by Tom Coffman

When I talk with students about Hawaii’s political history, I sometimes ask, “Do you know who Jack Burns was?” Possibly a few hands go up. I ask, “Do you know who Jack Hall was?” Sometimes no hands go up.

by Joan Conrow

Fisherman Lance Laney believed he was in the right, so stood his ground when three Kauai cops told him to leave, although by that time they really couldn’t make him, because he was standing on a public beach. But to get there, he had walked across a vacant blufftop parcel where billionaire Pierre Omidyar wants to develop an ultra-luxury “eco-resort” and 34 house lots overlooking Hanalei Bay.

by Mindy Pennybacker

Since the Weekly’s Feb. 8 cover story on Ben Cayetano, who promises to terminate the city’s rail project if elected, the mayoral race has heated up.

by Matthew Kain

Kirk Caldwell served a few months as interim mayor of Honolulu in 2010 (when Mufi Hannemann resigned to run for governor), before losing a special election to Peter Carlisle. Now he’s campaigning to get back into the hot seat at Honolulu Hale.

by Curt Sanburn

Big news in OHA-land: In April, the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs settled its past-due claims against the state by accepting payment in the form of 25 acres of prime waterfront, worth $200 million, in Kakaako. This summer, the Akaka Bill (which sought federal recognition for Hawaiians) apparently died in Congress.

It’s more than a century since our many cultures began to share their kaukau tins in plantation [days.It]’s more than 20 years since Hawaii Regional Cuisine put to bed forever the old saw that the best meal you’d get here would be on the plane on the way over. We are in the midst of a pleasurable but challenging shift: farm to table, table to farm, you to farmer, farmer to you.

by WANDA A. ADAMS

Roger Dikon is one of The Twelve. Not the apostles, but the Hawaii Regional Cuisine (HRC), chefs who came together 20 years ago and created a movement that was key in birthing today’s rich Island food landscape.

by Mindy Pennybacker

Already the air tastes of summer, heady with blossoms, heavy with salt and slightly burnt. The sunlight turns golden, molten.

by Joan Conrow

With roots planted in the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and a presence that extends through the entire archipelago, the military’s influence in Hawaii is surpassed only by tourism. The military controls some 236,000 acres throughout the state, including 25 percent of the land mass of Oahu, and thousands of square miles of surrounding airspace and sea.

by Matthew Kain

Given the city’s crumbling infrastructure and rail controversy, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to be the next mayor of Honolulu. But a few do want the job, including the incumbent, Mayor Peter Carlisle, the former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney who won a 2010 special election to fill the remainder of Mufi Hannemann’s term.

by Mindy Pennybacker

Green Nuuanu, swathed in clouds and rain, isn’t exactly the first neighborhood that springs to mind when it comes to solar energy. But on a hot, bright day on a street wedged between a mountain ridge and stream, the photovoltaic (PV) array atop Donna-Lynn Ching’s carport looks like brilliant idea.

by Matthew Kain

Compared with, say, saving farms or oceans, garbage management isn’t a hip, sexy environmental issue. But it’s a big one that impacts all the others.

by Kevin O’Leary

The controversy’s been in the news for months, but what’s largely been missing is a sense of the land itself. On a recent weekday morning, I take H-I west out of town.

From farmers in the ahupua‘a valleys who used and recycled every precious drop of water on its way to the sea, to fishermen who set kapus when species were spawning, to children riding ti leaves on a muddy slope or simply rolling down a grassy hill, to body surfers in a glassy wave, Hawaii has a long heritage of tapping into renewable energy, not just for work and sustenance, but for joy and play. As we roll down the home stretch to the 42nd Earth Day, April 22, what a joy to celebrate the planet and its resources: clean air, clean water, forests, farms and, most of all, our keiki and generations to come.

by Stuart Coleman

Faces glowing in the early light of dawn, more than 100 people gathered to watch the blessing and re-launching of Hokule’a at Sand Island. It was March 8, 2012, the anniversary of her original launch at Kualoa in 1975.

by WANDA ADAMS with Margot Seeto, Elizabeth House and The Weekly ‘ohana

Living cheap. It doesn’t mean being cheap, as in tasteless and tawdry, pinching and miserly.

by Paul “Doc” Berry

Hawaii’s waters of life, ka wai ola, are the very essence of life and culture in Hawaii, what we survive on and must pass along as a sustainable legacy. In the lyrics to “Aloha Oe,” Queen Liliuokalani tells of the rain falling onto the blossoms of native ohia trees in Hawaii’s mountain forests.

by Matthew Kain

We all know to unplug energy vampires, those appliances that suck power from sockets even when they’re turned off. But what about the utility that drains our pockets?

Green travel isn’t just about where you’re going or how you’ll get there. It’s about place and people and an assessment of the impact of your visit.

by Mindy Pennybacker

Because it was in his nature and, some say, his kuleana as a descendant of alii to pursue the common good, Kenny Brown’s voyage of self-discovery grew into a series of cooperative enterprises that, for more than 40 years, have worked to protect Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources and to restore community health. “He was very much saying that Hawaiians were the most ancient and primal group still here,” says his wife Joan, explaining Brown’s belief in native Hawaiians’ potent and comparatively recent connection to place and native culture that the rest of the developed world lost long ago.

Most of us living in Hawaii are partial to easy, fast fashion. But having checked out designs and materials as we spring into a new season, we’re showcasing a new paradigm–indulging in the luxury of select fashion.

by Wanda A. Adams

Food security, waste reduction and healthy fresh eating start at home and all in one place: your garden. Even if your yard is only as wide as a windowsill or as deep as a converted milk jug, here’s how to grow some of your own, with the help of chic new pets.

by Tiffany Hervey

There’s a quiet revolution happening in the dirt, being waged with shovels, patience and purpose. It’s a rebellion against a broken and destructive industrial agriculture system, a reconnection to community and long-term productivity.

by Matthew Kain

Cover Story / After retiring from public service in 2002, Ben Cayetano seemed to be taking it easy on the political scene–until 2005, that is, when then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann revived the long-lapsed idea of a Honolulu heavy rail project. Needless to say, Cayetano did not concur.

by Matthew DekNeef, Maria Kanai & Niko Rivas

There’s a swell on the horizon. Listen closely and you’ll hear it…AUDIO INVASION 2012.