TMT construction begins Monday 15 July

[TomK]

(Gov) Green also addressed concerns over federal funding cuts impacting the Thirty Meter Telescope project, a significant advancement in the state.
“Cutting National Science Foundation dollars for the 30 Meter Telescope, would put our program in deep peril,” Green said.
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There is not and has not been a program for the 30 meter telescope, in Hawaii for quite some time.
Our former mayor ruined the possibility.

That's incorrect. Although it's been evident for years that the TMT won't be built here, funding from the NSF and the partner countries continued on the assumption that it might still stand a chance. To state that there has been no program is just wrong. What's going on now is a disaster for all sciences unless it's reconsidered. This isn't just about astronomy in Hawaii which faces a bleak future, it's also medicine, NOAA and the USGS under threat from a science-hating administration.