Paramilitary Group Takes over anti-Telescope Protest Site
Dept. of Education Welcomes Two New $190K Hires
Getting Away With Attempted Murder: Shysters’ Latest Trick in Maui Hate Crime Case
SA: … The trial of two Native Hawaiian men charged with a federal hate crime for assaulting a white man who attempted to move into their remote village on Maui was again postponed, with court filings on the case shedding light on the arguments to come from lawyers on both sides.
The central question that jurors will be asked to decide is whether the men attacked the victim because he was white or because he was a newcomer who disrespected their community, court documents show.
(IQ Test: Define ‘false dichotomy’.)
The trial, set to begin Aug. 16, was rescheduled to Nov. 7…..
While the state already leveled felony assault charges against Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii charged them with a hate crime for carrying out a “racially motivated attack.” But according to a trial brief filed Aug. 5 by Alo-Kaonohi’s attorney, Salina Kanai, the victim’s race “had nothing to do with it.” Instead, Kanai wrote, it was the victim’s “disrespect and insulting behavior that caused the defendants to confront him.”
(Clue: Only the federal case can provide justice.)
When the two Maui men were prosecuted by the state in Circuit Court, Alo-Kaonohi pleaded no contest to first- degree assault and Aki pleaded no contest to first-degree terroristic threatening. In 2019, both were sentenced to four years of probation.
In 2018, Alo-Kaonohi pleaded no contest in state court to second-degree assault in an unrelated case, according to court documents. Five months after the attack in Kahakuloa, he punched a 53-year-old white man he didn’t know in a Wailuku bar without provocation and was sentenced to four years’ probation and a year in prison, which he was allowed to serve on weekends, according to court documents…..
(See? Told you so.)
Aki’s defense team planned to call an expert witness to testify that “haole” can be “a descriptor of non-native things,” according to a document the prosecution filed to bar University of Hawaii-Manoa Hawaiian language professor Katrina-Ann Oliveira from testifying. The prosecutors acknowledged that the word can be unoffensive in some contexts and a racial slur in others. …
(Context: While beating you with a shovel.)
read … Maui hate crime case hinges on use of term ‘haole’
National Democrats Use Hawaii Primary Result to Claim Vote by Mail Boosts Turnout, LOL!
WM: … There is one result from the Hawaii primary, however, that is worth considering: Despite how boring it was, it saw 40 percent of the state’s registered voters cast ballots. That is the third-highest turnout rate in the country this year. It is exceeded only by Wyoming’s high-profile Liz Cheney repudiation contest and the Kansas primary, which featured an abortion referendum that drew national press and finance….
read … An Article Titled 'Debate Over: Vote by Mail Boosts Turnout'
Lackluster candidates, absent voters dim primary election
Shapiro: … Two legislators arrested for drunken driving, Reps. Sharon Har and Matt LoPresti, made it to the general election…..
Voter turnout fell back below 40% after surging in the first primary by mail in 2020. Novelty becomes insanity when you do the same thing over and expect different results.
While votes were fewer, special interests spent more millions of dollars than ever to buy them. You know we’re in trouble when integrity and principle are superseded by supply and demand.
State Sen. Chris Lee opposed term limits for legislators, saying it took him six to eight years to figure out how to pass a bill. And we’ve been so well-served by a Legislature of slow learners…..
read … Lackluster candidates, absent voters dim primary election
Pandemic’s impact has stunted development for many young keiki
HTH: … Preschool and elementary teachers on the Big Island have reported alarming behavioral changes in young keiki following the pandemic….
This included difficulties holding a marker or crayon, increases in the number of nonverbal students, more instances of acting out, and overall social anxiety.
“We’ve had to make our curriculum a little less intensive for our students,” she said. “We’re not starting where we usually would. A lot of it is focusing on their social-emotional skills.”
(Translation: We aren’t teaching.)
The switch to online-only education during the pandemic also impacted local keiki….
(Translation: We weren’t teaching.)
(IQ Test: Do you see a pattern here?)
SA Column: Preschools need more than facilities
read … Pandemic’s impact has stunted development for many young keiki
Honolulu Liquor Commission May Be Headed For An Overhaul
CB: … Two Honolulu City Council members are pushing to reform the Honolulu Liquor Commission amid a recent rash of complaints against the agency and its investigators, including criticisms that the commission abused its power when enforcing emergency Covid-19 restrictions during the pandemic.
Council members Esther Kiaaina and Tommy Waters, who serves as the influential City Council chair, sponsored the measure. It calls on Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration to impose numerous changes at the commission in order to create greater transparency and accountability.
Included in the recommended changes is one to establish an ombudsman or an internal affairs unit to investigate complaints by bar and restaurant owners against commission personnel. The resolution also asks the mayor and liquor commission to report within 60 days of the resolution’s passage what they’re doing to implement the request for the ombudsman or internal affairs unit.
Another item requests that the mayor disapprove any rule that could allow the commission to shut down a bar or restaurant for 24 hours based merely on an allegation of wrongdoing without a hearing.….
read … Honolulu Liquor Commission May Be Headed For An Overhaul
‘An Epic Fail:’ Hawaii Inmate Medical Records System Hasn’t Worked Right For Months
CB:… A top prison official said computer updates weren’t done for the system, and health workers at Hawaii’s jails and prisons lost access to thousands of records….
read … ‘An Epic Fail:’ Hawaii Inmate Medical Records System Hasn’t Worked Right For Months
Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative to increase base rates
TGI: … While effective rates fluctuate month-to-month based on the current cost of fuel and purchased power, the base rates have remained steady for the last 13 years.
“We’re not different from any other company in the country,” said CEO David Bissell during a virtual meeting of the Lihu‘e Business Association Thursday. “We’re seeing higher costs and inflation is continuing to hit us and increase our cost of doing business.”
Along with inflation, Bissell attributed the need for a base rate increase to costs of endangered species compliance and a flatlining of sales.
The amount of the rate increase was not yet specified, though Bissell said that it would “likely would be of some magnitude.” He later estimated the increase would be around 6%.
Residential customers are currently charged a flat rate of $10.58, with an additional $0.34543 per kilowatt/hour (currently set at a higher effective rate of $0.37060) and a minimum monthly charge of $13.50.
Despite the base rate increase, Bissell said that he expects the rates will remain the lowest in the state….
read … Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative to increase base rates
State cesspool master plans in the works
HTH: … Tax incentives and low-interest loans as well as the creation of an enterprise fund through a utility surcharge are three options being bandied about to help the state convert its 88,000 cesspools into something less harmful to the environment by 2050.
The state Cesspool Conversion Working Group is currently finalizing its recommendations to the state Legislature, and the county plans to create a sewer master plan to tackle its own problems with the estimated 50,000 cesspools on this island.
The master plan is likely to be a stitched-together set of local plans, Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour told the county Environmental Management Commission Wednesday.
Commissioner Rick Gaffney has unearthed a 2006 wastewater study of North Kona that he didn’t know existed….
read … Commissioners mull cesspool alternatives: Waste management master plans in the works
Homeless Policy Moves Chronics Around--Housing Only for ‘Motivated’ Bums
SA: … Five tarp-covered encampments — buttressed by wooden pallets — lined side by side on Sumner Street across the Institute for Human Services, Hawaii’s largest homeless shelter. At the other end of Sumner Street, another dozen or so encampments stretched out along Iwilei Road, which runs perpendicular to Sumner Street and parallel to Nimitz Highway.
A man named Rick said he has been living homeless in the area for years and that he and his neighbors moved their encampments to Sumner Street after having been swept out of the grassy turnaround in the middle of Nimitz Highway “a couple of weeks ago.”….
Using funds from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, Krucky said the city since August 2021 has found housing for 301 families and 852 individuals across the island through a new program called Oahu Housing Now.
The idea is to get motivated families and individuals housed as quickly as possible to prevent them from becoming chronically homeless….
read … Chronic Sweeps
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