From Red Hill to Hawaiʻi’s false missile alert, it becomes clearer each day the U.S. military doesn’t keep us safe. As heroic façade becomes farce, small wins, like the BLNR’s rejection of the Army’s EIS for Pōhakuloa, become possible.

Rep. Kyle Yamashita is out as State House Finance Committee chair. Like Napoleon before him, will he make a comeback from his political exile and storm his way back into power?

A pair of state senators derailed a gun control bill at the 11th hour, arguing hunters of invasive pig and deer need semi-automatic weapons to do their jobs. Sounds like a skill issue to me.

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.

When we have money to fund tax credits for powerful film studios, but no money to invest in tax credits for our keiki, the lines between fictional exploitation and the dismal reality of life start to feel blurred. Are we not, in fact, living The White Lotus?

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.

State lawmakers want to redevelop Aloha Stadium—predictably, for as little money as possible. The developer wants double the amount the state wants to spend in order to add all the bells and whistles to the project needed to make it profitable.

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.

John Mizuno, the state’s former homelessness czar, is in the doghouse after criticizing the high costs associated with some of his boss’s signature Kauhale tiny home villages.

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.

The State Capitol could be closed for years for critical renovations. Lawmakers and the governor will likely end up in a convention center, but I think I’ve got a better idea.

Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm continues to put the weight of his office behind stopping cannabis legalization bills at the Hawaiʻi State Legislature instead of focusing on things that are actually dangerous.

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 reaction to news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is on track to be confirmed as the Trump Administration’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, despite his utter lack of qualifications and dangerous, conspiratorial thinking around health and healthcare.

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

A reaction to the inauguration of Donald Trump as 47th president of the United States, ushering in the official age of American Demagoguecracy, a government ruled through fear.

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).