I wanted to give the Star-Bulletin credit for yesterday’s fine front page which featured a large chart of the plunging stock market in orange-brown ink across the top of the page, partly overlapping the headine, “What Now?”

That’s when I discovered that the redesigned Starbulletin.com eliminated the familiar and user friendly list of the last week’s issues and a simple access to the online archive extending back through the history of Starbulletin.com.

In the redesign, there’s no “back issues” or “archive” link visible on the main page. After fumbling around for a while, I discovered “Archives/Historical” in tiny print among options in drop down menus that appear if you happen to move the curser over the section names at the top of the page.

But that archives option isn’t working properly and didn’t display the past week’s issues, at least not in my look this morning.

So I’m sorry, S-B, I won’t be able to give yesterday’s design the full credit it deserves. But maybe it will encourage the web designers to restore “back issues” to the main visible page.

Let’s see. If you have a university affiliation, you can now download a copy of Stanley Ann Dunham’s 1067 page dissertation done at the University of Hawaii, “Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and thriving against all odds”.

A full text PDF (52 MB) is available in the Dissertations & Theses database, formerly known as ProQuest Digital Dissertations.

It’s available to UH students and faculty through the online library collection, and to many universities and colleges around the world as well.

Dunham, of course, also known as Ann Dunham Soetoro, was Barack Obama’s mother who received her PhD from the University of Hawaii.

At first I thought The Great Schlep was mostly a joke (you’ve got to watch the video!). Then I found out that my brother-in-law is schlepping down to Florida to do his part in the last month of the campaign! Go, Peter! And good luck to all the schleppers.

The Star-Bulletin’s Craig Gima has been slowly uncovering the unraveling of the UH West Oahu deal.

Last week, Gima reported that Texas-based Hunt Building Corporation has financial problems in its mainland operations.

In another story today, Gima reports a key fact that was missing in the earlier story. Seems Hunt had submitted a “notice of termination” back in July and the contract to build the new campus legally expired yesterday.

UH-West Oahu Chancellor Gene Awakuni continues with happy talk.

“We’re giving them one last opportunity to come back with a deal that we can find acceptable,” Awakuni said. “If they come back with an offer that is not acceptable, then we go on to plan B and find another partner.”

Perhaps Awakuni hasn’t noticed that the country is experiencing the largest credit crunch since the Great Depression, making it difficult for any developer to replace Hunt in this somewhat speculative deal, at least any time soon.

And up at the Manoa campus, economists have been projecting a worst case analysis of possible revenue shortfalls based on the downturn in excise tax collections, with some now describing a dire scenario with up to a 30 percent budget cut for the UH system along with retrenchment, elimination of some programs, and layoffs.

That scenario would follow a continuing downtrend in travel to the islands. If the economy and travel rebound soon, it may never come to pass.

But I can’t believe we’re still pressing the ultra expensive new campus in West Oahu in such economic circumstances.