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Friday, May 26, 2023
May 26, 2023 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:19 PM :: 1971 Views

DPP Supervisor Gets 60 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme

Hawaii Settles Lawsuit Allowing for Carrying of Billies for Self-Defense

Sailor Wins Right to Register Guns

Nan News: Under Green’s New Plan, One Aloha Stadium Contractor will Win all the Marbles

CB: … The state’s plan for a new Aloha Stadium and surrounding entertainment district is shifting to consolidate development.

(CLUE: Nan.)

One contractor will develop both the entertainment district and the stadium, instead of splitting the projects between separate contractors as had originally been planned, Stadium Authority Chair Brennon Morioka said Thursday during the authority’s monthly meeting. 

(CLUE: Nan.)

Under the previous plan, the state would’ve acted as a sort of middleman, using revenue from its ground leases in the entertainment district to help finance the stadium construction.

Gov. Josh Green ditched that plan in March, saying that the estimated extra $400 million cost on top of state funds already set aside was too high….

SA: Aloha Stadium-project-gets-ok-to-go-with-single-developer

P3B: Hawaii Stadium returns to single P3 plan

TOTALLY RELATED:

2023: Saiki: Rep Aiu’s side-gig as Nan Corporate Counsel ‘is a feature of Hawaii’s part-time citizen legislature’

2023: Kim, DelaCruz, Kidani: Regents Should Dump Lassner to Help Boost Aloha Stadium Boondoggle  -- (FUN FACT: Kim’s son, Micah Po'okela Kim Aiu, finally did go to UH Law school a year after lying to his mommy about it.  Then he became general counsel for Nan Inc--where he today 'earns' $100-150K /yr.  Now he ‘represents’ HD32 encompassing Aloha Stadium.  Nan Inc, led by convicted felon Patrick Shin, is a partner in the 'Wailoa' group competing to redesign Aloha Stadium.)

read … New Aloha Stadium Development Plan To Include Only 1 Contractor 

Top State Officials Were Behind A Secretive Process That Steered Millions To A First Responders Center

CB: … During the session, Rep. Amy Perruso came to the same conclusion as Syrmos: that the first responders park didn’t make sense. Accordingly, when the bill came to the committee she chairs, the House Higher Education and Technology Committee, she let the measure die.

But that wasn’t the end: a $50 million appropriation appeared in the budget anyway. Asked who put the money into the budget, Matt Prellberg, a spokesman for the Hawaii Senate, referred questions to Dela Cruz’s former aide, (and business partner) Dane Wicker, now a deputy director for DBEDT.

Wicker said the department’s first acting director, Chris Sadayasu, had requested the money.

Dela Cruz and Keith-Agaran put the $50 million into a Senate draft of the budget at Sadayasu’s urging, Wicker said.

The money will be used to create infrastructure for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and Enterprise Technology Services office and Honolulu Emergency Management Services operations, which plan to build facilities at the park, Wicker said.

Tokioka, whom Gov. Josh Green tapped to direct DBEDT after the Senate rejected Sadayasu’s nomination, said the project makes sense to him.

Whether Gov. Josh Green will go along with this remains to be seen. 

Last session, Gov. David Ige rejected by line-item veto a proposed $35 million appropriation to the “Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, for infrastructure, construction, design, equipment, and site plans for the First Responder Technology Campus.” According to his veto message, Ige also struck by line-item veto a proposed $17 million appropriation to the HTDC for plans, design and land acquisition for the first responders campus.

Green could do the same or simply choose not to fund the appropriations, said Luis Salaveria, the director of the Hawaii Department of Budget and Finance. The administration will make that determination on what to fund after a review of legislative adjustments, he said.

“Everything is on the table in the review,” he said.….

At play, he said, is “an internal economy of favors,” or horse trading.  “Public testimony and all that doesn’t play a part in the process at all,” Moore said….

read … Top State Officials Were Behind A Secretive Process That Steered Millions To A First Responders Center

Rumblings Of Recall Amid Honolulu Pay Raise Uproar

CB: … “Everyone keeps saying, ‘Wait till next election’. But if folks are really upset & don’t want to wait for the next election, remember that you can start your own recall petition at any time.”

Even an unsuccessful recall effort “could be enough to scare a few council members into having serious second thoughts about accepting this ill-conceived pay raise…

In the City and County of Honolulu, recall supporters would have to collect signatures from registered voters in each affected council district totaling up to at least 10% of the number of registered voters in that district at its last election.

Those exact numbers weren’t immediately available from the Office of the City Clerk this week, but it did provide the current registered voter totals for all nine districts. Based on them, the signature requirements to launch a recall would vary from about 5,000 in District 7 to about 8,000 in District 4 (which happens to be Waters’ stomping grounds).” 

Petition: Tommy Waters - Let the people decide your 64% pay raise!!!

read … Rumblings Of Recall Amid Honolulu Pay Raise Uproar

Another CWS Fail: Man who pleaded guilty in horrific child pornography case faces 30 years behind bars

HNN: … An Oahu man charged with producing and possessing child pornography changed his plea to guilty in federal court on Thursday.

Bryson Mahoe, 31, was wearing a white jumpsuit with his ankles chained in court when he told a judge that he took sexually explicit photos and videos of two minors.

Court documents say the victims were about 7 and 8 years old at the time and were the foster children of his parents.

Mahoe is also a biological relative of the victims.

Prosecutors say for about a six-year period, Mahoe sexually abused the victims luring them with food.

During a search warrant in February last year, an SD card with an explicit video involving one of the victims was found at Mahoe’s home…

Child welfare advocates criticized state social workers and believe Mahoe was able to get away with the crimes for so long because of inadequate monitoring of the foster home.

“It’s a mess, it’s a mess,” said state Rep. John Mizuno. “They are looking for a solution they want to resolve, and they just can’t get it and again, you can do some minor changes, but that’s not going to fix the system when a system is broken.”

In a step to change the child welfare system, Mizuno who chairs the committee for human services said they passed a bill creating the Malama Ohana Working Group.

“They’re going to work with community advocates, a major working group to recommend transformative changes in the child welfare services,” said Mizuno. “This is what we need.”…

SA: Wahiawa man pleads guilty in foster child pornography case

read … Man who pleaded guilty in horrific child pornography case faces 30 years behind bars

First DLNR Carbon Offset Scheme Was Verified by Discredited Company

IM: … Verra was one of the world’s most prominent carbon credit standards organization. Much as the purported carbon offsets were simply greenwashing. Polluters would buy carbon offsets that would allow them to continue to pollute. The offsets did not exist. 

Verra manages unregulated and unverified offsets through the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) market. After an expose by the Guardian of the worthless value of many of the purported carbon offsets, the Verra CEO decided to resign.

The Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) awarded Verra a contract in 2019 for verifying carbon offsets for reforesting 4,700 acres of the Kahikinui Forest Reserve and the Nakula Natural Area Reserve on the leeward slopes of Haleakalā on Maui. 

Fossil fuel companies could continue to emit greenhouse gases in exchange for helping Hawaii to reforest.

The DLNR Chair told Life of the Land at a public meeting a few years ago, that the state had different standards towards reforestation and deforestation. Planting a tree is a positive impact while chopping down a tree had to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis….

read … First DLNR Carbon Offset Scheme Was Verified by Discredited Company

Ho’ahu: Omidyar Minions See Molokai Crony-Capitalist Project as Model

CB: … With an influx of renewable energy projects necessary to reach Hawaii’s 100% renewable energy and decarbonization goals by 2045, a community-centered approach should be a priority when taking action to fulfill these worthy goals.

Recent examples such as Ho‘ahu Energy Cooperative, Molokai’s first community-based renewable energy project, offer an inspiring example of what’s possible when a community is empowered to think critically about shaping its own renewable energy future.

One process that gives community members power is participatory budgeting, a model that can foster the growth of clean energy projects in Hawaii and encourages community collaboration with project developers, utility providers, and the public.

In January 2023, Ulupono Initiative and the Participatory Budgeting Project released a report on PB that dives deeper into how it can be used to benefit communities. In the forward, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission Chair Leo Asuncion noted that “the time has come for a new model to not only cultivate support for clean energy projects in the Islands but, more importantly, empower communities as full participating partners in the development of renewable energy projects that directly impact them.” …  

AX: Native Hawaiians reclaim energy sovereignty

Reality: ‘Community Based Energy’: $27.5M in GEMS for Hawaii Democratic Party Officials, Maui Councilmember

read … Participatory Budgeting Paves Path For Community-Centered Energy Planning

Honolulu Officers Who Arrested 10-Year-Old Want Protection From Lawsuit

CB: … Three Honolulu police officers believe they shouldn’t have to be part of a lawsuit that contends they used excessive force and wrongfully arrested a 10-year-old girl at school over a supposedly offensive drawing in 2020.

The officers, Christine Nevez, Warren Ford and Corey Perez, handcuffed the girl at Honowai Elementary School in Waipahu and detained her for hours at the Pearl City police station. A school administrator had called the police after the girl was involved in drawing a cartoon about another student who might have been bullying her.

The girl’s mother, Tamara Taylor, sued the officers, as well as the City and County of Honolulu, the Hawaii Department of Education and the school’s vice principal in January 2022….

read … Honolulu Officers Who Arrested 10-Year-Old Want Protection From Lawsuit

Legislative Agenda:

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