Hawai’i temperatures have been rising rapidly since the 1970s as our state suffers the effects of global warming, a researcher says.

Perhaps that explains the boiling tempers that have come to define our public discourse lately — and the abundance of news to amuse and confuse in Hawai’i’s week that was:

• State legislators held a farmer’s market at the Capitol yesterday. The economy must really be tight if lawmakers are getting that hard up to raise campaign money.

• Democrats in the Legislature are sponsoring a bill to make it easy for labor unions to organize workers without holding elections. Looks like a trial balloon to see if lawmakers can get away with seating themselves without the formality of voting.

• Legislators dropped a bill that would have banned drivers from text messaging and e-mailing in traffic. It raises an interesting chicken-and-egg riddle: Do you need to have a brain to recognize a no-brainer when you see one?

• More on the theme: A judge didn’t buy the free speech claims of an MIT student from Hawai’i who created a terrorism scare at Boston’s Logan Airport by wearing a fake bomb attached to her shirt. Somebody should send her one of those shirts they sell at Ala Moana Center that say on the chest, “I wish these were brains.”

• Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who’s already banked $2 million with no opponent in sight, is holding a $500-per-person fundraiser featuring 10 feeding booths. For the convenience of guests, one booth should serve transit contracts, one should serve development permits, one should serve labor concessions …

• Hawai’i astronomers are aiming their telescopes at a “white dwarf” star in the constellation Virgo that previews our own sun’s eventual death in 4 billion years. That could put a serious damper on Sen. Daniel Inouye’s swearing in for his 666,666,675th term.

• N’ice lede by Jim Dooley: “The illegal drug commonly known here as ‘ice’ was found disguised as ice cubes in a ‘portable ice box’ carried by a traveler from South Korea, according to federal agents from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”

• Two O’ahu schools have come under criticism for sex education programs that some parents and students found too graphic. They had to know they were asking for trouble when they let the birds and the bees play with dildos.

• A new vent at Kilauea volcano’s summit is pumping out unprecedented amounts of volcanic ash, geologists say. Sounds like Pele’s got a great idea for a blog.

And the quote of the week …

… from Gov. Linda Lingle on the shutdown of Molokai Ranch and the devastating loss of 120 jobs on the tiny island:

“The loss of this many jobs in such a small community like Moloka’i is equivalent to 23,000 people on O’ahu losing their jobs on the same day.”

The only way that could happen would be if she shut down the government.