SPOTLIGHT: Oahu
Dec. 4-Jan. 3: Honolulu City Lights. During this spectacular Christmas tradition, the city’s 63-foot-tall tree dazzles passers-by. On opening night, the Light Parade starts at 6:30 p.m., and holiday concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
808-769-6622
www.honolulucitylights.orgBIG ISLAND
Nov. 20-Jan. 4: Christmas Wreath Exhibit. Local artists get creative in the spirit of Christmas and display their one-of-a-kind holiday wreaths. Open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Volcano Art Center Gallery, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
808-967-7565
www.volcanoartcenter.orgDec. 19: Jingle Bell Beach Run. This scenic jaunt for the whole family starts at 7:30 a.m. at Kailua Pier. The circular route begins and ends at Kaiakeakua Beach, with two options available: a 5K run and a one-mile course.
808-327-9333
www.bigislandrunning.comDec. 27: Mochi Pounding Celebration. This event celebrates one of Hawaii’s favorite foods, mochi (Japanese rice cakes). Participants take part in the ceremonial rice pounding, buy reasonably priced local-style lunches, enjoy island music and more. Akiko’s Buddhist Bed and Breakfast, Hakalau.
808-963-6422
www.alternative-hawaii.com/akikoKAUAI
Dec. 3: Lights on Rice Parade and Christmas Craft Fair. At this free festival, guests can sample treats from food booths, enjoy live entertainment and more, all on the grounds of the Kauai Museum. Lihue.
808-245-6931
www.kauaimuseum.org
While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Sales of Cheese
Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies.
Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign.
Consumers devoured the cheesier pizza, and sales soared by double digits. “This partnership is clearly working,” Brandon Solano, the Domino’s vice president for brand innovation, said in a statement to The New York Times.
But as healthy as this pizza has been for Domino’s, one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories.
And Dairy Management, which has made cheese its cause, is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the United States Department of Agriculture — the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting.
Urged on by government warnings about saturated fat, Americans have been moving toward low-fat milk for decades, leaving a surplus of whole milk and milk fat. Yet the government, through Dairy Management, is engaged in an effort to find ways to get dairy back into Americans’ diets, primarily through cheese.
Habitat Completes First ‘Off-The-Grid’ Home
Habitat Completes First ‘Off-The-Grid’ Home
Molokai Habitat for Humanity News Release
With the help from Hawaii’s leading residential solar company, RevoluSun, Molokai Habitat for Humanity is pleased to announce the dedication and blessing of its 19th completed home for the Kaai `Ohana. This will be Hawaii Habitat’s first “off-grid” home on Hawaiian Home Lands, as well as the first home built by Molokai Habitat with a renewable energy system.
“We are so excited because this is the first home for Habitat for Humanity nationally that is off-the-grid,” said Emillia Noordhoek, Resource Development Director for Molokai Habitat. “Molokai has the highest cost of living in the state and we are one of the most isolated islands. We wanted to build a home that would be affordable for the family and be best for our ‘aina.”
The journey to this projects completion was one of sweat, love, commitment, and of course, genuine hard work. The high cost to install the house’s electrical infrastructure – quoted by MECO at $30,000 – led to the opportunity of using renewable energy.
It was then that Molokai Habitat realized this was the opportunity they needed to build a simple, decent, and affordable home which included its own renewable energy. How can housing be affordable to the homeowner if the hidden cost of utilities is $300-$500 per month? The blessing and answer to this question came through Oahu’s Solar Contractor RevoluSun.
RevoluSun generously donated their time and labor for the design and installation of the solar system.
DLNR Proposes Hunting Rule Amendments
In regard to hunting rules for game birds and mammals, DLNR will hold statewide public hearings, starting November 8, on amendments to update hunting rules for game birds and game mammals.
A public information meeting will be held at the Mitchell Pauole Center on Monday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m., followed by public hearing at 7 p.m.
The proposed changes relate mainly to re-establishing the stamp, tag and application hunting fees in place before 2008, providing for permits for disabled hunters, and updating descriptions and maps of public hunting areas. This includes removal of some Natural Area Reserves from public hunting, and adding public hunting areas such as the Pu`u Mali Mitigation Area on Hawaii Island and agricultural lands on Kauai.
The full text of the proposed rules with amendments can be found at http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/rules or at DOFAW district and administrative offices.
Sugar rush – Restating the Obvious by Harry Eagar – Mauinews.com
Funny how things work out. Our new mayor wants to take over plantation water systems (although when he had a chance four years ago, he backed down).
A couple of years ago, a combination of drought and low prices had HC&S on the ropes, and the board at A&B was beginning to wonder whether sugar was a business they wanted to be in. At best, it accounts for only about 7% of revenue. HC&S is such a small part of A&B that it cannot ever contribute largely to profits, although it can — and recently has — hammered them down.
Since A&B answers to Wall Street, which does not give a damn about Upcountry water meters, low sugar prices open the way to a county takeover of EMI. This would be a disaster, but, like I say, funny how things work out.
Arakawa’s in, sugar prices are up, A&B will presumably stick with HC&S for a while longer, the valley will be green and Kihei will not have to live through endless dust storms.
Hanzawa’s family ties end
HAIKU – After 95 years, Hanzawa family members will give up operating their famous community store on Nov. 24.
Hanzawa’s Variety Store will not close. Neighbors Dana and Sue Klingman and Dana’s sister, Mollie, will reopen the store Dec. 1.
The store was started by Taichiro Hanzawa in 1915.
On Thursday, Sandy Daniells, granddaughter of Taichiro Hanzawa’s brother, Tetsuji, said she was having a hard time thinking of life without the store. She had intended to stay.
But five years of frustration trying to rezone the store and realign it for changing times had driven her and her husband, Matt, to the decision to lease the store.
Also, Matt’s parents and her mother are elderly, and they will be taking care of them. Sandy Daniells was a nurse before coming home from Oahu to take over the store when her uncle, Ralph Hanzawa, died in 1988.
“I really wish we had gotten the support we needed when we needed it,” she said.
Earth’s carrying capacity is an inescapable fact
Physicists understand the mathematics of exponential growth. They, along with the rest of us often ignore its consequences, including the first law of sustainability: “Neither population growth nor consumption can be sustained indefinitely.”
Sustainability is a buzzword about environmental balance, recycling, energy and food production. It is a simple concept that brings a sense of environmental virtue if we feel that we are living “sustainably.” We know what it is but maybe can’t quite define it.
The report “Our Common Future” — also known as the Brundtland report (1987) from the World Commission on Environment and Development of the United Nations — defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” This definition of sustainability says nothing specifically about the environment, but a clean environment better meets those needs, and it is not only we humans that have needs.
Sustainability is related to carrying capacity, which is the maximum load that a given environment can support without detrimental effects.
Berry borer backlash
by Carolyn Lucas-Zenk
An immediate suspension of green coffee imports into Hawaii to prevent further damage by the coffee berry borer is being sought by the Kona Coffee Farmers Association.
Hawaii Department of Agriculture officials also are preparing a quarantine on green coffee bean transportation from Kona, where the pest was confirmed at 21 sites between Kaloko and Manuka State Park, said Neil Reimer, Hawaii Plant Pest Control Branch chief.
The Advisory Committee on Plants and Animals may consider the quarantine request at a meeting later this month. However, the seven-member committee was struggling to establish a quorum and Lyle Wong, Plant Industry Division administrator, is in China, Reimer said.
If the pest is deemed an “immediate emergency” and the committee passes the recommendation, it will go before the Board of Agriculture for approval and implementation. The 10-member board usually meets the last Tuesday of the month in Honolulu, Reimer said.
A search Wednesday of the Department of Agriculture’s online calendars showed no meetings scheduled in November and December for the Advisory Committee on Plants and Animals or the Board of Agriculture.
No guarantee Kalalau rid of illegal campers
Over 1,000 marijuana plants removed from valley
LIHU‘E — Nobody should have been in Kalalau Valley except those people working on the rock-mitigation work and state resources-enforcement officers, but there is no guarantee some people did not elude enforcement officers and slip further up the valley.
That is the word from Francis “Bully” Mission, Kaua‘i branch chief of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement.
Mission, a former Kaua‘i Police Department officer, said despite DOCARE overnight camping and stepped-up enforcement efforts to rid Kalalau Valley of un-permitted campers, “it is unknown if one or two illegal campers ran in the deeper portion of the valley and don’t want to be found.”
In an exclusive interview, Mission talked about the daunting task of sweeping the valley even when it was technically closed to all campers while the maintenance work happened, from Sept. 7 to Oct. 31.
“The sweeps have definitely removed a majority of the illegal or un-permitted campers from within the valley. The land mass that we (DOCARE) deal with, in my perspective, from the air (helicopter), Kalalau Valley seems not too big, but once you get on the ground it’s huge.
“The officers need to travel through thick brush and mountainous areas to get to some of the campsites and illegal campers,” said Mission.
“Prior to the closure and during the closure, DOCARE conducted enforcement sweeps to remove illegal campers, and had done periodic campouts to conduct enforcement within the valley. During this period persons were contacted by DOCARE officers, checked for valid permits and issued citations if they could not produce a valid permit,” he said.