Ka`u News Briefs Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Joel La Pinta, of Kennedy Wilson, said 5,800 Ka`u acres, including the 400 acres where award-winning Ka`u Coffee grows, have potential buyers. Photo by Geneveve Fyvie 

“WE’VE GOT OUR CONTESTANTS IN PLACE,” said real estate broker Joel La Pinta regarding the Lehman Brothers sale of the 5,800 acres which includes the Moa`ula and Pear Tree lands where most of the Ka`u Coffee farmers are growing their famed coffee. When asked yesterday whether Lehman was still taking offers, La Pinta, who works for Kennedy Wilson, the company that is representing the seller, said that “we always take offers until closing,” but that the potential buyers have been identified. 

      At risk is the future of the Ka`u Coffee farmers who have built an industry over nearly two decades, since the sugar plantation shut down in 1996. Almost all of the coffee farmers’ leases have run out, and without new leases, buyers could decide to farm the lands themselves or to require the farmers to sell all or a portion of their coffee to them so they could become controlling brokers of the coffee. The land, which was set up for subdivision by the owners foreclosed on, could be subdivided by new owners and sold off as estates where the famous Ka`u Coffee grows. Most farmers, who already own other homes in Pahala and Na`alehu where they live with their families, say they could not afford to purchase such estates. Prices would likely be beyond the farmers, as subdividing would require expensive infrastructure necessary for housing but unnecessary for the Ka`u Coffee farms.

Ka`u land for sale by broker Kennedy Wilson is located above Pahala and Honu`apo
Park, at Waikapuna and in Na`alehu.

      A number of the coffee farmers have created their own brand names, selling coffee to restaurants, by mail order and to specialty coffee stores and markets. These entrepreneurs are not only farmers but involved in the value-added economics of owning their own mercantile businesses, elevating their income and keeping the money in the local economy. They say they want to be free to sell coffee to the markets they have developed for themselves.
      Mayor Billy Kenoi said recently he would do everything he could to keep the farmers on the land. Proposals have included encouraging any new owners to create an agricultural park on 400 of the acres where the coffee is farmed in order to take subdivision and real estate speculation out of the future of the Ka`u Coffee farmers’ lands. To create such an agricultural park, land where the coffee farms are located could possibly be purchased using Legacy Land funds and possibly funds from the “two percent” of property taxes that are used to preserve valuable lands for the county, in the same way that Honu`apo and Kawa were preserved here and a large parcel of agricultural land was set aside on O`ahu. Other proposals have included strict agricultural easements on the property to prevent it from being subdivided for coffee estates, similar to Napa Valley-style estates that cropped up in the wine-growing country in California.
      The work of the Ka`u Coffee farmers has been described as one of the most successful post-sugar plantation economies in Hawai`i, with land security being the major risk to the farmers.
      The land where most of the farmers have their coffee was foreclosed on by lender Lehman Brothers when developers failed to pay back a $45 million loan plus interest, which they borrowed against the land. Lehman put the 5,800 acres up for sale, including ranch lands above Na`alehu, coastal lands at Waikapuna and coffee farms and pastures above Pahala.
      Ka`u Coffee Growers Cooperative President Gloria Camba said she hopes whoever buys the land will allow the farmers to stay there.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Funding from Hawai`i County will help defray the cost of
Beauveria bassania in the battle against the coffee berry
borer. Photo from Global Citizen Year 

KA`U FARM BUREAU has received $25,000 in funding from the county of Hawai`i to fight the coffee berry borer, according to Ka`u Coffee Growers Cooperative President Gloria Camba. The money went from the county to the state Farm Bureau and to Ka`u Farm Bureau. The fund is being used to match money spent by qualified farmers – up to 50 percent of the cost of the spray – to fight the borer. Farmers are required to take a class on application of the spray before being funded. According to Camba, farmers must provide receipts showing they purchased the spray in order to be refunded 50 percent. She said she hopes that all the farmers will use best practices to help eliminate the coffee berry borer from Ka`u farms. Scientists from the state Department of Agriculture said during Ka`u Coffee College on Sunday that some Kona farmers have reduced coffee berry borer infestation to five percent with good practices, which include timely spraying and keeping farms clean, even when they are surrounded by other abandoned farms infested with the borer.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar. 

U.S. SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ LEADS U.S. REP. COLLEEN HANABUSA 49 percent to 34 percent in the race for U.S. Senate, according to a new poll conducted May 9-11 on behalf of Democracy for America, a progressive political action committee that endorsed Schatz in February.
      The poll cited Shatz’s support of expanding Social Security and increasing the minimum wage as reasons given by those polled.
      “Sen. Schatz is proving that fighting for economic populism that builds the middle class is a winning strategy for Democrats,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America. “These results are a forceful rebuke to those Democrats who supported cuts to Social Security, sending a clear message that Hawai`i wants a senator willing to go to Washington and fight against income inequality every day.”
      The two candidates compete in the Aug. 9 Democratic primary.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

A Hawai`i public education campaign focuses on equity for domestic workers.

THE ABERCROMBIE ADMINISTRATION HAS LAUNCHED a multilingual public education campaign about a new law that establishes equity for Hawai`i’s domestic workers. Signed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie last year, Act 248, Session Laws of Hawai`i 2013, provides for minimum wage, overtime, discrimination, and harassment protections for domestic workers. Prior to Act 248, domestic workers were excluded from these basic protections of state wage, hour, and fair employment laws afforded to others.
      “Hawai`i is the second state to pass laws that protect domestic workers from discrimination at work and provide overtime and minimum wage protections that all workers deserve,” Abercrombie said. “The goal of the ‘Domestic Workers Have Rights’ public education campaign is to raise awareness because these new protections are meaningless if workers and their employers do not know about them.”
      Dr. Nancie Caraway, First Lady of the state and chair of the Domestic Workers Have Rights Working Group, said, “This education campaign is about peace and justice in the home. It’s about showing the humanity of a long devalued kind of work.”
      Workers protected include housekeepers, childcare workers, caretakers, maids and gardeners among others that work in the home of their employers. Mila Kaahanui, executive director of the Office of Community Services, said, “These workers are often hidden from view, and many may have limited English proficiency.”
      The Domestic Workers Have Rights campaign has created informational material in 10 different languages and English. The campaign will reach out into the community through OCS’s Immigrant Resource Centers on Kauai, O`ahu and Hawai`i. Educational material will also be available on the DLIR website and disseminated through community organizations.

      For more information, see labor.hawaii.gov/domestic-workers-rights.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

VOLCANO SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES presents Middle School Theatre Night tomorrow, with classes offering four one-act productions beginning at 6 p.m. at Kilauea Military Camp Theatre in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. 

      The fifth grade presents a Russian folk story, The Frog Princess, by Cathy Howard. This tale is a lesson in acceptance.
      The sixth-grade presentation is a western melodrama, Mine, All Mine or From Ghost Town to Kaboom Town, by Denise K. Burr. As with all melodramas, audience members will want to cheer the hero and boo the villain.
      The seventh grade is showcased in The Brothers Grimm: Out of Order. This comedy contains many favorite fairy tale characters, in a funny take on a community group putting on a show.
      The eighth grade presents Doc, Doc…Goose! by Patrick Rainville Dorn, a fun romp with many favorite nursery rhyme characters.

CATHY AND TYSON BLACK DEMONSTRATE coconut leaf weaving Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Volcano Art Center Gallery porch in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply. Call 967-8222 for more information.

KA`U FARMERS UNION UNITED meets Saturday at 5 p.m. at Ka`u Coffeehouse & Guesthouse next to the 76 gas station in Na`alehu. For more information, email Malian Lahey at malian@kauspecialtycoffee.com.

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

Ka`u News Briefs Tuesday, May 13, 2014

One of the goals of Ka`u Farmers Union United, which holds its second meeting Saturday, is to increase food production in Ka`u.
Photo by Julia Neal

COFFEE BERRY BORER was one of the main topics at the Ka`u Coffee College last Sunday. Sponsored by the Ka`u Coffee Festival, with help from the state Department of Agriculture, scientists came to the festival and the college to both encourage and to warn farmers about the pest as well as new pests that may just be entering Hawai`i. A new disease that is complex, involving fungus and bacteria, with mites as the vectors, was discussed. It may be slow moving, but growers on one farm in South Kona took down all of their coffee trees to make sure they did not become the breeding ground that would spread the pest throughout the coffee lands, said Rob Curtis, an entomologist with the Hawai`i Department of Agriculture.

Ka`u Coffee farmers are warned to look out for coffee rust, which can devastate
coffee plantations. Photo from Smartse

      Coffee farmers were also warned to be on the look out for rust, which is not yet in Hawai`i, but destroys coffee trees in other parts of the world. Rust could come in on plant materials, imported illegally without inspection. It could come in on spores on bags of coffee that are imported. One way to prevent rust from coming here is by refraining from bringing coffee plants or beans from overseas, recommended scientists attending the Ka`u Coffee College.
      Keeping out pests coming in with shipments of plants or coffee is difficult. In New Zealand, for example, a shipment of grain with a pest that could destroy grain crops there would be destroyed. In Hawai`i, such a shipment of a commodity with a pest would more likely be treated and still allowed into the state. New Zealand has more protective laws for keeping out invasive species and pests than Hawai`i, Curtis said.
      Hawai`i identifies about 20 new pests each year, and the agricultural inspection of imports is far from 100 percent. People can bring in a pest with a handful of plant seeds in their pocket on the airplane. A pest can come on imported potted plants or in bags of beans or other raw foodstuffs shipped into the islands. Scientists try to fend off the invasive pests and weeds with pesticides and by looking for predators of the pest – other insects, for example, that can be imported after being approved for release in Hawai`i.
      One concern with the coffee berry borer is that it is similar to a native beetle, and agriculturalists have to be careful to protect the native beetle while going after the borer.
      One improvement in the way plants are inspected is planned coordination between federal and state agricultural inspectors, said Curtis.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

  

“RENEWABLES MAKE SENSE, NOT ONLY ENVIRONMENTALLY, but it makes economic sense as well in Hawai`i because we have the opportunity to displace that high price of imported oil,” Hawaiian Electric Industries president and CEO Constance Lau said at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Honolulu last week. “Our job is to integrate as much as we can, and the company is committed to doing that.” 

Constance Lau, CEO of HEI, says
renewable energy makes economic sense.

      Duane Shimogawa, of Pacific Business News, reported Lau saying that 850 solar-energy systems had been installed by 2008, while 40,000 had been installed by last year. In this year’s first quarter, 3,000 systems were integrated into the grid, Lau said. 

      “We are trying to set a pace for the future,” she said. The state Public Utilities Commission “wants lower, more stable bills, expanding customers’ options and improving reliability. We share this vision, and our strategy is based on these principles. It’s critical to continue to modernize our grid; it’s the backbone of the utility of the future (with) such investments as smart-grid technology and energy storage.”
      HECO reported a first-quarter net income of $35.4 million, up 45 percent from $24.4 million in the same quarter in 2013. The company cited lower operational and maintenance expenses and higher revenues.
      According to Shimogawa, Lau also said Hawaiian Electric Co. imported three million fewer barrels of fuel last year because of its use of renewable energy, saving $350 million. She also said 18 percent of the energy on HECO’s grid is renewable, higher than the target of 15 percent. “We have integrated distributed renewables at a record-setting pace,” she said. “We are making Hawai`i a leader in clean energy.”
      See bizjournals.com/pacific.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

U.S. SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ APPLAUDED PRESIDENT OBAMA and his administration following an announcement that the President will be making more than 300 private and public sector commitments to create jobs and cut carbon pollution by advancing solar deployment and energy efficiency. The President announced executive actions that will lead to $2 billion in energy efficiency investments in federal buildings; smarter appliances that will cut carbon pollution by more than 380 million metric tons and training programs at community colleges across the country that will assist 50,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020.
      “These clean energy actions by President Obama will protect our environment and cut carbon pollution by more than 380 million metric tons – the equivalent of taking 80 million cars off the road for one year,” Schatz said.

Sen. Brian Schatz supports clean energy.

      According to Schatz, America has increased its electricity generation from solar more than tenfold and tripled electricity production from wind power since 2009. Last year, about a quarter of new power generation capacity was from solar – second only to natural gas. Growing deployment, led in large part by the utility sector, has driven down costs: over the last three years, the cost of a solar energy system has dropped by more than 50 percent – helping to give more and more American families and businesses access to affordable, clean energy.
      Last month, Schatz co-introduced the Energy Efficiency Tax Incentives Act, legislation that would boost energy efficiency in government, in industry, and in commercial and residential buildings, which account for more than 40 percent of energy consumption in the United States.
      Schatz is also a cosponsor of the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. This bipartisan bill uses a variety of low-cost tools to reduce barriers for private sector energy users and drive adoption of off-the-shelf efficiency technologies that will save businesses and consumers money, make America more energy independent and reduce emissions.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.  

HAWAI`I COUNTY COUNCIL HOLDS A SPECIAL MEETING tomorrow at 9 a.m. to consider the operating budget submitted last week by Mayor Billy Kenoi. The budget is 3.4 percent larger than the budget in effect when Kenoi took office in 2008. “This budget continues our strategic investments in county services and infrastructure to support our working families and businesses, while carefully controlling the cost of government,” Kenoi said.

Mayor Billy Kenoi

      Kenoi’s budget cites funding for additional police officers in Ka`u and staffing positions at the Ka`u District Gym & Shelter as examples of support for and investment in the community.
      Kenoi says the state Legislature’s recent increase in the cap on the amount of transient accommodations tax will provide an additional $1.86 million to Hawai`i County. He allocates the entire amount into pre-funding future employee health benefits, also known as GASB 45. “That allows the county to increase its contribution to GASB 45 to $6.09 million for Fiscal Year 2014-2015, which is nearly double the contribution budgeted for the current fiscal year,” Kenoi says.
      Kenoi concludes, “The recent, modest gains in property values point to a gradual economic recovery, and we remain cautiously optimistic that the economic and budget outlook will continue to improve. We believe our efforts to promote renewable energy, agriculture and higher education are an investment in the future of our island.”
      The budget Kenoi submitted to the County Council is available on tomorrow’s meeting agenda. See hawaiicounty.gov.

      Ka`u residents can participate in the meeting via videoconferencing at Ocean View Community Center.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

TEANA KAHOOHANOHANO SHARES HER KNOWLEDGE and love of native hula adornments during a ti leaf kupe`e demonstration tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply.

A STAFF MEMBER FROM U.S. REP. TULSI GABBARD’S office meets with constituents and assists with casework and other issues tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. For more information, call 987-5698.

KA`U FARMERS UNION UNITED’S second meeting is set for this Saturday, May 17 at 5 p.m. at Ka`u Coffeehouse & Guesthouse next to the 76 gas station in Na`alehu.
      “We set out some strong goals with our last meeting, and we have a lot of momentum to keep going,” said organizer Malian Lahey. The goals include growing more food in Ka`u, long-term leases for ag water from Department of Land & Natural Resources and integrating agricultural and environmental education into the public school system. Also, “People need to eat food from Hawai`i and know where their food comes from,” Lahey said.
      For more information, email Lahey at malian@kauspecialtycoffee.com.

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

Ka`u News Briefs Monday, May 12, 2014

The 1924 explosive eruption of Kilauea is the topic at tomorrow's After Dark in the Park program. Photo from NPS

KA`U COFFEE COLLEGE brought in coffee experts to Pahala yesterday. They encouraged farmers and marketers to continue building the Ka`u Coffee brand as distinguished from other regions and particularly from coffee that is blended with coffee from elsewhere.

Blake Hanacek

      Blake Hanacek, of Vancouver, Canada, said that Canada is a fast-growing consumer market for specialty coffee, with Vancouver being the center, quickly becoming the kind of specialty coffee hub that one sees in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. He said that people are looking for coffee from special places and that Ka`u is more of the kind of place they look for when they think of coffee origins. He talked about the qualities of the place, the longest uninhabited coastline in the state and the unexpected small coffee farms up dirt roads and along walking paths in the mountains. He talked about the farmers and the interest the public has in connecting the coffee they drink with the story of the farmer. He said that Ka`u is an attractive place for coffee origin tours.

      Hanacek also talked about the need to bring young people into the coffee business. He said that increasingly in Vancouver, it is the younger people who are opening up the specialty coffee shops and that many young people are attracted to careers where they can be entrepreneurial and also creative. The same could happen with running Ka`u Coffee farms. Gloria Camba, President of the Ka`u Coffee Growers Cooperative, said that the co-op is starting to attract younger members since the industry is starting to show that coffee farmers and marketers can make a good living with Ka`u Coffee.
      Hanacek is a roaster and cafe owner. He is also an expert in sustainable business, with a master’s degree in watershed management. He is a co-founder of Agricultural Growers Resource Organization Developing Economic Viability. He campaigns to improve environmental and social conditions in the coffee industry and voices support for the small farmer movement.
      See more on the Ka`u Coffee College in tomorrow’s Ka`u News Briefs.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u's state Rep. Richard Creagan, at right, joined Ka`u Learning Academy Founding
Board members Kathryn Tydlacka and Joe Iacuzzo at the meeting where the
Department of Education granted approval of the charter school. 

KA`U LEARNING ACADEMY HAS RECEIVED APPROVAL to open its charter school. On May 8, Hawai`i State Public Charter School Commission found it to be the only applicant for a charter that meets newly instituted standards set out in state law governing charter schools. At the meeting, Ka`u’s state Rep. Richard Creagan expressed strong support for KLA and its goals. 

      Ka`u Learning Academy was established by Kathryn Tydlacka, who taught at Na`alehu Elementary School. Tydlacka is executive director and a member of the school’s Founding Board of Directors. During her nearly 20 years as an educator, she has specialized in working with children from lower socio-economic areas. 

      Ka`u Learning Academy will open in August 2015 and offer grades four through six during its first year. It will expand to grades kindergarten through eight over the following four years and anticipates campuses in Na`alehu and Ocean View. The exact location of the initial campus has not yet been formalized.
      Founding Board member Joe Iacuzzo said KLA will provide a strong academic curriculum along with arts and culture programs and that its goal is to prepare students for college and careers.
      As a public charter school, all students are welcome with no tuition. The curriculum will be “a rigorous academic schedule based on a ‘blended learning’ model that incorporates classroom and computer-based learning,” Iacuzzo said.
      For more information, see kaulearning.com.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

DR. TYRONE HAYES, A PROFESSOR at University of California at Berkeley, comes to Hawai`i Island to tell his findings from 15 years of research on atrazine and his struggle with Syngenta Corporation, maker of the herbicide. His story was recently featured in the New Yorker magazine. 

      Hayes is an advocate for the critical review and regulation of pesticides and chemicals that cause adverse health effects in communities. He says atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicide in America, is a disruptor of the endocrine system, emasculating male frogs and transforming them into fully functioning reproductive females. He has been published in peer-review journals since the 1990s. 

      The free event at UH-Hilo’s Science & Technology Building, Room 108 on Monday, May 19 begins at 6 p.m. with refreshments and an opportunity to meet Hayes. A question-and-answer period follows his presentation.
      Also, Paul Towers, from Pesticide Action Network, presents an overview of pesticide use nationally and internationally and the significant role Hawai`i plays in open-air pesticide experimentation.
      Hayes also speaks on Tuesday, May 20 at Kona Island Naturals’ upstairs meeting room from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
      See the New Yorker article at newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all.
      For more information, email gmofreehawaiiisland@gmail.com.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

“IT’S TIME TO PUT YOUR FEET TO THE FLOOR and start training for the Volcano Rain Forest Runs,” said race director Sharron Faff. “Whether you’re running or walking in the Half Marathon, 10K or 5K, it’s time to give those legs a shake and start exercising.”
      Volcano Rain Forest Runs are set for Saturday, Aug. 16. The Half Marathon begins at 7 a.m., 10K at 7:45 a.m., 5K at 8 a.m. and the kids’ runs at 10 a.m.

Volcano Rain Forest Runs director Sharron Faff.

      Keiki can register in the free 100- or 200-yard dash (1-4 year olds for the 100-yard dash; 5-7 for the 200-yard dash), sponsored by Kilauea Lodge. Start/Finish for all events is at Cooper Center in Volcano Village on Wright Road.
      Awards go to the first, second and third place male and female winners in all three races, plus top two male and female for 10-year age divisions in all races.
      Entertainment, face painting, animal balloons, health and fitness booths, food booths and a silent auction await at Cooper Center finish line. The Hiccup Circus will amaze and thrill the audience. “Be one of the participants in the races or part of the cheering crowd welcoming the athletes across the finish line,” Faff said.
      The Dine & Dash Pasta Party on Friday night, Aug, 15 is open to the public as well as race participants, raising money for the Friends Feeding Friends program at Cooper Center.
      To register or volunteer, see volcanorainforestruns.com or call Faff at 967-8240.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

POSTERS CREATED BY PAHALA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL students are on display at Pahala Public & School Library through May 18 during the 59th annual Big Island Children’s Book Week sponsored by Hawai`i State Public Library System. The students entered state library system’s Book Week poster contest, doing artwork based on a book that they have read.
     Winners are as follows:
Kindergarten – First place: Isaiah Manila-Louis. Honorable Mentions: Kaden Libunao-Martinez, Krystal Keka-Velenzuela Eder and Chassis Kaleohano.

• First grade – First Place: Kalino Judalena. Honorable Mentions: Cheska Aurelio, Raymond Perry and Jestin Penera. 
• Second Grade – First Place: Erianne Abibilla. Honorable Mentions: Ocean Nihipali-Sesson, Korina Kailiawa-Escobar and Leeroy Koi. 
• Third Grade – First Place: Emman Badua. Honorable Mentions: Marcky Tamayo, Ciara Ortega and Shanialee Silva. 
• Fourth Grade – First Place: Micah Espejo. Honorable Mentions: David Ramos, Zechariah Leialoha-Puentes and Cherrisse Althea Calumpit. 
• Fifth Grade – First Place: Arniel Libuanao, Jr. Honorable Mentions: Rebecca Kailiawa-Escobar, Clarence Travis Cabrera and Elysa Abellera. 
• Sixth Grade – First Place: Sarah Kailiawa-Escobar. Honorable Mentions: Kiara Kailiawa and Alohi Kaupu-Grace.

      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ti leaf kupe`e is worn as an adornment by hula dancers. Photo from NPS

HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY GEOLOGIST Don Swanson and volunteer Ben Gaddis discuss the 1924 explosive eruption of Kilauea and how it stacks up against much larger eruptions of the past and, probably, the future at After Dark in the Park. The free program tomorrow begins at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Park entrance fees apply, and $2 donations support After Dark programs. 

TEANA KAHOOHANOHANO SHARES HER KNOWLEDGE and love of native hula adornments during a ti leaf kupe`e demonstration Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply.

A STAFF MEMBER FROM U.S. REP. TULSI GABBARD’S office meets with constituents and assists with casework and other issues Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. For more information, call 987-5698.

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