Arguably the industry’s largest manufacturer of AR platform rifle accessories (as well as numerous other firearms-related products) Austin, Texas-based Magpul, has launched its own line of Aloha Wear called “AKA KOA”.
In addition to some very cool, local kine aloha shirts they also feature some pretty nifty board shorts. (I approve).
In their own words:
To give back to the Recon community in an homage to Magpul’s history, we designed the AKA KOA line of apparel. AKA KOA is the nickname given to Alpha Company 3rd Recon Bn (USMC Hawaii) by its Commanding Officer, Kent Bradford, in the late 1980s. Loosely translated, it means “Shadow Warrior” in Hawaiian. While it was intended to symbolize the military capability of the unit, it fast became the call sign for Alpha Company’s other skill set, making the most of the Hawaiian island lifestyle during the off hours.
A portion of the proceeds from the AKA KOA Clothing line will go to the USMC Reconnaissance Foundation. The foundation provides assistance to wounded Reconnaissance Marines and Marine Reconnaissance families. For more information about the foundation, please visit www.reconfoundation.org.
Magpul has done their homework on these products. The shirts, as any self-respecting Hawaii resident would know, are very authentic. (We’re very choosy about the type of aloha shirts we wear).
That said, given our strict gun laws, it’s unlikely surfers will be toting their ARs down to Sandy’s anytime soon.
Anyone with any sense knows that the future of the GOP (or any political party for that matter) lies with the younger generation. Time for some new blood, new perspectives and a lot of collaboration.
Andria Tupola is exactly what the GOP needs. Here is her impressive interview on Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker.
In 2016 the kids were bottle flipping. But that is SO over. It is 2017, and the latest thing is Fidget Spinning.
Fidget spinners is a toy, similar to a top, with two or three prongs that is spun between the thumb and middle finger. They are affordable and very simple to use and have ball bearings that can keep them spinning longer. Kids trade them and do tricks with them including passing, and spinning on surfaces from tables to faces.
However, the claim by manufacturers and distributors like Amazon is that they are not a toy but a therapy tool to reduce stress for ADD, ADHD kids and adults, by helping them focus on tasks.
Some educators and mental health professionals have agreed that clicking a pen or playing with a coin while thinking is calming and can help them concentrate.
But fidget spinners are now so popular, teachers are having to ban them because it is becoming distracting to other students.
“They are very helpful to kids who do need them but teachers must establish ground rules. Like only allowing them during instructional times, and they need to be discreet while using them.”
The fidget spinner was patented in 1997, by Catherine A. Hettinger. When the patent expired, manufacturers all over the world started making spinners of all shapes and sizes.
“This reminds me of the POG days!” said a mall shopper. “All the keiki have them, they are everywhere.”
Colton from the Animation Magic store at Windward Mall said in the past few weeks since they started selling them they have sold hundreds, even up to 100 a day on weekends.
This summer, Kaua`i students with an interest in agriculture or related fields, will have the opportunity to explore their career interests, network and build their experience, skills, and knowledge. The internship includes 6 week and 8 week program options that begin in June, based out of Hale Puna in Waimea and Malama Kauai’s Community Farm in Kalihiwai.
Internship activities consist of field trips to various agricultural sites, hands-on service projects, guest speakers, workshops, and more. Participants will be exposed to a wide variety of career options, mentors, and future job opportunities in Kaua`i’s agricultural community. In addition to a stipend, students who complete the internship program will also receive a recommendation letter and internship evaluation. AmeriCorps participants who are 18+ also receive a $1,222 educational award, similar to a scholarship, to use for school or student loans.
Cambria Miles, a Kapaa High student who completed the spring internship session valued her experience. “I learned what it takes to work in agriculture. The best things in life do not come easy; you have to work hard, get dirty, and get burnt, but the end result is so worth it,” she says. “It helped me realize that whatever I want to do, I can do it. It’s inspired me to continue a path in plant science.”
The summer program is supported by Alu Like, Cooke Foundation, Elsie H. Wilcox Foundation, and The Corporation for National Community Service, and applications are being accepted now, on a first-come, first serve basis with limits spots available. Janice Bond, a Kauai-based Commissioner for the Hawaii Commission for National & Community Service, emphasizes the value for students. “They are excellent opportunities for our youth to earn some money, gain experience while learning about agricultural opportunities, being outdoors for the summer, making new friends.” she says.
By Tom Yamachika – This week our series of tax news returns to Maui, where we have an update on the efforts to help with Maui Memorial Hospital workers and other employees of our state health system.
As we have written before, our state-run hospitals in Maui County, including Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital & Clinic, and Lanai Community Hospital, have been losing vast quantities of money over an extended period. Act 103 of 2015 allowed Maui Memorial’s operations to be privatized. The government employees’ union sued to block the transition, and simultaneously efforts were made at the Legislature to give those employees a special severance package. The Governor vetoed the bill providing the severance benefits, SB 2077, citing concerns that the bill would disqualify the whole of our Employees’ Retirement System from tax-exempt status. The Legislature overrode the veto, making the bill law immediately. (Act 1, 2nd Special Session 2016.) To prevent disaster, the ERS sued in First Circuit Court to block implementation of the law until it could obtain a letter ruling from the IRS to see if its concerns were well-founded, and the court granted a preliminary injunction to this effect in September 2016.
On March 9, 2017, the IRS issued the letter ruling. The Service explained that a “cash or deferred election” is any direct or indirect election by an employee to have the employer provide either cash (or some other taxable benefit) that is not currently available, or to have the employer provide a benefit under a plan deferring the receipt of compensation. Act 1 allowed an employee to choose between a cash voluntary severance benefit, or a subsidized early retirement benefit under the ERS plan. Thus, Act 1 gave an employee a cash or deferred election.
Then, the Service explained that only certain types of retirement plans, namely profit sharing, stock bonus, pre-ERISA money purchase pension, or rural cooperative plans, are allowed cash or deferred elections. The ERS plan is a governmental defined benefit plan, and is not one of the above. Therefore, if Act 1 became effective, the ERS plan would not satisfy the requirements to be a qualified plan under the Internal Revenue Code. (Which is what ERS counsel advised last year.)
Finally, ERS had asked the IRS to rule on what would happen to the members and beneficiaries if the ERS plan were disqualified. IRS declined to do so, given that the members and beneficiaries were not asking for the ruling, and the question may be entirely academic because Act 1 did not take effect and may never become effective.
Even with this ruling, the wrangling continues. HB 233 and HB 234 provided for separation benefits but were not heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The House Finance Committee gutted SB 207 and replaced it with language allowing affected employees to purchase credited service to qualify for, or increase the percentage of, benefits under the state retirees’ health plan, known as EUTF. The HGEA union wasn’t happy about SB 207, however, objecting that the proposal was “dramatically antithetical to the dialogue of the past two entire legislative sessions” and “does not comport to prior legislative intent.”
But didn’t the IRS just say that the prior legislation, namely Act 1, would have disqualified the plan for everyone, not just the Maui hospital workers?
We do not live in a vacuum, especially when it comes to complex, federally regulated retirement plans. We see some displaced workers and it is understandable to want to help them, but we need to beware of unintended consequences that may make life worse for everyone.
Author’s Note: In July 1983, my brother Dave and I (a.k.a. Joe Juneau and Skookum Jim) pulled on our mukluks, smeared whale blubber on our chins (so to speak), and headed off for a three-week trek into the vast frozen reaches of the Klondike – and lived to tell about it. Our story resumes in the uncharted wilderness of Yukon’s Kluane National Park.
Sharp peaks, glistening snowfields and glaciers reflected the warming sun and piercing blue skies. The days were incredibly long – the sun seemed never to set. Camped on the tundra after full days of hiking, the cool mountain air, rich fragrance of the land on the breeze, and the intoxicating flow of water all around conspired to knock us out each night.
Backpacking in Kluane National Park and Reserve, Yukon Territory, Canada
An occasional Grizzly moving across the green plateau was a prudent reminder to set the bear bag (with any scented items that might attract bears – food, toothpaste, soap) far out on the tundra at night. There were no trees to hang it from.
Our tent is cozy – a tiny speck in this vast wilderness. Steady rain slapped the sides of the tent as Joe Juneau and Skookum Jim lay warm in their bags. Cold and windy, at times calm and silent at approximately 5,500 feet elevation, our lonely little tent sat in all its vulnerability on the wide, alpine plateau.
Spectacular 10,000 foot peaks white with glaciers and laced with long, silvery tracks of cascades filled our view. Ice-melt filling crystal clear lakes, and feeding rivers carving out a huge gorge. Barren, green tundra everywhere else. But the cold and wet were of small consequence, as it was pure pleasure simply to be there and experience it. Indeed, we were lucky to be alive. Caught on a steep, crumbly precipice above Sheep Creek, I might not have made it had Dave not been there.
Kluane – a vast wilderness reserve
We got tired of rock-hopping along the creek with full packs and got the bright idea to climb what appeared to be a steep but short bluff at a bend in the stream. But it turned out to be very high, with few sure foot and handholds – one of those never-ending rises that keeps going up the higher you climb.
But Dave managed to make it up, and I was stuck on a slippery ledge, just out of reach of solid handholds. I carefully dug out a foothold, made the move – and missed! With both hands I dug into the loose soil and gripped with all my might while feeling frantically with my feet for a solid hold. But I began to slide – slowly down towards the edge. Had I fallen over that would surely have been the end!
Thankful for another chance at life – to breathe, and smell, and eat, and sleep, and look around at the land, water and sky – to feel the wind and the rain, to bundle against the cold, crawl into a warm, cozy sleeping bag, and share that little tent with Dave, who reached out his hand and pulled me to safety. It was indeed wonderful to be alive and well – we just hoped the Grizzlies wouldn’t bite our asses!
Camped on the tundra
Eventually the sun returned, lighting up the glistening peaks – snow fields and glaciers reflecting the welcome sun and blue sky. Ground squirrels chirped from all reaches of the pock-holed meadow. Delicate butterflies alighting on moist, frail flowers.
Four Mountain (Dall) Sheep scampered from a nearby hillside to become four pure white dots against the dark talus of a distant slope. Bees buzzing, magpies landing close by – fresh bear scat and diggings everywhere.
But the nights were bitter cold. The stars came out despite the brilliance of the moon, which lit up the brief darkness of the snapping clear, cold nights. Dave broke the ice in our precious stream for morning tea. Our tent looked very homey even in its smallness in this vast wilderness.
Descending to the treeline and into the tall pines lining the windy shores of Kluane Lake, a local pickup brought us along the Alaska Highway past rugged peaks of the Alaska Boundary Range to a cold, swampy campsite at Haines Junction.
Catching a few rays on board our ferry
After fruitless hitching, we splurged and took a bus over Chilkat Pass and back into the USA. Through relentless freezing rain, ice and snow, we followed the Chilkoot River along the back side of Glacier Bay past a native village called Klukwan, and finally to the beautiful little seaport of Haines, Alaska.
Four relaxing days on BC Ferries brought us through the Lynn Canal Fjords to Juneau and down therest of theInside Passage along the coast of British Columbia to Seattle, USA.
We had survived our Klondike expedition!
Stay tuned for more stories, coming soon!
You can read more about Jim’s backstory, here and here.
How many of you remember the first time you saw our Earth? This view of ourselves embedded in a living planet, wrapped in oneness, exploded into our collective consciousness.
Did you know soon after this view of our whole planet was available to us, the modern global environmental movement was birthed?
“Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available, a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.” – Sir Fred Hoyle, 1948
For many Americans, perhaps the entire human population, this picture has sparked a collective shift about our planet. For the first time in history, we saw that we are all on a canoe—one race of islanders afloat in a sea of space.
This photo was taken from Apollo 8 on Christmas eve 1968 while scouting for a moon landing site. The crew lost radio contact with NASA going around the back of the moon and took this photo when they re-emerged from the dark side of the moon.
Imagine… as they rounded the moon’s edge, they saw our Earth some 240,000 miles away—glowing in deep blue framed by white clouds—embedded in seemingly empty space. The surface features in the foreground are on the eastern limb of the moon as viewed from our planet.
Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders had become the first humans to leave Earth orbit, entering lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968. In a historic live broadcast that night, the crew took turns reading from the Book of Genesis, closing with a holiday wish from Commander Borman: “We close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth.”
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.” — Apollo 14 astronaut, Edgar Mitchell
As a species we had ventured beyond our Earth’s atmosphere into the sea of emptiness around our planet home. It was the first mission to leave Earth orbit and these were the first astronauts to see the Earth as a whole. Now we have the meta-view, a view of ourselves as one system, held together in space with no one to save us and no one more responsible than us for our shared destiny.
Within 2 years of publication of this perspective, 1970, the modern environmental movement was birthed, the first Earth Day was held, and the Federal Clean Air and Clean Water Acts were passed by a Republican, Richard Nixon, who clearly recognized the values of conservation, of clean air and water to all our people.
In 1970, with nine staff members and a $125,000 budget, a Washington, D.C.-based group organized the Environmental Teach-in, which would become became the first Earth Day. With then senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin as their champion, the staffers brought together volunteers in dozens of cities and college campuses around the country.
Judy Moody and Denis Hayes on April 22, 1970 with the first Earthday teach-in banner in the background
Hayes, who had dropped out of Harvard Law School the year before to join Senator Nelson’s project, also chaired the Earth Day anniversary celebrations in 1990 and 2000. ”[Hayes was] the one who did the unglamorous, wearisome job of starting it up,” Ralph Nader told the New York Times in 1990. “[Hayes] is an orchestrator of environmental events which were national … and now are global.”
Like Earth, Hawaiian islands are remote and surrounded by a sea that restricts passage, yet, unlike Hawaii, humans do not have ships bringing food or water to Earth. There is no Planet B. We have no other home nor do we have alternative sources of food and water.
Earth day 1970 celebrations in Hawaii were led by Bruce Justin Miller and his team at University of Hawaii. The events of the first Earth Day, were called the First National Environmental Teach-In. While I do not have any pictures from that day, I ran across this letter written from Al Gore to Bruce and his team in 1999.
[Click on the pictures to expand them into larger sizes for reading or to download.]
And, these micro-fiche snippets from Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser, are illustrative of the energy and interest of folks then. Thanks to Dave Atcheson.
In the Honolulu-Advertiser article was an a column advocating green practices. Notice it mentions the UH Earth Day event, and proposes ways for islanders to reduce waste by using reusable bags, making laundry soap, reducing car miles, and eliminating toxic cleaning products, and pesticides, such as DDT, etc.
Yet, here we are almost 50-years later debating those same ideas, because fossil fuel businesses have such a stranglehold on politics and people, we still cannot believe we can change our behaviors, it seems.
In the second article from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, dated April 22, 1970, a prophetic quote from scientist, Dr. J. Murray Mitchell Jr. who said, “…The release of increasing quantities of carbon dioxide and thermal pollution into the atmosphere threatens to change global weather and melt the polar ice, flooding wide areas. Man may begin to notice the change by the end of this century.”
For many GenX’ers, perhaps even Boomers—ahead of our time—that our society is still _talking_ about changing our behavior, almost 50-years later, reducing our waste and footprint on our only planet—still talking and not doing—induces major depression and climate angst. Yet, it is also the driving force for social improvement of our continued advocacy. As the 50th anniversary approaches of that moment when a picture of our Earth shimmering in space changed us forever, why not get involved with the Earth Day Network?
Riseup folks, we are much better than we have been programmed to believe! Stand up for the Earth on which you stand.
One of Hawaii’s most well-known governors is appealing to President Trump to end funding for the state’s most notorious government “boondoggle” project.
The controversial 20-mile elevated heavy steel rail system now under construction on Oahu is slated to cost $10 billion or $500 million per mile, former Hawaii Gov. Benjamin Cayetano said, “the most costly rail project in the world.”
“As a lifelong Democrat and former governor of Hawaii, I opposed your candidacy,” said Cayetano in a statement published in a full-page newspaper advertisement in The Washington Post on Friday and provided to Fox News. “I must admit, however, that you are on the right track scrutinizing wasteful spending on pork barrel projects.”
Cayetano, governor of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002, met Trump in Honolulu in 1998 when Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant was held there.
“I recall you commented on the beauty of Honolulu,” Cayetano said in his appeal to Trump. “The rail project plans include seven massive elevated rail stations 50-60 feet high and the 35-foot high elevated rail line through the heart of downtown Honolulu. If built, this will change the beauty and ambience of the city forever.”
City officials initially promised that the rail would reduce the current level of traffic congestion dramatically, Cayetano said. But the final environmental impact statement reported the rail would reduce traffic congestion by under 2 percent and noted “traffic congestion will be worse in the future with rail than what it is today (without rail).”
The project is so over budget that the city and county of Honolulu, which includes all of Hawaii’s main island of Oahu, does not have the funds to complete the 20-mile system, falling $3 billion short and six years behind schedule, Cayetano said.
“Internal emails among [Federal Transit Administration] staff revealed there was much doubt and cynicism about rail and the city’s multi-million-dollar public relations campaign, yet the FTA did nothing and is now on the verge of providing the remaining $800 million of the $1.5 billion grant,” Cayetano said.
Honolulu’s rail project was initially driven more by politics, pushed through by the powerful U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, who was then chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cayetano said. Inouye, proud of securing billions of dollars in pork barrel projects for Hawaii over his 50 years in political office, died in December 2012.
Numerous critics of the project want the Trump administration to terminate the FTA’s Full Funding Grant Agreement, which would force the city to consider less costly transportation alternatives.
“Honolulu’s rail project does not deserve a single dollar more from the federal government,” Cayetano said. “It has become a poster boy for how politics, incompetence, disinformation and outright lies are at the root of wasteful rail projects which do little for the public except raise taxes.”
The project was initially pushed through in 2008 by Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who was backed by the steel workers union among other construction unions who’d benefit from the project, and an initiative supported by 50.8 percent of the voters. The current Honolulu Mayor, Kirk Caldwell, is one of the project’s main advocates and has pushed to make Oahu’s “temporary” general excise tax increase permanent to fund the project.
“I think it’s better to continue to march forward,” Caldwell said about the rail, which is already visibly under construction in West Oahu.
However, the project’s cost could balloon even further as it moves into downtown Honolulu, said Panos Prevedouros, a professor of engineering at the University of Hawaii, and a world-renowned expert in transportation projects.
“They cannot complete the four in-town miles because those are very expensive and we don’t have an actual budget for them,” Prevedouros said, noting politicians low-balled the cost and misrepresented the benefits to easing traffic.
“It is political corruption,” Prevedouros said about the reason the project was approved and continues to move forward. “There are a lot of funds, a lot of money circulating, for a totally useless project.”
Malia Zimmerman is an award-winning investigative reporter focusing on crime, homeland security, illegal immigration crime, terrorism and political corruption. Follow her on twitter at @MaliaMZimmerman
In addition to some very cool, local kine aloha shirts they also feature some pretty nifty board shorts. (I approve).
