About The Kaʻū Calendar

Friday, April 04, 2014

Ka`u News Briefs Friday, April 4, 2014

Kumu hula Ab Valencia presents a cultural exploration of plants used in hula as part of a field seminar presented by Hawai`i Volcanoes Institute next Friday. Photo by Dave Boyle
WEST KA`U STATE SEN. JOSH GREEN is the cover story on this past week’s Pacific Business News, under the headline, “Can this Man Cure Hawai`i’s Health Care Ills?” The story by Jenna Blakely notes that “an Emergency Room physician from the Big Island who saves lives on weekends and holidays, Green takes on a much larger patient load during the week as an advocate for system-wide health care policy in Hawai`i as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, a role he has held for the last four years.” 
      The story points out that Green was the only physician in the state Legislature until January, when Dr. Richard Creagan was appointed to a Big Island House seat. Creagan also represents West Ka`u, and he lives here.
Sen. Josh Green is also a physician.
      Ka`u residents remember Green when he lived in the Dahlberg house at Punalu`u Beach, drove a jeep and served as an ER doctor at Ka`u Hospital, supported by the National Health Service Corps. He began working in Ka`u in 2000 during a tough time for the community, with the sugar plantation shutting down and jobs eliminated just four years earlier. Alcohol and drug problems were fallouts of the initial unemployment before workers found new jobs and developed new industries such as Ka`u Coffee.
      The PBN story quotes Green saying, “Here I am, this Jewish guy from Pittsburgh, and when I landed in Ka`u, I was shocked at how great the need was.”
      The story says, “While many doctors might run from serving in a rural area plagued by a challenging physician shortage, Green decided to stick around, plant roots and do something bigger.” He told PBN, “What got me was the desperation I saw in people suffering, related to methamphetamine. I saw how hard it was for people to live their lives with addiction and the mayhem it was causing their children.”
      The story says his early political career focused on substance abuse, evolving to current issues that include access to care, physician shortages, keeping hospitals open, and environmental health policy, including pollutants, toxins and pesticides.
      Green ran for the state House a decade ago and won, later taking on the Senate seat that covers a district from Honu`apo, extending up the Ka`u and Kona Coasts.
      The PBN story quotes George Greene, president and CEO of Healthcare Association of Hawai`i, saying, “Josh is a visionary. He doesn’t look at things from a silo, which he could easily do as a physician with a particular set of eyes. Instead, he looks at operational issues, everything from public health to looking at transition care on a continuum.”
      The story also reports on Green’s legislation that would help partner such hospitals as Ka`u with institutions like Queens Health Systems and his work on a physician residency program to help reduce doctor shortages. The first four residents were chosen last month. See related Ka`u News Briefs below.
      See more in Pacific Business News at bizjournals.com/pacific.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

A BILL INTRODUCED BY WEST KA`U SEN. JOSH GREEN is progressing through the state Legislature. SB 3064 would allow for the transition of the Hawai`i Health Systems Corporation to a new healthcare management system organized as a nonprofit corporation or public benefit corporation. It establishes a transition committee to assist in implementation, review and negotiations of the transition to a new healthcare management system. 
      While the new system would change how the hospitals offer care and address staffing requirements, SB3064 would guarantee that existing contracts are honored and that all services the hospitals provide remain available.
      The bill also calls for the partnership to be with an organization already working in Hawai`i, such as Queens Health Systems.
      Both chambers have passed the bill, and it now goes to conference committee for further refinement.
      This and other bills being considered at the state Legislature are available at capitol.hawaii.gov.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.   

BRINGING MORE PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIANS to rural areas like Ka`u through a residency program at Hilo Medical Center may be in jeopardy. While SB3091, co-introduced by Sen. Josh Green, is still alive at the state Legislature, $2.8 million in funding for the program has been deleted from the latest version of the budget.
      Hawai`i Tribune-Herald reports Lori Rogers, executive director of the HMC Foundation, asking the public to help convince legislators to fund the program. “This funding is crucial to help us further establish and sustain this much-needed program,” she said. “The Primary Care Training Program is a unique solution to the complex and growing problem of physician shortage on our neighbor island communities. We need your voice to help us build momentum and ask our legislators to reinstate the budgetary line item … back in to the governor’s budget.”
      Contact information is available at capitol.hawaii.gov.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u residents are invited to celebrate Kathleen Kam's
newest mural in Hilo today. Photo from DLNR
KATHLEEN KAM, whose mural art graces such Ka`u venues as Punalu`u Bake Shop, Ka`u High School Band Building, Ka`u Coffee Mill, Keauhou Bird Refuge and, in Volcano, Kilauea General Store, celebrates a new mural today in Hilo. The event starting at the KTA parking lot downtown features a parade with a nine-foot-tall palila bird and other puppets of flowers and mamane seeds, clouds and a rainbow that she and puppet maker Bonnie Kim created. 
      A statement from the state Department of Land & Natural Resources describes Kam’s latest work as “Hilo’s newest artistic treasure, a mural showcasing the palila (a rare native Hawaiian forest bird),” for which Kam teamed up with the Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project, a project of DLNR and the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, to create the nine-by-12-foot mural.
      The painting is on the Hilo Loan Shop building in downtown Hilo adjacent to KTA Super Store and Hilo Farmers Market. The public is invited to celebrate the mural’s completion on today at 6:30 p.m. at 64 Mamo Street.
      “We are proud to support Kathleen’s gorgeous mural of this beautiful but highly endangered Hawaiian bird as well as the work DLNR is doing to conserve it,” said Chris Farmer, American Bird Conservancy’s science coordinator for Hawai`i. “It has been exciting to already have people walking by the mural, stop and talk with us about the artwork and learn about the conservation of palila.”
      Palila are members of the Hawaiian honeycreeper family and are dependent upon native mamane trees for 90 percent of their diet. They were listed as endangered in 1973 under the Endangered Species Act as a result of a drastic population decline due to habitat destruction.
      “Palila live in a remote and rugged area of the island that not many people ever visit,” said Robert Stephens, MKFRP coordinator. “The goal of this mural is to inspire and educate the community about palila and how DLNR is preserving this special, native bird and the mamane-naio forest they depend upon.” 
Participants in Plants of Hula learn protocols in creating
pu`olo and ho`okupu. Photo by Jay Robinson
      Currently, palila only occupy a small area on Mauna Kea but used to also live on Mauna Loa, Hualalai and much more of Mauna Kea. Today, the population is estimated to be between only 1,300 and 1,700 individuals remaining on the planet.
      Kam’s numerous murals on Hawai`i Island and O`ahu have focused on Hawai`i’s native plants and animals. She was inspired to do this project because, “This mural’s visual information, which is fueled by a singular message to save a native species, will endure beyond its intrinsic value,” she said.
      Kam depicted the mural in the style of a 1940s-era fruit crate label. She said, “It was the perfect fit in its simplicity and aesthetics, and familiar to Hilo’s agricultural community.”
      To learn more about palila and how DLNR is protecting Hawai`i for generations to come, see RestoreMaunaKea.org.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.   

STEWARDSHIP AT THE SUMMIT takes place tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Volunteers meet at Kīlauea Visitor Center to help remove invasive Himalayan ginger from park trails. Free; park entrance fees apply.

SPACE IS STILL AVAILABLE for Hawai`i Volcanoes Institute’s field seminar Plants of Hula: Na Mea Kanu o Ka Hula. The program, sponsored by Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, takes place a week from today on Friday, April 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., when kumu hula Ab Valencia and botanist Tim Tunison team up for a cultural and scientific exploration of the plants used in hula.
      Program cost is $45 for Friends members and $65 for non-members. Students (K-12 and college with valid student ID) are $25. Non-members are welcome to join the Friends in order to get the member discount.
      To register, call 985-7373 or see fhvnp.org.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.






Thursday, April 03, 2014

Ka`u News Briefs Thursday, April 3, 2014

A bill being considered at the state Legislature would provide funding to research and develop methods to control the macadamia felted coccid, which is damaging trees in Ka`u. Photo from testimony by Randy Cabral to the state Legislature.
HAWAI`I ONE IS AN AGRICULTURAL SOIL CONSERVATION planning tool under preliminary development with assistance from the Ulupono Initiative. Dwayne Okamoto, Executive Director of Resource Conservation and Development, Inc. on O`ahu, is traveling to meetings of all of the Soil & Water Conservation District member groups around the state to assess interest in the project. He spoke to Ka`u members yesterday at a meeting held at Royal Hawaiian Orchards’ conference room in Pahala. He explained that the idea comes from Idaho One, a working template that helps farmers and ranchers plan for their lands, shaving off time and sometimes the expense of consultants before taking their plans to government agencies and nonprofit organizations that help to finalize conservation plans. The computer program asks a series of questions, directing the farmer and rancher into planning for their property. Okamoto said he has received positive feedback from other conservation districts around the state. With enough interest, the project could be funded for Hawai`i.
Dwayne Okamoto
      See more on the Idaho One Plan at oneplan.org. See more on the Ulupono Initiative at ulupono.com.
      On hand were staff members Jennifer Lopez-Reavis and Amelia Drury, who work out of Hilo and are responsible for Soil & Water Conservation District services for Waiakea, Puna and Ka`u.
      Ka`u agriculture was represented by the chair of Ka`u Soil & Water Conservation District, Brenda Iokepa-Moses, of Ka`u Coffee Mill; vice chair John Cross, of Olson Trust; Ka`u’s secretary-treasurer, who is a retired school teacher and Volcano resident, Amos Meyers; and director Lani Petrie, of Kapapala Ranch. Other directors are Chris Manfredi, of Ka`u Farm & Ranch and associate director Phil Becker, of Aikane Plantation Coffee.
      The Soil & Water Conservation District is enabled by the U.S. Soil and Water Conservation Act of 1935 which enables “local communities to take positive action to collectively protect our nation’s soil and water resources,” says one of the Hawai`i conservation district websites. “Currently, there are nearly 3,000 local districts established throughout the nation to promote local efforts to install the Best Management Practices to prevent erosion and water pollution from agricultural, forestry and urban activities.” The website explains that the local districts “are self-governing sub-units of state government.” Each district is managed by five directors who volunteer their time to assist land users with implementation of resource conservation plans. To implement the programs, the districts enlist assistance from other government agencies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services provides expertise and staffing to districts. The University of Hawai`i Cooperative Extension Service and state Department of Health provide technical assistance.
      Lopez-Reavis said that Ka`u residents with farms and ranches of any size can contact her for free services at 933-8350. She said that Soil & Water Conservation District staff is responsible for implementing the county grading ordinance, which applies when an agriculturalist plans on moving more than 100 cubic yards of soil – one acre. She explained that such land movement requires either a county grubbing permit or a conservation plan. An approved conservation plan, which her agency helps to create, exempts the farm or ranch from the grubbing permit. She said that such plans help to prevent flooding and erosion that could affect a neighbor. She said the rule of thumb is the natural entrance or exit for water crossing land cannot be changed. A plan can help route the water to ensure stable land for agriculture.
      Meetings of the Ka`u Soil & Water Conservation District are held the first Wednesday of each month at 12:30 p.m. at Royal Hawaiian Orchard conference room on the corner of Pikake and Maile Streets in Pahala. To confirm meeting times, call 933-8350.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

WOOD VALLEY WATER COOPERATIVE has new board members, who all represent small farms which receive their potable water from the co-op. President is Ron Neeley. Vice President is Tuie Strong. Secretary-Treasurer is Vanessa Guy. Other board members are Jay Failing, MIchael Schwabe and John Weist. The co-op is also a member of the Ka`u Agricultural Water Cooperative District, which is working on restoration of old water tunnels from sugar plantation days and distribution of water for agriculture. The Wood Valley Water Cooperative maintains a state-licensed drinking water system and is planning to add agricultural water with separate lines, as funding becomes available and water sources on state lands are improved. For more information, contact Neely at rgn@isp.com. The Wood Valley Water Cooperative will hold a public meeting at Wood Valley Ranch on South Road at 9 a.m. this Saturday, April 5.

Macadamia felted coccids cover a tree branch. Photo from UH-CTAHR  
MACADAMIA FELTED COCCID RESEARCH AND CONTROL is the subject of a bill being considered by the state Legislature. HB1931 would appropriate funds to the Department of Agriculture to research and develop methods for the prevention and treatment of the pest. 
      According to testimony of Randy Mochizuki, Crop Control Superintendant at Royal Hawaiian Orchards in Pahala, the coccids, which were first found in 2009 damaging a few trees, have spread to 3,300 acres and destroyed or damaged a substantial number of trees.
      “If we don’t find a cost-effective control, it may lead to the demise of our Pahala orchard and 125 jobs,” Mochizuki said. “But, it may also severely impact our company as a whole and another 150 jobs.”
      Mochizuki said the pest has the potential of destroying other macadamia orchards in the state, affecting 1,500 acres, 570 farms and a $35-38 million industry.
      Randy Cabral, Senior Vice President of Operations for Royal Hawaiian Orchards, testified that, while the company and others have contributed $95,000 to UH-CTAHR to conduct MFC research, more funding is needed. “Currently, very little is known about the life cycle or vulnerabilities of the pest. In its native Australia, macadamia nut growers use considerable pesticides to control the MFC, but in Hawai`i, because we typically don’t use insecticides, we don’t have the equipment and resources to apply these types of pesticides to large, mature trees. Some pesticides seem to work but require adequate rainfall or adequate irrigation, neither of which is available.”
      The MFC has no significant natural predators in Hawai`i as compared to Australia, Cabral said.
      Cabral pointed out that macadamia farming is a vital source of employment in Ka`u, which has among the highest unemployment rate in the state. “Over 50 percent of Hawai`i’s macadamia tree acres are located in the Ka`u district, the area hardest hit by the MFC,” Cabral said.
      “We want you to know that without intervention, we have little chance of successfully continuing macadamia farming,” Cabral concluded.
Paul Alston
      John Cross, land manager for the Edmund C. Olson Trust II, testified that while the organization has contributed funding to research in partnership with Royal Hawaiian Orchards, “We need all the help we can get in trying to learn more about this pest and bring it under control. It is truly devastating and could threaten the entire Hawaiian macadamia nut industry.”
      The Hawai`i Macadamia Nut Association asks concerned farmers, orchard owners, workers and others to contact their legislators about the issue. Interested parties can find contact information and provide testimony at capitol.hawaii.gov.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

“THE BATTLE IS FAR FROM OVER,” said Honolulu attorney Paul Alston regarding a decision allowing the state to reduce Medicaid health care benefits for migrants covered under the Compact of Free Association. COFA allows Palau, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia citizens, including Ka`u’s Marshallese community, to live and work in the United States in exchange for U.S. control of extensive strategic land and water in the Pacific Ocean.
      “We’re going to take this to the end. We will not give up,” Alston said, vowing to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, according to a story in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
      Alston said that if benefits are cut, migrants will be forced into very costly emergency room treatment, “and some you’re just going to kill. How crazy and how immoral is that?
Wes Awana
      “We got these people in our state who are allowed by federal law to be here from birth to death and the (health care) program that the state is offering as a substitute is garbage,” Alston told reporter Kristen Consillio. “All of this was done by the Lingle administration in a callous disregard for the health needs of this population. One would hope the Abercrombie administration would take a more economically rational and compassionate view as to how we treat these people who live among us.”
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

KA`U HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS VARSITY SOFTBALL team fell to the Hilo Vikings yesterday. Scores were 1-12. Hilo High School pitcher Aliesa Kaneshiro had eight strikeouts against the Trojans. Hitting singles were Shylee Tamura and Kamalani Fujikawa. Next game for the Trojans Softball is tomorrow, when Ka`u hosts the Kamehameha Warriors at 3 p.m.

WES AWANA OFFERS FREE `UKULELE LESSONS tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Volcano Art Center Gallery’s porch in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Everyone is welcome to this Aloha Fridays event. Donations are welcome; park entrance fees apply.

STEWARDSHIP AT THE SUMMIT takes place Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Volunteers meet at Kīlauea Visitor Center to help remove invasive Himalayan ginger from park trails. Free; park entrance fees apply.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.



Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Ka`u News Briefs Wednesday, April 2, 2014

La `Elima artist's depiction by Stan Rillon shows the great tsunami of 1868. This is Tsunami Awareness Month, heralded by a tsunami advisory following an earthquake in Chile yesterday. Image by Stan Rillon 
A TSUNAMI ADVISORY THIS MORNING closed Punalu`u, Honu`apo and other beach parks until 8 a.m., following an 8.2-magnitude earthquake off the coast of northern Chile yesterday at about 2 p.m. Hawai`i time. Surges onto beaches reached three feet where they were measured in Hilo. In Ka`u, Honu`apo recorded a point one-foot tsunami over eight minutes. 
      The advisory read, “Tsunami waves that can be a hazard to swimmers and boaters as well as to persons near the shore at beaches and in harbors and marinas are now affecting the state of Hawai`i. This hazard could continue for several hours. The situation is being monitored closely, and the advisory will end when the hazard has passed.”
      Chile has produced some of the most damaging tsunamis in Hawaiian history. In 1877, an 8.3 Chilean quake generated a tsunami that led to deaths in Hawai`i. On May 23, 1960, a tsunami from Chile killed 61 people in Hilo. The tsunami was generated by the largest recorded quake in history. It measured 9.5 on the Richter scale.
A 1960 tsunami flattened a heavily populated section of Hilo.
     Another locally generated major tsunami in Hawai`i happened in 1868 after the largest quake in Hawaiian history struck on April 2 at Keaiwa – Wood Valley. The 7.1 quake, as reported by goat and sheep farmer Fredrick Lyman, caused a huge mudslide that covered thatch and wood homes and killed 31 people in the Wood Valley area. The resulting tsunami wiped out structures at Punalu`u and Honu`apo.
     An Aleutians Islands quake on April 1,1946 measured 8.1 and killed 159 people in Hawai`i, leading to the creation of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
     Warnings have led to evacuations numerous times. On Feb. 27, 2010, Punalu`u beachgoers and everyone staying the SeaMountain condos and others along the entire coast were evacuated after an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile. The tiny tsunami wave did no damage in Ka`u. In 2011, another evacuation was called by Civil Defense after the March 11 Japan earthquake that measured 9.0. That tsunami destroyed several homes along the south Kona coast.
      A famous song about a tsunami comes out of Miloli`i and Ka`u. It is called La `Elima, a song to remember. Each year, the La `Elima celebration is held in Miloli`i, where people were spared during the great earthquake and tidal wave in 1868. Though their Hauoli Kamana`o Church site was permanently submerged, the church building landed on the shore. The event also celebrates the Miloli`i community caring for other tsunami victims whose homes were lost. Listen to and watch a vintage recording of the Diana Aki song La `Elima with Israel Kamakawiwaole backing her up at youtube.com/watch?v=v3kIsPWllbM.
Saint Marianne Cope Day is Jan. 23.
      Darryl Oliveira, county Civil Defense director, noted this morning that the most recent tsunami threat came yesterday on the 68th anniversary of 1946 tsunami and the kickoff of Tsunami Awareness Month. Aerial surveys of the island began at first light this morning to observe any sea change from the small tsunami waves, generated by yesterday’s quake off the coast of Chile.
     While beaches are now open, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says that smaller sea level changes and strong or unusual currents may persist for several additional hours, and boaters and swimmers should exercise appropriate caution.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

JAN. 23 IS NOW SAINT MARIANNE COPE DAY in Hawai`i, following Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s signing of a bill passed by the state Legislature. 
      Maria Anna Barbara Koob, who would later be known as Saint Marianne Cope of Moloka`i, was a German-born American and a member of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Syracuse, New York, who spent many years caring for patients suffering from leprosy, or Hansen's disease, on Molokai.
      On October 21, 2012, Mother Marianne was canonized as Saint Marianne Cope by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. Saint Marianne is the second person, after Father Damien, who had served in Hawai`i to be canonized, and she is only the 11th American citizen to receive the Roman Catholic Church's highest honor. Prior to her canonization, Cope was beatified on May 14, 2005 in Rome by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
      Saint Marianne’s feast day was established as January 23 and is celebrated by her own religious congregation, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.
      The status of HB2539 and other bills being considered at the state Legislature is available at capitol.hawaii.gov.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Judge J. Michael Seabright
KA`U’S MARSHALLESE POPULATION COULD LOSE government-sponsored Medicaid health care benefits after a panel convened by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the state can resume offering fewer health care benefits to Micronesian migrants than those given other citizens and legal residents eligible for Medicaid reimbursements. 
      For many years before Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration, Hawai`i chose to include citizens of Palau, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia citizens living here in its health insurance plans. The Compact of Free Association allowed them to live and work in the United States in exchange for U.S. control of strategic land and water in the Pacific Ocean.
      In 1996, Congress cut health care funding for migrants covered under COFA as part of comprehensive welfare reform. Then, when the Lingle administration attempted in 2009 and 2010 to reduce coverage because of fiscal challenges, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright stopped it.
      COFA residents argued to the Ninth Circuit that the state violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by providing them less health coverage than citizens and legal residents eligible for Medicaid reimbursements, but the court disagreed. In the court’s decision, Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote, “Congress has plenary power to regulate immigration and the conditions on which aliens remain in the United States, and Congress has authorized states to do exactly what Hawai`i has done here — determine the eligibility for, and terms of, state benefits for aliens … with regard to whom Congress expressly gave states limited discretion.” 
      According to a story in Honolulu Star-Advertiser, state House Vice Speaker John Mizuno described the ruling as concerning and a “game changer.” He plans to meet with the Marshall Islands Consulate General in Honolulu, he said.
      See staradvertiser.com.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u's U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
THE HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS has announced its appointment of Ka`u’s U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to the House Armed Services Committee. Gabbard will fill an open seat on the committee, and the full House will vote to finalize the appointment later this week. 
      The appointment came on a recommendation by the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
      “As a twice-deployed combat veteran and Captain in the Hawai`i Army National Guard, I take very seriously the responsibility to serve on the House Armed Services Committee,” Gabbard said. “This spring, as tough debates take place about the National Defense Authorization in the House, I will continue my work to support our service members and their families and to bring our troops home quickly and safely from Afghanistan. I look forward to working toward ensuring sound national security policy and to cut waste and inefficiency within the Defense Department. I will continue my bipartisan efforts to reform our military justice system in order to end the epidemic of military sexual assault.
      “Hawai`i plays a significant role in advancing our defense and foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region, and this appointment ensures Hawai`i will continue to have a voice on this critical committee. I am honored to join the committee and look forward to working with all of its members as we set priorities and funding levels for the Department of Defense, provide for our men and women in uniform and support a robust national security strategy that focuses on emerging threats around the globe.”
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.  

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND, Volcano Art Center presents Process Painting - Spirit of Creativity with Patricia Hoban Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at its Ni`aulani Campus in Volcano Village.
      “Embark on a journey that encourages you to experiment, explore, discover and play through painting. Every one of us has creativity locked up inside, but we often have difficulty gaining access to that creativity,” Hoban said.
      Cost is $40 for VAC members, $45 non-members, with a $5 materials fee.
      Register at volcanoartcenter.org or call 967-8222.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.