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The pole dancer was a little hard to resist.

Yes, we joined the flock of reporters chasing intelligence analyst Edward Snowden and, later, his pole-dancing girlfriend Lindsay Mills around Oahu.

It’s the biggest national story to hit Hawaii since Manti Te’o’s imaginary girlfriend. And, all joking aside, it is one of the most significant news stories in the country.

Reporters from a number of national media outlets landed in Honolulu early in the week, driving to Waipahu (the former rented home of Snowden and Mills) and checking in at some of the local acrobatic dance studios where Mills practiced. Snowden was in Hong Kong where he fled just before The Guardian and Washington Post began publishing stories based on the documents he was leaking. But Waipahu neighbors were happy to chat; dance colleagues of Mills not so much.

By the end of the week, local press coverage of the National Security Agency leaks had faded. For us, other important issues arose, including HECO’s new plan for reducing electricity prices, and what the Kawaiahao Church is going to do with hundreds of exhumed human remains stored in baskets in the basement.

We also launched a snappy new feature, the Friday Factoid. It’s our way of making the reams of new data sets that are being published on a state website, , accessible and encouraging people to make use of them.

But we understand if you spent most of the week following the developing story of the Obama administration’s widespread monitoring of American citizens. Here are Civil Beat’s entries in that genre, along with some other things you might want to catch up on:

• Paradise Lost: The Cost of Freedom for NSA Leaker Edward Snowden

• The Whistleblower and the ‘Super Hero Pole Dancer’: A Hawaii Love Story

• The Spies Next Door: The National Security Agency Works in our Shadows

• Could Hawaii’s New Tsunami Warning Center Survive a Giant Wave?

• Hawaii Monitor: Is It Time for a Review of Political Gift-Giving?

• HUD: Was ORI Loan Forgiven Because of Campaign Contributions?

• Should We Feed Dead Monk Seals To Sharks?

• A Mother’s Day Nightmare: Foster Home Failure?

• No More Getting It Weekly

• Will PR Blitz Help Abercrombie Coast To Re-Election?