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Honolulu Civil Beat •

Big Island Mayor Says State Will Miss 2050 Cesspool Deadline

The Big Island’s new mayor says there’s no way Hawaiʻi can meet its 2050 deadline for converting the state’s 83,000 cesspools to septic tanks.


Since his island is home to well over half of those cesspools, Mayor Kimo Alameda’s perspective carries weight in the debate over the 2017 law.


“It’s an unfunded state mandate and it’s stressing everybody out… especially on our island,” Alameda told Civil Beat.


The deadline stems from Act 125, which was aimed at curbing tens of millions of gallon...
Alaska Beacon •

Bowhead whales are ingesting toxins driven by warming in Arctic, study finds | Alaska Beacon

A long-term study of bowhead whales in Alaska published this week points to a direct correlation between ocean warming and threats to the Arctic food web.  


An example of a fecal sample from a subsistence-harvested bowhead whale, part of a long-term study of ocean conditions, algal toxins and bowheads published on July 9, 2025, in the journal Nature. (Photo courtesy of Gay Sheffield/Alaska Sea Grant)


An interdisciplinary team of scientists, collaborating with Alaska Native...
Alaska Beacon •

Scientists find Aleutian Range volcano offers clues to ‘stealthy’ eruptions | Alaska Beacon

An ice-clad behemoth among Alaska’s Aleutian Range mountains is sharing secrets about what makes some volcanoes tick — namely, ones that show little sign of erupting before they blow.
In a study published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, scientists said they have discovered why Mount Veniaminof is so stealthy — and that information may help improve volcano forecasting and perhaps save lives. 
Named after an 18th century Russian Orthodox priest, Veniaminof is what scientists cal...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Foreclosure Opens Door To Preserve Big Island Black Sand Beach

Learning about a land foreclosure at Punaluʻu provided an instant wave of relief for Nohea Kaʻawa. 


The way she read it, a recent court decision means that prime coastal lands on the Big Island’s southeastern shore, ones that sustained her grandfather and ancestors before him, would be off the chopping block. A chance to start anew.


“We have been fighting development after development for generations,” Kaʻawa said.


Punaluʻu is a strip of black sand beach on the Big Island in the rural K...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Hawaiian Knowledge And Western Science: A Recipe For Reef Recovery?

A daughter of the Big Island’s Kailua-Kona region, Cindi Punihaole remembers when the ocean was teeming with life. 


“My father taught me how to throw a net,” recalled Punihaole, now 74. “The sea was our ice box.”


Punihaole left the Big Island for college on the mainland and did not move home again for 30 years, until her aging parents needed her.


What she found on her return shocked her. Far fewer fish. A degraded reef. Resorts, golf courses, overtourism and urbanization — all of it pou...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Hawaii's Love Affair With Cesspools Is Ruining Its Reefs

A coral reef at the base of a Big Island lava field is one of Hawaii’s healthiest — and most at risk.


It’s located off Milolii, considered the state’s last fishing village and home to Native Hawaiians since the first millennium. Their descendants fought to create a state-protected fishing reserve there just two years ago, making it the largest locally managed marine refuge in the main Hawaiian islands.


New threats to the reef’s rich biodiversity loom just uphill from Milolii’s weatherworn...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Half Of All Coral Reefs Are Dead. A Maui 'Super Reef' Offers Hope.

Maui artist Michiko Smith grew up in Lahaina. After a deadly wildfire leveled much of her coastal town, Smith took stock and decided to reprioritize her life.


The 30-year-old continues to make art from marine debris, mainly “ghost nets” cast adrift from fishing vessels. But making her beloved West Maui more resilient to climate-fueled disasters has become Smith’s obsession.


After enrolling in a marine studies program at University of Hawaii Maui College, she discovered the Super Reefs proj...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

This Buddhist Temple Is Collapsing Into The Sea Off Maui

A Zen Buddhist graveyard on Maui’s north shore is supposed to be a place of eternal rest. Instead, the cemetery is battling an ever-encroaching sea.


Pounded by relentless surf, an alluvial bluff supporting the cemetery has eroded to the point that waves have washed away dozens of graves containing human remains.


Just down the beach, Paia Mantokuji Soto Mission faces a similar fate. Built in 1906 to serve Japanese immigrant laborers, the seaside temple and associated buildings are perched p...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Researchers Fear A Disturbing Pattern Of Health Problems Is Emerging After The Maui Fires

They were both napping on the afternoon of Aug. 8. But Filikitonga-Lukela’s barking dogs alerted her to the fast-approaching inferno.


“There was black smoke everywhere,” she said. “Then I felt the heat, and I thought, ‘Oh my God. It’s a fire.'”


Filikitonga-Lukela and her mother escaped death because one of her daughters rushed home and piled them into her car as neighbors jumped into the ocean.


After staying in a government-funded hotel room, the Lahaina family found a rental in Central...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

A Birth On A Hilo Sidewalk Reflects Challenges In Helping A Growing Homeless Community

The recent birth of a baby on a Hilo sidewalk and the subsequent treatment of the mother have raised concerns about the limitations of the Big Island’s social safety network as it contends with a growing homeless population.


The mother, identified by police as Ashley Aileen Maile Lum, has been living on the streets for years and struggles with mental illness, according to several people who know her. Lum, 41, now faces a possible felony charge of child abandonment, prompting criticism from th...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

This Developer Wants Public Money To Build Maui's Future. Has He Come Clean About His Own Past?

As Maui County officials struggle to find housing for thousands of displaced people who survived the deadly Aug. 8 wildfire, a Texas real estate developer is offering to build hundreds of affordable homes just north of Lahaina.


In exchange for developing the Pulelehua subdivision near the Kapalua Airport, Paul Sau-Ki Cheng wants $50 million from Maui County, on top of $18 million he’s already received.


Cheng and his project have many supporters in Maui and the developer cites a decades-lo...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Cultural Monitors Help Assure Lahaina Fire Cleanup Is Done With Respect

The workday began at 7 a.m. Saturday with a safety briefing and pule, or prayer, in Lahaina’s Safeway parking lot.


Safety vests and steel-toed shoes adorned the workers. Some wore blue shirts emblazoned with Environmental Protection Agency logos. Others were clad in red, the color of Lahaina. The workers formed a circle and clapped as Ikaika Kapu led a pule in olelo Hawaii, the Indigenous language of Hawaii.


Afterwards, Kapu explained the significance of the morning ritual.


“The pule is...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Concerns Grow Over How To Control Toxic Ash As Re-Entry To Lahaina Picks Up

As residents return to their destroyed properties in Lahaina and area schools prepare to reopen, many are asking how and when authorities plan to control toxic dust from the Aug. 8 fires from becoming airborne or being washed into the sea and freshwater systems.


The Environmental Protection Agency’s answer to that question is a dust-suppressant product called Soiltac, which arose as a major topic of concern this week at a Maui County Council committee meeting.


With county approval, the age...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Lahaina's Football Team Delivers Big Win And Heavy Dose Of Healing

The cheerleaders, the players, the coaches and the fans were all there. But something greater than a high school football game took place Saturday evening at Maui’s War Memorial Stadium.


A much-anticipated matchup between the Lahainaluna Lunas and the Baldwin Bears delivered a massive dose of catharsis to an emotionally shattered island.


Less than two months after a fast-moving fire destroyed most of Lahaina, killing at least 97 people and displacing thousands, Maui residents turned out in...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Lahaina Residents Can Return To Their Burned Properties Soon. But Is The Air Safe?

With less than a week before Maui County begins letting fire survivors back to their scorched properties in Lahaina and with travel restrictions into West Maui set to lift Oct. 8, many are still wondering whether it’s safe to breathe the air in and around the burn zone.


The county advises anyone entering the neighborhoods affected by the Aug. 8 blaze to wear personal protective equipment and to not go at all if pregnant, elderly, young or medically compromised.


But experts question what l...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Maui Mayor's Limited Response About Lahaina Fires Leaves Critical Questions Unanswered

Nearly a month after a devastating fire destroyed Lahaina killing at least 115 people, Maui’s top elected official isn’t talking about where he was or what he was doing the night of the Aug. 8 fire.


Amid calls for him to resign over his handling of the Lahaina disaster, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen remains tight-lipped about whether he stayed with his key staff in the emergency operations center overnight as firefighters continued to battle the blaze.


His silence follows scripted statement...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Biden To Lahaina: The Entire Country Is Here For You

President Joe Biden described the devastation in Lahaina as “overwhelming” on Monday as he and First Lady Jill Biden toured the charred remains of the historic, seaside town, leveled in the worst U.S. wildfire in more than a century.


The Aug. 8 inferno claimed at least 115 lives. Nearly two weeks later, at least 850 people are still missing.


In a speech at the Lahaina Civic Center after a tour of Lahaina’s fire-ravaged Front Street, the president told an audience of a few hundred people th...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Maui Fire Survivors Seeking Federal Assistance Face Bureaucratic Nightmare

Gallery owner Alan Dickar lost most everything in last week’s deadly fire that torched the historic West Maui town of Lahaina, killing at least 111 people and leaving hundreds unaccounted for.


While grateful to be alive, Dickar is furious.


On Thursday afternoon, Dickar seethed outside the FEMA-State Disaster Recovery Center on the University of Hawaii Maui College campus. The center, at 310 W. Kaahumanu Avenue, opened earlier this week as a place fire survivors can go to apply for federal...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Maui County Threatens Crackdown On Controversial Monster House In Napili

A long-simmering dispute between Maui County and the developer of an eight-bedroom, 12-bath house in Napili appears to be reaching a boiling point.


Earlier this month, the county planning director sent a warning to an attorney representing Greg Brown, who built the massive home at 5385 Lower Honoapiilani Road. He’s the owner of Brown Development, a company that builds luxury homes on Maui and Hawaii island.


Kathleen Ross Aoki’s July 11 letter said if Brown plans to use the 7,480-square-fo...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

A Big Island Rancher Gated Off This Private Road Long Used By The Public

When Paul Moody moved from Los Angeles to the Big Island earlier this year, he was expecting some newfound tranquility and maybe a touch of Hawaii’s aloha spirit.


But shortly after signing ownership papers on his new house in Laupahoehoe in December, the Oahu-born Moody discovered he had a big problem: Two gates with locks had been installed on the main road leading to his property.


His real estate agent first encountered the gates while checking on the property for Moody in January when h...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Longtime Geothermal Critics Refuse to Back Down As Puna Plant Eyes Expansion

PAHOA, Hawaii Island — In a move that has ignited a fresh wave of criticism, a geothermal plant on Hawaii island that has long operated on the flanks of one of the world’s most active volcanoes is seeking state approval to expand production.

Puna Geothermal Venture is seeking public comments until June 22 on its latest plans to install new equipment and significantly boost energy output.


For much of the three decades that PGV has operated on the edge of Kilauea, residents – including many...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

Puna Is The Fastest Growing Place In Hawaii. But It Comes With A Catch

PAHOA, Big Island — Gary Pickler grew up in a military family in California, the son of a naval officer and a homemaker who urged him to become “rich and famous.”
He shunned his parents’ path and took up tarot card and palm reading instead, supplementing his income with henna tattooing, astrology and massage therapy.
“I became a hippie and a rebel and earned money in unusual ways,” said Pickler, 75.
 
Pickler spent years reading palms and tarot cards on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco and in...
Honolulu Civil Beat •

As Mental Health Crisis Worsens In Hawaii, Psychiatrist Shortage Takes Heavy Toll On Kids

Lanai resident Uri Cabatu is a single mother of a 14-year-old boy with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.


Her son takes psychiatric medications to control his outbursts, tantrums and other challenging behaviors and to improve focus. There’s no psychiatrist on Lanai, so Cabatu relies on telehealth appointments with a provider in Honolulu to keep her son’s prescriptions up to date.


But the provider won’t refill a medication without seeing the boy on screen, and busy schedul...
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