The Marvel universe just got a slice smaller on Netflix with the cancellation of “Marvel’s Luke Cage” after two seasons.

The news Friday surprised fans and came soon after Netflix axed another live-action Marvel series, “Iron Fist.” Both are part of The Defenders world and ordered up by Netflix among five back in 2013.

“Unfortunately, Marvel’s Luke Cage will not return for a third season,” said a statement released by Netflix. “Everyone at Marvel Television and Netflix is grateful to the dedicated showrunner, writers, cast and crew who brought Harlem’s Hero to life for the past two seasons, and to all the fans who have supported the series.”

Netflix didn’t provide a reason for the cancellation. An email request for additional comment was not immediately returned today.

The Cage series made a splash when it was released because it featured a rare black superhero in a stand-alone vehicle. Mike Colter starred as the bullet-proof hero for hire. The second season premiered in June. Cage creator and showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker responded on Twitter but also offered no insight into why the series was dumped.

“A lot memories. A lot of individual thank you calls to make,” he said. “Just want to say thank you to Marvel, Netflix, the best Writer’s room, cast, crew, the Midnight Hour, all those who graced the stage at Harlem’s Paradise and the most incredible fan base in the world. Forward always…”

Disney, Marvel’s parent company, is working on its own streaming service.

A 37-year-old woman with a severe infection was transported by air today from Hilo to Honolulu with the help of the Coast Guard and a group of medical volunteers.

The Coast Guard said they received a call from the state Department of Health at about 9:20 p.m. Friday, requesting a transport for the woman to a higher level of medical care.

A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircrew along with a medical volunteer team called Kalawao Rescue took the woman aboard in Hilo this morning and transferred her to emergency medical personnel at Barbers Point at about 6:30 a.m. today.

She was then transferred to the Queen’s Medical Center for treatment.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Amanda Wyrick said the state requested the Coast Guard’s assistance because officials wanted to provide additional health care and staffing during transport due to the severity of the woman’s infection. The additional weight from the extra care and staffing required a fixed-wing aircraft.

The volunteer crew, Kalawao Rescue, is comprised of medical professionals and is part of the nonprofit Hawaii Healthcare Emergency Management. They respond to medical disasters within the state and also have an agreement to assist the Coast Guard with medical emergencies.

If you have ever served or had a family member in the military, you understand that along with the commitment you and your family uphold and respect — there is always the knowledge that one day, death may come. It is the one thing the military does not downplay or sugarcoat. Every service member knows they may die doing their job, regardless of how much they love their country or family. Death is an equalizer. Like justice, it is blind — no one outranks it and everyone is susceptible.

This point was definitely brought home in this week’s episode of “Hawaii Five-0.” The episode, “ʻAʻohe kio pohaku nalo i ke alo pali,” which is Hawaiian for “On the slope of the cliff, not one jutting rock is hidden from sight,” was written by Talia Gonzalez and Bisanne Masoud and directed by Ron Underwood. It focused on Junior (Beulah Koale) who is tasked to bring home a Hawaiian airman who was killed in Afghanistan. Jerry (Jorge Garcia) accompanies him on the journey and reveals a painful truth from his past.

The title is a ʻolelo noʻeau, or Hawaiian proverb and poetical saying, which means “All is distinctly seen or known; there isn’t any use in being secretive or finding a place to hide.”

It’s a perfect metaphor for the case of the week, as well as for the two subplots which continued to develop the existing character arcs of the series regulars. While one storyline focused on Junior and Jerry as they escort the casket of Staff Sgt. Christopher Kaliko (Kainalu Moya) back to his family, the other dealt with the resolution of Sgt. Duke Lukela’s (Dennis Chun) troubles with the police department. Last season, Duke broke into the HPD evidence locker, after his granddaughter Akela (Cidni Romias) was kidnapped, in order to pay her ransom.

JUNIOR AND JERRY PAY THEIR RESPECTS

The episode starts with Junior and Jerry in Dover, Del., in order for Junior to act as a military escort for the dignified transfer of Kaliko’s remains to his parents. Jerry is with him as his colleague from the Five-0 task force. Neither man knew Kaliko, so Junior asks Lt. Col. Bailey (Jennifer Marshall), the mortuary affairs officer, why he asked for Junior to take him home. Bailey says she does not know but perhaps it was because they were from the same hometown.

As the airmen arrive to load the casket into the military cargo plane, they render honors in a simple ceremony. One of the many things “Hawaii Five-0” does well is honoring the military. Even in this quiet depiction of how the armed forces transfer remains, it is entirely respectful. It’s something that fans appreciate about the show.

While Jerry and Junior fly home with Kaliko’s American flag-draped casket, the two friends talk about why they are there. Junior shares with Jerry about choosing his cousin, who is a Marine, to escort his body home. Junior later admits he first asked his father to bring him home, but was turned down. His father was completely against him enlisting and even told Junior that if he was ever killed while serving, he wouldn’t even attend his funeral.

Jerry tries to comfort him by telling him that sometimes people say hurtful things when they are upset and perhaps his dad was just scared of losing him. Like Tani (Meaghan Rath) has done in the past, Jerry encourages Junior to make things right with his dad. It’s another element of Junior’s character that we still need to see explored.

After Junior’s reveal, Jerry shares with him that he wanted to join Junior to honor his friend Mika who died in combat. Mika was Jerry’s high school friend who he convinced to enlist with him after Sept. 11, 2001. Jerry’s anxiety kept him from serving. And when Mika was killed, Jerry blamed himself, and could not even attend Mika’s funeral. Escorting Kaliko home was his way to make up for not having what it took to enlist and in a way to finally be able to honor his friend’s memory.

Once they arrive at the cemetery to meet Kaliko’s family, Junior finally remembers how he knows the airman. They met when Junior gave a recruiting speech at Kukui High School when Kaliko was still a student. Kaliko’s mother gives Junior a letter her son wrote to him, which reveals that Junior was Kaliko’s inspiration for joining the military. And even though Kaliko knows if Junior is reading the letter that he is dead, he still feels that serving his country was the greatest privilege of his life.

It’s a beautiful and touching moment, and like other times when “Hawaii Five-0” has depicted military funerals, it reminds us not only about the fragility of life but the sacrifice that is made by our military members. It is also a stark reminder about the effect of war on families and friends when young people are sent to fight — and sometimes do not return.

MCGARRETT AND DANNO PLAY IN THE SAND

While Jerry and Junior are busy escorting Kaliko’s remains back to Hawaii, McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), Danny (Scott Caan), Lou (Chi McBride) and Tani are busy working the case of the week. The case was basically a murder for hire gone wrong. But it was woven into a far more complicated affair depicting the underworld of black market sand mining from beaches to make concrete.

The sand-mining storyline was not that exciting, but it was a clever way to expose the murder of Kaimi Alana and Kaimi Alana — two victims with the same name. A truck with no plates filled with sand takes HPD on the shortest police chase in history by dumping its contents on the road to get away. Within the sand is a body with no feet, and its face and hands destroyed by water and ocean life. The team surmises that the body had been anchored in the ocean and then dredged up by illegal sand miners. While Lou thinks McGarrett is pulling his leg about black market sand, McGarrett reveals that sand mining is big business as the world has a shortage of sand available to make concrete.

Just to be clear — it is completely illegal to take sand from Hawaii. According to an article in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in 2017, the “Hawaii Revised Statutes section 205A-44 prohibits ‘the mining or taking of sand, dead coral, rubble, rocks, soil, or other beach or marine deposits from the shoreline area’ with exceptions including: residual sand on the body, beach towels, slippers, etc.; deposits on collected driftwood, shells, or glass floats; and sand taken during lawfully recognized traditional cultural practices and legally permitted mining.”

Taking sand hastens erosion and the depletion of our beaches, which then costs the state a pretty penny to restock — with sand from the mainland. Tani’s comment that she sees them mining for sand while she is surfing, and McGarrett’s confirmation that while the dredgers are legal, the surplus sand they sell on the black market, is not — does make the case a bit more realistic.

While McGarrett and Danno search for the identity of the murdered man in the sand, they are sent on an interesting journey to a sand quarry where McGarrett chases the suspect all over the quarry plant into the sifter. Danno worries that if McGarrett follows the suspect he will be left with “three dead bodies and no partner.” McGarrett, of course, doesn’t listen and follows. Luckily, Danno knows what buttons to push to keep McGarrett from becoming sand meat and they get their man.

This leads them to find Kaimi Alana — a biological male, who actually is mahu, which is a third gender in Native Hawaiian culture. A mahu is a male who also identifies and lives as a woman. Lou misunderstands and describes Kaimi as transgender, but really it’s more of a spiritual classification.

Mahu members of our society are, for the most part, not ostracized or harassed, unlike in other communities. Kaimi’s friend Malie (Sasha Colby) tells Lou and Tani that she and Kaimi never experienced any hate in Hawaii, which is not far from the truth. Being mahu isn’t a lifestyle, it is just who they are — and in Hawaiian and Polynesian culture they are an accepted part of our lives.

Colby, originally from Waimanalo, is an international performer and entertainer and was Miss Continental 2012. Her emotional portrayal of Malie was honest and heartfelt. I also appreciated how the subject of Hawaiian mahu culture was handled with respect and not sensationalized.

It also helped to explain why the hitman hired by Noa Alana (Rey Valentin) to kill his wife, mistook Malie’s friend for Alana’s wife, Kaimi. It was a sad, but unexpected twist. The case of the week wrapped up rather quickly, once they realized who their victim really was, and they were able to piece together the case of mistaken identity.

DUKE MAKES A DECISION

The best parts of the case of the week had to be the scenes between McGarrett and Danno. Thankfully, they only argued about the restaurant for a few moments, but their back and forth discussion about Duke’s upcoming reinstatement hearing was both endearing and funny. Add in the scene with Kamekona (Taylor Wily) and Flippa (Shawn Mokuahi Garnett), the “Scarface of Sand,” helped up the humor in a rather somber episode.

At the start of the episode, McGarrett visits Duke at his home, where he is pushing Akela on an outdoor swing. Nalani (Laura Mellow) tells him McGarrett is there to see him, and after a darling admission by Akela that Grandpa Duke is feeding her malasadas which explains her growth spurt, the two men sit down to talk about the Duke’s hearing.

Duke tells McGarrett he thinks he’s going to skip it — that he knows he is a good cop, and everyone he knows and loves thinks the same, so he’s not going to fight. He’s going to retire and spend time with Akela and his family. McGarrett wants Duke to fight, to clear his name, but Duke says he has what matters: McGarrett’s respect, as well as the cops’ he served with, and the love of his family. It’s a sweet scene between two men who have been through a lot together.

Danno is certainly the one who supports Duke’s decision, even telling McGarrett, “You’re making this about you, and it’s not. It’s about him. He can make his own decisions. Not everybody wants to be fighting crime out of a wheelchair, you know? There’s something to be said for knowing when your time is up and not fighting it anymore.”

While Danno says McGarrett is making Duke’s decision about himself, it seems as if Danno is doing the same. It was one of the reasons Danno wanted to retire and open a restaurant. He understands Duke’s desire to stay close to his family and take care of his granddaughter. Danno felt the same when he realized he was Charlie’s father.

Still, Duke does decide to take McGarrett’s advice and fight to clear his name, saying, “That legacy is gonna be (Akela’s) road map someday when I’m not around.” We know that Duke will succeed with McGarrett on his side, but it was still great to see the resolution of the plight of his character.

It’s always great to see Chun play Duke and learn more about the character’s backstory. It also reminds us of the legacy of “Hawaii Five-0” as it’s hard not to think of Kam Fong when you see his son on screen. Both are different kinds of actors, but they both take their roles seriously and play them as realistic police officers and family men. During the year of the 50th anniversary of the show, it is a respectful nod to the original.

Overall, the episode was full of all the elements we love about “Hawaii Five-0”— an interesting case, deeper insight into the main characters, respect for the military as well as our Hawaiian culture and practices, and scenes of friendship and ohana. It’s what makes the show continue to endure and grow.

Wendie Burbridge writes the “Five-0 Redux” and “Magnum Reloaded” blogs for staradvertiser.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. >> Alabama continued its season-long penchant for fast starts and quickly finished off Tennessee.

Tua Tagovailoa threw touchdown passes to four receivers and the top-ranked Crimson Tide reached the end zone on their first four possessions, trouncing the Volunteers 58-21 for their 12th straight victory in this annual series.

“We have our starting plays that Coach Lock (offensive coordinator Mike Locksley) tells us in the locker room, so we kind of close our eyes and all meditate on what we got to do in order for that play to kind of be successful,” Tagovailoa, a Saint Louis alum, said. “But it’s one of those things where you just kind of take it one play at a time.”

Alabama outscored Tennessee 28-0 and outgained the Volunteers 217-6 in the opening period. Alabama has outscored opponents 165-31, and Tennessee has been outscored 69-16 in first quarters this season.

The Crimson Tide raced to a fast start again even though they didn’t start running back Damien Harris and didn’t play defensive end Raekwon Davis the entire first half for reasons coach Nick Saban did not detail. Television cameras showed Davis throwing punches at an opposing player during Alabama’s victory over Missouri last week.

Alabama (8-0, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) posted the highest point total by a visiting team in the history of Neyland Stadium, which opened in 1921. Alabama is scoring 54.1 points per game and entered the weekend leading all Football Bowl Subdivision teams in that category.

“There’s some guys we have on our team that this game was way too big for,” said Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt, who spent the last two seasons as Alabama’s defensive coordinator. “I think everybody was able to see that.”

Tagovailoa went 19 of 29 for 306 yards before giving way to Jalen Hurts midway through the third quarter with Alabama ahead 51-14. Tagovailoa had aggravated a sprained right knee last week against Missouri and took a big hit on his final play of Saturday, a 41-yard touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs III.

Earlier, Tagovailoa connected on touchdown passes to Jerry Jeudy, Jaylen Waddle and Irv Smith Jr. The Heisman Trophy contender has 25 TD throws without an interception this season.

“He could have gone back to the game if he needed to go back to the game, but we were about ready to put Jalen in anyway,” Saban said. “I’m just really, really pleased.”

Keller Chryst went 9 of 15 for 164 yards with two touchdown passes for Tennessee (3-4, 1-3) after replacing starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano, who got hit by linebacker Mack Wilson midway through the second quarter and never took another snap.

“Jarrett got hit I don’t know how many times, probably every time he threw the football,” Pruitt said. “Keller came in and made some good throws, so we just stayed with Keller.”

Alabama grabbed a 21-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game.

Tagovailoa capitalized on outstanding protection to cap the first series of the game by throwing an 11-yard pass to Jeudy in the right corner of the end zone.

Xavier McKinney then sacked Guarantano and knocked the ball loose, with Christian Miller recovering the fumble at the Tennessee 3. That set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Josh Jacobs, who also had a 2-yard score in the second quarter.

After Tennessee went three-and-out on its next possession, Tagovailoa threw a perfect pass to Waddle, who caught the ball just beyond midfield and raced into the end zone for a 77-yard score. Damien Harris’ 3-yard touchdown run capped a 93-yard drive that made it 28-0 with 3:31 left in the first quarter.

TAKEAWAYS

Alabama: After spending the first half of the season as the nation’s most dominant team, Alabama gets two weeks to prepare for its Nov. 3 showdown at No. 5 LSU. The Tide’s lopsided victory over Pruitt and Tennessee continued a trend. Tide coach Nick Saban owns a 15-0 record during his Alabama tenure when he’s facing one of his former assistants.

Tennessee: The Vols must learn to play better at the start of games. Tennessee’s lack of discipline early was a concern, as the Vols committed a few personal fouls early and had cornerback Alontae Taylor ejected in the first quarter. The Vols also had a brutal sequence early in the third quarter, as an illegal fair catch on the second-half kickoff backed them up to their own 3 before Chryst tripped over a lineman’s legs and fell into the end zone for a safety.

WELCOME BACK, BUTCH

This game marked the return of former Tennessee coach Butch Jones to Neyland Stadium. Jones, who went 34-27 for Tennessee from 2013-17 before getting fired last November, works on Alabama’s support staff as an offensive analyst.

Jacobs talked this week about making sure Jones got a cigar, a postgame tradition for the winning team in this rivalry. Sure enough, photos that circulated on social media Saturday night showed Jones smoking a stogie. Alabama’s players also doused Jones with ice water after the game.

“It was good to see Butch Jones get dumped on out there,” Saban said. “I know he was happy and he has done a great job for us and we really appreciate the things he’d done to help our program.”

UP NEXT

Alabama has next week off before visiting No. 5 LSU on Nov. 3.

Tennessee hosts Charlotte on Saturday.

CIUDAD HIDALGO, Mexico >> About 2,000 Central American migrants who circumvented Mexican police at a border bridge and swam, forded and floated across the river from Guatemala decided today to re-form their mass caravan and continue their trek northward toward the United States.

Gathered at a park in the border city of Ciudad Hidalgo, the migrants voted by a show of hands and then marched to the bridge to urge those still there to cross the river and join them.

“Let’s all walk together!” and “Yes we can!” they cried, defying warnings to turn back this week from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sought to make the caravan and border security in general into a campaign issue a little over two weeks before midterm elections.

The group’s decision capped a day in which Mexican authorities again refused mass entry to migrants on the bridge, instead accepting small groups for asylum processing and giving out 45-day visitor permits to some of them.

Mexico had sought to maintain order after a chaotic Friday in which thousands rushed across the bridge only to be halted by a phalanx of officers in riot gear. Authorities began handing out numbers for people to be processed in a strategy seen before at U.S. border posts when dealing with large numbers of migrants.

But despite a continued heavy police deployment on the bridge, a steady stream of migrants made it to Mexican soil with relative ease by crossing the Suchiate River that demarcates the notoriously porous border.

They swam, waded with the aid of ropes or paid locals who charge the equivalent of $1.25 to ferry people and goods across the muddy waters, and were not detained on reaching the Mexican bank.

“We don’t yet know if we will make it to the (U.S.) border, but we are going to keep going as far as we can,” said Rodrigo Abeja, one of the migrants’ leaders, adding that they would strike out Sunday morning for the city of Tapachula.

Where easily 3,000 people were on the bridge the previous day, the crowd had thinned out considerably by today. In addition to those who crossed the river, immigration agents processed migrants in small groups and then bused them to an open-air, metal-roof fairground in Tapachula, where the Red Cross set up small blue tents on the concrete floor.

But the pace was slow, frustrating those who remained on the bridge in hot and cramped conditions.

“Please let us in, we want to work!” they entreated agents at the main gate. Behind it, workers erected tall steel riot barriers to channel people in an orderly fashion.

Each time a small side gate opened to allow people to pass, there was a crush of bodies as migrants desperately pushed forward.

Scarleth Cruz hoisted a crying, sweat-soaked baby girl above the crowd, crying out: “This girl is suffocating.”

Cruz, 20, said she was going to ask for political asylum because of threats and repression she faced back in Honduras from President Juan Orlando Hernandez’s governing party.

“Why would I want to go to the United States if I’m going to be persecuted” there as well, she said.

Mexico’s Interior Department said in a statement that it had received 640 refugee requests by Hondurans at the border crossing. It released photos of migrants getting off buses at a shelter and receiving food and medical attention.

At least half a dozen migrants fainted.

Some tore open a fence on the Guatemala side of the bridge and threw two young children, perhaps age 6 or 7, and their mother into the muddy waters about 40 feet below. They were rafted to safety in on the Mexican bank.

Mexican workers handed food bottled water to the migrants on the bridge. Through the bars, a doctor gave medical attention to a woman who feared her young son was running a fever.

Sustenance also came from Guatemalan locals — for Carlos Martinez, a 24-year-old from Santa Barbara, Honduras, the plate of chicken with rice was the first bite to eat he’d had all day.

“It is a blessing that they have given us food,” Martinez said. “It gives me courage to keep waiting, as long as I can.”

Migrants cited widespread poverty and gang violence in Honduras, one of the world’s deadliest nations by homicide rate, as their reasons for joining the caravan.

“One cannot live back there,” said Fidelina Vasquez, a grandmother traveling with her daughter and 2-year-old grandson, standing next to the main border gate.

Hector Aguilar, a 49-year-old sales manager who worked as a taxi driver in Honduras’ Yoro province to feed his four children, said he had to pay the two main gangs there protection money in order to work.

“On Thursdays I paid the 18th Street gang, and on Saturdays the MS-13,” Aguilar said. “Three hundred lempiras per day” — about $12.50, a significant amount in low-wage Honduras.

The caravan elicited a series of angry tweets and warnings from Trump early in the week, but Mexico’s no-nonsense handling of the migrants at it southern border seems to have satisfied him more recently.

“So as of this moment, I thank Mexico,” Trump said Friday at an event in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I hope they continue. But as of this moment, I thank Mexico. If that doesn’t work out, we’re calling up the military — not the Guard.”

“They’re not coming into this country,” Trump added.

“The Mexican Government is fully engaged in finding a solution that encourages safe, secure, and orderly migration,” State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said today, “and both the United States and Mexico continue to work with Central American governments to address the economic, security, and governance drivers of illegal immigration.”

Presidents Hernandez of Honduras and Jimmy Morales of Guatemala held an emergency meeting at a Guatemalan air base.

The leaders said an estimated 5,400 migrants had entered Guatemala since the caravan was announced a week ago, and about 2,000 Hondurans have returned voluntarily.

Morales said a Honduran migrant died in the town of Villa Nueva, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Guatemala City, when he fell from a truck that was transporting migrants.

Thousands of migrants slept — or tried to sleep — outdoors overnight underneath tarps and what blankets were available.

Jose Yanez, a 25-year-old farmer, woke up at 5 a.m. with a backache after having nothing to cover himself from the nighttime chill. But he was determined to press onward, saying the $6 a day he made back home was not enough to live on.

“From here,” Yanez said, “there’s no going back.”

Click the links for Hawaiiprepworld.com’s live blogs

• Kaimuki 14, Kaiser 14, H

(TDs-Kaim: Kaulani Kaluna, 16 yards; Naomas Asuega-Fualaau, 40 yards. Kais: Mason Yoshino, 17 yards; Jesse Stroede, 41 yards)

• Roosevelt 3, Pearl City 0, H

• Castle vs. Moanalua @ Mililani, 7:30

GREENVILLE, N.C. >> No. 10 UCF didn’t have its Heisman Trophy hopeful, so the Knights’ opportunistic defense kept taking the ball from East Carolina and giving it to their backup quarterback.

Darriel Mack Jr. stepped in for McKenzie Milton, a Mililani High graduate, and rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown, and UCF forced five turnovers in beating East Carolina 37-10 for its 20th straight victory.

“All we need is one play,” Mack said. “Our defense is going to hold (the opponent) down, no matter what happens. Somebody just getting thrown into the fire like that, first game starting, and our defense is just playing lights out the whole game. I can’t thank those guys enough.”

Nate Evans returned a fumble 94 yards for a momentum-changing touchdown with 10:07 left, Greg McCrae added a 74-yard TD run and the Knights (7-0, 4-0 American Athletic Conference) turned all those takeaways into 24 points.

“I just think our football team continues to compete,” coach Josh Heupel said. “We just continue to keep competing, no matter what’s going on, and that’s the sign of a really mature football team.”

UCF was outgained 496 total yards to 427, but the Knights went up 20-3 by scoring on four consecutive possessions in the second quarter, then made it a full-fledged rout with those late big plays.

Receiver Quadry Jones threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Adrian Killins on a trick play, and Matthew Wright kicked three field goals for the Knights.

With Milton sitting this one out while in full uniform from the sideline — and Heupel saying the decision to rest him was made following pregame warmups for “overall health” reasons — Mack was 12 of 20 for 69 yards but was more dangerous with his legs, rushing 7 yards for an early touchdown.

“His decision was perfect early in the night,” Heupel said of Mack. “Darriel, from the get-go, was really in tune with what was going on.”

Freshman Holton Ahlers was 29 of 53 for 406 yards with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Trevon Brown, and added 69 yards rushing in his first start. But his fumble while attempting a jump pass inside the 5-yard line was returned by Evans for the game-sealing score.

“Every single time we got into a situation, we either turned the ball over, or we didn’t make a good decision,” ECU coach Scottie Montgomery said.

The Pirates (2-5, 0-4) have lost three straight and four of five. Jake Verity put ECU up 3-0 midway through the first with a 34-yard field goal.

THE TAKEAWAY

UCF: The big question in the aftermath of this one centered on Milton, after the quarterback said earlier in the week that he tweaked his ankle while scoring the go-ahead touchdown a week earlier at Memphis. The Knights missed him perhaps more than the final score would indicate — ECU was on the verge of making this a one-score game with 10 minutes left before Evans’ fumble return. Now UCF has an open week to get him closer to 100 percent before a visit to dangerous Temple — which took down No. 20 Cincinnati today.

East Carolina: The Pirates lost their sixth straight against Top 25 opponents, haven’t beaten one since 2014 and haven’t knocked off a top-10 team in a decade. But this one didn’t feel like so many of the others — and not necessarily because the Knights weren’t at full strength. This was a measurable sign of progress, because each of ECU’s previous four ranked opponents hung at least 60 points on them.

“The hardest part of it all is playing clean enough to not turn the football over,” Montgomery said. “You can see the energy on our team and it’s moving up, but it just was killed tonight a little bit by turning the football over.”

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Those big plays will make the box score of this one look a lot better for UCF and might impress the voters enough to earn a slight bump. Winning a conference road game — and covering the 21-point spread — without a Heisman hopeful will go a long way toward masking just how close this game was before Evans’ fumble return.

KEY SWING

East Carolina was on the verge of pulling within a touchdown, with Ahlers leading the Pirates from inside their own 1-yard line to the UCF 1 early in the fourth. But as he tried a Tim Tebow-style jump pass, Kyle Gibson forced him to fumble and Evans scooped it up, taking it the distance to put the Knights up 30-10.

KEY STAT

All the turnovers. The Knights, who entered with the seventh-best turnover margin in the Bowl Subdivision with an average of plus-1.33, were at plus-5 in this one with the four forced fumbles and the interception. Ahlers’ pick was the ninth thrown by the Pirates this season.

UP NEXT

UCF: Has an open weekend before trying for their 21st consecutive victory on Nov. 1 against Temple.

East Carolina: Also has no game until playing host to Memphis on Nov. 3.

6:10 p.m.

During special-team drills in practice, UH plays Kernkraft 400.

It’s been played as UH prepares to kickoff.

Pavlov’s dog.

* * * * *

Hawaii wins the coin toss and … defers.

Wait, what?

Nevada will get the first possession.

Pregame

Our Hawaii Prep World editor Billy Hull reminds us Nevada running back Toa Taua was last year’s Polynesian Bowl’s MVP.

* * * * *

Willie K. gave rousing performances of the national anthem and Hawaii Pono‘i.

* * * * *

The Warriors (6-2) can secure a winning 13-game regular season and the accompanying berth in the Dec. 22 Hawaii Bowl with a victory in this evening’s game against Nevada at Aloha Stadium.

This will be the third meeting between the teams since Nick Rolovich resigned as Nevavda’s offensive coordinator in November 2015 to return to his alma mater as head coach. Rolovich was a UH quarterback for two seasons, a GA for one year, and a quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator for four years through 2011.

Here’s a link to the matchups: UH-Nevada matchups

Community activist Sharon Moriwaki is heading to the Nov. 6 general election with momentum from her defeat of incumbent Brickwood Galuteria in the Democratic primary for the Senate District 12 seat, which spans Kakaako to Waikiki.

After besting Galuteria, it would seem unlikely Moriwaki would falter against a Republican contender for votes in McCully and Moiliili. However, she may have to keep pushing to beat challenger Lynn Barry Mariano, a combat veteran whose campaign might resonant with the more conservative voters in Kakaako, Waikiki and Ala Moana.

Mariano, 61, grew up in Kalihi-Palama, graduated from Farrington High School and attended Chaminade University of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Reserve Officer Training Corps. He is married to Jade Mariano.

A retired U.S. Army major with two bronze stars who was previously assigned to the Pentagon, Mariano serves on the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board and was appointed by former Gov. George Ariyoshi to the West Honolulu Subarea Health Planning Council.

Mariano, who returned to Hawaii nearly four years ago, works as a program manager at Camp Smith and is an adjunct professor at Chaminade. He said he is ready to serve his community with insight from a career that took him around the world.

“Hawaii has a one-party system that has been in place for over six decades with the same agenda of increased taxes and uncontrolled spending,” Mariano said. “I will bring fresh ideas and new vision.”

Mariano said he wants to keep taxes in check but supports “living wages” legislation, tax credits and incentives for emergency first-responders and physicians, and increasing rent-subsidy programs to maintain affordable housing for seniors and families.

He also wants to develop long-term solutions for homelessness, including tougher laws to improve public safety and keep public spaces accessible to all.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chairman Robert Finley, Mariano’s longtime friend and political supporter, said the candidate will have a good chance in Waikiki, which has a larger percentage of military retirees and Republicans than other districts.

“He represents new viewpoints. To me, (Moriwaki) has been part of politics since Gov. John Waihee’s administration, and you’ll get more of the same thing with her,” he said.

Campaigning in the many Waikiki and Ala Moana condominium towers is challenging, but Mariano has made himself extremely accessible, Finley said.

“He’s really made a point of getting out there and shaking hands,” Finley said. “He’s working very hard to win.”

It might not be enough. UH political science professor Colin Moore predicts a solid victory for Moriwaki, who once worked for him at the UH Public Policy Center.

Moore said Moriwaki, the founder and president of Kakaako United, is a longtime community activist who can “articulate what people are worried about in Kakaako, a rapidly changing area of the city.”

As a Democrat in Hawaii, where party identity is strong, Moriwaki “will have a lot of steam heading into the election,” Moore said.

“I think she’ll have a strong victory. There’s no reason to believe that it would be an upset.”

Moriwaki, 72, an attorney, lives in Kakaako but grew up in the Sheridan and St. Louis Heights area. A graduate of Kaimuki High School, she earned a doctorate from the University of Southern California and a law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

She served as deputy director of the Labor Department and director of Human Resources in the Waihee administration. Moriwaki also served in the Judiciary as the administrative director of courts and was an assistant vice president at UH.

She is married to former state Rep. Galen Fox, who stepped down from his post after he was convicted in 2005 of sexual misconduct for touching a woman seated beside him on an airplane.

Moriwaki said the incident happened before she met Fox. She said her husband’s past is a nonissue in her campaign, which has been about her “own merits.”

Moriwaki said she’s been reaching out to all voters, regardless of affiliation, and is not worried about relative newcomer Mariano’s potential appeal to Republicans in Ala Moana and Waikiki.

“I won every precinct. I should think what’s resonating with the community is finding someone that would listen to them. I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I believe there are good people regardless of party that want to do good for all of us,” she said.

Moriwaki said the key aspects of her campaign — focusing on increasing affordable housing, improving kupuna care and reducing homelessness — are important to all district residents across party lines.

“My mantra is that we should get back to caring for each other. Government is to serve ‘we the people,’” she said. “I intend to serve everyone.”

State Rep. Tom Brower, chairman of the Housing Committee, is touting the unprecedented $570 million allocated to rental housing under his leadership as he seeks a seventh term representing Waikiki and Ala Moana.

But his opponent, Republican Kathryn Henski-Stark, who is challenging him for a second time, says residents of House District 22 deserve a new representative.

“The reason I’m running is that things are not happening the way they should in Ala Moana or Waikiki,” said Henski-Stark, a Waikiki Neighborhood Board member, citing homelessness and crime in the area.

Tackling the well-known incumbent Democrat is an uphill battle for Henski­-Stark. In the 2016 election, Brower got almost twice as many votes.

He made national news in 2013 when he spent a few weeks using a sledgehammer to smash untended shopping carts used by homeless people. He returned some carts to stores but destroyed others to clean up the neighborhood and prompt action on homelessness, he said. “I’m more concerned about us making progress on this issue than my image,” said Brower, 53.

This legislative session, his housing proposals got more traction.

“One of our big accomplishments this year was a bill I authored for the largest housing appropriation the Legislature has ever provided,” Brower said. “The idea is to create 25,000 rental units by 2030. The intention is to help working people who can’t quite afford to buy a home.”

And the Senate’s homelessness bill includes an idea he has long championed: “safe zones” or “ohana zones” for homeless people who won’t go to shelters. The Senate bill includes $30 million for pilot “ohana zones,” giving people an alternative to camping on sidewalks and in parks.

Henski-Stark, 68, questioned Brower’s approach.

“We are very different in how we handle the situation,” she said. “I don’t believe that the ohana zones that Tom is advocating is the way to go for the homeless population. I had a homeless shelter that was self-funded. We can do better than we’re doing.”

When she lived in Alaska, Henski-Stark operated a hostel that became a shelter for people stuck without a place to sleep or a meal.

“You couldn’t stay with me unless you went out to work” or were willing to pitch in somehow, she said. “It gives self-respect. I was able to get them to move on to homes.”

Henski-Stark is a former executive vice chairwoman of the Oahu Republican Party and serves on the board of directors of the Rotary Club of Waikiki. One of her goals is to eliminate the excise tax on food, which could save a typical family of four $1,000 a year, she said. And she hopes to beef up the police presence in her district.

“I remember Hawaii in 1975 when I could easily walk from Diamond Head to the Ala Wai Boat Harbor and never feel threatened and never feel afraid because we didn’t have the trends in crime, we didn’t have the homeless population so evident,” she said. “Did you know there are only eight officers per shift in Waikiki and only eight for Ala Moana? They handle 4,000 to 5,000 calls a month.”

She noted that police are a county issue, not a state issue, but added, “It is a job for a legislator to try and protect their district. That’s not being done.”

If re-elected, Brower said his plans include introducing a “right to know” bill informing residents if units in their buildings are being used as short-term vacation rentals.

When asked how many of them planned to go to college, all 29 seventh­-graders in Melanie Ishihara’s pre-algebra class at Waipahu Intermediate School raised their hands.

The students are part of a cohort that will participate in GEAR UP Hawaii, or the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs run by the University of Hawaii, which helps put disadvantaged intermediate and high school students on a college track.

UH recently received a U.S. Department of Education matching grant of $39 million — the largest it has received to date — to run the program over the next seven years. The funds, which are matched dollar-for-dollar by the university, state and private donations, are expected to provide services to nearly 25,000 students through 2025.

“This is our fourth grant from GEAR UP, and clearly, the effectiveness and impact of our prior work influenced their willingness to give us such a large grant this time around,” said UH President David Lassner. “The federal grants help us explore interventions that are really successful.”

The Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education, a collaboration between UH, the state Department of Education and Executive Office on Early Learning, runs GEAR UP activities that help students statewide prepare academically, explore dual-credit options and navigate the college application and financial aid process.

With the first grant in 2000, UH recruited eighth-graders from public middle schools to become “GEAR UP Scholars” by earning the more rigorous Board of Education Recognition Diploma. With the previous grant in 2011, UH partnered with the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation to offer an “Early College” program, bringing college courses to high school campuses.

The availability of college courses at high schools for dual credit has, so far, shown promising results in motivating disadvantaged students to enroll and stay in college, officials said.

GEAR UP also helped coordinate a 12th-grade “Introduction to College Mathematics” course designed to prepare high school seniors for college-level math courses at UH to ensure a smoother transition.

KEITH HAYASHI, principal of Waipahu High School, which has more than 2,500 students in grades 9 through 12, said he has seen the program transform his students since receiving a grant in 2010.

Part of that is due to availability of mentors and role models, he said, as well as the fostering of a college-­going culture for families.

“It definitely provides experiences and opportunities for kids and their families that they wouldn’t otherwise have,” he said. “Through experiences, it changes the belief of what students feel they’re capable of doing, and they learn to believe in themselves. It extends to their family and to the community.”

In particular, visits to college campuses here and on the mainland have been beneficial, along with workshops that help families put together a plan and apply for financial aid, Hayashi said. There also is a trickle-down effect to younger siblings.

Stephen Schatz, executive director of Hawaii P-20, said the public school and university systems share the same strategic vision.

“I think what’s really great is that Hawaii’s public schools have great working relationships with their UH partners at the 10 campuses,” said Schatz. “Our purpose for this grant is to create a pipeline of motivated and prepared students who can succeed in college and go on to success in their careers, and this means we need to start early with that participation and the building of that knowledge.”

P-20 also runs the 55 by ‘25 campaign, which aims to get 55 percent of working-age adults in Hawaii to hold a two- or four-year college degree by the year 2025 in order to remain competitive in the 21st century.

As of 2017, 44.9 percent of Hawaii’s working-age adults ages 25 to 64 held a two-or-four degree, according to data from the U.S. Census, up slightly from 44.3 percent in 2016.

The matching grant includes $6.7 million for UH-Manoa to work with Waipahu Intermediate and High schools, Wahiawa Middle, Leilehua High and Hilo Intermediate and High schools. UH-Maui College received $3.5 million to work with schools on the Valley Isle.

The grant follows students currently enrolled in seventh grade all the way through high school and their first year of college.

RANDALL DUNN, principal of Waipahu Intermediate, said he has seen the program’s affect on students. “The total mindset changes,” he said. With more schools participating, there can be a greater exchange of ideas among administrators and educators, he said.

At Waipahu Intermediate, where more than half of the school’s 1,300 students qualify for free and reduced lunch, the opportunity to take early college courses exists right after completing eighth grade, during the summer program before high school.

Juanito Moises, a recent UH-Manoa graduate with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, serves as a mentor and returns to the Waipahu schools he attended to share his experiences with students.

Moises, 22, was the first in his family to get a college degree in the United States and is now working as a civil engineer.

An immigrant from the Philippines, Moises learned English while going to school. He said he knew he wanted to go to college one day but had no idea how to make that happen. GEAR UP mentors were there for him every step of the way, Moises said, and the program helped him apply for scholarships.

Hayashi said that, like Moises, many former GEAR UP Hawaii participants return as mentors. Over the summer, for instance, several graduates from various fields of engineering worked with students to design and build remote-control cars controlled by muscle movements.

“GEAR UP is also about giving back,” Hayashi said. “Once you go on to college and become successful, what you do is give back to your community and school that supported you, and help the next generation of kids.”

The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands wants to reduce a backlog of beneficiaries waiting for homesteads by offering a new kind of land lease: small farm sites.

The agency proposes turning 766 acres of former sugar cane plantation land it owns on Hawaii island into 375 parcels where beneficiaries could build a home on 1- to 3-acre lots and raise crops or animals for themselves or for sale.

Under the plan, these parcels that DHHL calls “subsistence agricultural” homesteads would be leased to beneficiaries who would have to cultivate the land within three years. Building a home would be optional.

DHHL said the planned subdivision, in Honomu about 10 miles north of Hilo and partially bordering Akaka Falls State Park, would be the first of its kind since the Hawaiian Homes Commission approved such homesteads last year.

The agency in the past offered large agricultural land leases for commercial farming, but had relatively poor success despite high interest from beneficiaries wanting to lease farmland. DHHL hasn’t offered agricultural homesteads in nearly 20 years.

By offering smaller ag lots, the agency anticipates that it can serve beneficiaries who are interested in agriculture but lack the resources to develop big commercial farms. At the same time, the subsistence agricultural homesteads would also help beneficiaries be more self­-sufficient and reduce the agency’s backlog of roughly 44,000 Native Hawaiians waiting for homestead leases.

Hokulei Lindsey, DHHL administrative rules officer, explained in a video that the idea ties back to a 2000 task force recommendation to satisfy demand from beneficiaries who are interested in a rural lifestyle, particularly on the neighbor islands.

Of the 44,000 homestead applications, the single largest demand is for residential leases on Oahu, representing about 11,000 applications, according to DHHL data. The second highest demand is for ag leases on Hawaii island at about 7,100.

“But most of these people don’t want commercial ag,” Lindsey said in the video. “They want rural lifestyle. The subsistence ag lot is aiming to address that demand. If you can imagine a 1-acre-size lot with a house, a vegetable garden or mixed crops, maybe some chickens or a goat — that kind of thing.”

There is some public sentiment that DHHL’s subsistence ag lots represent potential creation of “gentlemen farm” subdivisions that some private developers in Hawaii have created for buyers. In those cases, the buyers can build homes on land zoned for agriculture without engaging in any substantial farming because county zoning laws allow the homes as accessories to agricultural activities but don’t define farming or verify that it takes place.

At a community meeting last year in Honomu, some residents expressed concern with DHHL’s plan because lots in the area are typically at least 20 acres.

“This doesn’t fit the existing community” was one comment received at the meeting, according to DHHL notes. Another comment was: “If homes come in, all the agriculture will stop.”

In response to those comments, the agency said it has a responsibility to serve Hawaiians with opportunities that include economic self-sufficiency, and that developing small ag lots is a way to do that.

“Many families do not have the resources to put large acreages into production,” DHHL said. “Additionally, larger lot sizes mean that fewer families have an opportunity to get on the land.”

DHHL also noted that it is not subject to county zoning laws, and said it is going to ensure that lessees comply with the farming requirement.

The agency also plans to help lessees with farming by paying for a University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources extension agent for technical services.

Depending on how the Honomu project shapes up, it could become a model for similar homestead subdivisions. But this determination could be many years off.

According to a draft environment assessment filed recently with the state Office of Environmental Quality Control outlining the project, work on an initial phase of 15 lots is expected to begin early next year. However, DHHL has no estimate yet for costs to develop infrastructure including roads and electrical utilities. The plan also calls for developing recreation spaces and a commercial area near Akaka Falls that could serve tourists.

DHHL spokeswoman Paula Aila said in an email that there is no timetable for when initial lease awards could be made.

The agency said it will offer Honomu leases to its top 500 applicants for Hawaii island agricultural homesteads, a group that applied for leases between 1952 and 1985.

The report said DHHL will work toward awarding all Honomu leases by 2032, and that design and development lessons learned in the first phase will be applied to subsequent phases.

Currently, two short-term lessees use most of the property for pasture. Some small-scale vegetable farming also exists, and about a quarter of the site is vacant, the report said.

DHHL beneficiaries can obtain 99-year homestead leases for $1 a year, and are responsible for financing home construction. The Honomu plan calls for lessees who desire a home to build their own water catchment and wastewater treatment systems.

Water for crops is expected mostly from rainfall that typically reaches around 205 inches per year, according to the report, which also said soil quality is good and that catchment systems could provide supplemental crop irrigation.

Finally, the city Planning Commission and the City Council are talking about cracking down on apartment buildings disguised as large homes in older residential neighborhoods.

Finally, the city is establishing laws for blocking public sidewalks with tents and tarps and makeshift dwellings.

Finally, there are laws to keep pedestrians from staring at their phones while crossing the street and people from smoking in cars with children.

During this election year, there has been a pile of legislation banning things.

But most — the plastic bag ban, the vaping-in-cars-with-kids ban, the sunscreen ban — don’t include any mechanism or money for enforcement. There’s the description of the act that is banned, the fine for being caught doing the act, and then nothing about who does the busting. The cops? Really? Don’t they have enough to deal with?

A law without a thought toward enforcement isn’t much of a law. It’s a suggestion.

But banning something gives politicians an excuse to have a press conference, get their name in the news and write to their constituents about an important bill they fought for and passed.

Who is going to make the monster-home scofflaws tear down their terrible walls? Who is going to swoop down in marked Department of Planning and Permitting squad cars, surround the concrete fortresses and make them knock it all down while the neighbors gather on the sidewalks with their arms around one another watching and cheering?

A law without a way to enforce the law is as useful as no law at all.

A variation on the unenforceable law is the law that increases penalties on an existing law. If there’s no room left for new laws, politicians debate for weeks about increasing a $500 fine for some infraction to $1,000. Same thing, though. Politicians get to say they accomplished some sort of law-and-order measure even though it’s vague how the law is supposed to be enforced. Oh, we’ll establish a citizen hotline. Call if you see something.

One law signed by the governor from this past legislative session requires “the driver of a vehicle passing and overtaking a bicycle proceeding in the same direction to allow at least three feet of separation between the right side of the driver’s vehicle and the left side of the bicyclist.”

So who’s going to measure that? Who’s going to report infractions, bike cops with body cams? Or will it kick in only after a poor biker gets clipped by a car, as an add-on to the list of charges against the alleged clipper?

Once the November election is over, the legislative session will be right around the corner. Here’s a bold prediction: a spate of new laws to protect pedestrians. There are probably a hundred laws on the books already about speeding and crosswalks and pedestrians, but if nobody is enforcing them, people keep sliding on through the intersection even when Grandpa is in the crosswalk.

All these laws on the books that have yet to have an impact on the issue they are meant to address. The problem isn’t the lack of laws on the books. The problem is too many laws on the books and only occasional enforcement.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.

Time is running out to resolve a series of disputes between the Hawaii State Auditor and staff at the Honolulu rail project, and that time crunch may limit how much the public will learn about what has gone wrong with rail.

With a pricetag of $9 billion, the Honolulu rail line is the largest public works project in state history. It is also so vastly over budget that the city appealed to the state Legislature for financial bailouts in 2015 and 2017 to cover billions of dollars of cost overruns.

As part of the most recent $2.4 billion bailout bill last year, lawmakers instructed state Auditor Les Kondo to issue subpoenas if necessary to drill down into the financial management of the rail project to determine whether the money being poured into the project is “being managed and used in a reasonable manner.”

That bailout bill, better known as Act 1, also instructs the auditor to find out where the city plans to find the money to pay to operate and maintain the rail system, which is expected to cost upward of $130 million per year. HART does not have money to cover those costs, and it is unclear from where funding to operate the 20-mile rail system will come .

The auditing process thus far has been messy in a very public way. Since his staff began work last year, Kondo has twice gone to meetings of the board of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to describe for the board what he calls “interference” in the audit process by the rail authority.

Kondo said he learned in May that HART employees are required to record their interviews with the auditor, which Kondo said sends a signal that “Big Brother is there, Big Brother is listening. Whether intended or not, the implication in my opinion to the employees is that they better toe the company line,” Kondo told the HART board.

HART also has taken months to respond to some inquiries, Kondo said, and in two cases reported that it could not locate specific documents the auditor requested. The rail authority also is withholding from the auditor the minutes from years of HART board meetings that were closed to the public.

According to Kondo, HART’s response to the rail audit goes beyond the ordinary defensiveness a government agency might exhibit while facing outside scrutiny.

He called the recordings of staff interviews “unprecedented” in the conduct of an audit, and told the HART board in May that “I just don’t think it’s a good precedent, and it doesn’t look good to have this requirement in place.”

Kondo asked the board and HART staff to stop recording the auditor interviews, but HART Executive Director Andrew Robbins said the recordings were recommended by HART’s lawyer.

Recording the interviews is intended to protect HART staff, Robbins said, noting that the auditor also records the interviews, which has prompted some complaints from HART staff members. None of the HART staff members has complained that HART is recording the sessions, he said.

Robbins said he does not transcribe or listen to any of the recordings of the audit interviews, and the recordings are stored in a secure electronic file. Robbins and the rest of the HART management do not have access to the recordings, he said.

“I want to say that the HART staff fully understands the law, Act 1, we understand that the state auditor and his office and his consultants have a job to do, and we support that and we’re working very hard to cooperate,” Robbins told the HART board last month. “I think the issue that we are struggling with a little bit is that people have day jobs.

“This is a very complex project, over $8 billion, and to comply with the voluminous requests of documents, not only from the state auditor but from the city auditor, the (Federal Transit Administration) and others, we’re doing the best we can, and it’s just really difficult on our staff to snap to it, if you will, and meet every deadline,” he said.

Robbins said that as of late September, HART had provided all but six or eight documents the state auditor requested. Two of those documents cannot be found, he said.

When board members asked about the issue of executive session minutes in September, Deputy Corporation Counsel Randall Ishikawa told the board he had drafted a memorandum dealing with that and the related issue of confidential communications between the board and its legal counsel.

However, Ishikawa said information should be discussed only in a closed-door executive session, and the board did not have enough voting members present to vote to hold an executive session. The issue will come up again at a HART board meeting in November, said board Chairman Damien Kim.

Meanwhile, Kondo is running out of time. Act 1 requires that the rail audit be submitted to lawmakers in late December, and because of that schedule Kondo said he does not plan to use his subpoena power to press HART to be more forth­coming.

“In a different situation, if we had the luxury of more time, perhaps we might consider it, but because we believe agencies by statute or by law are required to cooperate with the audit and provide access to information and provide access to people so we can talk to them, I don’t feel that there should be a need to issue subpoenas,” Kondo said in an interview.

“So, we’re going to just proceed and report whatever we get, and if we don’t get cooperation or we get these little obstacles that are put in our way, we going to report it,” he said.

DIGGING DEEPER

Not everyone agrees with that approach. State Sen. Jill Tokuda, one of the key architects of a 2017 bill that eventually evolved into Act 1, said she was “shocked” to learn Kondo could not get executive session minutes from the HART board. Tokuda said the auditor should issue subpoenas if necessary.

Tokuda, (D, Kailua-­Kaneohe), recalled working on an investigation with the state auditor into the state Bureau of Conveyances in 2007 that involved subpoenas, and also involved confidential information that could not be made public.

“It’s not like there hasn’t been precedent,” she said. “To me, these executive session tapes are just the beginning, and that’s what HART has to understand. It’s about asking the first questions and the first layer to understand where do we go next on this, because at the end of the day it is about ensuring true accountability to understand how our taxpayer money is being utilized.”

Corie Tanida, executive director of Common Cause Hawaii, said government agencies should be open and transparent in general, and in this case the public is asking for accountability.

“I think the fact that the Legislature has called for an audit on such a short timeline, obviously there’s some concerns, so shouldn’t the agency be even more responsive to kind of quell these concerns?” she asked.

The auditor “is doing a job on behalf of the taxpayers, and that’s because HART has sort of gotten itself into this position,” said R. Brian Black, executive director of The Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, “The Legislature felt there was additional oversight needed and wanted the auditor to take a look. For HART to now be less cooperative, it creates questions.”

AUDIT CLASHES

This is not the first time city transit officials have clashed with outside auditors or consultants who examined the finances of the rail project.

Former HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas went so far as to call a press conference in 2016 to attack a report by the city auditor days before that report was scheduled to be released to the public.

At his press conference, Grabauskas declared that “I’d say this so-called audit is a joke, but it hasn’t been funny. It’s a mess.”

That report said HART needed to take a number of steps including strengthening its controls over financial information reporting. “Absent the improvements, we anticipate additional shortfalls and cost overruns will occur,” the audit said.

Grabauskas resigned months later, and the rail project later announced additional cost overruns that required a $2.4 billion bailout the following year.

In the earlier days of rail before HART was formed, city officials who were planning the rail project also resisted inquiries by an outside consultant hired by former Gov. Linda Lingle to study rail’s finances in 2010.

That consultant, Infrastructure Management Group Inc., complained at the time about “the almost total refusal of the city to meet with it, to share documents, and to allow the (consultant’s) team members to meet and confer with key city and city consultant personnel in the course of our work.”

In this case, Robbins said HART has been “bending over backwards” to cooperate with the audit. In an interview last week Robbins said his staff provided all of the documents the auditor requested apart from one or two records that HART could not locate.

However, HART does not control the handling of the executive session minutes, which is a matter for the HART board to resolve, he said.

Kondo said he is unsure how comprehensive the audit will be in the end.

“Are we going to be able to do our job? We’re going to do a job. Is it going to be as thorough and complete as if we had unfettered and timely, complete access? I’m going to guess it’s probably not, but I cannot tell you for an absolute fact because I don’t know what we don’t know,” he said.

Is the Trump administration applying undue political influence on scientific research?

Some Hawaii scientists are convinced that it is, and that’s why they support efforts by 15 U.S. Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, to investigate political meddling into scientific research or communications at the Department of the Interior.

“It’s for real,” said Robert Richmond, director of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory. “A number of my (federal) colleagues say interference is a persistent concern under this administration.”

Hirono and her colleagues sent a letter to Interior Department Inspector General Mary Kendall this month asking for an investigation. The request follows reports of pressure by officials of the Trump administration earlier this year to edit out any mention of human-induced climate change from a National Park Service report on sea-level rise.

What’s more, the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists surveyed scientists working across federal agencies, including those working within the Interior Department, and found a significant percentage of them are concerned about the influence of political appointees on their work.

In June, Hirono was among a group of Senate Democrats that accused the Interior Department of delaying key grants while the agency conducted what the senators claimed was a politically motivated review of its grant-making. In a letter sent to the department then, the senators expressed concern over potential undue influence from a high-level political appointee given authority over the grant- review process.

Much of the concern centers around the Trump administration’s view on climate science, with the commander in chief himself openly expressing skepticism.

“I’m not a big believer in man-made climate change,” he told the Miami Herald during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Almost immediately after Trump’s inauguration, the Environmental Protection Agency and Departments of Interior and Energy eliminated sections of their websites that discussed the science and impacts of climate change.

Then in 2017, Trump announced his intention to remove the United States from the Paris accord dealing with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, and began pushing for coal and fossil fuel exploration. Among other things, he rescinded the 2013 Climate Action Plan and the Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, a group President Barack Obama created to prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change.

Richmond, the UH professor and coral reef expert, said he saw undue political influence during the George W. Bush administration but it was nowhere near the level experienced over the last couple of years.

“I’ve never seen such blatant disregard in any area as in climate science,” he said.

Richmond said that while most scientists have been able to conduct good science in Hawaii, the biggest concern is how their research and findings are being handled by their bosses in Washington, D.C.

“The U.S. government employs some the best scientists in the world on these issues, yet their politically appointed administrators, who often lack relevant training, ignore the key findings and recommendations of their experts. This is no way to run a business or a country,” he said.

David Karl, director of UH’s Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, said he believes there is meddling in scientific activities and he supports Hirono’s effort to get to the bottom of it.

“I do think this is very dangerous,” Karl said.

The Department of Interior did not respond to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser request for comment on the senators’ letter.

An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows the Trump administration’s sidelining of scientific advice is widespread and occurring at unprecedented levels through stalling and disbanding scientific advisory committees, canceled meetings and dismissed experts.

“The consequences for the health and safety of millions of Americans could be profound,” the report said.

The New York Times reported Oct. 11 on the latest scientific panel put on the chopping block: a 20-member EPA committee that advises the agency’s leaders on the latest scientific information about air pollution.

UH scientists Chip Fletcher and Neil Frazer ran into what they believe was Department of Interior meddling last year when a line explaining how climate change causes sea-level rise was removed from a U.S. Geological Survey news release announcing their study on coastal flooding. The study was funded by USGS, the Interior Department’s science agency.

The deleted line read: “Global climate change drives sea-level rise, increasing the frequency of coastal flooding.”

“It’s a crime against the American people,” Frazer, a geophysics professor, told the Washington Post in May 2017, “because scientists have known for at least 50 years that anthropogenic climate change is a reality.”

Fletcher, a UH professor and study co-author, told the newspaper he disagreed with the decision from the upper administration to remove it, not with the scientists who deleted it at the administration’s request.

A USGS press officer told the Washington Post the deleted line “didn’t add anything to the overall findings.” The line wasn’t needed in the news release, she said, because climate change-driven sea level rise is not a new finding.

Frazer told the Star-Advertiser the most insidious form of governmental interference is not so obvious: the nonfunding of important research programs.

“By comparison, the deletion of a line from a press release is childish but understandable,” Frazer said in an email. “The USGS does good work on the consequences of sea-level rise and it has a reasonable fear that its work will be curtailed by budget cuts if it mentions the causes of sea-level rise.

“Given our present political situation, the USGS seems to me to be doing the best it can.”

An effort to reach out to a handful of Department of Interior employees in Hawaii didn’t reap any examples of undue political influence. They told the Star-Advertiser they were either unaware of the problem or it wasn’t happening.

But state Rep. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Lanikai-­Waimanalo), chairman of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, said at least two federal employees complained to him about meddling.

“It’s safe to say the administration has been ignoring science and reining in scientists and experts or issues, and letting their special-­interest appointees and the companies tied to them dictate policy to the detriment of the environment, our community and the nation,” he said.

Back in the early 1990s, when I was managing editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, I had to mildly scold an editor who used the word “pissed” in a headline to describe one soap opera star who was angry with another.

I wasn’t personally bothered by this most innocuous of profanities, but some of our more squeamish readers howled, and I didn’t see any point in needlessly offending them.

I can’t help but feel sentimental about what gloriously innocent times those were.

Now we regularly see far more offensive vulgarities in newspapers — not because the standards are lower, but because the words are uttered by top leadership and not reporting them would amount to suppressing the news.

President Donald Trump boasted on tape of grabbing unsuspecting women “by the p*ssy.” He referred to nations populated by black people as “sh*thole countries.” His admiring guest Kanye West introduced the word “motherf*cker” to a public event in the Oval Office.

Closer to home, our U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono has been on a blistering swearing spree lately. Of her Republican critics, she said “f*ck them.” She demanded that Trump use his “godd*mn pen” to end the crisis over migrant children and has said “bullsh*t” so many times that a blog is keeping score.

Everybody wraps their foul language in rectitude.

The president and his adherents defend crude expressions of racism and misogyny as a battle against “political correctness,” as if it is unreasonably burdensome to be civil in the ways we speak to and about each other.

Some of his adversaries like Hirono are so flummoxed by Trump that they’ve lost the ability to wrap their brains around the rich vocabulary our language provides and think they have no choice but to fall face-first into the gutter.

I’m no prude and have been known to use salty language in my private communications. I’m aware that the most profane words have become embedded in our music, literature, popular culture and social media. They can be heard in nearly every schoolyard.

But it used to be that we’d outgrow it and not take our schoolyard language and behavior with us as we entered the public square, where maturity and regard for others meant something.

The question becomes, is our country better for it now that we’ve discarded these most basic conventions of mutual respect?

The first rule of a functioning democracy is that nobody gets to have everything their own way. Unable to square this with our self-righteousness, we’ve broken down into angry and entitled tribes.

I get it; we’re all pissed and think we have the right. But if we can’t get over it, the American union is in trouble and the schoolyard debate over who started it first matters little.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.

Ashton Jessee had a team-high 11 kills, helping Hawaii Hilo to a 25-19, 25-13, 25-13 PacWest volleyball win over host Holy Names on Saturday in Oakland.

Bria Beale added nine kills and Alexandria Parisian had seven for the Vulcans (14-5, 10-3 PacWest) in a match that took just 70 minutes to finish.

Holy Names dropped to 3-17, and 2-13.

>> Cameryn Collie had a match-high 21 kills, leading Hawaii Pacific (7-13, 6-8) to a 25-14, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22 PacWest volleyball win over Dominican (6-13, 4-10) in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday.

>> Emma Tecklenburg put down a match-high 14 kills as Chaminade swept Academy of Art 25-21, 25-18, 25-15 in a PacWest volleyball match in San Francisco on Saturday.

Claire Zanon had 13 digs for the Silverswords (16-4, 10-4) against the Urban Knights (0-23, 0-15).

Late goals help HPU past UH Hilo

Jair Espinoza scored the go-ahead goal in the 81st minute, leading the Sharks to a 2-0 PacWest men’s soccer win over Hawaii Hilo at Kamehameha-Hawaii on Saturday.

Vulcans goalkeeper Nick Williams had seven saves against 12 shots, but was forced from the match in the 64th minute after a collision with HPU’s Christian Porras. His replacement, Selvin Sandoval, then allowed the goal by Espinoza.

HPU would later get an insurance goal by Teppei Negami in the 90th minute. The win improves HPU’s record to 5-7 on the season, and 3-4 in the PacWest. UH Hilo drops to 3-9 and 2-5.

>> Tim Siegfried scored on a penalty kick in the 79th minute and Point Loma rallied late for a 1-1 tie in a PacWest men’s soccer game at the Saint Louis School Field.

Tyler Ebisuya’s goal in the 54th minute put the Silverswords (3-4-2, 2-3-2) ahead. The Sea Lions moved to 9-5-1 and 5-2-1.

Sharks edge Vulcans in women’s soccer

Ebony Madrid scored off a corner kick in the 36th minute, leading the Hawaii Pacific women (5-5-4, 3-2-2 PacWest) to a 1-0 soccer upset of Hawaii Hilo at Kamehameha-Hawaii on Saturday.

The Vulcans dropped to 7-3-2 and 4-2-1.

>> At Saint Louis School field, Chaminade was shut out by conference leader Point Loma 2-0 in a PacWest women’s soccer match.

The Sea Lions improved to 12-1-1 and 7-0-1, while the Silverswords dropped to 1-8-1 and 0-6-1.

Heading back to the coaches’ locker room following his final interview, Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich narrowly avoided running into the T-shirt-spewing bazooka that was parked in the corridor.

It was a metaphorical image in a night of misguided paths that resulted in the Rainbow Warriors’ 40-22 loss to Nevada at Aloha Stadium.

“I don’t think we executed very well at all,” Rolovich said. “We dropped balls. We missed reads, missed throws. Penalties. Third downs … ”

The Warriors also missed tackles and failed to fully capitalize on a 3-0 advantage in turnovers.

“It just wasn’t our day today,” Rolovich said.

And the collective misstep prevented the Warriors from locking up a winning 13-game regular season and accompanying berth in the Dec. 22 Hawaii Bowl. In losing at home for the first time this season, the Warriors fell to 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain West. Their next two opponents are two of the league’s best teams — Fresno State on the road next week and Utah State at home the following week.

“It’s a horrible feeling,” rush end Kaimana Padello said of the outcome. “It was the little things that were getting us. This one hurts. This one hurts a lot.”

It was an unsettling third reunion for Rolovich, who was Nevada’s offensive coordinator for four seasons through November 2015.

Slotback John Ursua said it was a particularly difficult loss based on “how dialed in we were this week. Rolo just came from there, and we had some pointers on what we were going to see. We capitalized early on, and then it just kind of slowed down. It was definitely frustrating.”

The Wolf Pack set the tone with a power running game that took on many forms. Toa Taua, a freshman who was the most valuable player in last year’s Polynesian Bowl, rumbled and twisted his way for 126 yards and an untouched touchdown. Taua initiated his runs on handoffs from quarterback Ty Gangi or on direct shotgun snaps as the wildcat.

Wideout Elijah Cooks also accounted for a rushing touchdown when he took a lateral from Gangi and sprinted 40 yards into the end zone.

And when Nevada runners appeared trapped, they pirouetted or juked free for additional yards. The Pack rolled up 220 rushing yards.

“We have to finish,” UH defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said of the missed tackles. “I thought our people, for the most part, were where they should be. But we have to get those guys down. We have to continue to work on the fundamentals of tackling and being in body position.”

Gangi was 21-for-29 for 247 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked once, and nearly strip-sacked a second time. With Nevada ahead 20-14 in the second quarter, Gangi was hit by Padello while attempting to pass. Linebacker Jahlani Tavai scooped the football and raced into the end zone, where he was knocked hard to the turf. Upon review, the officials ruled that Gangi was making a throwing motion, resulting in an incompletion and not a fumble.

“I think I flipped too early,” Padello said. “I was kind of batting at the air, batting blindly. I wasn’t really focused on where the ball was. If I did, I think I would have been able to get (the ball before it was thrown). It’s a game of inches.”

The play proved to be further costly. Tavai was escorted to the medical room, with 3:42 left in the first half, and did not play the rest of the game. Tavai, who is considered to be the Warriors’ best defensive player, was expected to rotate as an inside linebacker and rush end.

Cooks’ touchdown increased the Pack’s lead to 26-14 in the third quarter. The Pack made it 33-14 on Taua’s 13-yard run to cap a 23-0 surge from a 14-10 deficit.

“It was the little things,” Padello said. “We weren’t wrapping. We were going for the big hit. It really damaged us.”

UH’s offense could not counter. The Warriors came up empty three times in the red zone. They converted only once in five fourth-down plays.

Cole McDonald completed 19 of 37 passes for 259 yards and three touchdowns. But he misfired to open receivers and was victimized by five drops, including four in the first half. There were times McDonald waited … and waited … and waited for routes to ripen. He was sacked four times.

In the fourth quarter, Rolovich replaced McDonald with Chevan Cordeiro for a series. The intent was for McDonald “to get a look from the sideline,” Rolovich said. “Maybe it was a spark Chevan could give us, just let (McDonald) take a breather. (Former Nevada coach) Chris Ault used to do that. … We weren’t doing much with the ball. We put the defense in some terrible positions in the first half.”

The Warriors attempted three onside kicks, two of which backfired because of penalties. On one, Kalen Hicks soared to catch the kick from Ryan Meskell. But Hicks was called for interfering with the returner.

“He was offsides, anyway,” Rolovich said. “You can argue that (interference) penalty, but if you can’t even be onside on an onside kick, and we go over these rules. We got called for two of them. I know we talk about those things.”

Ursua caught seven passes for 123 yards, surpassing 1,000 receiving yards this season, and tossed a 2-point-conversion pass to Marcus Armstrong-Brown.

But in the postgame gloom, Ursua said: “We have to take it up a notch. We can be so much better.”

Two weeks ago, with a 6-1 record, when the countdown began in earnest, bowl eligibility seemed only a matter of time for the University of Hawaii football team.

Days, not months.

Now, you have to wonder if the four remaining games of the regular season are cushion enough.

That bowl-clinching seventh victory of a 13-game season suddenly looked as elusive as the footballs the Rainbow Warriors kept dropping and, now, the route to the postseason seems as difficult to navigate as the mis-throws and mis-reads that they stumbled through in a dispiriting 40-22 loss to Nevada.

On a night when the hardy remnants of an Aloha Stadium crowd of 22,272 filed out shaking their heads, it was left to wide receiver John Ursua to signal the urgency of the situation facing UH.

“We have to step it up a whole another notch because this season can turn, drastically, from right now, if we don’t turn it up,” Ursua said.

If the clock is ticking on opportunities for the Warriors (6-3, 3-1 Mountain West Conference) to break a streak of seven years without a winning season, then the remaining schedule is even less encouraging.

The finishing gauntlet looks like this: Saturday at Fresno State (6-1), then Utah State (6-1), Nevada-Las Vegas (2-5) and at San Diego State (6-1).

For a UH team that has yet to beat a fellow Football Bowl Subdivision opponent with a winning record, that is not comforting.

Neither is the still-up-in-the-air status of all-conference linebacker Jahlani Tavai, who left the game in the first half with an apparent shoulder injury and did not return. Asked if Tavai might be available for Fresno State, coach Nick Rolovich said, “I don’t know.”

That merely added injury to insult.

“We knew they (the Wolf Pack) were a good football team that could score and they deserve a lot of credit, but I think that this is a game that we lost,” Rolovich said.

Indeed it would be hard to imagine UH losing at home when its opponent commits all three turnovers of the game, if not for the ways that UH made it possible and what Rolovich termed “pretty awful execution.”

UH committed seven penalties for 73 yards, dropped five passes, converted on just three of 15 third-down attempts, one of five fourth- down tries and none of three onside kick attempts and yielded five sacks.

As a result, UH spent most of the 3-hour, 14-minute game seeking some semblance of offensive rhythm and put an over-worked defense in a hole while the largely fruitless search continued.

For its part, the defense was unable to come to terms with Nevada’s “wildcat” or the Wolf Pack running backs who averaged 6.1 yards per carry for the night.

Rolovich even went to the bullpen, calling on freshman quarterback Chevan Cordeiro, but the ’Bows could offer him no better protection than starter Cole McDonald — who was 19-for-37 for 259 yards with three touchdowns and four sacks — was afforded.

Asked if the ’Bows were capable of pulling out of the tailspin, Ursua said, “Yes, absolutely. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t win another game. It is just taking it one day at a time.”

If Saturday’s game is any indication, that time might be running out.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.

It was a homecoming trip thousands of miles away from Reno, Nev., for the Nevada Wolf Pack.

With the late Marc Ma on their minds all game, Pack players played inspired for their former teammate and routed Hawaii 40-22 on Saturday night.

“We talked to him. We just told him, ‘Play through us,’ ” said defensive tackle Korey Rush, who sacked Cole McDonald three times in the first half. “And I think he did. And I think that’s why we were able to do what we did.”

Toa Taua, the 2018 Polynesian Bowl MVP, rushed for 126 yards and a touchdown, Devonte Lee added two scores on the ground and quarterback Ty Gangi was efficient in the Air Raid offense with 21-for-29 accuracy for 247 yards.

But for the Pack, it was all about Ma, an ‘Iolani graduate who died in June 2016 when he went paddleboarding with friends on Lake Tahoe, and wind and waves picked up drastically and unexpectedly.

Coach Jay Norvell emerged from the Aloha Stadium visitors locker room postgame with a football tucked firmly under his arm. He announced that the team would present Ma’s family with the game ball in his honor and memory.

“This is something special that our team wanted to give to the Ma family. So we’ll make sure they get that,” he said.

“(That) means everything to me,” said senior offensive lineman Kalei Meyer, a Kamehameha graduate who came into the Pack program at the same time as Ma in 2015. “This game was for Marc. That’s how he would’ve wanted to go out, with that homecoming win. And I’m just glad to be able to bring that.”

Nevada (4-4, 2-2 Mountain West) was coming off consecutive home losses to Fresno State and Boise State, so this road win was crucial to their chances of making a bowl game. But that aspect of things seemed distant, secondary.

A moment of silence was held pregame for Ma, who would have been a senior this season had he remained with the Wolf Pack.

For teammates who knew him, there was little doubt in their minds that he would’ve been here — and made a considerable impact.

“Fantastic human being. Gritty,” Rush said. “Without a doubt he’d still be on our team and still contribute. And just everybody’s favorite teammate. Once again, it’s not lip service. He was one of our favorite guys on the team, and he was my brother.”

Meyer did not know Ma personally during their Hawaii high school battles, but the two bonded in Reno over a shared love of all-you-can-eat sushi and late-night Madden sessions.

“I stressed to the guys that Marc would have been here too and it was a really important game,” Meyer said. “He was a really big competitor. He competed in everything he did. He was a guy who would out-perform you. He just worked hard. He gave everything for his teammates, you know. So I just stressed … we had to come together and get this win.”

UH beat Nevada 38-17 when the Pack visited in 2016, a scant few months after Ma’s death. The contrast in outcome was punctuated by the singing of “The Pack Goes Marching In” echoing from the locker room.