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Smile 26 2

<title>Daily Smile: Sunday, February 1, 2026</title>

When the dog is done cuddling...

Daily Smile: Sunday, February 1, 2026

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Government & Politics

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.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

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

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

The government will partially shut down again beginning Saturday after the Senate passed a disputed budget bill on Friday.

The U.S. Senate has been deadlocked over an appropriations measure for the 

. The version of the bill that the House had narrowly passed last week included funding for several federal agencies, but also more than $10 billion for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which several Democrats said they would refuse to approve.

It worked: the Senate voted Friday to pass a version of the bill with the ICE funding stripped out. The new version of the measure provides short-term funds for the Department of Homeland Security for the next two weeks.

Both Hawai‘i's senators, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono voted for the bill, with the final tally showing 71 votes in favor and 29 opposed. Most of the votes in opposition were from Democrats.

Hirono said after the vote that Congress now has "two weeks to negotiate immediate, common-sense guardrails to rein in the lawlessness of ICE." 

"Over the next two weeks, the onus will be on the Republicans to agree to the serious reforms Democrats are demanding," Hirono said. "I will continue my work fighting for other reforms, including giving people the ability to hold lawless government agents accountable."

Meanwhile, Schatz touted several appropriations earmarked for Hawai‘i within the bill, including $1.9 million for Maui nursing home improvements, $1.6 million to support digitization projects at Bishop Museum, $7.3 million to Hawai‘i County to develop a highway in West Hawai‘i, $7 million to the City and County of Honolulu to extend the Mālaekahana bike path and more.

However, the Friday vote was not enough to wholly avoid a government shutdown. The House must once again vote on the bill before it goes to President Donald Trump’s desk, and because the House will not vote before Monday, funding has lapsed for several government agencies, including the departments of Defense, State, Human Services and more.

Senators

<title>CONGRESS WATCH: Partial shutdown coming this weekend after Senate vote</title>

Senate votes to pass budget bill, minus ICE funds

CONGRESS WATCH: Partial shutdown coming this weekend after Senate vote

Water rates could increase in West Maui, and residents are encouraged to give their two cents at a public hearing on Monday.

In April of 2025, Hawai‘i Water Service Co. Inc., informed the state Public Utilities Commission that it intends to raise water prices in order to meet increased operating expenses.

HWSC General Manager Geoff Fulks recently told customers in a letter Monday that the company needs to make capital improvements to its water and wastewater systems in the Kapalua service area in order to remain in compliance with Department of Health regulations.

In order to defray those costs, HWSC has requested that the PUC approve a $2.2 million revenue increase, which amounts to a 59% increase from current revenue rates. This increase would be accompanied by expense pass-throughs charging customers additional fees to cover the cost of purchasing power and water.

[{"type":"text","text":"The increase would be the first since 2009."}]

According to Fulks’ letter, the new water purchasing charge would amount to an additional $6.18 per 1,000 gallons used, while the power purchasing charge would be $0.19 per 1,000 gallons used.

However, HWSC would also offer a pair of tax credits to customers of about $1.90 per month for water and $2.13 per month for wastewater.

Residents are encouraged to attend a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday at Maui Preparatory Academy to comment on the rate increase. People can also participate in the meeting remotely and submit comments 

Maui

<title>West Maui water prices may rise</title>

Kapalua residents could see higher water bills as Public Utilities Commission mulls rate hike

West Maui water prices may rise

[{"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

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

Arts & Entertainment

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Get ready... get set... READ!"}]

ʻOhana are invited to the annual 5K Walk/Run for Literacy put on by Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region, a Hawaiʻi Island-based branch of State Friends of the Library, and Kohala Coffee Company. The event is scheduled from 8 to 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7, at Waikoloa Plaza. Register online 

Event Chair Cindy Evans told Aloha State Daily that new this year is two auction options – an online auction and silent auction, which will occur live at the event. Bidding for the online auction will begin on Jan. 30 through Feb. 7 at 11 a.m. on Feb. 7. Browse items now ranging from gift cards, photography, art and handmade items to golf packages and more, 

Proceeds from the fundraiser will go toward literacy services within the community, including the Bookmobile and Quiz Bowl, among others. More than 100 people are expected to be in attendance due to the growth of the neighborhood, Evans said, adding that last year’s walk, netted about $10,000 to help pay for programming and materials.

Keiki activities will include a bubble cannon, finger painting and crafts, gardening, and visiting with the Hawaʻi Wildfire Management Organization and the Hawaiʻi Fire Department, among others.

Special guests confirmed so far include State Librarian 

; Lynzee Nakamoto, Miss Hawaiʻi Island Teen USA; and Amber Kekahuna, Miss Orchid Isle USA. Local Lions Club members and Waikoloa Village's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will assist the volunteers.

“It takes a community to make this event successful and to get this library,” Evans said, referring to the plans underway to develop a new public library in the area.

“We’re not there yet, that’s why the Friends have to stay true to our mission and keep the voice loud that we want this,” she added.

, Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region aims to provide a learning resource center and gathering place. Once the library is built, the Friends will continue to support its educational programs and supplement its budget.

Evans said that altogether the nonprofit has 40 members and 10 board members, with an annual budget averaging $10,000-$15,000 from in-kind donations, individuals donors and grants.

“We are the glue, the fabric of the community,” she said. “The walk is a fundraiser and friendraiser. The friendraiser aspect is working with families, businesses, nonprofits, all while developing a curiosity for learning for the keiki.

“This library will be a reflection of the community. Libraries have not gone away, they’ve just been reinvented ... It continues to be a a great, quiet place to get information and is becoming more of a place for events, like open mic night and poetry readings, where you can see each other face-to-face."  

Evans, a former state representative and Hawai’i County councilmember, also chaired the inaugural 5K event 12 years ago and plans to remain involved moving the new library project forward.

“We’re learning as we go and are already excited for next year’s event,” she said.

To register, bid in the online auction and learn more, go to: 

Interested in becoming a volunteer? Email 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Book Mobile Waikoloa

<title>Walk to support library services in Waikoloa</title>

Hosted by Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region and Kohala Coffee Company, the annual 5K Walk/Run for Literacy is set for Saturday, Feb. 7, at Waikoloa Plaza. Proceeds from the fundraiser – which this year includes two auctions, both online and in-person, will go toward programming.

Walk to support library services in Waikoloa

Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Cuong Do at Hawaiian Memorial Park. "Of all my years on the island I've never seen such a perfect double rainbow."

Daily Smile: Sunday, February 1, 2026

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Daily Smile: Sunday, February 1, 2026

Authors

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