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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all enjoy a baby playing with a baby..."}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026</title>

Now let's all enjoy a baby playing with a baby...

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

 Now let&#039;s all enjoy a baby playing with a baby...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

A debate over whether elephants are “people,” legally speaking, will go to the Hawai‘i Supreme Court.

In 2023, the Nonhuman Rights Project — a Florida-based nonprofit dedicated to challenging the legal status of animals — filed a petition in the First Circuit Court in Honolulu on behalf of two elephants at the Honolulu Zoo, Mari and Vaigai.

That petition was a writ of habeas corpus, a legal mechanism calling for a court to review and overturn a person’s potentially unlawful imprisonment. Even non-human animals like elephants, the petition argued, have a right by common law to bodily liberty, and the petition requested that the court order that Mari and Vaigai be released to an elephant sanctuary.

Whether Mari and Vaigai can legally be considered people became the central issue in the ensuing court case, which has been appealed up to the state’s highest court: the state Supreme Court accepted a petition to hear the case last week.

This wasn’t the first time the Nonhuman Rights Project has argued that habeas corpus applies to non-human animals in general or elephants in particular: the New York Court of Appeals heard a habeas corpus petition by the Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of an elephant, Happy, who was kept at the Bronx Zoo.

While the New York court ultimately ruled against the Nonhuman Rights Project, that they heard the case at all “refuted the irrational and arbitrary notion that only members of the species Homo sapiens may invoke the protections of the Great Writ,” the Honolulu petition read.

“As societal norms and knowledge about nonhuman animals evolve, so too must common law,” the petition went on.

That additional knowledge about elephants made up a substantial portion of the Honolulu petition, going into detail about the animals’ sophisticated cognitive abilities and potential for self-awareness.

Mari, 50, and Vaigai, 40, were born in the wild, but were respectively gifted to the Honolulu Zoo 44 and 34 years ago as gifts by the prime ministers of India at the time. Since then, they have lived apart from any other animals of their species, something the petition called “undeniably cruel,” given elephants’ highly social nature.

The petition also claimed that the conditions of the Honolulu Zoo are detrimental to the elephants’ health. Both animals are obese, the petition claims, and only have access to an “impoverished environment” for stimulation.

”When the elephants are not simply standing and feeding, they can be seen walking between the front and back yards on the same path every time,” the petition read. “Mari and Vaigai’s lives are nothing but a succession of boring and frustrating days, damaging to their bodies and minds, and punctuated only by interaction with their keepers.”

While the First Circuit dismissed the petition in 2024 — arguing that habeas corpus under the common law are only available to humans — the Nonhuman Rights Project appealed the case to the state Intermediate Court of Appeals.

That court ruled in January in support of the First Circuit’s decision. By that point, the legal argument revolved around the legal definition of “person” and whether it specifically means “human” in all instances. Writing for the majority opinion, Judge Keith Hiraoka wrote that “person” and “animal” are considered separate legal categories throughout common law, for example as relating to theft of property including animals or anti-bestiality laws.

Nonetheless, the debate will continue in the Supreme Court, although future court dates have not yet been scheduled.

[{"type":"text","text":"Aloha State Daily reached out to the Honolulu Zoo for comment."}]

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Honolulu zoo elephants

<title>Are elephants people? State Supreme Court to weigh in</title>

Two Honolulu Zoo elephants, Mari and Vaigai, are at the center of a Supreme Court case about the rights of non-human animals.

Are elephants people? State Supreme Court to weigh in

Yamachika Tom IMG 1913 Large

Tom Yamachika

Viewpoints

Government & Politics

Medicaid is a joint federal and state government health insurance program that helps provide medical coverage for people with low incomes and limited resources. Medicaid is basically a federal program that states can opt into by setting up a program that complies with federal rules. In return, the federal government provides significant funding for the program.

One of the federal requirements is that the participating state have resources in place to identify and prosecute those who are trying to abuse the Medicaid system. Hawaiʻi has a 

Our MFCU has been having some issues. Recently, 

Vice President J.D. Vance pilloried the state

, calling Hawaiʻi’s Medicaid fraud enforcement a “complete disgrace." 

“Not a single indictment, not a single conviction, because the administrators of the Hawaiʻi program just don’t take it seriously,” he said.

On the next day, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services 

 to our Attorney General, Anne Lopez, to announce that our MFCU was being decertified. Decertification endangers the ability of the state to receive federal funding for not only the MFCU but also its entire Medicaid program.

The Feds cited, and our AG did not dispute, that MFCU obtained zero indictments and zero convictions in calendar years 2021 through 2025. They also described, in their letter, that our MFCU’s problems date back more than a decade. They mentioned that Office of Inspector General personnel conducted on-site interviews and investigations of our MFCU in 2014 and 2019, on both occasions identifying what they called serious performance deficiencies. They mentioned that they worked with our MFCU to come up with a corrective action plan and implement it, but the unit’s performance still was not up to snuff.

Indeed, the unit may have been having some problems way before then. A Hawaiʻi Supreme Court opinion in 

, 68 Haw. 343 (1986), told the story of a psychologist that was indicted on 32 counts of Medicaid fraud in 1984. The state’s theory was that the psychologist was treating his patient without a proper medical referral. But, after evidence came out in the trial showing that the patient in fact had obtained a proper referral, the state changed theories and persisted with the prosecution because the referral was late. The jury acquitted Dr. Sword of 31 of the 32 counts, and the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court tossed out the conviction of the one remaining count because of the prosecution’s switcheroo. (This seemed like a weak case to begin with. Luckily the good doctor is still practicing on one of our Neighbor Islands, and hasn’t decided to go to the airport with a one-way ticket out of here.)

On the same day that the MFCU decertification was announced, 

 saying that he would create an “independent Medicaid Fraud Strike Force” within our Department of Human Services, the mission of which is to “help identify waste, fraud and abuse, recommend corrective actions, assist in the recovery of taxpayer dollars where appropriate and strengthen systems designed to protect Medicaid recipients and public funds.”

We are hopeful that this episode will serve as a wake-up call. We cannot be complacent. There are bad actors out there. If they aren’t caught, they will make life more difficult and more expensive for the rest of us law-abiding folks.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Related ASD content:"}]

Health insurance concept illustration

<title>Community Voices: Medicaid Fraud Control</title>

Hawaiʻi's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit was recently called a “complete disgrace" by  Vice President J.D. Vance and was decertified. In response, Gov. Josh Green announced that he would create an “independent Medicaid Fraud Strike Force” whose mission is "to help identify waste, fraud and abuse, recommend corrective actions, assist in the recovery of taxpayer dollars where appropriate and strengthen systems designed to protect Medicaid recipients and public funds.” Let's hope this action catches the bad actors.

Community Voices: Medicaid Fraud Control

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 is opening its third location this weekend. The new store is in ‘Aina Haina Shopping Center (in the former spot of 

), and will be celebrating its grand opening at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 13.

This new store marks the brand’s third Oʻahu location and second opening in less than a month following its recent 

Waikīkī expansion at Park Shore Waikīkī Hotel

“We wanted to capture something in east Honolulu,” says operations manager Zayne Chong. “This space opened up in 

‘Āina Haina, and we thought it would be a good fit for Oakberry on the East side.”

The business is known for its natural acai that features no dyes, corn syrup or artificial preservatives. Customers can choose from popular items like the crunchy bowl — acai with chia pudding, granola, strawberry, blueberry and cacao nibs — and the matcha bowl, which comes with acai, double matcha chia pudding, strawberry, goji berries and honey. Acai smoothies are also available.

Create-your-own acai bowl options are also available. Choose from toppings like peanut butter, almonds, chia pudding, cacao nibs, honey, granola and more.

Customers who join the business’s email list can get a free, classic-sized Fruity bowl on grand opening day.

‘Āina Haina store will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.

Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends

Oakberry Aina Haina original 061226

<title>Oakberry Hawaiʻi is opening its third store in ‘Āina Haina</title>

The new store — located in ‘Āina Haina Shopping Center, in the former space of Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha — will be celebrating its grand opening at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 13.

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

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Daily Smile: Saturday, June 6, 2026

Authors

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