Hawai'i Skies

My Favorite Local Saying

Cartoons

Daily Smile

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

Adopt a Pet

Daily Features

Square Kady Pascual Headshot RGZ5762

Kady Pascual

Today’s social media find comes from @MeneHulk, with an accurate depiction of most local album covers.

Menehulk

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Hawaiian local album covers

Today’s social media find comes from @SouthShoreBBClub, who avoids tourists with style.

SouthShoreBBClub

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Get boogie with it

Today’s social media find comes from @WaikapuOn30, who has some questionable encounters while working the counter.

WaikapuOn30

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Customer service in Hawaiʻi

Today’s social media find comes from @KarleeOyama, who actually made it to the Made in Hawaiʻi Festival.

Karleeoyama

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Preparation is key

Today’s social media find comes from @BriannaCope, who caught a once in a lifetime wave.

Firefly surfing whale in hawaii 262426

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Surfing with friends

Today’s social media find comes from @Living.Wit.Sammy, who really wants to catch fish.

Living.wit.sammy

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: When there’s a will, there’s a way

Today’s social media find comes from @AuntyBrandi, who ate it big time.

AuntyBrandi

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Wipe out!

Today’s social media find comes from @Tipsy_Pig___, showing us how skillful you can get when you’re hungry.

Tipsy Pig

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Always grinding

Today’s social media find comes from @JustSmallKineThings, with a kamaʻāina quiz.

Justsmallkinethings

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: How local are you?

Today’s social media find comes from @Hezekiah_Kapuaala, who runs for the shot like he’s playing the game.

Hezekiah Kapuaala

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Anything for the shot

Today’s social media find comes from @HausOfPuas, in an atypical situation.

Haus Of Puas off script

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Creatures of habit

Today’s social media find comes from @qahyou, who thinks he can speak ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi after watching the first two episodes of “Chief of War.”

Qahyou olelo

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: An inspirational fire

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros Headshot

Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros

Aloha Spirit

Business & Tourism

An inaugural event “to literally slow down and simply be” is coming to Windward O

, which was created by local mindfulness coach and clinical psychologist Gaby Toloza, will debut from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, at YWCA Kokokahi in Kāneʻohe.

The family-friendly event aims to encourage participants to unplug and connect in-person through screen-free fun and activities, a collective 60-minute pause, and chance to shop local vendors focused on food, wellness and creativity, and more.

“I’m excited about the novelty of it," she told Aloha State Daily ahead of the event. "

I’m also really excited about the beautiful space at YWCA, which is right there on the ocean."

When asked how PauseFest came to be, Toloza replied: “It came from just really wanting a more public, preventative space. I do a lot of mental therapy, often working in the reactive space … I wanted a place that allows for us to experience [things] in a healthy way without it having to be therapy. … This is not meant to be deep, therapeutic work.”

There will be messaging sent beforehand to those who sign-up on what to bring (a yoga mat or lawn chair) and expect, as well as a handful of wellness facilitators available on site, she notes. About 20 staff and volunteers will be present, and she is expecting at least 100 guests, who will be asked to turn in their phones to the "phone house." (Donʻt fret about capturing memories, there will be a photographer and photo station.)

For this experience, she adds, it will “likely be lighter and fun,” Toloza said, noting that during the collective pause in the middle of the day, participants can expect silence with some breath work and meditation built in.

“I suspect in that there will be some discomfort, and I kind of want that for people. I want them to learn to embrace their pleasant and unpleasant feelings that really are their power. … 

Mindfulness is a super power when we learn how to channel it as an individual and how it can work in a group.”

One of her goals is for the concept of mindfulness to become “a practical, usable skill [to] pause, notice and care.”

What that looks like internally, she explains, is noticing

rather than evaluating or judging. She says that the emphasis for this approach to mindfulness is to “pay attention on purpose.”

witnessing ourselves, and we need to slow down in order to do that. Our minds in particular need to slow down and pay attention to other things like our environment or what’s around us.”

Toloza adds that PauseFest aims to be a safe and accepting space, where individuals will learn to practice patience and “the benefit of non-striving or non-doing,” or "conscious rest."

Attendees of all ages can also experience “the fun zone, bubble buffet, sticker and doodle mural, mindful rebel rest stop, slow lane, conversation cafe and take what you need station, along with the Mindful Marketplace, a curated collection of local, values-aligned businesses, makers, creatives and entrepreneurs,” a recent announcement from the half-day event reads.

Vendor applications and sponsorship opportunities for this event remain open. Interested? Contact 

“The only moment we actually have is right now, the present,” said Toloza, who was born and raised in Kailua.

She shared with ASD about grief and healing after the loss of her dad and boyfriend in her late teens, early adulthood.

“What it taught me is fragility of life; tomorrow is not promised and the unexpected is sort of normative,” she said. “At the time, I got a lot of support from community and friends, and there was this almost accidental slowing down of life.

After graduating from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, Toloza spent more than a decade working with children with autism in schools, homes and community settings before expanding her work to support teens, adults and couples. Her experience has taken her from classrooms and health centers to correctional facilities in Hawaiʻi, Oklahoma, Florida and Italy.

She launched Mindful Connections in January 2022 as her clinical practice and, more recently, Mindful Rebels Collective, “a gym membership for your heart and mind,” which includes community events. 

Toloza aims to grow both aspects of her business in the future.

As a healthcare professional, she says she continues to check herself and self-reflect, so that she knows “what it’s like to sit on the other side.”

Toloza adds that becoming a mother has made her a better teacher of mindfulness, among other life lessons.

“I wanted [my daughter] to have a toolbox that is going to be with her always, even when I’m not around. If she knows how to be mindful and how to practice that, then that’s a good resource for her.”

PauseFest tickets start at $29 per individual and $49 per family (2 adults and kids). Parking will be available at the venue. 

Gaby Toloza

<title>Press ‘pause’ at this upcoming event on Oʻahu’s east side</title>

Kailua-based mindfulness coach and clinical psychologist Gaby Toloza will debut PauseFest on Oct. 24 at YWCA Kokokahi in Kāneʻohe. The family-friendly event aims to encourage participants to slow down, unplug and connect in-person through screen-free fun and activities, a collective pause and chance to shop local vendors focused on food, wellness and creativity. Toloza says come as you are.

Press ‘pause’ at this upcoming event on Oʻahu’s east side

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Crime & Courts

The woman charged with murder after allegedly fatally shooting a man in Kailua last weekend was turned in by her father the day of the event, according to a Honolulu police report.

Hilinaikailimakualopali Keeno, 24, was charged on Sept. 30 with second-degree murder, carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony and improperly keeping a pistol or revolver. She is being held pending a $1 million bail.

An HPD document — which was submitted on Tuesday, Sept. 29, to the Honolulu Circuit Court to establish probable cause to detain Keeno without a warrant — states that Keeno’s father brought her to the Kailua Police Station less than an hour after 

was declared dead of a gunshot wound to the neck in the Kailua Target parking lot.

The report states that HPD special duty officers, who were working security at the Kailua Fall Festival that day, were called to assist with a group of festivalgoers involved in an argument at about 8:26 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Officers escorted the group out of the festival and watched them head toward the Target parking lot, only to hear another altercation begin among the group minutes later.

During this new altercation, a pop resembling a gunshot was heard, and officers saw two men — one of whom was Keeno’s brother — assaulting a third. Both assailants were placed under arrest for disorderly conduct, while officers discovered Malone on the ground, covered in blood.

[{"type":"text","text":"Malone was declared dead at the scene by 8:43 p.m."}]

At 9:39 p.m., Keeno was brought to the Kailua Police Station by her father, who told police she was involved in the incident and wanted to provide a statement in the presence of her attorney.

According to the HPD report, no interview was conducted with Keeno that night. Subsequently, HPD sought photographs and videos from the public to help piece together the event and identify the shooter.

On Sept. 28, another witness identified Keeno as the shooter, and HPD confirmed that Keeno has one firearm registered in her name, a Sig Sauer P365 handgun.

[{"type":"text","text":"Following this, Keeno was placed under arrest."}]

Keeno’s preliminary hearing, when she will plead guilty or not guilty to the charges, will take place Monday, Oct. 5. She remains in custody.

Hpd 16x9

<title>Woman charged in Kailua shooting turned in by father</title>

Hilinakailimakualopali Keeno faces a $1 million bail for a second-degree murder charge.

Woman charged in Kailua shooting turned in by father

Lopaka and Tanya Kapanui

Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui

Hawai‘i History

Columnists

The old Restaurant Row was built in 1988, and popular eateries like Studebaker’s and Black Orchid brought crowds to the plaza. As soon as you parked your car and got out, the mouth-watering smell of burgers and steaks overwhelmed your senses. Many of us remember shooting toothpicks through straws into the ceiling at Rose City Diner. We appreciated the assortment of restaurants open late after a night out. If you worked nearby, dinner at the Row was an easy choice.

But the success of Restaurant Row was short-lived as those restaurants, once popular, began closing their doors due to decreased traffic. Some attribute the slowdown to Aloha Tower Marketplace and Chinatown’s First Fridays. But no matter what the reason, we still have our memories.

[{"type":"text","text":"And our ghost stories."}]

Stories of Waterfront Plaza, as it’s now known, begin with the history of the land and what was there long ago. Before the highrises of modern Kaka‘ako were built, this area was part of a coastal landscape of wetlands, fishponds, and salt pans. As Honolulu grew and changed, the place names remind us of what was once there.

Ka‘ākaukukui is an ‘ili, or traditional land division, that was located makai (inland) of Kewalo and west of Kukuluāe‘o. Trails that crossed the region connected Kou (now Honolulu) and Waikīkī. By the time the 20th century rolled about, that landscape had virtually disappeared.

In 1900, the Honolulu Iron Works moved to a block of land at Ka‘ākaukukui. The company had become an important part of Hawaiʻi's sugar industry, manufacturing machinery for sugar mills in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere. At its height, the Iron Works employed approximately 1,500 workers, many of whom lived in Kakaʻako.

As the sugar industry eventually declined, so did the need for the mill parts that the Honolulu Iron Works manufactured. After closing its doors in 1973, its buildings were gradually converted to other uses before being demolished. The final warehouse was torn down in 1982.

In 1985, construction at the former Honolulu Iron Works site uncovered human skeletal remains. The burial pits were found less than three feet below the existing ground surface, within an older sand deposit. Archaeologists associated the burials with Kaʻākaukukui Cemetery, which was said to have been used from the 1700s into the early 1800s.

Today, after more than a century of urban development, there is no visible cemetery marking the site, but that doesn’t mean there are no lingering remnants. Iwi kūpuna, ancestral Native Hawaiian remains, associated with Kaʻākaukukui continue to be found during modern construction and utility work in Kakaʻako.

Perhaps it is no surprise that places with such histories can also become the setting for stories of the unexplained. Over the years, people who have worked in and around this area have reported encounters they could not easily explain.

, in 2005. Soon after, I did book signings where I also shared ghost stories. At one such occasion, a very tall Hawaiian woman in a business suit approached me and said she was a manager at Restaurant Row. She went on to say she was having trouble keeping security guards employed because they would quit after seeing ghosts and spirits in and around Restaurant Row, which happened at all hours, even in broad daylight.

“These are big, tough Sāmoan and Hawaiian security guards,” she emphasized.

According to this woman, the guards said they saw half-torso apparitions floating through the parking lot, or heard voices calling their names. Worse, they would see spirits of children, covered in bleeding sores.

I was shocked to hear this, as I remembered that my late boss, Glen Grant, talked about the same thing on his ghost tours and in his books.

The manager said there was also a woman they would find crying in the theater bathroom. She went on to say that customers and employees would hear the woman crying miserably in the stall. Security comes and knocks on the door, the door swings open, and a woman is squatting on the floor, covering her face with her two hands, just sobbing. The security guard asks what’s wrong, and the woman removes her hands, and she has no face.

“If this is happening during the day,” I asked. “Then what’s going on at night?”

“If a guard isn’t getting physically assaulted, then something follows them in their car,” she said.

The woman seemed more frustrated than scared because she needed guards day and night to patrol and protect the row. She left before I could get her contact information to follow up. The restaurants all changed, closed, or made way for other businesses, but I often wondered how they finally dealt with the hauntings.

A few years ago, I was doing a personal ghost tour for some staff and students from Hawaii Pacific University. They had just recently moved to their new location at the Waterfront Plaza. I met them near The Row bar, and when I heard about their move, I asked how they liked it so far.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We need it blessed,” they said. “It’s haunted.”"}]

Apparently, chairs move, computers turn on and off by themselves. The security company calls late at night because they can hear people in the offices talking, but no one is ever found. Someone even said that no one would be sitting at a computer station, but you can see the keys on the keyboard typing away.

I think they were surprised that I wasn’t phased at all by their descriptions. I just nodded and said that the place has been haunted since the beginning.

Waterfront Plaza

<title>What Haunts Waterfront Plaza</title>

Back in the day, when this complex was known as Restaurant Row, many of us enjoyed being pleasantly haunted by ’50s tunes at Rose City Diner or catching sight of celebrities at Black Orchid. But even then, some people were haunted by far more disturbing sights, perhaps owing to a cemetery that had been at the same location long ago.

What Haunts Waterfront Plaza

WEB square crop Hayley Lehman Headshot RGZ1636

Haley Lehman

Government & Politics

Public archives are known for documenting land and genealogy, but Hawaiʻi State Archivist Adam Jansen said Hawaiʻi State Archives does much more than that. 

Archives Month, a month-long virtual exhibition that begins on Thursday, Oct. 1, highlights the archives’ special collections that people might not know about. The month will explore how Waikīkī is represented in art and music, and has changed over time through a virtual exhibition. Some of the material has never been displayed online before.

The first week of Archives Month focuses on 19th century history of Waikīkī, including the first known map of the area documented by a Russian expedition. The second week looks at the representation of Waikīkī in art and music and the third week is all about Waikīkī hotels. The fourth week is about the development of Waikīkī, featuring photos from the Williams Family’s collection of construction projects between Chinatown and Waikīkī. The last week focuses on the conservation of Waikīkī with the display of the personal files of Nancy Bannick, who advocated to preserve Oʻahu’s historical places.

Archives Month material will be available on the 

is open to the public between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays,

 will also post daily on their social media pages.

Jansen said that not everyone has the availability and ability to visit the archive in person, so celebrating Archives Month virtually makes the archive more accessible and equitable. More Kānaka Maoli live on the 

 than on the Islands, and Jansen said that the archive hopes to help Native Hawaiians maintain connection to the ʻāina.

The archive “collects, preserves and makes available to the public

” government records and special collections. 

Making records available to the public is at the core of Jansen’s role as State Archivist.

“We can protect by putting things in a vault and locking the vault door. We’ve preserved it. But our founding legislation is to preserve arrange, describe and make accessible,” Jansen said. “It does not belong to us, it belongs to the people, so providing them access to their documentary heritage in a format than they can use, appreciate, enjoy is incredibly important to our overall goal and mission.”

He pointed to the Hawaiian proverb “I ka wā ma mua, ka wā ma hope,” which means “the lessons of the past are the keys to the future.”

Jansen said, “He who controls the record controls history, controls knowledge, controls power, and as the public archives, we need to make sure everybody has that, that no one person controls it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Meet the State Archivist"}]

Jansen doesn’t have a favorite item or collection at the archive but said that Queen Lili‘uokalani donating her 

which includes her diaries, draft constitution, letters and more 

inspires and drives him to do more to support the people of Hawaiʻi. The archive has digitized approximately 24,000 documents as part of the queen’s collection.

“She entrusted us with her most intimate words because she wanted us to share her voice with everybody for generations to come,” he said. “How can we pay back that faith and trust that she placed in us?”

The Hawaiʻi State Archives is also home to 

Jansen said that there’s still “societal angst regarding overthrow and annexation” and generational trauma.

“We have records dealing with that time period that need to be more globally understood, so when these discussions happen, everybody is starting from the same foundational knowledge of the words from the people who were there shaping that history,” he said.

Jansen said that he took an atypical path to his career as an archivist. He originally planned to major in chemical engineering but changed his mind halfway through college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“I quickly learned that while I had a deep love of science and math, the concept of working in a small lab with two other people and no windows for the rest of my life really didn’t appeal to me,” he said.

He decided to get his bachelor’s in history instead. The university librarian asked him, “if you love history so much, why don’t you think about protecting it?”

Jansen went on to work in information management at Microsoft and UNOVA. He served as the Deputy State Archivist for the State of Washington, where he managed the Washington State Digital Archives while earning his Master of Science from Eastern Washington University in Business Administration and Computer Science, and later obtained his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia School of Library, Archival and Information Studies.

Jansen moved to Hawaiʻi in 2013 to consult the Hawaiʻi State Archives on digitization and fell in love with the state and spirit of aloha. He stepped into the role of State Archivist in April 2016 and now oversees a team of about 20 staff.

“I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” he said.

The people have kept Jansen passionate about his work, and he sees archives changing lives daily.

Jansen remembers an aunty in tears looking at the microfilm readers who had told him that she found the land record that her grandmother had signed, making it the first time she’d ever met her tutu.

“The impact that I see that these primary sources can make in (people’s) lives is absolutely irreplaceable,” he said.

Hawaiʻi State Archives has been upgrading its hardware to photography equipment over the last five years to improve digitization efforts. According to Jansen, the archive has digitized approximately 1% of their collection. As they make progress digitizing records, people continue to donate materials.

Hawaiʻi State Archives is developing artificial intelligence to increase accessibility of public hearings and aims to roll it out by the end of the year, Jansen said. The system will transcribe thousands of hours of hearings into a system researchers can search.

“We understand some of the fears and limitations and dangers of AI, so we are very cognizant of the fact that our language model that we are using, all of the AI tools are only on the corpus that we give it,” Jansen said. "It knows nothing about the grand universe beyond. It’s not finding anything other than those hearings and the documents we give it.”

Waikiki songbooks

<title>'Archives change lives': Archives Month kicks off this week</title>

The Hawaiʻi State Archive kicks off American Archives Month on Thursday with a five-week long virtual program about Waikīkī. Aloha State Daily sat down with State Archivist Adam Jansen to learn more.

'Archives change lives': Archives Month kicks off this week

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

On Tuesday afternoon, the O‘ahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association announced that it was canceling the 2026 Na Wahine O Ke Kai, which was set for Sunday morning. 

The OHCRA's race committee reviewed a developing storm system heading toward the Islands and the impact it would have on the ocean, wind, and logistics of the event before making the call. 

, takes place across the Ka‘iwi Channel, a 40.8-mile trek from Molokai to O‘ahu. 

“This decision is not a reflection of our paddlers’ ability to navigate the Kaiwi Channel,” OHCRA race director Kapuni Patcho said in a statement. “These women are among the strongest and most accomplished paddlers in the world. Our responsibility, however, extends to everyone required to make this race possible — from our paddlers and escort crews to our officials, volunteers, partners and the Molokai community.”

Holding the event also depends on a fleet of escort boats that first must make it to Molokai for the beginning of the race. Safety considerations in doing so were also a major consideration for OHCRA.

“A channel race begins well before the paddlers cross the starting line,” said assistant race director Luana Froiseth. “We must consider whether the entire escort fleet can travel safely, get into position and provide the support each crew may need. Looking at the complete operational picture, caution is the responsible decision.”

OHCRA also says another determining factor was the desire to protect Molokai's limited emergency and community resources in the event of severe weather. 

The 2026 Na Wahine O Ke Kai was the penultimate event of the OHCRA season. The Molokai Hoe is scheduled for Oct. 11, though OHCRA says it will also monitor conditions prior to the race. 

Team Bradley won the 2025 Na Wahine O Ke Kai

. The race itself commemorated 50 years of 

OHCRA 092226

<title>OHCRA cancels 2026 Na Wahine O Ke Kai</title>

The 40.8-mile women's race was set for Sunday before being called off due to a storm system approaching the Islands.

OHCRA cancels 2026 Na Wahine O Ke Kai

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

The lemon crunch cake — an airy white cake with lemon curd and bits of toffee crunch — is one of the signature desserts at 

[{"type":"text","text":"Now, customers can get this dessert in shave ice form."}]

Diamond Head Market & Grill launched its new shave ice concept earlier this month, according to chef Kelvin Ro. The artisan shave ice stand is on the corner of Monsarrat and Campbell Avenues.

Ro explains that the business actually had shave ice in that very corner 20 years ago.

“We had a coffee bar with shave ice about 20 years ago,” he says, noting that when a coffee shop opened across the street from the business, Diamond Head Market closed its coffee bar.

“This shave ice machine is old; it’s a really expensive machine from Japan,” he adds. “The ice is really fine and fluffy. There seems to be a resurgence of shave ice now, but we’ve had the machine for so long. I decided to just try it (to do shave ice).”

Prior to the corner spot becoming a shave ice stand, it was used as a storage space for the business. As a chef, though, Ro knew he had to bring a unique spin to his shave ice concept. He explains the signature desserts feature housemade fruit coulis, slow-simmered compotes and premium ice cream, along with distinctive flavors inspired by some of the market’s signature creations.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We’re chefs; we’re creating our own stuff,” he says."}]

The business offers classic flavors — ranging from blue vanilla and blueberry to lychee and mango — which are more “traditional;” guests can choose from keiki ($7) or regular ($9) sizes. Customers can choose up to three flavors per dessert.

Meanwhile, the signature desserts ($12-$15) feature the business’s specialty flavors and are more elaborate. Instead of shave ice bowls, the signature creations are served in trays.

The stand — on the corner of Monsarrat and Campbell Avenues — goes beyond traditional shave ice. Choose from desserts inspired by the bakery’s signature creations, including lemon crunch cake and blueberry cream cheese scones.