In February the UH Board of Regents held its monthly meeting on the Hilo campus, and coincidentally, there were several things on the agenda regarding University of Hawaii at Hilo beyond the regional presentation I did with my colleague, Interim Chancellor Kazama of Hawaii Community College.

Here are a few things we know about lead in drinking water:

In a political stampede Wednesday, the House overwhelmingly approved a bill that would force the social media app TikTok to be divested from China-based owner ByteDance, or face banning. The Senate should have more sense and slow this down.

Hours of testimony by Robert Hur— the former special counsel appointed to investigate President Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents following his vice presidency — before the House Judiciary Committee predictably revealed little new.

Scarlett Johansson’s “Saturday Night Live” open was hilarious, and there have been so many more great jokes about the oddly amateur theatrics of U.S. Sen. Katie Britt in her response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. But we can’t let the humor mask a patently cruel lie that was one of the cornerstones of her speech.

With a $7.3 trillion budget plan for fiscal year 2025, President Joe Biden laid out priorities that include a heavy emphasis on anti-poverty and quality of life while taking aim at Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back taxes on the rich.

Deepfakes of celebrities and misinformation about public figures might not be new in 2024, but they are more common and many people seem to grow ever more resigned that they are inevitable.

Joe Biden still has a pulse. And he proved in his State of the Union address he still can stand and rage for an hour without forgetting where he is or keeling over.

Belatedly, Alabama lawmakers have passed a bill protecting access to in vitro fertilization. The measure came two weeks after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered unborn children under the law. Three fertility clinics had suspended treatments, citing liability concerns. Would-be parents were caught in limbo.

When salespeople knocked on my door a year ago attempting to sell me solar panels, I declined, explaining that I couldn’t afford them and that I was already doing my part to combat the climate catastrophe by being vegan. But when they asked if I’d be open to hearing more information, I agreed, mostly out of curiosity. Six months later, I had solar panels installed on my home.

Two years ago, America saw its youngest voters turn out for the midterm elections at rates not seen since 2018, when there was a historic high.

Simple question: Are you happy that inflation has stabilized? The economic indicators don’t and can’t capture everyone’s circumstances, but real wages have gone up and costs have held steady. We’re certainly much better situated than the recession that many economists had predicted would be engulfing the nation by now. The soft landing that had seemed like a significant reach has come to pass without even a blip of economic strife.

I’ve been losing sleep, feeling helpless in the face of present-day atrocities that are much like the ones committed against my ancestors.

“That’s the wrong question.”

In ruling that Colorado — and other states — may not bar Donald Trump from the ballot, the Supreme Court has provided necessary clarity about the reach of a once-obscure section of the 14th Amendment aimed at preventing insurrectionists from holding public office.

What is Mitch McConnell’s legacy as leader of Senate Republicans? A lot of procedurally astute but brazenly hypocritical moves to strengthen the power of his party in the chamber.