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Hawai'i Skies

Kristin Richards

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Kristin Richards at Kapi’olani Park. "

These were taken at Kapi’olani Park right before sunset."

To submit your Hawai'i Skies photo, visit us 

IMG 8232

<title>Hawaiʻi Skies: O’ahu Skies</title>

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Kristin Richards at Kapi’olani Park.

Hawaiʻi Skies: O’ahu Skies

 Today&#039;s Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Kristin Richards at Kapi’olani Park. &quot;These were taken at Kapi’olani Park right before sunset.&quot; To submit your Hawai&#039;i Skies photo, visit us online or email: general@alohastatedaily.com

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

It may be the most popular Mainland vacation destination for Island residents, but as the University of Hawai‘i women's volleyball team heads to Las Vegas for its first road trip of the 2026 season, new head coach 

 knows his program will take a serious approach. 

"The mindset we're taking is that it's a business trip," Walker said earlier in the week. "Yes, we're going to Vegas. It's a business trip for the athletes, trying to make sure that you're taking care of all you need to do time-wise, schedule-wise. Everything in our schedule is pretty tight on the road. We have an itinerary, so we know what we're doing hour by hour."

The Rainbow Wahine are one of four teams playing in the Lucky Aces Women's Volleyball Invitational at the Orleans Arena. From Friday to Sunday, UH will take on 

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Iowa State, and UCLA, beginning with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday at 3:30 p.m. HST. 

The timing of the tournament coincides with the Durango Fall Classic, widely considered the country's greatest high school girls volleyball tournament, which attracts the nation's top-ranked prep teams each year. Walker and his staff will spend their free time recruiting at the tournament, which features three teams from Hawai‘i (‘Iolani, Kamehameha-Hawai‘i and Kamehameha-Kapālama) in the 

For the 6-2 'Bows, the tournament will serve as their final opportunity to boost their nonconference 

resume before their first season of Mountain West play begins with a home series against New Mexico on Sept. 25-26. With 18 conference matches on its slate, UH is aiming for a return trip to Vegas in two months, where the top four Mountain West teams will compete in the conference tournament from Nov. 24-25. 

"It's going to be difficult because all these teams are talented," Walker says of this weekend's competition. "They've had success so far in the nonconference part of the season. ... The hardest thing to do is go on the road and be able to play the same way you do at home. So for us, just making sure what we've seen at home travels on the road."

Because of how late Walker took the job (in June opposed to after the 2025 season in December), all 15 members of the Rainbow Wahine roster are players he inherited. 

"It's been great," Walker says of getting to know he roster as the season goes on. "Give credit to the past coaching staff. They just put together a great group of young women that want to work hard and want to be successful and want to, most importantly, represent themselves and the state of Hawai‘i to the highest ability. So, that part has been great. Just getting to be around them and getting to learn about them together."

One of the team's impact newcomers is true freshman middle blocker Rachel Purser, a Las Vegas native who has started seven of the team's eight matches. The Coronado High School alumna will see a plethora of family and friends in the stands this weekend. 

What is she looking forward to the most during her homecoming?

"Definitely In-and-Out," she said of the West Coast burger chain, which does not have a Hawai‘i location. "But I'm looking forward to going home and to see my family. I haven't seen them in a while."

Hawaii women's volleyball 091726

<title>Hawai‘i women's volleyball hits the road for Las Vegas trip</title>

The Rainbow Wahine will play three matches in as many days at the Lucky Aces Women's Volleyball Invitational, beginning on Friday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Hawai‘i women's volleyball hits the road for Las Vegas trip

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Business & Tourism

Food & Dining

It hasn’t even been two full weeks since business owner Jessica Uao relocated her restaurant, Jessica’s Kitchen, from 

Aiea to Kapolei. However, she says her new location in Kapolei Commons, in the former space of Mad Bene, has already been flooded with her “regulars.”

“Our regular customers have been coming in,” she says of the new space, which opened on Sept. 3. “During my 17 years working in (restaurant) business, they have been supporting me. They said, ‘Yay, it’s closer to us.’ I’m looking forward to bringing in this community.

“The ʻAiea location was so small, and it was hard for customers to find,” she adds. “I really wanted a bigger location.”

Jessica’s Kitchen — the Kapolei eatery is now called 

 — was located in Westridge Shopping Center in ‘Aiea for 16 months, according to Uao. The restaurant was, and still is, known for its all-day breakfast, along with local-style Filipino favorites.

“We’re not authentic Filipino,” Uao says, referring to the restaurant’s cuisine. “We just have local-style dishes — like longanisa, bangus — that people want.”

“A lot of the dishes we serve is local favorites; we cater to the local community rather than just the Filipino community,” adds business co-founder Chris Masiclat. “We want to have something for everyone — including tourists that come around — something that’s more of a comfort food, something a little big different. It’s more fusion, more new-age style.”

Local-style Filipino specialties include sizzling pork sisig ($25.99), lechon kawali ($25.99), pork adobo ($23.99) and bangus ($26.99). 

“Bangus is a fried, boneless milkfish,” Masiclat explains. “The one that we had in ʻAiea was a little bit smaller. We decided to get the really large one (for this location); the flavor will speak for itself.”

“If you order my bangus, it will fill up your plate, it’s big,” Uao adds.

Many entrees come with side dishes, such as white or brown rice, fried rice ($5) and the eatery’s popular adobo fried rice ($5).

“We’re really well known for our portions,” Masiclat says. “The pork adobo omelet and lechon kawali are very good.”

Speaking of breakfast served all day, customer favorites include fresh corned beef hash loco moco ($23.99), chicken and waffles ($25.99) and the Jessica Moco ($28.99). The latter features a homemade hamburger patty topped with fresh corned beef hash brisket, two eggs and gravy.

“The best thing about the Jessica Moco is that it’s not canned meat, it’s not canned corned beef,” Masiclat says. “This is a homemade dish. We actually take the full corned beef brisket that’s cooked and shredded. A lot of the food that we make is fresh; a lot of it is local. It does take time, and it does come from the heart. It’s not just something we purchase at the store and throw together.”

While Jessica’s ʻAiea location was open for about a year and four months, Masiclat says they “quickly outgrew it.” Especially on holidays, the ʻAiea restaurant would be packed, resulting in a longer wait time for customers.

“We probably had about 1,500 square feet in the ʻAiea space,” he says. “The biggest letdown for the ʻAiea space was that we didn’t really have sufficient space for all of our guests. We would have certain chef specials on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day; everybody wanted to come and try our food, and celebrate with their family.

“We’re not known for rushing people or trying to kick people out just to turn the tables,” he adds. “One of the biggest things we’re excited for here is the space. We can serve more guests with an even bigger kitchen, expediting the process to be more efficient.”

He notes that the current Kapolei space has a 200- to 250-person capacity.

“We don’t kick out customers, even though they stay for hours,” Uao adds. “Some places just drop your check and they want you to go. I don’t want that; I don’t want to rush my customers. They can stay as long as they want.”

While the restaurant still features its signature breakfast and local-style Filipino favorites, the menu now includes Italian dishes, ranging from pastas and flatbreads to seafood entrees. 

“Since we moved in here and I had all the equipment anyway, we might has well do Italian food,” Uao says. “My current chef was a chef at an Italian restaurant; he’s very knowledgeable.”

She recommends trying the Gorgonzola chicken gnocchi ($35.99) — which features a Gorgonzola bleu cheese cream sauce — smoked salmon fettuccine ($36.99) with sweet onions and capers, and garlic shrimp linguine ($39.99).

“I just love the chicken gnocchi,” she says. “I have some fish, surf and turf, jumbo shrimp and chicken. And of course, I have eggplant (parmesan linguine) for people who don’t want to eat meat.”

“If you want something with a kick and you like clams and seafood, the seafood fra diavolo is very good,” adds Masiclat, referring to the dish that comprises spicy San Marzano marinara, shrimp, clams, mussels, garlic, and basil.

Other entrees include a 12-ounce herb-crusted prime rib-eye ($50.99), king salmon ($38.99) and surf and turf ($59.99). The latter features a 12-ounce, herb-crusted prime rib-eye and sauteed jumbo shrimp scampi served with au jus and horseradish, along with garlic butter mashed potatoes.

“We have a good, well-tested Italian menu,” Masiclat says. “When it comes to appetizers, there are some things we’re going to be adding.”

If there’s one thing Uao has learned from nearly two decades in the restaurant industry, it’s the importance of listening to customer feedback.

“We have definitely listened to the community and what the community wants,” Masiclat says. “With Jessica’s experience in the restaurant industry, we really take that feedback to heart. We work with our chef to give everybody what they’re looking for. That’s one of the biggest things that helps us continue to move forward — just being open minded with the community, what they want and what they’re looking for.”

At the time of our interview, the business was still waiting for its restaurant sign. The space has been in the works for about five months, according to Masiclat. The eatery is also is still waiting for its liquor license, and once it gets it, it will feature a late-night bar menu. The restaurant aims to be open until 2 a.m.

“There’s not really anywhere in Kapolei for late-night options,” Masiclat says. “Probably the closest would be somewhere in Waipahu for a late-night spot. More than likely, we’re going to be serving food up until 10 p.m. and then we’ll have a full-on pūpū menu past 10 p.m. Folks can enjoy karaoke, live music — there’s so many possibilities here, in comparison to the very little space that we had in ‘Aiea.

“Jessica has definitely been very successful with her menu,” he adds. “The atmosphere and environment that we have here is going to be so much better.”

The restaurant is currently open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. For updates, follow the business on 

Jessicas Restaurant owner 091226

<title>Jessica’s Restaurant is now open in Kapolei</title>

The business, known for its local-style Filipino comfort foods, recently moved from ʻAiea to Kapolei. Jessica’s Restaurant has added Italian dishes — ranging from chicken fettucine alfredo to garlic shrimp linguine — to its menu, and plans to eventually open until 2 a.m.

Jessica’s Restaurant is now open in Kapolei

 — which has locations in Japan and California — is bringing is signature Japanese kissaten-style café experience to Honolulu for a limited time.

The pop-up will be open to the public starting at 10 a.m. Aug. 13, according to Takuma Lathrop, president of Dining Innovation West. It’s located in an enclosed section of TsuruTonTan, which is located in Royal Hawaiian Center.

“We’re friends with the owners of the brand in Japan,” says Lathrop. “They opened in California and we went to check it out; we started talking about the possibility of partnering up.”

Right now, there is no set end date for the pop-up, but Lathrop says it should be open for at least one month. To start, the pop-up will be open to the first 60 customers — no reservations accepted; first-come, first-served — but Lathrop says its hours will eventually be extended.

“As soon as we feel more comfortable to handle more people, we’ll get to a point where there won’t be a limit,” he says. “We just want to make sure we are making the best possible dishes correctly so everyone can enjoy the taste.”

Takagi Coffee is known for its handcrafted, made-to-order souffle pancakes and freshly roasted coffee. The Honolulu pop-up’s menu is more limited, compared to the brand’s California and Japan locations, but will still feature signature dishes, according to Lathrop.

The coffee menu features a house blend ($5), cold brew ($6) and lattes ($7). Customers can also choose from several hot or iced matcha lattes ($7-$9). The matcha cream ($2 add-on) comes highly recommended for the iced matcha lattes.

Souffle pancakes come with toppings like strawberry, mango and matcha (two pieces for $17, four pieces for $22). In addition to your fruit of choice, pancakes are topped with whipped cream, cookie crumbles and vanilla ice cream.

A savory option (two pieces for $18, three pieces for $23) — topped with thick-cut bacon, sunny side-up eggs and hollandaise — is also available. 

“Personally, I like savory things; the savory pancake is really good,” Lathrop says. “It’s surprisingly very hearty and good for people who aren’t super into sweets.”

The pop-up also features Yoshoku (Japanese-style Western dishes) plates, which are served with miso soup.

Choose from omurice ($19), tonkatsu with rice ($20) and wagyu hamburger steak ($22).

The omurice features a more traditional version, according to Lathrop. The Japanese tomato-flavored rice comprises bacon, onions and mushrooms, and is enrobed with a fluffy egg and topped with demi-glace sauce.

The hamburger steak features American wagyu beef and is served with rice and miso soup. The demi-glace is served on the side, so customers can add as much or as little as they want.

Customers can opt for the tonkatsu plate or the katsu sando ($16), which features pork cutlet, veggies, mustard mayonnaise and katsu sauce between pieces of Japanese bread. It’s served with wedge fries on the side.

Customers can also look forward to Japanese-style parfaits ($13), which are layered with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, cornflakes and more.

[{"type":"text","text":"Choose from matcha, fresh strawberries and coffee jelly."}]

The pop-up might add dishes to the menu as time goes on, according to Lathrop, who encourages customers to follow the business on Instagram for updates.

“It’s simple dishes, but executed with very high-quality ingredients,” he says. “Because we’re slowly rolling out, we want to make sure that we can give everybody a good experience.”

Open from 10 a.m. Aug. 13; limited to 60 customers per day (to start)

Takagi Coffee Takuma Lathrop 081026

<title>Takagi Coffee is a new Japanese-style cafe pop-up in Honolulu</title>

The pop-up is opening to the public on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 10 a.m. It’s within Royal Hawaiian Center’s TsuruTonTan, and for the first few days, the pop-up will be limited to the first 60 customers. Takagi Coffee is serving up sweet and savory Japanese souffle pancakes, omurice, wagyu hamburger steak and layered parfaits.

Takagi Coffee is a new Japanese-style cafe pop-up in Honolulu

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Hawai‘i’s high cost of living is driving more people to consider leaving the Islands, a new survey from 

The Honolulu-based nonprofit, which works to make Hawai‘i more affordable for working families, recently released the results of its second annual Hawai‘i Affordability Survey.

AE Consulting surveyed employees at 25 local for-profit, nonprofit and public organizations that serve a wide range of sectors. More than 3,200 residents — 63% of whom are lifetime residents and 19% of whom have lived in the Islands for more than 20 years — participated.

According to the survey, 29% of respondents believe they'll have relocate to a less expensive state in the future while 46% are unsure if they will. In 2024, those numbers were 26% and 44%, respectively.

Households earning more than $150,000 annually are less likely to say they plan to move away while households below that threshold are more likely to do so.

“In 2024, the decrease in the likelihood that a household will relocate began at the $100,000 mark, suggesting that, in the year since, Hawai‘i’s cost of living pressures have further encroached on higher income brackets,” the survey notes.

, the most surprising result from the survey was “how significantly

the ‘danger zone’ for leaving Hawai‘i has expanded into higher income brackets,” he told Aloha State Daily in an emailed response to questions.

“Last year, we saw financial pressure easing for households earning over $100,000. This year, that threshold jumped to $150,000,” he explained. “It was surprising to see that even households earning between $100,000 and $150,000 are now just as likely to consider leaving as those earning less. It’s a stark wake-up call that the cost-of-living crisis is no longer just about ‘making ends meet,’ but is destabilizing established, middle-income professionals who many likely assumed were secure.”

Here are some more findings from the survey:

The survey also measured what residents want and their confidence in local institutions like government, labor unions, the business community, nonprofits and the public school system.

Wisch told ASD that Holomua Collective launched the survey to capture “hard data on the real-world experiences” of the state’s workforce.

“While we all know the cost of living is high, we need to understand exactly who is struggling, why they are considering leaving and what specific changes would actually convince them to stay,” he says.

This is the nonprofit’s second annual survey. Wisch says the goal was to reach a broad cross-section of local workers.

“What last year’s survey revealed — and this year’s survey confirmed — is that local cost-of-living challenges are hurting not just those we already knew were in crisis, but also the middle- and upper-middle-income families that form so much of our tax base,” he continued. “By gathering responses from over 3,200 workers across all counties and industries, we can provide policymakers and community leaders with a clearer picture of the problems rather than just guessing at solutions.”

The goal, says Wisch, is to use the data to drive action.

“We want to diagnose both the symptoms and the root causes of our affordability crisis so we can build advocacy around evidence-based solutions,” he says. “Specifically, we are using these findings to clarify priorities, inform policy and foster collaboration.”

There’s no silver bullet, though, when it comes to addressing the top three priorities identified by those surveyed: housing affordability, better wages and general economic stability, Wisch says. But there are “many individual opportunities to limit the burden.”

“On the housing front, we need to focus on housing that is dedicated to local workers. The market is currently priced for offshore investors rather than local incomes,” he says. “We need to build and preserve a housing stock specifically for residents who live and work here.

“We also need to look at the cost of doing business and the cost of living as two sides of the same coin. We need to simultaneously support policies that let local workers keep more of their paycheck, help local businesses thrive so they can afford to pay the higher wages our residents need and get local workers access to opportunities and programs to assist them in developing the skills they need to grow in their careers.

According to Wisch, Holomua Collective was founded in 2022 by a group of local business and nonprofit leaders concerned that many employees and families were relocating to the Mainland, despite offering competitive wages and strong benefit packages.

“They saw the need for an organization dedicated to keeping all local working families in Hawai‘i by making sure they can afford to stay,” he says. “We were created to address these long-standing systemic affordability challenges with a fresh, collaborative approach.”

 include Chair Mike Pietsch, president and chief operating officer of Title Guaranty; Jason Fujimoto, president and CEO of 

, CEO of Parker Ranch; Brandon Kurisu, president of aio Family of Companies; Brad Nicolai, president of JN Group; and Sunshine Topping, Hawai‘i lead of The Omidyar Group. An advisory committee includes Joshua Feldman, president and CEO of Tori Richard; Brittany Heyd, co-founder of Mana Up; Alicia Moy, president and CEO of Hawai‘i Gas; and Ed Shultz, president and CEO of Hawaiian Host Group.

 filed in 2024, the nonprofit had total revenues of about $1.88 million in 2023.

Oahu neighborhoods homes i Stock

<title>New survey says more people are considering leaving Hawai‘i</title>

Honolulu-based nonprofit Holomua Collective — which works to make Hawai‘i more affordable for working families — recently released the results of its second annual Hawai‘i Affordability Survey.

New survey says more people are considering leaving Hawai‘i

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

The National Science Foundation revealed Friday that it will not fund the Thirty Meter Telescope project on Maunakea, leaving the future of the project in jeopardy.

On Friday, NSF published a Congressional 

 for the 2026 fiscal year which briefly mentioned that the federal agency has removed TMT from consideration for funding for its U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Project.

The agency had announced in 2024 that it could only feasibly fund one of two large-scale telescope projects: either TMT on Maunakea, or the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.

The Friday announcement leaves $1.6 billion off the table for TMT, which TMT officials had 

 is essential for the completion of the project.

TMT project manager Fengchuan Liu said in a statement Monday that TMT is “disappointed” in NSF’s decision but still imagined a scenario where the project can receive federal funds.

“We remain firmly committed to finding a path forward for TMT,” Liu said in his statement. “We can imagine a future in which NSF participation in the TMT would open opportunities for significant discovery to the entire U.S. science community, and welcome further conversations to make this a reality.”

While the budget request does not shed much light on NSF’s decision to reject TMT — it devotes all of one paragraph to the Extremely Large Telescope project — the decision was informed by the findings of a 2024 panel evaluating both projects.

The panel was made up of four science advisors: Persis Drell, former director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California; Kelvin Droegemeier, former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Rick Farnsworth, former associate director of the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory; and James Hurrell, former director of the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research.

 was published Dec. 2024. While the report doesn’t make any explicit recommendations, it does highlight some key deficiencies in the TMT project that may have ruled it out.

Critically, the evaluation notes that site access on Maunakea is a key risk to the entire project, and that being unable to build on the summit would be “an existential threat” to the entire enterprise.

The question of access has loomed over the project for decades. In 2019, Native Hawaiian protestors, in an effort to protect the mountain from further industrial development, camped for months at the Maunakea Access Road, leading to multiple standoffs with police and the arrest of 33 kūpuna.

While TMT has named the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands as a possible alternate site, the evaluation determined that contingency has not been developed to the same level as the Maunakea plans.

“If it became apparent Maunakea was not going to be available, (TMT) would switch to adapting plans for TMT to the Canary Islands site,” the evaluation read. “There was no timeline associated with these decision points … The panel finds (TMT’s) mitigation strategy for this risk, taken as a whole, to be inadequate.”

The backlash by Native Hawaiians to TMT may have had another unexpected impact on the panel’s findings. The panel evaluated both projects’ ability to offer educational outreach programs from K-12 all the way to graduate programs.

But while GMT’s offerings involve universities and organizations in both the U.S. and Chile, TMT’s outreach programs are “almost exclusively focused on Indigenous Hawaiian populations.”

The evaluation stated that TMT would be best served to expand its outreach efforts as quickly as possible to jurisdictions beyond Hawai‘i.

The panel’s report concludes by setting out both projects’ strengths and weaknesses, and advising the NSF director to “optimize the use of taxpayer funding to ensure that both projects have the opportunity to succeed.”

That said, whether it was the director’s decision to cut TMT out of the budget is unclear: the NSF directorship is vacant, prior director Sethuraman Panchanathan having resigned in April.

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Hawaiʻi Skies: O’ahu Skies

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