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Smile 26 6 18

<title>Daily Smile: Thursday, June 18, 2026</title>

This is so true...

Daily Smile: Thursday, June 18, 2026

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

Blessed with tantalizing baseball tools to go with his 6-foot-5 frame, recent ‘Iolani graduate Judah Ota has been a priority watch for MLB scouts in recent years.

Prior to his senior year at ‘Iolani, Ota displayed his talents at the 2025 Perfect Game USA National Showcase at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The right-handed outfielder threw balls clocked at over 90 miles per hour while displaying his power in batting practice from the left side of the plate. Ota also showed elite speed, running the 60-yard dash in 6.72 seconds. 

Intrigue in Ota has persisted leading up to the 2026 MLB Draft, which runs from July 11-13. Although Ota is committed to play collegiate baseball at the University of Arkansas in the fall, he's currently going through the pre-draft process to see where he stacks up among the country's best high school and collegiate prospects. 

Ota recently earned a rare invite to the 2026 MLB Draft Combine, which will take place from June 23-26 at Chase Field, the same stadium where he turned heads last summer. Of the 335 invited high school and college names, Ota is the only player from a Hawai‘i school. 

"It just means a lot being able to represent Hawai‘i," Ota recently told Aloha State Daily. "It's just a great feeling to be able to do it. Just hoping to be able to represent the right way."

Ahead of the combine, Ota is already on the Mainland, where he recently worked out for the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs. 

Ota's tools were honed during batting practice sessions with his mother, Paula. With mom throwing the pitches during countless sessions, Ota's baseball career has continued to blossom. 

"I'd just like to give a really big shoutout to my mom," Ota said. "She's been the most important person in my life. She throws me batting practice whenever I ask. She's just been the best. She's actually with me right now."

Although he was always a skilled player, Ota says he took the next step in his game during his time with the Hawai‘i Tigers, a local travel ball team run by Rick, Reid and Ron Nomura. Rigorous summer ball trips to Ohio with the Tigers proved to Ota that he was built to be a ballplayer. 

"It was really then that I saw that I could compete with Mainland competition, and that was really when I kind of felt like this might be something that I could really pursue," Ota said. 

Despite the intense interest shown in him from pro teams, Ota has his heart set on attending Arkansas and suiting up for the Razorbacks. Arkansas' pursuit of Ota began when he was an eighth grader. New rules prevented Ota from having contact with NCAA schools until he was a high school sophomore. 

More than 30 schools wanted Ota's commitment, but he never forgot his initial courtship with Arkansas and how its coaching staff made him feel valued. 

"When I took my official visit up to Arkansas, it was just an amazing opportunity," Ota recalled. "Their facilities are second to none, and Arkansas has a winning culture, great fans, and you really can't beat it."

Fayetteville in the fall, he'll be following in the footsteps of prominent players from the Islands in 

, Nolan Souza, and Wehiwa and Kuhio Aloy. Though Ota appreciates the Island connections Arkansas possesses, he says the program's winning culture is ultimately what attracted him the most. 

With knowledge of how three years of college ball could benefit him, Ota is prepared to wait for his ultimate goal. He believes playing in the MLB one day will be a matter of when, not if. 

"As of right now, the goal is just Arkansas in the fall, and just continue with that dream," Ota says. "It really just depends on a lot of things, but as of right now, it's really just going to Arkansas. (The combine) is just an awesome experience to be able to play in front of all these scouts. ... When I make it to the major leagues, I'll be happy to play anywhere."

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Judah Ota 061726

<title>‘Iolani's Judah Ota earns invite to 2026 MLB Draft Combine</title>

Ota, a senior outfielder, will play collegiately at the University of Arkansas if he chooses not to go pro this summer.

‘Iolani's Judah Ota earns invite to 2026 MLB Draft Combine

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

A Hawai‘i senator has co-introduced a bill that would improve flood resiliency among federal infrastructure projects.

Sen. Brian Schatz introduced — alongside New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen — last week the

, a measure that imposes flood safety standards upon any infrastructure project that receives federal funding.

As written, the measure states that any federally funded project must include, where practicable, design elements such as elevating the structure above the floodplain, flood protection measures for any structure in a floodplain, markings on structures delineating the high water levels of past floods in the area, and more.

These standards were initially established via an 

 by President Barack Obama in 2015, but President Donald Trump rescinded that order with his own 

 in 2017. President Joe Biden, in turn, reinstated the standards via another 

 in 2021, and Trump re-rescinded them in 2025 with yet another 

The bill, therefore, codifies the standards into federal law, rather than continuing the presidential back-and-forth.

“Extreme weather is becoming more frequent and more severe in Hawai‘i and across the country, and it’s taking a huge toll on our infrastructure,” Schatz said upon the bill’s introduction. “Our bill will help ensure that federally-funded infrastructure is built to be more resilient to the impact of floods and other disasters.”

The measure has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

Meanwhile, the Senate also passed last week a measure improving wildfire mitigation efforts on federal land.

The Cross-Boundary Wildfire Solutions Act

 requires the government to review all existing federal programs and rules to determine whether they impede a federal agency’s ability to work with local governments to mitigate wildfires across the boundaries between federal and non-federal lands.

The Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill, which now sits before the House.

Getty Images 2194565873

<title>CONGRESS WATCH: Flood control, fire control</title>

U.S. Senate introduces, passes measures to improve flood and wildfire mitigation on federal lands.

CONGRESS WATCH: Flood control, fire control

De Soto 2025

DeSoto Brown

Hawai‘i History

Columnists

Many people will be familiar with the fountain at the far end of Kapi‘olani Park, close to the base of Diamond Head. Since it’s been there for almost 60 years, it’s understandable that few will be aware that this is actually the third water feature in this area.

This story starts in 1912 with the ascension to the Japanese throne by Emperor Taisho. Thousands of Japanese immigrants in Hawai‘i at this time still felt strong ties to their homeland, so their pride in their original culture  made many of them want to support the suggestion of the Japanese Consul in Honolulu that a monument to Emperor Taisho be erected in a public place in Honolulu. This concept was proposed at the time of his ceremonial coronation in 1915. The Honolulu Board of Supervisors agreed to accept the planned fountain as a gift; it was to be 20 feet tall and topped with a metal sculpture similar to one in Hibiya Park in Tokyo. The pool at its base was planned to be 25 to 30 feet in diameter. November 10, 1916 was the targeted date of the structure’s dedication. 

Actually achieving this idea, however, did not take place on schedule. A celebratory “carnival” held at the Japanese Consulate in November 1915 attracted thousands of attendees who paid a steep admission of $1 each (comparable to over $30 today), which raised nearly $8,000. This was not enough though, and another fundraiser program at the Honolulu Opera House in December 1915 netted another $200, but this was still $800 short of the goal. 

All the elements of the fountain were to come from Japan. In March 1916, completion was stated to be in “a few months.” But it wasn’t until November that the 228 carved stone pieces actually arrived by ship and the finish date was now projected to be February 1917. And this in fact turned out to be when all the stone work ended up in place, which was noted by an inscription in the structure’s base. But still not received were all the metal parts, which, like the stone, had been ordered from the Tokio Fine Arts College. The fountain stood incomplete for the rest of the year. 

In May 1918 work was to “commence soon” as the metal elements were expected in early July. Except … none of it got to Honolulu till September. This consisted of the iron phoenix which would stand with outspread wings at the top, plus two bronze basins, one larger than the other. By January 1919, completion (as usual) was expected “in a month or two.” By now the total cost was over $10,000.

At last, the dedication ceremony was scheduled for February 11th. But in the same pattern already established, this had to be postponed due to continuing casualties in Honolulu from the terrible flu pandemic that had begun killing millions of people internationally the previous year. So it was not until after this medical emergency subsided that on March 16, 1919 — nearly four years after the initial announcement of the project — it finally, really, was finished. 

As can be seen by the photos included here, the complex structure was undeniably dramatic. Water issued from the beak of the phoenix at the top and ran down into the smaller bronze basin, from which it overflowed into the next, larger basin below it, before finally reaching the round pool at ground level. However, most surviving photos of the fountain show no evidence of running water and it’s possible that the supply was eventually just turned off. The entire monument was noteworthy enough without it. 

Considering the years of effort and fundraising to erect the fountain, it was unfortunate that the ruler who was honored by this impressive structure was both physically and mentally incapable of actually performing his imperial duties. Emperor Taisho was withheld from public and ceremonial appearances from 1919 onwards and died seven years later. 

Then came World War II. After the shocking surprise attack on the island of O‘ahu by the Japanese military on December 7, 1941, all things associated with this new enemy were treated with suspicion or outright hatred. The showy fountain, not surprisingly, felt the effects of this rejection. The City & County of Honolulu Parks Board received letters from the public calling for the monument to be demolished, and the board itself was in favor. It was hoped that the metal contained in the structure — derided as being merely iron along with (incorrectly) “cheap brass” — could be melted down to be turned into war munitions of some kind, to symbolically be used against Japan.

As manpower and equipment were busy with other war-specific jobs, there was a brief call for citizens to gather and literally pull down the structure by hand. However, City & County workers did the job professionally on December 14, 1942, a year and a week after the infamous attack that had started the war. Some of the artistic handwork of the fountain appears to have been saved, like the four large stone dogs that stood around the base of its pedestal, along with four carved vertical panels. But once this vengeful destruction was completed, the park was left without a water feature — for a time.

In August 1949, the City & County of Honolulu accepted a contractor’s bid of $10,784 to build a new Kapi‘olani Park fountain which was to be completed by December of that year. This was not located in the same spot as its predecessor; it was more towards Diamond Head in what was called the “Kalākaua Avenue Circle”. This was a round island in a park roadway that had been started in late 1941 but wasn’t finished probably until late 1945 and which mostly paralleled the original Kalākaua Avenue that was lined by ironwood trees, closer to the beach. Far simpler than the previous ornate Japanese fountain, this new 1949 version consisted of just a shallow round pool with a single jet of water in the center. In turn, this lasted until 1967. 

The unassuming pool was then considerably improved to become the Louise G. Dillingham Memorial Fountain which was dedicated on July 27, 1967 and remains in use today. Funded by Mrs. Dillingham’s adult children and family friends and constructed by Hawaiian Dredging, the new fountain was accepted as a gift by the City & County of Honolulu. It contains multiple jets of water of different heights, like the classical ones found in public squares in Europe, and was designed by Edwin Murayama and Albert Ely Ives. Its honoree had been a member of Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation from 1931 until her death in January 1964, and she and her husband Walter had lived in the estate that they had constructed nearby known as La Pietra. This still remains today on the slopes of Diamond Head not far from this fountain, housing a private girls’ school of the same name.

As attractive as the current fountain is, we can regret that the unique tribute to Emperor Taisho did not survive. Its outstanding craftsmanship might not even be possible to replicate today, and it would be an outstanding attraction of Honolulu if it still stood in Kapi‘olani Park.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

8 Kap Park fount 2026 16x9

<title>The saga of the fountains</title>

The fountain we all know and love near the Diamond Head end of Kapi‘iolani Park is not the first fountain in the area, nor is it in the original location of the first fountain. ASD history columnist DeSoto Brown takes us through the fountain's story, all the way back to its original source — Imperial Japan.

The saga of the fountains

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Hawai‘i is the focus in the latest round of best-of lists 

in USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.

The awards aim to rank the 10 best in several areas of travel and lifestyle.

You can vote now for Best Family Attraction in Hawai‘i, Best Hawai‘i Cruise; Best Lū‘au in Hawai‘i, Best Resort in Hawai‘i, Best Restaurant in Hawai‘i and Best Tour Company in Hawai‘i. 

The nominees in each category were chosen with the help of a panel of experts.

Polls for each competition close at 6 a.m. local time on Monday, July 13. Winners, which are determined by votes, will be announced on July 22.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Here's who made the short lists:"}]

Oahu aerial unsplash 051525

<title>Vote for Hawai‘i's best resort, lū‘au and more</title>

Hawai‘i is the focus of these best-of lists in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards.

Vote for Hawai‘i's best resort, lū‘au and more

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 — Oʻahu’s largest Latin American market — just opened its second location.

The business's second retail and wholesale location is in Waipahu. Its grand opening block party will be on Saturday, June 20, in Waipio’s Koa Ridge (in the Royal Koa parking lot). The event will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but the retail store will be open for shopping until 6 p.m. The store is currently in its soft opening, and is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Saturday event will feature a variety of local food and beverage partners. Attendees can look forward to pop-up booths with authentic cuisine, music and an exclusive Mercado de la Raza gift (available while supplies last).

“I think a lot of people have been waiting for this moment, and we see lots of kids coming in (to our store), so we want to make it a family event,” says Alex Villarino, who co-owns the business with his wife, Megahn Chun.

“We’re in a very residential area, so we wanted to share a little bit of the culture, and introduce them (community members) to the culture and food,” Chun adds.

Mercado de la Raza has been open since 1994, according to Villarino.

“It’s a common thing in Mexico for a mercado to be known as ‘mercado de la raza,’” he says. “Raza means ‘of the people,’ kind of like ‘market of the people.’”

The husband-and-wife team says they wanted to open in central Oʻahu when it was time to expand to a second location.

“We learned there were a lot of people who were traveling from the North Shore, Kapolei, ‘Ewa Beach, Wahiawā and Mililani to our Beretania store,” Chun says. “We decided when we open a second location, it had to be in Central Oʻahu — just to be closer to everybody and serve these communities.

“It was a journey (to find the right location),” she adds. “It’s never easy to find the right fit.”

Chun recalls how she and Villarino would drive around at night, looking at potential places for their next location.

“When we saw this place, we asked our realtor to come and show it to us,” she says. “After we opened the door, I just felt this is the place. We saw a vision, and this is the place that it had to be.”

This second location has been in the works for about a year, according to Chun. The Waipahu store is bigger than the original store, and it features a warehouse section and retail store. Customers will be able to shop in the larger retail space, which is fully stocked with handmade tortillas, imported beverages and snacks, and more. There are also a variety of dishes, merch, flags and more.

“This is a hybrid location,” Villarino says. “We have one side that is destined to help more of the business owners that are on this side of town. On the right side, we have a retail location; we have a little bit more space here, so we’ll probably have a few more products.”

Customer favorites have included tamarind candy, specialty sodas, empanadas, and — in light of the World Cup — jerseys and flags.

“We have sodas from all over Latin America — from Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina and Peru,” Villarino says. “Sodas are a big thing.”

“It’s definitely a festive place,” Chun adds. “Anything related to empanadas (is popular) — we have ready-made empanadas you can put in the air fryer or oven.”

Partnering with and highlighting up-and-coming businesses is important to Villarino and Chun. At the Beretania store, a local Latino entrepreneur was featured every month, and their products would be sold in the store, according to Chun.

“We would set them up at the front of the store and give them a sales channel,” she says. “We had Raiz Tortillas, Madres Churros and more; we carried all of these locally made brands.”

“We serve a lot of established restaurants, but we want to give the opportunity to a lot of the smaller ones who are just starting,” Villarino says. “A lot of what we do is to support people.”

A dedicated community gathering space — which will host language workshops, cooking classes and other events — will open later this year.

“We can have a little more space for activations here, things that are more geared for the community,” Chun says. “We have a lot more children’s books; we want to have more children’s events, as well.”

The Waipahu store’s hours are the same as its Beretania Street location — 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Customers can park in the lot outside the store; street parking is also available.

“Food is the ultimate connector, and we’ve always taken pride in helping people find the exact ingredients that taste like home,” Villarino states. “We want families to walk into this new space and immediately feel a sense of belonging, education and community.

“I think it’s important to show that Latinas are good, hard-working people, and we’re ready to offer so much to the communities,” he adds.

Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays

Mercado de la Raza owners 061526

<title>Mercado de la Raza opens second location in Waipahu</title>

This Latin American market is celebrating the grand opening of its second store this Saturday, June 20, in Waipio’s Koa Ridge. The block party will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This second location is bigger than the business’s original store on South Beretania Street.

Mercado de la Raza opens second location in Waipahu

Donalyn Dela Cruz photo

Donalyn Dela Cruz

Viewpoints

Most don’t think twice about the garbage thrown out throughout the day and then hauled away once a week by city refuse.

“It’s just regular language, ʻthrow it away,’” said Allison Fraley, Solid Waste Division chief, County of Kauaʻi. “There is no ʻaway’ here on the island.”

With a population close to 74,000 and roughly 1.3 million visitors annually, Kauaʻi produces over 90,000 tons of trash every year. For the last 73 years, its landfill has been in Kekaha and is now close to reaching capacity.

“Finding landfills is never easy. We’ve been trying to do it on Kauaʻi for more than 20 years. We’ve been studying it and it’s been difficult,” Fraley said. “We’re at the point where we’re kind of in a crisis. We don’t have any more capacity unless we expand, so we’re pursuing that.”

Similarly, Oʻahu is facing its own landfill capacity crisis and difficulty finding another site. The “Gathering Place” of the state has a population of nearly one million and receives up to six million visitors annually — all of whom collectively generate roughly 1.2 to 1.7 million tons of residential, commercial, and industrial waste per year.

The search for a new landfill was an issue that Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi was told not to deal with. “These are people in elected office who said, ʻYou just leave it alone if you are smart. Let somebody else deal with it,’ which all the more incentivizes me to say, ʻNo. That’s not who we’re going to be.’”

In his first term, Blangiardi created a Landfill Advisory Committee (LAC) to help the city identify and evaluate potential sites for Oʻahu’s next landfill before 

the current Waimānalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill is required to close in March 2028

In his 2026 State of the City address, Blangiardi underscored the urgent need for a new Oʻahu landfill, describing it as one of the city’s most pressing infrastructure challenges. He reiterated his opposition to placing another landfill on the Waiʻanae Coast, but noted that other sites face significant legal, environmental, and land-use constraints, and called on the state legislature to help address the issue.

In 2020, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature passed Act 73, establishing strict landfill siting restrictions, including buffer requirements from homes, schools, and hospitals and prohibiting landfills in conservation districts.

This is in addition to the fact that there is limited available land in Hawaiʻi, the cost of land is extremely high, and Hawaiʻi is geographically isolated.

“Like if we were on the mainland, we could just haul it out, you know, just take it somewhere else, drive it out of our community. It would just be the shipping cost,”Fraley said. “But [here] we have to buy land and make sure it complies with all of these criteria.”

The proposed vertical expansion is intended to extend the life of the Kekaha Landfill, which is otherwise expected to reach capacity around 2030.

In response to heightened public concern over aquifer protection following the Red Hill fuel spill, the state legislature enacted additional restrictions in 2025 aimed at preventing new landfills from being sited above sensitive aquifer areas on Oʻahu.

That restriction has made an already difficult situation on Oʻahu even more challenging; in 2022, the LAC rejected all proposed alternative sites due to concerns that included risks to Oʻahu’s aquifers.

“We’re convinced if they were to drill a hole in the ground and spend a million dollars, it’s probably over an aquifer,” said Blangiardi, who referred to other development taking place on the island, including high rises.

All counties have implemented programs to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills.

“Each person on Oʻahu generates a little over five pounds of trash every day,” said Josh Nagashima, City and County of Honolulu refuse chief. “It’s kind of wild when you think about it.”

Through incineration, H-POWER produces up to 10% of Oʻahu’s electricity and reduces the volume of waste requiring landfill disposal by 90%, with the remaining 10% in the form of ash. Recycled waste is taken to local recycling facilities.

“Because of H-POWER, we’re already recycling or beneficially using over 70% of our waste,” noted Nagashima. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t do more. There’s a lot of food waste that was identified in what’s going to H-POWER in the waste stream, so we’re trying to remove a lot of that before it gets there.”

In April 2026, Honolulu County launched the G.R.O.W. (Green Recycling Organic Waste) pilot program in select households within Kailua, Hawaiʻi Kai, Mililani, Nānākuli, Waipahu, and Kalihi. G.R.O.W. allows those residents to add food scraps and food waste to their existing green compost carts.

“There’s lots of opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle. But once that’s done, we still have this massive amount of material that needs to be landfilled,” said Fraley, whose department recently held a community informational meeting on the proposed vertical expansion of the Kekaha Landfill, which would increase the landfill’s height to 85 feet. While there has been discussion over a potential new landfill site, there has been environmental and community opposition.

Meanwhile in Honolulu, Blangiardi continues to fight an uphill battle of opposition in the fruitless search for a new landfill site outside of West Oʻahu.

All counties have investigated new technologies, which is an argument often raised by community voices at meetings. However, investments into those technologies are in the billions of dollars. “Everybody forgets about that,” said Blangiardi, who has sat through meetings to learn about waste solutions from gasification to plasma vitrification.

However, as with most major development projects in Hawaiʻi, delays in identifying a landfill site result in rising costs.

“I am really concerned we’re gonna run out of time because this is not one of those things that you can say, ʻWell, let’s just squeeze another couple more years in here,’ Blangiardi said. “We’re pushing it as it is.”

On May 13, the Honolulu City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution introduced by Councilwoman Andria Tupola that would establish an “End Landfills Task Force” to develop alternatives to landfill disposal. The task force will have until November 2027 to evaluate strategies for ending landfill dependency and develop a plan to enact them. The task force will include county and state representatives plus subject matter experts from the recycling, waste management and energy sectors.

This article is reprinted with permission from 

There is No “Away” in Hawaiʻi: Counties face growing landfill challenges

, in its June 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 6. Read more at 

Screenshot 2026 04 21 at 3 03 12 PM 16x9

<title>Community Voices: 'Finding landfills is never easy'</title>

Counties face growing landfill challenges. “It’s just regular language, ʻthrow it away,’” said Allison Fraley, Solid Waste Division chief, County of Kauaʻi. “There is no ʻaway’ here on the island.”

Daily Smile: Thursday, June 18, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Thursday, June 18, 2026

Authors

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