We arrived in Maui at 9 a.m. Rex Von Arnswaldt and I went to Costco. It was very busy. Customers are buying up essentials: water, toilet paper, canned food and more.

We met with Mayor Charmaine Tavares after that. She said she will call the storm “Fickle Felicia” since it has changed directions several times.

Tavares said she is concerned about Hana, Kaupo side of the Valley Isle because the area is prone to landslides and flooding.

Tavares said the biggest challenge for Maui County is to figure out what to prepare for because the county covers three islands. She said there are also remote locations on Maui that are hidden.

Despite the oncoming threat, Maui had a beautiful day after some showers in the morning.

Here are a few insights from Dan on our KITV4 Twitter account:

Arrived in Hilo at 9am. Hot & humid. Overcast with drizzles. Went to Ken’s PAncake House & most people are not overly concerned.

Just left Hawaii Civil Defense. Quince Mento told us the Felicia has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is veering to the Northwest.

Hilo town is dead. No windows boarded up or sandbags. They are actually holding a surf contest today at Honoli’i. Weather is calm.heavy rain up to 12 inches in six hour period, is expected to Start hitting Monday, 5pm but that is subject to change.

I’m truly honored and excited to be covering the Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C.  I just received some sobering news from our Shaun Neville, the Special Projects Producer for Hearst-Argyle, which is our Washington bureau where we will be working out of.

“What I can share with you is that this is setting up to be a logistical nightmare.  Secret Service announced perimeter restrictions yesterday and they are the most extreme ever implemented.  Various bridges from Virginia and Maryland will be closed to traffic and Metro is expected to be jammed… Traffic is expected to be very heavy.  I can tell you that folks here at the Bureau are adding 2-3 hours to their commuting time in fear that the crowd estimates of 1-3 million are accurate,” said Neville.

I personally am up to the challenge both mentally and physically.  These trips require an incredible amount of stamina and I can sleep later.  Many people don’t want to deal with the hassels but I thrive off of assignments like this.  This is an important time for our nation and I’m determined to bring the best stories to you!

aloha,

Mahealani Richardson

It’s coming soon and I’ll be blogging and twittering. Stay tuned!

Are my eyes deceiving me? Mahealani Richardson did the 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. news today, and NOW she’s doing the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. shows!! What a trooper!

Clayton Wakida
KITV 4 Island Television News This Morning Producer

Looks like I’m the only one left blogging.

It was a fun Aloha Friday morning. The folks from Jamba Juice were outside our KITV studios today handing out free Acai smoothies. It was great! I remember one van with all of these kids coming out to get one each! It was like a clown car!

Great to also have comedian Bill Bellamy and Bill Maloney from Ohana Road showing off the new Mazda 6.

Clayton Wakida
KITV Producer

Sorry, for not keeping our Island Breakfast Blog “fresh.” I got to get on those anchors to blog more often. Since the transition to WordPress, I forgot my login but now I’m all set to blog.

A friend convinced me to go to the Sen. Barack Obama rally this past Friday. I’m not necessarily a supporter but I went for the historical significance of the event. Obama might also be the only viable presidential candidate I’ll see in my lifetime who was born and raised in Hawaii.

Here’s some pictures I took with my iPhone 3G:

Not bad for a 2MP camera phone with no autofocus or flash. I did crop the pictures, though.

It was a hot, yet windy, day at Keehi Lagoon. I got a nice suntan while waiting for the Obama family, who was 45 minutes late. I’m just glad his speech was fairly quick. I liked when he talked about getting some local food.

I did manage to record some video using my Canon digital camera. Unfortunately, I recorded the beginning, end and one awkward part in the middle when Obama talked about health care. But, I edited together what I had. I’m sure our live broadcast on KITV and kitv.com was much better. But, here’s my personal Obama rally video:

Clayton Wakida
KITV 4 Island Television News This Morning Producer

My props to head football coach Greg McMackin.  I think he was a boxer in a former life.  It’s always great seeing him and according to the coach, he’ll never forget the time when I was camping out in front of June Jones’ office waiting for his resignation.  I blocked McMackin from entering a door with my foot so that we in the media could try to get an interview from him since he was a leading candidate.  Anyway, I had no idea that when we did this boxing fitness segment with him that he’d hit so hard.  The video says it all.  My lipstick ended up on the punching bag.

http://www.kitv.com/video/16811621/index.html

aloha,

Mahealani

mahea@kitv.com

Here’s Ryan’s 2008 fall.

http://www.kitv.com/video/16137151/index.html

Here’s my fall from 2006

http://www.kitv.com/video/10105391/index.html

aloha,

Mahealanimahea@kitv.com

Ho. We it was a rollercoaster of a ride on Tuesday.

 We had David Farmer on. Yes I thought he was the running back from UH too at first. This David Farmer is the bankruptcy attorney for Aloha Airlines. He nearly broke down during an interview on KITV right after the demise of Aloha Airlines (Demise is this month’s hip word in Hawaii). One of our very cool coworkers set up a live interview with Farmer the next morning. He came in and during a live morning show interview proclaimed that 900 Aloha employees who work for the contract services division were also out of work. STOP THE PRESSES. The division was sold to Pacific Air Cargo. The deal would be finalized on Monday and now  900 MORE Aloha employees were out of jobs before anyone had a chance to sign on the dotted line. So instead of 2300 Aloha employees on the street … it was actually 3200 local residents. That wasn’t in the daily papers. No one had reported that! I miss the interview because I was preparing for another segment (we don’t wing it the entire time). Mahea told me just before the segment that had nothing to do with Aloha started. My mind was racing. It was 6:15 AM. We had to change everything. And change it we did. We blew out our regular Headlines at 6:30 segment which we do at the top each half hour and replaced with interview with Mr. Farmer. I watch and think … we are killing everybody. The papers, our morning show TV competitors, everyone! This is today’s big story and you heard it first right here on ‘KITV 4 Your Island Television News This Morning.”

Hours later when I return from the predictable story of how busy Hawaiian Airlines Cargo is now … Mahea breaks it to me. Farmer made a mistake. He was wrong about ? services. There jobs were safe and secure because the sale of Pacific Air was literally protected by the bankruptcy court. Farmer apologized. I don’t blame him. Anyone who’s watched me on the air knows I’ve made a mistake or two … or three. He was caught in an emotional situation on very little rest and was quoted the law. A … what I thought was a feather in the show’s cap … turned out to be a poke in the eye.

And off into the space that one goes.

I responded by waking up the next morning … going to work … and looking for another way to trump my competitors