Square Kady Pascual Headshot RGZ5762

Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Just following boss’ orders!"}]

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

HawaiiCandyFactory

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Use your head</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @HawaiiCandyFactory, who’s taking things literally.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Use your head

Just following boss’ orders!  Make sure you follow @HawaiiCandyFactory on Instagram! For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter!

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawaii History

Columnists

 The official history of Freemasonry in Hawai‘i begins in 1843, when Joseph-Marie Le Tellier, captain of the French whaler 

, established Lodge Le Progres De L’oceanie, chartered under the auspices of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite under the Supreme Council of France. Lodge members consisted of mariners and business owners from Europe and America.

In 19th century Honolulu, joining the Freemasons meant far more than belonging to a private club. Freemasonry offered fellowship, a structured moral code, and a sense of belonging in a world so far from  home. Members could build networks of trust and cooperation with merchants, professionals and government officials, gaining both social standing and practical advantages. At the same time, the rituals and symbols of the lodge taught ideals of integrity, charity, and fraternity. For newcomers in a distant land like Hawai‘i, Masonic membership provided an instant community of brothers who spoke a common language of loyalty and shared values.

In time, the interest in Freemasonry in Hawai‘i reached the very highest ranks of society, with a few Hawaiian kings becoming members of the fraternity. The first Native Hawaiian raised in the brotherhood was Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, who later became King Kamehameha V. Prince Alexander Liholiho followed his brother into the craft, later becoming King Kamehameha IV. Several other ali‘i were raised as well, including King David Kalākaua, his brother Prince William Pitt Leleiohoku II, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole, and Prince David Kawānanakoa. Other notable Freemasons in Hawaiian government include John Owen Dominis, husband to Queen Lili‘uokalani, Archibald Cleghorn, father of Princess Ka‘iulani, and Governor Wallace R. Farrington.

Only Hawai‘i can claim to have had two monarchs who sat as masters of a Masonic lodge during their reign: King Kamehameha IV and King David Kalākaua.

In Honolulu, a number of prominent landmarks bear cornerstones set in place with full Masonic ritual and ceremony. Among them are the Kekuanaoa Building, better known as the Territorial Building, the stately Ali‘iōlani Hale that houses Hawai‘i’s State Supreme Court, Queen’s Hospital, and even the regal ‘Iolani Palace. For the Freemasons, such ceremonies were a way of imbuing stone and mortar with ideals of stability, morality, and permanence, linking the rising architecture of Honolulu with a tradition that stretched back centuries.

Though many of these buildings still stand as testaments to that legacy, the fraternity’s own gathering places were just as significant. Several spaces in Honolulu were home to Masonic Temples over the years until a cornerstone was laid at the corner of Makiki and Kinau Streets in 1937. Within the halls of Makiki Temple, solemn ceremonies unfolded, and secrets were carefully guarded behind closed doors. After decades of ritual, secrecy, and charged atmosphere, the very weight of those gatherings seemed to seep into the walls of the temple itself.

A few years ago, a chilling story began to circulate about a houseless man who, seeking warmth on a cold night, managed to slip inside the lodge building. Wandering through the building’s dark corridors, he found his way upstairs into a wide, windowless chamber. The air was still and heavy, but warmer than outside, so he lay down on the floor, exhausted and hungry, and drifted into uneasy sleep.

In the middle of the night, neighbors across the street awoke to bloodcurdling screams echoing through the darkness. They described the cries as raw terror, as though someone were fighting for their very life. When police arrived, they found the man pleading desperately for help. For some reason, he couldn’t open the doors to leave, so he tried to escape through a second-story window. There he was, halfway out the window, hanging on for dear life. The officers were forced to summon the lodge’s caretaker to gain entry.

Once upstairs, the police quickly arrested the man for trespassing, but what happened next unsettled even them. As they escorted him downstairs, they passed through the large dining hall. The caretaker flipped on the light, illuminating the walls, and there, lined from corner to corner, were black-and-white portraits of the past Masters of Hawai‘i’s lodges. Each man was dressed in their Masonic regalia, gazing sternly from their frame.

The houseless man froze in his tracks. His eyes widened, his face drained of color, and then he erupted into screams that filled the hall.

“That’s them! Those guys! They were walking in a circle around me, coming closer and closer… like they were gonna do something to me! That’s them, all of them! That’s them!”

Collectively, the officers dismissed his outburst as the ravings of a disturbed man. Yet one officer later admitted, almost reluctantly, that even with the dining room lights blazing, the room was darkly oppressive. He said it felt as if there was still life behind the watchful eyes in the portraits, and that the room held far more than the living men who stood inside it.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Makiki Masonic Temple Large

<title>Watchful eyes at Maikiki Temple</title>

Only Hawai‘i can claim to have had two monarchs who sat as masters of a Masonic lodge during their reign: King Kamehameha IV and King David Kalākaua. Freemasonry offered brotherhood and a moral code — and a sense of mystery, with a strange tale emerging about the Makiki Temple.

Watchful eyes at Maikiki Temple

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

A group of over 100 Hawai‘i hotel workers have won a class-action lawsuit against their employers over improperly paid tips.

In 2016, Reneldo Rodriguez was working at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Hawai‘i Island serving food during banquet events. While he was working there, the hotel imposed a fee, called a “service charge” or “gratuity” on guests.

Although the hotel informed guests that those charges would not be distributed in full to employees, it did not specify the actual percentage of the money that would go to staff. The disclosures at the time read, in part: “We allocate a portion of the service fee to our employees as tips or wages.”

[{"type":"text","text":"And that, it turns out, is illegal."}]

Rodriguez filed a class-action suit against Mauna Kea Resort, Hawai‘i Prince Hotel Waikīkī and Prince Resorts Hawai‘i in Dec. 2016 on behalf of “over 100 servers, porters, bartenders and other employees,” arguing that their hotels had violated a state law protecting against unfair and deceptive business practices.

The law in question — Hawai‘i Revised Statutes 481B-14 — specifically applies to hotel or restaurant service charges. Under that law, any establishment that applies service charges for food or beverage services must either distribute the service charge directly to its employees as tip income or “clearly disclose” to the purchaser that the charge is being used to cover expenses other than employee wages and tips.

The word “clearly” was the linchpin of the argument by attorney Brandee Faria, representing the plaintiffs. She never disputed the fact that the hotel did inform guests that service charges didn’t entirely go to employees.

But obfuscating how much of those charges did go to workers, she argued, goes against the understood definition of “clearly.” She suggested that providing the specific percentages of where the charges go would fulfill the requirements of the law.

With the hotels having failed to meet legal requirements, Faria argued that the plaintiffs were entitled to 100% of the service charges levied during their employments, with damages to be determined at trial.

While the First Circuit Court agreed with the plaintiffs, the defendants appealed and the Intermediate Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision.

[{"type":"text","text":"But the ICA’s reasoning was flawed, Faria claimed."}]

In a follow-up appeal to the Hawai‘i Supreme Court, she argued that the ICA had wrongly focused on her suggestion of providing percentages, when that was only one of any number of potential ways to “clearly disclose” the use of service fees.

“The question … is whether a disclosure that does not provide sufficient or meaningful information to consumers to make a gratuity determination — that is, whether and how much to tip — ‘clearly discloses’ that the service charge is not a gratuity or tip,” read Faria’s Supreme Court filing.

[{"type":"text","text":"On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs."}]

 that the law serves a dual purpose: to ensure consumers are well-informed and service workers are adequately compensated. The law exists to “patch” a previous issue where employers used service charges to cover their own administrative costs, while consumers — who believed the service charges had already covered workers’ tips — left no tips for employees.

Eddins cited in his opinion the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of "clearly" ("'free from obscurity or ambiguity,' 'easily understood,' or 'unmistakable'), concluding that the hotels had failed to meet such a standard.

“Does a portion of the service charge mean nearly all of it?” Eddins wrote. “Or almost none of it? Does ‘a portion’ [allocated] to ‘tips or wages’ mean that 

 of the service charge is allocated to tip income? Or does it mean that nearly all of it is? It’s any consumer’s guess.”

Eddins noted that, in early 2017, the hotels updated their disclosures to be more specific. One such example specified that 18.7% out of a 22% service charge is pooled and distributed to relevant staff, with the remaining 3.3% retained by the hotel, which Eddins considered a sufficiently clear disclosure.

The Supreme Court’s decision overturns that of the Appeals Court, and remands the case back to the First Circuit Court for further proceedings.

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

Prince Waikiki

<title>Hotel workers prevail in service charge lawsuit</title>

Supreme Court rules hotels didn't clearly disclose gratuity fees.

Hotel workers prevail in service charge lawsuit

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Aloha Spirit

As the second anniversary of the Maui wildfires approaches, the Building Industry Association of Hawai‘i is working to build the island's construction workforce, bringing its Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Training program to the Valley Isle this fall.

PACT is a six-week, full-time workforce development program for people who are new to the construction industry. Here, you'll learn essential skills, tools and knowledge needed for a career in the building industry. The program is free for qualified residents.

 — sponsored by the Maui County Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or WIOA, program, and the Hawai‘i Building Industry Foundation — will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, Sept. 8 to Oct. 24, at the J. Walter Cameron Center, 95 Mahalani St. in Wailuku.

BIA Hawai‘i CEO Roseann Freitas recently told Aloha State Daily that the organization — a not-for-profit trade association chartered by the National Association of Home Builders in 1955 — had offered the PACT program for "a very long time." It was shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic, "and we revitalized it last September."

[{"type":"text","text":"Since then, a handful of cohorts have been offered."}]

"Once we got those first few classes under our belt — then the success rate was there, but also we saw the need," Freitas said. "We were helping underserved markets."

Some classes had members who were homeless but showing up for every class, she said. It's something that's "not easy to do, even under regular circumstances. So we realized that this was a great program [and] wanted to get it to Maui. We knew Maui needed it."

On Aug. 8, 2023, fires driven by high winds tore through Lahaina and other parts of the Valley Isle. More than 100 people died in the blaze that destroyed much of Lahaina town.

The University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization estimated in a 

 that, at its peak, "rebuilding on Maui will require 2,000 additional construction workers." 

According to Freitas, BIA Hawai‘i is working with Maui County to fund some of the students' course fees, along with the Hawai‘i Building Industry Foundation, and is partnering with nonprofit 

 to offer participants hands-on experience.

"We feel like it's a great win," she said. "They're learning and at the same time, they're helping to rebuild the community there."

[{"type":"text","text":"The construction workforce has been short for decades, Freitas says. "}]

"That was the mindset. People sent their kids to college. They did not think about the trades and we're paying that price now."

[{"type":"text","text":"But construction pays \"above average wages,\" Freitas says."}]

"People can get out of these trade schools — or our [program] is six weeks. There's other options like going on to an apprenticeship or furthering it along, but they're coming out without the debt that college students are having and they're making more money," she continued. "It's a really good answer, especially for people who want to stay and live in Hawai‘i because it's so expensive so you need to have a decent wage."

 notes that participants will learn about job site safety and earn certifications in OSHA-30 Construction Safety, adult first aid, CPR and AED; and optional certifications in lead renovation, repair and painting, and OSHA (

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

) Disaster Site Worker safety. They'll also learn technical trade skills in carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, masonry, weatherization and landscaping; construction math and blueprint reading; green building fundamentals; career readiness and professionalism; and also gain some real-world experience.

[{"type":"text","text":"Freitas says about 70% of the curriculum is hands-on."}]

"As we're doing this, we bring in experts from the industry," Freitas says. "That's who teaches these courses — people within the industry who want to give back in their way or they have a flexible schedule that they can come teach."

Freitas says PACT has a success rate of about 83%. For this program, that means completing the six-week course and getting the certifications.

There are three pathways for those who complete the training, she says: go right into the workforce, apply for an apprenticeship program or continue their education at a college.

"We're exposing them to different opportunities because when people think construction, they always think [about] the traditional construction worker, but there's every profession almost in there, and there's different avenues," Freitas says. "We're giving them options and then these three career pathways that they could continue on — and we're staying in touch with them. That's probably the big thing."

As for the importance of addressing the construction industry's workforce needs, Freitas notes future housing demands in Hawai‘i.

Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corp.'s 2024 Hawai‘i Housing Planning study, which was 

 earlier this year, found that the state will need an estimated 64,490 additional housing units by 2027 to meet demand).

"We know we have a housing crisis," Freitas says. "We have a shortage of housing and we've lost a lot of people to the Mainland. They're finding it too expensive to live here, so that is shrinking all of our talent pool — especially construction."

Without people here to build, she says people have to be brought in from the Mainland to do the work.

"They're here to do great things, but at the end of the day, when the job is done, all of that revenue goes back to the Mainland," Freitas notes. "The more we can do here on our island and keep that revenue stream here, it helps the economy overall. I think that's why it's so important."

the Maui training opportunity is targeting Maui residents — including Native Hawaiians; Pacific Islanders; Asian Americans; women; disconnected youth, typically ages 16 to 24 who are not in school or employed; and economically marginalized residents, although anyone can apply and there are no age restrictions.

PACT BIA Hawaii

<title>BIA Hawai‘i aims to build Maui's construction workforce</title>

PACT is a full-time workforce development program for people who are new to the construction industry.

BIA Hawai‘i aims to build Maui's construction workforce

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

Logan Taylor had said aloha to football last November, secure in the understanding that he had given the sport everything he had, including a college career spanning a total of seven season at three different schools and multiple injuries. 

So why, then, was Taylor on the field in his team-issued University of Hawai‘i gear when the 

Rainbow Warriors kicked off spring practices on Monday

A recent ruling in December allowed Vanderbilt star quarterback Diego Pavia to come back for an additional season in 2025 although he had exhausted all four seasons of his NCAA eligibility. Pavia had previously sued the NCAA, alleging that his status as a former junior college athlete limited his potential name, image, and likeness (NIL) earnings. 

After Pavia received his verdict, thousands of athletes across the country were under the impression that their JUCO years did not count towards their NCAA eligibility. Taylor, who played at El Camino College in California in 2019, fits the criteria. Although Taylor has to make his own appeal to the NCAA, the precedent Pavia set has enabled a bevy of college athletes to try and come back for another year or two. 

In other words, Taylor is saying aloha to football all over again this week. 

"I was blessed to be able to have played a year at my old junior college," Taylor told Aloha State Daily. "My coaches reached out to see if I wanted to play (again), and I'm like, 'Yeah.' After seeking counsel, after praying, we felt the Lord would call me back, and it's for a different role. I feel like I'm more here as a missionary. I'm just blessed to be here. I'm just blessed to be back again."

Taylor, a linebacker, was Hawai‘i's leading tackler in 2022 and a team captain in 2023 and 2024. He's not sure specifically when the NCAA will approve or deny his appeal, but his coaches say the value of his mere presence is immeasurable to the team. 

"Logan's leadership has helped mold others into leaders themselves," UH associate head coach and linebackers coach Chris Brown said. "His presence is huge with the young guys. He's like that NFL veteran QB that is there to mentor younger players. He brings a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that is huge in the success of the team. He will be big in rotation with our linebackers. I'm so happy to get him back. I wasn't ready to let him go just yet. That's my lion and he deserves to win."

As some members of the team were yawning through warm-ups prior to practice on Monday, Taylor was the one motivating his teammates to wake up. During a drill in which linebackers were competing against running backs on Wednesday, Taylor was giving pointers to other linebackers and encouraging the running backs, praising their technique under new offensive coordinator Anthony Arceneaux. 

Throughout the duration of his UH career, Taylor has not been shy about his Christianity, leading the team in prayers and mentioning his beliefs often in media interviews. When asked what he would be doing this week if his football career were behind him, Taylor says he'd be in the beginning stages of his ministry career. 

"I'm gonna end up living here. This is where I want to raise my kids," said Taylor, a native of Southern California. "When I was done, I was about to go into full-time ministry. I was going to be a campus missionary, so I was going to be around, and it's funny, because it's like what I'm doing right now. But it's just funny, because it's the same thing I'm doing here right now, even while I'm playing, so nothing's really changed. Man, I'm just still in the same spot."

As he prepares for a potential eighth year of college football, Taylor may be excused from practices soon. His wife, Theresa, is expecting the family's first daughter any day now. They've already decided to name her Honey Grace, joining her two brothers, Kobe King and Vader Ali‘i. 

"Super blessed, man. She'll probably be born this week or early next week. So, yeah, I'm on standby," Taylor said. "I got my phone out here with me. Whatever my wife needs. I'm so blessed to have coaches that let me put my family first, so if I got to stay with her, my family comes first."

There's been lots to celebrate for Taylor, who recently turned 25. Regardless of where he is on a given day, he considers each moment a blessing.

"I'm out here regardless, man. And the best thing about it is, I got faith that God is gonna take me wherever he has called me to be. So if it's here, this is where he's called me to be," Taylor said. "And if it's not, then I trust God's plan for my life. So either way, I'm out here. As long as they're letting me practice, I'm at practice. This is just playing the kids game, having fun, being a little violent. There's nothing like it."

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Use your head

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Hawaiian local album covers

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Get boogie with it

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Customer service in Hawaiʻi

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Preparation is key

Most read

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Use your head

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

More in Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Hawaiian local album covers

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Get boogie with it

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Customer service in Hawaiʻi

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Preparation is key

Most read