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Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai'i Skies was captured by Katie Helland at The Royal Hawaiian. "The last light at The Royal Hawaiian, while celebrating with friends."

To submit your Hawai'i Skies photo, visit us 

25 10 23 Katie Helland

<title>Hawai'i Skies: Last light</title>

Today's Hawai'i Skies was captured by Katie Helland at The Royal Hawaiian.

Hawai'i Skies: Last light

Today&#039;s Hawai&#039;i Skies was captured by Katie Helland at The Royal Hawaiian. &quot;The last light at The Royal Hawaiian, while celebrating with friends.&quot; To submit your Hawai&#039;i Skies photo, visit us online or email: general@alohastatedaily.com

Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"The excitement when they see their best friend..."}]

Smile 26 11 9

<title>Daily Smile: Monday, Nov. 9, 2026</title>

The excitement when they see their best friend...

Daily Smile: Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

Led by a clutch performance from redshirt freshman slot receiver 

, the University of Hawai‘i football team escaped with a 17-14 victory at UTEP on Saturday evening. 

Hawai‘i improved to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in Mountain West games, while UTEP dropped to 1-7 overall and 0-5 in conference play. 

Lacaden hauled in a game and career-high 11 receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown, each catch seemingly arriving at a crucial time for the 'Bows. 

The Rainbow Warriors got the scoring started with Lacaden's 20-yard touchdown reception from Micah Alejado with 2:57 remaining in the first quarter. After a Sean Olvera-Harle field goal gave the 'Bows a 10-0 lead with 7:01 left in the second quarter, the Miners responded in les than 40 seconds with Lamar Sperling's 5-yard run with 6:25 left in the half. 

Following a scoreless third quarter for both teams, a 23-yard Lacaden reception set up a 6-yard Sitani Mikaele touchdown to give the Rainbow Warriors a 17-7 lead with 10:08 left. The Miners again responded promptly with a 15-yard touchdown reception from Judah Ezinwa with 6:57 remaining. 

On the ensuing drive, the Rainbow Warriors went into clock milking mode after multiple first downs. When UTEP burned its final timeout prior to a UH third down with 2:10 remaining, Lacaden's final reception of the day sealed the Hawai‘i victory. 

Defensively, Jamih Otis was the standout of the game for the Rainbow Warriors with 10 tackles, including 1.5 for loss and half a sack. Nickelback Elijah Palmer added seven tackles and two forced fumbles for the 'Bows, one of which was recovered by Matagi Thompson and set up the team's first score of the game. 

Quarterback Micah Alejado completed 26 of his 40 passes for 303 yards, a touchdown, and an interception thrown with four seconds left in the first half when Hawai‘i was in the red zone. 

With no margin for error as far as their bowl hopes are concerned, the Rainbow Warriors won their second straight victory on Saturday. Up next is a 6 p.m. home kickoff against North Dakota State on Nov. 14 at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. 

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<title>Lacaden's clutch day leads Hawai‘i football to narrow victory at UTEP</title>

The Rainbow Warriors held on to their bowl hopes with a 17-14 win in El Paso on Saturday.

Lacaden's clutch day leads Hawai‘i football to narrow victory at UTEP

Yamachika Tom IMG 1913 Large

Tom Yamachika

Viewpoints

Government & Politics

This week, I can’t help but write about the state Elections Commission and how it has been paralyzed for several months in a feud with the Office of Elections. In theory, the Commission oversees the Office of Elections. The chief election officer, Scott Nago, reports to and can be replaced by the Commission. The problem, however, is that the chair of the Commission’s term of office expired on July 1. Since that date, there has been no chair.

 (there are nine commissioner positions) asked the Office to set up a meeting so the commissioners could perhaps select a new chair. The Office said no, a meeting can only be called either by the chair or by a majority of the commissioners voting to do so at a meeting. Either condition, of course, was impossible to meet. The Office later said that a meeting could be called if five commissioners got together and decided on a meeting date. Trouble was, only the Office had the contact information for all of the commissioners. The individual commissioners did not know the email addresses or phone numbers of their counterparts.

In court proceedings, it came out that the Office employee primarily responsible for providing support to the Commission was worried about getting in trouble for noticing a meeting that later turned out to be unauthorized.

But if that was the correct answer, how could the Commission have ever met and have chosen a chair in the first place, when the Commission was created and had no preexisting chair?

The two individual commissioners had to sue in the Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi to break the logjam. On Oct. 30, 

. It ordered the Office to provide the staff support that the Commission was entitled to. The first order of business, that any one commissioner could request, is setting up a meeting to elect a temporary (

) chair. That, of course, would be a public meeting, not a happenstance gathering at Zippy’s or anywhere else. The Commission could then deliberate and then elect a real chair by a two-thirds vote as the governing law requires. Once the chair is elected, the Commission could then notice a public meeting to deal with all of the business items that have been accumulating ever since the terming out of the previous chair.

The real tragedy here is the loss to all of us taxpayers. The fighting with the two individual commissioners, and the need for the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court to step in and be the adult in the room, consumed resources not only of the Office but also the time of the deputy attorneys general who were involved in the fighting, as well as the resources of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court which ultimately sorted the matter out. And then, the Commission itself could not do anything while it was stymied by the Office’s Catch-22.

I want to demand accountability here, but I cannot decide who to blame for this fiasco. Should it be laid at the feet of the Office of Elections and its presumably well-meaning employee who was fearful of liability? Or do we blame the deputy attorneys general for choosing to fight instead of talking their client, the Office, out of the ridiculous position it took? Or should it be both?

This is an interesting and head-scratching case study for all of us to learn from. Too bad it came at our expense.

Aliiōlani Hale

<title>Community Voices: Election Commission fiasco</title>

"I can’t help but write about the state Elections Commission and how it has been paralyzed for several months in a feud with the Office of Elections," writes Tom Yamachika of Tax Foundation of Hawaiʻi. "The real tragedy here is the loss to all of us taxpayers."

Community Voices: Election Commission fiasco

[{"type":"text","text":"First time seeing a mirror..."}]

Smile 26 11 7

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026</title>

First time seeing a mirror...

Daily Smile: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Business & Tourism

After a months-long, multi-million dollar maintenance project, the historic Diamond Head Lighthouse will reveal its facelift next April.

, the century-old lighthouse has been enshrouded in scaffolding and sheeting as part of an ongoing U.S. Coast Guard project to repair aging materials throughout the tower.

“There’s a lot of maintenance needs that kind of build up over time,” said Lt. Gray Haynie of the Honolulu Coast Guard’s Civil Engineering Unit. “The weather has affected the steel, so we have a bunch of corrosion work. The windows on the top, the steel dome on the inside, there’s a steel staircase that goes all the way up. And there’s painting that needs to be done around the site.”

Other work includes repairs to aging concrete, and replacing features such as ladders and windows.

Haynie said the project costs about $3.7 million in total, including additional maintenance work at the adjacent residence, which serves as the living quarters for the sitting Coast Guard commander of the Oceania District.

Both the lighthouse and the residence are over 100 years old — the lighthouse was built in 1917 and the residence in 1921 — although only the former is formally listed as a historic place. That listing made the project more complicated, Haynie said, requiring “rigorous paperwork” with the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Division.

“We have to tell them the scope of work, what we intend on doing, how it affects the exterior,” Haynie said. “One of the big things they’re looking for is to maintain that historic image, the appearance of the outside … That affects the materials, it affects the cost and the duration, because it takes 90s days at least to get through the State Historic Preservation Division.”

While the project has been ongoing throughout the intense storms of the summer, Haynie said the lighthouse and scaffolding have withstood the winds of hurricanes Lala, Nolo and Lowell remarkably well.

Despite advances in seafaring technology, the lighthouse remains fully functional and a vital guidepost for boats approaching the island.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Valentin Leon said the lighthouse still uses its original Fresnel lens — a lens array that uses concentric circles built into the lenses and mirrors to focus the light rays — from its original construction. That lens, plus the modern LED lighting element, produces a beam that can be seen 21 nautical miles away, or about 24.1 standard miles.

“Sure, you can rely on GPS, but you know for 100% that this lighthouse is always going to be here,” Leon said. “So the mariners, even though they have GPS, will heavily rely on … every lighthouse throughout the [Coast Guard area of responsibility]. Considering that, what, over 90% of our commerce comes [by sea], the mariners out there, this is their daily routine, so they’re used to seeing this.”

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<title>Diamond Head Lighthouse to be unwrapped in April</title>

$3.7 million maintenance project going smoothly despite storms, says Coast Guard.

Diamond Head Lighthouse to be unwrapped in April

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

Pianist Christina Sochor, 23, will soon take the stage 

, featuring songs that include jazz fusion arrangements of video game music.

Her debut album, “Not a Phone in Sight,” was recorded on Hawaiʻi Island and launched on Oct. 6. It is available on 

. She will perform music from that album with Abe Lagrimas Jr. and Dean Taba at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Blue Note Hawaiʻi.

“It's jazz and jazz fusion arrangements of video game music,” she told Aloha State Daily. “So music from 

, Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing — video games that I grew up with.”

Some are more traditional jazz songs while others are more Latin or avant-garde, said 

the classically trained pianist — who has lived in Hawaiʻi for about three years and calls Mōʻiliʻili home.

When she took up playing piano, she quickly learned how to play video game music.

“I was a classical pianist for a long time growing up [

,” she added. “I did piano competitions, classical piano contests, Steinway contests, and all that stuff before moving to jazz. So, this just seems like a perfect unification of all those disciplines — using the music that originally inspired me to play.”

Sochor has been performing in classical piano competitions since she was 10 years old. Later, she joined a cruise ship as its traveling pianist before eventually settling in Hawaiʻi.

She recently signed with the national label 

, which specializes in video game remixes and covers. The record label reached out to her and asked for a phone call interview after she posted covers of video game music on Instagram, where she has 13,800 followers.

“And then I put together the entire project before the phone call interview,” she said. “I was like, ʻOK, these are the songs I want to do. These are the musicians. This is the cost of the album.’ And he was like, ʻOK, you got it organized. We'll give you the funding to put this project together.’ ”

That conversation happened in early December of 2025. The music for her debut album was recorded in February, which means Sochor wrote and rehearsed everything in less than three months.

Seating for her Blue Note Hawaiʻi headliner debut is first-come, first-served. Tickets start at $20. 

Christina Sochor

<title>Mōʻiliʻili musician combines Pokémon with piano</title>

This 23-year-old classical pianist’s upcoming performance shares songs from her debut album, “Not a Phone in Sight,” which takes music from video games, including Pokémon and Super Mario, and transforms it into jazz and neo-soul arrangements. Catch Christina Sochor's first headliner performance at Blue Note Hawaiʻi on Nov. 11.

Hawai'i Skies: Last light

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Authors

ASD Staff

Reporter

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