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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"The slowest stalking attack ever....."}]

Smile 26 3 22

<title>Daily Smile: Sunday, March 22, 2026</title>

The slowest stalking attack ever.....

Daily Smile: Sunday, March 22, 2026

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Arts & Entertainment

In the 37 years since he moved to Maui, Chuck Bergson, president, CEO and director of Pacific Media Group, says the Hawai‘i media company has grown from "a little, one-radio station you can only really hear in West Maui" to 21 stations across the Islands and a handful of other mediums and platforms.

Its evolution continues with the recent launch of 

, a new network that offers podcasts, social media shorts, YouTube shows and local documentaries, bringing new media platforms together with legacy media.

Radio has always been the core of the business, Bergson told Aloha State Daily during a recent interview at the company's Downtown Honolulu offices.

"But we saw early on that the world was changing, the media landscape is changing, so you have to change with it. You've got to evolve," he says.

Today, Bergson says PMG has four radio stations in Honolulu, six on Maui, five on Kaua‘i and six on Hawai‘i Island — including three in Hilo and three in Kona; offers the digital news sites 

, and advertising at most of Hawai‘i's airports; bought the Maui Visitor Channel and Scenic Hawai‘i; and also publishes visitor guidebooks for the state as well as Maui, Hawai‘i Island, Kaua‘i and O‘ahu.

Bergson compares the newest evolution to a rainbow: at the beginning, he says, are "these wonderful legacy media platforms, and as the world changes and you start to go over the rainbow, you get to the top of the rainbow, and that's where we're now looking to modernize and evolve into this new media environment and ecosystem."

And when you bring legacy media together with new media, "then you have something really special. That's the pot of gold at the end. So that's where we are today."

"There was a great opportunity because it's all kind of happening all around Hawai‘i in little spurts," Josh 

, head of creative content for PMG, told ASD. "You've got podcasts, which I've been a part of, ... and you've got social media, and you've got all of these influencers. It's kind of all there, but no one has really put them together in a space and led from the front. When Chuck started talking about maybe this project we could do, the idea was that there's over 30 years of experience and strength in media through Pacific Media Group. What better way than to do this new project with that grounding?"

As the tagline of its website notes, CULTURE offers content that "moves Hawai‘i forward." And 

 says it all starts with Hawai‘i itself.

"Pacific Media Group has always been about Hawai‘i. It's a company from Hawai‘i for Hawai‘i," he says. "There's no one from the Mainland calling the shots. It's Chuck from Maui. The staff here is from here. That was very interesting, where it was like 'Hey, we're here working to present to the world the stories of Hawai‘i and so the idea was [to] create content that we could produce at a high level, we could then distribute it on YouTube, all the podcasts on all platforms, and then we could create content."

 says the radio used to be the center of communication.

"It told you what was cool, who's the new artist, where's the new concert or event, and since technology has progressed, a lot of that has been dispersed, so why not have the radio stations bring that all together?"

There are three original podcasts made for the CULTURE network: Santo Loco, Sugar Caddy and TRXTR. Original podcasts are "podcasts of people, content that we believe in," 

 says, noting that PMG does the full production. There are two affiliate podcasts as well, which are partner shows carried by CULTURE: Mike Kai Podcast and Headliners Hawai‘i.

"With those five podcasts that we've started on, we feel we have a good base," 

 says. "... There's something for everyone, whether it's entertainment or its mindset, business, golf, sports, whatever it is, we feel like these five wrap a lot of that together and I'm sure we're looking to grow that shortly, as well."

One of the new YouTube shows is "Listening Party," which he compared to a "more artistic" version of NPR's 

"Back to that [idea of] breaking new artists and helping artists get their music out, we do the full production of a live, invite-only event, and the artist plays their music, and as they're playing, they're explaining the thoughts and theories behind it," 

 explains. "They bring up other songwriters, producers, engineers, and they can stop, restart, they can say, 'Hey, this is what it used to sound like.' It's really the craft behind the music so people get to know them well."

The debut episode featuring singer-songwriter 

Another is Behind the Scenes: On Tour, which will take viewers behind the scenes of local artists on tour. Featured first will be a look at tour life with Johnny Suite and the Green. 

"These are everyday local guys that's going to be at Red Rock and they're going to be in Vegas and they're going to be in Washington, and what does it look like to sell out 10,000 people, because these bands are doing that," Duhaylonsod says. "How does that feel? And it should ignite that next generation to go, 'We can do that. We're from right here.' I think that's another testament to what Pacific Media Group is doing here. When you see our content, you should be inspired and you should want to go and be bigger than yourself, and that's what CULTURE is."

Duhaylonsod says the initiative is unique in that it bridges the gap between radio and "what's happening now." The radio's distribution size can also be leveraged to promote the local acts.

"If you just do your own podcast, it's you, your mom and all your family and a couple of friends," he says. "[If] you're doing a podcast with us, it's a massive network behind you."

"Really, what we're trying to do across the board is elevate people — elevate the artists, elevate the podcasters," Bergson says. "There's a lot of talented people that can create things and where the void tends to be in a lot of cases is distribution. How do you get distribution? How do you get it seen? How do you get it heard? So we're trying to do these things with the idea of elevating people. Let's bring them up, bring them along, give them some support, and help that all feed together and complement. With all of us working together to promote things of Hawai‘i through different platforms and different mediums, and talking about different things culturally, to me it's a winning combination. I think not only will the people who live here understand and appreciate it, but the people who love Hawai‘i and value Hawai‘i will enjoy and help us perpetuate this."

CULTURE by PMG brand hero

<title>Pacific Media Group launches 'Culture'</title>

CULTURE by Pacific Media Group offers up local podcasts, social media shorts, YouTube shows and documentaries, bringing new media platforms together with legacy media.

Pacific Media Group launches 'Culture'

WEB square crop Hayley Lehman Headshot RGZ1636

Haley Lehman

Aloha Spirit

[{"type":"text","text":"Honolulu Hiking Club has taken over Shilo Garner’s life."}]

Garner’s passion for hiking started when he was a teenager growing up in 

and utilizing the TheBus to explore the island with his friends.

“We’d just be little rascals out all day,” he said.

They’d explore Waimano Valley and take a dip in Waimano Falls when it was too hot to skateboard. Even the shortcut he’d take to school was an adventure.

Garner worked in graphic design and fashion production in San Francisco and New York before moving home in 2022. While on Oʻahu he frequently hiked with his mom, but he was looking for friends who shared his passion and could commit to weekly hikes.

He recalled thinking on a solo hike, “Man, I can’t be the only one who thinks this. There has to be other people who have the same issue as me. What if I try to gather all these like-minded people to hike with each other?” 

Garner knew firsthand how skateboarding builds community and wanted to emulate that among hikers.

“Skateboarders come from all different backgrounds, but once you’re at the skatepark and skating, you’re all meshed together,” he said. “No matter where you come from, that’s the middle ground.”

Garner wanted to give back to Hawaiʻi and in 2024, 

His friends came out to support the new club on the first couple hikes near Honolulu, such as the ʻAiea Loop Trail. When he hosted the third hike in Hauʻula, only two people showed.

“That was a daunting moment,” Garner said, adding that it made him question whether this passion project was worth it.

Things changed for Honolulu Hiking Club when 10 new people came on a hike to a waterfall. Garner called it “nerve-wracking,” and said it made him more conscious of keeping people safe and taking care of the trail.

Over the last couple of years, the club has grown exponentially and along with it, Garner’s mission.

“At first, it was to create a community that I could hike with,” he said. “I think now the mission is to create a safe place for people to come and respect and enjoy Hawaiʻi outdoors in the best, pono, respectable way there is.”

Hikers have also planned unofficial excursions to Haleakalā on Maui and Kalalau Trail on Kauaʻi’s Na Pali Coast last year, and the club kicked off official quarterly backpacking trips this year. Garner hopes to expand the backpacking trips to the Mainland and international locations.

Kalalau Trail is Garner’s favorite hike. He called it “a magical place,” and said that the isolation breeds camaraderie among hikers.

Garner does not pin trails online and said that social media has led to a “false sense of do-ability” and “overconsumption” on trails that risk damage to the trails and injuries to hikers.

Honolulu Hiking Club meets Sundays at 9:30 a.m. for an easy to moderate hike. Interested participants can RSVP via a text chain to get information on where to meet the group. The club hosts day-long, strenuous hikes two Saturdays a month and sunset hikes with a smaller group on Wednesday evenings. Garner hopes that the club has something for everyone, from easy hikes to “insane terrain.”

Another goal Garner has for Honolulu Hiking Club is to educate hikers on recreating responsibly and sustainability.

“It (Honolulu Hiking Club) just created this kuleana naturally,” he said.

He aims to keep building community and pride in Hawaiʻi for future hikes led by the club.

“My hope is that people leave a Honolulu Hiking Club outing with more than photos — that they leave with new friendships, a deeper connection to Hawaiʻi, and a stronger sense of responsibility for the places we’re fortunate to experience together,” Garner said. “That’s the kind of community I want to keep building.”

Garner on a rock

<title>Honolulu Hiking Club founder combines recreation with respect and community</title>

Shilo Garner founded Honolulu Hiking Club in 2024 to build community among outdoor recreationists. Today, he wants hikers to take home a sense of pride and responsibility for the beauty of Hawaiʻi.

Honolulu Hiking Club founder combines recreation with respect and community

[{"type":"text","text":"Just trying to figure things out....."}]

Smile 26 9 16 2

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026</title>

Just trying to figure things out.....

Daily Smile: Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawai‘i History

Columnists

If you have ever worked in Māpunapuna, you may have wondered why the area seems to flood so easily.

[{"type":"text","text":"The simple answer is that water has not forgotten where it used to go."}]

Long before warehouses, auto dealerships, and busy streets covered the area, Māpunapuna was a low-lying landscape of wetlands, shallow lagoons, and fishponds. The coastal plain between Moanalua and Keʻehi Lagoon was shaped by both freshwater flowing from the mountains and the movement of the ocean. It was an environment well suited to the Hawaiian system of aquaculture, in which fishponds, wetlands, streams, and agricultural lands worked together to provide food for the people. A bustling landscape where people lived and worked for generations.

In the 1920s, maps of the area showed 13 loko i‘a (fishponds) covering more than 800 acres, along with extensive marshland, shallow lagoons, and other lowlands. That landscape began to change as Honolulu expanded. The Māpunapuna Industrial Subdivision was developed by the Damon Estate during the 1940s and 1950s. Wetlands were drained, fishponds were filled, and the low-lying coastal plain was gradually transformed into land suitable for roads, buildings, warehouses, and industry.

Much of the material used to fill the wetlands was coral dredged from Keʻehi Lagoon along with soil, rock, trash, and organic material. The shallow ponds and marshes that had once absorbed and held water were transformed into solid ground for roads, warehouses, businesses, and eventually the industrial district we know today.

The former wetlands once provided space for water to collect, spread out, and slowly drain toward the ocean. But once those areas were filled and covered with pavement and buildings, much of that natural water storage disappeared. Over the decades, the fill itself has compacted and settled. Some parts of Māpunapuna have sunk several feet, leaving portions of the industrial district at or below sea level during high tides.

There is another problem. During high-tide events, seawater can push back through the drainage system rather than flowing harmlessly out to sea. During heavy rain, enormous quantities of stormwater are moving through the same low-lying system. When high tide and heavy rain arrive together, the drainage system has nowhere to put all that water easily. The result is the familiar flooding of streets and parking lots.

So when Māpunapuna floods, it is not simply a modern drainage problem. It is the consequence of building an industrial neighborhood on a landscape that was designed by nature, and carefully used by generations of Hawaiians, to hold water.

When we say “the water remembers,” we mean that water has a way of returning to the places where it once flowed. We may change the landscape, fill the ponds, and build over the wetlands, but the water has not forgotten.

As the water remembers where it once flowed, perhaps the land remembers who once walked across it. Before Māpunapuna became an industrial district, these lowlands were part of a much older Hawaiian landscape. In that older landscape, we begin to encounter another kind of story. Stories of shadowy figures that would scare workers and customers. Tales of the huakaʻi pō, the night marchers, whose processions are said to continue along ancient paths even after the world around them has been transformed.

People used to talk all the time about the old 99 Ranch Market being haunted. Many have said that the night marchers used to walk right through the massive grocery store and indoor Chinatown, leaving a mess of furniture in their wake. It’s where the Home Depot is now.

My hānai brother Paul worked at the old Gibsons in Māpunapuna. Not in the store as a clerk, because he didn’t have the demeanor for it. He worked in the warehouse, bringing all the needed items out to stock the floor.

Paul said that the floor in the main part of the store would always sink, no matter how many times it was repaired and filled in. Rumors circulated that night marchers entered through an opening in the earth a few blocks away, walked right through the store, and exited where the floor sank in the middle of Gibson’s store. Employees also said they would see shadows and apparitions floating past customers as if they weren’t there. As a kid, I found it funny because I could imagine a customer losing their mind after seeing a ghost float right past them in a random aisle.

“I feel sorry for whoever gotta do inventory at night,” he’d shake his head. “Hopefully, they don’t have to work by themselves.”

He said that sometimes you got the feeling you weren’t alone, and it felt like a lot of people were pressed up against you. The experience made it hard to breathe, even though you could physically see there was nothing there. Paul would rub the crucifix on his necklace and pray the Our Father again and again, asking for protection.

His most traumatic experience came when his shift was over, and the sun had not set. He clocked out, walked to the parking lot, put the key in the ignition, and put his old Pontiac in gear.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Paulito,” the voice whispered in his ear. “Don’t go home yet.”"}]

My brother said he jumped out of the car and backed away, his heart pounding and his mind racing. The car was still running, but it began smoking for no reason, and suddenly, the radiator blew, spewing hot liquid all over the place.

Despite his Catholic upbringing, Paul attributed the warning to whatever presence was trying to make itself known in the warehouse and store.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I knew they weren’t trying to harm us,” Paul said."}]

But the spiritual activity was still too much to bear, so he planned to quit and work with our father at Easy Appliance. But that’s another story.

Mapunapuna

<title>The Forgotten Landscape of Mapunapuna</title>

Tides and rain, time and spirits converge in this now-industrial area mauka of the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Here is the true history of a region shaped first by nature and then by two different cultures in two different eras, where traces remain of days and people long past.

The Forgotten Landscape of Mapunapuna

Government & Politics

Carmen Guzman-Simpliciano and her husband, Joseph Simplicano Jr., have seen it all at 

Kūʻīlioloa Heiau in Waiʻanae from a lack of educational signs to 

people taking inappropriate photos, riding dirt bikes around it, littering, feeding a cat colony, starting fires, climbing and 

“To other people, they’re going to think, ‘Oh it’s just stones.’ No,” Guzman-Simpliciano said. “It’s a cultural site.”

Guzman-Simpliciano and Simpliciano are co-founders of the nonprofit 

 and have been stewarding Kūʻīlioloa Heiau located in the Pōkaʻī Bay Beach Park since the nonprofit was created in 2021.

Kūʻīlioloa Heiau is a navigational heiau named after a demigod dog, Ku, that protected travelers. The Royal Order of Kamehameha I, 

, and the Aila ʻohana also steward the site.

Kingdom Pathways aims to demonstrate mauka to makai stewardship through water testing, improving the jetty wall, advocating for amended Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules at Pōkaʻī Bay, supporting community health, among other initiatives. At Pōkaʻī Bay, Kingdom Pathways teach keiki and community members about native plants, protecting the ʻāina and proper protocols for when one enters a heiau. The nonprofit has replanted native species when shrubbery was destroyed and rebuilt a section of the heiau when an individual removed stones. The Waiʻanae community uses the Pōkaʻī Bay Beach Park for community and cultural events like Lā Kūʻokoʻa and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea.

For Simpliciano, stewarding cultural sites like the Kūʻīlioloa Heiau is crime prevention.

“Having these events and having these places around to be protected for future generations help to keep our community grounded,” he said. “Things like this give the kids and the community purpose." 

Guzman-Simpliciano and Simpliciano noticed what they called a “huge gap in caring for sensitive cultural sites” between cultural sites on state land versus in City and County of Honolulu public parks.

Guzman-Simpliciano said that Kingdom Pathways has been working with the city and state since they got started in 2021. She said it was hard work to get all the necessary city and state departments at a table to discuss cultural stewardship at Pōkaʻī Bay.

“We need like a blueprint,” she said. “There’s other spaces that need protection as well, not just Pōkaʻī Bay.”

She wrote a proposal to Councilmember Andria Tupola to streamline partnerships between groups stewarding cultural sites and the city. Tupola sponsored Bill 31, which passed on Sept. 9 and is headed to the mayor’s desk.

Tupola said at the City Council meeting in July that she introduced the bill in response to I continued vandalism at the site.

“The bill itself is for us to strengthen how we treat these sites in our city and county parks,” Tupola said.

HPD Regional Patrol Bureau Acting Assistant Chief Gail Beckley

 stated in an email Tuesday that HPD has not documented damage-type reports to the heiau at Pōkaʻī Bay between January 2025 to the present, but has responded to damage reports in the bathroom area and to the playground equipment.

Guzman-Simpliciano said she hopes that it saves other organizations the work and time that she put into coordinating with the city and state and makes the process easier.

 adds “stewardship” of cultural sites to the Department of Parks and Recreation public parks program. DPR can approve or deny applications by individuals or groups to help steward a cultural site. People apply with their qualifications and a draft stewardship plan, which can include the boundaries of the cultural site, the identification of allowed and prohibited activities, cultural access protocols, and identification of signage or educational programs to implement. The department and cultural stewards will work with the Oʻahu historic preservation commission, the state historic preservation division, cultural practitioners and appropriate state or city agencies to develop the stewardship plan for the cultural site.

For Guzman-Simpliciano, this was her way to huli, or change, the system.

“My vision was to get in the system and work within that system,” she said. “That’s why we’re called Kingdom Pathways, we’re in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, and we as Native Hawaiians to find pathways within the state and find a better way for our people so they don’t have to keep protesting, and finding solutions.”

Simpliciano said that they work with aloha and hope to set an example for the next generation.

Applications to participate in the program should include community stakeholders and the department will review the applicant’s experience with community engagement, according to the bill.

Guzman-Simpliciano said that cultural stewardship includes a whole community, and cultural stewardship plans should be inclusive of that.

“We encourage the council to ensure that stewardship plans reflect a shared community vision, not solely the perspective of one adopter or organization,” she said. “It shouldn’t be one person’s opinion about what that place should look like.”

When there was controversy over the name of the heiau, Kingdom Pathways went to the local neighborhood board parks committee for community input. They landed on Kūʻīlioloa Heiau rather than Kaneʻīlioloa Heiau to reflect the name documented in the Bishop Museum and told in stories by their kūpuna.

Adam Wayson, one of the directors of Malama Rising, got involved at the Mauna Lahilahi Cultural Garden in Waiʻanae in 2020.

He said that the nonprofit’s involvement “came out of the city’s neglect to properly manage its spaces.” There was an encampment of about 100 homeless people, and the community has come together to clean up the area, restore native plants and advocate to improve stewardship of the park alongside the city.

The Mauna Lahilahi Cultural Garden is home to a heiau, petroglyphs, archeological findings and iwi kūpuna, according to Wayson.

Wayson told ASD that the bill aligns with Malama Rising’s mission and he appreciates the effort to include cultural preservation by the city, but he has his reservations. 

“We got into this because the city and county and state neglected to do their jobs,” he said. “As nice as the bill looks on paper, talk is cheap because from my experience, it isn’t until the house is on fire that they aren’t willing to step in and do something.”

He said that the bill’s mandate that groups apply to be cultural stewards when they are already putting the hard work in may come off as insulting to some groups and gives the Department of Parks and Recreation too much power to approve or deny stewardship applications.

, sponsored by Tupola in March, states, “community-led stewardship, while commendable, should not be a substitute for the City’s responsibility to manage, invest in, and activate its public park lands in accordance with adopted plans, environmental approvals, cultural obligations, and established City practices for botanical and cultural gardens under the DPR.”

Kingdom Pathways

<title>Cultural nonprofit spearheads bill to 'huli the system'</title>

Stewards of the Kūʻīlioloa Heiau in Waiʻanae successfully advocated for Bill 31 to establish a framework for stewarding cultural sites around the island.

Cultural nonprofit spearheads bill to 'huli the system'

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

On Thursday morning, organizers of the Great Aloha Run held a press conference to announce the event's revival, as well as a few changes to the route of the race. 

The Great Aloha Run held its 41st edition in February 2025, with no race held in 2026. Led by the Affordable Hawai‘i Foundation, the event is being rebranded as the DoHo Great Aloha Run 5K, set to take place on President's Day 2027. 

revealed more about the Monday, Feb. 15 race. Prior editions of the event began at Aloha Tower and ended at Aloha Stadium, a stretch of 8.1 miles. 

Carole Kai Onoyue, who founded the Great Aloha Run in 1985, gave a glowing endorsement for the new direction of the event, which has raised over $20 million to 150 charities over the years. The emphasis towards charitable efforts ahead of the 2027 events will go towards homelessness and mental health.

Avalon Group CEO and Affordable Hawai‘i Foundation founder Christine Camp was on hand at Thursday's presser at 

Pickles at Forté —one of the Avalon Group's properties — to talk about the downtown focus of the route. "

We're featuring a lot of things related to the downtown business improvement district," said Camp. "In this run, we'll go through all of the beautiful businesses and the buildings in historic Chinatown, and it'll be a three-mile walk or run to enjoy the day, enjoying your downtown on the road, including Chinatown. … We hope that you will all come to join us."

The 2027 5K race is the equivalent of 3.1 miles and will go through portions of downtown Honolulu, beginning at Avalon Group's Topa Financial Center and ending on Fort Street. 

 set to open in the spring of 2029, Camp says she's discussed bringing the race's finish line back to Hālawa in 2030 with stadium developer 

For the time being, some believe the shortened trail will attract more runners. 

"I think the fact that this is a 5K race now will open it up to a whole new group of runners or walkers," said Andy Sugg, chief of staff for the City and County of Honolulu. (A distance of 8.1 miles) is a pretty good race, and the race was fabulous. But I think it may have scared some folks off from running — 5K is 3.1 miles, and that will be really a great opportunity for folks who might not be hardcore runners who just want to go out for a little leisurely stroll on President's Day to get involved for a great cause, of course."

Registration for the 2027 Great Aloha Run is limited to the first 5,000 participants to sign up on the event's 

Daily Smile: Sunday, March 22, 2026

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