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Wednesday, April 20, 2016
April 20, 2016 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:44 PM :: 3919 Views

Auditor: At First Only Hawai’i Free Press Noticed our Mauna Kea Report

Chevron Signs Deal to Sell Hawaii Refinery, Stations

The Fuzzy Accounting Behind Renewable Energy’s Falling Prices

State Accepting Applications for free Pre-K classes

SB2954: Anti-Gun Bill Scheduled for Conference Committee Hearing Wednesday

Jones Act and Enviro Regs Blessing and Curse for California Refiners

Ernie Martin Pulls Papers to Run for Mayor

HNN: Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin has pulled papers for a potential run for mayor.

If he decides to run, he'll need the signatures of 15 registered Oahu voters. He'll also need to pay a filing fee.

It’s unlikely Martin will actually file for the run until June 7, the official filing deadline, because filing for the higher office would require immediate resignation from the City Council under law.

read … Resign

Rail: Only Aiona can Claim Purity

Boylan: …In the January Hawaii Poll Aiona got 48%, Calddwell 38% and Martin 8%….  Both Martin and Caldwell have fingerprints all over the city’s controversial rail project.  So does Carlisle.   Only Aiona could claim purity on the issue….

read … Pure

Federal Rail Audit Coming Soon

PBN: …in a few weeks federal officials will release their thoughts on whether the the Federal Transit Administration is effectively overseeing the project.

Auditors from the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General have been examining projects in FTA’s three western regions, including the Honolulu rail project, to determine whether the FTA has been adequately assessing financial risks and enforcing requirements for financial and other reporting.

While the audit is not of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation it is an audit of FTA oversight of HART….

read … Other Shoe Drops

Don Horner Scapegoat

HNN: …Don Horner, a former Bank CEO, who also lead our board of education is exactly the kind of man we need in government. He is experienced, skilled and honorable.

But now his good name has been damaged by the way the mayor and council chairman forced him to resign from the rail transit board.

This is a classic example of political scapegoating.  It's an election year and the troubles with the rail project had to be blamed on someone….

read … Scapegoat

Hawaii County GET hike draws more fire

HTH: More than two dozen people showed up Tuesday evening to speak their minds on a proposed one-half percent general excise tax increase, with all but one opposed to the idea.

The group of opponents, ranging from Realtors to small business owners to business groups and advocates for the elderly and the poor, said the tax hike could do more harm than good. Testifiers showed up at all the videoconference sites in addition to the West Hawaii Civic Center, where the meeting was held.

The Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce came out against the measure. One of the main concerns, said Executive Director Kirstin Kahaloa, is the chamber’s “buy local” promotions could be undermined by people making Internet purchases where the tax doesn’t apply.

“There is a concern it could price local businesses out of the market,” Kahaloa said….

Bill 165 is straightforward: “There is hereby established a one-half percent general excise and use tax surcharge to be used for purposes of funding the operating and capital costs of public transportation within the County of Hawaii as specified herein. The excise and use tax surcharge shall be levied beginning Jan. 1, 2018.”

That means, should the bill pass the council and be approved by the mayor, the public would have no further opportunity for input, and the ordinance would automatically go into effect Jan. 1, 2018.

The council Finance Committee is scheduled to take up the measure again on May 3.

Those opposed to the tax say the tax is regressive, hurting poor people more than the well-off….

read … GET hike draws more fire

Larded With Cronies, Hawaii Council Refuses to Discuss Kenoi

SA: A move to force embattled Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi Jr. to step down failed in the County Council, according to the Hawaii Tribune Herald.

A motion by Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille to have a discussion about whether the council should ask Kenoi to step down pending the outcome of an ethics complaint was not seconded, ending the conversation before it could start.

It was the second time Wille failed to force the council to take action against Kenoi for his admitted misuse of his county purchasing card, or pCard, which resulted in an indictment of felony theft and other charges. His trial is scheduled for July 18, the newspapers reported….

read … Big Isle councilwoman finds no support to discuss Kenoi’s fate

Another HPD Officer Arrested

AG: Honolulu Police Department Officer Maulia Labarre was arrested last night by investigators with the Department of the Attorney General for attempted bribery, prostitution, and unauthorized use of a computer in the first degree. Officer Labarre was booked by the Sheriff’s Department and has been released pending further investigation. Charges have not yet been filed….

read … Another One

DoE: Honolulu Rail Can be a Money-Spinner for Us

CB: The state could be saddled with some big school construction costs in coming decades if current housing and population growth predictions hold true for a 4-mile swath of urban Honolulu, according to a Department of Education report….

(Translation: This is a sales pitch for an impact fee designed to funnel money to the DoE’s capital improvements slush fund.  The impact fee will increase the cost of housing for people who buy condos built near rail stations.)

read … Honolulu Rail Project Expected To Cost The DOE Millions For New Schools

Tokuda: We Save the Cookies Until the End

AP: The House and Senate are also still negotiating how much money will go to many capital improvement projects throughout the islands, including a proposed $160 million for Hawaii State Hospital, $30 million for cooling schools, a new $35 million facility for overcrowded Campbell High School and funds to continue construction of a new high school in South Maui.

“We save the cookies until the end,” Tokuda said.

Funding for the financially struggling Wahiawa General Hospital is also up in the air after a plan to help the hospital by buying its parking lots was rejected by the hospital’s board of directors, according to Rep. Marcus Oshiro.

read … Cookies or Hospital?

Banks Rack Up Megaprofits on Affordable Housing Tax Credits

HB: …An example is Stanford Carr’s Halekauwila Place, a 204-unit affordable rental project in Kakaako that was completed in 2014. Carr walks us through the numbers:

“Halekauwila Place cost a total of $71 million to build. And that’s with zero land cost. This is the total development cost, including direct construction costs, architectural costs, engineering costs, entitlement costs, financing costs, bond costs, permits, sewer fees, water fees, parking structure, landscaping – the whole ball of wax. So, we were issued federal tax credits with a face value of $25 million, which we sold to a Mainland company for $23.5 million.”

In addition, he says, the state has a piggyback tax-credit program that matches the federal tax credits at 50 cents on the dollar. That added up to another $12.5 million in tax credits, which Carr sold to a local bank for about $5 million….

read … Affordable?

Wisdom: Church would house homeless in Individual Hard-Wall Shelters

SA: …Red Hill’s First Assembly of God church wants to erect a dozen igloo-­shaped domes from Alaska to create a “shelter village” somewhere in town for about 40 homeless people.

Klayton Ko, the church’s senior pastor and the district superintendent of more than 100 Hawaii Assembly of God congregations, hopes Mayor Kirk Caldwell follows through on his pledge to clear permitting issues for churches that want to house the homeless.

… Ko hopes to buy 11 more of the 12-foot-tall, 314-square-foot “spherical domes” from Juneau, Alaska, at a bulk rate of $9,500 each, to house up to four people per dome. One of the 12 domes would be used as a shower/bathroom, and another would serve as a communal kitchen….

Likewise: Arakawa pushing for hard-wall housing units for Maui homeless

read … Church would house homeless in igloos

Ignorance: Council, Mayor Agree on Plan to Set up Two Festering Tent Cities for Homeless 

HNN: …Plans to allow two managed homeless encampments on Oahu are moving forward, while the city also plans to build a hygiene center for the homeless.

City Councilman Joey Manahan pushed for a managed encampment in his district, which includes Iwilei, and got the mayor's blessing for the project last week.

National homeless advocates typically oppose managed camps, saying they fail to move people into permanent housing….

Manahan is working with Low-Income Housing Institute of Seattle to craft his plan. The organization has had a similar project in place for the past decade….

Meanwhile, the mayor said he also supports Council Chairman Ernie Martin's initiative to build a temporary encampment in Wahiawa.

The mayor has asked both councilman to pick the specific location for the encampments in each of their districts….

Here it is: Homeless tent cities: Seattle’s decade-long nightmare coming to Honolulu?

read … Hide your copper

PHOCUSED: Just Give Us Money

CB: “…this is not the time to be terribly budget conscious….”

read … Not Conscious

1 In 8 Hawaii Middle Schoolers Say They’ve Attempted Suicide

CB: … Last year nearly a quarter of middle school students in Hawaii said they had seriously considered suicide, according to the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. One in eight said they tried to take their own lives.

The biennial survey, conducted by the Department of Health and the Department of Education, is slated for release in June, when national results are also available for comparison. It was previewed for the Board of Education earlier this month.

Middle school students in Hawaii have been reporting high rates of suicidal feelings since the state started surveying kids on the topic in 1997. Despite the alarming numbers, education and prevention efforts historically have focused on older teens.

That’s in part because, for several years, Hawaii had the highest rate of high school students who said they had seriously considered suicide, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. (In the most current available data, from 2013, Hawaii reported the seventh-highest rate in the nation.) ….

read … Suicide

Transsexual Agenda for Hawaii Schools

CB: Written by the tranny from Halau Lokahi Public Charter School which was shut down due to corruption ….

As Explained: The transsexual agenda for Hawaii schools

read … How Badly do you want to be Politically Correct? 

Homosexual Child Molesters Seek Special Homeless Shelter to Keep Their Victims Clean and Fresh

HB: It doesn’t look like a homeless shelter – and that’s the point.

Cheery paint and graphic shapes tie together the 22 bed areas, creating a hip, treehouse feel. Bathrooms are private and gender neutral, a recognition of the fact that 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT and identity can be a thorny subject. Welcome to Y2Y, a new Boston shelter designed for 18- to 24-year-olds.

“A lot of young people don’t feel safe being in homeless shelters with the rest of the homeless population,” says one of the shelter’s cofounders, Sam Greenberg.

There are unique challenges in addition to the LGBT issue. A quarter of homeless youth come from the foster care system. Some suffer mental illness….

KHON: Homosexual Fakes Hate Incident?

read … Pederasty

Schizophrenic Policy: City Denies Grant To Program Helping Mentally Ill Homeless People

CB: The City and County of Honolulu has denied a $180,000 grant to Mental Health Kokua Activity Center, a non-profit organization that serves severely mentally ill people in downtown Honolulu and Chinatown….

The Mental Health Kokua Activity Center provides case management, psychiatry, medication, showers, meals, clothes and recreational activities to over 100 people each month who suffer from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder….

The city’s last count of homeless people on Oahu found that there are 993 who have severe mental illnesses….

PDF: Letter to DCS from Mental Health Kokua

read … Schizophrenic

Trial starts in suit alleging girl raped at Oahu high school

HNN: A trial is underway in a mother's lawsuit against Hawaii's public school system alleging her daughter was raped by a classmate.

Her attorney Michael Green told a jury in an opening statement Tuesday that the case is about a failure of accountability. He says officials at Oahu's Waianae High School were "deliberately indifferent" about the alleged 2013 assault in a coed bathroom on campus.

Green says the girl has the intellectual ability of a second-grader and that the boy has a very low IQ.

SA: School’s officials are at fault in alleged rape, jurors are told

read … Raped

A Hawaii Uber Driver Has Been Charged With Raping a Teenage Passenger

OC: …a 24-year old Hawaii Uber driver was charged with sexual assault in the first degree yesterday morning….

HNN: Uber driver accused of sexually assaulting teen had been focus of previous complaints

read … Rape

The Rescue Game

KE: …an interesting “game” that a friend told me about. It's called the Rescue Game, and I'm sure you'll recognize how it's being played by the anti-GMO/anti-ag folks on Kauai, and elsewhere around the state.

It goes like this:

Each group of players is assigned one of three roles: Victim, Persecutor or Rescuer. The first two roles are allowed one move each: the Victim’s move is to suffer, and the Persecutor’s move is to make the Victim suffer. The Rescuer is allowed two moves: to sympathize with the Victim and to punish the Persecutor. No other moves are allowed, and no player is allowed to make a move that belongs to a different role….

Related: American Narratives: The Rescue Game

read … Musings: Games People Play

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