HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation is demanding answers from the secretary of the Navy about why the military wants to increase its bombing of a tiny island off Niʻihau.

The bombs are 500-pound dummies and the military’s past exercises there have been shrouded in mystery.

Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, and Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda want the Navy to complete a full environmental impact statement that could shed light on a lot of unanswered questions.

The crescent-shaped island called Kaʻula, 23 miles southwest of Niʻihau, is so remote it’s mostly known by fishermen and cultural practitioners.

The Navy wants to increase inert bombings there with 500-pound ordnance that doesn’t explode from 12 per year to 31 on the island’s southern end.

“We just want answers. If they’re going to bomb a Hawaiian island, even if it’s several miles off the coast of Niʻihau, anything in the Hawaiian Island chain is the business of the people of Hawaiʻi,” said Schatz.

Schatz told Hawaii News Now he doesn’t know when the inert bombing happened in the past.

“Those are some of the answers that we’re trying to pursue,” he said.

“I think one of the lessons from the Red Hill experience is to not just accept that if they say national security, we stop asking questions. We have a lot of questions and we are not satisfied that this is necessary for national security,” he added.

Practitioners and conservations say they welcome the Hawaiʻi congressional delegation’s demand for an environmental impact statement.

Mike Nakachi of Moana ʻOhana and his son have traveled by boat off shore of Kaʻula island. They haven’t seen any damage, but say there are stories of bombings within the past 30 years.

“I have heard stories from other fishermen in the past that were on the island or fishing close to the island and engaged in just diving operations, holoholo operations, when all of a sudden, I guess a bomb hit the island,” said Nakachi.

The island is a year-round nursery for nesting seabirds.

“They’re babies. They can’t fly away and remember, this is an island the size of Ala Moana Beach Park, so dropping 500-pound inert bombs is going to be felt no matter where you are on this island,” said Hob Osterlund, Kauai Albatross Network.

In its draft environmental assessment, the Navy said the training was vital to military readiness, no cultural resources were identified, and impacts to wildlife would be less than significant

Osterlund of the Kauaʻi Albatross Network says one unanswered question is if the state handed over the land to the Navy or any other entity.

Hawaiʻi’s attorney general told HNN it and the Department of Land and Natural Resources is looking into the matter.

HNN contacted the secretary of the Navy for comment.

Copyright 2025 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

You may think you know Hawaii. But there’s more to these stunning islands than white-sand beaches and breezy palm trees. 

Beyond the surf breaks and world-class sunsets, Hawaii has a complex story. Navigators were born here. There’s an unmatched reverence for the land. It’s a place once—and still—filled with warriors, working hard to fight for their cultural preservation. And as our guests share, Hawaiian culture isn’t just alive on the islands—it touches the far corners of the world, too. 

In this week’s episode of Lost Cultures: Living Legacies, we’re exploring Hawaii through the voices of cultural practitioners, historians, and teachers, including Evan Mokuahi Hayes, a Hawaiian historian who returned to the islands in search of healing. He found it, unexpectedly, in a taro patch.

“Hawaii has this beautiful way of, even when you have nothing to give, it will meet you there,” he shares on the episode. “It has a way of healing broken parts of you, essentially, and filling those empty spaces.” 

That connection to ʻāina—to land and Earth—runs deep for many. As Dr. J. Uluwehi Hopkins, a professor of Hawaiian history, explains on the episode, “We have cosmogonic genealogies … that say we grew right out of the land here, that the land itself is our ancestors.” The result is a worldview built on stewardship, not ownership.

That view was almost shattered in the late 1700s, when Western contact reshaped the islands’ political and spiritual landscapes. 

“Our Hawaiian chiefs wanted to form a government that other nations would respect and therefore interact with in an equal way,” Hopkins explains. “And the Hawaiian people actually didn’t want land ownership, but the government enacted it because they realized that if we established land in a way that had an owner, if another foreign power came and took us over, they had to respect the landowners.” 

This episode also explores the arrival of American missionaries in the 19th century, the rise of the sugar industry, and the illegal overthrow of Queen Lili‘uokalani. “She crafted this really wonderful, brilliant response in which she says, ‘I will yield my authority until the U.S. president realizes the illegality of his own minister,’” Hopkins shares. 

Through it all, Hawaiian culture has endured, especially in hula. “Hula is exactly what people see,” says Hokulani Holt, a kumu hula, or teacher of the art of hula. “It is the visual representation of the words that you are hearing. You cannot have hula without words.” Holt adds, hula is not merely a performance; it is history in movement. 

To get to know Hawai‘i on a new level, listen to this week’s episode of Lost Cultures: Living Legacies. It’s available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Player FM, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Former UFC champion B.J. Penn is in trouble with the law once again.

UFC legend B.J. Penn is in trouble with the law again.

The former two-division UFC champion was arrested this past Sunday in Hilo, Hawaii, on charges of abuse of a family or household member, according to the Hawaii Police Department media booking log obtained by MMA Junkie. The news was reported Tuesday by MMA Fighting.

Penn, 46, also posted a video documenting the arrest to his Instagram account. He was taken by police and later released on $2,000 bail. Penn was due in court Tuesday.

Penn’s video shows him laying in bed, questioning multiple officers for the reason of his arrest, which they communicated was for harassment. After a back-and-forth, Penn stood up from the bed, was handcuffed, and taken away.

Penn posted a caption along with the video:

“In Hawaii, ‘impostor theft’ refers to instances where individuals falsely impersonate others, often to steal their identity or commit fraudulent acts. This can involve using a fake identity to obtain documents, financial accounts, or even posing as law enforcement or other professionals to commit crimes.”

In recent months, Penn has claimed in numerous posts that his parents and siblings were murdered and replaced by impostors. These adamant and continuous claims have worried many in the MMA community, including several of his fellow fighters such as Brendan Schaub and Jason Miller.

This isn’t the first time Penn has been involved with the law. In the years before and following his retirement in 2019, Penn has experienced a number of legal troubles, including DUI arrests and a bar brawl assault that led to his UFC release.

Penn is considered one of the greatest lightweights of all time and a pioneer for the division. He’s a former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion. Penn was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2015.

Penn fought 32 times as a professional fighter, a career that spanned from 2001 to 2019. Penn, who was known for his durability and skill, lost four times by TKO/KO and was involved in many wars. Some have attributed his troubles and erratic behaviors in recent years to brain trauma.