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Homelessness in Hawaii, particularly in the capital Honolulu, has become a top concern for state officials. To combat this, the Hawaii state government has created an antidote – the “Return to Home” initiative. Ideally, this program will help solve the economic strain homelessness has placed on Hawaii’s state economy by providing the volunteering-homeless a one-way plane ticket back to the mainland, announced the State’s Department of Human Services in July, reports NPR. Although no final decisions have been made, the plan will give the state legislature $100,000 annually for first three years of the program to send homeless back to their families in the mainland, the NPR online article says. Of course, the people must leave voluntarily, but will be given a one-way plane ticket to be reunited with their families, if they choose. Homelessness is a key contributor to several larger governmental issues in Hawaii including; public health and safety, social justice, and civil liberties issues, as well as a hindrance on the reliable tourism industry of Hawaii says NPR. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in an interview conducted with NPR, “It costs Hawaii about $11 million a year to run 35 local homeless housing and service programs -- services that homeless residents desperately need.” The initiative plans to save taxpayers money by drastically reducing state services. “If Hawaii successfully reunited 100 homeless with their families on the mainland, this would easily save millions of dollars in welfare benefits/taxpayer costs,” said John Mizuno, vice speaker of the State House of Representatives to “Forbes Magazine.” Hawaii’s public beaches and steady, comfortable climate attract tourists and travelers all over the world. Connie Mitchell, executive director of the Summer Homeless Men’s Shelter in Honolulu, told NPR: “We are a tourist destination that attracts people who are homeless or people who have resources, and that’s something that we really can’t control.” The problem is that not all of Hawaii’s visitors leave. According to AP, “Homelessness increased 15 percent on Oahu since last year according to a recent report. A growing number of homeless are not from Hawaii but make the most of their situation by taking advantage of inviting beaches and support services. State lawmakers are struggling with the visible problem of homelessness in tourist areas and some have proposed a contentious idea to use state money to fly the homeless back to wherever they came from.” Sherry Menor-McNamara, chief operating officer of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, estimates the cost of providing for one homeless person in Hawaii is “about $1,500 to $3,000 per month.” Instead of monthly assistance from the state, a one-way plane ticket is a cheaper and more permanent solution, says state officials. The largest problem facing the homeless initiative is identification. The homeless are quite frequently living without any legal documentation or papers which makes tracking down a home a difficult task. A lack of identification makes it nearly impossible to track any family or relatives back on the mainland as well. The Mitchell told NPR “one-third of the people who stay [in Hawaii] come from out of state.” According to Menor-McNamara, only 42 percent of all homeless people are actually from Hawaii. The plan still faces great opposition from skeptics claiming that this approach will not solve the issue of homelessness, but will simply relocate the issue to another place.

BYU-Hawaii presents the Lifetime Weight Management Program challenge starting in March where faculty members are urged to participate in staying healthy by regular exercise and a healthy diet, says Human Resources staff members. Students are welcome to join and gain a better understanding of a proper health and wellness routine. Dr. Werner Hoeger, who has published 54 editions of Fitness & Wellness college textbooks, said, “When people set their own body weight, they should be realistic… There is no such thing as ‘the ideal body weight.’ Everyone is different. Stick with a program for the rest of your life…a lifetime of exercise and dietary changes.”The media has the great influence on people’s perception of an ideal body weight. People use fashion, fitness, and beauty magazine to determine what they should look like. But they may not have the genes to achieve the body weight they see in the media. So when people set their own body weight goals, they should be realistic. According to Hoeger, “Food deprivation has been shown to decrease your metabolic rate by 12 to 30 percent…The body doesn't know you are trying to lose weight…So the body is trying to survive and it slows everything down…You affect your metabolic rate and it changes the amount of energy you burn. If you are on a crash diet and you exercise, your body will try not to lose as many calories because it’s trying to keep you alive… versus when you eat regular meals, your body will burn more calories as you exercise.” Make sure you count calories. There is no other way said Hoeger, “measure your servings…keep track of nutrients and calories consumed. Make the effort. If you are not willing to make this sacrifice, then don't even bother to lose weight“For most people who are fasting, all they lose is mostly just lean body mass and barely any fat. Rather moderate diet and exercise will help you lose fat …when you gain weight you gain lean body mass to carry and hold on the extra pounds… if you are not willing to do physical activity then don't even bother trying to lose weight.. Don’t be afraid to exercise …physical activity, bring it on!” he said excitedly. Decreasing total fat intake for good, using primarily healthy fats, and learning to make wise food choices are what “our target is for the program’s audience. We welcome whomever wants to come and listen…We try to get different guest speakers and have a workshop every quarter,” said Jeannie Lawrence, from Human Resources. The human mind wants instant gratification, and people don't think about the long-term effects of what they eat and do. Tonga Lauaki, a freshman from Seattle, Wash., majoring in International Cultural Studies, said, “I learned a lot about the statistics when it comes to calories…What you eat is what you are, except that you have to learn how to balance. I liked his logo of ‘junior size’ instead of ‘super sized,’ and I work at McDonald’s so it’s really hit me…We can eat whatever we want. It’s the amount we eat that determines the weight we put on and being consistent with our physical activities.”

From 41 years of experience as a librarian in the Church Education System, Riley Moffat knows about books and has even written them. He said about 10 of his books on maps and history can be found in the BYU-Hawaii Library.“I’ve been mostly a librarian,” said Moffat. “In the South Pacific, I was the director of Library Services for church schools in Tonga, and when they were building new schools in Samoa and Fiji, I would design the library and train the people to work in them.” After retiring from the BYUH Library in June 2014 as head of reference, Moffat said he continues to research and write about the history of the LDS Church in the Pacific and is staying busy in retirement. “My wife and I have been volunteering in New Zealand for the past few months at the new branch of the LDS Church history library down there,” he said, where they have been cataloging oral histories and other assignments. “Over the years you get all these projects you want to do,” he said.In addition to that, “I’m also working on a history of what’s called the Maori Agricultural College. The church had a high school about 80 or 90 years ago, which was destroyed by an earthquake and was never rebuilt,” said Moffat. Moffat is currently working with BYU Provo Religion Professor Fred Woods on “a guidebook to LDS Church history sites around around the Hawaiian Islands. I just got back from Maui, trying to find sites of old chapels and talking to old timers about what it was like when you just had a little wooden church,” he said. Moffat said he is planning to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Laie Hawaii Temple, coming up in 2019, and this year’s celebration of the 150th anniversary since the LDS Church bought the Laie Plantation on Jan. 26, 1865. Activities are being planned for later this year to celebrate this milestone.Writing histories and gathering information about the past has been an integral part to Moffat’s life in libraries. That life started with his mother, who was the library director at BYUH when it was Church College of Hawaii. “That is what brought us to Hawaii,” he said.Moffat has continued the family profession. “It was an honest way of making a decent living. Living in the library world for the last 40 years has been fun. You don’t have to know all the answers, but you are supposed to know how to find the answers or help people find the answers,” said Moffat. Moffat has seen a lot of change in the library over the course of his career. “When I first came here back in the ‘60s, the wind just blew threw the windows and you’d have to go through the collection periodically and wipe down the leather spines with alcohol because the mold would grow in the books.” They stopped doing that, he said, when the library conditions could be controlled with air conditioning.Cold kills insects and mold, so it is good for book preservation. “In the library, we apologize that it’s cold, but that is the way the books like it. You can put a coat on. The books can’t,” said Moffat with a laugh.Paper books still need to be cared for despite all of the information online, said Moffat. “Be aware that for some of the most important information, you’ll still have to see a paper book.” The reason is not all books will ever be digitized, said Moffat. “New books may come out as an electronic version and paper version, but not everybody, because of copyright laws and demand, is going to go back and scan or digitize the old books, unless they are really old and out of copyright.”“We realized electronic information is more popular and easier to use in some cases. We have been able to replace almost all of our paper periodicals and magazine subscriptions to electronic. That’s where I think most of the students here are going for good information. We always had a challenge teaching that Google can give you a million answers but maybe only two or three are the right ones,” he said. Students need to learn “how to be discerning consumers of digital information,” he continued, “and how to recognize a scholarly journal instead of pulp.”He explained why hard copy books can be more reliable than Google. “When you are putting up money to publish the book, the printer usually has quality control. Especially if, for example, the book is published by a university, they’ll be very careful to make sure that they are not going to publish anything that is really bad and get a bad reputation. They are not going to spend the money to print it and try to market it unless they are confident that it is providing the most accurate information.”Uploaded Feb. 26, 2015.