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Daily Smile

When you thought you were getting a smart German Shepherd but instead you got one with one brain cell...

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<title>Daily Smile: Friday, June 26, 2026</title>

Daily Smile: Friday, June 26, 2026

 When you thought you were getting a smart German Shepherd but instead you got one with one brain cell...

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Government & Politics

Business & Tourism

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism recently released the 2025 edition of the state "Data Book," the 58th iteration of the comprehensive statistical guide. You can find it 

"DBEDT has published the Data Book since 1962 and it continues to be one of our most frequently praised resources,” DBEDT Director James Kunane Tokioka said in a recent announcement. “I’m often stopped by residents and community leaders who share how valuable the information is for their work and planning. The Data Book helps researchers, businesses, government agencies and local organizations understand Hawai‘i through reliable, accessible data. 

"This year’s edition reflects close collaboration between our Research and Economic Analysis Division and partners across federal, state and county agencies, as well as private organizations, to deliver the high‑quality information the public depends on.”

The department says that this year, all tables have been redesigned to meet Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards and Excel files are now the exclusive download format.

There's plenty to see, but here are some bullet points from the 2025 data that we found interesting:

Rainbow Hawaii State Capitol May 2026

<title>Interesting insights from the 2025 Hawai‘i Data Book</title>

While thereʻs a lot of information on just about everything included in the 58th edition of the free statistical guide recently released by DBEDT, some of the tidbits that caught our eye include home prices, visitor trends, the names youʻll commonly find on birth and death certificates and more.

Interesting insights from the 2025 Hawai‘i Data Book

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

Do you have a book that changed your life? Want to share it with a stranger? Now you can at the Books, Brews & Beats Festival, which will hold its second event in downtown Honolulu this Saturday.  

The Oct. 10 event is slated to run from noon to 6 p.m. at 1000 Fort Street Mall near Pickles at Fort

, and will include more than 20 vendors and musicians. See the full line-up, 

Attendees can bring a book that they enjoyed and trade it for another thoughtfully chosen read, while sipping single-origin coffee or ceremonial grade matcha and listening to ambient musical sounds.

“The Books, Brews and Beats concept was really just a passion project that stemmed from a love for reading and wanting to incorporate that with cafe culture,” said 

, the festival’s founder, who is also a Honolulu-based singer, DJ and ʻukulele virtuoso.

“Essentially, I wanted to create a book exchange that also celebrates single-origin coffees — bringing local business, reading, and live instrumentation together,” she said.

For the first event, held earlier this year in April, Mayeshiro approached one of her favorite local cafes, 

, and asked if the coffee shop would be open to a curated book exchange and staying open for a few extra hours while she was the DJ and played ʻukulele.

“And I just put a poster up and said, ʻBring a book to exchange for another book, and come connect with people over a love of reading and coffee and music,’” she recalled. “The turnout for that was way bigger than I expected, which was awesome. … This next one is that same concept, but I'm making it an outdoor local market, as well.”

“It was a six-hour-long event, and the whole studio was packed the entire time,” she continued. “And there was a line outside.”

There is no fee to participate in the festival, so the only cost is that of the book the reader wants to share with a stranger, she explained.

“If you want to buy a coffee or matcha, you totally can, but it's not required,” Mayeshiro said.

This also isn’t a book exchange to get rid of books, she added. In fact, the musician and reader has been visiting vintage stores and local bookstores around Oʻahu to collect books she “genuinely found interesting or would want to share with a friend,” she said.

Music is also instrumental to the festival. The line-up of what Mayeshiro likes to call “healing frequencies” includes pianists Christina Sochor and Noah Hull, violinist Duane Padilla, and sound healer Ashley Nguyen. It also features Red Nova, an avant-garde experimental improvisational jazz group, and Godai, which is a collaboration of the artists Max High and Floteson. Mayeshiro will also perform as Shizue.

Mayeshiro hopes to turn the event into a quarterly gathering. 

One of her goals is for the event to spark community.

“I want people to feel like they're connected to one another,” she said.

Maia

<title>Adopt a book at this downtown Honolulu festival</title>

The Books, Brews and Beats Festival started earlier this year as a passion project for Maia Mayeshiro — a Honolulu-based DJ, singer, and ʻukulele virtuoso — who wanted to bring the community together to celebrate "local business, reading and live instrumentation," she said. This Saturday, Oct. 10, attendees can visit Fort Street Mall to trade their book for another thoughtfully chosen read, while sipping single-origin coffee or ceremonial grade matcha and listening to ambient musical sounds.

Adopt a book at this downtown Honolulu festival

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Guieb Cafe’s new downtown Honolulu location in Davies Pacific Center isn’t open to the public yet. However, there’s another downtown Honolulu space where customers can find the cafe’s popular ube mascarpone pancakes and pork adobo omelets.

 — operated by the Guieb Cafe team — opened this month in the cafeteria space of the Prince Kūhiō Federal Building in downtown Honolulu.

“We were presented with an opportunity to take over a federal building cafeteria — which was not something we are used to or even knew anything about,” general manager Precious Guieb remembers. “We checked it out and we were stunned by how big the space is.”

The cafeteria space — which is open to the public — had been vacant for a while, according to Guieb. She says she had returned from visiting the cafe’s Las Vegas location during the summer, and checked out the current Pīkake Cafe space in August.

“We got this up and running the whole month of September with inspections and such; our first day open was Oct. 1," Guieb says.

“Since we already do catering already, we thought, ‘Maybe it’ll work out,’ so we gave it a shot,” she adds. “We serve similar items to Guieb Cafe and similar dishes from our catering (menu), so it’s kind of a blend of both, while catering to the whole cafeteria vibe.”

Guieb says her dad is the chef and owner, and the cafe’s name was inspired by his favorite scent.

“My dad really likes the pīkake flower,” she says. “He felt like this was a good name for it; he was mentioning how he wanted to bring life here (in this space).”

Even though Pīkake Cafe is in a federal building, the cafeteria is open to the public, according to Guieb. Individuals need to pass through a security checkpoint, then catch the elevator to the fifth floor, where the cafeteria is located.

The cafe serves breakfast from 6 to 10 a.m.; options range from breakfast burritos ($12.48) and croissantwiches ($12.48) to ube mascarpone pancakes ($14.56) and ube waffles ($10.40).

“Everything is made to order,” Guieb says. “We brought our ube mascarpone pancakes (from Guieb Cafe) here; it’s a smaller portion. That, the ube waffles and pork adobo omelet have been a hit in the mornings.”

Breakfast burritos feature spinach wraps stuffed with sausage, eggs, cheese and potatoes, and they’re served with a potato medley. The cafe’s croissantwiches (croissant sandwiches) include sausage, eggs and cheese.

During lunch — served from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. — customers can opt for an all-you-can-load salad bar ($14.56) or go for one- or two-choice plate lunch-style entrees. The salad bar includes Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, artichokes, boiled eggs, bacon bits, fresh-cut seasonal fruits, creamy basil pesto rigatoni and more, according to Guieb.

“You can fill up (your plate) as much or as little as you want,” she says. “We’re getting great feedback on that.”

Entrees change daily for the plate lunches. For instance, Mondays feature shoyu chicken and chicken long rice, with roast pork and mushroom gravy ($15.60) as a special; on Fridays, customers can choose from Korean short ribs kalbi, hamburger steak, chicken adobo and kalua pig and cabbage. Plates usually come with potato mac salad or steamed veggies and rice.

Many specials feature popular options from Guieb Cafe or the business’s catering menu, according to Guieb.

“Our Korean short ribs is very popular on our catering menu,” she says. “We have hamburger steak and garlic shrimp (as entrees), which are popular from the Guieb Cafe menu.

“Yesterday, we had oxtail soup on special; next week, we’ll have chicken papaya soup and clam pasta,” she adds. “Things that we don’t normally get to do at Guieb Cafe, we’ll try to incorporate here.”

Guieb notes that, while parking can be limited at the federal building, it’s a short walk from Waterfront Plaza, where there’s ample parking.

“We get a lot of HPU students coming here for breakfast and lunch,” she says. “People are always like, ‘I’ve been wanting to visit (Guieb Cafe),’ so in a way, they get to try our flavors. We’re not sure what to expect, but we’re excited. We’re trying to give them (the state and federal workers) something to look forward to.”

300 Ala Moana Blvd. fifth floor, Honolulu

Open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, closed all federal holidays

Pikake Cafe Precious Guieb 100526

<title>Pīkake Cafe offers local-style comfort food in downtown Honolulu</title>

The sister business of Guieb Cafe is located in the cafeteria space of the Prince Kūhiō Federal Building in downtown Honolulu. The cafeteria is open to the public — customers have to go through a security checkpoint — from Mondays to Fridays. Diners can expect some of the most popular dishes from Guieb Café, including ube mascarpone pancakes, pork adobo omelets and hamburger steak.

Pīkake Cafe offers local-style comfort food in downtown Honolulu

The votes have been cast and counted, and the best hotels and resorts across the Islands have been ranked in 

Condé Nast Traveler's 2026 Readers' Choice Awards.

The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikīkī Beach

General Manager Mike Kass said in an announcement Tuesday that the recognition is a reflection of the "passion, dedication and genuine care demonstrated every day by our ladies and gentlemen."

 that is set to bring the Parisian pâtisserie, known for its macarons, to Hawai‘i for the first time; a collection of guest experiences will culminate with the debut of a pop-up Ladurée cafe on Dec. 4. 

Rounding out the top 10 hotels in Hawai‘i are 

The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, Waikīkī

Kōloa Landing Resort at Po'ipū, Autograph Collection

Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Autograph Collection

Top 25 Destination Spa Resorts in the United States

Best Spa Resorts in the U.S. and Around the World

Hawai‘i's four major islands were all ranked on the list of 

, with Maui at No. 3, O‘ahu at No. 4, Lāna‘i at No. 6, Hawai‘i Island at No. 10, Kaua‘i at No. 11 in the U.S.

Hundreds of thousands of people submitted their ratings between April 1 and June 30, and the results were tabulated by Condé Nast. Read more about the methodology 

A number of Hawai‘i hotels and resorts were recently ranked among the best in the U.S. in the USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Awards. Read more about those 

HNLRR Exterior HERO 2022

<title>These Hawai‘i hotels, resorts recognized by Condé Nast Traveler</title>

Hundreds of thousands of people voted between April 1 and June 30 to find the best hotels, resorts, cruise lines, spas, cities and more around the world, including the top hotels and resorts in Hawai‘i, which were ranked in the magazine's 2026 Readers' Choice Awards.

These Hawai‘i hotels, resorts recognized by Condé Nast Traveler

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Crime & Courts

Columnists

The Moanalua High School girls wrestling team has won five state titles in a row. That is the sort of sentence that usually ends a story. This week it begins one.

Sean Sakaida coached that team through four of those titles. He is 

, accused of producing child pornography with one of his wrestlers. Court records say he began dating the girl when she was in ninth grade.

Within a day of the FBI posting a tip form, two more possible victims came forward.

The morning after Sakaida’s arrest, the mother of his three children walked into Family Court with a handwritten petition for a protective order. She alleged that he abused her children, and she asked the court to keep him away for 20 years.

The courts have not yet ruled. But the public record is already heavy enough to ask: How did he get here?

The wrestlers were children. Their parents signed the permission slips and drove them to practice and trusted a man — and the school that hired him — to help form their daughters.

That formation is what a coach is for. A parent lends a child to a coach for a few hours a day so the child can learn to work hard, compete well, and get up off the mat.

Sakaida, by his own account, made himself available at all hours. In 2012, at Roosevelt High School, a parent accused him of kissing a 13-year-old wrestler and texting other girls as late as 3 a.m. He denied the kiss. He did not deny the texts. He told the Star-Advertiser he was only helping students with their problems, and that former students still called him “because he was always available.”

Every parent should hear alarm bells in that sentence. A 30-year-old man texting other people’s teenage daughters at 3 a.m. is not “available.” He is a threat. Teens have problems, and they should carry those problems to their parents. A coach who becomes the person they carry them to instead has not added something to a family. He has taken something from it. The best-friend coach is a type we have learned to admire. It is a type we should learn to resist.

The Department of Education investigated in 2012. But it never called the police. Sakaida was placed on leave. The next year Moanalua hired him. Moanalua’s athletic director has 

 whether the school knew about the 2012 allegations.

, and anyone with a search engine could have found it in under a minute. If Moanalua knew, that is one kind of trouble. If Moanalua did not check, that is another.

Then Sakaida won: First a few individual champions, then four state titles in a row. In 2025 the school received a complaint that he was in a relationship with a 17-year-old wrestler. The school investigated. Again, no one called the police.

Sakaida was placed on leave, his contract lapsed, and his name went into a confidential registry. According to federal prosecutors, the relationship continued for months afterward. It took a private citizen tipping the FBI in January to bring in anyone with a badge.

Wrestling is a fine sport. It builds tough, hard-working people, because the mat does not lie. It teaches responsibility, because a wrestler who loses cannot blame a teammate.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to win, and nothing wrong with winning. But the desire to win is like fire: useful in the hearth, ruinous in the curtains.

We know what that desire looks like when it gets loose. Students who live in the weight room and skip the classroom. Teenagers taking steroids to gain an edge. Schools that hire a coach with a complaint already on file because his teams bring home hardware.

The desire to win at any cost is idolatry, pure and simple, and idols always want to be fed. In this case, it appears, girls were the offering.

Here is what happens next if nothing changes. The victims will rightly sue. The DOE will settle out of court to avoid the headlines. The settlement will be sealed, and the public will pay the bill without ever learning who knew what. Records requests will die under “pending litigation.” The criminal trial will produce details, and we will consume them the way we consume cold-case podcasts, and then we will forget.

We should not. Every detail that emerges should be read as a specification for reform. A school is not a police department. When a complaint involves a possible sex crime against a child, the school’s first call should be to the people whose job is investigating crimes.

That is already the law. Hawaiʻi makes every school employee a mandated reporter, required to report suspected abuse immediately to Child Welfare Services or the police. It’s not clear that the schools did. The Legislature should ask why, in public, before the settlements seal the answer.

A coaching hire should require a check of past complaints across the whole system, not just a clean criminal record. Parents should ask who is texting their daughter at midnight, and a coach should be dismissed if the answer is him.

Moanalua has a case filled with trophies. At what cost?

Moanalua HS BANNER 16x9

<title>Moanalua won four state titles: Who paid?</title>

In 2012, a parent accused a Roosevelt coach of kissing a 13-year-old wrestler. The next year, Moanalua hired him and he won four state titles. ASD columnist Sterling Higa on idolatry, mandated reporting, and the trophy case nobody wants to look inside.

Moanalua won four state titles: Who paid?

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Honolulu’s new police chief named two officers as his deputy chiefs Monday.

 David Lazar as the new chief of the Honolulu Police Department in July, Lazar said he would take some time before naming who will serve as his deputies. That process of consideration ended on Monday, when he named Maj. Brandon Nakasato and Maj. Parker Bode to serve as his permanent deputy chiefs.

Lazar said Nakasato will serve as the interim chief when Lazar is unavailable. Nakasato will lead HPD’s field operations, while Bode will lead its Administrative Operations.

Nakasato has 27 years of service with HPD, and has extensive experience throughout the department’s various investigation divisions, Lazar said. Nakasato was a graduate of the University Laboratory School and most recently served as Interim Deputy Chief, overseeing field operations, during the leadership transition period.

“He cares greatly about the department, and he is the best selection at this time as we move forward as a mission,” Lazar said.

Bode, meanwhile, has 16 years of experience, much of which was in the HPD’s Human Resources Division, and has most recently served as Lazar’s chief of staff. Lazar said Bode, who is 39 years old, is “one of the youngest deputy chiefs in HPD history.”

Bode’s father was an HPD major who retired after 33 years of service, Lazar said.

“[Bode] brought an innovative approach to HR in whatever assignment he took on,” Lazar said. “He is leading the department's effort to gather input from sworn professional staff to help shape HPD's new strategic plan: What our department will look like three or five or even 10 years from now.”

Lazar said he selected Nakasato and Bode after working closely with them in the weeks since his appointment, and after one-one-one conversations with them and other HPD majors, assistant chiefs and others.

“This was a challenging decision to make, but these two men rose above,” Lazar said, adding that both deputies have “great reputations” within HPD and in their communities.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi commended Lazar’s decision Monday, saying that picking dependable deputies is essential for any leader.

“I know what it’s like to have people close to you in these leadership challenges that you can absolutely trust beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Blangiardi said.

Daily Smile: Friday, June 26, 2026

ASD Staff

Reporter

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Daily Smile: Friday, June 26, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

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