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Grading the DOE

Some day, the state Department of Education will receive its final report card for Kulanihako‘i High School’s grade-separated crossing in Kihei. On a pass/fail basis, the DOE will fail if a student is killed while crossing Piilani Highway or traversing one of the highway’s nearby bridges. It will also deserve failing marks if crosswalks at the new two-lane roundabout cause traffic to back up for miles. Two weeks ago, the DOE presented options for the pedestrian crossing during a meet and greet in the Lokelani Intermediate School cafeteria. Options included overpasses, a ...

Representation in NFL coaching

“Black Coaches in the National Football League: Superior Performance, Inferior Opportunities.” That was the title of a 2002 report by famed attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. and civil rights lawyer Cyrus Mehri detailing how Black coaches averaged more wins than their White counterparts but found it harder to get hired and easier to be fired. Nearly 20 years later, nothing has changed, as a damning Post investigation underscores. The NFL can do more. Compiling and analyzing three decades of data, a team of Post reporters — including Dave Sheinin, Michael Lee, Emily Giambalvo, Artur ...

Congressional stock-trading

It is a long-running scandal that members of Congress are allowed to trade individual stocks. They have access to privileged information. They oversee a sprawling web of federal policy. Their actions can have direct effects on the companies in which they have stakes. The potential for real or perceived conflicts of interest is enormous. Yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not always favored cracking down on lawmaker stock-trading. “It’s a free-market economy,” she said last year, dismissing concerns. Lately, she has changed her stance, indicating that a stock-trading ...

Severe storms a wake up call

The heartbreaking images and stories coming out of hurricane-ravaged Florida are stark reminders of how vulnerable we are out here in the middle of the Pacific. Someday, we could the ones on TV sifting through the rubble of our shattered homes. Packing 155-mph winds, Hurricane Ian made landfall near Fort Meyers as a Category 4 storm teetering on the edge of Category 5, the highest possible. Its massive storm surge, howling winds and record flooding carved a 400-mile-wide swath of devastation across the state. Officials say it will take years, if not decades, to rebuild what has been ...

How Jones Act hinders aid

Thousands of Americans in Puerto Rico are without power after Hurricane Fiona roared through last week. Idling off the island’s coast is a ship that reportedly carries 300,000 barrels of diesel fuel from Texas. Yet unloading that fuel is illegal without a Jones Act waiver, which the Biden Administration hasn’t granted. The Jones Act, also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, is protectionism at its worst. The law says waterborne cargo between U.S. points must be carried by ships that are primarily built, owned and crewed by Americans. This raises shipping prices, while ...

Brazil’s election fears

Four years ago, many Brazilians regarded the prospect of a victory for the far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro first with incredulity and then — rightly — with horror. As the Oct. 2 election approaches, the fear that he will remain in power is greater still. He has proved a reckless and incompetent leader and remains a menace to democracy and the planet — egging on those destroying the Amazon rainforest, who are currently redoubling their efforts at the prospect of losing their champion. His main rival, the former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is more than 15 ...