West Hawaii Today

BOULDER, Colo. — Over 1,000 protesters gathered outside a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration building in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, decrying Trump administration layoffs of what two current employees said were upward of 10% of scientists there.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis had two acute respiratory crises Monday, the Vatican said, stoking further concerns about the health of the 88-year old pontiff, who has been hospitalized in Rome in serious condition for more than two weeks.

JERUSALEM — One day after Israel began halting the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip, Palestinians there are already feeling the effects of the sweeping measure, with prices of essential goods on the rise.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Monday along party lines to confirm Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, putting the former pro-wrestling executive in charge of an agency that the Trump administration wants to eliminate.

Donald Trump and Project 2025

Republicans are taking a huge political gamble as they try to find money for tax cuts by threatening to slash Medicaid. As Congress has learned repeatedly, most recently in 2018, when the party in power messes with Americans’ health care, things don’t go well for them in midterm elections.

PITTSBURGH — Eggs have been a baker’s best friend for, well, maybe forever.

Mardi Gras was first celebrated in New Orleans by the flamboyant Grand Marquis de Vaudreuil, who created the first “bal masque” or costumed Mardi Gras in the 1740s. That tradition is going on today along Bourbon, St. Charles, Canal and other streets.

For a brief window, Asteroid 2024 YR4 looked like a planetary hazard in the making. At up to 90 meters (295 feet) in diameter, it was described as a potential “city killer.” On its estimated trajectory, it could’ve collided with Earth as soon as 2032. According to the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, used to characterize such threats, it ranked a Level 3 out of 10 — a highly unusual designation, sugge

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, a White House official said, deepening the fissure that has opened between the two one-time allies.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to boast about his assault on the federal bureaucracy and his efforts to upend global relationships during an address to a joint session of Congress today, even as his administration faces lawsuits over his domestic agenda and Europe rebukes him over his treatment of Ukraine.

Hospitality industry members from the Hawai‘i Hotel Alliance and the American Hotel & Lodging Association are seeking to draw attention to current and looming challenges facing their industry and are pushing back against proposed transient accommodations tax increases that are still moving forward in several bills at the halfway mark of this year’s state Legislature.

President Donald Trump said Monday that sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go into effect today, stating in remarks at the White House there was no chance for a last-minute deal to avert the levies.

LOS ANGELES — Boys and girls dressed in new uniforms put down their baseball gloves long enough to tackle plates of pancakes and sausages. Parents with coffee cups in hand greeted one another with hugs in the brisk morning air. There were familiar hallmarks of the opening day of baseball season: keynote speakers, the national anthem, red, white and blue balloons and a ceremonial first pitch.

PHOENIX — Jameson Taillon was among the 43,326 fans in Minute Park for Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, his arm in a brace following his second Tommy John surgery as he watched former Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Daniel Hudson, a fellow two-time Tommy John survivor, nail down the final three outs for the Washington Nationals.

Anthony Santander went 2-for-3 with a double, two runs and three RBIs as the visiting Toronto Blue Jays rolled to a 13-3 win over the Detroit Tigers Monday during spring training play in Lakeland, Fla.

LOS ANGELES — More than three decades after first making the jump from the NFL sideline to a TV studio, Jimmy Johnson is retiring from his longtime role as an analyst on “Fox NFL Sunday.”

MANDAN, N.D. — The opening week of the landmark trial of Greenpeace in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by Energy Transfer over the Dakota Access Pipeline protests did not bode well for the defense.

LOS ANGELES — “Anora,” the story of a sex worker who gets a chance at a new life when she marries a wealthy client on a whim, won five Academy Awards on Sunday, including the coveted best picture Oscar.

Every day, as Dr. Wendell Parkey enters his clinic in Seminole, a small city on the rural western edge of Texas, he announces his arrival to the staff with an anthem pumping loudly through speakers.

Although the Kama‘ehuakanaloa Seamount has been a little restless recently, new information about the undersea volcano is still sparse.

President Donald Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill.” Now, he also wants to log.

The Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on Kauai, with its historic lighthouse, attracts more than 500,000 visitors a year.

The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands wants to start up a modular housing factory on Oahu to produce homes more quickly and at less cost for beneficiaries.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday European leaders had agreed to draw up a Ukraine peace plan to present to the United States, a vital step for Washington to be able to offer security guarantees that Kyiv says are essential to deter Russia.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, according to a current official and two former officials briefed on the secret instructions. The move is apparently part of a broader effort to draw President Vladimir Putin of Russia into talks on Ukraine and a new relationship with the United States.

According to travel experts, early spring is the ideal time to begin planning your summer vacation. Some of the more anxious among us (OK, me) might even push that to pre-spring, as in late February or early March, if only to provide a beacon of hope during the year’s gloomiest months.

An earthquake is changing the course of international relations, from humanitarian and development assistance to military alliances and conflict mitigation to the defense of democracy, human rights, and the framework of international legal norms.

The Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) spring sports season continued to kick off with baseball and volleyball matches across the isle over the weekend. Other springtime sports are slated to kick off this week, including track and field, judo and girls flag football.

Jalen Williams poured in a career-high 41 points to go with seven assists and six rebounds as the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder dominated the second half in beating the San Antonio Spurs 146-132 on Sunday.

Austin Riley and Matt Olson hit back-to-back home runs off Marcus Stroman and the host Atlanta Braves blasted the New York Yankees 11-1 in spring training action on Sunday in North Port, Fla.

For more than 1,000 years, the primary purpose of Britain’s Royal Mint has been to make coins. It has forged into metal the likenesses of England’s kings and queens from Alfred the Great, the ninth-century king of the West Saxons, to King Charles III. But as the use of cash steeply declines, the mint is undergoing a vast transformation to avoid becoming obsolete.

From her home in Phoenix, Erica Campbell is waiting for a cargo vessel from China to deliver a shipment of thousands of Jesus rattle dolls, tin Easter eggs, religious-themed baby swaddle blankets and 15,000 packages of Jesus Heals bandages.