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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Cutting the cheese with a dog on my head..."}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Tuesday, July 7, 2026</title>

Cutting the cheese with a dog on my head...

Daily Smile: Tuesday, July 7, 2026

 Cutting the cheese with a dog on my head...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

Gov. Josh Green created a new state Marine Affairs office amid another round of bill signings on Monday.

Among the seven bills Green signed into law Monday was 

, which consolidates various ocean-related duties and responsibilities within a new Office of Marine Affairs to be administered by the Hawai‘i Technology Development Corp.

The bill is aimed at managing the state’s “blue economy” — the various industries that rely on the ocean and aquatic resources — and creating a central framework for the state’s oceanic policies.

Consequently, the Office of Marine Affairs is tasked with developing a statewide marine affairs strategy governing subjects from ecosystem management and shoreline resilience to fisheries management and marine tourism.

Previous ocean-related powers and responsibilities held by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism — which primarily required DBEDT to collaborate with various other state agencies to help develop their own ocean-related plans — have been revoked.

“We have been told for years and years we have to diversity our economy, but we have to do it right,” Green said during the bill signing Monday. “We have to do it in a way that fits our state.”

Sen. Glenn Wakai, co-introducer of the bill, said he hopes the new office will be able to address the state’s status as a net importer of fish — he said the state imports two thirds of all the fish consumed in Hawai‘i.

While the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity has aquaculture programs to promote local seafood production, Wakai said only about 2% of DAB’s resources are dedicated to ocean affairs.

Wakai added that the Office of Marine Affairs could also improve swimming education among keiki to reduce the rate of drowning fatalities among children.

SB 2907 was one of several economic development measures Green signed Monday. Along with 

a bill creating new tax incentives for motion pictures filmed in Hawai‘i

 program — which partners with counties to provide tax credits to businesses within specific areas — to include additional industries within those zones, such as a local manufacturer’s retail space, medical product development and sale, aerospace technology development, IT services and more.

The bill also extends the tax credits available to businesses for an additional two years: where previously the tax credit began at 80% for a business’ first year of operation and attenuated each year until bottoming out at 20% in the seventh year, the bill now extends that 20% credit through a business’ eighth and ninth years.

 establishes a micro-loan program within DBEDT that allows qualified people or businesses to apply for small loans of no more than $50,000, as defined by federal law. The bill also allocates $1.5 million for the program and establishes a special fund that will continue to support it.

 renames the Stadium Development District to the Hālawa Community Development District and creates a special fund to manage developments within that district.

 increases standards within the state Agribusiness Development Corp.’s Food and Product Innovation Network — a program helping local food producers to scale up their operations — to require compliance with various food safety laws, establish specific key performance indicators, and coordinate Hawai‘i-specific branding across products.

 requires DBEDT to provide public notice whenever it grants filming permits to a film crew, or whenever a film production qualifies for the film tax credit.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

GovGreen

<title>Green signs new Marine Affairs office into law</title>

New state office will govern ocean and aquatic resources and policies.

Green signs new Marine Affairs office into law

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

A sprinkling of rain Monday morning in Honolulu added to the blessing and official opening of the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center’s Hoʻōla Early Phase Clinical Research Center (EPCRC) 

 the state’s first dedicated center for early phase cancer clinical trials.

Plans for the Hoʻōla EPCRC, which means “to heal or give live” in ʻ

after it received millions in federal funding to help expand access to innovative cancer treatments for Hawaiʻi patients who would otherwise have to travel to the Mainland to receive specialized care. Also funded by the state, donors and philanthropic organizations such as 

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust

, the project cost for construction and equipment totaled approximately $19.5 million, according to UH Cancer Center Director Dr. Naoto Ueno.

“This is truly a historical day,” said Ueno, who is also a two-time cancer survivor, in his opening remarks during Monday’s ceremonial lei untying before an audience of state lawmakers and health care leaders, community partners and more.

More than 10 years ago, I myself participated in a Phase 1 clinical trial. The trial gave me hope and it’s the reason I’m standing. … Today, we make a major step for bringing the same hope to more patients here in Hawaiʻi. [It] marks a new chapter for cancer care in Hawaiʻi and across the Pacific.”

 we have spent $230 million from 2021 through 2023 on outside-of-the-state cancer care. We know that many people cannot simply make that journey because of the time commitment and financial impact. … But that

’s about to change [so that] more patients can participate in clinical trials closer to home, closer to their communities and closer to the ʻāina that gives strength.”

Now that the infrastructure is built and some pilot testing has been completed, Ueno told Aloha State Daily that they can attract more pharmaceutical companies, while building credibility. (Note: A clinical trial is a research study patients volunteer to take part in. Most new ways of finding, preventing and treating cancer were discovered in clinical trials.) 

He expects the first patient will be seen within the next month or so. The vision five years from now, Ueno says, is that the Hoʻōla EPCRC will support at least 30 different clinical trials at one time.

“Our geographic location is both negative and positive for that,” he explained. “Yes, we are geographically isolated from the rest of the country but one positive is the unique demographics of our patient population.”

Providing patients across the Islands with access “to safe, compassionate, high-quality cancer care” is the overall goal, which will also help shape cancer care models for future generations, he notes.

Tyler Workman is the interim clinical director at Hoʻōla EPCRC responsible for the the day-to-day operations of the clinic, including managing a staff of about eight employees, and getting all the equipment and supplies ready.

“Iʻm currently working on researcher and nursing workflows, setting up the clinical lab and infusion stations,” he told ASD, adding that he anticipates the team will grow as they secure more trials and treat more patients. Employment opportunities can be found 

Remarks at the opening ceremony were also given by Sen. Mazie Hirono, a kidney cancer survivor; UH President Wendy Hensel; Dr. Jack Lewin, Administrator of

 the Hawaiʻi State Health Planning and Development Agency

; Jason Chang, president and CEO of the The Queenʻs Health Systems and member of the The Hawaiʻi Cancer Consortium; and Dr. Leslie Chun, CEO of the Hawaiʻi Pacific Health Medical Group a

nd member of the The Hawaiʻi Cancer Consortium.

"Today, we are not just opening doors to a new facility. Weʻre opening the doors to innovation, access and hope," Chun stated.

Peter Hirano closed with final remarks reflecting on the life and legacy of his late wife Susan Hirano, who was a patient advocate with Stage 4 breast cancer at the UH Cancer Center.

“I've been told by several team members at the cancer center that Sue consistently reminded the team here that their work isnʻt just about research. Itʻs about the patient. Itʻs about the person that the research can ultimately help and itʻs about creating hope for patients and their families.”

She also established the Susan C. Hirano Cancer CARE Community (Community, Awareness, Research and Emotional Well-Being), which offers free quarterly events for the public, particularly those touched by cancer. The next event, “Healing Through Art,” is set for Saturday, July 18, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the cancer center. 

Peter Hirano shared how he found a sticky note on her desk 

shortly after her death that read: “Legacy is not what you leave behind. It's what you awaken within others.”

“The center is going to leave a legacy. It will awaken a sense of hope for many in this community."

At a glance: Hoʻōla Early Phase Clinical Research Center

Layout: 7,500 square feet, on 1st and 2nd floors of the UH Cancer Center
 
Key features: Six infusion bays, five patient rooms, two nurses’ stations, pharmacy, two exam rooms, clinical research laboratory, patient lobby and reception area
 
Construction: Started in October 2022; completed in December 2025
 
Total design and construction funding (federal and state): ~$19.5 million
($6.5 million Federal NIH C06 – Research Facilities Construction Grant; $6.5 million State of Hawaiʻi via Act 20 in 2019; $6.5 million – Federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Community Project Funding / Congressionally Directed Spending [2022 Omnibus Appropriations Act])

Courtesy UH Cancer Center

For more information about the UH Cancer Center's Ho‘ola EPCRC, 

. Learn about the University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center at

Hoola Clinic hero

<title>New cancer clinical research center unveiled in Honolulu</title>

The state’s first dedicated center for early phase cancer clinical trials — dubbed the Hoʻōla Early Phase Clinical Research Center — officially opened Monday at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center in Kakaʻako. The new facility, which cost a total of about $19.5 million for construction and equipment, will allow local patients to receive specialized treatments closer to home.

New cancer clinical research center unveiled in Honolulu

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Columnists

Wai‘alae Country Club has hosted the PGA Tour every year since 1965. Next January it hosts something else. The Sony Open is now the Sony Championship Hawai‘i, a tournament for players 50 and over.

Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, and Vijay Singh have all won at Wai‘alae. Now they can return to play a course that suits men who no longer drive the ball as far as they once did. The tour looked at Hawaiʻi and assigned us to the seniors’ circuit. What stings is how well the assignment fits.

The Sentry was Maui’s tournament, played each January at Kapalua in West Maui since 1999. It is gone now — to California, as it happens — and it took about $50 million a year with it.

Drought came first, and then the lawsuits. Maui Land & Pineapple claims in a court filing that the Kapalua golf courses drank more than 11 million gallons in a single June while county drinking water got 80,000. It is easy to feel bitter about emerald fairways up the coast from a town still rebuilding from fire, and nobody weeps for the richest man in Japan.

But Tadashi Yanai, who owns those courses, has 

 to fix West Maui’s water system and hand it to the public for free. The problem is that nothing can get built here, even by a billionaire.

The Champions Tour takes the game’s greatest players, now past their prime, and puts them on a shorter course.

Hawaiʻi runs the same format. Our past champions still tee off every year: Tourism, the military, construction. They are our Els, our Furyk, our Vijay. The difference is the gallery. Golf fans adore their legends. We line our fairways with protest signs. And no rookie industry appears anywhere on our leaderboard, despite decades of talk about farming and clean energy.

A place with no rising industry has no ladder. Young people who want to climb must leave, and they do. Who arrives in their place? People who are finished earning.

We provide for these new arrivals handsomely. Hawaiʻi has the lowest property tax rate of any state, and Maui County is among the lowest of any county in America. A traditional employer pension, a military pension, a government pension: none of it is taxed here. 

Meanwhile the worker still earning faces an income tax that climbs to 11 percent, among the steepest in the country. He also pays a general excise tax that reaches his groceries, his rent, and his baby’s diapers.

It is a tax code that welcomes people to rest and charges people who work. So the islands fill with California’s tech money and America’s pensioners, and the local kid packs for Las Vegas.

Somebody will say that older and slower is what these Islands ought to be. There is something to that. Communities may choose their own character, and any single project can be opposed for honest reasons. Perhaps the seven telescopes proposed for one acre of Haleakalā deserve a no. But protesters were arrested blocking the summit road over the last big telescope, in 2015 and again in 2017. Hundreds testified against this new one, and the county council has voted unanimously against it twice in two years. Maui has banned new vacation-rental complexes and is phasing out thousands of existing rentals. And rebuilding Lahaina’s Front Street, nearly three years on, is slow going. At some point the pattern stops being about any single project. 

A place may choose rest, but it must count the cost honestly, and the cost is the children. A short course is kind to a man of 55. A 25-year-old needs room to swing, and he will find it somewhere else.

Scripture says man was set in the garden to work it and to keep it. We have grown very good at keeping. But we’re allergic to working, and a society arranged to live off what was made before is out of order, however comfortable it feels. If that is true, our assignment has not changed: Settle West Maui’s water rights so that somebody can build something. Stop treating our three old champions with contempt while offering nothing to replace them. And rebalance a tax code that exempts the pension check while taxing a young family’s milk.

They are calling the two January tournaments the new Hawai‘i Swing, but nothing about them is new, and the seniors’ tour would be the first to admit it. It knows what it is: past winners, a shorter course, finished by Saturday. The players are past their prime. Are we?

Sony Open 070126

<title>Sony Open joins the seniors’ tour — and so has Hawaiʻi</title>

A pension check arrives in Hawaiʻi untaxed; a young family’s groceries do not. ASD columnist Sterling Higa on the golf rebrand that tells the truth about who these Islands are built for.

Sony Open joins the seniors’ tour — and so has Hawaiʻi

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Everyone’s looking to save money and get the most bang for their buck. This series will show you where you can save while still savoring a good meal.

A 12-ounce prime rib for $30 sounds too good to be true, but if you dine at 8 p.m. or later at 

The $30 prime rib entree is available for dine-in only starting at 8 p.m. from Sundays to Thursdays. It’s available from 8 to 9 p.m., or until sold out; we’re told sometimes it sells out in 15 minutes, as limited quantities are available.

The $30 prime rib was originally a chef special that was featured at the restaurant in April. It extended to May since it was a customer favorite, and it’s still available due to popular demand.

The entree features a 12-ounce herb-crusted prime rib that

s served with Maui green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. This special is for dine-in only; takeout is not available.

Customers can still order off the eatery’s regular menu and dessert menu during this time. Popular options include the mixed-to-order tableside poke, organic taro hummus, tako and country bread, and garlic roasted wild shrimp.

Bestselling desserts include the bread pudding ($14) — featuring Maui Gold pineapple, macadamia nuts, housemade salted caramel and housemade vanilla cream — and the Waialua chocolate purse ($14), which is served with coffee caramel and housemade vanilla ice cream.

Restaurant reservations are recommended via 

Prime rib deal available from 8 to 9 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays

Merrimans prime rib 062726

<title>Budget Bites: $30 prime rib deal at Merriman’s Honolulu</title>

This special entree is available starting at 8 p.m. for dine-in only on Sundays to Thursdays at the eatery. It features a 12-ounce, herb-crusted prime rib served with Maui green beans and garlic mashed potatoes.

Budget Bites: $30 prime rib deal at Merriman’s Honolulu

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Liliha Bakery will bring its iconic Coco Puffs and local comfort food to another Waikīkī locale, opening its sixth location on O‘ahu July 17.

You'll find the new 6,000-square-foot eatery on the second level of Waikīkī Beach Walk. According to a recent announcement, the bakery and restaurant will feature both outdoor and indoor dining spaces.

Liliha Bakery first opened in 1950. Its bakery items include the iconic Coco Puffs, poi doughnuts and butter rolls, and you'll find faves like the loco moco, garlic shrimp, omelets and more, on the menu, according to the announcement.

"While Waikiki has many restaurants, there is still an absence of local-style dining options that truly represent Hawaii's comfort food. We wanted to help fill that gap by creating another space where visitors can experience local food and hospitality, while providing a convenient new location for guests to enjoy Liliha Bakery," Peter Kim, owner of Liliha Bakery, said in the announcement. "

We’re incredibly grateful for the continued support we’ve received from communities across Oʻahu, and we’re excited to continue sharing the Liliha Bakery experience with both visitors and kamaʻāina.”

Marketing Coordinator Katie Matsuno shared similar sentiments, telling Aloha State Daily in an email that Waikīkī Beach Walk felt like the perfect fit for Liliha Bakery because it allows the restaurant to bring its local-style food and bakery to the heart of Waikīkī.

While there are plenty of restaurants in the area, we saw an opportunity to offer the kind of comfort food and bakery items that have been part of our tradition for the past 75 years," she says.

As for the demand the bakery is hoping to see in this spot, Matsuno told ASD the hope is to serve a "good mix" of both local residents and visitors.

"Our goal is to become a destination where people can enjoy breakfast, lunch, dinner and freshly baked pastries throughout the day. We also hope to introduce more visitors to our scratch-made menu, iconic Coco Puffs and the warm hospitality that has been part of Liliha Bakery's legacy for more than 75 years."

When asked whether there are plans for future expansion at this time, Matsuno says that right now, the focus is on making 

Waikīkī Beach Walk "a successful opening and delivering the same quality, consistency and hospitality our guests have come to expect from every Lilha Bakery location."

"While we're always looking for opportunities to grow, we don't have any additional expansion plans to announce at this time."

The original Liliha is located at 515 N. Kuakini St. in Honolulu but you'll find 

 at 580 N. Nimitz Highway, the third floor of Macy's at Ala Moana Center, International Market Place in Waikīkī and Pearl Highlands Center in Pearl City.The location at Waikīkī Beach Walk will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Parking is available at Embassy Suites Waikīkī Beach Walk valet parking.

Liliha bakery waikiki

<title>Liliha Bakery to open new spot in Waikīkī</title>

This will be the brand's sixth location on O‘ahu.

Liliha Bakery to open new spot in Waikīkī

, the sister restaurant of Tempura Ichika, is known for its intimate setting and high-quality Japanese sushi.

On July 6, the eatery is launching a new dining experience called Makai omakase. This omakase will only be available on Mondays and Tuesdays; it starts at $90 per person.

The new dining experience is inspired by the express-style omakase concepts popular in cities like Los Angeles, New York, Taiwan and Tokyo. This course is designed for customers who want an elevated sushi experience within a shorter timeframe.

There will be three seatings for the omakase — 5:30, 6:45 and 8 p.m. — which is designed to only take about 75 minutes. The counter seats about five people.

The current menu will stay the same for about a month, as it highlights seasonal ingredients. Our meal started with chutoro, isaki (a white fish) from Nagasaki and hirame (flounder) with shiso and topped with lemon and salt.

Highlights include zuke maguro (tuna), shrimp coated with garlic miso, a small bowl of rice and ikura with sake and soy sauce, salmon nigiri, and Hokkaido scallop with yuzu kosho.

The eatery uses Yamagata rice — a Japanese short-grain rice — that’s seasoned with a blend of red and white vinegar, according to head sushi chef Ken Kawakami.

The course concludes with rice topped with Hokkaido uni and wrapped in nori, along with miso soup.

Reservations for the Makai omakase are available; seating is limited, due to the restaurant’s cozy setting.

Makai omakase available on Mondays and Tuesdays, 5:30, 6:45 and 8 p.m.

Sushi Ichika chef 070126

<title>Sushi Ichika has a new, affordable omakase experience</title>

The sister restaurant of Tempura Ichika is starting a new Makai omakase on July 6. This new course starts at $90 per person, and it will only be available on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Daily Smile: Tuesday, July 7, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

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