This week for Helping Hand, HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence speaks with the manager of The American Cancer Society Clarence T.C. Ching Hope Lodge, Michelle Hashimoto. The Hope Lodge provides a free home away from home for cancer patients and their caregivers. Designed as a residential program for patients in active cancer treatment, it’s meant to help patients access the care they need in a supportive, homelike environment.

Musician Christian McBride is in Honolulu through tonight at the Blue Note in Waikiki. He took time to join HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence in our Atherton Performing Arts Studio.   

Hawaii has a well-documented problem recruiting and retaining public school teachers. At a meeting of the State Board of Education yesterday, Hawaii State Teachers Association President Corey Rosenlee revealed that teachers are now moving to the mainland at a record-setting rate. One of those teachers who recently left Hawaii is Kellee Kelly. After years of struggling to make ends meet, Kellie made the decision to move her family to the mainland. She now lives in Dallas, Texas.

The Thirty Meter Telescope is back in state supreme court. Today, justices are hearing oral arguments on the project’s building permit. HPR’s Ku’uwehi Hiraishi reports.

It’s not unusual to see parents with their babies strapped on their chests these days, and one of the most highly rated baby carriers of this type is the Ergobaby, invented on Maui.  For the past six years, inventor Karin Frost has been investing proceeds from her baby carrier’s success in Hōkū Nui, a project to create a regenerative community in Upcountry Maui.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa visited Hōkū Nui with Kumu Hula Keali‘i  Reichel, who is creating a cultural center and home for his hālau as part of the project.

You can’t tell from the sidewalk looking up but Bank of Hawaiʻi is extensively remodeling its signature downtown headquarters, at the same time it’s upgrading its branches.

A total of 22 fissures have appeared since May 3rd in Leilani Estates. The eruption has destroyed more than 500 homes, and lava has covered nearly 6,000 acres of land. 

The Hawai’i Venture Capital Association hosted a Lieutenant Governor Candidate Forum today.

Today’s program is a discussion of the impacts of the ongoing volcanic eruption on Hawaii Island. Catherine Cruz is off this week and I’m joined in the studio by Conversation producer Ryan Finnerty. Joining us by phone on today’s program are Will Okabe, Managing Director for the County of Hawai’i, and Jessica Ferracane of the National Park Service on the Big Island.

Suicide is the leading cause of fatal injury deaths in Hawai’i, outpacing car crashes, homicide and drowning. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention hosted a training workshop recently.

The long-simmering dispute between Honolulu’s taxi companies and ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft came to a head yesterday with Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s veto of Bill 35, a measure that would have regulated so-called “surge pricing” by rIde-sharing companies and made them subject to increased regulation.  

Given the recent diplomatic thaw between the U.S. and North Korea, it’s easy to forget that those countries’ leaders were threatening mutual annihilation last year. As part of that escalation, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency began exploring the possibility of constructing a ground-based defensive radar in Hawaii.

The eruption at Kīlauea continues to send ash plumes into the sky and push lava into the ocean. While that has destroyed hundreds of homes and forced scores of people into shelters, it is also providing an unprecedented opportunity for scientific research.

Kumu Hula Keali‘i Reichel’s Hālau Ke‘alaokamaile has numerous awards to its credit, including being overall winner at Merrie Monarch in 2011.  In an effort now to deepen their work, the Hālau is establishing a cultural center and joining in a larger effort to create a regenerative community on Maui.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa caught up with Reichel in that pastoral setting for a wide ranging conversation that included a tip for hikers in Hawaiian forests.

Relocation has begun for some Puna residents forced from their homes by the Kilauea Eruption. Lava has been flowing on the Big Island for more than six weeks now, covering nearly 6,000 acres and destroying more than 500 homes. HPR Reporter Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has this story.

This week on Stargazer, we get a weather report from one of our neighbors in the Solar System as HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence speaks with Christopher Phillips.

The first container-load of solar panels are set to arrive at the Maui College campus in Kahului later this summer. It’s part of a net-zero plan dubbed a “Star Trek” deal that could put the college on the map. During a recent trip to Maui, we thought we would take a closer look at the $6.3 million dollar solar project.

Now that Kilauea Volcano has destroyed hundreds of homes in Puna, some are asking how people were able to purchase and insure homes in such a known high-risk area.

Hawaii has some of the highest construction costs in the nation. But what if there was a source of cheap, locally produced building material that was also good for the environment? It turns out there may, in fact, be one: wood.  Joseph Valenti is an architect and Project Leader for the Hawaii Wood Utilization Team. He recently completed a prototype structure built entirely from albizia, a fast-growing invasive.  

Reggae fusion musician Maxi Priest is back in the islands and spoke with HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence.

This week on Helping Hand, join HPR All Things Considered Host Dave Lawrence for a conversation with Dental Lifeline Network, and one of their volunteer dentists, Dr. Rohinton Patel, Director of Hawaii Pacific Dental Group. Dental Lifeline Network is a national nonprofit providing access to dental care and education for people who cannot afford it and have a permanent disability, or, are elderly, age 65 or older, or, who are medically fragile.

Ted Peck is a veteran of the energy business in Hawai‘i. He's founder of a renewable energy company called Holu Energy, and has made a career out of following hunches.

Hawaiʻi has all the ingredients for a thiving clean energy economy – high energy prices and an abundance of renewable energy sources. But persuading local youth to stay in the islands and help build this economy will be one of the state’s biggest challenges. HPR’s Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi has more.

Nearly 700 attendees are at VERGE-Hawai’i, the Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Summit in Waikiki this week. One of the topics discussed was sustainable tourism.

The ongoing eruption at Kīlauea summit continues to produce ash and gas explosions around once a day. Each is preceded by dozens of relatively small seismic events, but they are not what you might think of as traditional earthquakes.

The Hawai’i Juvenile Justice Information Committee is working to help as many underage offenders as possible to become productive citizens.  As HPR’s Wayne Yoshioka reports, this collaborative effort appears to be producing noteworthy results.

In 1834, just fourteen years after missionaries first arrived in Hawai’i, an estimated 90-95% of Hawaiians could read.  Over a hundred Hawaiian language newspapers all through the Kindgom documented legends, place names, current events and everyday trials and tribulations, including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and lava flows.  HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports.

The State Department of Human Services provides assistance to one in four Hawai’i residents and nearly half of the children.  As HPR’s Wayne Yoshioka reports, the department is attempting to improve the lives of vulnerable families.