Midnight Regulations in Paradise
Report: Returning Power to Micronesians
2017 Honolulu Neighborhood Board Elections—Candidate Registration Begins Dec 1
List of Honolulu Neighborhood Board Vacancies
Detroit With Palm Trees
Annual Stop Flu at School Vaccination Program
Transportation planning meeting will focus on Central Oahu
Tulsi Gabbard Embodies “the very essence of Donald Trump’s ideological departure”
WT: …America Firsters have floated the name of Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat who endorsed Bernard Sanders for president in significant part over her concerns about Hillary Clinton’s interventionism.
One contributing columnist for The Hill praised Ms. Gabbard for embodying “the very essence of the President-Elect’s ideological departure from the interventionist policies that have plagued this nation for the past two decades.”….
AP: Gabbard to join Dakota Access protest
read … The Essence of Trump
Hawaii Civil Rights Commission: Report Trump Voters to Us
CB: The Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission today announced that Chair Linda Hamilton Krieger called on the people of Hawaiʻi to stand against the reported rise in the incidence of discriminatory harassment and intimidation.
“National reports of a spike in anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim and anti-woman harassment in the wake of the presidential election raise serious concerns,” said Krieger….
“It is offensive that proponents of a ‘Muslim registration’ system cite the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans as precedent to justify government targeting of an unpopular minority….
If you feel you have been subjected to discrimination or harassment because of your race, ancestry, sexual orientation, religion, sex, including gender identity or other prohibited bases, contact the HCRC at (808) 586-8636 or email DLIR.HCRC.INFOR@hawaii.gov.
For more information, go to the HCRC webpage.
read … Hawaii Civil Rights Commission calls for opposition
Sheriffs May Begin Patrolling UH Campuses After Muslim Knifes Students at OSU
KHON: …Junior Kelli Lyman says the Manoa campus could always be safer. “With the Dept. of Public Safety, I understand they do the best they can. But I don’t feel they’re properly equipped, especially in the case of a gun violence outbreak. What can they do with just like a flashlight? They can’t really do anything to protect us.” ….
“I think there could be more patrols by, I’d say, maybe sheriffs. This is a state-run university and sheriffs are state employed. They could pose more safety for us students. They’re the ones who are armed.”
When asked if such an idea is feasible, Meisenzahl said “I think anything could be feasible. Now, police officers are on if there’s special events, but there hasn’t been a situation where we would need them on a regular basis. We would like to put whatever measures are in place.”
We spoke with the state Department of Public Safety and a spokesperson said its sheriff division resources do not currently allow for campus patrols. But in a statement, the department said “if we are approached by the University of Hawaii, we would be willing to sit down and discuss their safety concerns.”
But are there funds available for sheriffs to patrol the Manoa campus? State Sen. Will Espero says there is money in the state budget and it all depends on how the money is prioritized….
read … Outbreak of Islam
Isle industrial space still squeezed-Rents Jump 10.8%
PBN: The Hawaii industrial real estate market continues to tighten after another quarter of space getting leased, dropping the availability rate to 1.5 percent, according to a new report….
Base asking rents saw a 10.8 percent year-over-year increase to $1.23 per square foot per month in the third quarter, up from $1.11 per square foot per month in the same quarter last year….
…there are barriers to new industrial development, including zoning restrictions, increased density requirements, the high cost of construction and the highest and best use analysis that typically results in office, apartments, retail and hotel construction before industrial….
read … Isle industrial space still squeezed
HC&S Closure Brings 5 More Diesel Generators online
MN: Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. provided 1,265.5 megawatt hours of power to Maui Electric Co. in the third quarter, the second-to-last quarter that the sugar company will be providing electricity to Maui residents….
MECO’s report to the state Public Utilities Commission on Nov. 21 said that the utility paid $241,717 for the power generated by the Puunene Mill from bagasse, coal and oil for the July-to-September period. All of the power was “regular” or scheduled power; the latest power purchase agreement calls for HC&S to provide 4 megawatts of scheduled power to MECO from March to May and October to December and up to 16 MW of immediate emergency power.
The agreement also allowed the plantation to offer additional energy to MECO if it’s available and if the utility requests it.
The current agreement, which took effect in October 2015, ends Jan. 6. It scaled back HC&S power deliveries to MECO significantly from as much as 12 MW of power year-round.
To make up for the lost power, MECO is seeking approval from the PUC to temporarily install three used diesel power generators near Maui Lani for times of peak power use. The units can generate 4.95 MW of power for the utility’s reserve-capacity use, MECO said.
The utility also announced last month that it had reactivated two generators at its 68-year-old Kahului Power Plant after deactivating them in February 2014. The decision to run the units continuously, instead of only in emergency, as-needed situations, was tied to growing demand for power and to the HC&S closure, the utility said….
(Translation: Less biomass, more diesel. Thank a protester.)
read … HC&S closure will pull plug on power deal
GEMS: Hawaii Low Income Program Supports the Rich
IM: The Honolulu Star Advertiser headline on Sunday said it all. “Businesses benefit from solar financing program meant to aid low income residents.”
The article by Kathryn Mykleseth opened with a simple truth, “The state’s failed $150 million financing program designed to help low income residents own renewable energy systems has begun lending money instead to private businesses.”
Governor Abercrombie and State Lawmakers rammed through the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) program in 2013. The Public Utilities Commission quickly approved the program.
Intevenor, Life of the Land, and Environment Hawai`i editor Patricia Tummons, raised early and repeated warnings, which fell on deaf ears.
The State borrowed $150,000,000.00 through a bond sale in November 2014. The interest payments have far exceeded the money lent out.
Only 17 solar systems were funded to a tune of less than $600,000 combined, and given primarily to people with money. In all, GEMS lent out $1.25 million, or less than 1 percent of what they borrowed.
Low income residents did not benefit from the program….
read … Hawaii Low Income Program Supports the Rich
Obama Gives ASB $55M in Fat Juicy Tax Credits
PBN: Punawai O Puuhonua, a Hawaii-based community development entity, has received an allocation of $55 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Department of Treasury.
POP, which was formed in 2010 by American Savings Bank and the Oahu Economic Development Board, is one of 120 community development entities selected by the Treasury to receive $7 billion in NMTC allocations.
NC: A NMTC investor receives a tax credit equal to 39 percent of the total Qualified Equity Investment
read … Politics Pays
Anti-GMO, Anti-Telescope ‘People’s Congress’ To Meet
CB: The groups involved include the Sierra Club of Hawaii, the Community Alliance on Prisons, Unite Here! Local 5, Hawaii Appleseed Center, the Hawaii Center for Food Safety, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Maui Tomorrow and the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action….
read … People?
Anti-GMO Lies in Third World
KE: …I attended an event that featured several of the Cornell Alliance for Science Global Leadership Fellows, who had just completed their 12-week training and were preparing to head home.
They told of growing up hungry, of seeing people in their home countries within Africa, Latin America and Asia struggling to obtain food, lift themselves out of poverty. They talked about their frustration with an anti-GMO movement that is based in the well-fed West and funded by elites — a movement that seeks to dictate what farmers in developing nations should be allowed to grow.
They shared some of the crazy lies that drive the anti-GMO movement — if you eat GMO goods, you'll get veneral diseases, go crazy, die of tumors, offend God. More poignantly, they spoke about the ways that farmers suffer because they're deprived of biotechnology — the devastating crop losses, the crippling debt, the intensive use of pesticides that has left some farmers unable to have sex with their wives, creating serious tensions within their marriages.
It was a moving presentation, informed by their first-hand experiences, their empathy, their driving passion to improve the lives of their countrymen, make the world a better place. And it reminded me again why I work to dispell myths and share the facts about crop biotech.
This was followed by a screening of the documentary “Food Evolution,” which had premiered at the NYC DOC film festival just days before.
As I watched the introduction, with its images of the Hawaii marches and protests, the red shirts and blue shirts, the signs with their simplistic messages, Roseanne Barr advocating papaya field destruction, my breath became rapid and shallow. My heart begin to to pound and my blood began to race as I thought of all the harm they'd caused, the havoc they'd wreaked, the lives they'd disrupted, the expenses they'd racked up for taxpayers to pay.
And for what? An ideology promoted primarily by the organics industry to sell more products, undermine competitors. An ideology based on fear, and false information. An ideology that is, at core, intolerant, even heartless, though it claims to embrace the concepts of aloha.
read … Musings: Reflections
HMSA: You’re too expensive, Just Die
HNN: …Heathcote was diagnosed with the disease in January 2016. She underwent two surgeries to remove tumors and two rounds of treatment, but now doctors say she needs a complex surgery, which includes building her a whole new bladder.
"The surgery is a little more complicated, but certainly it can provide a better quality of life," said Dr. David Wei, urological surgeon at Queen's Medical Center.
Dr. Wei says few physicians in Hawaii are experienced in the Neobladder procedure.
In letters to HMSA, he and other doctors recommended Heathcote see a surgeon in California who is an expert, but the Medicaid insurance company says it won't cover out of network care.
"I asked my PCP to check with doctors on the mainland and when she put a request for a surgeon at Stanford, HSMA rejected it," said Heathcote.
Heathcote is an HMSA-covered QUEST patient.
The insurance company denied her request, twice.
"I was devastated," Heathcote said.
"QUEST patients certainly seem to have greater difficulties in getting approval," said Dr. Wei….
read … Cancer patient says Hawaii insurance company is denying her needed procedure
Killer Maniac Got only 6 Years in Lunatic Asylum: Out on Streets, Allegedly Does it Again
HNN: The suspect in the Sherwood Forest stabbing in Waimanalo was charged with killing his father 17 years ago.
Angelito Taca, 56, is accused of stabbing Anthony Aguiar nine times while Aguiar was walking three children at the popular beach on Friday.
Taca, who faces attempted murder charges, made his initial court appearance Monday.
"(A witness) observed Taca attack Aguiar this time with a sharp object in one of his hands ... reaching over head head with a stabbing motion hitting Aguiar in the upper back multiple times," court filings alleged.
Aguiar suffered a collapsed lung and was hospitalized at Queen's Medical Center.
Taca, a Waimanalo native, was charged in the 1999 stabbing death of his father Isabelo Taca. The case never went to trial after Taca was repeatedly found mentally unfit.
Court records show that Taca has a history of mental illness, substance abuse and violence.
Back in 2002, then-Circuit Judge Sandra Simms called Taca a threat to public safety, saying: "The defendant is very seriously mentally ill and it's difficult to envision a time when (he) will be considered recovered."
She also ordered the state to inform his family members when he was released.
"(The) court doesn't want anything to fall through the cracks," Simms said.
Taca was civilly committed to the state mental hospital but state Health Department officials said he remained there only until 2005.
read … Soft on Crime
Chinatown Suffers Because of Massive Scheme to Keep the Homeless Homeless
CB: …“Every day ask,” Ching says of Iakio’s routine. “Every time, eat free, smoke free.”
Iakio is one of about 200 people who line up around the corner from Ching’s restaurant along Pauahi Street three times every weekday for free meals from River of Life Mission, a nonprofit that serves about 15,000 meals monthly….
While River of Life itself maintains a clean and presentable building façade and interior, a nearby line of people waiting for meals creates an “unpleasant” atmosphere, Kakooka said. She figures her store loses three hours of business every day as a result….
Bob Merchant, River of Life’s executive director, is open to the idea of relocating the meal services, but even with the help of the city and state, he hasn’t found another location….
Chow said his shop has had issues with homeless people stealing, throwing food and littering outside. With Safe Haven moving in, he said the situation “is going to be very worse.”….
Chinatown is used as a dumping ground for the homeless and there needs to be a plan to discourage even more social welfare agencies from coming to Chinatown….
Down the street at River of Life Mission, Happy Iakio gets more than free meals. He’s spent over 10 years on the streets, struggling with alcoholism drunk….
River of Life started with one man serving free meals out of his truck in 1986….
read … Help us stay drunk and on the streets
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