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[{"type":"text","text":"Today's dogs have it pretty good..."}]

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<title>Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 10, 2026</title>

Today's dogs have it pretty good...

Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

 Today&#039;s dogs have it pretty good...

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

A $2 billion natural gas facility proposed for Kapolei is still anticipated to come online in four years.

, JERA Co. Inc., the largest power generation company in Japan, submitted a 

 to the state for a natural gas-fired power plant that would deliver about 500 megawatts of power — equivalent to about one-third of the island’s total power plant generation — to O‘ahu’s power grid annually.

That proposal estimated that the facility — called the Longboard LNG project — could go online in 2030, pending permitting and regulatory hurdles. On Wednesday, Erik Montague, vice president of development JERA Americas, told Aloha State Daily that is still possible, although the project is still not a guarantee for Hawai‘i.

“Nothing’s 100% in this world,” Montague said. “We’re very confident right now that this makes sense. Working through this process, making sure we’ve answered all of the technical and safety concerns in a way that the regulators are comfortable with, and the people here are comfortable with — that’s a process that we have to go through before we get to certainty.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, JERA hosted a pair of open house events as part of a public outreach process required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before filing a formal application. At Wednesday’s event, at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center, JERA representatives presented facts about various facets of the proposed facility.

As the JERA proposal and representatives explained, the project would import liquefied natural gas to O‘ahu via tanker ships, which would be stored in an offshore floating fuel storage unit, which would also regasify the fuel, converting it from a liquid form back to gas. The fuel would then be delivered by an underwater pipeline to the power plant itself, located in Kapolei, which would burn the fuel, generating electricity to be sent throughout O‘ahu through the existing power grid.

Montague said the project dovetails with the state’s mandate that 100% of its net electricity generation come from renewable sources by 2045. He said Japan has its own similar mandate, with a 2050 deadline, which he called “a tall order.”

“We have seen tremendous progress in Japan,” Montague said. “I think Hawai‘i has seen tremendous progress, but that first 30%, 35%, is the easier stuff … The next 35% is going to be much more difficult, and we’re already seeing that, across the world, that the cost of these renewables are getting higher, and making sure that the grid is in a position to accept them becomes a bigger and bigger challenge.”

JERA’s involvement in Hawai‘i came about in 2023, during a Biden-era hydrogen “hubs” 

, wherein the Department of Energy established regional hydrogen development and innovation hubs throughout the U.S., with about $7 billion in funding to boot.

“We met with some of the parties here, and I think it became apparent very quickly that the state had some serious energy challenges,” Montague said.

 in early 2024 about how to best decarbonize the state, which concluded that the “gas transition pathway” was the most cost-effective and carbon-friendly option. After sharing this study with the state, and following further discussions, JERA eventually 

 a strategic partnering agreement with Hawai‘i in Oct. 2025 to develop energy projects in the state.

LNG is not a renewable fuel. However, Montague said JERA’s facility is not incompatible with the state’s mandate; the facility can be converted to burn other clean fuels such as biofuel, while JERA’s regasification unit can weigh anchor and sail on to different markets.

“A transition from coal and oil to gas is a very tried-and-true pathway to manage affordability and emissions,” Montague said, adding that about 70% of O‘ahu’s power still comes from oil generation. “The transition beyond that, I think, is probably a bit more varied.

“Many places that are upgrading their thermal infrastructure to modern gas power are able to increase their renewable generation, so that even though they may still be using natural gas, they’re able to use less of it and have a higher penetration of renewables in their market,” Montague said.

Montague said he expects JERA will formally file an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by the end of the year, which will kick off “a very regimented review process.” Meanwhile, regulatory steps on the state side, with the Public Utilities Commission, must also play out, which Montague said JERA is “still a bit earlier.”

“Once it starts producing cleaner, more affordable power, then I’ll tell you that it’s 100% certain,” Montague said. “Obviously once you start construction, that’s a big milestone, but that’s still a little ways out in front of us.”

 For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Untitled design 3 1 16x9

<title>Liquid natural gas proposal builds momentum</title>

$2 billion facility in Kapolei could go online by 2030.

Liquid natural gas proposal builds momentum

Zane Dalgamouni

Viewpoints

threats of ever-growing government surveillance

 on the Mainland, with the use of biometric technology to track down undocumented migrants and 

 being used on Oʻahu for license plate tracking, we have an ever-growing threat for Hawaiʻi. For the past nine months, the mass-surveillance technology company Palantir has been retrofitting offices in Downtown Honolulu.

, a Miami-based corporation, specializes in combining vast datasets to build comprehensive profiles of individuals. It has been used by the 

 to integrate tracking from CCTV cameras, license plate readers, arrest logs and social media. For example, if the Honolulu Police Department were to partner with Palantir, walking in front of a biometric surveillance camera would allow the government to log your locations and movements, your social media posts would be linked to your name, your driving habits would be logged, and those you gather with would be traceable. 

I didn’t find out about this new office through a press release or a public hearing; I found out about it from online 

. The company is actively recruiting in Honolulu for high-level, military-facing roles including "Forward Deployed Software Engineers" and "Deployment Strategists" for the U.S. government. While Palantir has not explicitly named its clients, these specific roles, paired with Honolulu’s status as the headquarters for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, suggest that this corporate footprint is designed to support major federal military operations. Yet, even our local lawmakers are being left completely in the dark. 

When asked about Palantir’s new downtown office, Honolulu City Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam confirmed the secrecy, stating, "This is the first time I’m hearing about this, so ... No, I haven’t been briefed on it at all." 

If an elected official representing urban Honolulu is unaware of a major defense-intelligence contractor moving into his district, the public is entirely cut out of the equation. This complete lack of transparency from Palantir brings to light the threats that mass surveillance poses to our free society and will have impacts for years to come.

So far, based on public records, HPD has no open contracts with Palantir. However, once a tool becomes available in a society, it slowly becomes normalized and used by the local government. 

Mandy Finlay, advocacy coordinator of the 

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Hawaiʻi,

 warns that this is how "battlefield tools migrate into everyday governance without public input." 

This isn't a hypothetical fear: after facing years of significant public outcry and investigations into racial bias, the Los Angeles Police Department recently canceled its data-mining contracts with Palantir. Policymakers like Dos Santos-Tam note that if the city would want to pass transparency-measures on police contracts with private-firms, a statewide policy from the Legislature may be required due to state/county preemption limits. 

However, the ACLU argues the threat is immediate. Finlay notes that while the state recently signed 

 to limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, "we know this administration buys its way around such protections through private, backdoor data partnerships." 

In practice, federal agencies circumvent local sanctuary restrictions by bypassing local police departments entirely, opting instead to purchase bulk, aggregated civilian-tracking data directly from private tech vendors. Palantir Technologies did not respond to a request for comment regarding the operational scope or intent of its new downtown Honolulu office.

Hawaiʻi’s culture is unique from the rest of the country and is embodied in our Aloha Spirit. We pride ourselves on being welcoming to all, and our strong community allows us to trust and look out for our families and friends 

Palantir and mass-surveillance technologies are trained to monitor who you frequently drive to, who you stand with at public events, and who your friends are. On the Mainland, this is intended to 

 criminal gangs and extremist groups. With Hawaiʻi's deep interconnectedness, a Punahou student could have a friend who lives in Kailua, an aunty who works in Mākaha, and an uncle who works at Pearl Harbor; this would all look suspicious to an algorithm. 

Artificial intelligence does not understand the concept of ʻohana, and instead, treats interconnectedness as a risk. If Palantir and mass-surveillance technologies were to be used in Hawaiʻi, our Aloha Spirit could quickly turn into a culture of fear. Knowing that you are always being watched, you would change how you talk, where you gather, and who you hang out with, creating a society of constant surveillance. You would second-guess everything from going to a protest to attending a family gathering, out of fear that your presence could be used against you.

As a 15-year-old, I fear a future where my every move is watched and where my peers and I cannot speak freely. However, we do not have to accept a future dictated by unaccountable tech giants. We are already ahead of our mainland counterparts by not currently holding a contract with Palantir. It is of the utmost importance that we keep it this way. Honolulu must implement strict transparency rules and require public input before any municipal surveillance contract can even be considered. By drawing a line in the sand now, we can ensure that the future of our city is not defined by constant fear, but by the freedom to live openly.

ACLU Hawaiʻi, among other groups, will protest Palantir outside of its Hawaiʻi offices at Pacific Guardian Center in Downtown Honolulu.

Want to reach out to the author of this article? Find Zane Dalgamouni on LinkedIn, 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

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<title>Community Voices: Punahou student raises concerns about Palantir Technologies in Honolulu</title>

Zane Dalgamouni, a 15-year-old student at Punahou, fears a future where his every move is watched and free speech is threatened. He concludes, "We do not have to accept a future dictated by unaccountable tech giants," including Palantir Technologies, a Miami-headquartered corporation that is hiring now in the Islands.

Community Voices: Punahou student raises concerns about Palantir Technologies in Honolulu

Most incumbents fended off challengers in Hawai’i’s primary election Saturday. 

While many elected officials ran unopposed in Saturday’s election, dozens of races, including those for the state’s highest offices, were contested. Here’s how those races turned out, based on 

released Sunday by the state Office of Elections.

In the wake of Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke’s dramatic fall from grace, the lieutenant governor position was one of the most hotly contested this election, with five Democratic candidates and four Republicans throwing their hats into the ring. 

Kaua’i Mayor Derek Kawakami was the most popular of those candidates by far, with 139,935 votes at most recent count, more than 62% of the votes cast for Democrat candidates. His next-closest challenger, Rep. Della Au Belatti, received 55,093 votes.

Kawakami will face Republican Daniel Anthony, who defeated three challengers with 16,930 votes, and non-partisan candidate Kilakila Kamau — who was unopposed in the primary — in November.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Overwhelming support for Green"}]

Gov. Josh Green, meanwhile, handily won his race, receiving 183,872 votes as of Sunday, about 83% of the votes for the four Democratic candidates. The next-closest challenger, Lauren Shim, received only 11,156 votes.

On the Republican side of the race, Gary Cordery will challenge Green in November, having received 36,308 votes in the primary, over 20,000 more than his sole opponent Ken Fujiyama. 

And non-partisan candidate Bu Laia Hill defeated three challengers and received 1,320 votes.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not all incumbents hold on in the Senate"}]

Of the 14 Senate seats up for this year’s election, seven were uncontested in the primary. Of the remaining seven races, two saw incumbents closely challenged or unseated entirely.

In District 10, Rep. Jackson Sayama — who currently represents House District 21, including Kaimukī and Pālolo Valley — defeated incumbent Sen. Les Ihara Jr. Sayama received 6,486 votes compared to Ihara’s 3,074.

The Republican race for Senate District 20 is extremely close. At the most recent count, incumbent Kurt Fevella was only seven votes behind challenger Bob McDermott, leading 1,211 to 1,204. 

Meanwhile, the race for District 13 was hotly contested as sitting senator Karl Rhoads was not running for re-election. Tricia Kwai Lin Nakamatsu defeated four other Democratic candidates with 4,454 votes.

Incumbents won the other races. In Senate District 2 on Hawai’i Island, Sen. Joy San Buenaventura received 5,253 votes, defeating her Democratic challenger Tanya Yamanaka Aynessazian, who received 1,911. 

In District 14, Sen. Donna Mercado Kim defeated her sole challenger with 3,455 votes against her opponent’s 2,858.

Sen. Rachele F. Lamosao, who was appointed to the 19th District in December following the retirement of former Sen. Henry Aquino, has received 3,883 votes, defeating her single Democratic opponent. Meanwhile, Rep. Elijah Pierick ran uncontested for the same seat, and will face Lamosao in the general election.

And Sen. Chris Lee had 9,263 votes in District 25, far ahead of his sole challenger Bobby Silva, who had 1,641.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Battles for House vacancies"}]

As most contested elections in the House strongly favored the incumbent, the closest battles were in districts where the incumbent was not running for reelection.

In House District 21 — currently held by Jackson, who is running for a seat in the Senate — five Democrats vied for the seat, with Derek Turbin in the lead with 2,631 votes. HIs closest challenger, Jake Morrow, has 1,358 votes.

Four Democratic candidates also fought for House District 26, currently held by Belatti. Ian Ross, with 2,010 votes, is in the lead in that race.

The only races in the House where the incumbent was closely challenged were in District 29 — where Democratic incumbent Ikaika Hussey is currently only 30 votes ahead of challenger John Mizuno — and District 43, where Republican Rep. Kanani Souza is only a single vote ahead of opponent Sheila Medeiros.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Turnout"}]

According to the most recent data published Sunday morning, more than 280,000 votes were cast in the primary, about 33% of the total registered voters in the state. This is about 10,000 more votes than were cast in the 2024 primary election, although nearly 250,000 fewer than those cast in the 2024 general.

Of those votes cast this year, nearly all of them — 274,093 — were cast by mail. Of those, 210,283 were cast for the Democratic Party, and 47,073 were cast for the Republicans.

Derek kawakami kauai state of the county 031325

<title>Who's winning in the primary election?</title>

Here's how the most hotly contested races stand as of Sunday.

Who's winning in the primary election?

Hawai’i Rep. Ed Case will hold on to his seat after the first primary election results came in Saturday.

Case, who is running for his third consecutive term as representative of Hawai’i’s first congressional district, faced four challengers in the state Democratic primary, most significantly Jarrett Keohokalole, the state senator for Senate District 24, which includes Kāne’ohe and Puohala Village.

released by the Hawai’i Office of Elections showed Case with a commanding lead over his opponents: about 60% of the roughly 97,000 votes counted in the first results were for Case. 

Votes for Keohokalole accounted for about 35% of the first results. The other three candidates — Jennifer Booker, Nick Kiswanto and Ben Fatula — together received the remaining five percent of the vote. 

Keohokalole conceded the race Saturday evening. He told Aloha State Daily he "doesn't like losing," but intends to stay hard at work in the state Senate.

"We're gonna do a deep dive into the numbers and do some outreach and sort of figure out [what happened]," Keohokalole said. "We're gonna take the kids to the beach tomorrow and try and relax and decompress, and then we'll take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly ... and then I go back to work in the Senate. There's plenty to do. A lot of the issues are gonna be the same. The role is gonna be a little different, but you know the the work doesn't stop."

Keohokalole said he felt that he could have done more in Congress had he won, and that challenging the incumbent Case was healthy for democracy.

"No one is entitled to an elected seat," Keohokalole said. "We should have challenges in races. You don't have a functioning democracy unless there's choice."

Keohokalole will retain his Senate seat until the 2028 elections. As the Senate has no term limits, he is eligible to run again.

Case told ASD he is humbled by Hawai‘i voters' faith in him. He said the election was, to his eyes, "a referendum on [his] job performance."

"I think the real fault lines were ideological," Case said of the difference between him and Keohokalole. "A choice between different types of Democrat ... and most voters said they want a moderate, mainstream democratic approach."

While Case said he will not take the general election for granted, he added that, should he win, he will "go right back to the same challenges [he's] been dealing with: the dysfunction, the polarization in Congress." He said addressing the cost of living crisis remains one of his top priorities.

Case will face another three challengers in the general election in November. His Republican opponent, Adriel Lam, ran unopposed in the primary and received 15,224 votes. His other challengers are non-partisan candidate Nathan Berning and Green Party candidate Jordan Conley.

Meanwhile, Hawai’i’s other representative, Jill Tokuda, easily defeated her three primary challengers, receiving 84% of the vote by first results. She will face Republican challenger and state senator Brenton Awa, who was unopposed in the primary, in November.

Ed Case 2022 Official Portrait

<title>Case, Tokuda, keep seats after blowout primary</title>

Early results from the state primary elections indicate an all-but-assured victory for Hawai‘i's incumbent representatives.

Case, Tokuda, keep seats after blowout primary

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Business & Tourism

Food & Dining

, which opened in 2016, now has a new home.

The cafe is still in Pearl City Plaza, but instead of facing Kamehameha Highway, the restaurant is now located in the backside of the plaza. It’s a much larger space, according to owner Brian Park, who says the cafe can now seat 64 customers (the previous location could seat 19).

“We have air conditioning,” he says. “That was probably the number one thing people wanted.”

The biz is popular for its brunch features American/Hawaiian/Korean fusion cuisine. The menu is mostly the same, but Park says new dishes will eventually be added to the menu.

“Pancakes and waffles are coming,” he says, noting that the cafe’s pork belly plate ($20.95), crab cake Benny ($21.95) and kimchi fried rice ($8.95) are newer specials.

The cafe’s eggs Benedicts, loco mocos and stuffed French toast continue to be customer favorites. Eggs Benedicts come with a choice of rice, fries, tater tots, potato hash or fried rice (additional $2.95). 

Meanwhile, loco mocos — choose from the original ($19.95), kalua pork ($17.95), braised short ribs ($20.95) or corned beef hash ($18.95) — come with two scoops of rice, one scoop of mac salad, two eggs and homemade brown gravy.

The business’s stuffed French toast feature a double stack of gourmet sweet bread with assorted fillings, ranging from strawberry cheesecake ($13.50) to ube ($13.50).

The tiramisu flavor was previously featured special, and is a new option, according to Park.

While the breakfast menu is served all day, select dishes on the lunch menu are available starting at 11 a.m. on weekdays only. Popular options include the braised short ribs plate ($21.95), meat jun ($19.95) and barbecue chicken plate ($19.95).

Other popular shareable dishes include the eatery’s poutine fries, which come with gravy, cheese, green onions and chipotle mayo, with a choice of French fries or tater tots.

The business is currently open from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays to Sundays, but Park hopes to extend its hours in the future.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We plan to open seven days, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” he says."}]

719 Kamehameha Hwy. Ste. B106, Pearl City

Open 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays

Button Up Cafe owner Brian Park 080826

<title>Button Up Cafe is now open in a bigger space</title>

The Pearl City brunch spot — known for dishes like strawberry cheesecake stuffed French toast, corned beef hash loco moco and Korean braised short rib eggs Benedict — has been open in Pearl City Plaza since 2016. The biz just relocated to a larger space within the same plaza, and reopened today.

Button Up Cafe is now open in a bigger space

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Aloha Spirit

When fire swept through Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023, the banyan tree on Front Street remained standing, shielding the buildings behind it from the flames.

Only a small portion of the tree trunk caught fire, and that’s because it was near a post that caught fire, Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee, told Aloha State Daily this summer.

, on Maui in June, ahead of the third anniversary of the fire, which killed more than 100 people and destroyed much of Lahaina town.

And while it survived the fire, the banyan, planted more than 150 years ago, was dried out by the ambient heat from the inferno engulfing neighboring buildings.

All of that heat, says Sparkman, “was basically microwaving the tree; it was cooking the tree.”

According to the arborist, the banyan itself saved the harbor bathrooms behind it, blocking the heat and the brunt force of the fire, and stopping the flames from reaching the building.

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, the banyan is still on the mend, and will be for a while."}]

Sparkman told ASD that following an assessment with arborists in May, it was decided to keep the banyan fenced off for another two years.

“It’s going to be two years of healing still for that tree,” he says. “It really needs it. It does. It’s hard to say how truly damaged the inside of the tree is because the species that it is can literally wrap itself around the branches and start to heal itself. But we’re nervous about the interior heartwood of the tree, so if that heartwood is at all damaged by borer beetles or twig borers, then we have a problem and it becomes fragile, then the public’s at risk, so we have to wait. But that's OK. It needs it.”

These trees can live to be 1,000-plus years old, Sparkman says, so at 153 years old, “it’s still a baby and it just went through a fire, so let’s give it a break.”

Although the tree is fenced off, you can still view it from the street. On a recent walk along Front Street, there were a number of visitors stopping to take a look — from a respectable distance, of course.

Sparkman says that by keeping the tree closed to the public for two more years, "it'll allow that tree to not be climbed on. It'll allow that tree to set aerial roots into the soil and pull more nutrients and heal faster. Those are the No. 1 factors. There's less compaction from human interaction, so the roots can actually heal faster and distributes nutrient throughout the tree faster. So, there's a lot of reasons why we want to keep people out of it."

He said, too the tree had "a lot of scars" from people carving into it, "so we know that's going to come back, and our thing is to reduce that for a while, let that healing go throughout the tree, all the way up into the upper canopy. It is still 56 feet tall. [The fire] didn't burn the tree. The tree is completely alive, so the whole entire canopy is regrowing. It's just this upper canopy is growing much slower than the lower canopy, and since we're seeing that, that's what makes us [say], 'OK, we're going to slow down access to the public.'"

Since the fires, more than a dozen "air layers" have been pulled from the tree, some of which are on display at Maui resorts. While Sparkman says that the original intent was to plant them back into the park, "we don't know what we're going to do with them. They don't belong to me. They don't belong to Treecovery. They belong to all of us in Maui County. We pay our taxes and the taxes maintain the tree, so they're public assets."

When asked if this is where he thought the recovery of the banyan would be three years post-fire, Sparkman says he had "no idea" and has no expectations, having never been through this experience before.

, the banyan was planted on April 24, 1873, by Sheriff William Owen Smith. The sapling was a gift from missionaries in India and was planted to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lahaina, HHF notes.

Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

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Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

Authors

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