Hawaiian Burials Dug up to make Way for Obama’s Oceanfront Septic Tank

Star-Adv/Pro-Publica Aug 15, 2020 (excerpt):

… In January, workers had found human remains, or iwi kupuna, as they reshaped a multimillion-dollar oceanfront lot into a luxury compound being developed by Marty Nesbitt, the chair of the Obama Foundation and head of a Chicago-based private-equity firm. The bones were unearthed in an area where the owners were planning a swimming pool and septic system, and they were reburied months later on another part of the property. A state official (who?) made the decision to relocate the remains.

Kala‘i was furious with the developers.

“All over the place, our kupuna, somehow it is OK to sacrifice them for the sake of buildings and cesspools and swimming pools,” Kala‘i said, her voice trembling. “It’s not OK. It’s not OK. I will say that until the last breath in my body can say it.”…

read … Bones found on a property tied to Obama, causing tension with Native Hawaiians

How Obama Got a Legal Seawall for Another 55 Years

Star-Adv/Pro-Publica Aug 15, 2020 (excerpt):

… As Barack Obama entered the home stretch of his presidency, his close friend Marty Nesbitt was scouting an oceanfront property on Oahu, the Hawaiian island where the two regularly vacationed together with their families.

A home in the nearby neighborhood of Kailua had served as the winter White House for the Obama family every Christmas, and photographers often captured shots of Obama and Nesbitt strolling on the beach or golfing over the holidays.

The prospective property was located just down the shore in the Native Hawaiian community of Waimanalo. Wedged between the Koʻolau mountains that jut 1,300 feet into the sky and a stunning turquoise ocean, the beachfront estate sprawled across 3 acres, featuring a five-bedroom manse, gatehouse, boat house and tennis courts. Fronting the property was a historic turtle pond that used to feed Hawaiian chiefs. Local families took their children to splash and swim in its calm waters.

The property had one major problem though: a century-old seawall. While the concrete structure had long protected the estate from the sea, it now stood at odds with modern laws designed to preserve Hawaii’s natural coastlines. Scientists and environmental experts say seawalls are the primary cause of beach loss throughout the state. Such structures interrupt the natural flow of the ocean, preventing beaches from migrating inland.

(Translation: Enviros won’t let you get a seawall -- but they can get one for themselves.  See how this works?)

But the sellers of the Waimanalo property found a way to ensure the seawall remained in place for another generation. They asked state officials for something called an easement, a real estate tool that allows private property owners to essentially lease the public land that sits under the seawall. The cost: a one-time payment of $61,400. Officials with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources approved the permit, which authorized the wall for another 55 years, and Nesbitt purchased the property.

Community members are now rallying against the proposed seawall expansion. Some are directing their criticism at Obama, who staked his legacy, in part, on fighting climate change and promoting environmental sustainability.….

(IQ Test: Are you laughing?)

...state officials have awarded seawall easements to more than 120 property owners over the past two decades. They include business and real state executives from Hawaii, the mainland U.S. and Japan, a former Honolulu City Council chairman, and a former managing director of a large hedge fund. Some have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to bypass rules designed to protect the public shoreline....

(These are the same people who micromanage your life in the name of environmentalism.  No mention of who the former Council Chair is.)

read … Obama and the beach house loopholes 

SA Editorial: Get tough on seawalls   "... And in a blatant overreach of a dubious situation, Nesbitt is now asking to enlarge the seawall to protect against sea level rise: a $3.2 million project to nearly double the wall height in some sections and to add two new walls behind it for support. That request, subject to a public hearing, is rightly already facing community opposition...."