Dan Nakaso

Twenty one incumbent Council members and state legislators have a clear path to reelection with no political opposition, and will return to office following the Aug. 8 party primary elections.

There is little expectation that voters will turn out in droves for the upcoming Aug. 8 party primaries following the 2024 presidential election year, when only 32.3% of all of Hawaii’s registered voters bothered to vote in the primary, a record low since widespread mail-in voting began in 2020.

Republican Rep. Elijah Pierick and Democratic Campbell High School teacher Corey Rosenlee know firsthand that every vote matters after their razor-thin race in 2024 flipped from a Rosenlee victory to a win for Pierick by just 11 votes.

Hawaiʻi Medical Service Association physicians will now have an additional six months to transition into a new fee-for-service payment model that HMSA said today will benefit doctors and their patients.

Residents of the Kahauiki Village community of families who were once homeless — or at risk of becoming homeless — feel safer and now enjoy an unobstructed ocean view after city, state and nonprofit agencies teamed up to clear out floating homeless structures that had been hidden by 40-foot tall mangroves.

The fourth-highest ranking state official in Hawaii’s line of succession will be in charge of the islands until Monday, while Gov. Josh Green, Acting Lt. Gov. Keith Regan and Attorney General Anne Lopez will simultaneously be off island for separate trips, leaving Seth Colby, the newly confirmed director of the Department of Budget and Finance, in charge.

State Senate Vice President Michelle Kidani, whose health was the subject of speculation during the last legislative session, announced today that she will retire, effective Tuesday, while acknowledging concerns over her health.

University of Hawaii President Wendy Hensel in the fall plans to release proposed changes that would impose new limits on speech and protests across all 10 UH campuses.

More than $12 million in federal funding has spurred researchers at the University of Hawaii’s Cancer Center and John A. Burns School of Medicine to focus on converting a garage-­sized, air-conditioned, ground-floor room at the Cancer Center into Hawaii’s first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence data center.

The University of Hawaii will use a federal investment of more than $12 million over five years to create a garage-sized data center to support AI-driven healthcare research.