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Daily Smile: Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026

Oh look, it's the dreaded anti-cat table...

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Daily Smile: Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026

A golden retriever suffering from seizures seemingly lost her spunk — until one day her owners brought home a miracle cure — a duck named Louie...

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Daily Smile: Monday, Aug. 17, 2026

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Daily Smile: Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026

Could watch this all day. Just put it on auto loop...

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Daily Smile: Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026

Prime example of all bark no bite and he never looked back...

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Daily Smile: Friday, Aug. 14, 2026

Swimming comes more naturally to some dogs than others...

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Daily Smile: Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026

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Daily Smile: Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026

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Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

 — located in luxury boutique hotel ESPACIO, The Jewel of Waikīkī — recently launched an elevated breakfast menu. Breakfast is served daily from 7 to 10 a.m.

“If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the dishes enjoyed should be eventful,” states Executive Chef Colin Sato. “We curated this menu that delivers the assurance of comforting flavors and nutritious ingredients, but with a touch of elevation aligned with Mugen’s standard of excellence.”

The breakfast menu features lighter fare like coconut chia seed pudding ($15) and steel cut oats with honey and seasonal berries ($15), along with signature creations like lemon ricotta pancakes ($24) and wagyu short rib loco moco ($36).

“Of course we wanted to have some kind of loco moco on the menu, but we didn’t want to do the traditional hamburger patty with brown gravy,” Sato says. “We tried to elevate it, so we have truffle fried rice, smoked soy peppercorn sauce, wagyu braised short ribs, crispy shallots, crispy maitake mushrooms and an onsen egg on top of that.”

Mugen’s Japanese breakfast ($40) — comprising broiled ora King salmon, a poached egg, miso soup, assorted pickled vegetables and daikon — has been a customer favorite so far.

“The Japanese breakfast sells a lot; I’d say that’s our number one seller,” Sato says.

Other entrees include smoked salmon avocado toast ($25) — sourdough topped with smoked salmon, avocado, sea asparagus, Ho Farms tomato, pickled onion relish and Kupu Place microgreens — and coconut French toast ($24). The latter features sourdough with macadamia nuts, berries and a ginger scented haupia sauce.

“We brulee it (the housemade sourdough) with turbinado sugar,” explains Sato, who says the French toast is topped with coconut powder and candied mac nuts.

Those who enjoy sweeter breakfast entrees can opt for the lemon ricotta pancakes ($24), which are topped with lilikoʻi butter and compressed pineapple.

The eatery has several different options for its eggs Benedicts. Diners can opt for the classic Benedict with Kurobuta ham ($28), smoked salmon Florentine Benedict ($32), seafood cake Benedict ($38) or wagyu bacon Benedict ($45).

The latter features a luxe, house-cured wagyu bacon. The A5 wagyu bacon is also available as a side dish ($40).

“We wanted to do this really upscale version of bacon,” Sato explains. “We have a dry ager in house, so we cure it (the A5 Miyazaki wagyu) for two weeks and then we house smoke it downstairs, and we slice it like bacon and cook it like bacon.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Sato says the restaurant’s breakfast menu will eventually expand."}]

“To start, we wanted to provide this elevated breakfast and we try to keep it somewhat affordable,” he says. “We wanted to give the public a chance to come and see what we do in the restaurant. It’s still the same service (as dinner); we still have high standards for all the food we put out for breakfast." 

[{"type":"text","text":"Complimentary valet parking is available at the hotel entrance. "}]

Complimentary valet parking is available at the hotel entrance

Mugen chef Colin Sato 081726

<title>Mugen offers an elevated breakfast in Waikīkī</title>

The eatery — located in luxury boutique hotel ESPACIO, The Jewel of Waikīkī — is open to the public for breakfast and dinner. The new menu features an elevated twist on breakfast classics, including a wagyu short rib loco moco, smoked salmon avocado toast, Japanese breakfast and A-5 wagyu bacon.

Mugen offers an elevated breakfast in Waikīkī

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Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

As the state picks up the pieces after Hurricane Lala, residents are once again advised to prepare for another storm this weekend.

Tropical Depression Two-C — which is expected to evolve into Tropical Storm Moke by the end of the week — is approaching the state, and is forecasted to dump several more inches of rain onto places already waterlogged after Lala.

National Weather Service meteorologist John Bravender said the storm will pass south of the Islands, and shouldn’t have as large of a wind field as Lala, so the storm shouldn’t be as damaging as Lala was. Nonetheless, it is expected to bring 10-15 inches of rain to the windward and southeast portions of Hawai‘i Island, the place hardest hit by Lala.

Elsewhere in the state, the NWS is forecasting that windward Maui will receive six to 10 inches of rain, and two to four inches will fall on the rest of the islands. The first rains are anticipated to reach the Big Island late Saturday night, and spread to the rest of the state through Sunday into Monday.

Bravender said that, with the ground already saturated following Lala, floods will come on much faster. Furthermore, land has been destabilized already — some houses in Na‘alehu on the Big Island were buried in feet of mud, Green said — which elevates the risk for more landslides.

“Take this storm very seriously,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, Adjutant General of the State of Hawai‘i Department of Defense. “If you used up some of the supplies that you already had for Hurricane Lala, go back to the store and get everything together, about 14 days of medicine, food, pet food.”

Residents should consider their potential evacuation routes, particularly now that some roads may be blocked or closed following Lala, Green said.

Logan said about 136 National Guard personnel are deploying throughout the state, primarily working on clearing debris from roads. However, he added that some teams and high water vehicles will be stationed near the Wahiawā Reservoir, which came close to overflowing during the Kona Low storms in March.

As of Thursday, Green said, the water level at the Wahiawā Reservoir was at 78 feet; it overflows at 90 feet. Green said the reservoir widens as it gets higher, so each successive foot takes substantially more water.

Green said the state will issue warnings if the reservoir reaches dangerous levels, but added that “we’re not in that circumstance right now.”

Once again, residents are urged to sign up for alerts for updates about the storm as it progresses.

In the meantime, recovery work for Lala continues. Hawaiian Electric announced that “essentially all” customers on Maui and O‘ahu have had power restored, leaving about 13,380 still without power on the Big Island.

Green said HECO is bringing extra personnel and equipment from the Mainland to assist in restoring power.

However, Green added that the state’s power grids are in serious need for upgrades. He said some rural areas will probably need “microgrids” — a small localized power grid that can operate independently of the greater grid — to improve their power resilience, and said he expects “a lot of energy overhaul” in the next decade.

Green said he hopes the Federal Emergency Management Agency will issue a formal disaster declaration by next week, which will allow the state to procure additional federal funds for the recovery effort. He added that, in conversation with FEMA representatives, the scope of Hurricane Lala is generally expected to meet federal thresholds for federal assistance.

In addition, the state Legislature made about $100 million available this year for storm responses, in anticipation of a strong hurricane season this year.

Green also highlighted recovery efforts by the Hawai‘i Foodservice Alliance — which donated thousands of units of water, milk, eggs, diapers, rice and other supplies to Hawai‘i Island — as well as philanthropic donations. Tadashi Yanai, founder of UNIQLO, will donate $3 million, while UNIQLO itself will donate 50,000 items of clothing.

Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff will both donate $1 million each, as well, Green said.

, using its Stronger Hawai‘i fund, has issued more than $700,000 in grants to various organizations providing recovery support, including to Hilo-based nonprofit Vibrant Hawai‘i, which helps to directly connect supplies to people impacted by the storm.

Green said he believes the state is better prepared for this year’s storm season than it might have been five years ago. Nonetheless, he added, Lala’s rainfall was at the high end of what was predicted, and if more storms like it come — the NWS predicted between five and 13 storms in the Eastern and Central Pacific this year — then additional assistance might be necessary.

The next of those storms might already be in sight. Green warned of another tropical depression forming in the Pacific, which he said could approach the state by the beginning of September, although he added that there is currently no way to predict its course or strength.

Currently, the National Hurricane Center reports a depression forming several hundred miles south of the Baja Peninsula, with a 60% chance of developing into a storm within the next week.

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<title>State warns: take new storm seriously</title>

Another storm approaches, even as Lala recovery continues.

State warns: take new storm seriously

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Sterling Higa

Columnists

Rick Hamada wrote this week about our long failure to invest in 

. The wreckage left by the hurricane proves his point.

Storm drains backed up into the streets. Sewage went where sewage should never go. In some neighborhoods the taps ran dry. And power failed all over.

Infrastructure is the kind of thing you notice only when it breaks. This week, a great deal of it broke at once. But none of it should have surprised us.

Seven years ago I co-authored a report called 

. It went to the Hawai‘i Executive Conference, an annual gathering of the state’s chief executives and decision-makers. We tried to put a number on what Hawaiʻi owes its future: retiree healthcare and pensions, infrastructure repair and replacement, and the cost of preparing for storms and a rising sea.

The counting was hard, because few agencies publish what their systems will cost to maintain or replace. Still, the number we reached was $88 billion, and the room agreed with it.

Agreement, more or less, is where the story ends. Infrastructure has not moved up the priority list since. The Islands’ two signature projects — rail and the stadium — are new construction, the shiny kind.

Ask why and you will hear that maintenance is not glamorous. A ribbon-cutting makes for a better photo than a repair schedule. Both answers are true.

But there is another reason, less flattering and more important. Infrastructure belongs to the world of atoms, and atoms are indifferent to rhetoric.

A pipe holds or it leaks. A grid carries the load or it fails in the dark. Taking a project from concept to completion in that world takes real executive skill. Our politics neither selects for it nor rewards it.

Consider a career we have seen more than once. A young man serves in student government, rises to president of the student body at UH Mānoa, interns at the legislature, manages a legislative office, and then wins an open seat. Or he is appointed, skipping the campaign.

He was chosen at every step for ambition and persistence, which are real virtues, but never once for having built or repaired anything. When his car dies on a Tuesday he stands over the engine as helpless as a child. By Thursday he has recovered his confidence to reform the economy. He has simply never worked anywhere his words could be tested against material, and no one has loved him enough to tell him so.

The people who do have that skill get bid away. Honolulu’s managing director, Mike Formby, left city government to run a maritime company whose businesses include ship repair. Few politicians or civil servants could follow him. You can’t fake it until you make it on the open seas.

The room that received Troubled Waters was full of executives, though, and executives have bad habits of their own. The people who complain loudest about government waste have sometimes bankrolled stadium campaigns and rail coalitions. New construction generates business.

Meanwhile, the convention center roof leaks, and highways are sinking into the sea.

A government that attempted less could maintain more. 

Every agency should publish, every budget cycle, what its systems will cost to maintain and to replace. Then the bill stops hiding. No new vanity project should clear the budget until maintenance of the old ones is accounted for. Fix-it-first is not austerity. It’s just honest accounting.

And voters might begin to ask of a candidate the question we ask of a contractor: What have you built? The plumber who has sweated a joint knows something about the world that a law seminar cannot teach. We should stop pretending otherwise.

Another storm will come. Before it does, we need more than pretty speech from our political leaders. They should spend some time in the world of atoms.

Touching grass turns out to be good advice, even when the grass is wet.

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<title>The $88 billion bill we agreed to ignore</title>

Seven years ago, a room full of Hawaiʻi’s most powerful executives agreed the state faced an $88 billion problem in investing for the future. Then everyone went back to work. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa on why the maintenance never comes.

The $88 billion bill we agreed to ignore

De Soto 2025

DeSoto Brown

Hawai‘i History

Kaka‘ako today is, for the most part, completely cut off from the ocean that is very close by. This was not always the case, however.

The ocean connection to this neighborhood for much of the 20th century was through Kewalo Basin. The construction of this small boat harbor began in 1925 as the Hawaiian Dredging Company’s equipment chewed through the shallow coral flats just offshore to dig down to a uniform depth of 25 feet while creating a channel to reach the open ocean. A concrete pier of 25 feet in width and 460 feet in length was completed in April 1926.

The instigation for the creation of Kewalo Basin was to move the fleet of approximately 140 small fishing sampans, crewed by Japanese men, away from crowded Honolulu Harbor where they used Piers 15 and 16 near the mouth of Nu‘uanu Stream. The numerous sampans got in the way of the much larger cargo and passenger ships that had to take precedence. Although the sampans migrated at the time their new Kewalo dock was completed, conditions there were not ideal. A breakwater was needed for protection of the docked fishing boats during Kona storms, and the channel needed enlarging and deepening to prevent waves from breaking across it. These improvements would come later.

A very important adjunct to the sampans themselves was the relocation of the Hawaiian Tuna Packers fishing processing plant to Kewalo, which happened in January 1933. The company had started in 1917 and by five years later was operating a fleet of seven sampans and was producing 10,000 to 12,000 cases of canned tuna annually. By 1933 these numbers had jumped to 65 boats and over 100,000 cases each year. The cannery employed 1,000 people at its peak operating times; 25 tons of fish were caught and 65,000 individual cans of prepared fish were produced daily. Their product was mainly sold under the Coral label, and was available all over the United States.

In time, as with many other Hawai‘i-based businesses, the tuna cannery eventually ran into difficulties. In October 1984 it closed down for what was supposed to be only a few months, but in fact it never reopened.

With all this ocean-based activity happening at Kewalo, it was understandable that associated businesses would come to Kaka‘ako as well. This included fishing supply stores along with small boat builders who constructed both commercial sampans along with pleasure vessels of varying sizes.

Playing off the fishing activities that were going on at Kewalo, the Spencecliff restaurant chain in April 1952 bought the existing Felix Florentine Gardens and renamed it Fisherman’s Wharf. A second floor was added a few years later and for decades, till the entire company gradually shut down, diners could look out the windows to see real-life sampans unloading their catches that were usually bound for the nearby cannery.

Kewalo Basin still functions as a harbor for small vessels, but these are no longer the active fishing boats of the past. Today this is the site for tourist-related activities – group tours to Pearl Harbor, nighttime “booze cruises”, or charter fishing runs. And the onshore businesses that once supported the fishing industry are gone from Kaka‘ako, along with the connection it once had to the sea.

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<title>Changing Kaka‘ako: The ocean connection</title>

The hundred-year-old Kewalo Basin was originally made to move fishing sampans out of busy Honolulu Harbor. At one point, 1,000 people worked in the adjacent Hawaiian Tuna Packers facility, producing up to 65,000 cans of tuna per day under the Coral brand for sale locally and on the Mainland. In time, the famous Fisherman's Wharf restaurant appeared, thrived, then shut down as well. It remains a harbor for fishing boats, but of the recreational variety, as well as for boat tours and "booze cruises."

Changing Kaka‘ako: The ocean connection

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Real Estate

The historic Joseph W. Podmore building in Downtown Honolulu sold for $2.6 million in an off-market sale that closed Tuesday.

International architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firm 

, which has operations in Japan, Guam and the U.S., acquired the property at 202 Merchant St. in a privately negotiated and off-market transaction, and will establish its U.S. headquarters there, according to an 

CBRE Hawai‘i Capital Markets represented ESC Pacific in the deal, from sourcing to close, the announcement noted.

Rather than pursue a marketed listing, ESC Pacific worked over the course of a year to identify a property "suited to its long-term objectives," the announcement says. "

The opportunity to acquire and preserve a landmark of Podmore's stature carried particular significance to the firm."

"The best opportunities in this market are rarely the ones being advertised," Matthew McKeever, senior associate with CBRE Hawai‘i Capital Markets, said in the announcement. "ESC was looking for the right long-term home, not just an available building, and finding it took a private, locally driven search. It was a privilege to help a firm of this caliber establish itself in Downtown Honolulu." 

The Podmore Building was designed by an unknown architect and constructed in 1902 out of basalt, or lava rock, one of two building materials locally available at that time, a local architect 

"The building is representative of a style of rusticated stone construction utilized for commercial buildings in Hawai‘i from 1894 to 1907,"

, noting that the Podmore building is one of about 10 surviving cut-stone buildings which, "by virtue of their use of native lava stone, are unique to Hawai‘i." 

According to the CBRE announcement, the 4,638-square-foot, two-story building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.

"The Podmore stood out for its history, its location, and what it represents," Eric Newman, president of ESC Pacific, said in the announcement. "We are proud to become its next steward, to establish our U.S. home here, and to preserve the historic character of this part of Downtown Honolulu."

CBRE says that ESC will occupy the building's second floor as its U.S. base and the ground floor will continue its longstanding restaurant use. Currently, the building is home to 

Katherine Nomura, partner at Podmore, told Aloha State Daily in an email Wednesday that the restaurant is not affected by the sale of the building. Podmore turns five on Friday, Aug. 21, which Nomura says it will be celebrating by bringing back its five most popular cocktails.

"Weekday lunch, weekend brunch, all-day dining and cocktails will continue as we enter our sixth year. In fact, people have had such great feedback about our burger (available for lunch only), we will be doing a burger lunch pop-up on Mondays and Tuesdays in the very near future," she says. "We have also had the privilege of providing catering for some incredible events and would love to grow that aspect of the restaurant for both food and the bar. If anything, Podmore's operations will expand as the building's next chapter unfolds.

"Regarding the new owners, we are confident that they will be great stewards of the historic property and will approach any future changes to the building with as much respect and care as the family that owned it before them."

According to City and County of Honolulu 

, which did not reflect the sale as of Thursday, 

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<title>Historic Podmore building in Downtown Honolulu sold for $2.6M</title>

International architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firm ESC Pacific acquired the property in a privately negotiated and off-market transaction. Katherine Nomura, partner at Podmore, told Aloha State Daily that the restaurant is not affected by the sale of the building.

Historic Podmore building in Downtown Honolulu sold for $2.6M

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

On a recent hot summer’s Thursday afternoon at 

St. Augustine by-the-sea Catholic Church in Waikīkī, guests had arrived for snacks and a meal, showers, haircuts, prayer, and more, as music and chatter filled the air.

That day, River of Life Mission had supplied its 

 snack bags, along with 50 hot meals, and volunteers who ministered to homeless in the area at one of its weekly hub and service sites.

“The most important thing is building relationships,” said Hub and Ministry Manager Aleni Snell.

Gavin Tsuda, who heads the site and is pastor of One Church, added, “To gain trust, you gotta put stakes in the ground; that

’s when the shift in atmosphere happened.”

Tsuda told Aloha State Daily that what started as five volunteers has grown to nearly 30, all from various churches and community organizations. For example, Danica and Craig (no last names given) run the 

 shower truck, offering on average more than 50 showers on site per week, while Bluewater Mission church supplies clean clothing and towels. Meanwhile, a volunteer named Gina with Surfing the Nations was cutting hair and 

 was operating a student-run, mobile health clinic.

“This is our volunteer work, not our full-time job,” said Danica, who attends First Presbyterian Church. “The concept came from a mission trip and evolved from laundry; the showers have been here since January 2020, right before Covid. About a year ago, we partnered with River of Life, and it’s been great to see everyone come together. It’s also been a good working relationship with St. Augustine and 

. There’s no way we could do it on our own.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Each week, I see hundreds of new faces come through,” she noted."}]

For Roy, who is a volunteer pastor in training, learning tools to take with him to another hub in Kalihi was on his mind. “The regulars here so comfortable,” he said with a smile, adding that part of his job is handing out Bibles, listening and praying with people.

River of Life Mission’s hub model, or mobile homeless ministry, launched four years ago and now has 240 events across Oʻahu supported by 50 teams that distribute more than 16,000 meals a month, along with a Gospel message of hope.  

Blake Spinak is the hub and ministry director. Its Chinatown location serves as offices for staff and headquarters for meal production and resource replenishing, as well as strategy and coordination. On Thursdays, it also serves as a space for staff to reconnect through worship music and Bible study.

Keali‘i Kane Gray joined the organization as executive director in October 2025, and a month later celebrated River of Life Mission’s 40-year anniversary 

with a recognition by Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi

“Over the last nine months, we’ve really tried to, one, just fortify our model, as well as be a little more innovative in how we are able to steward our resources,” she told ASD last month.

She’s also proud that they’ve been able to help nearly 100 people transition off the street toward a home annually.

, (PITC), a federally mandated census conducted by Partners in Care with more than 300 volunteers on Jan. 26, the report identified 4,539 individuals “experiencing homelessness in [Oʻahu] shelters, streets, beaches, cars, or other places not meant for human habitation.”

“Partners in Care is doing amazing work …but there’s only so much you can do in one night. It’s really hard to truly get a total number.  It’s a good place to start. There’s a lot more people living in crisis,” Kane Gray said. “The demographics with regards to the number of Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders that are represented in the homeless population per capita is heartbreaking.”

 program is what happens next after the individual responds to the journey, which includes a continuum of health care that leads to treatment, employment, shelter and stability.

“It’s case by case, so with some people, you have quick transitions and others are more of a process,” he said. “The crisis is real and people are living in darkness, right? So, the goal is to be light bearers, love people and … help others in community to take ownership of its own neighbors in crisis.”

“What’s next for us is to get in front of crisis with curriculum and to train the next generation,” he added.

Kane Gray said that the organization’s Road to Redemption program just made a year old and could use support for its transition and treatment programs, in addition to other 

“Additional funding could make all the difference. We want to love our guests back to new life and give them the tools to sustain that new life,” she said. 

River of Life Mission is funded by individual and private donors, as well as 

ROLM pastors

<title>River of Life Mission expands homeless ministry</title>

Over the summer, Aloha State Daily visited one of the nonprofit's weekly hub sites in Waikīkī, where guests were treated to haircuts, showers and meals thanks to combined efforts of various church members and community organizations. We talked with leadership about what they've been working on and toward, in light of this year's Point in Time Count findings.