Honolulu ? State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.

Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said she hoped to end lingering rumors about Obama’s birthplace.

So-called “birthers” — who claim Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was actually born outside the United States — have grown more vocal recently on blogs and television news shows.