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A Democratic senator responded to the Sunday mass shooting at a Texas church by suggesting the U.S. adopt a law that is already on the books. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz (D.) shared an excerpt of a New York Times story detailing how, while in the military, the shooter was convicted of assaulting his wife and infant step-son. "A simple idea: Anyone convicted of domestic abuse should see their rights under the 2nd Amendment severely curtailed," Schatz tweeted on Monday. In fact, federal law already prohibits domestic abusers from purchasing or owning guns.

The trip is Donald Trump's first to the Pacific state, which residents fear could be in the firing line of a North Korean missile. Image: Hawaiians fear they may be in the firing line if the war of words escalates Donald Trump will arrive in Hawaii later as the islands step up emergency preparations to deal with a possible nuclear strike from North Korea. The US President is making his first visit to the country's Pacific outpost en route to a critical 12-day swing through Asia. And Hawaiians are growing increasingly nervous that Mr Trump's war of words with Kim...

There's a popular postcard of Hawaii that shows the blue waters of Waikiki Beach and the famed Diamond Head with the greeting "Aloha" -- a symbol of the open-arms, easygoing way of life touted by the state. But this week, a different image has spread around the islands through fliers and social media. It shows the same picture with a green scoreboard: "Hawaii 3, Trump 0" -- a nod to the state's judicial defeats of the president's travel ban -- under the words, "Wish you weren't here." When President Trump arrives in Honolulu on Friday, he'll be in enemy territory....

MILILANI, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - At a secure, classified location on Oahu, 230 Hawaii Air National Guard member keep a constant watch over the state. They work at what's unofficially called "NORAD of the Pacific" -- after the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado. They play a critical role in tracking threats to the state -- are considered the first line of defense against another Pearl Harbor. And on Friday, ahead of President Trump's visit to Hawaii, they'll be watching Air Force One closely and anything that may get near it. The group's official name: The 169th Air Defense Squadron...

Something is wishy-washy here. Two Hawaii women who claimed they were lost at sea for five months and “would have been dead within 24 hours” had the U.S. Navy not picked them up last week never activated their emergency beacon, the Coast Guard said Tuesday, adding to a growing list of inconsistencies and questions that cast doubt on their harrowing tale of survival in the Pacific Ocean. "If the thing was operational and it was turned on, a signal should have been received very, very quickly that this vessel was in distress," Phillip R. Johnson, a retired Coast Guard officer,...

Kakaako Waterfront Park on the island of Oahu has been closed indefinitely in order to repair the damage done by a large homeless population that has been camping there in makeshift huts and tents. This is an unprecedented move by the state of Hawaii. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has details about the massive damage and public safety hazards in the park. "[P]ark officials say they can no longer ensure the safety of park users following a recent series of dog bites, fires and vandalism attributed to an estimated 180 homeless people living along the Kakaako shoreline....Right now, with dog attacks and...

A federal judge in Hawaii blocked President Donald Trump's latest bid to impose restrictions on citizens from eight countries entering the United States, which had been set to take effect this week. The open-ended ban, announced last month, targeted people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as certain government officials from Venezuela. It was the latest version of a policy that had previously targeted six Muslim-majority countries but had been restricted by the Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson on Tuesday granted Hawaii's request to temporarily block the federal government from enforcing the...

Link only: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-17/trump-travel-ban-blocked-by-u-s-judge-in-hawaii

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Pro-life pregnancy centers went to court Friday to try to overturn a new law that they argue requires them to publicly post abortion referrals. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, attorneys for Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Pregnancy Care and Counseling Center argued that the law violates their right to free speech and religion because it forces them to post signs that interfere with their faith. "It compels even non-medical pregnancy centers to recite what amounts to a government-scripted advertisement for abortion," said Kevin Connelly, Calvary's attorney. "It forces a church, Calvary...

In March 2013, when Edward Snowden sought a job with Booz Allen Hamilton at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, he signed the requisite classified-information agreements and would have been made well aware of the law regarding communications intelligence. Section 798 of the United States Code makes it a federal crime if a person "knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States" any classified information concerning communication intelligence. [snip] Before taking the job in Hawaii, Mr....

A 240-foot salvage ship is on its way to aid in the recovery of a crashed Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and its missing crew west of Kaena Point, a spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division said. The Military Sealift Command-chartered MV HOS Dominator, a submarine support ship, is expected to arrive in the coming days, Lt. Col. Curt Kellogg said Thursday. The ship’s involvement represents a transition from seafloor sonar mapping and camera observation by the Navy using an unmanned underwater vehicle and remotely operated vehicle to actual salvage and recovery. All five crew members from the Hawaii-based Black...

HONOLULU — Driverless trucks. Factory robots. Delivery drones. Virtual personal assistants. As technological innovations increasingly edge into the workplace, many people fear that robots and machines are destined to take jobs that human beings have held for decades--a trend that is already happening in stores and factories around the country. For many affected workers, retraining might be out of reach —unavailable, unaffordable or inadequate. What then? Enter the idea of a universal basic income, the notion that everyone should be able to receive a stream of income to live on, regardless of their employment or economic status. It isn't an...

The total number of crimes reported across Hawaii in 2016 was the lowest since statewide data collection began more than 40 years ago, according to an annual report released Thursday. Some 45,805 crimes were reported statewide last year, a rate of 3,206 offenses per 100,000 residents. That's more than 6 percent below the 2015 report, and 27 percent lower than the crime rate reported in 2007. “The record low crime statistics in 2016 highlight the outstanding work of law enforcement throughout the State and in all four counties," said Doug Chin, Hawaii's attorney general, in a statement that accompanied the...

The United States conducted a successful missile defense test that intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii early Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the US Missile Defense Agency. The Standard Missile-6, built by major US defense contracter Raytheon, intercepted the missile target at sea in its final seconds of flight after being fired from the USS John Paul Jones. The test comes amid heightened tensions between North Korea and the US. Earlier this week, an intermediate-range missile, identified by the North Koreans as a Hwasong-12, was fired over Japan. A US official, however, told CNN...

HONOLULU ― State Rep. Beth Fukumoto (D-Hawaii) received a letter in the mail after watching the violence unfold at the white supremacy rally in Virginia and seeing President Donald Trump’s mixed reaction to it. “Dear B####,” began the note, mailed last week to the lawmaker’s Honolulu office. “Your poor grand parents got put into a camp in the USA? Boo hoo hoo ― you Japs murdered thousands of servicemen at Pearl Harbor ― did you forget that detail?”

The search continues today for the crew of the 25th Combat Aviation Bridge who were reported missing off of Kaena Point at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night during a night-training flight.

HONOLULU (AP) — U.S. Coast Guard and military crews are searching the ocean off Hawaii for five people aboard an Army helicopter that went down during a training exercise, authorities said Wednesday. Officials at Wheeler Army Airfield near Honolulu reported losing communications around 10 p.m. Tuesday with the crew of a UH-60 Black Hawk, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Responding teams spotted a debris field about 2 miles (3 kilometers) west of Kaena Point, Oahu.

North Korea's military is "examining the operational plan" to strike areas around the US territory of Guam with medium-to-long-range strategic ballistic missiles, state-run news agency KCNA said early Wednesday local time. Specifically, the statement mentioned a potential strike on Andersen Air Force Base designed "to send a serious warning signal to the US." The base is one of two on the Pacific island, which are the closest bases on US soil to North Korea, and represent the westernmost tip of the country's military might. The North Korea comments were published after US President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang that if it...

But Sunday, as he promoted his book on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Flake took his assault on Trumpism back years further — all the way to the pre-dawn of Trump’s political rise, to “when the birtherism thing was going on,” as Flake put it to host Chuck Todd. “Some people did stand up, but not enough,” the senator said. “That was particularly ugly.” “Did you do enough?” Todd asked. Flake smiled. “On that, I think I did.” Flake was a congressman in 2011, when Trump flirted with a presidential run against President Barack Obama. The current president did so “spouting...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - State Rep. Gene Ward is no stranger to unconventional ideas. He recently suggested bunkers under Diamond Head for storage be converted into bomb shelters. And he once proposed "urine-free zones" in key gathering places to cut down on public urination and defecation. Now Ward is suggesting a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. And he wants it to take place in Hawaii. In a news release, Ward said he sent a letter to the president requesting the meeting.