Saturday is the anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution On July 28, 1868, the amendment became part of the Constitution when it was ratified by three-quarters of the states. Congress had passed it in 1866.* The original purpose of the amendment was to ...

This weekend will mark the 60th anniversary of a very important institution. On July 29, 1958, Congress established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The space agency was created, in large part, out of fear. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite to orbit ...

Have you noticed that we now live in a world of legal disclaimers? During a news program on television, a commercial came on touting the success of a firm that invests in mutual funds. While spending a good part of the 30-second spot telling the viewing audience that over the past few ...

As a dog owner, it is a matter of faith that our trusted companion would not hurt a fly. As a resident of Maui County, that matter of faith takes second place to a county ordinance, commonly referred to as a “leash law.” Under Title 6, Chapter 6.04.040 Animal Regulations — General is ...

It was just a year ago this week that we wrote here asking for prayers for an American hero, John McCain, who had just received a devastating diagnosis of brain cancer. Sen. McCain is hanging in there, still weighing in on the important issues facing our country. But, his opinions this year ...

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Forty-nine years ago — July 20, 1969 — astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke those words as he became the first human being to set foot on the moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration fulfilled the challenge a ...

Well, here comes our broken record again urging our readers to patronize local businesses. It is awfully easy to shop on the internet. Too easy. Heck, if you even express interest in a product, a bot will follow you to almost every web site you visit reminding you about it. It’s almost ...

Email is an easy, inexpensive tool. Maybe too easy. Many clubs, professional organizations, governmental offices and even law enforcement agencies and fire officials now use “e-blasts” to alert bunches of people about events in one easy keystroke. The only problem, as we have ...

A long time ago, a college professor told his sociology class about a study that related the behavior of lab rodents to the density of their population. Now, the study was a mid-20th century warning about the population explosion and how overcrowding might change the behavior — and the ...

People are living longer today — a lot longer. Whether it is because of better medical care or healthier lifestyles, today’s population is living a lot longer than its parents or grandparents. Discussions with friends and a physician prompted us to try to quantify just how much longer we ...

Well, it’s Friday the 13th and as we peek out at the world from under our desk, a few observations about this dreaded date: 1. Wikipedia says fear of the number 13 has a name — triskaidekaphobia — and the pairing of that with Fridays is called paraskevidekatriaphobia (in Greek, Paraskevi ...

Three years ago, a Pew Research Center report showed a decline in religious affiliation in general — and Christianity, in particular — in the United States. Still, over 70 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christians. But that is down from 78.4 percent in 2007, the last time ...

Profiles in Courage was a Pulitzer Prize winning book written by John F. Kennedy about actions taken by eight senators that involved great political risk. Four years ago a man who was not a senator but who was a living example of a profile in courage died. James Brady was Ronald Reagan’s ...

A while back, some friends told us about some strong tides they had encountered unexpectedly off Spreckelsville. It reminded us again of something an old colleague wrote about being lured into dangerous situations by forgetting that Maui’s beauty is a force of nature and, as such, can contain ...

Once again this election year, members of the County Council have turned their backs on putting the day-to-day running of Maui County in the hands of professionals. A ballot proposal that would have specified that a professional managing director would be the chief operating officer of Maui ...

For the first 18 months of the current administration in Washington, there has been a lot of lip service paid to improving the nation’s infrastructure. Each attempt, though, to have an “infrastructure week” or even an “infrastructure day” has been overshadowed by scandals and ...

The internet daily offers challenges to people in the business of information. More and more, the public is demanding instantaneous reporting of the news and asserting its right to comment immediately on those stories. In general, that is a good thing. But a real problem with allowing ...

On July 4, 1776, the ruler of the British Empire, King George III, sat down with his diary and wrote, “Nothing of importance happened today.” Little did he know that the world would long note the Declaration of Independence signed that day by representatives of 13 British colonies in North ...

One of the reader-friendly features of many current newspaper websites (including mauinews.com) is the ability to see every page of that day’s print edition. Replica editions show every article, every photo, every advertisement just as they appeared in that day’s edition of the newspaper. ...

With the celebration of the Declaration of Independence only three days away, it is well worth noting that Monday is the 54th anniversary of another famous date in American history. On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. With one sweep of the ...