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The Conversation: Will Canadian Visitors Return This Winter?

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Canadian visitors not here yet; Hawaii Tourism Authority looks ahead to 2021; Covert Honolulu police unit trailed former medical examiner; Pursuing a career in social work

Credit Hawaii Tourism Authority
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Hawaii Tourism Authority

 Canadian visitors not here yet, but expected in spring

Canadian visitors normally start arriving in the Islands around this time to escape the cold. Many have timeshare units or have invested in condominiums, which they rent out the rest of the year. We reached out to Michael Cuthbertson, managing director of Destination Residences, to check in on the activity with our snowbirds from Canada.

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Michael Cuthbertson, managing director, Destination Residences

Hawaii Tourism Authority looks ahead to 2021

The Hawaii Tourism Authority has been working behind the scenes to generate sparks as we try and recover from this health and economic crisis. The return of travelers has been slow even with the bubbles and the pretest programs that are being established with our international and domestic markets. The recent developments with the vaccine and the news of a mutating virus stand to impact consumer confidence. Industry officials have their eye on summer of next year while hailing the small steps along the way. We talked to Pattie Herman, vice president of marketing and product development at HTA, about how the visitor landscape is shaping up as we move out of 2020 and into 2021.

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Pattie Herman, vice president of marketing and product development, Hawaii Tourism Authority

Credit Nesnad / CC BY 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons
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CC BY 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons

  Covert Honolulu police unit trailed former medical examiner

A secretive intelligence unit used by former Honolulu police chief Louis Kealoha to frame a family member was deployed again by his successor, Chief Susan Ballard, last year to carry out a surveillance operation on Medical Examiner Christopher Happy, who at the time was at odds with Mayor Kirk Caldwell's administration over a lack of productivity and poor conditions at the city morgue. Civil Beat reporter Nick Grube tells us what HPD was looking for and Dr. Happy's reaction to the investigation. Click here to read the story at CivilBeat.org.

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Civil Beat Reporter Nick Grube

Pursuing a career in social work

It is one of the fastest growing professions in the country. We are talking about social work. Social workers look out for the well-being of people by helping to meet basic and complex needs of people in our community. One of their mantras is, "When we take care of each other, we're taking care of ourselves." Producer Lillian Tsang spoke with the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Michael DeMattos - he's the chair of the bachelors program at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. The school will be hosting a webinar in January to connect with people who are interested and would like to pursue the field of social work. Click here for more information.

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Michael DeMattos, Bachelors of Social Work program chair, University of Hawaii at Manoa Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work

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Catherine Cruz is the host of The Conversation. Originally from Guam, she spent more than 30 years at KITV, covering beats from government to education. Contact her at ccruz@hawaiipublicradio.org.
Lillian Tsang is the senior producer of The Conversation. She has been part of the talk show team since it first aired in 2011. Contact her at ltsang@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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