title>

A second lawsuit challenging Act 11 has struck the state.

National Chamber of Commerce sues Hawai‘i over corporate spending law

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A. Kam Napier

Columnists

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?

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Shaka jam

Kady Pascual

Social Media & Marketing Manager

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Shaka jam

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media & Marketing Manager

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Enter for a chance to win tickets to see Disney’s live action adaptation of the animated film ‘Moana’

Hawai‘i Scene on Social meets Hawai‘i Skies

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