Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Government & Politics

Why did the pedestrian cross the road? Because a newly opened bridge in Kaka‘ako makes it easier and safer to do so.

The $17.8 million elevated walkway, located on Ala Moana Boulevard between Ward Avenue and Kamake‘e Street, opened Thursday, a little more than three years after 

It spans six lanes of traffic, more easily and safely connecting Kaka‘ako to Ala Moana Beach Park and Kewalo Basin, the state Department of Transportation said in a May 22 announcement.

When construction started in May 2022, the DOT gave an estimated completion date of October 2023.

A department spokesperson told Aloha State Daily in an email Friday that unforeseen site conditions, mainly on the makai side of the street, led to a revised completion schedule.

These challenges included a communications line that was in a different location from as-built plans and reinforcing an old box culvert not in initial plans, and others, they said. A concrete shortage in 2022 also affected the time frame.

DOT Director Ed Sniffen said in the announcement Thursday that the bridge has been "eagerly anticipated by many."

"Our partners in this project have done a fantastic job of building a walkway that will not only serve as a pedestrian and bike safety measure but as an aesthetic addition to the corridor."

The spokesperson said the pedestrian bridge bridge reduces the potential of "vehicle-pedestrian conflict" for those crossing the busy roadway to reach Ala Moana Beach Park and Kewalo Basin

"One of HDOT's goals recently has been to improve pedestrian safety, especially on roads more than six lanes wide," the spokesperson said, noting that a pedestrian bridge can reduce the number of people using the street crosswalks and therefore the potential for vehicle-pedestrian collisions.

That stretch of Ala Moana Boulevard sees an average of about 49,000 vehicles per day, according to traffic counts from the DOT, which can be 

 An estimated 2,100 pedestrians and bicyclists are expected to use the walkway daily, the DOT said.

According to the DOT, the project was funded through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development, or BUILD, discretionary grant program and state highway funds — 80% of which was covered by federal funding and 20%, or about $4 million, was covered by the state — with other contributions from Victoria Ward Limited for land, design and environmental fees.

The bridge connects to Ward Village's Victoria Ward Park Makai, which 

. It's the first phase of the park named in honor of Victoria Ward, born in 1846. Ward Village is Howard Hughes' 60-acre master-planned community located between Downtown Honolulu and Waikīkī.

"Creating a walkable, connected neighborhood is central to our vision for Ward Village, which is why the new elevated walkway is such a meaningful addition," Ward Village said in a statement emailed to Aloha State Daily Friday. "In partnership with the state DOT and the Federal Highway Administration, the project enhances safe, direct access from mauka to makai, linking residents and visitors to nearby parks, open spaces and the waterfront. We look forward to expanding the neighborhood experience with upcoming improvements to Victoria Ward Park and other public spaces next year."

04 Elevated Walkway Courtesy of Ward Village

<title>Pedestrian bridge crossing Ala Moana Boulevard in Kaka‘ako is now open</title>

The $17.8 million elevated walkway, located between Ward Avenue and Kamake‘e Street, opened May 22, a little more than three years after construction on it started.

Pedestrian bridge crossing Ala Moana Boulevard in Kaka‘ako is now open

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Known for its oceanfront location and relaxed ambiance, 

 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 14 (additional dates will be announced soon).

Mu‘u & Mimosas, A Kaimana Tea Party will take place monthly in Kapua Lounge (the hotel’s private dining room). It offers an elevated spin on afternoon tea with island vibes, ocean views, local flavors and — of course — mimosas.

The tea service invites guests to wear their favorite aloha shirt or mu‘umu‘u while enjoying an afternoon of refreshments, and the experience will be enhanced with local florals and live entertainment.

Two menus priced at $55 and $78 are available. Both include your choice of hot tea from Hobbs Tea Hawai

i. Options include green, black, spicy chai, mint, wild hibiscus, mamaki, sencha green teas and more.

The $78 menu also includes a Champagne Laurent-Perrier island mimosa. Guests can also opt for specialty iced teas featuring Pono Potions or Hau Tree craft cocktails.

The afternoon tea menu, created by pastry chef Joli Asano, features classic tea party fare blended with local flavors. The $55 menu includes a mix of sweet and savory dishes. Enjoy ham and cheese spirals with housemade Parmesan aioli, egg salad sandwich on housemade shokupan bread, cucumber dill sandwich, vanilla scones, Lē‘ahi coconut macaroons infused with green tea, guava chiffon cake and Kaimana banana bread. 

The $78 tea menu features the inclusions from the $55 menu, along with additional items like quiche tart, pistachio raspberry éclair, ube macarons with ube cream cheese filling, strawberry peach parfait and a mango fruit tart with mango curd in a sugar cookie crust.

The quiche tart is probably my favorite item from the savory offerings. It’s a cheesy mix of gruyere, spinach, feta and egg. The ube macarons with ube cream cheese filling were sublime, and the strawberry peach parfait — fresh strawberry and peach jelly in a milk pudding — features a texture similar to that of panna cotta. The desserts are light and refreshing with lots of fruity flavors.

If you want to enhance your tea experience, additional dishes like miso Caesar salad with pecorino and a savory crumble ($22), mini croissants with POG jam and whipped butter ($12) and Shokupan toast with POG jam, calamansi curd and whipped butter ($6) are available a la carte.

You can make reservations online for the afternoon tea experience at 

Kaimana Beach Hotel afternoon tea food 052125

<title>Save the date for the launch of this new Mu‘u and Mimosas afternoon tea</title>

Kaimana Beach Hotel’s afternoon tea service is starting in June

Save the date for the launch of this new Mu‘u and Mimosas afternoon tea

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Entertainment

Arts & Culture

It has been a busy couple of months for Kumu Hula Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu. His hālau, the Oakland-based Academy of Hawaiian Arts, competed in Merrie Monarch, which ran from April 20 through 26. This week, when Disney’s live action version of “Lilo & Stitch” debuts in theaters on Friday, May 23, his voice will be part of the soundtrack.

, the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus, and the North Shore-based brothers 

. Of that group, only Hoʻomalu and the director of the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus, 

can say they were part of creating the soundtrack for the original movie.

Hoʻomalu did the singing and some of the composing for the 2002 movie’s “He Mele No Lilo” and “Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride,” performed with the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus.

This year, at Merrie Monarch, the wahine in his hālau’s performed “Kuʻe Hao O Ka Lanakila,” a mele about a railway line that stretched from Moanalua to Waiʻanae. The oli that started the performance included parts of 

which was also featured in “He Mele No Lilo” in the original “Lilo & Stitch” movie.

“On the Merrie Monarch this year, the girls kahiko, 

. We did get recognized: ʻOh, that's the oli that he did for ʻLilo & Stitch,” the original, which is called ʻKa Wohi Ku Ka Moku,’ ” he told Aloha State Daily. “It was really nice because everybody in the audience was singing. … What a beautiful gesture to the queen.”

Going into Merrie Monarch, the practice schedule for the kumu hula included hula classes every day, with kāne on one night and wahine the next, Hoʻomalu told ASD. 

“I’m different because I don't see hula and the sound of hula as the same thing,” he said. “The sound is a whole other element that’s for the hoʻopaʻa, that’s for the chanters. … Hula is for the eyes and the leo — the sound — is for your ear. It's not the same thing, but they should both make your brain dance.”

The annual competition brings Hoʻomalu back to the Hawaiian Islands. After the competition on Hawaiʻi Island, he spent time with family on Oʻahu, he said.

“It allows me to come home and to bring hula home that Hawaiʻi is not doing,” he said. “Being away from Hawaiʻi allows me to not get caught up in what everybody else is doing. … By osmosis you become like everybody else. It was like that 50 years ago, and I don't want to be like that.”

The  kāne kahiko performance of “Holo Mai Pele,” was a mele that dates back to at least 1860 and tells the story of the migration of Tūtū Pele to Hawaiʻi, he said.

“Everyone in Hawaiʻi who has done it has done it the way that the Kanakaʻole family has done it,” he said. “That's where they learned it from, and they present it that way.”

But Hoʻomalu choose to share the story as a migration from the ocean, he said. In fact, his dancers brought outrigger canoe paddles to the stage.

“He's talking about a migration, sailing from Tahiti and I am bringing it from the ocean — not land locked, but from the ocean — and presenting a new rendition of an old mele,” he said.

of other 2025 Merrie Monarch performances. 

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Kumu Hula Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu

<title>Kumu Hula Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu shares how the same oli was featured at Merrie Monarch…</title>

Kumu Hula Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu reflects on Merrie Monarch and how hula and music are not “the same thing, but they should both make your brain dance.” An oli he performed at Merrie Monarch this year had the audience singing. It appeared in the original animated version of ʻLilo & Stitch’ in 2002. It will also be part of the soundtrack for Disney’s live action version of the movie, which debuts Friday, May 23.

Kumu Hula Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu shares how the same oli was featured at Merrie Monarch and in Disney’s new “Lilo & Stitch” movie

Whenever I had a serious plate lunch craving, 

 — formerly located in Māpunapuna — always hit the spot. The only downside to the industrial neighborhood was the sometimes-limited parking.

However, the biz recently moved to a new spot on Sand Island Access Road. The menu is the same, but customers will be relieved to know there are multiple parking stalls fronting the business.

Kau Kau Grill only moved locations about two weeks ago; we’re told it was because the business’s lease was up at its former spot. It’s now in the former site of Ronnie’s Kitchen.

The eatery’s menu is the same, and the new spot is still designed for takeout. Popular plates include the surf and turf special ($32) — Pulehu beef short ribs and garlic shrimp, white rice and choice of macaroni or side salad — Trust Us special ($32) with barbecue ribs and garlic shrimp, and K Special ($35). The latter is one of my go-to orders. It features meaty slabs of barbecue baby back ribs and spicy poke with white rice and choice of mac salad or side salad. When it comes to the baby back ribs, the biz doesn’t skimp on the portion. I always make sure to get the spaghetti mac salad, which somehow always tastes better than regular macaroni salad.

If you devour the whole plate — props to you — it’ll result in a guaranteed kanak attack.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kau Kau Grill is open weekdays only from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m."}]

Kau Kau Grill plate lunches 052025

<title>Kau Kau Grill — and its huge plates lunches — recently relocated</title>

The menu is still the same, and you can now find the biz on Sand Island Access Road

Kau Kau Grill — and its huge plates lunches — recently relocated

Oʻahu-based actor Kaipo Dudoit has appeared in “Rescue: HI-Surf” (2025), “My Partner” (2023) and “Magnum P.I.” (2020), among other film credits. Now, he adds the role of David Kawena in Disney’s live action version of 

It is a role he dreamed of since he watched the animated version of the film as a child, when he would mimic the animated character voiced by 

, who makes a cameo appearance in the movie.

The live action movie follows the journey of Lilo, a young girl in search of a friend who finds a partner-in-crime in the mischievous

blue alien, Stitch. Dudoit plays the love interest of Lilo’s older sister, Nani, who is also her guardian.

“I really wanted to embody his character while I was growing up,” Dudoit told Aloha State Daily. “He treats everyone with aloha and has a heart of gold.”

The character was “definitely a positive male role model for me while growing up,” he added, sharing that a lot of movies and shows portray local people in a negative way but this role was different.

The live action version of “Lilo & Stitch" includes several actors and actresses who were born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands, including 

as Mrs. Kekoa, their social worker, among others.

Dudoit comes from a musical family. His father, Horace Dudoit III, is part of Ho’okena, which has won a number of Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards.

Dudoit shared he felt “very honored, very blessed and grateful” to be part of this movie, he told ASD.

“What a great way to showcase Hawaiʻi with this story and the story of Hawaiʻi's culture and its people,” he added. “And the idea of ʻohana and how ʻohana will carry you through tough times.” 

He learned he got the role while working another job.

“I was working at a health center, and I was in between patients,” he said. “I got a call from my manager. I cried. Called my mom. We both cried. And then, I had to go back to work. It was a crazy day, and I couldn't tell anybody — well, except for my mom.”

Originally, Dudoit had wanted to be a musician. He still remembers when he decided to be an actor.

“That moment was: I was in my seat in a theater in college and I was watching a play,” he said. “It took me out of my body, basically. It transported me into a different place, and at that moment, I knew that I wanted to be a part of that kind of magic that was happening on stage.”

music for the movie, which includes the return of Kumu Hula Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu and Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus, as well as the addition of 

 singing a song reproduced by their uncle, Bruno Mars. 

Kaipo Dudoit

<title>ASD interviews Kaipo Dudoit, an actor in Disney’s live action “Lilo & Stitch”</title>

Oʻahu-based actor Kaipo Dudoit surfs, fire dances and has a crush on his neighbor in Disney’s live action version of “Lilo & Stitch.” The movie, which was filmed on Oʻahu, is set to debut in theaters on May 23.

ASD interviews Kaipo Dudoit, an actor in Disney’s live action “Lilo & Stitch”

 opened last December, crowds were waiting outside the restaurant for its popular soup dumplings. Now that the craze has died down a bit, the eatery just launched ‘sum’ thing new — dim sum service.

Dim sum is now served daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The regular lunch menu, which includes soup dumplings, starts at 11:30 a.m.

Once you’re seated at your table, scan the QR code to see the dim sum menu.

The dim sim selection is more limited, compared to that at other restaurants, but there’s still something for everyone. Options include crispy fried shrimp wontons ($7.99), har gow ($6.50), siu mai ($6.50), shrimp and chive dumplings ($6.50), seafood bean curd rolls ($6.50) and lo mai gai ($6.50). The latter features steamed glutinous rice with chicken.

Dim sum is made to order, so there might be a short wait, depending on the time of your visit. The pork hash ($6.50) and shrimp dumplings ($6.50) are my go-to orders, and these don’t disappoint — each piece was fresh and succulent, boasting lots of flavor. The crispy fried shrimp wontons come with a creamy mayo dipping sauce.

Pro tip: If you go for an early lunch around 11 a.m., you’ll get the best of both worlds and can order dim sum and those soup dumplings from the lunch menu once 11:30 a.m. hits.

Dim sum served daily, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.  

Mian and Bao dim sum spread 040725

<title>Mian & Bao expands menu with dim sum</title>

This popular soup dumpling restaurant in Honolulu just started serving dim sum.

Mian & Bao expands menu with dim sum

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

Trump's April proclamation allowing commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument was made illegally, argues lawsuit filed Thursday

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Environmental groups suing Trump over commercial fishing proclamation

Kelei Akana claims to have been left unable to walk after being repeatedly tasered, beaten by HPD officers

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‘Ewa Beach couple allege police beating

U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda spoke at HPD's Ke Kula Maka‘i police academy in Waipahu on Monday about legislation she plans to introduce.

Tokudagun1

CONGRESS WATCH: Tokuda to introduce "ghost gun" crackdown bill

Offenders between ages 18 and 21 could become exempt from life without parole

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Ban on life sentences without parole could be extended

Senate bill to set rules on how and when solitary confinement is imposed

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Prison reform proposal to set limits on solitary confinement

61-year-old Sabrina Lynn Fiaai reportedly stabbed a man on Tuesday, her third since 2000

Convicted murderer allegedly attempts murder again

Public housing agency evicted a woman in 2021 when a guest, her son, attacked a neighbor with a bat. She fought back.

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Pearl City tenant wrongfully evicted after baseball bat attack, state Supreme Court rules

Real Estate

Lawsuit against Hawai‘i County could set precedent for other permitting woes, plaintiff says.

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Hawai‘i Island homeowner wins three-year permit battle

A U.S. Marine charged with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl had first contacted the child on an app called Wizz.

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Aloha Spirit

Hawaii History

Opinion

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Crime & Courts

Environmental groups suing Trump over commercial fishing proclamation

‘Ewa Beach couple allege police beating

CONGRESS WATCH: Tokuda to introduce "ghost gun" crackdown bill

Ban on life sentences without parole could be extended

Prison reform proposal to set limits on solitary confinement

Convicted murderer allegedly attempts murder again

Pearl City tenant wrongfully evicted after baseball bat attack, state Supreme Court rules

Hawai‘i Island homeowner wins three-year permit battle

Messaging apps implicated in alleged assault of 11-year old