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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Did you watch “Chief of War” yet?"}]

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Qahyou olelo

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An inspirational fire</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @qahyou, who thinks he can speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi after watching the first two episodes of “Chief of War.”

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An inspirational fire

Did you watch “Chief of War” yet? More coverage from ASD on the Apple TV+ series here.  Make sure you follow @qahyou on Instagram! For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter!

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

KAHUKU — As much as Kahuku wants its 2025 season to be business as usual, returning to normalcy won't come without growing pains. 

Saturday's game day atmosphere on the North Shore has been one that 

 fans have come to expect — full bleachers, blaring music and excitement surrounding one of the state's top teams. One glaring omission: 

, who had been the head coach for the Red Raiders since 2018 but was removed on March 31 following a Department of Education investigation. 

 a motion to return to his former duties immediately but was denied by O‘ahu Circuit Court Judge Jordon J. Kimura on Aug. 1. Carvalho and his attorney, Eric Seitz, 

have decided to continue their legal battle

 against the DOE. Meanwhile, interim head coach Nihoa Pule will coach the Red Raiders in 2025.

In a rematch of the 2024 HHSAA Open Division championship game, Kahuku hosted Saint Louis on Saturday night and 

"A learning moment for us as a staff and our kids," Pule said after the game. "We didn't do as well as we thought we should have, but we'll get there. I believe in our kids. I believe in our staff and we'll be OK. We just got to clean up on a lot of stuff. It's the first game. ... We just got to keep going."

Saint Louis held a 13-0 lead at halftime and didn't score again until a two-yard Nainoa Lopes touchdown with 15 seconds remaining. Despite returning just two starters on defense, Kahuku's talent on that side of the ball was on clear display. In his Kahuku debut, USC commit and Orange Lutheran (California) transfer Talanoa Ili had seven tackles with a sack. Meanwhile, UCLA commit Malaki Soliai-Tui had a game-high 13 tackles with 2.5 tackles for loss and half a sack. 

Offensively, the Red Raiders struggled. Quarterback Matai Fuiava was contained all night, completing just four of his 16 passes for a total of 17 yards and two interceptions. 

Pule, who graduated from Kahuku in 1995, has been an assistant coach with the Red Raiders since 2007. He has coached every single season since then, with the exception of one under Vavae Tata, who was the head coach in 2015 and 2016.

Other Kahuku head coaches Pule has been an assistant under include 

, Makoa Freitas and Carvalho. For the most part, Pule has coached defensive backs for Kahuku, the same position he played for the Red Raiders himself. Under Carvalho, he was promoted to defensive coordinator when play resumed in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carvalho's removal surprised many in the Red Raider community, including Pule himself. 

"It was a very abrupt change for all of us," Pule said. "I sat down and talked to my wife about it, and we always came back to the same thing. It's something that coach Sterling also really enforced, was the kids. Kids first, and so that we tried to keep that mantra, because if we don't have kids, we're not coaching here. 

"We want to make sure that the kids are OK. In the beginning, I'm not gonna lie, they were hesitant, right? We just lost our leader. When they named me interim, then they're like, OK, at least it's someone we know, he's been here every day. It's not someone totally new, right? So, it's been really good. You know, these kids are awesome."

Pule and Carvalho have been in consistent communication since Carvalho's removal. The two share the common goal of wanting to see Kahuku's kids become the best version of themselves regardless of who is in charge. 

"We've actually talked almost every week, sometimes two or three times a week. Just checking in to see if I need help, I check in to see if he needs anything from us," Pule said. "We're still really good friends, and I respect the hell out of the guy, so I'm not gonna push him away just because of everything that's going on. I have no control over it."

Being in the spotlight as the head coach is new to Pule, who kept a low public profile as DC. 

"I was the defensive coordinator for four years, and not too many people knew, because I'm more of a behind the scenes kind of guy. I love it. I like just being able to work with the kids," Pule said. "And now, you know, taking over the whole thing, I'm able to work with all the kids on both sides of the ball, JV and varsity, and it's just been a blessing to be able to be out here with these kids every day. They're so inspiring with everything that they've been through, and just being able to keep up and keep pressing on with all the outside things going on.

"Our staff and our kids, we met with them. What I told them was we can only control what we have control over, and that's what happens in between these lines, anything that happens outside that we got no control over, that's up to whoever the decision-makers are. We just want to make sure that we take care of our stuff here and in school."

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Kahuku football 080925

<title>Kahuku football remains united despite offseason turbulence</title>

Interim head coach Nihoa Pule says the Red Raiders have remained committed to the team through an offseason coaching change that in which former coach Sterling Carvalho was removed.

Kahuku football remains united despite offseason turbulence

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Honolulu Skyline is one of several transportation projects labeled a “boondoggle” by an Iowa senator seeking to cut federal funds.

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst has been crusading against “boondoggles” for some time, and at the start of August published a 

 on her website about a series of projects around the nation that have gone over-budget and behind schedule.

While Ernst’s main bête noire is the California High-Speed Rail project — which has seen its projected completion date slide from 2017 to 2029 and its budget balloon from $5 billion to $18 billion, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation report — she wrote in her report that the federal government can save further taxpayer money by cutting funds for other, similarly long-delayed projects.

Ernst’s report was predicated on the release of a brief U.S. DOT paper that disclosed all public projects either $1 billion or more over budget or five years or more behind schedule. While the California project was among the most late and expensive projects on that list, Honolulu Rail Transit was not far behind.

That U.S. DOT report stated that Honolulu Skyline is currently 11 years behind schedule, with its project completion date now set back to 2031, and nearly $5 billion over budget, with current cost estimates now at $9.9 billion.

The DOT report also states that the project’s struggles have been caused by “multiple unsuccessful attempts to award a construction contract” for a segment of the Skyline at the city center.

Ernst lambasted the project for wasteful practices: “More than $200 million has been paid to contractors for sitting idle due to numerous delays resulting from prematurely awarding the contract, incomplete designs and lawsuits,” read her report.

Meanwhile, Ernst called the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, the project’s overseeing agency, “a bloated, mismanaged bureaucracy that lavishes excessive perks on its own executives and consultants.”

She adds that the first phase of Skyline only sees fewer than 3,000 passengers daily. HART's ridership report for July bears that out, with daily rates ranging from 1,815 to 4,123.

While her report urges that Skyline and other projects should be canceled in order to save taxpayer money, a 

 she introduced this year to address the issue doesn’t go that far. The “Billion-Dollar Boondoggle Act” instead calls for greater transparency about public infrastructure projects that have gone over-budget and behind schedule.

Under that bill, agencies responsible for projects included in the U.S. DOT report — those five years or more behind schedule, or more than $1 billion over budget — must submit annual reports to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget explaining what changes have been made to the project, its current cost estimate and an explanation for the project’s delay and cost overruns.

That bill passed the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 30, but no other action has been taken on the measure. A corresponding measure in the House has gone nowhere since February.

[{"type":"text","text":"Aloha State Daily reached out to HART for comment."}]

Skyline

<title>Iowa senator calls for cuts to Skyline "boondoggle"</title>

Sen. Joni Ernst targeting over-budget, delayed public projects

Iowa senator calls for cuts to Skyline "boondoggle"

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Arts & Culture

Aloha Spirit

Oʻahu-born and raised Tanya Uyehara launched 

meaning rare, choice, unique — in 2013 while on maternity leave with her fourth child, whom the business is named after.

“It started out as a hobby. I would make jewelry to kill time at baseball practice, and today, I still hand make jewelry,” she told Aloha State Daily.

As its namesake suggests, Lahaʻole Designs’ pieces are meaningful and highlight Native Hawaiian culture, Uyehara said, adding, “I used to beat myself up a lot because I don’t have a Hawaiian studies degree. But at the end of the day, I am Hawaiian, and I can share me and the things that I’ve learned.”

Her design inspiration — whether for jewelry, clothing or home décor — comes from Native Hawaiian plants and flowers like pōhuehue (beach morning glory), pīkake, puakenikeni and more.

She recalled seeing pōhuehue during a family beach day. “It’s gentle and delicate. It blooms in the morning and to protect its petals from the sun, it closes up.”

“For me, it’s about creating a connection for people from here or for visitors to our values of malama ʻāina and moʻolelo (storytelling),” Uyehara said. “Pīkake reminds me of my tutu and our naupaka print shares the story of my sister.”

These stories “add intention and purpose” to the brand, she said. “It’s not just cute stuff.”

Lahaʻole Designs currently occupies a storefront in Chinatown; however, Uyehara said she is looking for a “bigger and better space.”

“I still want to be in town, but somewhere more industrial,” she said. “We fought for this space’s visibility, but after three years our lease will expire."

 across the Islands and Mainland also carry select products.

’s Cohort 2 in 2018, and earlier this year, its newer sister business, 

, Kāholo, a play on words meaning a hula step and a long 

stitch, supports more than 10 local clothing stores by manufacturing 500 units or fewer at a time. The small factory has five staff members and was created to “uplift community,” she said.

“When we source materials, or anything really, it’s always Hawaiʻi first, USA first, then overseas if I have to. We’re trying to support our [gross domestic product] as much as possible,” she said. “We work with local suppliers for eco-friendly fabrics, and we maximize our cuts to create jewelry pouches, scrunchies, etc. Slow fashion is my goal.”

She said her current priority is to build her team and capacity. “I’m looking to hire locally, open more slots to manufacture, create more partnerships and find more work-life balance for myself.”

Uyehara added, “I want more fun. Making things is more fun for me.”

Lahaʻole Designs will release at least one to two more collections this year, she said, in addition to an exclusive drop with Hawaiian Airlines at 

 mid-August. Earlier this month, new fabric was arriving and the team was planning a photo shoot around the “special, first-time item I designed," she said.

When asked what she enjoys most about living and working in Hawai’i, Uyehara said, “This is where I’m from. I’m raising my kids in culture, and I hope what I do encourages my kids to do more in the community.”

Her advice to other local small business owners? “Play hard and don’t give up. Ask for help, but let yourself try first. And fail forward.”

Made in Hawai‘i Festival is scheduled for Aug. 15 to 17 at the 

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Lahaʻole Designs 001

<title>Native Hawaiian-owned design and manufacturing companies aim to ʻuplift communityʻ</title>

Tanya Uyehara, owner and designer of Lahaʻole Designs, also runs Kāholo Manufacturing Co., both of which currently operate out of Chinatown. She shares how her products share stories that “add intention and purpose” in a fast-fashion age. As Uyehara eyes a new location to take on more manufacturing clients, she's also getting ready for an exclusive release at Made in Hawai'i Festival.

Native Hawaiian-owned design and manufacturing companies aim to ʻuplift communityʻ

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

's newest location is celebrating its grand opening on Monday, July 21 at 8 a.m. The business’s new Mo‘ili‘ili location is in the former space of Kōkua Market.

Honolulu Coffee’s flagship store and Experience Center closed last October

, and used to be located on Kapi‘olani Boulevard. Chick-Fil-A will soon fill its old spot.

The grand opening festivities will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, exclusive first-day menu specials, behind-the-scenes bakery demonstrations and giveaways for the first 25 customers.

The new café and bakery is spearheaded by director of culinary operations Brian Sung, who is a classically trained pastry chef and graduate of Le Cordon Bleu.

The bakery will offer an expanded menu of housemade pastries, breads and café specialties that are designed to pair with Honolulu Coffee Co.’s signature drinks. We’re told the beverage menu is the same; you can still find customer favorites like the Hawaiian latte (coconut and macadamia nut syrup with espresso and milk), local latte (made with Lā

ie vanilla and macnut honey), and ube latte.

Be on the lookout for seasonal offerings, including the haupia cold brew, strawberry matcha and yuzu palmer.

The bakery’s expanded menu highlights a variety of specialty croissants; all pastries are made from scratch. Sweet options include the chocolate brownie, ube Chantilly and cereal milk croissants. Savory options abound in the form of ham and cheese, hot dog and kimchi Spam croissants. The latter features a Spam-studded pinwheel topped with a spicy kimchi kewpie glaze; the hot dog croissant includes a savory Redondo hot dog inside and is topped with honey mustard sauce.

If you want something especially photogenic, go for the ube croissant, which features a luscious, homemade ube filling and comes topped with shredded coconut.

The cafe also features heartier entrées. If you’re in the mood for something breakfasty, choose from options like a burrito with Portuguese sausage ($14.50), quiche Lorraine ($13.75), avocado toast ($16.50), pancake stack ($14.95) and loco moco ($15.95).

The avocado toast ($16.50) features housemade sourdough topped with avocado, pickled tomatoes, cucumber, onions and arugula, and is topped with a lilikoʻi dressing. The loco moco ($15.95), meanwhile, highlights a seasoned beef patty over a bed of white rice. It’s topped with an egg and the café’s signature coffee-infused demi-glace and serve with crispy fried onions.

There are also various acai bowl renditions, ranging from a classic with strawberries, blueberries, bananas and granola ($16.50) to The Hawaiian ($17), which comes with organic superfruits, granola, bananas, almond butter, macadamia nuts and coconut flakes. There’s even a build-your-own acai bowl option (starting from $12) with toppings like cacao nibs, chia seeds, macadamia nuts and more.

If you want more of a lunch entrée, go for the three-cheese grilled cheese ($16.95) — made with cheddar, gruyere and provolone cheeses — muffaletta sandwich ($16.95) with ham, salami and olive salad, or omurice ($17.50). I’m especially excited about the latter — not many cafes have omurice on the menu — which features a fluffy omelet filled with kalua pork and housemade fried rice and smothered with coffee-infused demi-glace and green onions.

The seating for this location is mostly outdoors, making it more conducive for takeout. There’s a free parking lot in the back of the building; the entrance is on Kahuna Lane.

Honolulu Coffee Co mural 071625

<title>First look at Honolulu Coffee Co.’s new bakery on South King</title>

The biz is celebrating its grand opening in Moʻiliʻili on Monday, July 21. The new artisan bakery and café will feature an expanded menu of homemade pastries, breads and café specialties to pair with its signature coffees.

First look at Honolulu Coffee Co.’s new bakery on South King

Five University of Hawai‘i football games will be shown on national television in the fall. 

 is expected to be televised locally on Spectrum Sports pay-per-view, with an official announcement set for the coming weeks. 

Hawai‘i's season opener against Stanford on Aug. 23 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex will be its only nationally televised home game of the season. The 1:30 p.m. contest will be televised on CBS, the second time in as many years that the Rainbow Warriors have played on CBS. 

The following week, UH's road contest at Arizona will be aired on TNT, while its Sept. 27 game at Air Force will be shown on a Fox network to be determined. 

UH's Nov. 1 contest San Jose State will be televised on CBS Sports Network, while its Nov. 21 game at UNLV will be shown on FS1. Hawai‘i's game at UNLV will be the first Friday game UH has played since its 2023 home opener against Stanford. 

Hawai‘i's lone road game that isn't nationally televised is its Oct. 18 game at Colorado State. 

Were the Rainbow Warriors to qualify for the 

The Rainbow Warriors will play seven home games in 2025. Season tickets recently went on sale and range from $150-600 for adults. 

All seven home games have promotional themes, such as the homecoming game against Portland State on Sept. 13. Former star receivers Davone Bess, Jason Rivers, C.J. Hawthorne and Ryan Grice-Mullen, also known as "The Dreadheads," will return and get honored during the game. The quartet were the four main targets for quarterback Colt Brennan in the team's unbeaten regular season in 2007. 

Micah Alejado 053025

<title>Five 2025 Hawai‘i football games to be shown on national television</title>

The Rainbow Warriors have 12 regular season games this fall.

Five 2025 Hawai‘i football games to be shown on national television

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawaii History

Columnists

, Antionette Withington wrote about an interview with a man named George. She didn’t give a last name, but she stated that in his younger days, old George was an interpreter in King Kalākaua’s court. Everyone who knew George highly respected his experience and opinions.

In the interview, George said he saw a procession of ghosts when walking home in Waikīkī. It was early in the evening, just as the sky began to get dark, and he was alone. He said he saw a strange cloud of dust ahead of him, but it was silvery. Looking up, he saw just a sliver of a new moon, so he knew it wasn’t the moon that caused the dusty cloud to shine.

As he watched the cloud, he began to see figures of people, and he knew it must have been the huaka‘i pō, the night marchers, on their way to the old heiau on the slopes of Diamond Head. He crouched beside a boulder so the figures couldn’t see him. At first, all was silent as he watched the crowd of people, both young and old, walk toward the heiau. Then he heard the drums.

Standing as a sentinel at the far end of Waikīkī, Lē‘ahi is an iconic landmark that draws up to 3,000 daily visitors. Postcards, travel articles, and movies are plastered with the volcanic tuff cone’s silhouette whenever an image is needed to invoke the tropical allure of Hawaii’s sun-kissed shores. The mountain was once compared to the lae (brow) of the ‘ahi (yellowfin tuna) by Pele’s sister, Hi‘iaka, giving it the original name, Lae‘ahi. The distinctive mountain formation was later called Lē‘ahi.

Around the turn of the 19th century, Western explorers found shiny crystals in the rocks at the base of the mountain and believed they had found diamonds. As it turned out, they found calcite crystals of no value, but Diamond Head became the dormant volcano’s common nickname.

On the slopes of Lē‘ahi sat Papa‘ena‘ena, a heiau of po‘okanaka class (at which ancient Hawaiians offered human sacrifices). Papa‘ena‘ena heiau was once Kamehameha’s sacrificial temple dedicated to his war god, Kūka‘ilimoku.

Probably the last human sacrifice held at Papa‘ena‘ena Heiau was that of Kanihonui, Kamehameha’s nephew, who was hanai (adopted) to Kamehameha and Ka‘ahumanu. Historical accounts say that Ka‘ahumanu seduced the handsome 19-year-old, and when Kamehameha found out about their affair, he had no choice but to make an example of the young man.

After the fall of the kapu system, Papa‘ena‘ena heiau was destroyed. The property changed hands a few times before finally coming into the hands of Walter F. Dillingham, who built a home in the style of a villa he admired in Tuscany and named it La Pietra. After his death, the property was sold and is now La Pietra Hawai‘i School for Girls. But the mana of the past remains.

The building and dedication of a heiau involves a great deal of ceremony and protocol, which included long processions of men bound by strict kapu going to and from the heiau. During sacred ceremonies throughout the year, when the moon was in a particular phase and the ho‘ailona (signs) were affirmative, the men would march, sometimes carrying their ali‘i (chiefs) in a mānele (palanquin). The kapu of these marches was so severe that when the procession would pass, everyone in the vicinity would lie prostrate, ensuring their gaze did not fall upon the passing ali‘i. The punishment for breaking the strict kapu was a swift death. These processions are the basis of the legend of the huaka‘i pō, in which the warriors carry on in death the duties they performed in life.

The legend of Hawaii’s night marchers has endured over time, and the ghostly procession is still seen today all around the islands, even at Lē‘ahi.

In 2019, we hosted an evening picnic at Kapi‘olani Park. We ate, laughed, and shared ghost stories as our family and friends gathered near the bandstand. Later, I took about half of our group on a mini tour to a few spooky places in the immediate area. We walked to a group of three trees that seemed to hold the negative energy of past unfortunate events. I talked about how some unseen force attacked former police officers and literally dumped them out of their Cushman carts.

We walked along Kalākaua Avenue, and I pointed across the street where the Castle Estate used to be. I shared with my friends that in 1901, when workers were digging for a sewage system, they made a gruesome discovery. Ancient bones lay just a few feet below the sandy surface. In a three hundred foot long trench of four feet deep and less than two feet wide, over a dozen skeletons were found. Historians of the time believed that the bones must have been those of warriors, as some skeletons were six feet long. When I finished the story, I turned toward Lē‘ahi, and the group followed suit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Suddenly, someone shouted, “Look!”"}]

About twenty of us stood there in awe and wonder as we watched what appeared to be a line of torch lights coming down diagonally from the top of Lē‘ahi ridge to the base of the mountain, right near La Pietra school. For nearly a minute, no one spoke. We all just stared. A few people tried to take photos with their phones, but it was dark and the images were unclear.

Did we go closer to investigate? Of course not… my mother taught me better than that. But as a group, we collectively decided it was time to go home.

Diamond Head Evening

<title>Strange occurrences at Diamond Head</title>

The legend of Hawaii’s night marchers has endured over time, and the ghostly procession is still seen today all around the islands, even at Lē‘ahi, the Hawaiian name for Diamond Head.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An inspirational fire

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An inspirational fire

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Shaka jam

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Sand dollars

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Lazy days

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Picture day

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