Author: Reporter

Retired mailman and Vietnam veteran Thomas Leonard lived in the historic former capital of Hawaii for 44 years until this week, when a rapidly moving wildfire burned down his apartment, melted his Jeep, and forced him to spend four terrifying hours hiding from the flames behind a seawall. “I’ve got nothing left,” Leonard said on August 10 as he sat on an inflatable mattress outside a shelter for those who fled the blaze that decimated the town of Lahaina. “I’m a disabled vet, so now I’m a homeless vet,” he added with a small laugh. The fire that tore...

The wildfire that has brought sheer devastation to Maui is especially heartbreaking for Hawaii because it struck one of its most historic towns and the onetime capital of the former kingdom. Lahaina holds deep cultural significance for Hawaiians. The town was once the royal residence of King Kamehameha, who unified Hawaii under a single kingdom by defeating the other islands’ chiefs. His successors made it the capital from 1820 to 1845, according to the National Park Service. Kings and queens are buried in the graveyard of the 200-year-old stone Wainee Church. Later named Waiola, the church that once sat...

Washington has never been a particularly friendly place for Donald Trump. And after pleading not guilty to federal charges that he had tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Trump was quick to show that the feeling was mutual. “It was also very sad driving through Washington DC, and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti,” said the disgraced ex-president on the tarmac of Reagan National Airport in Virginia, on his way to be charged with another set of crimes against the United States. “This is not the place...

It is still three years until the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, but festivities are already starting. The anniversary push will formally launch July 4 with an event during a Major League Baseball game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs at American Family Field in Milwaukee. The organization spearheading the celebration, known as America250, will start recruiting people to share their stories of what the country means to them. The country is headed toward the anniversary date as it remains riven politically, its citizens divided over how to view the January 6, 2021, assault on the...

Millions of Americans attended parades, fireworks, and other events on Independence Day, celebrating the courage of the nation’s 18th century patriots who fought for their freedom from what they considered an unjust government. Those events also honor the military and those who sacrificed in other conflicts that helped preserve the nation’s freedom over its 247-year history. But that was only one version of a “patriot.” The word and its variants have morphed beyond the original meaning. It has become infused in political rhetoric and school curriculums, with varying definitions, while being appropriated by white nationalist groups. Trying to define...