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The Daily Dot · Local

Woman Says Best Friend Expected Her to Pay for Bachelorette Trip but Didn’t Invite Her to Family-Only Wedding

A Reddit user shared a long post about feeling hurt after not receiving an invitation to their best friend’s wedding, despite contributing financially to the bachelorette trip and actively traveling to visit the venue and attend makeup testing. The user is now in a dilemma, wanting to step back from the wedding preparations after not being invited. The post, shared on r/AmIOverreacting on November 13, had drawn 114 comments at the time of publication. The Reddit user began the post by recalling a fight with their best friend of nine years. They got into an argument, after which the two friends stopped speaking for about 10 months. It was during this break that the user’s best friend got engaged. The user reconnected with her a couple of months ago, and things have been fine since then. The user wrote that since reconnecting, they had been planning parts of her wedding together. She even invited the user on a trip to the wedding venue a month before the wedding.

VTDigger · Local

Vermont adds homeless shelter capacity, but it’s still not enough to meet the need

Carly Berlin covers housing and infrastructure for Vermont Public, in partnership with VTDigger. This week, some of the season’s first snow flurries are forecast to fly in Vermont. Across the state, emergency shelter operators are finalizing their plans to offer warm beds to people experiencing homelessness this winter. Shelter capacity has grown in the last year by almost a quarter. As of late October, Vermont had space for 721 households in community shelters – up from 583 the same month in 2025, according to monthly counts published by the Department for Children and Families. More beds are expected to come online in the coming weeks. Still, the state’s homeless population numbers at nearly 3,300 people, according to a tally from January released on Tuesday, and that figure is regarded as an undercount.

Honolulu Civil Beat · Wailuku, HI

Fraud Or Incompetence? Lawmakers Probe Homeless Housing Program

The charges had no apparent connection to homelessness: office space, laptops, food and drink — including beer. An oceanview condo in Wailuku. A parking ticket. Steel-toed boots. Jeans from Nordstrom Rack. But HomeAid, the state’s homeless contractor, billed Hawaiʻi taxpayers. And the state paid. State lawmakers got an earful at a briefing on Thursday and were left deeply dissatisfied with the answers provided by some of the key architects of the state kauhale program, Gov. Josh Green’s signature effort to address homelessness. “Is it fraud, or is it incompetence?” House Rep. Ikaika Olds asked the state leaders of the program, Joe Campos and Jun Yang. They didn’t answer. The state senate briefing Thursday was the first opportunity lawmakers have had to pose direct questions after a scathing audit of the state’s management of the initiative identified more than $13 million in questionable or unauthorized payments through no-bid contracts with its sole provider, HomeAid Hawaiʻi.

Honolulu Civil Beat · Local

Outside Fisheries Group Poised To Manage Millions Of Hawaiʻi’s Green Fee

As Hawaiʻi’s landmark green fee program ramps up, the local marine conservation projects that benefit from those new dollars might soon be managed by a relatively obscure regional fisheries agency based outside of the islands. On Friday, the Board of Land and Natural Resources will consider whether to enlist the Portland, Oregon-based Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, a group of fishing officials and leaders from Alaska, Hawaiʻi and the West Coast, to help oversee ​Hawaiʻi’s future green fee projects. Specifically, that interstate group would help aquatic officials in Hawaiʻi draft work proposals, seek out and evaluate candidates, award contracts, and monitor the projects’ progress and costs, among other duties, according to a briefing posted to the board’s website. The proposed five-year, $5.4 million agreement includes nearly $470,000 to cover the Pacific States commission’s administrative costs, according to the briefing.

Honolulu Civil Beat · Local

Hawaiʻi Still Needs Doctors. We’re Gaining On Nurses, At Least

While Hawaiʻi’s doctor shortage widens, vacancies in other healthcare jobs are shrinking, according to the Healthcare Association of Hawaiʻi’s biannual report. Non-physician healthcare job openings decreased by 20% between 2024 and 2026. The largest decrease in vacancy rates occurred on the neighbor islands, where the greatest need for healthcare professionals exists. That’s due to collaborative efforts from the state, universities and private partners, the report says, which together invested in training opportunities for high-priority jobs. There’s been a deliberate focus on creating programs on the neighbor islands, association President and CEO Hilton Raethel said. “This is not a Honolulu-centric program. It’s a statewide program,” he said. Of the 34,001 healthcare profession jobs surveyed in 2026, 3,739 remained open. That’s 930, or 20%, fewer unfilled positions than in 2024. In those two years, the total statewide vacancy rate fell from 14% to 11%.

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