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Editorial

The message of trucker’s protest

Canadian truckers opposed to a Covid-19 vaccination mandate used their rigs on Monday to block the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, the busiest international land-border crossing in North America. This latest act in a week-long show of civil disobedience is more akin to political life in France or the U.S. That it happened in restrained Canada is a signal to the political class across the West: Large swaths of humanity are done with Covid-19 restrictions, mandates and excessive meddling in their lives. They want to go back to making their own health-risk ...

Your vote makes a difference

Mark Twain once said, “Folks who can and don’t read good books have no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” The same principle applies to voting. If we can vote and choose not to, we have no advantage over millions throughout the world who are unable to do so. Every election cycle, the media is filled with pleas for voters to make their voices heard through the ballot box. Candidates spend money to get their message out. Citizens often express concern that those who think as they do don’t make an effort. There was a time when this group was referred to as “the ...

Finding the right balance

Fixing overtourism is sort of like performing our own heart surgery. Without steady hands and clear vision there’s danger we’ll damage or even destroy that which pumps life’s blood to our economy. Tasked with exploring the issue and coming up with ways to solve it, the Maui County Council’s Tourism Management and Economic Development Temporary Investigative Group released its final report Wednesday. It arrived on the heels of a pair of Hawaii performance reports that show Maui’s hotels and vacation rentals lead the state in bouncing back from the pandemic. The 418-page ...

Fighting misinformation

Over the past few days a number of brave artists have taken a valiant stand against the lies and misinformation being promoted on Spotify. In particular, Neil Young pulled his music from the Spotify platform to protest against popular podcast host Joe Rogan, who has hosted several outspoken skeptics of vaccines for COVID-19. Initially it appeared Young would lose the David and Goliath struggle with Spotify. Star columnist Vinay Menon wrote a great article on the battle and we agreed with his humorous, biting wit. “Joe Rogan doesn’t need Spotify. Spotify needs Joe Rogan,” wrote ...

Don’t ignore vaping problem

In late 2019, the health story that commanded public attention wasn’t the coronavirus. Emergency rooms had started reporting mysterious cases of lung illnesses, with more than half of the patients under the age of 25. The common link was the use of e-cigarettes, often with vitamin E acetate as an additive to THC. By February of 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,807 hospitalizations and 68 deaths associated with vaping. For a time, this story caused a backlash against e-cigarettes, but then the public moved on to other things. Yet vaping, ...

Honoring one of our own

For 30 years, sportswriter Robert Collias has been taking Maui News readers out onto the fields, courts, fairways and water. It doesn't matter if he's covering Tiger Woods or a Little League baseball game, Collias finds the hook that makes the story interesting and follows up with the facts, insights and quotes that complete the scene. Though you can't tell by his well-written prose, his stories are often composed under tight deadline pressure. Collias is a walking encyclopedia of island high school athletes and coaches. His stories have helped an untold number of young men and ...