This holiday season, many families will gather to celebrate the Japanese New Year’s tradition of making mochi.

You can pick up fresh or frozen mochi from many stores around the state at this time of year. But there’s something special about making it the old fashioned way.

This coming March will be two years since a massive tsunami devastated northern Japan.

Scientists say as much as one and a half million tons of marine debris is still floating across the northern Pacific. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts more debris from the tsunami could reach Hawaii shores as early as this winter.

Hawaii has a problem with plastics that could grow to a crisis. And a nonprofit group wants the Environmental Protection Agency to take action.

The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the EPA to declare the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and its surrounding waters a Superfund site. That would trigger a lengthy process of cleanup with federal money.

A new study shows that Native Hawaiians are more than two and a half times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS than Caucasians.  HIV-infected Native Hawaiians are also three times more likely to be hospitalized.  

Some local markets are offering a bit of extra holiday cheer this season to a group that could use the help. It involves the government assistance program known as EBT—which stands for electronic benefit transfer---and includes the program formerly called “food stamps.”