Hawaii Reaffirms Obama Legitimacy

For the second time (the first was in October 2008), Hawaii's Director of Health, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, verifies that President Obama was, indeed, born in Hawaii, per The Honolulu Advertiser.

The Honolulu Advertiser story also offers details on how the state deals with vital records, including who is, or isn't, permitted to view the original versions of items such as birth certificates, and how the state's COLB formatting has changed over time (the COLB posted online by the Obama campaign reflects the most recent incarnation of the COLB).

It also deflates theories that the Obama birth announcements, which appeared in the Advertiser as well as the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, were "phoned in" from elsewhere: Janice Okubo, the spokesman for the Hawaii Health Department, confirms that such announcements "were not sent to the newspapers by the general public but by the Health Department, which received the information directly from hospitals," (HA). She adds that: "Birth announcements from the public ran elsewhere in both papers and usually included information such as the newborn's name, weight and time of birth" (HA).

So there you go.

Aside: Here is The Guardian's overview of the Birther movement.