October 27 – Island Brew Coffee at Hawaii Kai Shopping Center has opened a second location in Kaimuki. [PBN]
October 27 – The Schaefer family of Hawaii Kai appears on Family Feud [Star Advertiser]
October 26 – Hawaii’s Board of Education (BOE) announces a Nationwide search for Kathryn Matayoshi’s replacement. Matayoshi, the superintendent of Hawaii’s public schools, has not announced that she is resigning. This surprise move takes place shortly after the resignation of Jim Williams and the subsequent appointment of Darrel Galera at BOE. [HNN] [Civil Beat (1) (2) (3)]
October 26 – The Hawaii Kai community recently formed a homeless task force with a two-fold mission: Offer help to the homeless and ensure encampments aren’t allowed to stick around and grow. The 10-member task force formed last month under the guidance of state Rep. Gene Ward (Hawaii Kai, Kalama Valley). Ward notes that most of those approached are not interested in assistance. Meanwhile, those near the homeless encampments, such as those near the Lunalilo Home Road one, fear that vacant land owned by Bishop Estate will continue to occupied with homeless. [HNN]
October 24 – Ninteen year-old Josiah Ramos died while body surfing at Sandy Beach [Star Advertiser]
October 24 – A Civil Beat poll finds that nearly 70 percent of Hawaii residents want feral cats killed. Specifically the survey asks:
“One additional local issue that has received a lot of attention is the large number of feral house cats living in the state. There are about 300,000 free-roaming cats on Oahu and thousands more on the neighbor islands. The cats are an invasive mainland species, and many of them spread a disease called toxoplasmosis, which is deadly to an endangered local species called the Hawaiian Monk Seal. There are just over one-thousand Hawaiian Monk Seals left in existence.
A recent Civil Beat editorial suggested that the only way to maintain Hawaii’s ecosystem, and keep Hawaiian Monk Seals from edging closer to extinction, is to kill off the population of feral cats. But others have argued that the cats should not be killed, because these problems are not their fault. If you had to choose — what would you do?”