������Ƶ

News break: If all goes as planned, Mika Miyashima, Rick Quan and their colleagues are back reporting the news this week after several days in which news production mysteriously disappeared from the airwaves.

Live news broadcasts were back Monday night after having been MIA since Thursday. Their absence raised questions from many in the community but the station said not a peep about it on its website.

KITV President and General Manager Jason Hagiwara still won’t say why the news broadcasts stopped, other than telling The Sunshine Blog last week that the station was working through unspecified technical difficulties.

Now The Blog hears that a ransomware attack silenced the broadcasts until a payment could be made to the attackers.

“I am not going to answer that question,” Hagiwara said Monday.

Hmm. That’s a bit puzzling and troubling considering many people in town are talking about it and you’ll notice he’s not denying it. And KITV that in late July affected 30,000 people at Hawaii Community College and led to the University of Hawaii to .

Ransomware attacks have become common, including an attack on MGM casinos and Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas . In 2021, Sinclair Broadcast Group reported it suffered and had data stolen.

Other recent cyber attacks were made on the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the city’s emergency medical services, The Cancer Center of Hawaii on Oahu and The Handi-Van run by Oahu Transit Services.

A spokeswoman for the local FBI office said it is aware of the KITV incident but could neither confirm nor deny whether there is an active investigation into what happened.

KITV is owned by Allan Media Group of Los Angeles, which directed any inquiry on the outage to KITV.

A rematch in Hilo: Is it just us or does it seem like there is a growing list of folks announcing that they’re already running for the Hawaii State Legislature in 2024 — even though the filing deadline isn’t until June 4?

The latest candidate is Laura Acasio, who will formally launch her bid for the District 1 seat (Hilo, Paukaa, Papaikou, Pepeekeo) on Friday in Hilo.

Former state Sen. Russell Ruderman, a Civil Beat columnist, will introduce Acasio, who was appointed to fill former state Sen. Kai Kahele’s seat in January 2021 when he vacated his seat to successfully run for Congress.

Redistricting forced Acasio to run against another incumbent, Lorraine Inouye, who handily defeated Acasio and Wil Okabe in the August 2022 primary. While senators serve four-year terms, District 1 is one of that are up next year due to the decennial redistricting.

Acasio, like Ruderman, leans toward the progressive-reform end of the political spectrum while Inouye (who plans to run for reelection) is a Senate veteran and former Big Island mayor who likes to bring pork home to her constituents — and we don’t mean kalua pork.

Spending their allowances, Part 2: The Sunshine Blog blogged earlier this month about how plenty of state House reps are dipping liberally into their $15,952 yearly allowances.

You may recall that National Conference of State Legislatures meetings in Indianapolis in August were the biggest expense for many. Add to the list of attendees Reps. ($1,084), ($3,432), ($1,056) and ($1,048).

The lawmaker that spent the least amount of allowance money was Rep. , who used $17.35 for “office pest control.” And Reps. Jackson Sayama, Sean Quinlan and Gregg Takayama reported spending not a single dime of their respective allowances.

In the Senate, meantime, no senator as of Monday has since late April. So much for the much-touted transparency about members’ spending that preceded last year’s legislative session. Your Sunshine Bloggers recall that promises to post legislative allowances on their own prompted the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct to decide not to propose legislation mandating disclosure.

Sibling revelry: Honolulu City Councilwoman Val Okimoto wants to go to Japan to see fireworks, and she’s hoping her colleagues will let Japan pay for it.

Okimoto to her colleagues last week asking that she be allowed to accept from the city of Sakaimachi airfare, lodging and transportation valued at $2,500.

The purpose is to attend the 35th Annual Tone River Grand Fireworks Show and “to explore Sakaimachi’s latest advancements in support of the Sakaimachi-Honolulu sister city relationship.”

Okimoto’s resolution is pending action.

Block that vote: Honolulu attorney Jim Hochberg, a political conservative, has joined forces with the , a Virginia-based conservative legal group known for suing election officials for aggressively enough.

Their lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Honolulu alleges that Hawaii Chief Election Officer Scott Nago has failed to disclose to the foundation the state’s voter registration list. The claim is that Nago’s refusal violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

The lawsuit quotes Aaron Schulaner, the general counsel for the elections office, as informing the foundation in writing that it is the clerks of Hawaii’s four counties — and not the chief election officer — that handles voter lists.

The foundation’s website says that is it committed to “Protecting your vote and delivering real results for election integrity.”

Sure it is.