If you can’t beat ’em: Honolulu City Council member Andria Tupola has long walked a tricky path when it comes to rail, or Skyline. She’s never condemned the transit project, which aims to give many of her Leeward Oʻahu constituents a smoother and more reliable ride into town. But she’s never exactly supported it, either.

Back when she was a House minority member, Tupola twice joined her Republican colleagues to vote against bailout packages aimed at saving the now $10 billion dollar transit project as it kept running overbudget, once in 2015 and then in 2017.

“You don’t need my vote to get the rail,” Tupola told her House colleagues on the floor in 2015. “It’ll still go.”

It did go, and this week Tupola teamed with the city and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to post a Skyline promo on Instagram, filming her first-ever Skyline ride after landing at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport from Maui.

“I thought it was going to be pretty hard, but it was actually pretty easy,” Tupola said. “I’m already at Pearl Ridge and it’s been like nine minutes? It’s pretty fast! It says I’m going to get to Kapolei in 15 minutes.”

But keeping with the years-long balancing act, Tupola took a more somber take in the comments of the promo.

“The reality is, Skyline is here,” she wrote. “We can’t change what has already been spent, but we can make sure taxpayers get the greatest value from the investment that’s already been made.”

Filling Kidani’s seat: After some initial confusion over what to do, Oʻahu County Democrats have come up with a plan to replace Michelle Kidani, the state senator who resigned June 30 citing health reasons.

Qualified candidates seeking the Senate District 18 seat (Mililani Town, Waipiʻo Gentry, Crestview, Waikele, a portion of Waipahu, Village Park and Royal Kunia) have until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to apply for the job. A selection committee will Zoom on Thursday to hear each candidate speak for up to three minutes. Three names will then be sent to Gov. Josh Green, who has until Aug. 29 to choose the next senator.

But it’s only a temp gig. A special election will be held at the same time as the Nov. 3 general election. The Democratic Party along with Republicans, Green and Libertarians then have until 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 4 to submit their respective nominee for the ballot.

For nonpartisan applicants, they can submit their names, too. If there is more than one, the Hawaiʻi State Elections Office will hold a drawing at 5 p.m. that same day to determine which NP will be on the ballot.

As Civil Beat reported, this process limits District 18 voters from deciding who should represent them for the two years remaining in Kidani’s term. There will be no contested primary, for example. That’s frustrating to supporters of area representatives like Democrat Trish La Chica and Republican Lauren Matsumoto, who are already on the primary ballot.

But there has been a new development. On Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office advised Green on the party nominee eligibility for Kidani’s seat. While it is too late for a candidate to withdraw from the Aug. 8 primary, state law appears to allow a candidate who wins their primary to then resign, thus making them eligible to be selected by their party to be the sole candidate in the special election.

But The Blog thinks that would not be a good look. Better to wait until 2028, no?

Green growth: And speaking of what our governor has been up to lately, this past week he was in Utah (thank you, Keith Regan!) for the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association where he ascended to the throne as the new chair of the WGA.

Green as we all know is a doctor who has a particular interest in bolstering healthcare both locally and nationally as part of his role as a political leader (his Heal America national PAC seeks to support medical people like himself who want to run for office.)

As head of the WGA, Green is turning his attention to mental health and has launched a year-long bipartisan initiative called Health Beyond Healthcare that aims to boost access to quality mental healthcare (something Hawaiʻi desperately needs, by the way) while exploring “how housing, early intervention, education, workforce development, community connections, and other social and environmental factors influence mental health,” according to a WGA writeup.

You can watch his speech to WGA here:

New overlords at UH: Lauren Akitake is the new chair of the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents. She was elected by a 7-4 vote Thursday at a meeting at UH Mānoa.

Five new members were also sworn in to the 11-member board, according to UH News: Keith Amemiya, Marie Laderta, Makai Freitas, Keola Robert Whittaker and student Eric Pōmaikaʻi Gee. 

Akitake was appointed to the board in 2023 and represents Maui County, where she is an attorney and the first executive director and legal counsel for the County of Maui Board of Ethics.

And justice for all: Few people relish serving on a jury, but it’s part of all our civic duty. At least the pay won’t suck as much any more.

Effective this past Thursday the daily rate of compensation is $50 — the first change since 1989, when it was upped from $20 to $30.

The 50 bucks is for each day of actual attendance in court. On top of that jurors are paid either 33 cents for each mile “actually and necessarily traveled” in going to and from court, or the cost of an adult bus fare (currently $7.50) to and from the court — whichever is higher.

“Jurors bring the judgment, experience, and values of our community into the courtrooms, helping ensure that cases are decided fairly and impartially,” Chief Justice Vladimir P. Devens said in a press release Thursday. “Increasing juror compensation recognizes the time and sacrifice that jury service involves.”

Hail to the chief: The Blog wasn’t able to make it to the swearing in ceremony of new Honolulu Police Chief David Lazar but our ace photographer, Craig Fujii, was on hand. A picture tells a thousand words anyway, right? So here are a few snaps from the ceremony at Mission Memorial Auditorium on Thursday.

Transparency? Really?: And for those of you helping The Blog keep track of the latest non-update update from the Attorney General’s Office on the state investigation into the mystery lawmaker who allegedly took possibly $35,000 in 2022 in what may or may not have been a bribe, here is the biweekly update from the AG’s office.

And don’t miss Ali Silvert’s latest essay on why it’s ridiculous that the public continues to be kept in the dark on this (despite the AG’s insistence that she is “committed to transparency”) elsewhere in today’s edition of Sunshine Sunday.

But first, copied and pasted from the AG press release for your reading pleasure:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                       

July 4, 2026

HONOLULU – The Department of the Attorney General today reaffirmed that its public corruption investigation remains active and that investigators and prosecutors with the Special Investigation and Prosecution Division (SIPD) continue to examine all relevant information.

The department’s goal is not simply to determine whether criminal conduct occurred, but to ensure that any findings are based on evidence that has been thoroughly reviewed, corroborated and evaluated under applicable law.

Attorney General Anne Lopez issued the following statement:

“Every investigation presents its own challenges and this one has proven to be broader and more complex than initially anticipated. As investigators uncover additional information, they have an obligation to follow those facts wherever they lead, even when doing so expands the scope of the work.

The public rightly expects this investigation to be completed thoroughly and fairly. Those expectations guide every decision we make. We will not sacrifice the integrity of the investigation for the sake of speed, nor will we speculate or comment publicly on information before it has been fully evaluated.”

Because this investigation remains active, the department cannot comment on specific evidence, investigative techniques, witness interviews, subpoenas, notifications, or potential charging decisions.

The Department of the Attorney General remains committed to transparency and will provide additional information when it is appropriate to do so.