Climate Change: Is Hawaiʻi Prepared? Intense rain events inflicting extensive damage and record flooding; active hurricane seasons that keep residents on edge; coastal erosion imperiling highways and homes; extreme droughts that hurt agriculture and fuel dangerous wildfires – these are natural events that experts say are linked to climate change.

Should Hawaiʻi Increase Regulations on Vaping? More State lawmakers are viewing electronic cigarettes as a threat to public health, especially among youth and young adults.

Hawaiʻi continues to report one of the lowest monthly unemployment rates in the country – a little more than 2%. Many open positions in the market means that job seekers can be picky, especially in the retail and hospitality sectors.

Water – a necessity in our daily lives that we often take for granted. Imagine a day with no access to water to drink, to water the garden or to flush a toilet.

Every day, people post pictures, videos, songs and other property to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Many of those posts are shared – and some are used or stolen by a competitor, a rival or someone you don’t even know.

Every day thousands of people enjoy the beauty of city parks on the island of Oʻahu. To increase safety at these parks, the City and County has teamed with the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority to install surveillance cameras at 13 parks across the island.

The State uses money from its 16-cents-per-gallon gas tax to maintain and fix roads. But the development of more fuel-efficient cars, and electric and hybrid cars, means less money.

In the midst of Hawaiʻi’s beauty, there is a dark side, hidden from plain view. It is a world in which children (legally defined as individuals under age 18) are trafficked for sex. Hawaiʻi was the last state in country to pass an anti-sex trafficking law.

Sex trafficking, a multi-million dollar international industry that uses the internet and the street trade to exploit women, is real in Hawaiʻi. A study indicates that a disproportionate number of victims are Native Hawaiian women.

Whatʻs the next step for the Stairs? The future of The Haʻikū Stairs has been fiercely debated for years.