The state has no money, but candidates for state office are finding plenty as we "flASHback" on the week's news that amused and confused:

• Gov. Linda Lingle sent layoff notices to 1,100 state employees and warned that things could get even worse for them. The only way they'd feel worse is if she found a way around her term limit.

• Lingle is attending a GOP governors' meeting on the Mainland. She's a natural to introduce Sarah Palin's farewell address, "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To."

• Mufi Hannemann, Neil Abercrombie and James "Duke" Aiona have raised more than $2 million so far to run for governor next year. Stocks rise and fall, but there's always a bull market for buying politicians.

• After Hannemann moved $659,000 from his mayoral fund to his campaign for governor, his committee is fighting to stop Abercrombie from doing the same with $918,000 from his congressional campaign fund. They're all for a level playing field as long as the marbles roll their way.

• The city said its train stations will be custom-designed to fit surrounding neighborhoods. The civic center stop will have teller windows to make it convenient for transit lobbyists to drop off campaign donations.

• It looks like Colleen Hanabusa and Ed Case will face off for the Democratic nod to fill Abercrombie's 1st Congressional District seat, even though both live in the 2nd District. There's actually a bit of twisted Hawai'i logic to it since Mazie Hirono, the Democrat who represents the 2nd District, lives in the 1st District.

• M.R.C. Greenwood faces a financial crisis as she takes over as University of Hawai'i president. And that's just the $100 contracting dispute that has her locked out of her College Hill mansion.

• Community opposition may kill a housing project to get homeless people off Chinatown streets. Plan B is to use the shelter to get hookers off the street.

And the quote of the week ... from the Ethics Commission on UH spending $2 million to send 600 people, including families and guests, to the 2008 Sugar Bowl: "The Commission found no evidence of bad faith on the part of the University of Hawai'i." That's more Hawai'i logic: Lousy judgment — evidence of bad faith = ainokea.