I want to believe... in a corruption-free legislature! Calls are growing to reveal the identify of the lawmaker who took $35k in cash, but senate and house leadership could do a lot more to get to the truth. 🛸📁

Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm's office can't investigate an employee for witness tampering because he never signed the pinky-swear form promising not to commit crimes.

A surrealist take on the vivid hallucinations of Large Language Model A.I., which are known to imagine entirely made-up historical events, data points and now even case law.

The State is funding a shady PR campaign using cultural gatekeepers to convince the public that geothermal energy ventures are supported by Native Hawaiians, and even the goddess Pele herself.

What was meant to be a $51 million rescue mission for service providers under threat from federal cuts could instead become another ethics debacle. But try asking the governor and he’ll just call you a hater and escort you from the beach.

The absurdity of Honolulu’s police commission fiasco deepens. Like a naked stadium streaker, ousted chief Logan’s salary demand makes everyone uncomfortable, and Mayor Rick’s favored, rejected replacement drops the ball in his own endzone.

Spilling the tea on the inappropriate relationship between a powerful State Senator and his māmaki tea business, and the conflict of interest inherent within.

Governor Green plans to veto a bill that would reform Hawaiʻi’s civil asset forfeiture law, which lets police seize property from anyone suspected of crime without due process or a conviction and profit off of its sale. Rife for abuse, this policy amounts to nothing less than state-sponsored piracy.

The 2025 Hawaiʻi legislative session ended with an ignominious whimper when it comes to good government reform, or “sunshine,” bills—the last of which died in conference committee the week before this cartoon ran.

Three Honolulu City Council Members attempt to justify their flip-flopping on accepting salary raises in “The Office”-style camera confessionals.

Between President Trump’s tariff chaos, haphazard cuts to government functionality via Elon Musk’s rogue agency DOGE, and Congress advancing $5.1 trillion in tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the rest of us, it’s looking like the U.S. economy and the empire that supports it are headed for a painful, stupid end.

Are you an unethical lawmaker willing to sacrifice the common good for your own personal enrichment and that of your friends and benefactors? Come on down and spin the wheel of extortion on “Quid Pro Go!”

A proposed package of pay raises for public servants would be a lot more palatable to voters if lawmakers hadn’t nixed a bill to make the legislature year round and ban side jobs.

There’s something… strange about new University of Hawaiʻi president Wendy Hensel and the highly paid “advisor” she’s brought along to her last three posts. The lack of transparency surrounding the position is disturbing.

The Sunshine Boys return for this follow up at the halfway point in the Hawaiʻi legislature session, called “crossover.” Many, but not all, government reform bills have died already.

Three former public officials will plead guilty to corruption charges, bringing an end to the 11-year Kealoha Scandal that rocked Honolulu—so says former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, under whose administration the scandal first unfolded.

A state commission policing what journalists write about the state? What could go wrong?

To celebrate the relaunched Honolulu Civil Beat “Sunshine Sunday” accountability section, this cartoon riffs on the Hardy Boys to talk about efforts by the two legislative judiciary chairs, Sen. Rhoads and Rep. Tarnas, to reform the opaque legislature (square building).

The candidates with the most cash have an overwhelming likelihood to end up the winner in our current election system. That held true in 2024 as the Carpenter’s Union PAC “For a Better Tomorrow” spent more than $500,000 to ensure Tom Cook and Tasha Kama were re-elected to the Maui County Council over Kelly King and Carol Lee Kamekona.

Rep. David Alcos claims he didn't know what he was doing when he failed to disclose millions in debt as required by state law. Perhaps, but either way lawmakers in debt have a lot to potentially offer to anyone willing to bail them out, with the right strings attached.