I periodically check what’s being said about Hawaii and things Hawaiian in the mainland news. Here are some recent examples plucked from a quick search this Monday morning. It’s a little slow out there, but still of interest.

“Could Hawaii Become A Same-Sex Wedding Destination?” National Public Radio.

“Same-sex couples will be attracted to Hawaii for the same reasons that opposite-sex couples are attracted to Hawaii,” says Sumner La Croix, an economist at the University of Hawaii. “It’s the great weather, it’s the warm water, it’s the beautiful scenery. And it’s also the aloha spirit.”

La Croix estimates that over the next three years, gay marriage will boost tourism in Hawaii by $217 million. Unlike some other states with marriage equality laws, Hawaii already has a booming tourism industry. La Croix believes that gives Hawaii an advantage.

“The machinery of marriage is already in place here. There are hotels that are in the marriage business,” he says. “They’re used to catering to couples who are honeymooning or want to get married or are celebrating a marriage. There are wedding photographers. There are caterers. There’s a large number of firms that are specialized in the marriage business.”

“Hawaii Hope: A new probation program beats the statistics,” PBS Newshour Weekend.

JUDGE STEVEN ALM: I thought to myself, well, what would work to change behavior? And I thought of the way I was raised, the way my wife and I would– were trying to raise our son. You tell him what the family rules are, and then, if there’s misbehavior, you do something immediately. Swift and certain is what’s gonna get people’s attention and help them tie together bad behavior with a consequence and learn from it.

JUDGE STEVEN ALM: Do you need to sit in jail any longer to realize how seriously we’re gonna take all this stuff?

MEGAN THOMPSON: Despite all the tough talk, Judge Alm called his new program “HOPE.” It stands for “Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement.” Judge Alm worked with the probation supervisor, public defender and law enforcement to institute his new procedures, which were pretty simple: if any probationer violated the rules, they’d be punished immediately.

“Hawaiian baritone making his mark at Chicago’s Lyric Opera,” Daily Herald (Suburban Chicago).

There are baritones who sing opera, and then there are “Verdi baritones.” Quinn Kelsey has no doubts about which camp he is in.

“I’m definitely a Verdi baritone,” Kelsey said in an interview last weekend at his home here. Fitting into that category requires a voice of a certain size and power, he said, but something more as well: “It’s a quality one has to have in the voice, a kind of a noble timbre. It has to have a very large space, what you would think of when you think of how a king would sing.”

…

Kelsey was born in Honolulu into a musical family. His father is of Anglo-European descent and his mother’s family is half-Hawaiian and half-Filipino. That makes him one of a very few singers of Hawaiian ancestry to have risen to prominence on the international opera scene.

He was bitten by the performing bug at age 13, before his voice had even changed, when Hawaii Opera Theater was looking to amplify its men’s chorus for a production of “Aida.”

“I got to sing as a tenor in the priest’s chorus,” he recalled. “To have that view, from the stage down to the audience … there was an attraction, there was a draw to it. That was kind of the beginning of the end.”

Kelsey studied voice in college in Honolulu and joined a vocal studio at the opera company, where he met well-known singers such as Denyce Graves, Marilyn Horne and the late Jerry Hadley. He apprenticed at Chautauqua in New York and the Merola program in San Francisco before coming to the Lyric, which he considers his artistic home.

He’s married to an opera singer, soprano Marjorie Owens, who is currently under contract in Dresden, Germany. With both of them scheduled months and even years in advance, they face the same challenges as many married performing couples.

“Hawaiian Telcom Holdco (HCOM) Catches Eye: Stock Moves 5.6% Higher“, Zachs.com

Last week, while readers here compared experiences with both Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telcom, Zachs noted strength in Hawaiian Telcom’s stock and, according to this article, considers the company a “strong buy.”

“Newtown Connections In A Hawaiian Classroom,” The Newtown Bee

Elizabeth O’Brien, a former Newtown resident who now lives and works in Hawaii, received an e-mail from a co-worker on Tuesday, November 19.

The coworker had attended a conference over the previous weekend, and met Scarlett Lewis — the mother of Jesse Lewis, one of the 12/14 victims. Ms Lewis recently published a book, Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother’s Journey of Hope & Forgiveness based on “an unexpected journey, inspired by a simple three-word message he had scrawled on their kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died: Norurting Helin Love (Nurturing Healing Love),” a description for the book reads.

Ms O’Brien’s co-worker and Ms Lewis had both spoken at the conference, and, as Ms O’Brien learned, Ms Lewis agreed to visit Kahalu’u Elementary School.

And it seems Hawaiian food is always a draw.

“Hawaiian in Manhattan Valley–Makana Serves Hawaiian Classics in Up-and-Coming Neighborhoods,” Wall Street Journal.

Partners Dave Chan and Dave Hom originally opened Makana “to fill our own appetites,” and eventually realized they might make some money off the deal.

The native New Yorkers ate a lot of Hawaiian food while living on the West Coast.

“When we came back, we noticed there wasn’t anything like it,” said Mr. Chan. “At least nothing like we experienced out there.”

Spam masubi marries teriyaki-glazed Spam, rice and seaweed. Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal

Makana’s Manhattan Valley outpost opened in September. The expansion from East Harlem is in keeping with the business plan, Mr. Chan said: “Go into up-and-coming neighborhoods and grow with them,” adding that there is beginning to be a bit of “a restaurant scene” in the new spot’s neighborhood.

“HAWAIIAN FUSION,” Las Vegas City Life.

Braddah’s Island Style, 2330 S. Rainbow Blvd., is a new local concept (already finalizing a second location) that was conceived by an ex-Chipotle employee, and the connection is obvious: a simple, well-explained assembly line counter where you combine ingredients of your choice into a healthy savory alternative that’s only a dollar or two more than McDonald’s, KFC or El Pollo Loco — if that (prices range from $6.25 to $7.60).

Hawaiian food in particular is due for a healthy makeover. Plate lunch style Hawaiian is one of the most underappreciated ethnic options in Vegas, and thanks to our “11th Island” status, there are many solid places to get poke, lau lau and loco moco here. But tradition often pushes a cuisine with generally balanced offerings into the territory of huge portions with too much added sugar, fat and salt.

Braddah’s on the surface looks to follow suit, but it’s more Hawaiian-inspired, combining it with Mexican trimmings, and a nod to California freshness. So, instead of typical Hawaiian sticky rice, you get brown rice, with seaweed if desired (adding a nice savory element as well as health benefits). On that, you pile “huli huli” chicken, Kalua pig (pulled pork), “Pulehu” Steak (flank, marinated in hoisin and Chinese five spice), grilled cod or grilled veggies, then top with typical Mexican trimmings and some cross-cultural salsas (charred pineapple verde; mango & roasted corn or tomato with grilled Maui onion) in your choice of a bowl, burrito (white flour or whole wheat tortilla), romaine lettuce salad or three taco plate (corn or flour tortillas).

“Marana getting Hawaiian restaurant next month,” Arizona Daily Star.

The restaurant, in Marana’s Cortaro Plaza anchored by Basha’s supermarket, will be Mama’s third location. It opened its first on East Speedway near the University of Arizona in 2010 and a sister restaurant in Sahuarita last year.

Mama’s serves a menu of Hawaiian island specialties many of them flecked with pineapples including a chicken salad and a tantalizing pineapple salsa.

“A Love Letter to L.A., From Its Street-Food King,” The Atlantic.

In the years since Kogi, you’ve been influenced by other places. You’ve gone from urban street food and rice bowls to, more recently, Hawaiian- and tropics-inspired. What specific experiences or people brought you there?

After Kogi, I started to open myself up more to cuisines that really interested me but I never thought I could translate into a restaurant: Hawaiian food and the feeling of aloha, the way people eat in the South Pacific, the way food’s eaten and shared, and the Caribbean islands as well. With the rice bowls at Chego, it was an exploration of the food we grew up with in our refrigerators. Chego was kind of college dorm food, everything under $10, good food packaged like fast food. Looking at how a lot of Asian kids grow up, it’s a double life: peanut butter and jelly at school and stinky tofu at home. I wanted to put all of that out there, and show people that they’d really love it. It’s a hodgepodge of all the stuff in our fridges: sesame oil, vegetables, eggs, sriracha, pork and beef leftovers, peanuts, herbs, chili paste.

“A foodies’ guide to Hawaii,” Travel Weekly.

t’s not just the little vendors plating up all the regional cuisine. Increasingly, the big hotels order directly from the growers, priding themselves on their Maui onion creations, masses of fresh pineapples, coconuts, papayas, island grown bananas and avocados as well as soft taro breads and locally grown kale.