Dan Nakaso

Former House Speaker Scott Saiki has returned to state government service following his 2024 election defeat — this time to help consumers obtain and afford homeowner’s insurance.

Anyone that sells an illegal firework that injures or kills someone — even if the seller wasn’t around or lit it — could be charged with a Class B felony and face 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, under bills introduced by Gov. Josh Green on Wednesday.

New University of Hawaii President Wendy Hensel, who’s going into her fourth week on the job, said she supports Gov. Josh Green’s plans to replace Aloha Stadium in a New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District and will look at the ramifications of taking UH athletics from a Division I to a Division II program after she was asked about it during her first appearance before a joint hearing of two Senate committees.

The 7th annual Visitor Public Safety Conference has been scheduled for Wednesday at the Hawai‘i Convention Center with a new emphasis on preventing drownings in an island state that has the nation’s highest rate of visitor drownings and second highest for residents.

A flurry of bills introduced last week would lower the blood alcohol content to be found guilty of driving while intoxicated, ask voters whether they want to allow adults to use and possess recreational marijuana, ban cellphones in public schools, impose term limits for state legislators and also bar them from nepotism, among other possible changes.

President Donald Trump’s orders to cut federal funding for a wide range of programs and nonprofit organizations has set off chaos and confusion in Hawaii and around the country.

President Donald Trump’s first days in office sent a clear message that he wants to turn the federal government into a political operation run by political appointees, according to U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda.

President Donald Trump’s directive to immediately eliminate any efforts to diversify federal offices and the people they serve — and require all federal employees to stop working from home — led some federal employees in Hawaii to apply for new jobs last week while they talked among one another about whether to quit.

Third-year pediatric resident Arlene Parubrub Kiyohara appreciates the state’s ongoing efforts to keep home local health care workers like her but believes two bills moving through the Legislature would limit educational and career options for University of Hawaii medical students like her and her classmates.

Immigration detention centers would be banned on state and county lands, and other bills in the Legislature also would ensure due process for any detainees.