Sky gazers in Hawaii were treated to a rare treat of a super blood wolf moon on Sunday and Monday.

The celestial phenomenon occurs when a total lunar eclipse happens at the same time as a super moon — and in January.

“There’s one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace.” Those were the words of Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Democrat of Hawaii, appearing on CNN on January 12, as she threw her hat into the presidential ring.

Gabbard is one of the few Democrats in the 2020 mix who has experience as a combatant in war. Back in 2004, at the peak of fighting in Iraq, she volunteered for duty with the Hawaii National Guard as it was deployed to that country. So for her, as well as for all the other veterans of our recent wars of choice, America’s Middle East policy is more than an object for armchair strategizing.

Thus did Gabbard smile in agreement when CNN host Van Jones summarized her views as “hawk on terror, dove on regime change.” And most Americans would agree: that is, everybody wants an anti-terrorism policy, but few want more foreign wars and regime changes.

On 22 December 2016, a retired professor of Hawaiian studies named Carlos Andrade sent a letter to dozens of his relatives informing them that he was about to sue them.

The relatives were among hundreds of partial owners of four small parcels of land on the island of Kauai, the legacy of a shared ancestor named Manuel Rapozo. A neighboring landowner, Northshore Kalo LLC, was willing to pay the legal fees to clear up the title on the property – enabling Andrade to take full ownership and compensate his fellow descendants for their shares.

It wasn’t until nearly a month later that the Honolulu Star-Advertiser broke the news that Northshore Kalo LLC was not a taro farm, as some had assumed (“kalo” means “taro” in Hawaiian), but a shell corporation controlled by Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook founder was pursuing eight separate lawsuits related to parcels of land that, like the Rapozo parcels, were surrounded by his 700-acre Kauai estate.

Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard has announced her intent to campaign for President of the United States, and the entire political spectrum is shitting bricks about it. Mainstream liberals and neocons are calling her a Putin puppet and Assad’s BFF, leftists and progressives are criticizing her associations with right-wing factions in India and anti-LGBT comments she made in the early 2000s, conspiracy analysts are criticizing her Council on Foreign Relations membership, and the Zionist elements of Trump’s base are openly promising to destroy her candidacy. A lot of others, myself included, got a lot more interested in the 2020 elections when she threw her hat in.

A spokesman for Ed Case explained that the newly sworn-in congressman was referencing something that his Japanese-American wife says about him, but some accused him of trying to score political points by playing the race card.

Democratic Representative for Hawaii's first district Ed Case faced public backlash criticism for his comments on racial identity, prompting him to apologise.

"I'm an Asian trapped in a white body," Case claimed on Tuesday at a Washington, D.C. event dedicated to newly minted members of Congress with Asian American and Pacific Islander roots.

With China rising to become an ever greater threat to American dominance in the Pacific , the United States Air Force has started to rotate its premier long-range strike assets to the region as a counter to Beijing’s increasing belligerence.

Earlier this year, the Air Force deployed three Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit stealth bombers to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii in order to demonstrate America’s ability to hold any target on Earth at risk—including deep inside Chinese airspace.

Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been in the news a couple of times in the last week. She went after a clutch of Democrat Senators (Dianne Feinstein, Kamala Harris, and fellow Hawaiian Mazie Hirono) over their creation of an actual religious test for federal court nominees: that is, if they are observant Catholics they are disqualified. This caused some of them to call foul:

Hawaiian Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's just announced 2020 presidential bid has unleashed fury from both the right and the left, but more so from within her own party, and especially from corners long focused on regime change in Syria and who generally lobby for a more muscular "boots on the ground" foreign policy from Ukraine to Syria to Afghanistan. Some pundits have already gone so far as to say "keep an eye on her finances," suggesting illegal foreign campaign funding through Damascus or Moscow.

In 2012, the City and County of Honolulu broke ground on a 20.1 mile elevated rail transit system extending from Kapolei to Ala Moana.

We found that, as the Honolulu Rail Transit Project progressed and costs swelled from $5.122 billion in 2012 to $9.188 billion in 2018, HART began reporting information to the public that often contradicted its own internal projections or differed from what it was telling the Federal Transit Administration.

We found that HART’s inaccurate reporting of its estimated costs to complete the Project and the estimated date by which it expected to begin full operations undermined the Board’s oversight, obscured the extent of the Project’s financial problems, and eroded public confidence.

Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The Samoan and Hindu congresswoman is an Iraq War veteran and an outspoken critic of US ‘regime change’ policy in Syria.

“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” Gabbard told CNN’s Van Jones, the network revealed on Friday evening. The interview will air on Saturday evening.

“There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision. There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I'm concerned about and that I want to help solve,” she said, mentioning healthcare access, criminal justice reform and climate change as her key platform issues.

Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic US representative from Hawaii, said she will run for president in 2020, CNN reported on Friday.

“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” she said in an interview with CNN that is scheduled to air on Saturday.

Gabbard is a 37-year-old Iraq war veteran and the first Hindu and first Samoan-American elected to the US Congress. She said “the issue of war and peace” would be the main focus of her campaign.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard took aim at Democratic colleagues, including U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, accusing them of religious bigotry in their questioning of Brian Buescher, a nominee to the U.S. District Court of Nebraska, in an opinion piece published by The Hill yesterday.

Such a schism in Hawaii’s Democratic congressional delegation is highly unusual. Hirono’s office wasn’t told of the piece before it ran. In a statement issued today, Hirono called Gabbard’s opinion misguided and suggested it was influenced by arguments advanced by “right-wing ideologues.”

There’s at least one Hawaii lawmaker who supports the idea of a Trump-Kim meeting in the islands.

Last March, state Rep. Gene Ward suggested just that as a way to start a dialogue with North Korea.

“Many in Hawaii, including myself, consider our island home to have the potential to be the ‘Geneva of the Pacific,’ a place where disputes can be settled," wrote Ward, in a letter to the White House.

Moving away has always been a fact of life in our islands, but lately it’s been getting worse. For the second year in a row, the state’s population declined. Between July 2017 and July 2018, we lost an average of 10 people per day. Yes, there were more births than deaths. Yes, there were 4,075 people who migrated here from other countries. But we also lost 12,430 residents who moved to the mainland.

There’s no mystery as to why so many people move away. The Christophers, Michaels and thousands of others are very willing to tell their stories … and many of them have, via the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii’s Facebook page.

It comes down to opportunity. Hawaii is notorious for its high taxes and excessive regulations. Land-use laws have throttled development, and housing here is ridiculously expensive. Hawaii’s cost of living is the highest in the U.S., but policymakers are unwilling to reduce the taxes, fees and other economic barriers that contribute to the problem.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going to great lengths to protect his privacy on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where he purchased a 700-acre plot of land in 2014 for more than $100 million. Starting last month, Zuckerberg began filing lawsuits against Hawaiian land owners who own small slices of his estate that were passed down from generation to generation, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. As many as eight suits have been filed against hundreds of people, some of whom are dead. Notably, this isn’t the first of the social network exec’s attempts to buy his privacy; Zuckerberg’s plan to teardown and rebuild four of his Palo Alto, California homes surrounding his primary residence was denied last September.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was spotted at a luxury hotel in Hawaii just before the partial government shutdown entered its seventh day Friday, with little sign of progress to end it.

The likely speaker didn't appear to miss out on any negotiations, as talks between the White House and Democratic congressional leaders appear to have ceased, even as hundreds of thousands of federal employees remain on furlough.

Pelosi's office says the White House hasn't contacted them since December 11, when Trump said at a tense meeting he would claim the 'mantle' of a shutdown.

The White House came out with a double-barreled attack on Pelosi Friday – not for being out of town, but for being unwilling to compromise and even claiming she was more interested in her own fortunes than protecting 'American lives.'

It turns out the nearly 100-year-old federal law doesn’t just apply to shipping vessels, but other qualifying vessels such as surfboards and kayaks, which negatively affects workers' compensation insurance for small businesses in Hawaii.

The Jones Act or “Merchant Marine Act of 1920” is a federal protectionist law that governs maritime activities and provides seamen with a personal injury negligence remedy. The federal law increases costs to ship owners and consumers by requiring shipping vessels transporting goods between U.S. ports to be built in and flagged by the U.S. and also to be 75 percent owned and crewed by Americans. The federal law not only increases the cost of living for Hawaii residents, but now it also affects small recreational water-sport businesses.

A simple change in the federal law to exclude recreational water-sport vessels from the Jones Act would reduce premium costs for businesses, which would only have to purchase and comply with state coverage rules.

For the first time since statehood in 1959, Hawaii’s population declined for two consecutive years with fewer births, more deaths and a greater number of residents moving to the mainland.

The trend is alarming because without enough people economic growth could be affected, said Eugene Tian, state economist with Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

“That is something significant because with fewer people it helps a little bit in the housing shortage, but there will definitely be less spending consumption and that will reduce economic growth,” said Tian, adding that 70 percent of gross domestic product is due to consumer spending. “Because the U.S. economy in the last two years has been growing faster than in Hawaii, people are looking for more opportunities and a lower cost of living.”

Routh Bolomet's fight to save her land has not only exposed rampant corruption in the "real estate" industry in collusion with the "State of Hawaii" courts, but it's raised issues of international law. The memorandum issued by UN Independent Expert, Dr. Alfred deZayas confirmed what we have been saying for years: that the United States' presumption of sovereignty over the Hawaiian Islands is unlawful, and that Hawaii is, as Dr. deZayas put it, under a "strange form of occupation."

The Hawaii Democrat, who has made visits to the first two voting states of the presidential primary, is looking to tap the same progressive firm that helped Bernie in 2016.

One constant in our city is that money always seems to excuse absurdity.

We saw it when Mayor Kirk Caldwell ripped the Trump administration for denying the dire warnings of its National Climate Assessment, only to practice his own climate denial when it came to Honolulu rail and the development around it.

It would be unthinkable, he said, to take advantage of new climate knowledge and stop rail at Middle Street or reroute it along Beretania Street to the University of Hawaii instead of continuing to aim it at a future swamp in Kakaako and Ala Moana.

“The investment, the infrastructure, the real property values are just too tremendous to do that,” he said. Even if all the money ends up underwater, apparently.

On Friday, September 21, officers from the Honolulu Police Department and the state sheriff’s office responded to a call regarding a purported threat of physical violence against Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of Hawaii’s State Commission on the Status of Women.

After investigating the incident, police concluded that there had been no physical threat….

Officials with the city, state and federal governments who spoke on condition that they not be identi­fied told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that they are aware of the federal inquiry, which involves the Honolulu branch of the U.S. Attorney’s office. An investigator with the state Attorney General’s office is also involved, according to multiple sources….

Sources who describe the interest from federal authorities as an investigation were unsure what aspect of the rail project is under scrutiny….

Some of the cost increases within the project budget have been breathtaking. HART documents show the budget for professional services such as engineering, project management and construction management for rail ballooned from $1.183 billion in 2012 to more than $2.08 billion today.

Another budget category called “sitework and special conditions,” which includes utility relocation work, increased from $1.1 billion in 2012 to more than $2.54 billion today….

Bruno Mars will mark the end of his massive "24K Magic World Tour" by providing meals to 24,000 Hawaii residents in need for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Hawaiian-born singer announced Sunday he has donated money for the food to the Salvation Army's Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Division, which hosts an annual Thanksgiving meal program to help those in need.

Mars is set to perform the final show of his 200-date tour at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu on Sunday. It is his third consecutive night at the 50,000-seat venue.

A widely cited study issued last month by WalletHub erroneously stated that Hawaii public school teachers make a starting salary of only $24,409 when adjusted for cost of living, supposedly lowest in the nation.

In reality, Hawaii teachers make starting salaries that are $35,140 when adjusted for the cost of living, which is above the national average.

In response to a request for information from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, WalletHub said it assumed a cost-of-living index for Hawaii of 188.3. It attributed that number to a report by the Council for Community and Economic Research,[1] which catalogues cost-of-living indices of urban areas nationally.

Back then, in February 2015, the estimated cost for the Honolulu rail was $6 billion, and Atkinson said that was much too low. Atkinson also said she would be surprised if the rail were finished “in under 30 years for under $20 billion.”

Initially, I thought she was exaggerating. But now when I look at the largely ineffective battle by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) to control its costs, it occurs to me that she might have been right. A recent analysis by the Federal Transit Administration found that the project is costing more than HART anticipated. This, of course, is no surprise: In 2012 the city’s funding agreement with the FTA put the cost at $5.26 billion and completion by 2020, while the latest estimate is $9 billion and completion by 2025.

The only promise that is new about the promised peace plan is the way it will be forced on the Palestinians: no one has promised that the plan itself will be new. With Saudi Arabia and Egypt—the outside—brought onside with the promise of continued military aid despite their crimes against humanity and violations of international law and the Palestinians weakened by being silenced, economically crushed and stripped of any friends to help them, the United States and Israel are now free to attempt to impose a peace plan on the Palestinians.

Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet — proof that he wasn’t a lawyer … or a politician. Either of them would tell you that a “surcharge” smells a lot better to voters than a “tax.”

And that’s one of the problems with the ballot measure to raise taxes for public education.

The actual wording of the proposal that goes before Hawaii voters Nov. 6 is, “Shall the legislature be authorized to establish, as provided by law, a surcharge on investment real property to be used to support public education?”

You’ll notice that not only does it not define the term “investment real property” or what precisely will be funded in public education, but it also doesn’t use the word “tax.”

That may seem like a little thing, but consider if the question was worded more accurately: “Shall the legislature be given a new constitutional power to raise taxes on real property for state use?”

Hirono's assertion that there was corroborating evidence that supported Ford's story is false, as prosecutor Rachel Mitchell specifically noted in her 5-page memo on Ford's testimony. All the witnesses Ford claims exist have "either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them."

Hirono later suggested that the presumption of innocence should not apply to Kavanaugh because "this is not a court of law" and said that the FBI's investigation was a "sham."

"I want to ask you about the atmosphere. The president and Republicans, what they are saying is that Democratic protesters are -- quote -- 'an angry mob,'" Bash said as Hirono laughed. And what I want to ask you about is, you know, it is one thing to protest at the Supreme Court, to do it at the Capitol. That's been done for generations and, frankly, since the founding of this country."

Kilauea has once again started to show activity, after a month of rapid calm and relative stillness.

The USGS has recently put out their daily report monitoring the volcano, and have noted smoke emerging from one of the previously active fissures.

Fissure 8, which was explosive during Kilauea’s last eruption, has been spotted fuming over the last few days.

The report has not mentioned the composition of the fumes, but lava activity from within the fissures is likely what caused it.

The volcano didn’t start slowing down its eruptions until August. P?hoa in the Puna District was especially affected, leaving residents in a constant state of uncertainty.

And of course, the government failed to provide sufficient relief.

It’s no secret that the government – more specifically – FEMA, often fails to act adequately or quickly enough when disaster strikes. FEMA has been cited in on-the-ground reports to turn community help away when people bring food, citing ridiculous regulations. Yet some of the food they provided after Hurricane Matthew was allegedly mal-nourishing and didn’t meet basic calorie requirements. To make matters worse, a year after the hurricane, the crumbling infrastructure still needed repair and families still needed help – yet FEMA froze the Matthew fund, to send those monies to other, more pressing hurricane relief efforts.

On behalf of the people of the State of Hawaii , we decry, disown and condemn the public remarks of our elected U.S. Senator , Mazie Hirono , regarding Federal Judge Bret Kavanaugh and his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court . Her public remarks are a disgrace to the people of Hawaii and do not represent our sentiments towards Judge Kavanaugh or President Trump . We collectively call upon Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee leader Senator Chuck Grassley , to immediately remove Senator Hirono from her position on the Senate Judiciary Committee and further , to censure her for her intemperate remarks and clear disdain for United States Constitution and Congressional processes . We collectively declare that Senator Hirono's remarks and behaviors bring great shame to the State of Hawaii whom she was elected to represent

Travelers anxious to visit the newly reopened Hawaii Volcanoes National Park can take advantage of two new tours being offered by KapohoKine Adventures, the company announced Sept. 24.

“Expect to see a dramatically different Kilauea Caldera that now showcases a new, massive 1,000-plus-foot-deep crater that just recently held a lava lake,” the company said in a news release. “The anticipation of what will be discovered will vary daily as the park continues to reopen in phases based on infrastructure conditions.”

A national park in Hawaii has reopened after being closed for more than four months because of Kilauea volcano’s latest eruption, which caused widespread damage to park infrastructure and dramatically changed its landscape.

Months after eruptions at the Big Island's Kilauea volcano forced the record-long closure of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the popular tourist destination will reopen Saturday without one key element — lava.

Back in April, a massive lava lake continued to boil and bubble at the park until eruptions beginning in May emptied the lake entirely of its molten rock. Now, all that remains is a large, gaping hole.

"Beginning in May, 2018, the lava lake that existed inside Halema‘uma‘u crater disappeared and lava flows from Pu?u ???? crater have ceased," the park warned on its website. "There is no molten lava or lava glow to see anywhere in or out of the park."

For the last decade, a cauldron stewed inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

A giant lake of churning lava, over 500 feet across and hundreds of feet deep, drew visitors from around the planet to the lake's eerie red glow, visible at night as the sun set beyond Hawaii's Big Island. Just in April, the burgeoning lava lake overflowed its banks and spilled onto the floor of the volcano's summit.

But over four months later, the scorching lake is gone. Following an onslaught of volcanic quaking and explosions this summer, it drained, completely.

A Hawaii cat sanctuary that's home to 600 feral felines has become a full-blown tourist attraction known as the 'Fur Seasons'.

Kathy 'Kat' Carroll had the idea to open the sanctuary after she moved to the small island of Lanai in 2001 and was shocked to find hundreds of homeless and starving cats roaming the island.

Nearly two decades later, those cats are living a much easier life enjoying regular meals, massages and more than enough attention thanks to Lanai Cat Sanctuary.

HAWAII was once under the fiery influence of the Kilauea volcano, which spouted metric tonnes of lava across the Big Island. Recently, Kilauea has calmed down, allowing evacuation notices to be rescinded, but what is it doing now?

Portions of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will reopen next week.

On Friday, park officials said reopened portions including the Kilauea Visitor Center, the Kilauea Iki Overlook, and a stretch of the Crater Rim Trail between Volcano House and the Kilauea Military Camp.

The park closed in May amid explosive eruptions at Kilauea's summit.

But in recent weeks, those eruptions have quieted — though officials haven't said whether they believe they've stopped entirely.

The advisory also warns military activities linked to the bloody conflict in Syria have been ramped across Iran's airspace.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington are running high following Donald Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal re-introduce economic sanctions last month.

Flight Service Bureau, which provides safety information on airspace to airlines, said "without seeming alarmist", the deteriorating relationship between the US and Iran must be taken into account when planning flights in Iran's airspace.

A series of small collapses produced episodes of visible brown plume throughout the day on Saturday, as scientists continue to monitor Kilauea Volcano.

Jaggar Museum, one of the busiest locations at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, will not reopen after sustaining severe structural damage from tens of thousands of earthquakes that occurred May through August.

There’s the A Course, which is a basic package of three handguns and 36 shots for $79. The C Course is the most popular, Pang said. It’s like a combo meal for gun enthusiasts: three handguns, three rifles and 55 rounds for $149. The super-sized option features more exotic fare, including a 9-millimeter Uzi.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is on track to reopen several areas later this month after closing in May because of the Kilauea volcano eruption, park officials said.

The National Park Service is planning to reopen several trails, roads and popular sites at the Big Island park on Sept. 22, including the Kilauea Visitor Center, the Kilauea Iki Overlook, and a stretch of the Crater Rim Trail between Volcano House and the Kilauea Military Camp, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Saturday.

"I think some of our most popular areas and most-driven roads will be open again," said Ben Hayes, the park's director of interpretation.

Project timelines and estimated costs for emergency repairs to Kuhio Highway from the April 2018 flooding will be reassessed following the recent flooding due to remnants of Tropical Cyclone Lane. The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) estimated the repairs would be completed in October at a cost of $80 million.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is still closed, but the superintendent has set a goal of reopening some closed areas by September 22.

A National Park Service geomorphology team began evaluating the stability of areas damaged or potentially weakened by earthquakes. Results will determine where it will be safe for visitors to go.

HAWAII has recently drawn the short straw with natural disasters, as hurricane season enters off the back of a major volcanic eruption. As Kilauea hits its lowest activity in recent years, has it stopped erupting?

Hurricane Lane secured its place in the history books before it quickly dissipated into a tropical storm and moved off from Hawaii. The storm caused damage, mostly on the Big Island, where rivers raged near Hilo and nearly 40 people had to be rescued from homes.

There were no deaths from the storm, which had the potential to cause much more destruction.

Even as its core was being pulled apart by strong wind shear on Friday, Hurricane Lane (demoted to a tropical storm on Friday evening) continued to trigger an array of havoc across the Hawaiian Islands. Torrential rains were spreading northward across Oahu to Maui after Lane’s outer rainbands dropped more than 30” on parts of the Big Island, where flooding was described by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center as “catastrophic”. Meanwhile, two fast-moving wildfires broke out on Friday in the drier downslope flow along Maui’s west coast, causing at least one injury.

The Category 2 hurricane, packing winds of 110 mph, is positioned about 180 miles southwest of Honolulu and is crawling to the north around 5 mph. The peak winds are on a down trend which is expected to continue. Rain – more than wind – has proven to be the storm’s greatest menace.

Five tourists have been rescued from a flooded holiday home in Hawaii as Hurricane Lane turns north after dumping 31 inches of rain on the Big Island in a matter of hours.

Emergency crews helped the California vacationers from a villa they were renting in the picturesque town of Hilo after a nearby gulch spilled over on Thursday.

Suzanne Demerais described the tiny waterfall and small stream that was flowing near the home when she and four friends from the Los Angeles first arrived - a stark contrast from the torrent it has become in just 24 hours.

Hawaii County firefighters, who were in touch with the home's owner, decided to evacuate the group before the water rose further, floating the visitors out on their backs.

Forecasters have warned the storm will dump rain at a rate of one to three inches per hour over portions of Hawaii's main islands late on Friday as it crawls northward.

Much of the state remains under a hurricane warning as Lane continues its slow march toward the islands as a massive Category 4 storm.

Kauai County, meanwhile, is under a hurricane watch.

The hurricane warning, in effect for the Big Island, Maui County and Oahu, means hurricane conditions are expected within 36 hours, while a hurricane watch is issued when hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours.

The heavy rain that started on Tuesday continued through Wednesday morning, triggering flooding and landslides in some spots and forcing the closure of Highway 19 — in Hilo and Honomu — as well as Bayfront Highway in Hilo and several other roadways.

The National Weather Service said several rain gauges showed over a foot of rain on the Big Island in the last 24 hours, with one rain gauge showing 17 inches.

Hawaii residents emptied store shelves Wednesday, claimed the last sheets of plywood to board up windows and drained gas pumps as Hurricane Lane churned toward the state.

The category 4 storm could slam into the islands Thursday with winds exceeding 100 mph, making it the most powerful storm to hit Hawaii since Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

The National Weather Service said a hurricane warning was issued for Maui County, the Big Island and Oahu and hurricane watch was in effect for Kauai.

U.S. Navy ships and submarines based in Hawaii have been instructed to leave port to avoid damage

As Hawaii waits to see what devastation Hurricane Lane may bring to its shores, Keli‘i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, is calling on the federal government to issue the state a temporary waiver from the Jones Act before any damage is done.

“The hurricane has not made contact with all the islands as of yet,” Akina said on Wednesday, “but lawmakers should take the necessary steps to prepare for the worst. By waiving us from the Jones Act before Hurricane Lane hits, ships will be able to bring supplies and aid as they make their already-scheduled transits.”

Waiving the Jones Act for areas affected by hurricane disasters has had explicit positive results. Waivers contributed to reducing the number of gas stations experiencing fuel outages in Florida after Hurricane Irma by more than 60 percent, according to GasBuddy. They’ve also helped stabilize fuel prices across the nation, preventing bigger price spikes.

Helen van Berkel checks into the Volcano House, Hawaii.

Getting there: It's about an hour's flight from Honolulu, followed by a 45-minute drive.

The check-in experience: A mimosa served at check-in quickly wipes away the dust of the road.

Price: About $455 a night. And worth it when it reopens. Volcano House sits in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where Kilauea has been erupting since May, closing the park and the house. The website says bookings are being taken but it will not reopen until September 15 at the earliest.

The accommodation: It's an old-style lodge, complete with occasionally creaky floors and stairs, sash windows and an open fire in the cosy lobby. Its old-fashioned decor adds to the elegance The facilities: It's old-school the whole way here: tiled showers and a sliding door to the walk-in wardrobe area.

The latest 5-day forecast map for Lane shows the storm weakening but moving northwest by midweek, placing Oahu and Kauai in the track’s so-called “cone of uncertainty.”

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has been closed for nearly 100 days due to unsafe conditions from seismic and explosive activity from the summit of Kilauea but there's no telling when the park will reopen.

It's going to be a long and most likely expensive one according to national park officials.

They took local media to look at park roads, buildings and Halemaumau crater to show us why.

"The last 100 days have been grueling," Jessica Ferracane, National Park Service said.

All 130 staff members at the park still have jobs, some are working on clean up and recovery at the Hawaii Island Park, others transferred to national parks on neighbor islands. But the closure of this park continues to take its toll on staff and the surrounding community.

Scientists at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on Friday downgraded the threat from Kilauea Volcano from the highest level of a “warning” to a “watch” following three weeks of decreasing activity.

After Kilauea created panic and destruction when it began erupting May 3, destroying more than 700 homes in its path, there’s barely been a burp or rumble this month.

With a couple of exceptions, lava has stopped pouring into the ocean since Aug. 6. Since Aug. 2 the summit of Kilauea Volcano has not seen what’s called a “collapse event” in which an exodus of lava caused the walls of the summit to collapse, triggering seismic activity equal to 5.8-magnitude earthquakes.

And Kilauea’s notorious fissure 8 in the heart of the Leilani Estates subdivision, which unleashed a river of 2,000-degree lava that ran to the sea, “continues to calm down, cool down and quiet down,” said Tina Neal, scientist-in-charge of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

Slowing activity at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has prompted scientists on Friday to downgrade their alert level for the mountain.

The U.S. Geological Survey issued a "watch" for Kilauea's ground hazards, down from a "warning."

But scientists say this doesn't mean the eruption, which has destroyed more than 700 homes since May, is over. Kilauea has paused for days, weeks and even months during previous eruptions.

Lava mostly stopped flowing on Aug. 6. There's a crusted-over lava pond inside a fissure cone and just a few spots where lava is entering the ocean.

The volcano's summit hasn't collapsed since Aug. 2. Sulfur dioxide emissions are the lowest they've been since 2007.

By many metrics, what is happening on Hawaii island can be considered a natural disaster. But native Hawaiians I spoke to view this period not as one of pure destruction, but rather the logical continuation of their islands’ geological evolution — a time of deep cultural and personal reflection and realignment.

“The word we use is ‘inevitable,’” cultural ambassador, community organizer and former Miss Hawaii Desiree Moana Cruz said in reference to how best to describe Kilauea’s latest lava flow. “Not tragedy, not disaster. I certainly feel compassion for the people who have lost their homes — they’re my friends, family and also strangers. But again, we all know this is where we live. We — and I mean native Hawaiians — say, ‘Have you seen the pele?’ Pele is the Hawaiian word for lava in all its manifestations, passed down through ancient chants and dances.”

Some may have interest in this. The lava flow and river from fissure 8 essentially stopped a couple weeks ago. The vog over here (Kona side) has been much less, and the air is much more clear.

It’s been a strange three months for the Hawaii island village of Volcano, where thousands of earthquakes have rattled the residents of this small mountainside town since Kilauea began erupting in May. Now, after a week of waning quakes, residents are holding their breath, waiting to see if this, finally, could signal the end of the eruption that has crippled the easternmost part of the island.

Volcano, a tiny tourist town nestled in a high elevation forest, is a scant five miles from the caldera of Kilauea volcano. Its location makes it especially vulnerable to earthquakes, which during July sometimes numbered as high as 800 a day, according to Kyle Anderson, a seismologist with US Geological Survey.

Democratic State Rep. Matt LoPresti of Hawaii was caught stealing his opponent’s campaign handout off a person’s door in a video that has recently surfaced which has led to the lawmaker admitting that he repeatedly has stolen his opponent’s campaign handouts.

The video comes as LoPresti “is running for the seat vacated by Will Espero, who’s running for lieutenant governor,” Hawaii News Now reported.

After months of spewing hot lava into residential neighborhoods and into the sea, it appears that Hawaii's Kilauea volcano may be taking a pause after a slowdown in activity since the weekend.

The U.S. Geological Survey said in a series of updates since Sunday that there was been a "significant reduction" in lava from fissure 8, which fed a channelized lava flow that reached the Pacific Ocean.

"It is common for eruptions to wax and wane or pause completely," the USGS said Tuesday. "A return to high levels of lava discharge or new outbreaks in the area of active fissures could occur at any time."

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that earthquakes have reduced at Kilauea summit and the lava flow from Fissure 8 has no movement in the channel.

Motorists on Highway 11 between the 28 and 32 mile marker are advised to stay on the pavement, be alert for changing roadway conditions, and drive with caution. Motorcyclists and bicyclists should proceed with extreme caution.

Hurricane Hector is still a powerful Category 4 storm as it continues moving westward across the Central Pacific.

The latest forecast at 5 a.m. Monday said the hurricane intensified slightly, packing maximum sustained winds of 145 mph with higher gusts. The storm was moving west at 15 mph.

According to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, the center of the storm was located about 930 miles east of Hilo or 1,135 miles east-southeast of Honolulu.

Forecasters said Hector will move in the west-northwest direction through Tuesday, followed by a westward motion Tuesday evening through Friday.

Forecasters also noted that hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 100 miles.

Monday marks day three of the ongoing battle to extinguish wildfires burning out of control on Oahu's Leeward Coast.

At least two fires have been burning since Saturday morning, charring a combined total of 5,000 acres.

On Monday, the Department of Education announced Leihoku Elementary in Waianae and Makaha Elementary would be closed closed for the day, on what was supposed to be the first day of the new school year.

As of late Sunday night, Honolulu fire officials said there was little containment for the two fires — one in Makaha Valley and another in Waianae Valley.

HFD provided an update just before midnight, saying the fire in Makaha, which has spread to 3,000 acres, was only 30 percent contained.

JESSE TUNISON: Well Volcano village is really, for the most part, about two miles line of sight from the summit of Kilauea volcano. So certainly it is quite the hotspot but fortunately for us we are not near any of the lava that is going into the ocean about 4000 feet down below us, at the ocean, 30 miles away.

DON WISEMAN: So the lava is going down the other side of the mountain?

JT: Yeah indeed.

DW: And the attraction for a village so high on the mountain is presumably for tourism reasons?

JT: Yeah everything from cafes to fine dining, we have art galleries - some of the best in the nation, doing everything from glasswork to fine painting, woodworks, ceramics, everything and anything that you can think of. In the first month our income went down by 90%.

Officials on Hawaii's Big Island, where the Kilauea volcano has been spewing huge amounts of lava for months, are bracing for the possibility that frequent earthquakes will cut off a major highway.

Emergency officials dealing with the eruption are turning their focus to the aptly named village of Volcano, where dozens of small earthquakes shake the ground every hour as Kilauea undergoes dramatic changes. The summit caldera is also collapsing, causing even larger temblors almost daily.

Officials are worried about cracks and holes in Highway 11, a 45-minute lifeline connecting a rural district with Hilo, the island's biggest city. The alternative, driving around the state's largest island, can take up to three hours.

"It's the only road going through that section of the island," said state Sen. Russell Ruderman. "We have to find a way to keep it open."

DRAMATIC footage has shown the moment a cow rescued from the path of lava flowing from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is helicoptered to safety – while in another daring mission, a pilot managed to transport a cockpit full of cats out of the danger zone.

Just as we enter peak hurricane season — considered globally as occurring in the month of September — a tropical storm currently far of the eastern coast of Mexico in the Pacific is headed toward Hawaii, and is expected to become a hurricane by the weekend.

The AP reports, citing new data from the US National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Hector is gaining strength as it moves deeper into the Pacific:

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Hector would gradually strengthen and reach hurricane strength by late Friday or early Saturday, but it also said the storm would continue to move deeper into the Pacific and would not pose any threat to land.

Hector had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) Wednesday night. It was centered about 1,010 miles (1,630 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and it was moving toward the west at 12 mph (19 kph).

The Volcano Fire Station which was located within the National Park at the former Kilauea Military Camp (Station 19) has been temporarily relocated to a safer location, officials say.

A formal repatriation ceremony took place in South Korea before the boxes were put on a flight to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Vice President Pence will take part in an Honorable Carry Ceremony for the remains when they arrive on Wednesday.

From there, the remains will be taken to a laboratory in Hawaii for possible identification, with the goal of matching them with any of the 7,697 U.S. personnel who remain are unaccounted for after the Korean War.

The work will be carried out by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which for years has been collecting DNA samples from families whose relatives never returned home from the Korean War.

The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii Island began erupting almost three months ago. To see the extraordinary lava flows firsthand, boat and helicopter tours are the way to go.