Yesterday started with a walk at dawn through the grim vigil on the beach in Kaaawa where searchers and family members of the missing teenager from Kailua had waited through the night to renew their efforts at first light. Click here for a couple of photos of the scene.

Later in the morning, after we scattered my brother-in-laws ashes in the ocean off of Diamond Head, we were joined be several large sea turtles and a number of dolphins that swam alongside the boat. It was, I suppose, a nice way for Ray to be welcomed to a place where life goes on.

In other affairs…I was surprised to find that at least a number of House members had seen the Superferry’s survey by the time the caucus met last week. The survey had been widely publicized as well as criticized, but when I went looking to see the content of what had actually been distributed to legislators, I didn’t find a copy. Does its absence mean anything? Who knows.

Thinking about it over the weekend, I realized that there’s nothing strange about the demand for a wide ranging environmental impact statement. It isn’t a foreign concept. After all, if this really was an interisland freeway, as the Superferry has referred to itself, the proposed new highway would certainly have to face an extended EIS covering not only its physical structure but also its community impact, its contribution to development, its consistency or inconsistency with development plans, and other miscellaneous community concerns. If the concrete and asphalt highway gets that kind of review, why not the ocean highway?

In media news, there were a number of announcements last week of the Chauncey Bailey Project, a cooperative investigative project probing the murder of the Oakland editor.

Gannett’s stock price is among those at 52-week lows, according to this site which tracks such things.

How does the rise in the Canadian dollar affect David Black’s publishing empire? I suppose if he reports in Canadian dollars, then the Star-Bulletin’s losses will cause less of a drag on the company. It also means that acquisitions in the U.S. will be more affordable. Perhaps the financial geniuses among you can expand on this a bit.

And Editor & Publisher reports that Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley faces a contested election for the first time in more than a decade.

And so it goes on this Monday morning.