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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That bass is bumping though!"}]

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MrLovahBoy

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Too busy vibing</title>

Today’s social media find comes from @MrLovahBoy, who just needs some good sounds to have a good time.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Too busy vibing

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Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

South Korea's Youmin Hwang, who entered the tournament via sponsor invite, won the 2025 Lotte Championship at Hoakalei Country Club in ‘Ewa Beach on Saturday. 

Hwang, who entered without any LPGA wins, stunned the field with a four-round total of 17-under 271 despite shooting a 3-over 75 in the third round on Friday. After shooting a 67 on Saturday, Hwang eagerly watched the 18th hole from outside the green, followed by a contingent of media to capture her reaction in case a playoff was not forced. 

After the victory was made official, Hwang collected the winner's check of $450,000, then tried her hand at the hula, which has become customary on the 18th green for Lotte winners. The victory also secured Hwang a spot on the LPGA Tour for a future season. 

"This is my dream," Hwang said through an interpreter following her victory. "Finally I achieved my dream here at the Lotte Championship, and I also very much look forward to my future as well in the LPGA."

Hwang held off runner-up Hyo Joo Kim, who finished the tournament a stroke below her. Meanwhile, Japan's Minami Katsu finished in third with a 15-under 273. 

 who made the cut, Allisen Corpuz finished tied for 14th with a four-round total of 10-under 278, leaving home with $40,045 in prize money. 

"Like I've said over and over again, this is the event that I grew up watching," Corpuz said after wrapping up play. "It's definitely what inspired me to be out here today. And so to just have a good week, it's really special."

On Corpuz's walk back to the clubhouse, she stopped to tend to autograph and picture requests for a handful of minutes. 

"It's really special. Our tour doesn't exist without the fans and spectators," Corpuz said. "I also had a lot of family and friends out watching as well. I have two high school friends that came out. I don't think I've seen them since high school. It's really special to be out here and kind of be on the other side of the ropes this time."

Meanwhile, Mariel Galdiano, Corpuz's former teammate at Punahou, finished tied for 55th with a 2-under 286, winning $8,949. 

"A lot of my family and friends who came out usually see me in a more casual setting, like when we play golf together or just hang out. I think it's really cool that they get to see me in my element, see what I do on a day-to-day basis, what I do for a living," Galdiano said. "It's nice to have them cheer me on. When I'm struggling a little bit more, hearing them clap for me gives me a lot of strength."

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Youmin Hwang 100425

<title>South Korea's Youmin Hwang wins Lotte Championship</title>

Hwang, who entered the tournament via sponsor invite, earned her first LPGA Tour victory on Saturday.

South Korea's Youmin Hwang wins Lotte Championship

Born in Western Samoa in 2002, Tagiralani Luafalealo moved to O‘ahu in 2009 and has still never been back. 

As a youth, Luafalealo picked up golf, honing her craft at Newtown Driving Range in ‘Aiea. After graduating from Moanalua High School in 2001, she went on to have a successful collegiate golf career at Grand Canyon University, earning all-conference honors. 

Despite not returning to her country of birth, Luafalealo has carried her heritage with her. On Wednesday, she became the first player to represent Samoa in an LPGA event while competing at the Lotte Championship at Hoakalei Country Club. A tribal tattoo on her right leg was visible as she walked off the 18th green on Wednesday with her caddy, Austin Teal. 

When asked about playing in an LPGA event for the first time, and becoming the first person to do so for Samoa, she gave an emotional answer. 

"Not being able to go back to my Motherland, I will never forget where I came from," she said while collecting herself. 

Luafalealo was then asked if her family back home would be able to watch her compete in the Lotte, either online or on television. 

"Nobody knows I'm playing. ... I don't even think my mom knows, and she's here on island," Luafalealo joked. 

Luafalealo, who works at Kapolei Golf Club, hit copious amounts of golf balls before and after shifts in preparation for the tournament. She was decked out in Kapolei Golf Club gear on both days. She also credited Teal, her coworker at Kapolei, for being a calming presence. 

"This is my dream. This is my passion," Luafalealo said. "It doesn't feel like a chore to me. I love being out on a golf course or being at the range."

With a first round score of 1-under 71 on Wednesday, Luafalealo put herself squarely in the hunt to make the cut. But after shooting a 5-over 77 on Thursday that brought her two-round total to 148, she finished five strokes short of the cut line. 

"It was fun. I didn't play too well today, but I think it was a really fun experience," she said after her round on Thursday. "I wouldn't do anything different. My caddy was very helpful. ... I have a lot of family and friends that was out there that I really appreciate coming out. But other than that, it was really fun."

After two rounds at Hoakalei, Luafalealo was in awe when reminded she became the first player to represent Samoa in an LPGA Tour event. 

"It's a lot to take in. That's crazy. It means a lot. This is literally all I've played for," she said. "All of the hard work, the dedication, the passion, it's all because I'm doing it for my culture. ... So, to know that means a lot to me."

Also competing in an LPGA event for the first time was 

. Takai also finished shy of the cut after shooting a two-day total of 149. 

"All the support I got...just grateful to be out here and take it all in," Takai said after Thursday's round. "I think just learning how to play under those pressure shots, playing tee balls, you kind of get a little nervous on the first couple holes and then coming in, learning how to manage that was a little bit better and was a great opportunity for me.

"The main thing is always to have fun. I think playing in this kind of environment, playing on the Mainland in the states in bigger tournaments, it's definitely something you have to get used to, playing under pressure and learning how to calm your nerves. As I play more I think I'll keep getting better at that."

Another amateur golfer born in Hawai‘i, 

Honorine Nobuta Ferry, missed the cut with a 148. 

Meanwhile, a pair of professionals with Hawai‘i ties in Punahou alumnae Mariel Galdiano and 

will both continue on Friday and Saturday after making the cut. Galdiano is tied for 40th with a 3-under 141, while Corpuz is tied for 12th with a 137. South Korea's Youmin Hwang is alone atop the leaderboard with a 15-under 129. 

Tagiralani Luafalealo 1 100225

<title>Local golfers relish Lotte experience</title>

Tagiralani Luafalealo and Alexa Takai, both competing in an LPGA event for the first time, missed the cut on Thursday but came away appreciative of the experience.

Local golfers relish Lotte experience

Arrasmith Portrait

Perry Arrasmith

Government & Politics

Columnists

The most bizarre section in Hawai‘i’s 

 is the one that relates to the state’s regulation of population growth. It is a testament to a bygone era informed by misguided local anxieties. 

Runaway population growth across the Hawaiian Islands once occupied the Hawai'i zeitgeist. While much of this mindset persists in the halls of society, it contrasts with Hawai‘i’s contemporary demographic woes. 

Between April 1960 and April 1970, Hawai‘i added 115,510 residents to its population, totalling 748,182 residents across the islands. It was a meteoric rise that stressed the Hawai‘i’s poor infrastructure, corrupt land management practices, and limited housing across the islands. 

Hawai‘i was a young, growing society. The median age of a resident was 25. Much of the State’s dynamism and vigour, in turn, were informed by a mix of talent both local and non-local.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Perhaps it was too much of a good thing. "}]

During this time, national commentators were fretting about the global population’s growth. Paul and Anne Ehrlich had co-authored 

in 1968. Internationally, the Club of Rome furnished the

report, which only further argued against overconsumption. Political views wrapped in scientific dogma started-off a new movement whose cultural salience was confirmed by the 1973 film 

While societies were wasteful and inefficient, these reports didn’t necessarily call for more efficiency. Instead, they called for fewer people. 

While the times have changed, our Constitution’s outdated language shows how we are still stuck in the ’70s. Through national debates over population control, Hawai‘i became a tragic guinea pig that used environmentalism to justify population control, opening the floodgates for arguments against urban development, immigration, and economic growth. 

These conversations continue to plague Hawai‘i’s zeitgeist, most notably when it comes to unnecessary conflict between economic growth and environmental stewardship.

In 1970, the Hawai‘i State Legislature passed Senate Resolution 305, establishing the State’s Temporary Commission on Population Stabilization. A 1972 report issued by the Commission suggested an inverse relationship between environmental stewardship and population growth. 

“It remains to be seen whether or not we will achieve a balance with the limits of the Hawaiian environment in this present period of growth in Hawaiian history,” the 

 warned, “but it should be recognized that with respect to maintaining the quality of the environment, population and prosperity are ‘trade-offs.’ If we expect to maintain a fixed level of pollution and impact on the environment by people in Hawaii, then any increase in one will require a corresponding decrease in the other.”

In the following year, the State Senate once again adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of an optimum state population. “The question of population equilibria among the Islands is a difficult one to answer quantitatively,” a 

 from the Department of Planning and Economic Development warned.

“One must consider the impact on the environment, what ‘quality of life’ should be used as a measure, means of developing a viable economy within a stable population, and the size of population on each Island which will bring about a desirable balance with the social and natural environment of Hawai‘i.”

Nationally, the Commission on Population and the American Future had been established by federal law in March 1970. A final 

 issued by the Commission was submitted to the U.S. Congress in March 1972, with proposals ranging from increased abortion access to voluntary sterilization to stricter immigration controls. Out of political embarrassment for its recommendations, the Nixon Administration largely distanced itself from the Commission.

However, the rhetoric which argued for limits on immigration had devastating consequences. In the present-day, arguments blaming immigrants for environmental degradation have had devastating 

Back in Hawai‘i, the reports stacked on one another. In 1972, Earl R. Babbie of the civic organization 

, a major argument for a cap on Hawai‘i’s population at one million (Hawai‘i’s population reached this threshold in the mid-’80s). 

These reports built a case for a more permanent state agency tasked with controlling the state’s population growth. As a result, the Commission on Population Stabilization and the Hawaiian Future was 

A primary architect of the measure, Nadao Yoshinga, was not solely worried about the influx of outsiders. Natural population growth among existing residents was another worry. Yoshinaga, an influential member of the State Senate, would 

 in the name of limited Hawai‘i’s population growth over the coming years. Limiting population by whatever means necessary (in the confines of the law) was the objective.

At around this time, Robert C. Schmitt, the State Statistician of Hawai‘i, 

 of the emerging field of population policy. Proponents of population control, at least in the early Statehood era, had started to organize in the late ’60s through such organizations as the University of Hawai‘i-sponsored Zero Population Growth-Honoulu, Citizens for Hawai‘i, Life of the Land, the Sierra Club, and Save our Surf. 

These groups advocated for policies to halt population migration, economic development, and other factors like densified communities in the name of environmentalism. Perhaps tragically, this misguided approach to Hawai‘i’s prevailing problems created a manichean world of values in conflict with one another.

Arguments for population control in the name of environmental stewardship had a real impact on policy in the late ’70s. Most notably, this came to a head in 1977.

During his annual State of the State address, Governor George Ariyoshi directly addressed population control, arguing for immigration controls and density regulation in the name of the ‘aloha spirit.’

“The problem of excessive population seems to be central to nearly every problem in the State.” he started. “Too many people means too few jobs and too much competition for them. Too many people means too little land for agriculture, parks, and scenic vistas. Too many people means too much crime and too much erosion of possibly our single most important commodity: the Aloha Spirit. Too many people means too much pressure on all our governmental and private institutions.” 

Ariyoshi wanted fewer people in Hawai‘i, plain and simple. To reinforce his views, the State Legislature even sponsored a 

 on population and the Hawaiian future in March 1977. 

One piece of legislation would have discriminated against recent arrivals to Hawai‘i through residency requirements for state jobs. A Federal Judge based in Honolulu, the part-Hawaiian Sam P. King, condemned the State of Hawai‘i’s flirtation with a flagrantly “anti-migratory” statute.

These attempts provide a marked contrast with the present day. In January 2025, the Department of Human Services 

 that the State suffers from a vacancy rate of 24% of all civil services positions (equivalent to more than 4,000 jobs). 

Nevertheless, Hawai‘i still inserted a section into its Constitution at the 1978 Constitutional Convention that called for population planning. To date, it is the only Constitution in the United States with such explicit language.

Instead of promoting smarter urban planning methods that conserved space while reducing sprawl or incentivizing farmers to bring more fallow agricultural land into cultivation, it was more convenient to blame the outside migrants for Hawai‘i’s development problems.

Instead of fostering solutions which invite greater societal innovation, it is more convenient to fall for an ideology wrapped in the veneer of science. 

Since 1970, Hawai‘i’s population fortunes have reversed.

Global population growth is not exponential, nor could it sustain the growth rates witnessed after the Second World War. In fact, our planet’s 

 will likely begin declining before 2100. 

The paranoia of the ’70s became irrelevant over the following decade. By 1983, the Commission on Population and the Hawaiian Future had been abolished.

For a majority of Hawai‘i’s residents in 2025, the ’70s are a foreign, unknown domain. Since Hawai‘i’s 

 was 41 as of 2024, it’s safe to conclude more than half of Hawai‘i’s population was born after 1980.

Today, Hawai‘i is missing people. It is one of the fastest aging states in the United States. The population is contracting, with more than half of all Native Hawaiians on the planet living outside of the archipelago.

Culturally, it is still easy to blame the outsider for our own problems. Instead of acknowledging our own complicitly in failing to plan for the future, it is far easier to find that the outsider is only exacerbating the problems we are not addressing. Policies which now arrest growth not only injure potential migrants. They also hurt residents.

The debates over population control in the ’70s were about a fear of change and a society’s failure to properly navigate the pressures wrought by new forces.

Contemporary conflicts over growth still magnify this attitude. Not unironically, stewarding Hawai‘i’s environment means Hawai‘i’s environment needs to also steward Hawai‘i’s people.

“It should be remembered,” Governor John Burns said in 

, “that the key ingredient in any environment is man himself: he is part and parcel of and the key to the value of our total system of symbiotic relationships on this earth. Being a part of the environment demands that we consider human economics together with biological ecology.” 

“If man is hungry, ill-housed, undereducated or poorly treated in his society,” he wondered, “what service is it to him that his environment remains in its pristine, natural state?”

A society without one cannot have the other. We need to think about growth, not stabilization. We need to think about people.

In our own time, we need a Constitution whose thinking is not tethered to the past. While the language in outdated documents like our Constitution locks our zeitgeist in another time, we need to get over our history. We need a better zeitgeist.

Crowd i Stock 1357524756

<title>Hawai‘i's bizarre legacy of population control (and why it's still here)</title>

In the 1970s, Hawai‘i gave in to fears of overpopulation, so much so that population control was put into the State Constitution.

Hawai‘i's bizarre legacy of population control (and why it's still here)

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawaii History

The Mānoa Falls Trail is one of Oʻahu’s most beloved hikes, leading through lush rainforest to a 150-foot waterfall at the back of Mānoa Valley. Managed by the state’s Nā Ala Hele trail system since 1988, the path is maintained as part of the Honolulu Mauka Trail System, which links multiple routes across the ridges and valleys above Honolulu. In recent years, the trail underwent significant improvements to better accommodate the many visitors who explore the valley each day.

While a popular attraction, the trail has also seen its share of challenges. The Honolulu Fire Department regularly responds to rescues for lost or injured hikers, with some requiring helicopter evacuations. In rare but serious cases, hikers have suffered fatal accidents near the waterfall itself. Temporary closures are also not uncommon, especially after heavy rain or storm damage, when fallen trees and slippery terrain make conditions dangerous.

By day, the Mānoa Falls Trail feels like a living postcard. Its lush forest and idyllic scenery draw countless visitors to its famous water cascade. But as with many places in Hawaiʻi, the beauty of the landscape holds a deeper layer of stories passed down through generations. Long after the hikers have gone home and the valley quiets under the canopy of trees, Mānoa takes on an entirely different presence that locals whisper about with caution, and visitors sometimes stumble upon when they least expect it. It is in these hushed moments, after dark, that the trail reveals its other side.

One weekend night in the early 1970s, Vance went on a double date with a friend. His girlfriend was beside him in the front seat, while the second couple sat in the back. On a whim, the group decided to drive up toward Mānoa Falls. They reached the chain that blocked cars from going farther and parked beneath the trees. It was late, and the valley was wrapped in silence and heavy darkness. The two couples sat for a while talking inside the car. That was when Vance noticed something strange: two eyes, suspended in the air in front of them.

At first, he didn’t understand what he was looking at. But the longer he stared, the more dread crept in.

[{"type":"text","text":"Grabbing his date’s arm, he blurted out, “Look! Eyes!”"}]

She followed his gaze and screamed, as did his friend’s date when she looked up. In the back seat, Vance’s friend kept his head down, refusing to see for himself.

“No! No! I’m not looking!” he shouted when Vance demanded to know if he could see it too.

The hair rose on Vance’s neck, chicken skin running down his arms. In a rush of panic, he started the engine, threw the car in reverse, and sped down the road, not slowing until they were safely back in the residential streets of the valley.

Years later, Vance shared the story with a younger co-worker who had graduated from Roosevelt High School. The co-worker grew animated and hurried off to fetch an old yearbook. Flipping through the pages, he pointed out a photograph of students standing at the same chain that blocked the Mānoa Falls trail. In the picture, clear as day, were a pair of eyes. This time, they were not high up in the trees, but close to the ground. It wasn’t a trick of light or imagination. That picture, he said, is still in that old Roosevelt High School yearbook. Vance was shaken all over again.

His unease deepened when, on a tour years later, he listened to storyteller Glen Grant describe disembodied eyes seen across the island with warnings not to follow, for they beckoned people to the other side. Standing there listening to Glen’s stories, Vance’s wife turned to him, eyes wide, and whispered, “That’s exactly what you’ve been telling me all these years.”

Those strange encounters in the 1970s weren’t the last time someone would see something unusual there. Just a few years ago, while the trail was officially closed for maintenance, four friends decided to visit at night, hoping to capture evidence of something paranormal on video. They had already made stops at Morgan’s Corner and Tantalus Drive when one of them suggested the Mānoa Falls Trail.

[{"type":"text","text":"It was a moonless night, so he joked, “Guarantee get night marchers!”"}]

The group’s excitement overrode any hesitation that an individual might have had. Around midnight, they parked in the middle of the dark road, headlights shining on the closed gate. One man stayed behind in the car to take a call from his girlfriend, while the other three stepped out with their phones set to record. A cool breeze moved through the valley, carrying the damp scent of mud and rotting vegetation. Mosquitoes buzzed in their ears. One man held an EMF meter, but its lights stayed still and dark.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the first sign that something wasn’t right."}]

“Aw man, my phone died!” one of them shouted, and seconds later another man’s phone went black.

Confused, they huddled by the car, trying to make sense of the sudden power loss, while the fourth man inside continued his call without interruption. Out of the corner of his eye, one of the men caught movement by the trail. His blood went cold; not from thoughts of ghosts but of feral pigs. He grabbed a flashlight from the car, but the beam was weak, and the shadows at the gate were impenetrable. Uneasy, he climbed back inside the car and called to his friends, who had moved closer to the gate.

Several long minutes passed before the pair suddenly ran back and jumped into the vehicle. The driver started the engine and tore down the rough road, potholes rattling the tires, not slowing until they reached the residential neighborhood.

After they’d finally calmed down, the two men explained what happened. As they approached the gate, they saw a pair of white lights floating about four feet off the ground. They looked like two eyes. It was weird and confusing, and neither of them could figure out what they were looking at—two lights, about the same distance apart as a pair of eyes on someone’s face. But there was no face, no head, no body. The lights slowly seemed to drift closer toward them, and when they got about a foot in front of the gate, they blinked. That’s when the men took off running. I asked if they got it on video, but they did not.

“I wasn’t aiming the camera right at the lights, so all I got was bushes and then the blurry road as we were running back to the car. But seriously, we saw what we saw.”

I then asked if they would ever return to try to get whatever they saw on video, and he laughed and said, “Maybe. Probably not for a long time, but maybe.”

Gate to Manoa Falls Trail 2

<title>Disembodied eyes at Mānoa Falls Trail</title>

If you look out into the dark of night at this storied trail, something just might look back at you.

Disembodied eyes at Mānoa Falls Trail

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

[{"type":"text","text":"There’s a new all-you-can-eat yakiniku option in Honolulu. "}]

, which opened in the former spot of McCully Buffet this past March, added an AYCE experience to its menu. It costs $27.95 during lunch (10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and $35.95 during dinner (from 3 p.m. to restaurant close).

The entire table must do the AYCE option and there’s a 90-minute time limit. The new AYCE experience is an additional option; the restaurant still offers its a la carte menu.

Lunch items include LA kalbi, seasoned kalbi, brisket, beef belly, bulgogi, spicy pork, thin pork belly, teriyaki chicken, hot dog sausage and more. There are also soups/sides like fried mandoo, kimchi soup, miso soup and corn cheese.

You’ll start the meal with the eatery’s featured banchan, which includes kimchi, salad, bean sprouts and more.

What’s nice about this AYCE experience is that some cooked dishes are included in the menu. Choose from chicken katsu, fish katsu, fried mandoo, shrimp tempura and more.

Of the cooked dishes, our server recommends the chicken katsu, which is crispy on the outside and juicy inside.

The dinner menu has about 20 different items. It includes all of the lunch offerings, along with veal intestines, beef tongue, spicy squid and shrimp.

Of the side dishes, our favorites had to be the corn cheese and seaweed soup.

Keep in mind that leftovers cannot be taken home, and extra charges will be applied to unfinished food.

Reservations are recommended via OpenTable and you can always call the restaurant directly.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Too busy vibing

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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