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Arts & Entertainment

Aloha Spirit

A 500-foot public mural in partnership with Capitol Modern will be unveiled at Common Ground Kauaʻi, a 63-acre regenerative farm located on what was once a guava plantation in Kīlauea, on the Garden Isle's north shore.

On Saturday, June 27, Common Ground Kauaʻi and Capitol Modern will unveil the mural to the public. The event starts at 3 p.m. There will be guided mural tours and a Q&A with the artists, as well as film screenings. Starting at 7 p.m., there will be music from a DJ and food sourced from the farm. 

Common Ground Kauaʻi is a regenerative farm, which means the farm grows its coffee, vegetables and native plants in a system that mimics the diversity of a tropical ecosystem and does not use imported fertilizers or pesticides. Capitol Modern, the official Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, is part of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts’ 

“At Common Ground, the land isn’t the backdrop, it’s the teacher,” said Jennifer Luck, CEO of Common Ground Kaua‘i, in a written statement. “This opportunity isn’t separate from what we grow here or who we gather here. It’s the same conversation told on a different canvas. We’re grateful to our partners SFCA and Capitol Modern for seeing what’s possible here on Kaua‘i.”

The mural features the work of 11 artists — many of whom call Kauaʻi home — who were each asked to own a 50-foot section of the mural and add their individual works into a piece with the theme “An Imparting Landscape.”

“Impart means to make known; to communicate,” according to the farm’s website. “An Imparting Landscape reflects the way knowledge and tradition move through mentorship, memory and lived experience.”

When asked to describe the 500-foot mural in just a few words, artist Sanoe Stevenson-Egeland, who grew up on Kauaʻi and now lives in Seattle, picked: connective, collaborative and full of life. Her part of the project is titled “Go Where you Grow” and features a Toyota pickup, a symbol of home, she said.

“The opportunity to be at home working with other artists has been so special,” Stevenson-Egeland told Aloha State Daily in a written statement. “Coming home and having the time and space to paint in community has felt really warm and has made me hopeful that artists can thrive in Hawai’i, even in a small community like Kaua’i. It gives me hope that I’ll be able to move home in the future and have the opportunity to connect and share creativity with the people that have inspired me from the beginning.”

The featured artists for this collaboration include 

, who is based on Oʻahu and is the current artist in residence for 

. Kauaʻi-based artists participating in the mural include Bryce Baker, Kaplan Bunce, Matt Hoyme, Holly Kaʻiakapu, Taylor Lowe, Taylor Reinhold and Samuel Schryver. In addition to

oining them are: Tiffany Chow, who is based in Los Angeles, and Chris Miyashiro, who is based on Oʻahu.

Stevenson-Egeland uses composition and color to explore memory and longing. She moved to Seattle in 2016, right after graduating from high school, to pursue painting because she did not see many opportunities for her work where she had grown up.

Sources of inspiration for her part of the mural include Hawaiʻi truck culture, music, blue collar livelihood, local flora and a sense of longing and belonging, she said.

“As the project evolved, both the ideas and values behind the regenerative farm and our shared missions as artists bled into what I was making,” wrote Stevenson-Egeland. “There are so many unique ways that each of us are working toward a common goal, and inspiring one another to keep going.”

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Sanoe Stevenson-Egeland

<title>New mural unveiling on Kauaʻi this Saturday</title>

The Garden Island has new art, which will be unveiled to the public this weekend. The project is a collaboration between Common Ground Kauaʻi, a 63-acre regenerative farm, and Capitol Modern. The project involves 11 artists, including many who call Kauaʻi home.

New mural unveiling on Kauaʻi this Saturday

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

, Warriors Don't Bully is bringing a pair of anti-bullying and self-defense seminars to the 

The Hi Fit Expo, which takes place from June 27-28, will be held at the Neal S. Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. Warriors Don't Bully will hold sessions at noon on both days. Saturday's session will be focused on keiki and their families, where one of the points of emphasis will be anti-bullying education. Sunday's session, spearheaded by former Bellator champion 

will be focused on women, specifically focusing on self-defense, confidence and personal safety skills. 

"There's different things that we need to look out for and protect ourselves from as women, and so that's why I decided to do a women-focused session on Sunday," Macfarlane told Aloha State Daily. 

Both sessions will feature prominent mixed martial artists from the Islands. In addition to Macfarlane, former UFC fighters Yancy Medeiros and Martin Day will be among the featured instructors, who all share the common goal of spreading positivity while being prepared for danger if it comes one's way. 

A viral video in which a young woman was mobbed near Leilehua High School was one of the incidents that prompted the Hawai‘i MMA community to come together for Warriors Don't Bully in the summer of 2025. 

"We were blown away by the turnout, and we just knew that this is something that's really needed," Macfarlane said. 

While arranging another run of Warriors Don't Bully events, Macfarlane says she was given a stark reminder of the purpose of the event earlier in the summer, when a 15-year-old North Shore boy and 23-year-old Kekoa Tamale were mobbed by a large group and left severely injured. (ICYMI: ASD columnists 

"I don't know what's up with these kids. I feel like summertime is when things get bad or kids just have too much time on their hands," Macfarlane said. "It just goes to show that there is still a huge need for anti-bullying training in Hawaiʻi, and after last year's event, we want to continue this program and make a positive change with our youth, and we want to do it more than once a year."

Additionally, Macfarlane, along with Medeiros, Day and Kamehameha administrator and wrestling coach Rob Hesia, have visited with multiple O‘ahu schools in an effort to implement parts of the Warriors Don't Bully into their curriculums.  

Reception from the first Warriors Don't Bully event was unanimously positive. Macfarlane says the goal for the organization is to keep adding instructors from the Hawai‘i combats sports world, believing that each person will have a plethora of wisdom and experience to offer. 

"Every fighter has such a wealth of knowledge that we can do this program and have every single workshop be different," Macfarlane said. "That's kind of my goal for future workshops.

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Warriors Don't Bully 061025

<title>Warriors Don't Bully returns for sequel at Hi Fit Expo</title>

Two anti-bullying and self-defense sessions will be held at the Hi Fit Expo at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall this weekend.

Warriors Don't Bully returns for sequel at Hi Fit Expo

Kam Napier Headshot

A. Kam Napier

Government & Politics

Hawai‘i has a big environmental problem. It’s real. It’s poisoning the land and the ocean every single day. We’ve passed a law to fix this problem by 2050, but we are way behind schedule while the poisoning continues.

[{"type":"text","text":"Climate change?"}]

Actual, literal human waste, leeching into our ‘āina and our groundwater from Hawai‘i’s 88,000 remaining cesspools.

For the gory details, see the state Department of Health’s 

. Short version: Of the 88,000 cesspools statewide, 43,000 “pose a risk to our water resources.” It adds:

The problem is so bad that Hawai‘i passed Act 125 in 2017 to eliminate all the cesspools by January 1, 2050.

But we’re only removing hundreds per year when we need to be removing thousands. Earlier this year, as reported in 

, the mayor of Hawai‘i County, Kimo Alameda, has asked for an extension to 2060. This is significant because most of the state’s cesspools — 50,000 of them — are on Hawai‘i Island. They are mainly attached to private homes and businesses and the cost of eliminating a cesspool can be ruinous for homeowners. Civil Beat notes that state created a $5 million grant program in 2022 that offered $20,000 each to low- and moderate-income property owners for cesspool removal.

[{"type":"text","text":"The money ran out “within a week of the grant’s launch.”"}]

There could be some relief from the state’s new “green fee,” but as of that February article, the amount discussed was $1 million.

Just one million. The “green fee” fund has $120 million in it, for this year alone. If it takes $20,000 to kill a cesspool, that’s 6,000 cesspools per year. The most dangerous 43,000 cesspools could be eliminated in little over seven years. If we started in 2027, we’d be done by 2034, a staggering 16 years ahead of schedule.

That’s 16 fewer years of human sewage, dumped into the land and seas by the tens of millions of gallons.

Here’s what’s happening instead. When Act 96 went into law last year, it levied a tourism “green fee” tax that generates the green fee fund. With seemingly little regard for actual environmental priorities, the Act predetermined that the funding would be split equally between the nebulous categories of “Sustainable Tourism, Natural Resource Stewardship, and Climate Resilience,” according to the 

Somehow, that coalition seems to be in charge of connecting Hawai‘i businesses and nonprofits with state government. This week, Care for ‘Aina Now held the first of its statewide virtual workshops to advise these entities on how to apply for green fee funding.

The funding decisions will be made by just 10 people on the 

They are Eric Co, CEO, Harold K.L. Castle Foundation; Lea Hong, Hawai

i State Director of The Trust for Public Land; Dennis Hwang, faculty, University of Hawai

i Sea Grant College Program, NOAA; Janice Ikeda, founding CEO of Vibrant Hawai

uhane, chief operating officer and executive vice president at Hawai

i Community Foundation; Jack Kittinger, conservation scientist and Research Professor at Arizona State University; Keoni Kuoha, long-time Hōkūle

a crew member and Maui community leader; Carmela Resuma, destination stewardship director at Kilohana by the Hawaiian Council; Jeff Wagoner, president and CEO of Outrigger Hospitality Group; and council chair Jeff Mikulina, executive director of Climate Hawai‘i.

What we’ve got is a clique of environmental careerists, connected government insiders and one tourism executive who are going to take the enormous power of $120 million per year and dilute it through some unknown number of disconnected projects.

Let’s aside the opportunities for graft this process represents — friends handing friends tax dollars. Let’s set aside the possibility that some of these projects will have some merit in and of themselves — some wildfire mitigation here, some shoreline hardening there. 

It just seems typical of why nothing ever seems to get better in Hawai‘i. No focus. No ability to just pick a single big problem and solve it, even when we obviously and easily could.

The purported threats to Hawai‘i stemming from climate change may never even come to pass, and the problem certainly wasn’t generated here. The poop, on the other hand, happens every single day and we made that mess for ourselves, 100%. We know exactly what it’s doing to the environment. We could end the cesspool problem once for all, ahead of schedule, with all this money.

So, of course, we aren’t. Come 2050, we’ll still be talking about the cesspools while, by then, some $2.8 billion in green fee funds will have been spent on who knows what else.

I’d bet money on that outcome, because the State of Hawai‘i certainly has.

A. Kam Napier is editor in chief of Aloha State Daily. His opinions in Pipikaula Corner are his own and not reflective of the ASD team.

Firefly sewage

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i’s crappy priorities</title>

The state just announced a process for Hawai‘i’s businesses and nonprofits to apply for funding out of the new $120-million “green fee” fund. ASD editor in chief A. Kam Napier opines that we could be aiming all of that money at a single very significant environmental problem we made for ourselves right here in the Islands. Instead, it will get diluted.

Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i’s crappy priorities

 Thursday. Joining former president Barak Obama and Michelle Obama in Chicago, Illinois, were former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden, and a host of Hollywood, music and media celebrities.

Far as I can tell, no one locally has covered this event, outside of a wire service story picked up by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. If Hawai‘i Democrats attended the party, they were certainly quiet about it. You can hardly tell that, back in the day, Hawai‘i tried really, really hard to be the home for Obama’s presidential library.

Maybe, now that we can see it, kama‘āina are, like me, breathing a sigh of relief that it isn’t here. But first some backstory, before I dust off my architecture critic skills.

You don’t hear about this much anymore, but all through the Obama administration, Hawai‘i — well, maybe just especially prominent, political parts of Hawai‘i — were totally in love with Barack Obama. They were eager to claim him as Hawai‘i’s own, on the grounds that he attended high school here*, and acted as if someone from the Islands had been elected directly to the White House. This one-sided love affair was in full swing when, early in Obama's first term, talk of his presidential library first emerged.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Pick me!” Hawai‘i said."}]

“The Hawai‘i Legislature has sent the White House a joint resolution that it passed last session urging Obama to pick Hawai‘i as the site for his library,” reported Dan Nakaso in the Star-Advertiser on 

We did more then send a resolution. Nakaso reported that a University of Hawai‘i working group would be created to study potential sites, designs, archive management policies and more. UH Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Reed Dasenbrock was scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. “to meet with the head of the presidential library division of the National Archives and to Little Rock, Ark., to meet with the director of the Clinton Presidential Center and the Clinton Foundation.

An especially fervent fan was UH Associate Professor of American Studies Robert Perkinson, who, while he knew Chicago officials were already pushing to have the library, said, “But I feel the stars are aligned a certain way that we are really going to fight to win this. I think we’re going to do what it takes. And that means over the next months and years developing an architectural proposal that is breathtaking and a museum that’s innovative and has a really robust public education component that could benefit all of the kids of Hawai‘i and a policy center that could really help us meet Hawai‘i’s challenges and those of the larger Pacific and the larger world.”

Not that Hawai‘i believed it could beat Chicago, where Obama’s political career actually began. In a May 27, 2011 reader poll, the Star-Advertiser found that 70% of 923 respondents thought that Chicago would win.

Four years later, Hawai‘i was in the top four locations vying for the library when Star-Advertiser political columnist Richard Borreca 

on presidential libraries who advised Hawai‘i to quit. The proposed Kaka‘ako location was unlikely to draw the foot traffic that would make it succeed, and the next steps to advance were expensive in terms of developing a “detailed master development plan for the surrounding community.” Meanwhile, Borecca noted, UH was still hot for the library, hoping it would transform the university and its stature.

[{"type":"text","text":"Ultimately, Chicago won."}]

As for the architecture of the Obama Presidential Center, I’m hard pressed to say anything original, as people have been blasting it since the final design first emerged, and more so once people could see it looming 23 stories over an otherwise low-rise, residential neighborhood. It’s been compared to a mausoleum, a headstone, to Saruman’s tower in the "The Lord of the Rings," to something the Empire would build in a "Star Wars" movie. Note: When people make comparisons of this building to movie architecture, it is always Buildings for the Bad Guys.

, based in New York City. Perhaps they hated their client. Or perhaps they were bold enough to honestly reflect the singular, monumental ego of a man who once 

 while running the first time for president, “I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I’ll hire to do it” and “I think I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

Or, when he’d won the nomination — not the presidency, mind you, just the nomination — that 

 as “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

So given all those and countless other examples, it’s no surprise the architecture stands alone, angular, imposing, humorless. It resembles Soviet naked-concrete brutalist buildings but is actually clad in American granite, yet a granite so gray that they might just as well have skipped the expense and stuck with the cement underneath.

To me, the most significant detail is the tower’s near total lack of windows. This building is literally blind to the outside world and internally recursive — all views bounce back in upon themselves to see only the interior. It’s an architectural manifestation of self-absorption.

What windows the building does have are cropped into one top corner, and are obscured by a massive a massive inscription of — what else? — a quote from one of Obama’s own speeches. One cannot look out without looking through the man himself, through his words given on the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches.

 but the inscription has been rendered deliberately illegible. Yes, deliberately.

“One of the key questions I asked at the beginning was, are people supposed to read this?” said designer Micheal Bierut, who typeset the lettering with a team at Pentagram, led by designer Britt Cobb, as reported by 

. “Is legibility the primary goal here? Do we want people to be able to stand on the ground, look up at this tower, and read those words? And that was discussed on the client end, and the answer came back, ‘No, it should have the promise of meaning, it should be decipherable, everything should be spelled right and it should make sense.’”

[{"type":"text","text":"“The promise of meaning.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"I just rolled my eyes so hard I pulled an eye muscle."}]

Then there’s the totally on-brand, real world social and economic dimensions of the project.

The cost of construction ballooned from $350 million to $850 million, per 

. Black residents of the neighborhood have been displaced and priced out, so much so that the city of Chicago is budgeting $6 million for affordable housing to make up for it. Construction companies are still owed “hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions.” Private funding came nowhere near the investment needed and the State of Illinois, all told, will have spent some $200 million on infrastructure.

Since his foundation hasn’t paid its bills, since the building and its namesake have taken so much from their neighbors, there’s actually another famous quote from Obama that comes to mind:

[{"type":"text","text":"Mahalo, Chicago, for taking this off our hands."}]

*Adding a note 6/21, lest this piece get dragged into the "birther" madness: Of course Obama was born here, too, but when I look back on our local reaction when he rose to political prominence, it was the fact that he later returned to attend Punahou that really completed the "born 

 raised" sentiment. "Where you wen grad" is a real thing here for establishing a local identity.

Obama library Getty Images 2281570460 16x9

<title>Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i dodged a library bullet</title>

Hawai‘i tried very hard to be the home of Barack Obama's presidential library. Now the thing exists in Chicago, open to the public, over budget and overwrought. ASD Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier recaps Hawai‘i's doomed quest to secure this building and gets into what the architecture of the finished project tells us.

Pipikaula Corner: Hawai‘i dodged a library bullet

Square Kady Pascual Headshot RGZ5762

Kady Pascual

Food & Dining

There's a new voice waking up Hawaiʻi mornings, and Aloha State Daily is joining the conversation.

94.7 KUMU, Hawaiʻi’s feel good station, recently announced a new morning radio show, "Morning Vibe with Sunway," airing live from 5:30 to 10 a.m. on weekday mornings.

, “Sunway is a veteran singer, songwriter, and performer from Hawai’i. She has been nominated for two Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards and has released several albums of original music throughout her career.”

Looking for local grindz? Every Friday at 8 a.m., ASD’s Food & Dining reporter Kelli Shiroma Braiotta is on-air for "Local Flavor Fridays" to give you your weekly foodie update. She will serve up the latest scoop on new restaurant openings, food and drink specials, pop-ups, broke da mouth bites around the Island and more.

ASD can’t wait to be part of your morning routine!

Local Flavor Friday 94 7 Kumu Kelli and Sunway sml

<title>Aloha State Daily joins 94.7 KUMU on new segment, 'Local Flavor Fridays'</title>

Start your Friday off by listening to 94.7 KUMU’s newest segment, "Local Flavor Fridays," featuring ASD’s Food & Dining reporter Kelli Shiroma Braiotta.

Aloha State Daily joins 94.7 KUMU on new segment, 'Local Flavor Fridays'

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

To kick off the summer, The Kāhala Hotel & Resort is offering a 20% 

 and Seaside Grill. The discount can be applied to Plumeria Beach House’s a la carte or buffet menus (the discount doesn’t apply to alcoholic drinks). The restaurant is known for its open-air, casual atmosphere with ocean views.

Plumeria Beach House’s seafood dinner buffet is on Friday and Saturdays only from 5 to 8:30 p.m. It normally costs $97 per adult and $49 for children ages 6 to 12. With the kamaʻāina discount, it’s around $78. Buffet seating is limited to two hours per table.

Buffet highlights include seafood on ice — including oysters, snow crab and shrimp cocktail — and a carving station with the eatery’s signature garlic and rosemary-rubbed prime rib of beef.

The seafood station features ‘ahi sashimi, spicy ‘ahi poke, limu ‘ahi poke and mixed ginger scallion poke, along with assorted sushi. Diners can choose from ‘ahi nigiri, inari, dynamite California rolls and more.

Hot entrees include the fresh catch of the day, Thai-style fried chicken, scallop fried rice, salt and pepper shrimp, stuffed salmon and more. Meanwhile, the salad bar features Caesar salad, Nalo greens, Chinese chicken salad, summer watermelon feta salad, seasonal fresh fruits and more.

Desserts include Oreo cheesecakes, caramel walnut sable, fruit tarts, lilikoʻi crunch macnut cakes, cobbler of the day — apple was featured during our visit — and the Kāhala signature bread pudding with creme anglaise. The dessert station also features a self-serve soft serve ice cream machine with a toppings bar.

Diners will receive four hours of complimentary parking with a $50 minimum purchase.

https://www.kahalaresort.com/dining/plumeria-beach-house-menus-seafood/

Seafood buffet from 5 to 8:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays

Plumeria Beach House seafood station 061626

<title>Kamaʻāina can enjoy a 20% dining discount at The Kāhala Hotel & Resort</title>

To kick off the summer, The Kāhala Hotel & Resort is offering a 20% kamaʻāina discount at Plumeria Beach House and Seaside Grill. The discount can be applied to Plumeria Beach House’s a la carte and buffet menus.

Kamaʻāina can enjoy a 20% dining discount at The Kāhala Hotel & Resort

Christinapic2

Raised on Oahu, Christina O’Connor graduated from the University of Oregon and returned home to start her career in journalism. Over the last 15 years, she has covered a range of beats as a reporter — including community news, entertainment, tech and restaurants — and her work has appeared in various Hawai‘i newspapers and magazines. She can be reached at 

<title>Christina O'Connor</title>

Christina O'Connor

Crime & Courts

For 16 years, the murder of Amber Jackson on Kauai has gone unsolved, but in December 2025, the Kaua‘i Police Department issued an arrest warrant for Gregory Glaser, wanted for second degree murder in connection with the case. ASD crime writer Christina O'Connor spoke with Amber Jackson's family and friends to learn about Jackson's life and their tireless pursuit of justice for her.

Christina O'Connor

Latest from Christina O'Connor

Family, friends continue to seek justice for Amber Jackson 16 years after Kaua‘i murder

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