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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Takin' care of business..."}]

Smile 26 1 31

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026</title>

Takin' care of business...

Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026

Daniel Farr 02

Daniel Farr

Government & Politics

Soon, banana peels, coffee grounds and leftovers from thousands of Oʻahu residents will no longer head to the island’s waste stream.

Beginning April 1, the City and County of Honolulu will launch a pilot food scrap composting program allowing households in six communities to place food waste directly into their green compost carts. The Department of Environmental Services’ Green Recycling Organic Waste, or GROW, pilot will be available to residents in Waipahu, Nānākuli, Hawaiʻi Kai, Mililani, Kailua and Kalihi, who receive automated curbside collection services. City officials say the program is expected to expand islandwide later this year.

The initiative targets one of the largest contributors to Oʻahu’s waste stream. A City waste characterization study conducted in 2017 found organic material accounted for roughly 36% of all discarded waste with food waste alone making up about 20%, Henry Gabriel, Department of Environmental Services Recycling Program Branch Chief, told Aloha State Daily.

Composting food waste is part of the City’s broader strategy to reduce landfill use and move closer to its goal of diverting 95% of waste from landfills by 2030. Rather than focusing on a single neighborhood, the City selected six communities to capture a range of participation patterns and operational conditions. DES will track participation rates, contamination levels, compost volume and diversion outcomes to guide resident education and potential expansion.

“I support ENV’s GROW Program as a strategy to reduce waste and move Oʻahu away from landfill dependency,” Councilwoman Andria Tupola, who recently introduced a 

 to create a new End Landfills Task Force, told ASD

Operating the pilot is expected to cost between $15 million and $21 million annually depending on the amount of food and green waste collected. “The City has never operated a program that collects and composts food waste so we had to invest in the infrastructure to do that,” Gabriel said.

The composting system includes odor control measures and specialized processing equipment designed for food waste. Diverting scraps will reduce the amount of material sent to H-POWER and landfills but will not change how the City’s waste-to-energy plant operates. While all curbside garbage currently goes to H-POWER, waste can be diverted to the landfill if the facility is down or undergoing repairs. Ash from H-POWER is always taken to the landfill.

Because food waste has a higher moisture content than other trash, it requires more energy to process at waste-to-energy facilities. Composting helps conserve landfill space and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from decomposing food. Source reduction remains the top priority.

“Success would be a reduction of food waste discarded from residential homes participating in the pilot program,” Gabriel said.

Green bins, which are currently used for yard waste such as tree trimmings and weeds and turned into compost by Hawaiian Earth Recycling, will now also collect food scraps in the six pilot areas. Pickup frequency will remain every other week during the program.

To encourage participation and reduce contamination, DES will host public workshops across Oʻahu in February and March including Feb. 19 at Koko Head Elementary School and Feb. 23 at Mililani High School, both beginning at 7 p.m. Residents are not required to freeze food scraps before placing them in green carts though the City recommends steps to manage odors and pests such as sprinkling baking soda on scraps.

Residents will also be able to drop off food scraps and wasted food at the Hawaiian Earth Recycling composting facility in Wahiawā at no charge beginning April 1, with a limit of two self‑drop‑off loads per day. Participation in the pilot is voluntary but City officials are encouraging households in the selected communities to join.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Screenshot 2026 02 02 at 2 06 18 PM 16x9

<title>Honolulu to pilot food scrap composting</title>

A City waste characterization study conducted found organic material accounted for roughly 36% of all discarded waste with food waste alone making up about 20%.

Honolulu to pilot food scrap composting

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

Arts & Entertainment

Born and raised on Oʻahu, Hunter Gentry says his passion for cooking started at 2 years old alongside his mom in the kitchen.

From there, he went into the Culinary Program at Mililani High School, while also balancing extracurriculars such as paddling and JROTC.

 “In paddling, they taught discipline, great mentality, leadership; JROTC taught personal and professional development; the culinary pathway was the way to go because that became my career.”

 at Greystone in Napa Valley, California, in 2020, and traveled across the country to work at 

Disney World Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella’s Royal Table

. At CIA, he learned from Chef Thomas Wong, also from Hawai’i, who pointed him to the Greenbrier Culinary Apprenticeship program in West Virginia. 

, the intensive, paid program is 3 years long and trains chefs in both savory and pastry paths.

“It is one of the most prestigious culinary apprenticeship programs in the nation. It’s insane,” Gentry said, “You learn and excel at the fundamentals of cooking, and at the end, you create your own menu to show what you learned. I did an 11-course menu, all Hawai

He stayed on in various roles at Greenbrier

When asked to define his cooking style, Gentry said, “With my heritage being Filipino and Chamorro, and upbringing in Hawai’i, I bring upscale, classical, French cooking into every plate.”

Unleashing these skills on Fox’s newest season of “Next Level Chef,” he adds he “brought the aloha. I brought the culture.”

When casting producers called to share that he made it onto the show, it was hard to contain the excitement, he said with a laugh, “I was screaming, cussing, doing cheehoos. Then on the show, I was doing cheehoos and scared a few people.”

He recalled one of the challenges and having 30 seconds to pick out ingredients off a rising platform. “You’re fighting all these chefs, and literally, hands were thrown. I didn’t know if someone punched someone or they fell, so I grabbed what I could. It was a war.

Chefs then have 20-25 minutes to cook. “I was plating something while cooking something else in last 20 seconds,” Gentry said. “If someone watching this at home says this is easy. It is not. It was to the wire.”

The show is judged by chefs Richard Blais, Nyesha Arrington and Gordon Ramsay.

“The judges were nice, especially Gordon Ramsay. I had a great time. For my first time doing this, the team was helpful,” Gentry said. “I loved meeting the competitors. On set, you couldn’t bring any technology, you just had to talk with everybody, which was great. We all became family.”

[{"type":"text","text":"He noted this won’t be his last time on national TV."}]

When asked what’s next for his cooking career, he said continuing to learn from other chefs.

“I do envision running my own restaurant. Probably not in Hawai

i because of the cost. Maybe within the next six to 10 years, Gentry said. “I just want to make delicious food and serve my heritage.”

He says when he visits Hawai’i, he loves going to the North Shore to be in the water, Food-wise, his stops include Kyung's Seafood, Banzai Sushi Bar, Foodland and Zippy’s.

[{"type":"text","text":"The are two quotes he lives by are:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“Never stop paddling, always keep pushing.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“It’s not an if, it’s a when.”"}]

As a newborn and child, Gentry endured various health issues that predicted a 10% chance of living, he says. But having support from friends, family and community have helped shaped who he is today.

“For me, I want to be able to show that even though I had my extensive medical history, was a special education student, had hearing aids growing up, for those kids out there who have differences or troubles 

 go for it, push it! Go dream and do what you want to do.”

Watch Gentry and the other professionals on episode 1 of season 5 on “Next Level Chef,” 

which premiered on Fox on Jan. 29, 2026. It can be watched weekly on TV or streamed on 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Hunter Cooking NLC

<title>Chef from Honolulu competes in cooking show</title>

Watch Mililani High School grad Hunter Gentry on Fox’s newest season of “Next Level Chef," judged by celebrity chefs Richard Blais, Nyesha Arrington and Gordon Ramsay. Gentry shares with Aloha State Daily about the experience, his cooking journey and style, and favorite restaurants to eat at when visiting home.

Chef from Honolulu competes in cooking show

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Columnists

 Gov. Josh Green’s press conference on Tuesday, held at the Hawai‘i State Capitol, in which he and other lawmakers and community leaders called for anti-ICE legislation here in the Islands. The event was hosted by the ACLU of Hawai‘i, the Legal Clinic of Hawai‘i and the Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, attended by Green, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, House Speaker Nadine Nakamura and other lawmakers. It was held as a vigil for Alex Pretti, who had been shot and killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis Saturday.

This is Official Hawai‘i — state government policy leaders — and it’s very upset about Minneapolis, where now two activists have been killed while interfering with federal law enforcement. In their telling, it’s ICE that is out of control, and Hawai‘i has to do something to keep things like that from happening here.

Except the laws they’re proposing would recreate the very conditions that fostered a battleground in Minneapolis. If passed, they would increase, not decrease, the likelihood of danger for everyone involved — arrestees, protestors, ICE agents, bystanders. Everyone.

Let’s back up a second. If you’re upset about Minneapolis, do you ever wonder why you aren’t upset about cities in Texas, Florida, or Tennessee, where ICE is also detaining, arresting and deporting illegal immigrants?

[{"type":"text","text":"What made Minneapolis different?"}]

Specific decisions by Minnesota politicians and lawmakers to withhold local law enforcement support. This forced ICE to conduct its arrests in public, while these same politicians gave fiery speeches denouncing ICE as unbridled fascists. Officials there even withheld the local police support that would’ve kept order as the fired-up activists took the most confrontational approach possible short of open insurrection.

[{"type":"text","text":"If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe the cops there:"}]

Minnesota cops beg Walz, pols to let them work with ICE, say they could have prevented shootings

In cities where local authorities help, there is no mayhem in the streets.

So what is Hawai‘i doing? Holding press conferences decrying ICE while proposing the same kind of adversarial legislation.

 article, so to keep it brief, a package of House and Senate Bills would do such things as prohibit local law enforcement agencies from entering into an agreement with ICE to carry out immigration enforcement on ICE’s behalf; prohibit ICE from interviewing people while in local custody (even though this is the safest place to do it); prohibit local cops from inquiring about a person’s immigration status; limit information sharing between state and county agencies and ICE; and more.

Green has promised to fast-track this legislation. Maybe, instead, legislators should be thoughtful and deliberate. I’d prefer they legislate about reality not distortions.

What distortions? Take a look at our photo, above, of Gov. Green and his supporters from Tuesday’s press conference. What do you see? Earnest, sincere, worried faces, to be sure.

[{"type":"text","text":"One also sees claims and assertions on signs."}]

“PEOPLE MURDERED BY ICE … AND PEOPLE KILLED BY TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION AND DEPORTATION PRISONS:”

There follows a list of at least 30 visible names, which I started looking up, at random. And first of all, I should say, this sign is not an expose of secret knowledge. You can find the notices of “

” at ICE’s own website, as required by Congress. Here’s what I found:

 Duarte illegally entered the U.S. the first time 1976 in Arizona. He was charged with such crimes as burglary, theft and drug possession between 1984 and 2000. He was convicted in 2005 of sex crimes against children and sentenced by the Superior Court of Arizona 20 years in prison. That’s where ICE found him in January 2025, in an Arizona prison, before moving him to an ICE detention center in preparation for deportation. There his poor health was observed, and he was sent, not to any prison, but to Phoenix Specialty Hospital — a real hospital — where he was treated for six months before dying of natural causes.

 Assuming he is the same man is Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, he never made it to an ICE facility nor was he murdered. When ICE raided an LA Home Depot, he 

, unpursued, straight into the 210 Freeway in Monrovia, where he was hit by a car.

 A citizen of Vietnam, he was originally granted lawful permanent resident status in the U.S. in 1999, lost that status following a drug crime conviction. Last June, he was detained at Immigration Processing Center in Texas. An LPN there noted his multiple medical conditions, told him to take his insulin every day for diabetes. Phan would not take his insulin. Health care workers there also noted his high cholesterol and prescribed a medication for that, too. He wouldn’t take it. He was found having a seizure and transferred to a hospital where his own next of kin signed a do-not-resuscitate order for him, opting for hospice care instead. Phan died in the hospital when staff withdrew life support for that transfer.

. Vietnamese citizen, originally granted Legal Permanent Resident status in the U.S. in 1983. Convicted of murder in Orange County, Calif., in 1991. By the time he was detained at the El Paso Processing Center last February, he had a host of health problems and he was quickly transferred to the University Medical Center for evaluation, then the Long-Term Acute Care Hospital — a physician-owned hospital — where he stayed for many months, being treated for dementia until he died in the hospital of this condition.

I’m four names in and I’m not finding “PEOPLE KILLED BY TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION AND DEPORTATION PRISONS.” I’m finding people who ICE treated promptly and moved to real hospitals when their health conditions were serious. The records don’t say who paid for their care. I’m assuming that once the federal government assumed responsibility for them, taxpayers paid for everything.

The first three names on the sign have red asterisks, so I assume these are the ones that — iron-clad, all-caps, unequivocally — fall under the “PEOPLE MURDERED BY ICE” heading. Renee Good. Keith Porter. Geraldo Campos. The sign must’ve been made before Alex Pretti’s shooting. Renee Good’s case is familiar to all, and everyone has made up their mind as to murder vs. justifiable homicide vs manslaughter. The other two?

 Killed by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve in Carson, Calif., when the agent investigated sounds of gunfire near his apartment and found Porter holding a rifle and shot him. Doesn’t seem related to any question of Porter’s citizenship, or any ICE operation. And as for the circumstances, I’ll just share some California reporting from 

Advocates say Porter had been firing the gun into the air as a way of observing the holiday 

 a practice routinely condemned by law enforcement officials.

"Yes, it was illegal, but at the end of the day, it's an American tradition," said organizer Najee Ali, the director of Project Islamic Hope.

[{"type":"text","text":"I can’t even. Really?"}]

 Cuban, here illegally since 1996, with past convictions in the U.S. for weapons charges, sexual abuse of a child; petit larceny; DUI and drug crimes. Died Jan. 3 in the Camp East Montana ICE facility following some kind of altercation with guards. His death has been 

, it’s unclear where things stand with an investigation to determine if it was murder. Department of Homeland Security says Campos was belligerent and attempting suicide and needed to be restrained, his death accidental. Other detainees claim he was suffocated by guards in the encounter.

And if that’s true, and they were in the wrong, throw the book at them. Just like we would any guard at any Hawai‘i prison that did such a thing. But I wouldn’t take this sign’s word for it, it so far proving to be less than fair and honest.

Green and Hawai‘i lawmakers are not responsible for every word of every sign that might appear in their vicinity. But no sign at this particular event was there by accident. This was a stage-managed event, designed for publicity. In the largest sense, Green, the Hawai‘i lawmakers, and the nonprofits leading the Make Hawai‘i Minneapolis campaign are standing up for these claims as if they were incontrovertible facts. They are just so certain 

 and they’re intent on rushing legislation with fierce urgency. They're doing so with what looks a fairly obvious mix of good, if poorly thought-out, intentions and cynical, politicized grandstanding.

Under such circumstances, maybe stop and think before blindly passing any of these bills.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

20260127 101533 16x9

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i’s proposed anti-ICE laws mimic Minneapolis in the worst ways</title>

On Tuesday, Gov. Green and Hawai‘i lawmakers stood in front of some wild allegations about ICE, and they're about to rush legislation as if every horror story on display were true.

Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i’s proposed anti-ICE laws mimic Minneapolis in the worst ways

[{"type":"text","text":"\"This is the largest stick Daisy has ever selected to bring home...\""}]

Smile 26 1 28

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, January 28, 2026</title>

"This is the largest stick Daisy has ever selected to bring home..."

Daily Smile: Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

The University of Hawai‘i football team's 2026 season doesn't officially begin until a road tilt at Stanford on Aug. 29, but the national buzz surrounding the Rainbow Warriors has already begun. 

 placed the 'Bows in next season's 12-team College Football Playoff as the Group of Five conference representative. The nod made the Rainbow Warriors a trending topic on X on Thursday, capturing the imagination of national pundits and fans alike. Hawai‘i has never reached the College Football Playoff. Its most prominent offseason appearance was a bid in the 2008 Sugar Bowl, back when UH was ranked 10th nationally in the now-defunct BCS rankings. 

All indications within the program suggest the Rainbow Warriors had a successful 

 Players had from Jan. 2-16 to officially enter the transfer portal, with the exception of players from Indiana and Miami, the two teams who competed in Monday's national championship game (Jan. 19-24). 

Fourteen members of UH's 2025 team entered the transfer portal. Departures included leading receiver 

, who landed at LSU on a lucrative NIL package, as well as starting punter 

, who will join national champion Indiana. Additionally, backup quarterback Luke Weaver, who threw the winning touchdown in the 

, signed with San Jose State, where he will compete for the starting job.

The Rainbow Warriors have added over a dozen players from the transfer portal. Highlights from the portal class include a handful of signees who prepped at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, the national prep powerhouse that already had a major presence on the Hawai‘i roster. In 2025, the Rainbow Warriors had six Bishop Gorman alums on the roster, led by star quarterback 

. Additionally, associate head coach Chris Brown and quarterbacks coach 

 previously coached at Gorman before joining 

Bishop Gorman alumni joining the Rainbow Warriors in 2026 include former Washington wide receiver Audric Harris, former Michigan State quarterback Jeremiah Hughes, former Oregon and UNLV safety Kodi DeCambra, former Kansas State running back DeVon Rice and former Washington State and Wake Forest cornerback Jaylon Edmond. DeCambra, like Alejado, is an O'ahu native, while Rice originally committed to UH out of high school before flipping to the Wildcats.

Other portal additions include cornerback Caleb "CBo" Brown, who transferred from Hawai‘i to Virginia Tech ahead of the 2025 season before making his way back to Mānoa for his final season of college football. The 'Bows also beefed up their offensive line with 

Denaris DeRosa Jr. (San Jose State), Khalil Walker (South Florida) and Lipe Moala (Oregon).

No position group for the Rainbow Warriors added more players than its receiver group. After losing Harris, Joey Farthing and Brandon White to the portal, the Rainbow Warriors added Devin Alves (Virginia Tech), Carson Brown (Iowa State), 'Tre Griffiths (Oklahoma State) and Diezel Kamoku (Utah), a Kahuku alumnus. The Bows are also set to add Robert Haynes, a high schooler from Missouri City, Texas, that was originally committed to Arkansas. 

Spring practices for the Rainbow Warriors will begin in the coming weeks, followed by the team's offseason strength and conditioning program, spearheaded by head strength and conditioning coach 

Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Saturday, January 31, 2026

Authors

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