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[{"type":"text","text":"On today's episode of \"Fat and Jobless\" ..."}]

Smile 26 4 18

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, April 18, 2026</title>

On today's episode of "Fat and Jobless" ...

Daily Smile: Saturday, April 18, 2026

 On today&#039;s episode of &quot;Fat and Jobless&quot; ...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

A planned housing development for teachers in Mililani is still on schedule.

 on a 95-unit workforce housing project at Mililani High School is set to begin late next year and be completed by late 2029. After an environmental assessment of the project was completed last month, project managers are now seeking permits and funding for the development.

Audrey Awaya, executive director of project developer Pacific Housing Assistance Corp., told Aloha State Daily that the company is still determining the full cost of the project and working on securing funding from the state and private sources.

 published in May lists an estimated development cost of approximately $80 million.

The project began life in 2023, when the State Legislature tasked the Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority with developing workforce housing for teachers in an effort to improve teacher retention in a state with soaring costs of living.

“Teachers who come here are discouraged by the cost of living,” Awaya said. A DOE 

 in 2025 determined that more than 40% of DOE employees are considered “retention risks,” and could leave the state within five years because of housing costs.

The Mililani project won’t necessarily be exclusive to teachers, but Department of Education teachers and staff will be given priority. The units will be available to households making up to 120% of the area median income.

Initially, the development was pitched as a 109-unit project, but a change in the project site required it to be downsized slightly to 95 units, with 56 one-bedroom and 39 two-bedroom units.

The initial site for the project was located on top of an agricultural field used by Mililani High School, which stirred controversy among students. Instead, the project site was moved to a 1.9-acre lot on the corner of the school campus, near the ballfields on Meheula Parkway.

Currently, the site contains a 48-stall parking lot and little else. The development will include a 150-stall ground-floor parking lot for residents, while Mililani High School will be required to relocate the existing lot elsewhere on campus.

The development itself will be a four-story residential building elevated above a parking lot with about 150 parking stalls. Also on-site will be an “Amenity Hale,” including a recreation room and other services.

Awaya said the residential building will also include a teacher resource room where teachers can collaborate on lesson plans and other projects. The entire development is pet-friendly and will be fenced off from the greater Mililani High School campus.

The publication of the environmental assessment means the project team can refine the project’s design. Awaya said the project will apply for building permits this summer.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Map of WH Site 16x9

<title>Mililani teacher housing project still on schedule</title>

95 apartments for Department of Education employees are scheduled to be move-in ready by late 2029 or early 2030.

Mililani teacher housing project still on schedule

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

It's no secret — or surprise — that Toyota Tacomas are popular in the Islands.

In fact, according to Servco Pacific, which has exclusive distributorships of Toyota, Lexus and Subaru in Hawai‘i, it's been the top-selling vehicle in the Islands for 25 years. 

To commemorate that milestone, Servco has unveiled a Hawai‘i-exclusive special edition of the best-selling truck and just 25 will be available statewide, Servco says.

"Hawaiʻi has embraced the Toyota Tacoma as part of its ‘ohana for a quarter of a century,” 

, president and CEO of Servco Pacific Inc

, said in an announcement Friday. "This special edition is our way of saying mahalo to the community that has made this truck the undisputed favorite across the Islands."

The truck comes in the color "mudbath" and comes with a "comprehensive suite of custom components designed to enhance both aesthetics and functionality," the announcement notes.

[{"type":"text","text":"The special build includes:"}]

Dames told Aloha State Daily in an emailed response to questions that the goal was to create something that feels "authentically local" and pay tribute to the community that has made the Tacoma the best-selling vehicle for the past 25 years.

"We're excited to see how customers respond because this edition was inspired by the people who drive Tacomas every day in Hawaiʻi," he says. "We know there's a strong sense of pride around the Tacoma locally, and we think many customers will appreciate seeing that connection reflected in a vehicle designed with Hawaiʻi in mind.

"More than anything, we hope it resonates with the communities, families, small business owners, outdoor enthusiasts and longtime Tacoma owners who have helped make the truck such an iconic part of life in Hawaiʻi."

Dames says that the Tacoma's popularity in the Islands goes beyond transportation.

"The truck is incredibly versatile and well-suited to island life. Whether you're heading to work, spending time with family, going to the beach, exploring the outdoors or supporting a small business, the Tacoma fits naturally into many aspects of daily life.

"Just as important, Tacoma owners in Hawaiʻi have built a strong community around the vehicle over the years. For many families, it's a truck they've trusted for generations," he continued. "That combination of capability, reliability, and deep local connection has helped make the Tacoma one of the most recognizable and beloved vehicles in Hawaiʻi."

You'll be able to reserve the truck in person beginning June 6 at Servco Toyota and Maui Toyota dealerships across the Islands. The TSRP, or total suggested retail price, is $44,770 and $7,999 for the Hawai‘i edition accessories.

In 2025, Tacomas made up 7.1% of the market share in Hawai‘i, according to a 

 from the Hawai‘i Automobile Dealers Association.

MY26 Tacoma Hawaii Edition 22

<title>Servco Pacific unveils exclusive Hawai‘i edition Toyota Tacoma</title>

The Tacoma has been Hawai‘i's top-selling vehicle for 25 years.

Servco Pacific unveils exclusive Hawai‘i edition Toyota Tacoma

Crime & Courts

A former Hawai‘i County housing official was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison over a scheme that defrauded the county for nearly $11 million.

Alan Scott Rudo, 59, was a housing specialist at the Hawai‘i County Office of Housing and Community Development between 2006 and 2018. During his tenure at the department, Rudo conspired with accomplices to fraudulently award housing development agreements and affordable housing credits to those accomplices’ businesses, pocketing about $1.9 million in bribes and kickbacks.

Through those development agreements, the companies received land valued at about $10.9 million, on which they never built a single unit of housing. The conspirators then sold or transferred the land and the affordable housing credits for a tidy profit.

Rudo was charged in 2022 with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud; he pled guilty that same day. Rudo testified at a 2025 trial of his co-conspirators, and was himself sentenced in U.S. District Court on Thursday.

Judge Jill Otake handed down a sentence of 46 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

In a sentencing statement submitted to the court, Rudo apologized for his actions.

“I betrayed the trust the community placed in me and I caused harm that I can never take back,” Rudo wrote. “I think about that every day and I accept full responsibility for my actions. There is no excuse for the choices I made.”

Rudo wrote the investigation has cost him his marriage, his home and his career, and has forced him to “rebuild [himself] from the ground up.” He said he chose to cooperate with the investigation against his former associates “because it was the right thing to do,” and that he is “committed to doing better.”

His associates — attorney Paul Sulla, 79, of Hilo; attorney Gary Zamber, 56, of Kea‘au; and businessman Rajesh Budhabhatti, 65, formerly of the Big Island — were themselves charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and nine counts of honest services wire fraud, and the three were convicted by a federal jury in 2025.

Rudo’s co-conspirators were sentenced earlier this year. Zamber was sentenced to 70 months in prison in January, Budhabhatti was sentenced to 90 months in February and Sulla was sentenced to 60 months in April.

Courtfed

<title>Former Hawai‘i County housing official sentenced for bribery scheme</title>

Alan Scott Rudo was paid nearly $1.9 million for conspiring to fraudulently award housing development contracts to his associates.

Former Hawai‘i County housing official sentenced for bribery scheme

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

The most powerful man in the world got his start firing people on reality television.

For years Donald Trump leaned across a boardroom table and told contestants they were fired, and millions watched. When he ran for President, the bluntness that had been a television gimmick became a qualification for office. He spoke without a script and often without a filter. A great many Americans discovered they preferred a man who acted badly to men who performed well.

Politics runs downstream of culture, the saying goes, and culture runs downstream of whatever screen we happen to be staring at. The television screen that made Trump plausible has been retired. Now the glowing screens that replaced television are in the hands of the children who will pick his successor.

Each generation is raised by a medium, and they seldom notice. The grandparents had radio and the evening news. Their children had cable and a remote in hand. The next generation had broadband by high school. The youngest among us have clutched a glowing rectangle since before they could read.

David Foster Wallace once told a room of college graduates about two young fish. An older fish asks them how the water is. The two swim on for a while before one turns to the other and asks, “what’s water?” The hardest thing to see is the thing you are swimming in. And the water now is streaming.

A stream is a strange thing to describe to anyone who has never sat through one. A young woman plays a video game. A column of text races up the side of the screen, faster than a person can read, full of strangers shouting for her attention. The game is built to dole out small rewards on no fixed schedule, which is the same feature that keeps a gambler seated at a slot machine. Most of the time nothing happens. The viewer stays anyway. He’s probably playing his own game on another screen, and he is waiting, half there, for the day something interesting happens.

Children grow attached to these streamers. Many spend more hours each week with their favorite streamer than they do with their parents.

The streamer does not pose and does not edit. They sit for hours on end, and the rawness is part of the product. The generation before this one built careful profiles and took flattering photos, forever arranging the self for the selfie. This one lets the camera roll.

The printed word once demanded forethought. Ink is permanent, and a man preferred not to look a fool in something that would outlive him. A stream asks for nothing of the kind, only a camera, a connection, and a willingness to be watched doing very little.

If you do not recognize the names Ninja, Kai Cenat, iShowSpeed, or Pokimane, you are not swimming in the stream. But your 16-year-old nephew knows them well. His heart is being trained to speak as they speak and act as they act.

Someone will object that this is the worry of every graying generation. Plato fretted over the written word, our grandmothers over MTV, and the children always turn out fine. Perhaps, but a child reading a book after bedtime is one thing. That same child sitting beside a stranger late into the night, while their parents sleep, is another.

Who pays for all of this? As the saying goes, “whose bread I eat, his song I sing.” For most of history the bread came from a single hand: a patron, a publisher, a network. The streamer’s bread arrives from 10,000 hands, a few dollars at a time.

The man on camera learns, the way Pavlov’s dog learned, which tricks ring the bell. He drifts toward whatever is loud and lurid, because that is what loosens the audience’s pursestrings. And the streamer’s purse, more often than anyone cares to admit, is filled by the small donations of the lonely and unwell. The performer fancies that he is leading his audience. In reality, the audience is training the performer.

None of this stays in the world of entertainment. It is now, almost precisely, how a person raises money and wins office.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised more than $20 million last year. Most of that came in small sums from ordinary people. It’s the same $5 gesture that lands in a streamer’s account, pointed at a political campaign.

Television made Trump famous, and only later made him a candidate. With AOC it went the other way around. She was on camera before she was anyone, and the politics grew out of that.

 her journey to attend the Standing Rock protests. Then she got a call to run for office. Ten years later, she is an early front-runner for her party’s 2028 nomination.

AOC never stopped streaming. In 2020, she sat down to play a video game with Pokimane, then the most popular female streamer on Twitch. They drew a live audience of 400,000 people. This was two weeks before the election, and AOC was stumping to register voters.

 with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was then running for Vice President as a Democrat. A few days earlier, Republican candidate Donald Trump sat for a 

 Joe Rogan interview. This was a week before the election.

The Psalmist said that men who trust in idols become like them. Our streaming idols never stop talking but rarely say anything. They speak through the night, whispering into our children’s ears. They perform for a few dollars at a time, taken from 10,000 hands. And soon, they may choose our President.

Kai Cenat livestream

<title>The politics downstream</title>

Presidents used to emerge out of whistlestop tours, radio address, television and cable. Now, for the youngest voters and voters-to-be, political power gathers in the frenetic world of livestreams. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa talks about what this means.

The politics downstream

 the City and County of Honolulu after she was fined nearly $600,000 over an improper apartment listing.

In 2019, Sandra May needed a tenant. She had owned a home on Wilhelmina Rise since the 1970s, with a lower unit in the home available for rent by long-term tenants. But after her husband died in 2019, May, living on a fixed Social Security income, needed to make ends meet, but couldn’t find another tenant.

To broaden her search, May listed the unit on several online rental platforms. But May — who her attorney Loren Seehase said “struggles to utilize any kind of technology” — had inadvertently listed the unit as available for less than 30 days.

That same year, the City and County adopted an 

 hiking up fines against property owners illegally hosting short-term rentals. Violators could be fined up to $10,000 for each day a violation persists.

In November 2019, May received a notice of a violation from the city regarding an online property listing. She promptly corrected the listing to show that the unit was only available for periods of 30 days or more, and believed the matter to be done.

Two years later, after the lifting of the Covid-era moratorium on evicting tenants for non-payment of rent, May again was in need of new tenants. Once again she listed the unit online, once again (in 2023) she received a notice of violation from the city, once again she corrected the listing, once again she thought the matter over.

In April 2024, it happened again. Only this time, because this was a recurring violation, the city informed May that she would incur daily $10,000 fines until the listings were corrected.

Unfortunately, May spent much of late March and April in and out of the hospital following a car crash and other medical procedures. By the time she learned of the violation and was able to correct it, 59 days had elapsed — and now she owed the city $590,000.

On the same day, the city also placed a $10,000 lien on May’s property stemming from the second violation.

“She’s like, ‘you know you’re going to put an old lady out on the street,’” Seehase told Aloha State Daily. “‘I can’t pay this, you’d have to take my home.’ And the city responded by saying ‘Well, I guess you’d better get an attorney.’ So, it was a very callous response. Poor Sandra was in tears about it, and there was no conversation, there was no negotiating, there was no listening to reason.”

May sought out attorneys, who referred her to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that focuses on property rights cases. Even better for May, the PLF works pro bono, Seehase said.

Seehase said the letter informing May of how much she owed the city did not mention any way to challenge the fines. Without a mechanism within ordinances to challenge the situation, Seehase said the only option is to challenge it on constitutional grounds, in federal court.

In particular, Seehase said the case could be argued to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment most famously concerns “cruel and unusual punishment,” but also protects against excessive fines.

Seehase said other Eighth Amendment cases have attempted to determine whether particular fines are so ruinous they will destroy a person’s livelihood, weighed in proportion to the actual crime itself.

In this particular case, Seehase said, May’s mistake brought no harm to anybody other than herself.

“This is not the type of situation where we’ve got like a building code violation and lives are imminently in danger,” Seehase said. “This is an advertisement, so there was no harm done to anyone.”

On the other side of the coin, Seehase said the $10,000-per-day fines are the absolute maximum allowed by city ordinance, and that the city could have chosen to reduce those fines at their discretion. Because the city hit May with the $590,000 fines and the $10,000 lien on the same day, Seehase said that “it really kind of appeared that the city went on a vendetta … against poor Sandra.”

Seehase emphasized that, regardless of how the listings may have appeared online, May did not ever offer the property for periods of less than 30 days. If a person attempted to book the property for less than 30 days, May would cancel the booking.

May is seeking relief through the federal court, not monetary damages, Seehase said. Should they win, the court will determine an appropriate remedy, potentially including a partial or total reduction of the fines.

Seehase said the City and County has 21 days to respond once they have been served.

A spokesman for the Department of Planning and Permitting told ASD the department cannot comment on pending litigation.

Sandra May rentalsign 610x407 16x9

<title>Octogenarian sues Honolulu over $600,000 fines</title>

Sandra May was told she owed the city hundreds of thousands of dollars over an improper online rental listing.

Octogenarian sues Honolulu over $600,000 fines

[{"type":"text","text":"Gov. Josh Green signed Senate Bill 2471 into law Thursday."}]

The bill was touted by supporters throughout the legislative session as a measure to stymie Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that found that attempting to prohibit political spending by corporations is unconstitutional.

SB 2471 — now signed into law as Act 11 — supposedly would prevent corporate spending in Hawai‘i elections by limiting the privileges granted to corporations by the state. 

Corporations and other artificial entities exist because the state grants them legal privileges, including limited liability and lucrative tax benefits that individuals cannot claim," said Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole in a statement Thursday. "Act 11 clarifies that those privileges do not include the power to spend corporate money to influence our elections.”

In theory, political action committees will continue to operate under current campaign finance laws, but will not be able to spend any money received by corporations, according to a statement by the State Senate Majority.

We want our elections to reflect the voices and values of the people of Hawaiʻi," Green said in a statement. "This measure is intended to strengthen transparency and accountability in our campaign system and support fair elections. I thank the Hawai‘i State Legislature for its partnership and continued commitment to maintaining public trust in our democratic process.”

Throughout the legislative session, the Office of the Attorney General warned that the bill will be seen as an attempt to undermine the Citizens United verdict and will likely be susceptible to potentially costly legal challenges. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The law takes effect July 1 of next year."},{"type":"hardBreak","text":""}]

Daily Smile: Saturday, April 18, 2026

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Daily Smile: Saturday, April 18, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

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