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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"They bought the cat a new toy and this was the reaction..."}]

Smile 26 2 24

<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 24, 2026</title>

They bought the cat a new toy and this was the reaction...

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 24, 2026

 They bought the cat a new toy and this was the reaction...

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Business & Tourism

Arts & Entertainment

Kaula Lūʻau, a new theatrical lūʻau celebrating one woman’s family lineage, opens this Friday, Feb. 27, at Ocean’s Edge at Ko Olina Resort in West Oʻahu. It is produced by Hawaiian Council and led by a Native Hawaiian creative team that includes Kipe Ebana, 

, Tiana Nonosina and Kayla Faʻamaligi. The performances will take place in a space next to Ulua Lagoon 4 and Ko Olina Marina, less than two miles from the recently closed 

“Everything about it from its design to who's producing it, who wrote the story, to the organization that's behind it — it's all Native Hawaiian led,” Kūhiō Lewis, president and CEO of Hawaiian Council, told Aloha State Daily. “It's rare that Native Hawaiians get to —  from start to finish — create and produce something like this. We’re excited to tell our own story.”

, is a Kapolei-based nonprofit that focuses its programs on business incubation, housing, policy, tourism and workforce development to support Native Hawaiians. Through a partnership with Ko Olina Resort — which includes Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa; Four Seasons Resort Oʻahu at Ko Olina; Beach Villas at Ko Olina; Ko Olina Golf Club; Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club; and Ko Olina Marina — 

 will have use of the land for the lūʻau, the marina that supports the lūʻau, and a parking area for 18 months free of rent, Lewis said. Proceeds from operations during that time will support the council’s work.

The space will see the activation of two stage productions in 2026: Kaula Lūʻau, starting this week, and 

the musical “Hawaiian Goddess: The Epic Tale of Hiʻiaka,”

 which is set to debut in December. The musical is a partnership between Hawaiian Council and WitzEnd Productions, founded by Broadway producer 

. “Hawaiian Goddess: The Epic Tale of Hiʻiaka” stars 

 as Pele and had its world premiere at the Native Hawaiian Convention in October of 2025.  

“In addition to the lūʻau, there is a partnership with [Native Hawaiian-owned] Hawaiʻi Nautical, which is a boat operator out of Ko Olina, so people can go on a sunset cruise and then come back for the lūʻau,” Lewis said.

Kaula Lū‘au provides jobs to a number of employees of Paradise Cove Lū‘au, which operated in Ko Olina for more than four decades before it 

. The new lūʻau has 27 cast members, 16 of which came from the Paradise Cove Lū‘au, Lewis said. About a dozen additional former employees of Paradise Cove Lū‘au will be joining Kaula Lūʻau as hosts, bussers and lei greeters, he added.

The costumes for Kaula Lūʻau were designed by Native Hawaiian designers: 

, of the brand Manaola, and Kiniokahokuloa Zamor

Kaula Lū‘au shares the story of Mahina, a young Native Hawaiian woman as she seeks to understand herself through stories passed down by her grandmother.

“The other thing is this is not your typical lūʻau,” Lewis added. “This is a theatrical lū‘au where there's a storyline of Mahina and her grandmother. Grandma shares Mahina's genealogy ... so as she's telling Mahina, your ancestors came from Tahiti, they came from Samoa — that's when the different acts come out. But of course, it's grounded in the Hawaiian culture where she lives today.”

There is singing. And a projector that makes some stars appear.

“When grandma tells her about the stars, the stars appear,” Lewis said. “And when Mahina points to the stars, it flickers.”

The idea for Kaula Lū‘au came up over lunch. Honolulu-based developer 

 is CEO and president of The Resort Group, which acquired 

Ko Olina Resort as the company’s flagship development on Oʻahu

 in 1997. Stone invited Lewis to discuss opportunities at the resort.

“He sees my name in the paper and reads about us so he invited me to lunch,” Lewis said. “He was telling me about how he wanted his resort to be more culture-based, more connected to Hawaiʻi, especially the West Side, where majority of Hawaiians live.”

Stone proposed some shacks along the lagoon where practitioners could lead weaving and other activities, but Lewis countered with a desire for Native Hawaiians to tell their own stories, he said.

“I looked at him, [and] said, ʻJeff, we don't need to go back to grass shacks.’” Lewis said. “I said, ʻI want to be the operator of a hotel. I want to be able to tell our own stories. I want land. That's what Hawaiians need. We don't need grass shacks.ʻ He was so enamored by my comment. He paused and he just was like: ʻWow.’ He goes: ‘Nobody's ever told me straight like that.’”

What followed was a partnership between Hawaiian Council and Ko Olina Resort.

“What you're seeing is what came from that conversation,” Lewis said. “He has given us everything we've asked for to be able to produce, to be able to do all the things that I've been wanting to do for years. And so, this is the power when you can connect with people that have the ability to support.”

The economic impact of the new lūʻau includes more than $5 million in contracts with local vendors and contractors, including a nearly $3 million catering contract with the Native Hawaiian-owned restaurant, Moani. There will also be local vendors and artisans from Nā Mea Hawaiʻi selling their products as part of the on-site experience.

The launch of Kaula Lūʻau will create 166 jobs, according to Hawaiian Council. When the musical opens in December, that number will increase to 342 jobs.

“There's so much power in us telling our stories,” Lewis said. “When you think about it, for generations, others have told our story, and so for us to take that back and for us to be able to be part of that storytelling, as well as the economics that support storytelling, is very powerful, for me. I also think it's educational. People come to Hawaiʻi because they want to feel special. They want to be a part of this culture that they fell in love with at some point in time. And I want to give it to them.”

Hawaiian Council has provided the cultural support for the lūʻau with its director of entertainment, cultural practicioners, senior advisor and more contributing to the production. The in-kind support from the council for this production “probably exceeds half a million dollars,” Lewis said. Ko Olina Resort’s in-kind contributions are close to $10 million, he added. That includes use of the land, the resources to start up, marketing support, and collaboration with hotels in the Ko Olina Resort area.

“It's very, very powerful,” he said. “And this lūʻau is only a small part of a much bigger vision that we have for the future of Ko Olina.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Lewis declined to share more details."}]

“But I can tell you that it's transformational,” he said. “And when you reimagine, and you re-envision a resort area over 500 acres and you think about: how do you make that Hawaiian? Because that's what visitors want. It's very transformational. It's a big investment, not just financially, but a commitment to a culture of people, and that's what's happening right now.”

Tickets start at $119 for adult standard and $249 for adult VIP, with kamaʻāina discounts for Hawaiʻi residents who use the code: HILOCAL30. There are also discounts for active-duty military, MAHALO20, and seniors, KAPUNA10. Tickets for shows through March 31, can be purchased for 50% off using the code: FIRSTWAVE 50. For more information, go to: 

Stephanie Salmons contributed to this story. 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Kaula Lūʻau

<title>Kaula Lūʻau launches in Ko Olina this week</title>

A new immersive cultural performance that is a partnership between Hawaiian Council and Ko Olina Resort will debut on Friday, Feb. 27, in West Oʻahu. Kūhiō Lewis, president and CEO of Hawaiian Council, shares how the idea for the production started with a lunch meeting.

Kaula Lūʻau launches in Ko Olina this week

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Kaiser employees will return to work at the Moanalua Medical Center Tuesday after a nearly month-long strike.

, the United Nurses of California/Union of Health Care Professionals began an open-ended strike against Kaiser Permanente, citing complaints about unsafe working conditions and stagnating pay even as Kaiser reported billions of dollars in profits.

More than 31,000 workers joined the strike in order to force Kaiser back to the bargaining table after contract negotiations, ongoing since March 2025, broke down. Of those thousands of workers, some 250 were in Hawai‘i, picketing at Moanalua Medical Center.

On Monday, the unions announced that the strike is over. Union representatives stated that “significant movement at the bargaining table” led them to issue a notice to Kaiser that members will return to work on Tuesday.

“Returning members to their patients and their livelihoods is the clearest path to securing a final agreement and building on the progress achieved during the strike,” read a statement by the unions.

The unions called the strike “the largest open-ended strike of registered nurses and health care professionals in United States history.” The strike was, in fact, smaller than another strike against Kaiser by the same unions in 

 — wherein some 46,000 workers joined the picket — but that strike was set to only last one week.

Further details about the negotiations were not forthcoming Monday. However, the strike began almost immediately following the unions publishing a 

 detailing their grievances with Kaiser, including repeated cuts to wages, health and retirement benefits, and chronically understaffed facilities, which they predicted would further contribute to doctor shortages in Kaiser's coverage areas.

Kaiser Honolulu 16x9

<title>Kaiser strike ends after nearly one month</title>

Registered nurses and health care professionals at Moanalua Medical Center will return to work Tuesday after stalled negotiations resume.

Kaiser strike ends after nearly one month

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

 sets out to create a strategic plan for the next three to five years, the nonprofit is lending an ear to the communities it serves.

Now through March 6, community members on Maui, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi may take

 that will assess unmet needs and help guide MUW’s funding and focus areas. Responses will be confidential and data will be returned back to the public, according to CEO Jeeyun Lee. 

She notes that the purpose of this type of outreach is to allow the organization to “move with intention.”

“You can have all the resources at your fingertips in terms of funding, but if you don’t use it intentionally and if you don’t invest it in spaces where there is going to be a return in investment to community, it can make zero impact,” she told Aloha State Daily. “So, how do we then take that information and find impactful ways to implement [programs] with the resources we have and continue to also bring in fresh, new resources into our community?”

Lee added that MUW’s $100,000 grant from 

the state Legislature under Act 310 (SB 933)

 will continue to support food security and housing initiatives.

MUW’s four areas of interest include financial security, healthy community, youth opportunity and community resiliency.

Disaster preparedness and resiliency planning remain crucial as the community recovers from the Lahaina wildfires. Gas cards for fire survivors, for example, is something MUW implemented that directly impacted more than 500 families in need of transportation support .

“A lot of these issues that we are facing now, we were facing pre-fire. They’ve just been exacerbated exponentially," Lee said. "We really want to hear from our families, our nonprofits, our small businesses. We want to reflect the community at-large

More data collection will strengthen our ability to advocate at the county, state and philanthropic levels; we want to reinforce that our role is to be a trusted convener.

“Not reacting moment to moment, but really creating a system that is functional, that gets elevated in times of crisis. I think that’s what we’re going to get out of the survey,” she said, adding that the last time they conducted one was in 2017.

“Weʻre overdue and I’m really excited to make sure the work we’re doing aligns with community.”

Lee, a West Maui resident, said she turned in her survey, and “it was quite quick, about 5 minutes to do.”

“No vote no grumble,” she said with a smile. “You are your strongest advocates. And so, all of us can uplift our voices in [this] simple way.”  

Originally from Michigan, Lee said her first exposure to nonprofit work was at age 16 at the YMCA. From there, she pursued a master’s degree in social work, specializing in international and community development, and later lived on Oʻahu for a decade before moving to Maui nearly 9 years ago.

“I just felt called to raise my son where he’s ancestrally from and rooted,” she said. “

 took me under his wing and had shared, ‘Ask your son what he wants to do’ – he was 3 at the time. I had that conversation with him, and I went back to uncle and he was like, ‘I have a feeling Maui is going to need you and your skillsets,’ and it gives me chicken skin. He unfortunately passed, but Maui United Way was an opportunity with aloha as part of its value system. It was a full circle moment, and ever since, it has felt like he’s been watching over us."

With more than 20 years of nonprofit experience,

"to contribute back to the community I’m a part of," she said.

Lee joined MUW as its director of impact and became interim CEO in July 2025 prior to assuming the role full-time in December. As CEO, she oversees more than 60 programs and a budget of $5 million.

During her tenure, the organization distributed more than $12 million in funding to local nonprofits and community members, serving over 87,000 residents across Maui County. 

“My mother used to tell me, ‘Jee, you’re never going to be rich, but you sure are rich in the people that you have around you,’ and to me that’s the most wealth you could possibly have.

“I’ve just been blessed to have an incredible network. … I’m still learning, too, what it takes to be a good leader. Honing the craft of supporting your team, board, community, from a genuine and authentic place. It is a kuleana and privilege to be in the space that I’m in.”

She aims to leave this world better than she found it. “My goal, at the end of my life, is to be able to look my son straight in the eye, and say I did the best I could.”

Maui United Way team 2026

<title>Maui United Way seeks community input for strategic plan</title>

The organization has launched a survey for Maui County residents to help inform its next steps. The deadline is March 6, and it takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Aloha State Daily caught up with CEO Jeeyun Lee about the purpose of this outreach method and ongoing priorities for the year ahead.

Maui United Way seeks community input for strategic plan

Pua headshot

Puanani Fernandez-Akamine

Viewpoints

[{"type":"text","text":"Tom Pōhaku Stone says he was born to the ocean."}]

A renowned big wave surfer and waterman, Stone is a superb athlete and a self-avowed thrill-seeker with the scars to prove it and countless stories of danger and near-death experiences.

He is also a cultural practitioner, a master carver, an educator, and a Ph.D. candidate credited with almost single-handedly reviving heʻe hōlua (land sledding) and is considered to be Hawaiʻi’s foremost expert in the sport.

[{"type":"text","text":"The practice of heʻe hōlua"}]

Heʻe Hōlua as practiced by our ancestors was an extreme sport unique to Hawaiʻi.

Slides varied tremendously in terms of length, incline, and difficulty. Some were grass slides used for training or recreation. Others were slides built with stones and then covered with hard-packed cinder for more serious competition by aliʻi. The slides were often strewn with pili grass or sugar cane tassels to decrease friction.

Many of the longer slides started up ma uka and ended at the coastline – some at ocean cliffs. The longest and best-preserved rock slide is Kāneaka at Keauhou on Hawaiʻi Island, which, when first constructed, extended about a mile from the hillside to Heʻeia Bay.

Papa hōlua (sleds) range from 12- to 18-feet-long, but are only about six inches wide. They consist of two runners (kāmaʻaloa) made with native hardwoods like kauila lashed to crosspieces (keʻa) made from ʻohe (bamboo). Smaller rails (papa) lashed to the crosspieces served as a platform and hand rails. The kāmaʻaloa were often lubricated with kukui nut oil to make them slide even faster.

Marvels of engineering and design, the aerodynamically constructed sleds can be ridden prone on one’s belly, kneeling, or standing upright, and can travel at speeds in excess of 75 mph.

The practice of hōlua served many purposes. For most people, most of the time, it was purely a fun and thrilling amusement. It was a favorite Makahiki pastime, and spectators would bet on their favorite riders.

Hōlua was also used ritualistically by aliʻi, as portrayed in Apple TV’s "Chief of War." “The aliʻi nui had to perform, to show they’re willing to die if they wanted to lead,” Stone said. “Even though it’s Hollywood style, 'Chief of War' is a great visual of who we were as a people and how we dealt with things.”

Once believed to be a sport reserved for male aliʻi, traditional accounts of the sport describe both male and female riders – commoners and aliʻi alike – prior to western influence. In fact, the best known moʻolelo about hōlua features Pele who rode her papa hōlua on a wave of lava to defeat Kahawali, a prideful young chief from Puna, in a race that nearly killed him.

[{"type":"text","text":"A life of preparation"}]

Growing up, Stone spent a lot of time in Waikīkī where his tūtū made and sold lei. After helping her, he would go down to the beach and hang out around the beach boys. It was Duke Kahanamoku who helped Stone catch his first wave when he was just 5 years old.

Stone was hooked. Whenever he was in Waikīkī, after helping to sell lei, he was at the beach raking the sand until one of the beach boys put a board into the water for him to surf. A young beach boy, Joey Gerard, was one of his greatest influences, “that’s how I started surfing bigger waves – it’s because of Joey Gerard,” Stone recalled.

Having been pegged by his kūpuna as “athletic,” at the age of 4 Stone was sent to live with his great uncle John Solomon, a Kohala rancher. Solomon had no children so the plan was to hānai Stone and have him take over the ranch. “I was being raised to be a cowboy but Uncle John found me very difficult because I was always drawn to the ocean,” he laughed. Stone lived primarily with Solomon for two years.

Whenever he was on Oʻahu, Stone also spent a lot of time with his maternal grandfather, David Kahanu, in Kāneʻohe. “And that’s how we get to hōlua,” Stone explained. “He was training me to learn about it.”

Kahanu told stories about hōlua riding and took young Stone ti-leaf sliding on grassy Kāneʻohe hillsides and mud sliding in Nuʻuanu Valley. He also took him to a grove of mango trees above Pālolo Valley and challenged Stone to jump from tree to tree all the way down into the valley. “He was teaching me to commit; to focus on what I was doing and not to hesitate,” Stone reflected.

Kahanu was one of Stone’s most significant relationships as a child. “I loved being with him whenever I had a chance because that was where he would tell me the stories over a cup of tea and crackers. And then he left, you know, he passed away. So that was that.”

[{"type":"text","text":"A cultural and political awakening"}]

Like many young Hawaiians coming of age in the late 1960s, Stone was increasingly dissatisfied and angry about things he couldn’t quite articulate. Outside of surfing and his interest in ocean sports, he was unfocused and got in trouble with the law.

He dropped out of high school and later joined the military. After being discharged, Stone worked for the City & County of Honolulu as an ocean safety officer and spent his free time surfing and windsurfing.

Then, on Jan. 17, 1993, Stone participated in the ʻOnipaʻa March marking 100 years since the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. At ʻIolani Palace, he heard the late Haunani Kay Trask’s now-famous speech in which she asserted “We are not Americans! We will never be Americans!”

Hearing those words in that moment was transformational for Stone. He completed his GED, enrolled at Windward Community College (WCC), and never looked back.

[{"type":"text","text":"Reviving the art and practice of heʻe hōlua"}]

A research assignment for a Hawaiian culture class at WCC with Kumu Kalani Meinecke, inspired Stone to learn more about hōlua. “Everyone was focusing on voyaging. But I wanted to focus on what my tūtūkāne had been teaching me and research something nobody knew anything about. That’s how it all began.”

So in 1994, with Meinecke’s support, Stone began learning everything he could about hōlua.

He not only wrote a research paper, but built a papa hōlua (sled) that he named Keahiokekai.

His sled was constructed based on descriptions found in 

 by Māori anthropologist Sir Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hīroa). The description lacked details on how to lash the runners to the crosspieces, so Stone improvised and used canoe lashing techniques.

Stone is quick to point out that reviving hōlua wasn’t his accomplishment alone. His WCC classmates, the late Kilohana Duarte and Anne Campbell (now his wife), were his partners. “They were with me almost from day one. The three of us were on this journey.”

Already in his 40s, Stone channeled his talent for big wave riding and began teaching himself to heʻe hōlua. He took his papa hōlua to Maui to ride an ancient slide at ʻUlupalakua, but the tips of his runners broke off in transit. He was still able to ride it, but later took his papa hōlua to Hawaiʻi Island intending to burn it since it was damaged.

Stone went down to Kīholo Bay and left his papa hōlua on the shore while he gathered wood for a fire. When he returned, there were six large honu (turtles) resting on it. Stone took this as a hōʻailona (sign). He did not burn his papa hōlua that day. In fact, he still rides it.

By 1997, Stone had already built several papa hōlua and so was allowed access to the only surviving pre-contact papa hōlua which was housed at Bishop Museum. Stone spent years studying its construction.

“The engineering that goes into hōlua construction is ancient. It’s about balance and flexibility. It’s both scientific and symbolic. If you make the papa hōlua rigid it’s going to break at high speed. You have to build that sense of unified flexibility into it. That’s the most important thing.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Divine inspiration and the role of women in hōlua"}]

Between 1994 and 1998 Stone had a series of vivid dreams. In his dreams he walked the land with a woman he did not know. Eventually, they ended up at Halemaʻumaʻu in Kīlauea and he recognized the woman as Pele. In his dream, Pele explained the proper technique for lashing hōlua.

“I woke up at like 1:00 in the morning, went outside, took it apart, and re-lashed it traditionally,” Stone said.

Hōlua lashing requires a circular double wrap – a pattern that allows the sled’s runners to open slightly and flex forward and backwards. It takes about 375 consecutive feet of sennit.

But Stone learned more than hōlua lashing techniques from his dreams. He also came to understand the important role that women played in hōlua. “My mom always told me when a kupuna visits you, be open and go on the journey. So I did. And I learned more within those moeʻuhane than I learned from my research.”

He learned that the papa hōlua he studied at Bishop Museum was named Lonoikamakahiki and had belonged to Kanemuna, a woman from Hoʻokena. “And then I started to realize, as I searched for hōlua slides, they all have wāhine names.”

According to Stone, the prominence of women in the sport – and it’s connection to female deities like Pele – made hōlua a target of missionaries who not only wanted to suppress traditional religion, but also the prominence of women in Hawaiian society to align with western notions of male dominance and female subservience.

He believes that this is why so little is known about hōlua, and why so few hōlua slides remain.

“In Hawaiian culture, wāhine are more important [than men] because they carry the moʻokūʻauhau,” said Stone. “Hawaiian women had more political, social and spiritual capital than their western counterparts, which clashes with the conventional western Judeo-Christian world view.”

Stone said that what the missionaries “saw” was a dangerous sport that women actively participated in, with slides named after female deities. “They needed to eliminate the worship of females,” he said, noting that erasure of hōlua from Hawaiian consciousness included dismantling many of the slides. And in more than one instance, the stones that formed the slides were reused to build churches.

[{"type":"text","text":"The future of heʻe hōlua"}]

Now in his 70s, Stone is concerned that outsiders will co-opt heʻe hōlua, monetize it, and profit off of Hawaiian intellectual and cultural property the way surfing – Hawaiʻi’s most famous export – was co-opted in the mid-20th century.

“The reason I’m very choosy about who maintains the knowledge is because I’ve had offers from skateboarding and snowboarding companies. But it’s not for sale,” Stone said adamantly.

Stone is not currently mentoring any hōlua makers or riders outside his own family, although he has previously served as kumu to a handful of cultural practitioners who are now perpetuating ʻike pertaining to hōlua and fabrication of papa hōlua: Kumulāʻau Sing, ʻIliahi Doo, Kunāne Wooton, and Mahi La Pierre.

[{"type":"text","text":"However, Stone is arguably Hawaiʻi’s most active hōlua rider."}]

In his experience, few people want to commit. “It’s a process of pain to make a papa hōlua,” said Stone. “Your hands will be bleeding and your whole body aches because you learn to lash with your fingers, toes, teeth – whatever.”

Reflecting on his twin passions for heʻe hōlua and heʻe nalu (surfing), Stone said that at their essence they are the same.

“Look at it from a cultural point of view. Pele is on one side and Nāmakaokahaʻi (sea goddess and sister to Pele) is on the other. Although the legend is about them battling their way across the islands, I see it as a harmonizing. They go hand in hand,” Stone said.

“Hōlua and surfing are one and the same. If no more waves, ride the mountains.”

This article is reprinted with permission from 

OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Reviving Hawaʻi's Extreme Sport: He'e Hōlua" by Puanani Fernandez-Akamine, in its February 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 2. Read more at 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Ka Hee Holua 15

<title>Community Voices: Reviving Hawaiʻi’s extreme sport</title>

Tom Pōhaku Stone, a waterman, cultural practitioner and educator, brought back heʻe hōlua, or land sledding, and is considered to be Hawaiʻi’s foremost expert in the sport. For the last 30 years, Stone has ridden his papa hōlua (sled) on ancient hōlua slides and grassy hills across the pae‘āina.

Community Voices: Reviving Hawaiʻi’s extreme sport

Yamachika Tom IMG 1913 Large

Tom Yamachika

We have been writing several pieces about money languishing in special funds. This week, we will concentrate on one of them. The University of Hawaiʻi has a special fund for tuition and fees. According to 

 submitted to this year’s Legislature, that fund built up, as of June 30, 2025, almost $429 million.

And, unlike some of the special funds we have been writing about, lawmakers are very aware of the big balance in this one. 

, which recently passed the Senate Education Committee, would lapse any carryover balance in the fund at the end of each year to the state’s general fund.

Not surprisingly, the University of Hawaiʻi and the U.H. Professional Assembly howled in opposition.

“Shifts in federal policy and the termination of grant funding have created significant uncertainty for the UH,” the university argued. “At the same time, major technological changes relating to AI and other needs will require ongoing substantial investment in infrastructure. The UH has outlined major initiatives to ensure it can more effectively and efficiently meet its mission despite these major challenges and to maintain accountability for executing on strategic goals.”

Those words might be more believable if the tuition and fees special fund was the only fund the university had. Actually, HRS chapter 304A has three different subparts, one describing 22 special funds, the next describing 14 revolving funds, and the next enumerating four different trust funds. Surely, between 40 different non-general funds, the university has the flexibility to take on its major challenges and meet its strategic goals.

And, let’s be real here, $400 million is a major amount of dough. Maybe the university can justify squirreling away a few million here, a few million there. But $400 million?

And when the university undertakes a major construction project, it doesn’t hesitate to visit lawmakers with hat in hand, as was done in 2019 when it asked for authorization to rebuild its venerable Sinclair Library into a brand-spankin’-new Student Success Center. Yes, it got $41 million in authorization then, and costs ballooned to $57 million by the time construction started in 2023. Did that extra $16 million come out of the tuition and fees special fund? According to the testimony before the Senate Education Committee, the excess funds were pulled from a pot of general fund money earmarked for repairs and maintenance. Meaning that the nine-figure sum in the special fund still sat there and there were fewer dollars to tackle the deferred maintenance backlog that the university is famous for.

At the Senate hearing, the university indicated that the fund buildup was due to an influx of pandemic relief funds. But, as 

we pointed out with the example of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands funding

 some weeks ago, if a recipient of federal money doesn’t use it, it greatly increases the chance that the federal government will take it away.

We realize that the university’s president and chief financial officer are both relatively new in their respective positions. They both pleaded with the committee that they have no intent whatsoever to leave large gobs of cash unused. Fine, then. Come up with an immediate and measurable plan to deploy what is needed. And by immediate I mean now. The state has a financial crisis now. If this cash cannot be deployed now, lawmakers will try to beat it out of us, the taxpayers, now.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Use that hoarded tuition and fees. Now."}]

Wendy Hensel KCC 003

<title>Community Voices: Use that hoarded tuition and fees now</title>

If this special fund – almost $429 million as of June 2025 – cannot be deployed now by The University of Hawaiʻi, lawmakers will try to beat it out of the taxpayers, now.

Community Voices: Use that hoarded tuition and fees now

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

[{"type":"text","text":"Caleb \"C-Bo\" Brown says he left his heart in the Islands."}]

The standout cornerback initially thought his collegiate football career was over with the University of Hawai‘i football team following the 2024 season. Following a ruling that allowed an extended year of eligibility for former junior college players such as Brown, he decided to spend the additional year in the Eastern time zone in order to give family members from Alabama more access to watch him play. 

Entering the NCAA transfer portal last spring was a bittersweet experience for the 6-foot-1, 170-pound Brown, who had interest from a bevy of schools. He ultimately signed with Virginia Tech, breaking fall camp with a starting spot for the Hokies. 

The 2025 season did not go as planned for Brown or the Hokies. Brown received season-ending shoulder surgery after playing just three games, while head coach Brent Pry was fired on Sept. 14. Brown received a medical hardship redshirt and was granted another year of eligibility. This time around, there was barely a choice to make. He knew he had unfinished business in Hawai‘i. 

While still recovering from surgery, Brown was one of a handful of players sidelined to 

begin spring practice for the Rainbow Warriors

 earlier in the month. He recently started joining the team in on-field drills as he continues to heal. All the while, he's been all smiles knowing he's back where he belongs. 

"It's just like I never left, for real. Just being back on the Island, talking with the guys again, it feels great to be back," Brown told Aloha State Daily following a recent practice. "The main reason to come back here was just the relationships I had with the coaches and them coming off a big season last year, I was really not wanting to leave in the first place, but just to be close to my family and hoping for them to just see me play my last year. 

"It was kind of tough, but just being back here, just enjoying the atmosphere, enjoying the environment, it's one of a kind. It's really nothing like it. So, I'm just happy to be here."

In Brown's first stint in Mānoa, the 'Bows won five games in both 2023 and 2024. Their breakthrough under 

Daily Smile: Tuesday, February 24, 2026

ASD Staff

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