We learned something this morning. It was very clear, with almost no visible clouds. Seconds before this photo was taken, as the sun just began to clear the edge of Koko Crater, there was a clearly visible sliver of a green flash. For a fraction of a second, it clung to the visual edge of the crater before being overtaken by the emerging sunrise.

So we can see the green flash at dawn from Kahala Beach, even though the sun isn’t rising out of the ocean. It’s different from the situation in Kaaawa, where the flash came as the sun rose over the ocean.

A small thing, but it did provide us a moment of excitement.

And then a media comment. Here’s a story headline from the Star-Advertiser that got caught up in my “bad headline” filter.

The article describes a proposal by U.S. Rep. Mark Takai’s to utilize unspent federal highway funds to rebuilt Farrington and Kamehameha highways in Pearl City after construction of the city’s rail project is completed in the area.

It just struck me that the headline’s attribution of the idea to a “politician” was unnecessarily disrespectful to Takai, who represents Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District.

Yes, Takai is an elected official and, by definition, a politician. But he’s not any run of the mill politician. He’s our area’s elected representative in Congress.

Why not a headline that refers to his position, “Congressman,” or used his name, “Mark Takai,” or just last name, “Takai.”

Another story that caught my eye was Sophie Cocke’s investigative piece on overtime pay to several DOH accounting staff (“Several Department of Health workers have raked in overtime pay amid dubious circumstances“). It was a good piece of enterprise reporting, indicating that recruiting Cocke from Civil Beat will give the S-A a reporting boost.

It’s a solid story. Substantial overtime pay without adequate documentation of work done, hours spent, etc., etc.

But after reading the story, I did wonder whether this was one of those offices where budget and staffing was cut to the bone during the Lingle years and the rest of the 2008-2009 recession, leaving those remaining staff to somehow cover an increasing, and increasingly complex, workload, with millions of dollars at risk if the work didn’t somehow get done.

That would be a different story than the implied wrongdoing by DOH staff conveyed by Sunday’s piece.

Perhaps a follow-up is in order to fill in that piece of the puzzle.