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We’re coming down to the wire now on political campaigns and everyone, including us, seems to be making that last-minute push.

Election Day is less than three weeks away. This week, our coverage included another Senate debate, some Fact Checks analyzing what the candidates are saying about each other and reports on political operations.

Our staff sat down with Honolulu mayoral candidates Ben Cayetano and Kirk Caldwell this week for lengthy interviews about their positions on issues and their ideas for the city. It’s not your usual editorial board because we don’t endorse candidates. But it does give us a chance to get to know them a bit better and, frankly, they get to know us, too. (One thing they both agreed on: our operations director, Heidi Pliszka, makes excellent chocolate chip cookies.) Watch for several stories this coming week from those interviews.

And we’ve added a few new things to our site, in case you hadn’t noticed. This week saw the debut of Hawaii Monitor, a new weekly column by veteran investigative reporter Ian Lind. Ian is often the guy breaking the news when it comes to government watchdog and accountability issues, and we are happy he is bringing his critical eye and thoughtful view to Civil Beat readers. That’s on Wednesdays. (You can still find his blog — including Romeo and his many, many feline friends — at ).

Mike Levine and Chad Blair are doing a new weekly political news chat on Thursdays in a new show — DC808: On The Wire — filmed, edited and produced by Joe Rubin. Mike comes to you from the Senate Press Room in Washington, D.C. and Chad joins in from a desk here at Civil Beat headquarters in beautiful downtown Kaimuki.

Our FOCUS multimedia feature is still relatively new so I’ll just mention it again here. The series aims to celebrate the diversity of our dynamic community through audio slideshows that focus on an interesting person.

And, as always, there was much, much more to talk about this week. Here are 10 more stories you won’t want to have missed:

• Hawaii’s ‘Most Sophisticated Grassroots Attack Operation’

• Caldwell’s Vow To ‘Keep The Country Country’ Hypocritical, Critics Say

• No Hirono Bill Has Ever Passed, But Does That Mean She’s Ineffective?

• Vivint Dominates Hawaii Solar Market, Sparks Consumer Fears

• Hawaii’s Elevator Safety In Free Fall?

• Lingle, Hirono: We Play Well With Others, Just Not Each Other

• Anchor Man: Did Larry Ellison Park His Yacht In A Lanai Nature Preserve?

• There’s No Excuse For Hawaii Ed Department’s Really Bad Management

• Taken For A Ride: We Finally Have The Answer, Hawaii Dept of Ed Says

• Board Sends Education Budget to Governor