Community Meetings Set to Discuss 12.5% Hawaii County GE Tax Hike
Elections: 109 Candidates Pull Papers
Oahu Study: Child Molesters Exploit Drug-Addicted Homeless Youth
Will Indonesia's new shipping law impact Hawaii coal imports?
Hawaiian Electric: $36M Rate Hike
Hawaiian Electric Companies Claims 27% Renewable for 2017
Fast and Furious: Hawaii Family Forum Legislative Week in Review
Hawaii: Trigger Modification Bill Scheduled for Hearing
Terrified OHA Crony Flails About Wildly After Being Ordered to Cough up LLCs Check Registers
CB commentary from Mona Bernardino, COO of Hiilei Aloha -- excerpts with helpful annotations in parenthesis:
(Terrified and Cornered, Bernardino starts with this whopper…) …The LLCs have never refused to provide pertinent information in preparation for this new “forensic” audit that certain trustees are demanding. (LOL!) What the LLCs took issue with is that one trustee dismissed all members of the audit committee from a meeting with the proposed auditor, Ernst & Young….
(Translation: There is a lot to be revealed in these check registers. And Bernardino is running out of excuses. Will Bernardino ‘withhold’ information?)
The LLCs have always said they would provide necessary information to the auditor. (She later argues in favor of killing the audit so there will be no auditor to reveal anything to.) We are not in favor of politicizing the audit process (but she later says she’ll be campaigning for her favorite Trustees in November) .…
To write a headline and story that poor trustees have to demand information from their own companies is completely inaccurate. (The vote was 8-0 to order the LLCs to reveal.) How about writing a story about how certain trustees are politicizing everything at OHA, attacking the CEO and other certain staff, and causing disarray?…
(Better Idea: How about the media not taking instructions from crooks?)
Which of these Things Could the LLCs be Afraid of Revealing?
read … I smell Fear
Gays Question Democrat LG Candidates
KGI: …The LGBT Caucus and the Labor Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii are hosting a candidate’s forum for the 2018 Democratic Primary for the Lt. Governor’s Race from 9 a.m. to noon Sat Feb 10 at the Democratic Party of Hawaii Headquarters in Honolulu.
Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. is scheduled to participate in the forum, along with other candidates, Kim Coco Iwamoto, Josh Green, William Espero and Jill Tokuda….
SA: 5 candidates lay out plans for state’s No. 2 job
KITV: Candidates for Lieutenant Governor face off in public forum
KITV: Political candidates react to #MeToo sexual harassment issues in Hawaii
FB: LGBTQ Caucus Event
read … Gay Approved
Lawmakers have an idea for keeping homeless in shelters: Pay them to stay
HNN: …legislators have a unique solution: Paying the homeless to live in shelters.
House Bill 2649 moved forward Friday with amendments after committee review. If passed, chronically homeless individuals in the 96817 area (roughly, Urban Honolulu) would be paid a $12 stipend for every night they stay in a homeless shelter.
The bill would also create a pilot program for the Department of Human Services to contract an organization that would address the needs of chronically homeless individuals in the 96817 zip code….
The state Department of Human Services, the organization whose budget the funds would be coming from, testified against the bill.
"Other communities have tried a variety of cash incentives in the past, without much evidence that healthy behaviors follow. Providing monetary incentives will not guarantee a person’s desire to enter program," said Pankaj Bhanot, director of DHS, in written testimony.
DHS also claims that those who enter shelters because of the incentive will be less likely to leave, creating another problem.
State Homelessness Coordinator Scott Morishige, also testified against the bill, saying that the measure would take funding away from existing state homeless programs. Morishige also mentioned that the cash incentive may be encouragement for homeless to stay in shelters long term.
However, some supported the idea.
"Given that House Bill No. 2649 provides that DHS establish a pilot program to address chronic homelessness in the 96817 zip code, it is the position of the OCC Legislative Priorities Committee to support this measure," said Melodie Aduja, chair of the Oahu County Committee….
read … Bribe—It works in politics!
Shelter-Refusers Take over Park After Just One Week
HNN: …Mother Waldron Park just re-opened a week ago after being closed for a month while the city completed maintenance work. The park has been plagued with various issues related to homeless campers after dozens of them relocated there after been kicked out of other areas.
Homeless service providers say many of the homeless in Kakaako are considered “chronically homeless” who have been repeatedly helped but end up back on the streets….
read … Refusing Shelter
Maintenance problems at H-POWER results in long lines, delays at city landfill
HNN:…Maintenance problems at the city’s H-POWER plant in Kapolei are forcing the city to divert the majority of the trash it collects to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, resulting in hours-long delays at the Windward Oahu dump.
Drone videos and other photos taken by garbage haulers over the past two weeks show truckers lined up for more than half a mile, waiting to dump their loads. Drivers we spoke with said they're frustrated by the long delays.
“How long have you been waiting?” asked Hawaii News Now.
“About two hours,” responded one refuse hauler….
read … Maintenance problems at H-POWER results in long lines, delays at city landfill
SB3090: Protesters to be Given Control of Mauna Kea in Exchange for Telescope Approval?
KITV: A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for Monday Feb 12, 2018 at 1:15 p.m., before the Senate committees: Higher Education and Water and Land.
Related: SB3090: Mauna Kea Protesters Close in on Big Cash Payoff
read … A push to remove the University of Hawaii from managing Mauna Kea is in motion
Hawaii Supreme Court rules for state in DHHL dispute
SA: State lawmakers are only required to fund the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands the amount that the delegates to the 1978 Hawaii State Constitutional Convention estimated it takes in administration and operating expenses, adjusted for inflation, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The 4-1 majority opinion is the latest court ruling for a lawsuit filed in 2007 by six Hawaiian Home Lands trust beneficiaries who claimed that the state Legislature was not fulfilling its constitutionally mandated responsibility to adequately fund the department. The lawsuit also claimed DHHL was not fulfilling its duty by not securing the required funding from the Legislature….
Gov. David Ige is requesting $25.1 million for DHHL for next year because, he said, “the funding is needed to fulfill the department’s mission.”
In 2015 state Circuit Judge Jeannette Castagnetti ruled that the Legislature was constitutionally obligated to appropriate more than $28 million annually for DHHL, taking into account inflation and other factors. The department’s budget at that time was $9.6 million.
The state Attorney General’s Office said the state administration and Legislature estimated that $1.6 million in 1978 was equal to $5.8 million at the time Castagnetti made her original ruling. Castagnetti later amended her order eliminating the $28 million figure.
Friday’s Supreme Court opinion sends the case back to Castagnetti to calculate the inflation-adjusted 1978 estimates….
News Release: GOVERNOR’S OFFICE – STATEMENT RE: HAWAIʻI SUPREME COURT RULING IN NELSON V. HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ET AL
read … Hawaii Supreme Court rules for state in DHHL dispute
Soft on Crime: Tweeker Already Has Long Rap Sheet at Age 19 – Lasts two Weeks on Street Before Rearrest
HTH: A 19-year-old Mountain View man has a Monday court date to face several felony charges, less than three weeks after being released from jail on felony probation.
Kahekili John Krause was charged Friday with driving a stolen vehicle, third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug, possession of drug paraphernalia, second-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle, second-degree criminal trespass and two counts of habitual property crimes….
Krause was released from Hawaii Community Correctional Center on Jan. 26, according to the state Department of Public Safety website.
Police say Krause was part of a ring that committed a “rash of auto thefts” in January 2017. The spree included the brazen theft of brand-new cars, mostly high-performance sport sedans used for illegal street racing, from dealership lots in Hilo and Kona.
The convictions were Krause’s first as an adult, but his record as a minor included a 2015 escape from juvenile correctional authorities in which he spent about a week on the lam.
Krause is being held at the Hilo police cellblock in lieu of $63,000 bail pending Monday’s initial appearance in Hilo District Court.
read … Soft on Crime
Star-Adv Editors: Tourists Might Smoke all our Weed
SA: …is there enough medical marijuana to go around? Hawaii’s dispensaries already seem to have a hard time keeping up with demand; it would be harsh if tourists sucked up all the supply, leaving locals with nothing….The state Department of Health raised those issues, among others, in its opposition to the reciprocity provision in House Bill 2729, now making its way through the Legislature….
read … Protectionism
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