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Editorial

Jan. 6 panel has greater purpose

Despite its name, the January 6 committee is not merely investigating the storming of the U.S. Capitol in 2021. It is rightly examining the broader campaign to deny the will of the people. Its first public hearing on Thursday highlighted the terror of a day that led to the deaths of at least seven people and saw 140 police officers injured as a mob, armed with cable ties and stun guns, wielded flagpoles as clubs. Graphic footage and vivid testimony from a Capitol police officer — “I was slipping in people’s blood — It was carnage” — reminded primetime viewers just how ...

Common sense in gun laws

The back-to-back massacres at a Buffalo grocery store and a Texas elementary school have brought into sharp focus the disparity in federal gun law that forbids people younger than 18 from buying handguns but allows them to purchase semiautomatic rifles. That someone too young to buy alcohol or cigarettes is allowed to buy weapons designed for war makes no sense. If ever a loophole cried out to be closed, it is this dangerous distinction. Congress must make it a top priority in any package of reforms. Recent mass shootings have increased pressure on Congress. The House is poised to ...

Rolling the dice on Maui

The longest Monopoly board game ever played lasted 70 days. The source reporting that tidbit, monopolyland.com, also claims the most expensive Monopoly set cost $2 million in 1988, the largest permanent playing board is a granite square with 30-foot sides in San Jose, Calif., and the longest game ever contested in a bathtub was 99 hours. Maui has those numbers beat by a Boardwalk mile. Investors began rolling the dice on island properties many decades ago. The action has never stopped. Some players put their life savings into little green houses on the island’s equivalent of Baltic ...

Bees need our help

Reducing excessive pesticide use and protecting bee habitat can help both pollinating bees and the supply of food. Bees need help. About 75 percent of agricultural crops depend on bees and other wildlife for pollination. But bees — the workhorse of bringing fruits, vegetables, honey, nuts and seeds to our plates — have been declining in numbers for years. According to the Bee Informed Partnership, beekeepers have been losing 40 percent of their colonies annually. Bees face a variety of challenges. For example, beekeepers lose up to 25 percent to 30 percent of their hives each ...

Gun safety like the military

One go-to argument some Second Amendment proponents cite against stronger gun safety laws is how our nation trusts 18-year-olds in the military to handle weapons of war. The thinking goes something like this: Since 18-year-olds can vote and serve in the military, they should also have the right to own an assault-style rifle (no mention of drinking, renting cars or how the prefrontal cortex is still developing). We’ve heard this argument in the aftermath of Uvalde in which an 18-year-old gunman purchased a pair of AR-15-style rifles and murdered 19 children and two teachers. So, ...

Bridges, roads on borrowed time

With hurricane season officially underway, a pair of articles in Thursday’s edition of this newspaper caught our eye. In the first story, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono called for making the realignment of Honoapiilani Highway in Olowalu an infrastructure priority. The other piece reported how consultants discovered significant storm damage to Kukuiula Bridge on Hana Highway between Kipahulu and Kaupo. Kukuiula Bridge is expected to be closed for at least two months as it undergoes repairs. While the closure is humbug for area residents, business owners and day-trippers hoping to circle ...