Hawaii News

The subsidy program provides services statewide to families sending their children to a licensed preschool during the 2 school years prior to them entering kindergarten. Its goal of is to promote school readiness, focusing on meeting the needs of the child.

The department allocated nearly $40 million to affordable housing initiatives last fiscal year using funds from the federal block grant program. It has built, purchased or rehabilitated 769 affordable homes; improved nearly 700 lots with infrastructure to support construction of new housing units; and rehabilitated three community centers, plus more, during the past 23 years since it was first awarded the block grant funding.

University of Hawaiʻi’s 2.2-meter telescope at the summit of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea — dedicated in 1970 — was recently recognized by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for its role in shaping astronomical research, technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity worldwide.

Multi-faceted approach includes exploring legislative options to offset federal funding reductions, expanding state programs and fostering public-private partnerships, as well as raising awareness of resources and legal rights.

“This plan is the catalyst for creating a future that all people can thrive in,” said Hawaiʻi Youth Transportation Council Member Kawika Pegram. “Through this plan, we can harness the power of local industry, create meaningful jobs and invest in public infrastructure like never before.”

Green struck down bills relating to tax credits, transportation, the state’s Major Disaster Fund, property, stadium facility and convention center naming rights and others. Leadership of the Hawai‘i Legislature said a special legislative session to attempt their override is not necessary.

Essentially, gas pistoning is a shallow, degassing-driven rise and fall of a lava surface. Pistons often occur in narrow conduits, although they can happen in larger lava lakes and even in lava channels — and in bunches, as part of a series.

Hawaiʻi’s leadership is mobilizing to mitigate the effects of a newly passed Republican tax bill that will strip health care and food assistance from thousands of vulnerable residents.

“To fulfill the bold goals we’ve set in education, health, economic resilience and housing, we need both strong programs and strong people,” said Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chief Executive Officer Stacy Ferreira. “This budget ensures we have both.”

The double-hulled wa‘a stopped first in Taputapuātea, revered as the ancestral homeland and spiritual center of Polynesian voyaging, and now are anchored off Papeʻetē, Tahiti. They are expected to spend about a month in French Polynesia before continuing on their Moananuiākea Voyage around the Pacific Ocean.

While land-based Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officers supplement the work of the marine patrol units as needed, it’s up to the oceangoing patrols to be on the water regularly. Marine patrol units are now active on are now active on O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i Island.

New state measures involving dangerous dogs originally passed in 2024, partly due to the mauling death of a 71-year-old man who was just out for a walk on the Big Island.

Girl Scouts of Hawaiʻi beginning in August will fund trained facilitators to lead troops in close geographic regions throughout the state, each serving about 10 troops and 150 girls. The approach expands on a successful model already in place at 25 Title I schools.

The 2024 Recreational Boating Statistics Report revealed a nationwide fatality rate of 4.8 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vessels, a 2% decrease from 2023. The rate was 20.6 deaths per 100,000 registered recreational vehicles in 1971 when the Safe Boating Act was passed.

In a landmark collaboration between science and education, six Hawaiʻi high school students have successfully produced the first-ever draft genome of the palila—a critically endangered, finch-billed Hawaiian Honeycreeper endemic to the islands.

On the next registration renewal received after July 1, eligible EV owners will have the option to pay a state per-mile road usage charge, or RUC, of $8 per 1,000 miles, capped at $50, or a state flat annual state RUC of $50.

The new laws also will increase penalties for people with illegal fireworks and allocate more resources to law enforcement agencies to investigate such cases.

Registration is now open for this year’s installment of the competition, hosted and organized by Kaua‘i nonprofit Kaikeha, that showcases some of the world’s best bodyboarding talent, from near and far.

High fountains lasted nearly 11 hours and produced about 1.6 bilion gallons of lava, covering 80% of the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater floor within the Big Island volcano’s summit caldera. Lava flows from this episode could continue to exhibit slow movement or incandescence throughout the coming days.

“Sustained lava fountaining is likely to begin on June 29 or 30 [Sunday or Monday] based on the current rate of summmit inflation, but could begin sooner if precursory activity escalates.” — Hawaiian Volcano Observatory