Legislative sleight of hand: This week, the Senate Ways and Means Committee significantly amended an important bill without any discussion or input from the public. It’s the kind of sneaky maneuver that happens more than it should.

But The Sunshine Blog can’t say it was too surprised about this one, given the players and the circumstances — Sen. Donna Kim and the University of Hawaii.

House Bill 2499 was originally intended to give the UH president authority over construction and related professional services in perpetuity. The president had that power until 2013, when legislators unhappy with how contracts were being awarded gave the authority to the state’s chief procurement officer.

Both UH and the procurement office testified this year in favor of keeping the power where they believe it rightly belongs. UH has it now but wants to make it permanent. Kim, a chronic critic of UH administration, later changed the bill to instead give it to the UH chief financial officer, not the UH president. University officials were OK with that.

But on Thursday WAM quietly amended HB 2499 to give procurement to the dean of the UH College of Engineering. And senators keep adding a sunset date, keeping the authority in limbo.

“Any discussion?” WAM Chair Donovan Dela Cruz asked. There was none, and WAM — which includes Kim — voted unanimously in favor of the furtive switch.

So what’s wrong with this picture?

The dean of the College of Engineering is Brennon Morioka, a guy who many think could be the next president of UH if Kim and her political cabal have their way. Covering their bases maybe?

The amendment will receive no public testimony, and HB 2499 appears headed to the black hole that is conference committee to hash out differences behind closed doors.

So much for promises of greater transparency at the Big Square Building on Beretania.

The shaka emoji: Three Hawaii folks are asking the Unicode Consortium, a Mountain View, California, nonprofit responsible for deciding new emojis, to create a new one representing the iconic shaka hand gesture.

Documentary filmmaker Steve Sue, tech journalist Ryan Ozawa and digital designer Yiying Lu want to distinguish between the shaka — which they say symbolizes “the aloha spirit and Hawaii’s diverse culture” — and the “call me” hand gesture, which has long been an emoji.

Here are the distinctions, according to the shaka hui:

“After five years of researching the shaka, it became clear that the current ‘Call Me’ emoji isn’t accurate to any of the legitimate ways a shaka is thrown,” Sue said in a press release this week. “A dedicated, correct, and fully understood shaka emoji helps unleash the power of the shaka to share peace, love, and happiness around the world.”

The Unicode Consortium is expected to announce a ruling on the proposed emoji by the end of November.

In related news, a bill making the shaka the official Hawaii state gesture is headed to conference committee at the Legislature.

Snail’s pace: The Blog was happy to see that the lowly Hawaii land snail is finally getting the distinction it deserves — on the list of official state this and thats. Hawaii already has an official state fish, flower, three kinds of mammals and a state limu or water plant. So the land snail will be in good company.

House Bill 1899’s preamble lays out the justification:

“The legislature finds that Hawaii’s land snails have a significant role in native ecosystems. Hawaii’s land snails act as fungivores that scrape fungus from plants to promote plant health, decompose decaying material for plant nutrients, and are a major component of intact watershed forest communities. These snails may also serve as a food source for other native species. In Hawaiian culture, snails such as kāhuli, pūpūkanioe, and pūpū kuahiwi have a significant role in native songs, hula, and chants and are a symbol of romance and omens. Furthermore, land snails are among the most threatened of all animal groups in the world, with more recorded extinctions than birds and mammals combined.”

So interesting, right?

And The Blog was probably not the only one who did not know that Gov. Josh Green proclaimed 2023 “the Year of the Kāhuli ” (that’s a snail, see above) which caused the Bishop Museum and school children among others to come up with nine Hawaii land snails — one each for the eight major Hawaiian islands and one more for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands — that are to be honored by adding them to Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 5, aka the list of official state things.

HB 1899 has been passed by the full Legislature and sent to the governor for his signature.

Changing hats: The latest Hawaii media personality to leave the journalism profession for the world of flackdom is Kristine Uyeno, who left KHON2 late last month to become communications director for U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda.

Uyeno, who will be based in Honolulu, will no longer have to rise early for “Wake Up 2Day” but will no doubt have to juggle the time difference with Washington, D.C. The Blog can relate.

Uyeno will no doubt cross paths with Nestor Garcia, the communications director for U.S. Rep. Ed Case. Garcia is also a KHON alum who has the unusual distinction of having served as well in the Hawaii Legislature and on the Honolulu City Council.