VIDEO: Pro-Trump Hawaii Capitol Protest Peaceful
When saving money isn't really
Meth Trafficking: Former Mayor of Yona, Guam Sentenced to Prison for Extortion
Land Grab: Enviros Sue to Restore 'Critical' Habitat Rules
Former Schofield contractor sentenced for role in bribery and kickback scheme
Chief Justice Appoints District and District Family Court Judges
Doing the Job the State Won’t Do: Feds Charge Maui Thugs in 2014 Hate Crime Attack
KHON: … A federal grand Jury indicted Kaulana Alo Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr. for attacking another man who tried to move into their neighborhood in Kahakuloa, on Maui.
(Key Word: Federal.)
According to the indictment, Kaonohi and Aki attacked the victim with a shovel on Feb. 13, 2014, due to his perceived race and color.
(Justice deferred 7 years.)
Both men could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted….
MN: Two Maui Men Charged in Alleged 2014 “Hate Crime”
SA: 2 men charged with hate crimes in alleged racially motivated attack on Maui
CB: This Brutal Maui Assault Prompts Hate Crime Charges — 7 Years Later
Oct 18, 2019: Victim of racially-charged violence on Maui outraged after his attackers get probation
Oct 20, 2019: Maui Police, Prosecutor Conspire to Cover Up Hate Crime: Attack with Shovel Recorded with Audio, Video
read … Two Maui men charged in hate crime case
Prosecutors ask that defendants be held without bail
MN: … The prosecution is asking to have two men held without bail after they were charged with a hate crime for what was described as a racially motivated attack on a white man who was trying to move into the defendants’ Native Hawaiian neighborhood in Kahakuloa….
Kaulana Alo Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr., both 31, were arrested Friday morning after being indicted last month by a federal grand jury, records show.
Both were being held Monday at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu, pending their arraignments by telephone today before Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.
Both Alo Kaonohi and Aki were placed on four years’ probation when they were sentenced in 2019 in 2nd Circuit Court in connection with the attack on Christopher Kunzelman on Feb. 13, 2014. Alo Kaonohi had pleaded no contest to first-degree assault, while Aki had pleaded no contest to first-degree terroristic threatening….
In July 2014, three days after police tried to serve an arrest warrant on Alo Kaonohi for the February attack, he “committed a second unprovoked attack on a white-skinned person, this time at the Steel Horse Saloon” on Lower Main Street in Wailuku…
read … held without bail
Legislators Clueless: Everything depends on new Biden ‘Stimulus’
MN: … “Basically the term I would use, all the (governor’s) proposals are very fluid, everything is very fluid until we can get to the aid and know what the federal aid package will be,” said Sen. J. Kalani English, the senate Majority Leader who represents East Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
As for avoiding furloughs, he said “it all depends.”
“It’s not the choice of the Legislature to do that. It’s an executive call,” said English, who has a standing meeting every Monday with Ige and other officials. He said Ige has told him he will be making changes to the budget along the way….
On the House side, Maui Rep. Justin Woodson said there are “many creative options that we are reviewing” when it comes to mitigating furloughs, “but we are still waiting to see some of the unknown larger variables that are still outstanding, such as if Congress is going to pass an additional COVID relief package.”
“There is not enough information now to determine if forgoing furloughs is a possibility,” said Woodson, whose district includes Kahului, Maui Lani and Old Sand Hills.
Fellow Maui Rep. Troy Hashimoto expressed hope with the newly elected federal leaders.
“I am very optimistic that with the Democrats taking control of the U.S. Senate and a new incoming president, more federal aid may be available to help balance state and county budgets,” he said. “It is not just a Hawaii concern, but every state is facing similar struggles.”
The lawmaker, whose district includes Wailuku, Kahakuloa and Waikapu, said he hopes that more stimulus funds will arrive by the spring along with a “strong vaccine rollout,” which he hopes will help “us get a better footing on our economy and help us avert some of the major reductions in the future.”
Hashimoto said the legislative session that begins at 10 a.m. Wednesday “will be one of trying to keep as many existing programs intact as possible while trying to balance restarting our economy.”…
NR: Opening Day Jan 20th
Hawai`i Senate and House Energy Chairs Present Their Visions
Hawaii 2021 legislature to tackle budget shortfall, COVID-19 vaccine rollout, in 2021
read … Fluid
While Thousands of Shots Sit in Fridge, Maui Hospital’s vaccine clinic closing FOR 3 WEEKS over 'shortage'
MN: … Maui’s only community vaccination clinic may have to temporarily (will) close (for 3 weeks) Sunday afternoon if more Pfizer-BioNTech doses are not received today.
Maui Health System CEO Mike Rembis said he spent Friday morning placing urgent calls, seeking at least 975 doses to last through the weekend at Maui Memorial Medical Center’s vaccination clinic, the sole site currently accepting new registrants. There was no final decision as of Friday night. (UPDATE: Closed for 3 weeks, see below)
“I’m very thankful for the vaccines we’re getting — I don’t want to be complaining,” Rembis said. “It’s just not enough for our community.”
Earlier this week, a KITV report said the state has a high number of unused vaccines.
Some vaccines have been stockpiled on Oahu for a mass vaccination event that starts Monday, organized by Hawaii Pacific Health, the state and the city.
“We have 20,000 doses sitting in Hawaii Pacific Health freezers to use at the site,” Hawaii Pacific Health CEO Raymond Vara said Wednesday.
That’s part of the reason only about 40,000 vaccines have been administered, even though Hawaii has already received more than 109,000, the report said….
(DO THE MATH: 109K – 40K = 69K DoH screwing it up again.)
...“This is about how do we get those doses that are out there and not administered yet into people’s arms,” Rembis said.
Maui’s UH-MC point of distribution site is temporarily closed to new registrations. Moderna is the only vaccination offered at the site.
A Maui District official on Friday afternoon said the UH-MC site is focusing on second doses for Phase 1A residents who have already received their initial dose at UH-MC or first doses for those who were registered but were turned away last week. Second doses for Moderna are administered after 28 days. New registrations are not being accepted at this time.
KITV: More than 6,000 appointments for Maui residents who were supposed to receive their first dose of the Coronavirus vaccine have been postponed
KHON: Because of this, we have made the difficult decision to postpone all first dose appointments scheduled between Sunday January 17 through Sunday February 7.”
HNN: Starting Monday Jan. 18, the clinic will open for second dose vaccinations only.
read … Hospital’s vaccine clinic may close briefly over shortage
Thousands seek appointments for COVID-19 vaccine as distribution ramps up
HNN: … On Friday, hundreds of people flocked to Pier 2 to get their COVID-19 vaccination through Hawaii Pacific Health. The mass vaccination site opened three days early for a “dry run.”
On Monday, their first full vaccination day, some 600 are scheduled to get the shots. Some 1,500 have appointments for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday….
SA Editorial: How and when to get vaccinated
HNN Here’s what you need to know about COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Hawaii
HNN: State partners with more pharmacies to distribute COVID-19 vaccines
KHON: Mass vaccinations for Oahu elderly starts Monday
read … Thousands seek appointments for COVID-19 vaccine as distribution ramps up
Oahu public school principal under fire for holding student assembly for more than 80
HNN: … In a letter sent to parents on Friday, school Principal Christine Alexander confirmed an assembly was held on Tuesday to welcome students back.
She also detailed all the safety precautions the school took, listing the following:
There were 79 students and only their teachers present.
Individual classes entered the gym one at a time.
Each grade level (39 and 40 students, respectively) sat on opposite sides of the gym.
Students sat 6 feet apart in all directions.
Everyone wore masks at all times.
All windows and doors remained open, and the overhead fans were circulating….
HSTA: Waialua High holding dangerous assemblies this week
read … Oahu public school principal under fire for holding student assembly for more than 80
Adding up the business losses in Hawaii
PBN: … bankruptcy is for businesses that still have hope of carrying on. We list 86 lost businesses in this issue, and most of them skipped straight to closing. A better measure is commercial real estate vacancies ….
If we enforced masks and hygiene rules and otherwise left the economy alone, we’d be doing far more than has ever been done for a pandemic, at far less cost. I’m hardly the only one saying so.
It was in October that Dr. David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s Special Envoy on Covid-19, said in an interview with The Spectator, “We really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method.” The lockdowns, he said, are making the poor of the world poorer. (https://bit.ly/3oCjrz0)
More recently, stringent lockdowns in San Francisco are getting pushback from an infectious disease expert there. Writes The College Fix on Jan. 6, “San Francisco’s indefinite extension of its stay-at-home and 10-day quarantine orders prompted a University of California-San Francisco infectious disease specialist to speak out.
“It may actually increase the spread of the novel coronavirus because more people will gather indoors, where scientists have long known the threat of infection is highest, Monica Gandhi, medical director of the HIV Clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, told CBS San Francisco.” (https://bit.ly/38D64Js)
PBN: In-memoriam-closed-for-business-thanks-to-COVID
PBN: Oahu industrial vacancy rate could rise above 3% in 2021
read … Adding up the business losses in Hawaii
DLIR’s dated technology slows distribution of unemployment benefits
SA: … Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio says her office is working as quickly as it can to distribute benefits for unemployed Hawaii workers, including new money approved last month under the second CARES Act, but part of the challenge is old technology: the DLIR is working off a mainframe designed in the 1980s.
“I can’t express how much more difficult this is than people understand,” she told Spotlight Hawaii this morning.
“We’re dealing with a mainframe that is extremely antiquated, that has been touched many times now in the last nine months, and it’s fragile. And we’re extremely concerned that this mainframe is going to crash. Now, if this mainframe crashes, nobody gets paid.”…
Perreira-Eustaquio said that each new benefits program from the federal government has meant that her office has had to adjust the system, which is risky. As a result, she and her team are “deliberately cautious” as they add the new information, which has led to a delay in payments.
“I know it’s extremely frustrating, but I cannot afford for this mainframe not to be here and everything become manual,” she explained.
Perreira-Eustaquio said that her office is working to secure state approval of a contract to replace the mainframe and modernize the system. Once that is greenlighted, it would still take the contractor up to 18 months to transfer information from the existing system and stand up a new one….
read … DLIR’s dated technology slows distribution of unemployment benefits
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