BIG happenings this week: A UH scientist discovers an entirely unknown ecosystem subsisting on dead whale carcasses at the bottom of the ocean, El Nino sucks Maui dry to dump 30 inches of rain on soggy Northern California and we learn that urban Honolulu residents can keep 10 dogs but only two chickens. No, we’re not
making it upThe first Kenyan competes in the Winter Olympics, the PGA's Casey Martin gets to ride, and in a baseball game against the Hilo Vulcans five UH Rainbows are hit by pitches in one inning -- including one player struck twice!
While Bishop Estate plays the ol' shell game with bad boy Milton Holt's credit card records, the stock market hits new record highs and gasoline prices drop an average of 10 percent nationally, but not in Hawaii.
No, in Hawaii it's business as usual at the Legislature. Putting the state's urgent financial crisis aside, the House finds time for hearings on a bill to make the Pledge of Allegiance mandatory in public schools. Meanwhile, a bank has to sue a state senator to recover $100,000 he blew on an unsuccessful bid for Congress and a state representative is working as chief lobbyist for the telephone company (Conflict? What conflict?).
Somehow, I wasn't surprised to hear state social workers at Child Protective Services have three times tried to reunite a brain-damaged, 4-year-old boy with the mother imprisoned for his attempted murder. Were you?