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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

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<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When locals become tourists</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @Erickonda__, who definitely needs to buy another check-in bag.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When locals become tourists

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Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

On Wednesday night, Hale‘iwa's Bettylou Sakura Johnson was celebrated by her sponsor, RVCA, at a private dinner on the North Shore. 

There was indeed plenty to celebrate for Johnson, who recently completed a breakout season in the World Surf League's Championship Tour, which ended with her first appearance in the WSL Final 5 in Fiji at the end of August. 

Although Johnson ultimately didn't come away with a world title, her 2025 season was still a landmark year in her career. Johnson won two WCT events in 2025: the Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro in Australia in May, as well as the Lexus Trestles Pro in California in June. Those two victories were Johnson's first in the Championship Tour, ultimately leading to her fifth place finish. 

Johnson, who turned 20 in March, says she likes to write down her goals in a notebook. Wednesday night's dinner, held at Beach House by Roy Yamaguchi on the North Shore, was a reminder that she has come a long way in the sport despite her young age. 

"Tonight is so special, so nice to have RVCA host all my friends and family for tonight's dinner," Johnson told Aloha State Daily on Wednesday evening. "It makes me feel very loved. I've only been with RVCA for two years, so it's very special and I'm thankful for them to do this for me, but just feeling a lot of gratitude this year, especially since I feel like I still have so much more to live for and things I want to keep doing in my life. So, hopefully, keep checking those goals off.

Johnson's unique first name is one she shares with her great grandmother, who also holds a March 22 birthday. "I still try to talk to her as much as I can," the younger Bettylou says. 

Johnson describes her childhood on the North Shore as "the best," where family time on the beach came early and often. With her father helping into her into the waves, her family discovered she had a precocious talent for surfing. Johnson, who lists Bethany Hamilton and John John Florence as her biggest surfing influences, says her motivation for winning surfing competitions in her early childhood were initially for material reasons. 

"I loved getting goodie bags. Like, that was the main reason why I loved doing contests, was to get a goodie bag," Johnson recalled with a laugh. "But now I love it for more reasons, but that started it."

The more Johnson surfed, the more her career ascended. Sessions after school and on the weekends turned into joining the pro ranks in her teenage years. After beginning her high school studies at Waialua High & Intermediate, she eventually transitioned to homeschooling in order to keep up with the travel and time demands of professional surfing. 

Despite her success in 2025, Johnson's year began on a somber note. Her close friend, Tiare Couto, passed away in an accident on the North Shore on Jan. 1. Johnson dedicated her first career WCT victory to her. 

"To do that and come back from such a tragic event at the beginning of this year, I think I don't think I would have gotten that one, without my friends being there for me all year and supporting me. So, that win was extra special for sure," Johnson said. 

Johnson and Cuoto were lifelong friends and grew up in the same neighborhood. 

"I've known her my whole life. I just know that she's always here around us all the time," Johnson said. "It was definitely one of the worst things I think I've ever gone through in my entire life, but I feel like I've been able to move on with my friends. Just being there for each other has helped a lot. Feeling her presence every day, it's crazy how much more you feel her when she's not here with us."

[{"type":"text","text":"The physical rigors of the WSL season also took a toll on Johnson. "}]

"I've gone through so many injuries already, and being so young and being an athlete, it's really difficult to come back, but I feel like you always come back stronger, and you come back with more gratitude, and you come back with more hunger," Johnson said. "I feel like that really fires you up. So, you know, not stoked and thankful for my injuries, but in a way I am, because it's made me the way I am today."

Long flights are part of the deal in pro surfing. In addition to Hawai‘i, the WSL schedule in 2025 alone included stops in Portugal, El Salvador, Australia, Brazil, Tahiti, Fiji, South Africa, California and the United Arab Emirates. 

"It's a big experience. I feel like I've learned so much on the road. I've learned more traveling, I feel like with life skills and everything than I would ever learn just staying at home and doing school, so super grateful for that," Johnson said. "Just going up against the best is so awesome, because that means you're one of the best, too. Everyone has their own skill set, so it's really cool to put it out there to the world throughout the season."

The start of the offseason means additional opportunities for Johnson to reflect on the year that was and more time to jot down goals in her notebook.

"I want to keep getting better at surfing, so that's also another big goal," Johnson said. "Definitely to qualify on the Championship Tour and become a WSL surfer was a huge goal of mine. Growing up as a kid, I definitely didn't think it would happen, so as soon as I qualified when I was 16 years old, that was a big, like, 'Oh my God.' I feel like I want people to know that if they ever feel like they can't do it or can't do whatever they want to do, nothing is going to stop you but yourself."

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Bettylou Sakura Johnson 091125

<title>Hale‘iwa's Bettylou Sakura Johnson celebrated by sponsor RVCA following breakout WSL…</title>

Johnson, 20, reflected on her most recent season on the World Surf League's Championship Tour, in which she was in the 2025 Women's Final Five.

Hale‘iwa's Bettylou Sakura Johnson celebrated by sponsor RVCA following breakout WSL season

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

A third Hawai‘i court is now involved in the complexifying legal battle to save the Ha‘ikū Stairs from demolition.

The Friends of Ha‘ikū Stairs, a nonprofit group advocating for the preservation of the historic staircase, 

 a lawsuit in June challenging the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ approval of a plan to demolish the stairs.

That lawsuit, filed in Honolulu Circuit Court, is the Friends of Ha‘ikū Stairs’ third active case challenging the city. Another case from 2024 is still pending in Circuit Court, while a 2023 case is pending in the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

As of Thursday, the most recent case was remanded to the Hawai‘i Environmental Court for jurisdictional reasons, splitting the defense of the stairs across three separate courts.

Timothy Vandeveer, attorney representing the Friends of Ha‘ikū Stairs, told Aloha State Daily that no demolition can happen until the 2023 appeal is resolved, thanks to an injunction granted by the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

“That injunction is very hard to get,” Vandeveer said, explaining that the ICA only grants such orders if the plaintiff seems to have a high chance of successfully winning their case.

The three lawsuits all concern in some way a 2019 environmental impact statement by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, which was at the time the stairs’ owner. The BWS had resolved to demolish the stairs and had consequently drafted the impact statement to determine the environmental effects of doing so.

Ultimately, however, the stairs were not demolished but were transferred to the Honolulu Parks and Recreation Department in 2020, with plans for the stairs to reopen to the public in some capacity — they are currently closed to all public use. The Friends of Ha‘ikū Stairs at the time took this decision as an indication that plans to demolish the stairs had been dropped.

But when the new County administration took over in 2021, talk of demolishing the steps was renewed, and the City Council voted in a non-binding resolution urging their destruction in order to prevent hikers trespassing and potentially being injured or stranded on the mountain.

As plans to demolish the stairs once again escalated, the City and County invoked the 2019 BWS environmental impact statement to satisfy the requirement for environmental analysis.

This became the crux of the 2024 lawsuit, which argued that the BWS impact statement was outdated and that a new analysis was necessary.

For example, the statement does not consider the historical significance of Omega Station, the decommissioned radio station at the summit of the stairs, because in 2019 it had not yet reached the 50-year threshold for consideration as a historic property. Because the station is now more than 50 years old — while it began as a radio station during WWII, the station was decommissioned following the war and was refitted in the 1970s as a Coast Guard station — it is now eligible for historic preservation, and the suit argues that should be reflected in any impact statement.

“It’s absolutely a historic site,” Vandeveer said. “That place helped us win World War II.”

At the same time, the State Historic Preservation Division concurred with the demolition plans, which became a core issue for the 2023 lawsuit. The suit argues that SHPD’s agreement was based on incomplete data: for example, SHPD had not been informed of a 1999 historic preservation covenant protecting the stairs, which the suit argues makes the division’s concurrence invalid.

And the latest suit argues the SHPD’s decision to agree with demolition conflicts with its own stance in 2019, when the division advocated for the stairs’ preservation. The suit accuses the City of “flip-flopping,” abruptly changing course without any explanation or due process.

“I find it very questionable coordination between the City and the state on this,” Vandeveer said. “This shouldn’t be a political issue. It’s really a failure of imagination on the part of the government.”

The BWS, Council and SHPD have all cited safety concerns as their reasons for demolishing the stairs, with the Council resolution claiming that there were 160 calls for emergency services relating the stairs in 2017.

[{"type":"text","text":"But Vandeveer said those concerns don’t bear out."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s the only hike in the world with a handrail,” Vandeveer said."}]

The Friends of Ha‘ikū Stairs have repeatedly argued that there have been no reported injuries or deaths associated with the stairs, and that, because people are going to attempt to climb the picturesque Ko‘olau Mountains anyway, stairs or no stairs, keeping a safe route where emergency services can stage responses is safer than demolishing the easiest way to descend the slope.

In any event, with the injunction in place, the stairs are likely to remain in place for awhile longer at least: no court dates are currently scheduled for any of the three cases.

Haiku Stairs

<title>Ha‘ikū Stairs lawsuits go to third court</title>

Three suits against the city are holding up planned demolition of popular site

Ha‘ikū Stairs lawsuits go to third court

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Hawaiian Electric Co. has aims to raise $500 million through the sale of 

, or bonds, that will mature in eight years. The sale is expected to close next week.

The utility will use the net proceeds from the offering to finance capital expenditures, as well as repay or refinance debt, according to an 

 from its parent company, Hawaiian Electric Industries.

 earlier this week, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter, that JPMorgan Chase & Co. was "holding meeting with investors over a possible high-yield bond sale for Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc."

The electricity supplier commenced calls with investors in the fixed-income market on Monday to discuss a potential $400 million senior, unsecured junk-bond deal, Hawaiian Electric said in a regulatory filing," Bloomberg wrote. "The bonds, which would mature in eight years, are expected to help fund capital expenditures and refinance debt."

You can find that filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, 

"Like other electric utilities, raising debt to fund capital expenditures and refinance maturing debt is a routine part of running our business," Darren Pai, manager of external communications for Hawaiian Electric, told Aloha State Daily in an email. "This kind of issuance is slightly unique for us in that it is a 'high yield' issuance; this just means it is 'higher interest rate' than it would be if our credit ratings were better (e.g., 'investment grade'). Our credit ratings were downgraded to sub-investment grade following the Maui wildfires because we are now considered higher risk — in the way that a person with perceived higher repayment risk would have a higher credit card interest rate. You can think of the term 'high yield' to essentially mean slightly higher interest rate."

As far as capital expenditures go, Pai says that electric utilities are "capital intensive," and constantly making investments into their infrastructure — thats why "regularly raising debt, as well as equity, to fund the investments is so routine across the industry."

"Last year, for example, Hawaiian Electric invested about $330 million of capital," he explained. "The capital we invest strengthens the resilience of our electricity grid, protects our communities from wildfires and other extreme weather events, improves the reliability of our power plants and increases the amount of clean energy power generation — among other things."

<title>Hawaiian Electric looks to raise $500M through the sale of bonds</title>

HECO will use the net proceeds from the offering to finance capital expenditures, as well as repay or refinance debt

Hawaiian Electric looks to raise $500M through the sale of bonds

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

Government & Politics

, a nonprofit cooperative association of the National Park Service since 1979, is soliciting feedback from the local community via surveys and meetings scheduled now through Oct. 4 to improve its visitor access and preserve the historically significant sites on Ford Island. 

These NPS-managed sites on Ford Island at 

 which include six Chief Petty Officer’s bungalows and the USS Oklahoma and USS Utah memorials 

 commemorate the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, which led to the U.S. entering World War II.

Pearl Harbor National Memorial Superintendent Tom Leatherman wrote in the introduction of the 

Ford Island National Park Service Sites Management Plan

, “Your engagement is vital as we plan the future of these significant memorials and nationally important places in American World War II history. We have developed preliminary concepts for the Ford Island sites and are interested in your perspectives.”

Leatherman told Aloha State Daily by email that “this is the first real opportunity for the public to provide their thoughts on how the Ford Island sites should be managed.”

“In terms of what is up for discussion, we hope that the public will provide information about what they see as the best uses for the bungalows and how they might help to tell the story of WWII in Pearl Harbor,” he said. “We do have laws, policies and guidelines which provide some sidebars are what we can do, but for the most part we are looking for all ideas. We won't, for instance, propose building anything that is not compatible with the historic landscape of the area

NPS will host an in-person open house from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at Pearl Harbor National Memorial, as well as virtual sessions from 10 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17. More information and Microsoft Teams meeting links can be found 

Public comments can also be submitted through Oct. 4 at the Planning, Environment and Public Comment 

“A management plan is needed to determine how the buildings will be used and preserved," Leatherman told ASD.

The cost will be determined once we have an idea of how the buildings will be used. “Some of the costs will come from the National Park Service, but we will also be working with the Navy and our nonprofit partner, Pacific Historic Parks, for funding some of the potential improvements."

When asked about estimated cost and completion, he noted, “It is likely to also occur in phases, so we wouldn't need all of the money to move forward on making improvements.”

According to the proposed planning timeline, NPS aims to 

firm up the  plan with public input and conduct environmental compliance

 by fall of next year, and close out the final plan by spring of 2027.

“Pacific Historic Parks is proud to support this effort to engage the community in planning for these historically significant places,” said the nonprofit’s President and CEO Aileen Utterdyke in a statement. “The stories of Pearl Harbor continue to inspire and teach, and it’s important that these sites are preserved with care and input from the public.”

To view the Ford Island National Park Service Sites Management Plan, 

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Ford Island Public meeting 02

<title>‘First real opportunity’ for public input on Ford Island’s future</title>

Now through Oct. 4, Pacific Historic Parks and The National Park Service are seeking public feedback for the NPS-managed sites on Ford Island, which include six bungalows and the USS Oklahoma and USS Utah memorials. Pearl Harbor National Memorial Superintendent Tom Leatherman shares why the proposed long-term site management plan is needed now and how community members can weigh in via in-person and virtual meetings, as well as an online survey.

‘First real opportunity’ for public input on Ford Island’s future

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Punahou School graduate Brandon Finn understands the power of a stare. It is something the actor does as 

when his father, King Kahekili of Maui, orders him to hunt down the main character of the series, Kaʻiana, and bring him back, dead or alive.

“And you see this moment where the camera racks focus and … Prince Kūpule is looking at Kahekili without saying any words, as if: ʻI cannot believe you are asking me to do this. ... And as your son, it is my responsibility to follow your lead.’ ”

The scene was “brutal” but marked his favorite moment to shoot, he told Aloha State Daily. 

King Kahekili was played by the New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison. Finn credits Morrison with encouraging him to hold his stare in that scene. For Finn, the role involved "a lot of homework with what that father and son dynamic was like,” he said.

“And that's a separate thing from the language itself, because obviously I spent a lot of time learning Hawaiian language, learning ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi,” he added. “But in terms of what's happening between the two of them as father and son, that’s something [where] I ended up delving into my own relationship with my own father.”

Written by Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett and Jason Momoa, the Apple TV+ mini-series launched its first episodes on Aug. 1. It follows Kaʻiana, played by Momoa, as he tries to unify the Islands before Western colonization. The eighth episode drops on Friday, Sept. 12, and the season finale comes out on Friday, Sept. 19.

Prior to filming “Chief of War,” Finn had not spoken more than a few sentences in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, he said. To get ready for this role, he worked closely with an instructor.

“His name is Kiawe Goodhue, and we just went lesson after lesson non-stop for a month and a half because I knew it needed to sound the right way," he said. "Let alone it's the right thing to do in terms of responsibility owed to the people of Hawaiʻi, their ancestors, their history and their cultures.” 

Finn was born in Maui. His family moved to Oʻahu when he was about two years old, he said. 

“But Maui is my birthplace,” he added. “And later on in life, all of these things led themselves to where I find myself today, playing Prince Kalanikūpuli, the last reigning king of Maui Island in Hawaiian history. I had this pinch me moment. I could not believe I'm born on Maui and in my lifetime, I get to bring Kalanikūpuli to life through ʻChief of War’ with Apple TV, let alone the platform that they have with 45+ million subscribers in over 100 countries.”

Finn wants viewers of the show to take with them an appreciation of language.

“You know what's beautiful?” he said. “The one that really gets to me is ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, the language. And there is already a resurgence of the language within Hawaiʻi. But I feel as if ʻChief of War,’ being as big as it's become thus far, will only move that needle further in the direction of having people interested in Ōlelo Hawaiʻi. And not just people from Hawaiʻi — people born and raised, who are of Hawaiian ethnicity — but also people who would love to come, visit, spend time and if it sparks their interest  learn Ōlelo Hawaii, as well, if that's something that interests them. Because that's how the language lives on forever.”

"Chief of War"

<title>Punahou School graduate is in “Chief of War”</title>

Brandon Finn, a graduate of Punahou School, explores complicated father and son relationships in his role as Prince Kūpule in the Apple TV+ mini-series, “Chief of War.” He shares his favorite scene to shoot and how he learned ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi for the role.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When locals become tourists

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When locals become tourists

Authors

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Surf report

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