Off the Hawaii Adjutant General’s Facebook page
Col. Leah Botona Boling continues to make historic changes for Asian Americans Pacific Islanders (AAPI and female service members as she advances in her career. Originally as the first female chaplain in Hawaii Air National Guard history, and now as the first female and person of color to serve as director of the Air National Guard Chaplain Corps at the Air National Guard Readiness Center, Maryland, Col. Boling represents everything the Hawaii National Guard hopes its members achieve.
We are proud to celebrate the heritage and diversity of the Hawai‘i National Guard, and look forward to what else Col. Boling will accomplish with the ANG.
The Kūkā‘ilimoku is the official e-newsletter of the 154th Wing, Hawaii Air National Guard. The first issue came in September 1957 and continues as an e-newsletter today.
Today we feature the September 1997 Kūkā‘ilimoku issue. This issue includes the following stories:
* 154th Wing Successful in Combat Employment Readiness Exercise (CERI)
* CERI Outstanding Performers include: Mitchell Tanaka, Russell Amina, Alan Umeda
You may be wondering about your chances that the IRS will audit your return. Most people can breathe easily because the vast majority of individual returns escape the audit machine. The IRS audited only 0.4% of all individual tax returns in 2019. Over 70% of these audits were handled solely by mail, meaning taxpayers never met with an IRS agent in person. And the individual audit rate was even lower for 2020.
But this doesn’t mean it’s a tax cheat free-for-all. The bad news is that your chances at the unenviable audit lottery escalate (sometimes significantly) depending on various factors, including the complexity of your return, the types and amounts of deductions or other tax breaks you claim, whether you’re engaged in a business, or whether you own foreign assets. Math errors could also draw an extra look from the IRS, but they usually don’t lead to a full-blown exam. In the end, there’s no sure way to predict an IRS audit, but these 21 red flags could certainly increase your chances of drawing unwanted attention from the IRS.
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss — affecting more than 10 million Americans. What you need to know:
Today, on Gold Star Mothers Day and Gold Star Families Day, we recognize those who have lost loved ones in the defense of freedom and our nation. Their courage continues to remain strong in the face of such great sacrifice, and today, we Honor Them.
The payroll keeps growing, but the number of public employees in state government has been stable over the last decade.
And while many pay raises have recently been deferred, not even the coronavirus pandemic has changed the size of the workforce significantly.
There were about 48,600 state workers when fiscal year 2022 began July 1, according to employee salary information provided to Civil Beat by government agencies. That total was about 49,000 for fiscal year 2011, and it has hovered around 50,000 for the years in between.
But the salaries paid to Hawaii’s educators, correctional officers, legislators and other state workers have risen steadily over much of the same period.
Continue reading There is a link to a database to listing the salaries of State employees
From the Hawaiian Airlines Manao website
When First Officer Russell Flynn and Flight Attendant Maydell Morgan learned Hawaiian Airlines would be helping relocate thousands of Afghans escaping the Taliban regime, they considered the mission a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give back. The important job they’d been tasked with had instilled in them a sense of urgency and kuleana (responsibility) to share our Hawaiian hospitality with refugees on the first leg of a long journey toward rebuilding their lives in the United States.
Flynn and Morgan joined fellow crewmembers and a support team earlier this month to operate a series of Hawaiian charter flights under the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), a U.S. Department of Defense program that enlists commercial airlines to augment air lift during emergencies that exceed the military’s capabilities.
Great story about the Hawaiian team members reacted in trying and confusing times.
Retirement is something each of us must plan for. Not surprisingly, you want to make sure you’ll have enough income to last throughout your lifetime. Theoretically, if you plan well, you could even retire early. Perhaps you’ve sold your business for a profit, maximized your retirement account contributions, invested in non-qualified accounts, and own multiple rental properties.
In such a perfect scenario, you could take a blended distribution from various accounts and investments, allowing your money to continue to grow in tax-sensitive ways. On the other hand, taking distributions from your retirement accounts before age 59½ could cause you to owe the IRS a 10% early distribution penalty. However, there are a few conditions in which the government will waive that 10% early retirement penalty.
Before I continue, I’d like to make one thing clear. The purpose of this article is to inform you of ways you might be able to avoid the 10% income tax penalty. If you take money from your qualified retirement accounts early, you will still pay ordinary income taxes on that money. You cannot avoid that.
From the Everyday Health website
If you’re one of the 94 million American adults living with high cholesterol, you’ve no doubt heard how important it is to follow lifestyle habits such as a healthy diet and exercise. Doing so can help lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol and
triglycerides, a form of fat that’s in the blood, as well as help raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol levels.
From the Frolic Hawaii website
I’m in love with chirashi. It’s a recent obsession: I was running around in a frenzy of errands when I spotted a rare mid-afternoon chirashi bowl among the chilled bentos at Nijiya Market and grabbed it. As I wolfed it down in the back seat of my car, its goodness halted my chopsticks—deep red slices of akami of maguro, smooth and sinew-free; silken crunches of akagai and other shellfish from Japan; a generous mound of ikura. The rice, even cold, was sweet and lightly, perfectly seasoned, every grain distinct.
It’s now a mission of my food life to relive those moments, in places outside sushi bars. Chirashi, in my opinion, is for lunch; at a sushi bar I want the leisure and surprises of omakase. Happily, I have yet to find a chirashi bowl I don’t like. If slices are thin, I don’t care, as long as they’re interesting and fresh. And where I used to crave adventure from a bowl of chirashi, reveling in anything that wasn’t the usual ‘ahi, salmon and hamachi (because why, Hawai‘i? Why, living on reef-fringed islands surrounded by seasonal seafood, do we eat the same few things all year?), now I’ve come to appreciate these, too. A bowl of chirashi without ‘ahi, salmon and hamachi lacks an elemental Hawai‘i-ness.
You’ll find these seven bowls in food courts, poke shops and yes, a supermarket.
The world is reopening, travel to many countries is now possible, and civilian flights have resumed their routes. Many military families are now asking, “When will Space-Available (Space-A) travel reopen?” We posed this question to Air Mobility Command and here, we will share their response, plus help you prepare for the eventual resumption of this popular benefit.
As many in the military community know, Space-A has been restricted due to COVID-19 since March 2020, and as of this writing, it is still only an option for active duty on emergency leave and a few other specific cases. All other travelers require an Exception to Policy letter from an O-6 or higher.
From the National Guard Association of the United States website
House lawmakers have begun considering the annual defense policy bill, with debates and votes on dozens of amendments likely stretching well into the week.
More than 800 potential amendments have been submitted for the House version of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, which currently adds $24 billion to what the Pentagon requested earlier this year.
The funding increase will likely be a point of debate with progressive Democrats pushing to revert to a smaller bill. The House Rules Committee will also consider amendments to the bill starting this week.
Several of the amendments would have a direct impact on National Guard leaders, programs and services.
Among them are provisions that would help elevate the role of the chief of the National Guard Bureau. One amendment would expand the Armed Forces Policy Council to include the chief. Another would add the chief to the list of officers that can be selected by the president to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
From the Medical News Today website
All chili peppers and bell peppers belong to the genus Capsicum. People around the world use Capiscum in traditional medicine, and preliminary research suggests it may have value in Western medicine.
The main active ingredient in many varieties of chili peppers is capsaicin, which is responsible for their characteristic hot flavor, or pungency. Capsaicin and other Capsicum compounds have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Studies indicate Capsicum, including capsaicin, may help reduce pain and lower the risk of metabolic syndrome and cancer. Research also implies it may reduce the risk of death, as well as fight bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics.
Keep reading to learn more about the nutritional content and health benefits of Capsicum.
On September 24, 2010, the 418th Flight Test Squadron concluded flight testing to evaluate medications on the C-17 Globemaster III formation flight system (FFS). The system enabled pilots to monitor and fly the large transport information with other C-17s at the same altitude and distance in any weather condition. The FFS testing took about two weeks to complete at Edwards AFB, California.
Retiree News 