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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"The world's laziest game of fetch....."}]

Smile 26 7 18

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

The world's laziest game of fetch.....

Daily Smile: Saturday, July 18, 2026

 The world&#039;s laziest game of fetch.....

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Real Estate

Kūpuna on the hunt for affordable housing have a new option in Honolulu: Ho‘ohiki Senior Living.

The new affordable community at 1002 N. School St. — developed by Highridge Costa Development Co. in partnership with the Hawai‘i Public Housing Authority — will soon welcome seniors 55 and older. The development will offer 249 rental homes reserved for households earning no more than 60% of the area median income. Income limits vary depending on household size; you can find the current income limits for the City and County of Honolulu 

, Ho‘ohiki offers 32 studios, 208 one-bedroom homes, and 10 two-bedroom homes, one of which is a manager's unit. Amenities include parking, an exercise room, classrooms, an arts and crafts room, multi-purpose room with a kitchen, and computer lab, along with an outdoor recreation deck with walking paths, resident gardens and a stage.

Gov. Josh Green, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Hawai‘i Public Housing Authority Executive Director Hakim Ouansafi and Highridge Costa Development Co. President Moe Mohanna were among those who gathered Wednesday morning for a grand opening celebration and blessing.

Ouansafi told Aloha State Daily after the blessing that the project launched about 18 months ago. A storm earlier this year had caused some damage in the building because there were no windows, he said, noting that a three-month delay was initially estimated.

"We met again and we said, 'You know what? We need to do everything we can. Delays are not accepted' ... and to see today, still on time, it's actually a beautiful thing."

Ouansafi says, too, the idea that affordable housing has to be "this small, dark area" was unacceptable and new standards were needed.

"I believe, confident actually, that today we did set a new standard for affordable housing," he told ASD. "... You will not be able to tell that this is affordable housing — only in the name — and that is important. And we built it cheaper than what others would build it [for], just with the cooperation, collaboration, proper planning, not wasting time — time is money — and having some good partners. This will set the stage for what affordable housing should be, I think, for years to come. I'm very, very proud of it."

Honolulu City Council Member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, who represents District 6, told ASD that there was a previous attempt to redevelop the site, "and the need was great then and it's even greater now."

"I take the bus most places, so I see the people who this project could benefit each and every day," he says. "Sometimes I talk to them. I talk to them about how much they pay in rent, how much they struggle just to make ends meet here. We need more options exactly like this."

When asked how he felt to be there Wednesday, Mohanna's response was simple.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I could say just very, very grateful,\" he told ASD."}]

"The amount of work that goes into these communities in general, but specifically into affordable housing, it's years in the making just to get to a construction start," Mohanna says. "I know we always focus on construction because it's visible; you see something coming out of the ground. But as with any tree, the roots have to go first, then the tree starts coming out of the ground."

The roots, he says, is the community work, the design, approvals, the financing; that can sometimes take three to five years to get to the point the developer can start construction.

"That's where the heart really has to lead in knowing that one day you will stand in this community, and more important than stand in this community but come back ... and actually see the kūpuna that live here, meet them, talk to them, get to know them."

Applications for the community's housing lottery are being accepted now through Oct. 31, with the lottery set to take place Nov. 10. Applications received after Oct. 31 may be added to the project wait list. Find more information 

Hoohiki2 101426

<title>Affordable senior housing development opens in Honolulu</title>

Ho‘ohiki, located on North School Street, offers 32 studios, 208 one-bedroom homes, and 10 two-bedroom homes

Affordable senior housing development opens in Honolulu

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

In the late 1970s, the Miano family left their home in Brockton, Mass. without the family patriarch. 

While Richard Miano Sr. was incarcerated, his wife and three children moved to O‘ahu seeking a fresh start. Though he was a loving and involved father, the people he associated himself with eventually caught up to him. 

"We knew that he was involved with a lot of stuff," his son, Richard Jr., better known to the football world as Rich Miano, recently told Aloha State Daily when asked about his father. "I'm not sure we knew that he was gonna end up in jail, but we knew that it was a crazy lifestyle. I've witnessed things that nobody should see with their own eyes growing up. ... People shooting people, beating up people with golf clubs. All kinds of mayhem, based upon what he did for a living, which was own nightclubs and bars and his associations with mafia and everything else was just, yeah. It was problematic."

[{"type":"text","text":"Brockton was all Rich Miano knew during his childhood. "}]

"Born and raised, never moved. Rarely traveled. Had no idea what Polynesia was. Basically, we're in one of the most segregated parts of the country," Miano recalled. "Coming to Hawaii was like, 'whoa.' Being a minority and didn't know the culture, didn't know anything about Hawai‘i, it took two years to adjust."

Miano enrolled at Kaiser High School with just a handful of weeks remaining in his sophomore year. He took the occasional "haole" ribbing from classmates as he adjusted to a new locale. Homesick but realizing the family wasn't going back to Brockton, Miano eventually acclimated to his new environment. It helped that he lived with his best friend, younger brother Robert, and the two navigated their new lives together. 

As a junior at Kaiser, Rich Miano joined the swimming and diving team, and performed well as a diver, competing in the state tournament. But in an effort to make more friends at school, he decided to give football a try for his senior year. 

"I just wanted to be one of the boys," he recalled. 

Though he hadn't played the sport since he was a youth, Miano quickly readjusted back to the sport. Robert saw how much Rich had enjoyed being back on the gridiron and said he'd join him on the team soon. Richard Miano Sr. had also rejoined the family on the Islands after his release from prison. Things were looking up for the Miano family. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Then, tragedy struck. "}]

Robert and Rich Miano rode together to school one day. Robert told Rich he'd skip class to go to Spitting Cave but he'd be back to pick up Rich. He never returned. 

Rich Miano knew something was wrong when he never got picked up from school, but when he returned home to see countless heads slumped and in tears, he was given a piece of news he could've never fathomed prior to that point. Robert Miano passed away following an accident at Spitting Cave. He was 16 years old. 

"I just remember how sad it was for my parents and how tragic it was to realize that my best friend, my roommate, is no longer there," Miano recalled. "I just saw the anguish and just the hurt in my parents and my sister, myself, and realized that nothing worse could ever happen in life for your parents and just your whole family in general."

Before Rich Miano became an all-conference and honorable mention All-American defensive back at the University of Hawai‘i, and before his 11-year NFL career, he was just a kid who wanted to honor his brother. 

"I think that was the motivating factor in part of the success — the fact that you're now playing for your brother as well," Rich Miano said. "You're playing for your family. You're trying to keep focused in terms of what you're doing in life, because otherwise you're just thinking about being sad and not trying to make the most out of your life."

Despite coming from an era where maintaining a tough exterior was paramount, Rich Miano never shied away from the heartbreak. 

I don't care how tough you are, whether you're a football player or you're a member of the mafia or whatever. When a family member dies, I think that crying and all that other stuff, it's just part of life. We cried openly. We weep openly. Even the thought now, when I talk about it, I get choked up talking about my mom, my dad, my brother, and my sister," Miano said between sniffles. 

Miano enjoyed his one season of high school ball at Kaiser. More importantly, he itched to keep playing. He joined the University of Hawai‘i football team as a walk-on, wreaking havoc on the scout team. At the time, walk-ons were forbidden from eating with the rest of the team, per NCAA rules. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"\"We'd eat s***,\" Miano recalled."}]

Miano, who also had to pay his way through school, worked valet at a local restaurant at nights and sometimes saw his teammates on scholarship come by and wave to him. "I'm busting my a** just to have $100 in my pocket," he says. 

Hawai‘i was Miano's only choice at the time as far as school and football were concerned. He didn't want to leave his parents so quickly after Robert's death. 

"The trajectory of my life changed because of that. I loved football, but I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave my mom and dad. I couldn't leave the state of Hawai‘i," Miano said.

Miano's first opportunity to earn meaningful playing time was during the 1983 season, a chance he did not squander. After leading the team in tackles and interceptions in 1983, he appeared on the radar of NFL scouts. He replicated his success in 1984, racking up a team-leading 110 tackles earning All-WAC and All-Coast selections for the second year in a row. He was selected in the sixth round of the 1985 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. His $30,000 signing bonus was a far cry from his valet days, and by the end of his rookie year, he purchased the first of his handful of O‘ahu homes. 

After stints with the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles, the final stop in Miano's 11-year NFL career was with the Atlanta Falcons, where he played for another former University of Hawai‘i player in head coach June Jones. Following his retirement, he returned to the Islands, where one of his jobs was as a radio broadcast analyst for UH football games. He watched from up top at 

 as the 1998 team suffered through an 0-12 season. 

When Jones got the UH job in 1999, he plucked Miano to coach the team's defensive secondary despite having no prior coaching experience at the collegiate level. In less than 10 years, the Warriors went from 0-12 to 1998 to a 12-0 regular season in 2007, led by one of Miano's all-time favorite recruits in quarterback Colt Brennan. 

"Colt was the best quarterback in the country. Colt could do everything, and if you looked at the film, every arm angle, every throw, there's no way that guy doesn't get $8 or $10 million in today's (NIL) market," Miano says. 

Jones departed for SMU following the 2008 Sugar Bowl and asked Miano to come with him to Dallas, but Miano's roots were already entrenched in Hawai‘i. Miano was elevated to associate head coach and stuck around in Mānoa through the 2011 season, departing when the school went in a different direction and hired Norm Chow ahead of the 2012 season. 

Miano returned to his high school alma mater, leading Kaiser to an HHSAA Division II title in 2013 before departing to pursue other ventures. 

Ever since he moved back to the Islands, Miano has been one of the go-to voices for anything and everything relating to Hawai‘i football. He's the color analyst during local broadcasts of UH football games. He's a regular on KHON2's Cover2, the state's only weekly show dedicated to high school football. In the same way Brennan was known to never turned down a picture or autograph from a fan, Miano has never turned down an interview request to discuss his passion for football in the Islands. 

Through his organization Hawai‘i Speed and Quickness, local athletes have earned thousands of dollars in scholarship money and other college opportunities. 

 in the KHON2 studio with the distinction of being named to the UH Circle of Honor for the Class of 2026. On Friday evening, he'll be one of five members officially inducted. 

"People ask me, 'Are you getting in as a player? You getting in as a coach? Are you getting in as a broadcaster?' I'll be honest. I don't know what I'm getting in as, but I'm proud of all three of those things. I'm proud of my affiliation with the University of Hawai‘i for the last 40-something years."

In recent years, Miano has lost both parents, as well as his sister, Karen. But his wife, Lori, and children Kupa‘a (born Richard III) and Siena will be there to celebrate his lasting impact on Hawai‘i football. 

Brockton and Honolulu are separated by over 5,000 miles, and there's no way teenage Rich Miano would have envisioned the life he built for himself in the Islands. Now 64, he's fully ingratiated himself to countless amounts of football players, coaches and fans across the state. 

Though his parents, sister and brother won't be there physically on Friday, Miano likes to think they'd be proud of the way he turned tragedy into triumph. 

"They would have never expected when we moved to Hawai‘i to be part of this community in such a big way," Miano said. "I do think they're still watching down from above, and they're proud. I think that I've I've reached my genetic potential in football. I don't know if I've reached my giving potential, but we certainly try, and we'll continue to try. So the more that comes our way, the more we can help other people. I always pray to them each and every day, and I hope that they are watching and they're proud."

Rich Miano Robert Miano 101526

<title>Rich Miano overcomes personal tragedy en route to becoming Hawai‘i football staple</title>

Miano lost his only brother, Robert, before his senior season of high school football at Kaiser. It set him on a path to an 11-year NFL career and a reputation as an Island football legend that will be cemented with an induction into the UH Circle of Honor on Friday.

Rich Miano overcomes personal tragedy en route to becoming Hawai‘i football staple

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

The Honolulu Police Department will shift 100 officers to patrol duties beginning November.

 announced Thursday that the department will move 100 officers from duties throughout HPD as a shift to get as many officers back on the road as possible.

“It means more officers on the road,” Lazar said. “It also means officers are available to respond when someone calls for help. It means we’re working to reduce response times and getting officers to those who need them sooner, and it ultimately means we can continue providing emergency police services without having to reduce our response capabilities.”

Lazar added that the move will also reduce overtime expenses. He said HPD’s overtime budget is about $6.8 million each quarter, but in the first quarter of 2026, that budget was exceeded by another $6 million.

“We just don’t have enough officers in patrol to do the work,” Lazar said. “We have beats, we have shift work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and so a lot of that overtime was spent to make sure that we have enough officers to do the work.”

The officers to be on patrol will be reallocated from throughout the department, from the chief’s office and the criminal investigations unit, to the traffic unit, training division, human resources, the narcotics and vice unit and more. Furthermore, where officers who finished field training would previously go to an additional training unit called “fourth watch,” they will now be put on patrol alongside another officer.

“Make no mistake, we still will investigate narcotics crimes,” Lazar said. “We’ll still go after gambling houses. We are still going to investigate every single type of crime that’s occurring.”

But while Lazar said the shift will not “sacrifice any ongoing investigation,” he also said that patrols are the primary focus for the time being, and investigations are secondary.

The shift does not have a specific end date. Lazar said the new state of affairs will continue for the time being as officer recruitment continues.

“There’s really no time limit on it, other than that we have to keep this in place until we have enough officers in patrol, and then we can start looking at … other elements that we need to refill again,” Lazar said.

But Lazar said officer recruitment is strong, with a class of 32 new recruits expected to graduate at the end of the month. Nonetheless, he said officer numbers are still some 200-300 short of the 2,177 officers the department is budgeted for.

The response from the rank-and-file is still unknown; Lazar said Thursday that he had informed the department as a whole about the change only about 15 minutes before the media were informed. Nonetheless, he said that “officers wanting to leave or retire [because of the change] have not crossed [his] mind.”

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi commended Lazar on his “flexibility [and] willingness to think differently,” and said his decision simultaneously addresses a financial challenge while improving public safety.

Lazar

<title>100 HPD officers to be reassigned to patrol</title>

Scores of officers will be reallocated to patrol duties next month, HPD Chief David Lazar announced Thursday.

100 HPD officers to be reassigned to patrol

IMG 1445

Rick Hamada

Columnists

I'm going to warn you now. The subject matter of this column is disturbing, and some of the details are deeply troubling.

I also want to preface this by saying I have zero tolerance for sexual crimes against men, women and children. Zero.

There is no excuse, explanation, justification nor tolerance, or forgiveness that can ever be extended to the perpetrators of sexual crimes.

Unfortunately, the pervasiveness of these most heinous crimes is one of the darkest stains in our community and society.

[{"type":"text","text":"I would wager that you know of someone who has suffered."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"You may have someone in your family who has suffered."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"You may have suffered. And continue to do so."}]

A most disconcerting aspect to sexual crimes and their commission are the excuses and rationalizations made over generations to where denial gets factored over justice. There's a fatalism to it, as if nothing could be done.

[{"type":"text","text":"Consider these scenarios:"}]

Yep. I've lost count of how many friends have disclosed being molested, groped, or outright raped. A lot of it was perpetrated by family members. Brother, dad, cousin, uncle, etc. And it's truly alarming how often the victims would continue to be left alone with the perpetrator after people were made aware of what happened.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sadly, this is only a scratch on the surface of the grim reality. "}]

We are told if you see something, say something. This adage is a very difficult fit with the layers of complexity in sexual assaults. Often the attack is so personal. There is a greater likelihood the victim will know his or her attacker and chances increase it is someone in their own circle of family or friends. 

[{"type":"text","text":"If this is the case, then the most important question becomes ... why?"}]

Why do these crimes go unreported? Why do families protect those that violate their own? How do relatives and even parents traffic their keiki in the sex trade?

[{"type":"text","text":"What is wrong with them?"}]

If you are privy to or participating in the ongoing and relentless abuses of others, especially innocent children, I hope you know you're going directly to Hell, because that's where you're sending these victims by your actions and even inactions.

There is a recent story here at home that is deeply saddening yet incredibly infuriating.

The Hawai‘i State Supreme Court has rendered a decision in regard to a horrific sexual assault case dating back 15 years.

the State Department of Education allowed

 the repeated rape and sexual violations of a female student at McKinley High School, who was known to be intellectually disabled with an IQ of 40 and the mind of a 5-year-old.

This young girl was placed in the general education population with virtually no supervision. Again, a teenaged girl with the mental capacity of a kindergartener.

[{"type":"text","text":"The predators lurked and then struck."}]

Once the initial attacks took place, additional violators took their turns.

[{"type":"text","text":"The assaults would continue for three years."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"That's 36 months."}]

That's 1,080 days of living in a Hell that should be reserved for the perpetrators and DOE staff that knew and allowed the defiling and abuses to continue.

In finding the DOE responsible for what is an absolute egregious facilitation of the most brutal of crimes that can be committed against a child the court awarded more than $14 million to the now 32-year-old victim.

She will require therapy and specialized treatment for the rest of her life.

If you are in need of assistance or advocacy as a victim of sexual assault, please contact The Sex Abuse Treatment Center at 808-524-7273 (24-hour hotline).

If you are aware of sexual abuse being perpetrated against anyone you know or love, please, don't hesitate to call the Honolulu Police Department. Dial 911.

[{"type":"text","text":"It's one thing to see something, say something."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It's another to know something, do something."}]

I Stock 178835830 16x9 Large

<title>Hamada: McKinley High School sex assault case appalling</title>

The State of Hawai‘i and its Department of Education fought off accountability for 15 years until the State Supreme Court decision confirmed the worst: Officials knew a student was vulnerable, was assaulted, and they did nothing to prevent it or stop it.

Hamada: McKinley High School sex assault case appalling

Government & Politics

As Hawai‘i voters begin receiving their ballots for the general election, they may ask: What does Constitutional Amendment Question 2 actually mean?

 to the state constitution will be on the ballot this election. One of those is self-explanatory — should the state Senate be allowed 60 days to appoint judges and justices between April and January, instead of the current 30 days — but the other may seem complicated.

Constitutional Amendment Question 2 asks whether the state should allow the counties to issue “Resilient Infrastructure for Shelter and Equity bonds” — or RISE bonds — to help fund public improvement projects. These bonds would be repaid by future tax revenues on the new developments funded by said bonds, without imposing additional taxes or raising tax rates, and would be exempt from the counties’ debt limit.

The proposed amendment was introduced in the state Senate this year with the stated purpose of attempting to lower the development costs of affordable housing. As noted in 

 — the measure introducing the amendment — the development of new homes requires large up-front investments in water, drainage and other infrastructure.

Rep. Luke Evslin, chair of the House Committee on Housing, said Wednesday that the solution to this has been either to pass on those up-front costs to homebuyers, leading to rising house prices and a lack of affordable housing, or to raise taxes.

RISE bonds would, in theory, present a third option by allowing counties to fund that infrastructure, with the debt being serviced by future increases in tax revenue specifically generated by those selfsame new developments made possible by the infrastructure.

This is not an original concept; 48 other states, excluding Hawai‘i and Arizona, use “tax increment financing bonds,” which operate on the same principle.

Evslin told Aloha State Daily Wednesday that it’s only due to a quirk in Hawai‘i's constitution that the state doesn’t also use these bonds. He said the constitution as written does not permit the counties to issue such bonds, hence the need for a constitutional amendment.

Evslin emphasized that the bonds do not bring an increase in taxes. The property taxes paid by new homeowners in a new development made possible by the bonds will be at the same tax rate as any other comparable development, but the revenues from those taxes will go to pay off the bond, rather than back to the county.

However, Gov. Josh Green said Wednesday that this does not mean the bonds will reduce the counties' tax revenues, as the tax revenues generated by these new developments do not currently exist. Rather than reduce existing revenues, the bonds will simply redirect some future revenues.

Furthermore, the amendment would exempt RISE bonds from counties’ debt limits, which Evslin said means a county could issue any number of the bonds — although, he added, because developments funded via the bonds will still require taxpayer-funded services such as police and fire department responses, counties will likely be judicious in how many they issue.  

Evslin said that the tax increment financing bonds are typically structured conservatively so that the municipality that issues them takes on little to no risk. He said in the event of a disaster wiping out the infrastructure investments — something he said has happened in California — typically the bondholder, not the municipality, is left holding the bag.

The proposal was nigh-universally popular as it passed through the legislature, with major unions such as the Pacific Resource Partnership and the General Contractors Association of Hawai‘i voicing strong support of the amendment. This week, the Chamber of Commerce Hawai‘i urged members to vote yes on Question 2. 

One of the few people to testify against the proposal, Hawai‘i County resident Cindy Freitas, warned about the potential for lost tax revenue and the lack of guardrails for how much of a county’s tax base can be captured by the bonds.

But Green and several other lawmakers spoke in favor of the amendment Wednesday. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said there is a roughly 28,000 unit deficit of housing on O‘ahu, which he said RISE bonds can help to reduce.

Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami called the bonds “a monumental change to how we fund infrastructure,” adding that, after the many disasters of 2026, it is clear that the state’s resilience is dependent on having modern and reliable infrastructure.

“Communities can only be as resilient as the roads that connect us,” Kawakami said.

Daily Smile: Saturday, July 18, 2026

ASD Staff

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Daily Smile: Saturday, July 18, 2026

Authors

ASD Staff

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