HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Crowds filled up Kalakaua Avenue Saturday morning for the Aloha Festivals’ 76th annual Waikiki Hoolaulea.

The Aloha Festivals, first held in 1946, commemorate seven decades of Hawaiian celebrations through music, dance, and traditions.

The parade moved to Waikiki from Ala Moana Beach Park, down Kalakaua Avenue, to Kapiolani Park.

This year’s theme is ʻAʻa I Ka Hula. Each float in the parade is designed to honor the theme.

Hundreds of volunteers were hard at work finishing up the last-minute details for the floats on Friday.

Aloha Festivals is known as the largest Hawaiian cultural celebration in the U.S.

Intricate and vibrant floats with thousands of fresh flowers and plants will be on display with traidtional pa’u riders, marching bands, decorated vehicles and the 2024 Royal Court.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Final preparations underway for ‘colorful’ 76th Annual Aloha Festivals Floral Parade
• Month-long Aloha Festivals to begin this weekend with Royal Court investiture

The floral parade is slated from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. The roads will be closed at approximately 8 a.m.

Earlier this year, Aloha Festivals placed in USA Today’s 10 best cultural festivals in the US, alongside Merrie Monarch.

For more information about the parade and other Aloha Festivals festivities, click here.

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IDAHO FALLS — The annual membership sale for the Idaho Falls Gem and Mineral Society (IFG&MS) will be held next Saturday, October 5, at the Bonneville County Fairgrounds. This will be the third sale held just south of Sandy Downs Racetrack on Woodruff Avenue with the door opening at 9 a.m. and closing at 5 p.m. There will be a $3 admission fee with children 12 and under getting in free.

Members of the IFG&MS have been collecting, cutting, polishing stones, handcrafting items, and finishing jewelry items to sell to the public next Saturday. Idaho is known as the “gem” state and some of the finest gemstones in the world are found in the state. Many of these items come from several claims filed by the IFG&MS and are made from rocks picked up on field trips sponsored by the society.

Agate, opal and jasper are some of the coveted rocks which make some of the most beautiful items. The society has artisans that are talented silversmiths that make their own settings for these beautiful stones. There is also a group of members that knap knives, arrowheads and spear points from obsidian and glass.

At the sale, rock collections from all over the world will be displayed, as some of the members own or have access to gems from across the planet. Many of the members spend the winters in Utah and Arizona, where they buy or trade for materials from other locals, and will bring some of their collections to the sale.

If you have any interest in rocks of any kind, the sale will be a good place to visit as each rockhound has a specialty. Spencer fire opal is always a popular item for discussion, and there will be several members with their special creations to look at.

Isn’t it just swell that John Driscoll, the no-show Democratic candidate in Montana’s Second Congressional District election, took the time to inform voters that if elected he would work to ensure U.S. nuclear weapons would not be used in a first-strike manner unless approved by Congress.

What’s puzzling is that the Sept. 11 Billings Gazette opted to print his nothing-burger musings when every inch of newsprint is increasingly valuable as we near the Nov. 5 election.

You see, it is not an issue Driscoll will face anytime for the rest of his life because he essentially folded his congressional-campaign tent the day he filed to run, planning not to spend more than $5,000 to promote his candidacy.

In a very real sense, veteran politician Driscoll robbed Eastern Montana.

His vanity won over common sense in choosing a low-budget campaign in the apparent belief that he is well-enough known and admired that he would win. But as the song by Taj Mahal goes, Republican Troy Downing has secured “A Cake Walk into Town.” 

Holly Michels, chief of the Lee State Bureau in Helena, correctly wrote on Sept. 1 that the election is effectively over.

Voters in Eastern Montana were robbed of the opportunity to witness a vigorous contest with a focus on issues affecting our part of the state. We got only crickets.

True, any Democrat faced a huge obstacle in opposing the Trump-endorsed, well-financed (including his own money), Afghanistan veteran and incumbent state government officer Troy Downing. 

Driscoll gained 13,317 votes in the Democrat primary election, closely followed by Broadus rancher Steve Held with 10,583 and Billings resident Ming Cabrera with 8,341 – Cabrera with perhaps the most-germane qualifications and experience for the position.

Downing, replicating Matt Rosendale’s opportunistic moves to state Insurance Commissioner and then the U.S. House, trounced his eight competitors in the Republican primary. Several factors favored Downing– an endorsement from Donald Trump whom he once opposed and support from Republicans Gov. Greg Gianforte, First District Rep. Ryan Zinke and junior U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.

Downing’s dominant campaign ad recited his credentials as an Air Force veteran who enlisted after 9/11 and served in Afghanistan. But his role wasn’t exactly clear: The ad projected an image of an Air Force pilot in a flight suit wearing Tom Cruise sunglasses with a jet in the background. 

A closer look reveals private-pilot Downing wearing his civilian Nomex flight suit sporting a patch advertising YAHOO, which in 1998 purchased his technology company. Behind him is his personal Czech L39 jet trainer. Just slightly deceptive — he was never an Air Force pilot.

Instead, Downing enlisted as an airman basic in the California Air National Guard’s 129th Air Rescue Squadron, not the Air Force per se. Nonetheless, he is an Air Force veteran since the ANG is a component of the active Air Force and deserves commendation for his patriotism and honorable service. He went on two combat deployments to Afghanistan with his Air Guard unit as a helicopter flight engineer. Back in the States as a “traditional Guardsman,” Downing had time to build a commercial real estate company and a securities company, he recently told the Explore the Big Sky publication. 

Facts also were a little blurry in 2018 when he was fined $2,110 and lost hunting privileges for illegally securing a resident hunting license as a non-resident. Downing argued that the case was based on mistakes made by accountants who prepared his income tax returns. 

Downing, a native Californian, likely would have faced direct questioning about his biography as he would have fairly inquired of Driscoll who has been politically active since 1972.

However, it looks like Downing will get a pass on tougher questions from a would-be feisty opponent. To date, he has been successfully vague: National abortion ban? Raising tariffs? An immigration policy beyond building a wall? Aid to Ukraine? Concern with Russian aggression? Eliminate the federal departments of Education and Homeland Security? Repeal of the Affordable Care Act? Investment in alternative energy? And the list goes on.

Downing is to become one of only four people in Washington working for and representing Montanans. He should have to work for that responsibility and honor beyond simple self-promotion.

Instead, Driscoll gave him a cake walk into Congress.

Peter D. Fox of Big Timber spent 25 years as daily newspaper editor and journalist in Wisconsin and Montana including the Billings Gazette. He later served as a Wisconsin cabinet secretary, an officer with the University of Wisconsin System, and as a non-profit executive. After four years active duty in the U.S. Army Security Agency 1967-1971, and went on to serve 25 years in the Army National Guard. He retired as a colonel in 2004.