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[{"type":"text","text":"There are two different types of bulldogs...."}]

Smile 26 4 15

<title>Daily Smile: Wednesday, April 15, 2026</title>

There are two different types of bulldogs....

Daily Smile: Wednesday, April 15, 2026

 There are two different types of bulldogs....

WEB square crop Hayley Lehman Headshot RGZ1636

Haley Lehman

Government & Politics

Crime & Courts

Two new deputy police chiefs were promoted and sworn into their respective roles during a ceremony at the Honolulu Hale Friday morning. Deputy Chiefs Brandon Nakasato and Parker Bode told Aloha State Daily that they’re excited to support Honolulu Police Department staff and utilize technology to make officer’s jobs safer and more efficient.

Police officers, city officials and councilmembers, and family and friends of the deputy chiefs filled the Honolulu Hale courtyard. Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Chief Justice Vladimir Devens administered the oath to Nakasato and Bode.

After two months on the job, Chief David Lazar 

 Nakasato and Bode to their respective roles on Aug. 31.

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi applauded Lazar’s decision to appoint Nakasato and Bode, saying “that kind of decisiveness is going to serve us well.”

Public safety is one of Blangiardi’s top priorities, he said during the ceremony.

“People need to feel safe. They want to feel safe,” he said. “They need to feel that somebody is out there when they need it, and the police department leads the way on that, each and every day, each and every night, seven days a week, so having great leadership at the helm makes all the difference.”

Honolulu Police Commission Chair Laurie Foster shared the Nakasato and Bode are exactly the leaders that Lazar was looking for: forward thinking, creative, innovative, strategic, practical, humble, honest, leaders that are willing to challenge the status quo and leaders that listen and learn.

Lazar said during the ceremony that Nakasato and Bode stood out as leaders when he arrived at HPD in July, Nakasato for his forward thinking, quick action, problem solving skills, and strong convictions, and Bode for his resourcefulness, care for the staff and commitment to HPD’s mission.

Nakasato, who oversees field operations, grew up in Kalihi, attended University Laboratory School and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He worked as a valet at Hawaiian Regent Hotel before joining HPD 27 years ago. He most recently served as interim deputy chief.

Bode, who oversees administrative operations, became the youngest deputy chief in modern history at age 39, according to Lazar. Bode is the son of a retired HPD major Ron Bode and grew up in Kāneʻohe. He attended Kamehameha Schools before earning his bachelor’s degree from Pacific University in Oregon and his master’s degree from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He joined HPD in 2010 and recently served as Lazar’s chief of staff.

Lazar said that Nakasato and Bode are known for caring about the rank-and-file members of the department. Bode recently partnered with officers to obtain childcare for all of HPD’s members and spent last weekend mentoring prospective sergeant candidates, Lazar said.

Nakasato and Bode both emphasized to ASD the need to support department staff.

“For me it’s about supporting our people,” Bode said, adding that the better the department supports their staff, the better the staff will do their jobs in service to the community.

Nakasato said that he wants to get officers the right tools to do their jobs, and that utilizing technology can make their jobs more efficient and safer. He pointed to the Drone as First Responder program, a pilot program 

 in August to respond to certain incidents ahead of officers, and an 

 that allows the public to view incidents police are responding to.

Recruitment and retention remain challenges for the department, Bode said.

Lazar said during a press conference Thursday that the department recently hired 66 officers with recruits in training to graduate later this month but is still nearly 300 officers below the mandated 2,177 sworn officers.

 that HPD would shift 100 officers from duties throughout the department to patrol to get as many officers back on the road as possible and to reduce overtime.

HPD deputy chiefs 2

<title>Nakasato, Bode sworn in as HPD deputy chiefs</title>

Brandon Nakasato, who oversees field operations, and Parker Bode, who oversees administrative operations, were sworn in as deputy chiefs of Honolulu Police Department Friday morning at Honolulu Hale.

Nakasato, Bode sworn in as HPD deputy chiefs

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Real Estate

Doug Johnstone has led Ward Village's continued growth as president of developer Howard Hughes' Hawai‘i region, but a new promotion has him taking the national development stage.

While Johnstone will remain rooted in the Islands, continuing in the president role he's held since 2020, he also was recently named head of national development for Howard Hughes Communities.

"I've got the exciting position of taking a lot of what we've learned here, and ability to blend together team members and stakeholders in the different disciplines, and try to move forward projects and business plans that can be successful and complementary to the surrounding community," he told Aloha State Daily during an interview at his Ward Village office. "What I do here, and also in these other markets now, is try to assemble good, collaborative team members that can have the discipline that goes into underwriting, due diligence, creating the investment opportunity; working with leasing, sales, marketing, construction; and really trying to choreograph how to move these efforts forward and provide the financial analysis, the corporate reporting, the coordination that needs to happen to attract investment and ultimately move things forward and execute."

There's still a "tremendous amount of activity" happening in Honolulu with Ward Village, he says: four active projects under construction, a park underway, infrastructure work progressing, "so in Honolulu, a lot of emphasis on the execution of what we've been teeing up in recent years."

"In the post-Covid time period, a lot of what you're seeing underway now is from that continued planning and discipline and moving forward in the wake of volatility," he says. "In the last year or so, we've started to put some building blocks in place of how to move some higher-density for-sale residential projects forward in some of our other markets."

Howard Hughes Communities is the real estate platform of Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.; in addition to Ward Village, Summerlin and The Woodlands, its other assets include Bridgeland and The Woodlands Hills in the Houston area, Teravalis in greater Phoenix, and Merriweather District in Columbia, Maryland.

Johnstone isn't joking; there's plenty happening in Ward Village, which 

sold out its first eight mixed-use residential towers: Waiea, Anaha, Ae‘o, Ke Kilohana, ‘A‘ali‘i, Kō‘ula, Victoria Place and Ulana Ward Village.

New residential buildings in development or under construction include Kalae, The Launiu Ward Village, Melia Ward Village and ‘Ilima Ward Village.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Also in the past 18 months or so:"}]

Meanwhile, Ward Centre, which opened in 1982 and served the community for more than four decades, officially 

The ongoing demolition of the retail center will clear the way for 

Melia Ward Village and ‘Ilima Ward Village, 

[{"type":"text","text":"The developer broke ground on Melia and ‘Ilima late last month."}]

Ward Village marked a record year in 2025, with momentum driven by the launch of Melia Ward Village and ‘Ilima Ward Village earlier in the year.

In Hawai‘i last year, Howard Hughes contracted to sell 287 condos, which accounted for roughly $1.6 billion in future revenue, according to 

 from Howard Hughes Holdings published earlier this year. Of those pre-sales, 220 units were contracted at Melia and ‘Ilima.

What lessons will Johnstone take with him from Ward Village into his new role?

"What we've learned over time is the need to be both pioneering and practical in balancing those two things when it comes to dynamic design, but also having fundamentals that are needed to ultimately have something that is viable and can move forward," he told ASD. "Then also, a lot of what development entails is making thoughtful investments that ultimately have an incredible amount of operational intensity to them. A lot of it is establishing a game plan or a business plan on paper, but then you might spend the next six or seven years bringing that to fruition, and you can encounter both micro and macro volatility in the process, or events that you could never predict in the years prior."

But, Johnstone says, a lot of what really dictates the outcomes is how well you can navigate that as a team.

"One of the benefits of what we do at Howard Hughes is being able to take a bit more of a longer-term approach and be able to weather through some of those ups and downs, but also take the multi-year or multi-decade perspective of how what we're doing today is going to fit into a broader initiative for that overall market or masterplan."

Johnstone says the new role "complements and expands a bit of what my team here has been doing over the last 14 years."

"We've got some great colleagues that have matured over time and are taking on more and more responsibility, and a number of them are working together on some of the efforts in Summerlin and The Woodlands and Bridgeland, as an example," he explains. "It's trying to deploy some of these best practices of how we've been able to put forth a huge amount of progress in Ward Village. It's an exciting place to be to touch different markets and product types, but ultimately it's a lot of the same process and you're trying to scale it and empower team members and provide a level of consistency."

In the near-term, Johnstone says his goal is to get "everybody aligned to have that common north star of where you're going."

Johnstone, who born and raised in Honolulu, attended Punahou School and Stanford University. He joined the Ward Village team in 2012 and was named president of the Hawai‘i Region in 

As for the new position, he says it's inspiring for himself, the team and "hopefully a lot of folks progressing their careers here in Hawai‘i."

"We're really proud of the team and platform we've built here over the last 14, 15 years, both internally and externally, the careers that have grown up along with what we've been doing in Ward Village — from our own colleagues, but also on the contractor side, engineers, architects, attorneys. A lot of us have matured with this overall master plan and to be able to take some of that and try to have an impact with more people, more properties and communities, it's a great case study of what we could do here in Hawai‘i. Even though you're in the middle of the Pacific, a lot of new flexibility and opportunities are created by the world getting flatter, technology improving, a little bit more time on airplanes, but it's hopefully an inspiring thing for a lot of people that are working in the industry."

Being able to build and grow a career in Hawai‘i is "really fulfilling," Johnstone says.

While there are challenges to accomplish that, "I think that's something for a lot of early-stage career folks and a lot of accomplished students that come out of here to see it as a path that is possible with a huge amount of hard work, probably some luck in the process, but I think there's a level of optimism that hopefully we can express to folks that are trying to make it."

Doug Johnstone 2026

<title>Doug Johnstone promoted to national role with Howard Hughes Communities</title>

He'll continue in his role as president of the developer's Hawai‘i region where he's overseen the development of Ward Village since 2020.

Doug Johnstone promoted to national role with Howard Hughes Communities

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

Maui County has been airing its laundry in public for a week now. Mayor Richard Bissen faces a close race for reelection. He is in open conflict with his police chief, John Pelletier, whom the Maui Police Commission placed on leave last Wednesday.

Pelletier answered with a press conference. He said the mayor is under criminal investigation, and the suspension was payback.

The latest entry in the saga is a press release on County of Maui letterhead, with Mayor Richard Bissen’s name at the top of the masthead. It comes from the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, led by Andrew Martin. It is meant to settle the matter. Instead, it raises more questions than it answers about a county where all the rules seem to have been thrown out.

For those catching up: on Oct. 7, the Maui Police Commission voted 6-0 to place Pelletier on paid administrative leave.

Two days later, Pelletier sat down with his lawyer, Eric Seitz, for a 

. They maintain there was no factual or legal basis for the suspension. They say a lawsuit is coming. And they say they have proof that Bissen lobbied commissioners to remove the chief on two occasions: first last year, during the 

, which the commission declined to act on, and again now.

Pelletier and Seitz then named two criminal investigations of the mayor. These, they say, help explain the mayor’s effort to remove Pelletier.

The first concerns the allegations behind Leo Caires’s civil suit, filed in April. Pelletier called it a case of corruption, fraud and retaliation. Those claims were sent to the state attorney general.

The second is a new investigation by the Maui Police Department into a felony with the mayor as suspect. Pelletier would say little more. It began in August, he said. He had recused himself. Deputy Chief Wade Maeda was in charge. Seitz said they raised it because it bears on the mayor’s actions against the chief.

“People have been quiet about [Bissen] because they’re scared of retaliation,” Pelletier said. “If you’re going to do this to the police chief? No wonder they’re scared.”

Bissen says no one has told him he is under investigation for anything. He says he learned of the commission’s vote only after it was made. Commission Chair Frank Tam calls the claim that the mayor influenced the decision “

Enter Andrew Martin. The title of his press release is “Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin Refutes Claim that Mayor is Target of Criminal Investigation.”

The release walks through a timeline. Martin’s office opened a probe into county grant funds in January 2025. It worked the case jointly with the state attorney general. In March 2026 it handed the state sole say over any charges.

Martin says Pelletier broke a “fundamental tenet of criminal investigations” by naming a target in public before any arrest or charge. He says the chief “told the public something that is simply not true.”

The problem — which any first-year law student would spot — is that the headline and the body don’t add up. The headline refutes that the mayor 

 the target of criminal investigation. The body shows only that Bissen 

 the target of one investigation, back when Martin still ran it.

Plenty of agencies can run an investigation: county, state, and federal. Pelletier named two investigations. One is run by the attorney general’s office. The other is a felony case he says his own department opened in August.

Martin’s release addresses the first. It does not mention the second. And on the first, Martin says the mayor “was not” a target of an investigation whose charging decisions he gave up six months ago. What the state has done with it since is not his to say.

It is somewhat unusual for a chief prosecutor to display such a loose grip on the basics of how law enforcement works. But nothing about the Maui situation is usual.

“The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” So says Proverbs. The cases have been stated, but the examining has barely begun.

This much is on the record. Three weeks before the election, a police chief has been sidelined without a reason the public can judge. That chief says the sitting mayor is under two criminal investigations, one of them by his own department. And the prosecuting attorney, appointed by the mayor, has put out a release on county letterhead saying the mayor is not a target of one of them.

Though dated Oct. 13, as of this writing the press release still does not appear on the county’s 

The commission that removed the chief owes the public a plain statement of why. The prosecutor who wrote this press release owes the public precision. Say what your office knows, and stop there.

Officials who want to be trusted with power have to speak as if their words will be examined. They will be.

A government that cannot manage that much has already told voters something, whatever the letterhead says.

[{"type":"text","text":"Maui voters are left to sort out the mess. It gets messier every day."}]

Andrew Martin upscaled

<title>Maui’s Prosecutor Defends Mayor Bissen: What his press release leaves out</title>

Three weeks before the election, Maui’s prosecutor put out a statement defending the mayor. But read the body, not the headline. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa on what Andrew Martin’s release says once you look past its title.

Maui’s Prosecutor Defends Mayor Bissen: What his press release leaves out

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawai‘i History

Queen Emma was born on January 2, 1836, to Nā‘ea and Fanny Kekelaokalani Young. As was customary in Hawaiian society, she was raised in the hānai tradition, and much of her childhood was spent in the care of Fanny’s sister, Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young, and her husband, Thomas Charles Byde Rooke.

‘Emalani, as she was then known, grew up at Rooke House, which stood near the Waikīkī/makai corner of what are now Beretania and Nuʻuanu streets, where Mark’s Garage is now. Educated at the Royal School along with other children of ali‘i, and then taught by an English governess, Emma was fluent in both Hawaiian and English, was a skilled equestrian, and was an accomplished vocalist and pianist. 

In 1856, she married Alexander Liholiho, King Kamehameha IV, and two years later, gave birth to a son, Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli. By all accounts, the young prince brought a great deal of happiness to the King and Queen, and was beloved by the people of Hawai‘i. But it seems the happiness was not to last.

Succumbing to an unknown illness, Queen Emma’s only child died in 1862, at just four years old. After his death, the Queen was referred to as Kaleleokalani, meaning flight of the heavenly one. King Kamehameha IV, grief-stricken and feeling responsible for his son’s death, withdrew from public life. Suffering from chronic asthma, the young king died a year later at the age of 29. After her husband died, the Queen’s name changed again to the plural form of Kaleleonālani, flight of the heavenly ones.

In the midst of her grief, Emma traveled to England. The journey gave her some distance from the sorrow she had experienced at home, but it also became an important turning point in her life.

She was concerned about the future of the young women of her island nation and recognized the importance of education. Queen Emma was already involved in establishing the Anglican Church in Hawaiʻi. While in London, she raised money toward the construction of an Anglican cathedral in Hawaiʻi. She sought the counsel of the Archbishop of Canterbury regarding her vision for a school for girls.

On Ascension Day, May 30, 1867, Queen Emma founded St. Andrew’s Priory School for Girls, together with Mother Priscilla Lydia Sellon of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity of Devonport, England.

The Priory’s primary educational objective was the teaching of English. Instruction was conducted in English, and the girls were not permitted to speak Hawaiian, even during their playtime. Along with their academic studies, they were taught sewing and embroidery, music and drawing. Religious instruction was also an important part of the curriculum.

For Queen Emma, St. Andrew’s Priory was more than simply a school. It was part of a larger vision for the education and future of the young women of Hawaiʻi.

For more than 150 years, generations of young women passed through its halls, sharing lessons, laughter, friendships, and celebrations. It should come as no surprise that a place so closely connected to Queen Emma would eventually become associated with stories of her lingering presence.

Over the years, tales have circulated among the students and staff, revealing strange occurrences at the boarding school. Some of the students claimed to have seen the actual ghost of Queen Emma in the halls, while others are said to have heard the stairs creaking late at night and believed she was making her rounds.

There are also reports of unexplained cold spots, particularly near Queen Emma’s portrait and just outside the main entrance to the girls’ dormitory. On some nights, the grand piano could be heard playing long after midnight. Lights would mysteriously switch on and off, tools would disappear only to turn up elsewhere, and belongings left in handbags would be rearranged or simply dumped on the floor. These unexplainable events led many to believe that ghostly hands were still at work within the walls of St. Andrew’s Priory.

My dear friend recently gifted me with his personal stories and those of his ʻohana, who were boarders at the school.

Reportedly, gardenias were among Queen Emma’s favorite flowers. The smell of fresh gardenia was common around the Queen’s portrait and in Emma Hall.

My friend’s aunt told him, “The smell was so strong, it was like you were standing right next to a big gardenia bush in full bloom, and then it would suddenly be gone, and you wouldnʻt smell it again.”

As girls, his aunts spent many evenings cleaning up Emma Hall before heading to bed, as part of their nightly chores. On one occasion while straightening up the room, one aunt saw a woman in a dark blue, Victorian-style gown with her hair pulled up, walking away from the piano, but the figure vanished just before reaching the door. She only saw the woman from behind, but the image stayed with her.

Another memory went back to when she was about eight or nine years old. One night, during a storm, she left the dormitory to use the bathroom. Frightened by the weather, she ran back toward the dorm when a nun gently stopped her and said, “No running.”

She was about to answer, “Yes, Sister,” when the nun began to fade away. The figure seemed to turn light gray before disappearing completely.

Years later, my friend returned to St. Andrew’s Cathedral for the first time since childhood. He learned that there was a stained-glass window depicting Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, and he went to search for them.

He was looking up, trying to find their images when a woman’s voice behind him said, “Look down for what you are looking for.”

He looked down and found himself standing directly in front of the panel showing the King and Queen. When he turned to thank the woman, no one was there. In fact, he was all alone in the cathedral.

On a more recent visit, my friend was showing his partner the sights around St. Andrew’s. He said he always wanted to see the inside of St. Paul’s Chapel, but like each time he tried to visit, the door was locked. It was raining that day, and while they were standing beneath the arched portico talking about where to go next, a man’s voice suddenly came from behind them.

[{"type":"text","text":"“The door is open.”"}]

My friend turned, already explaining that they had tried the door, but his words choked off mid-sentence. No one was there.

They turned back to the chapel and tried the door again. This time, it opened.

The two quickly peeked inside for a brief look before leaving the chapel. Neither could explain who had spoken to them. There had been no one else around, and yet someone, or something, had apparently known exactly what they wanted to see.

There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything that has happened at St. Andrew’s. Then again, perhaps there isn’t. The stories have survived because people experienced things they could not explain, and in a place so closely connected to Queen Emma, it is easy to understand why some believe her presence can still be felt. Perhaps, after all these years, the Queen and other spirits are still making their rounds.

Cathedral of St Andrews

<title>The Ghost of a Queen</title>

Queen Emma was instrumental in establishing the Anglican Church in Hawaii and in 1867, she founded St. Andrew’s Priory School for Girls, to uplift the young women of Hawai‘i. The school meant the world to her, so is it any wonder that people claim to still see her presence there? Ghostly nuns and mysterious voices have also been encountered, spirits that seem more nurturing than frightening.

Daily Smile: Wednesday, April 15, 2026

ASD Staff

Reporter

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

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