50-year-old time capsule removed from Capitol wall
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii officials have located a time capsule that was entombed in a wall of the state Capitol a half-century ago.
Information had been lost about exactly where the time capsule was sealed.
“We didn’t know where it really was, and upon doing more research, we found out it was in one of the corners of the Capitol behind a plaque,” said state Sen. Brian Taniguchi, who is chairman of the Capitol’s 50th anniversary.
A group spent nearly 30 hours carefully drilling a hole into the building.
There were no instructions for how to remove the capsule, said Adam Jansen, state archivist.
“There were moments of doubt. Once they hit three inches, we were seriously wondering if we were drilling in the right place, because we didn’t know if it was going to be a small capsule,” he said.
After a slow process of removing concrete layers, they removed the 20-pound copper box.
It contains governmental records from when Hawaii was transitioning into a U.S. state, Jansen said.
Hawaii became a state in 1959. The downtown Honolulu building opened in 1969.
The public won’t be able to view the items until the anniversary in March.
“It maintained extremely well,” Jansen said, “which is why we have high expectation the contents will be in very good shape.”
Governor-elect of Guam wants cockfighting to remain legal
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Cockfighting is an important Guam tradition that must remain legal, the U.S. territory’s governor-elect said in vowing to work to repeal a likely ban imposed by the U.S. government.
While cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states, territories have been allowed to set their own rules on the activity, which involves placing bets on the outcome of fights between roosters with razors strapped to their legs.
The ban also will apply to territories if President Donald Trump signs a farm bill approved by Congress, which he’s expected to do next week.
“Cockfighting has historical significance on Guam and continues to be a regulated practice today,” said Gov.-elect Lou Leon Guerrero, who takes office Jan. 7. “Despite our community’s collective efforts in expressing clear opposition to such a ban at the highest levels of government, we were once again ignored.”
The island’s annual Liberation Day carnival typically includes a cockfighting pit, Pacific Daily News reported Saturday. It’s believed Filipino immigrants brought cockfighting to Guam during the early 1800s.
Annie Harvilicz, president of the Animal Wellness Foundation, has called staged animal fights “disgraceful and barbaric.”
“It is insulting for apologists of dog fighting and cockfighting to claim there is a cultural right to conduct these activities,” she said in May.
If the law is changed, those who sponsor or exhibit birds in a cockfight face a fine and a maximum prison term of five years. Attending a cockfight would be punishable by a fine and up to one year in prison. Bringing a child younger than 16 to a cockfight would be punishable by a fine and up to three years in prison.
