KITV’s Keoki Kerr advanced the story of alleged extortion involving Chief of Staff Bob Awana, reporting last that Awana had a “mistress” in the Philippines who he was supporting financially. The report relied on unnamed sources and provided no details of the woman or the relationship. Kerr questioned Awana about the “sexual exploitation” allegation made by the family of the defendant in the case. Awana is quoted as saying: “It’s simply not true.”

But when asked directly whether he had a mistress in the Philippines, Awana said: “I have nothing to add. All of this will come out in the trial.”

There are many outstanding questions, including whether incidents relating to this case occurred during official state travel to the Philippines. I’m also puzzled by the defendant in the case, who does not appear to fit the stereotype of a simple extortionist. He is a computer software professional and was employed at the time of his arrest. Money didn’t seem to necessarily be the central issue. It feels like there’s more going on in this case than is yet apparent. Stay tuned.

In other big news, an AP story about Burger King’s menu expansion into the world of Spam has been making big news across the country and the world.

Charley Memminger comments on the coverage in his column in today’s Star-Bulletin:

» For some reason, the fact that Burger King in Hawaii is adding Spam to its menu was national news. CNN, FOX and other networks all ran stories about Spam being cooked up at Burger King. The tone of all the coverage was pretty much the same: Isn’t Hawaii WEIRD?! It was as if fast-food restaurants here hand out little packets of crack cocaine with every meal. You would think that Burger King serving Spam wouldn’t even be news in Hawaii, let alone New Jersey. What’s weird is that Burger King was the only eatery in Hawaii that DIDN’T serve Spam. McDonald’s has been dishing out Spam for years without ever getting national coverage. At Zippy’s, you have to ask for Spam NOT to be included in your meal, even if you’re ordering donuts. 7-Eleven serves about 4,355 Spam musubis a day at each of its stores.

And from Minnesota, the home of Spam, comes this news:

The person who finds a Spam can autographed by Austin (MN) Mayor Tom Stiehm in a supermarket in Honolulu will get one year’s worth of Spam, or about one can a week.

Stiehm put his signature on the can more than a week ago at city hall when a TV reporter and cameraman from a Fox news station in Honolulu traveled overseas solely to check out Spamtown USA.

“They had me autograph a can of Spam, and then they put it in a briefcase with locks on it,” Stiehm said Monday.

Then the TV reporter’s wrist was handcuffed to the locked briefcase, and he was escorted away by two Austin police officers “because it’s such a valuable can,” Stiehm said.

The filming was for a 30-minute program to be aired June 26 in Hawaii that tells about Austin, the city where Spam is made by Hormel Foods Corp., said Manolo Morales, the KHON-TV reporter for the project.

And still on the subject of Spam, Gail from HawaiiDiner.com comments:

I did want to comment on your SPAM facts. It is a common misconception here that Hawaii has the highest SPAM consumption in the world. This is not the case. It does have the highest per capita consumption for the 50 states. Worldwide the highest per capita consumption is Guam with each person consuming more than 12 pounds per year. A somewhat dubious distinction to be sure.

She also added links to an International Herald Tribune story from several years ago and quite a good blog entry that’s all spammed up.

Well, it’s been 24 hours of pacing, mewing, and nervous energy with all of our nine cats locked inside with us, eight upstairs and the ninth, Mr. Silverman, downstairs in his exclusive “spa”. All this to avoid any possible problems with the termite tenting going on a couple of houses away. The problem is that it’s part of Toby’s territory, and we’ve also had prior sightings of Romeo and Silverman over at there as well. So we’re maintaining the lockdown through today, despite the nearly constant complaining from our feline partners. Perhaps we’re being overly cautious cat parents, but we decided that it would be better to be safe than forever sorry.