GET exemption could be turning point in Hawaii healthcare crisis
UHERO Factbook: 80% of Hawaii Families Cannot Afford Mortgage
Derek Turbin Elected Chair of Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi
DHHL: Criminal Al Hee's Sandwich Isles Scam Causing 'phone and internet disruptions'
Recession? Hawaii hotels’ soft spring is carrying over to summer
SA: … There wasn’t as much cha-ching this spring for Hawaii hotels, which in April experienced losses in five key performance measures for the second month in a row.
Statewide hotel occupancy in April dipped to 72.3%, a 1.4-percentage- point loss from April 2023, according to a Hawaii Hotel Performance report released Monday by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. The report utilized data from STR, which compiled the April data surveying 171 properties representing 47,965 rooms, or 86.4% of all lodging properties with 20 rooms or more in the Hawaiian Islands.
The average daily rate paid for a Hawaii hotel room in April fell 2.1% to $368. Revenue per available room, or RevPAR, considered one of the better measures of performance because it measures the revenue generated by each available room at a hotel, decreased 4% to $266….
Maui was the only island to see a year-over-year gain in April occupancy, which rose 1.3 percentage points to 66.3%, in part because occupancy in the Lahaina, Kaanapali and Kapalua regions, which bore most of the effects of the Aug. 8 Maui wildfires, was bolstered by a mix of displaced Lahaina residents, relief workers and visitors….
BH: Islands Divided: Some Command Highest Prices in the U.S. - Beat of Hawaii
ETN: Lower Hawaii Hotel Occupancy with Higher Revenue is Good News for some (eturbonews.com)
read … Hawaii hotels’ soft spring is carrying over to summer
How Are Jurors Holding Up 4 Months Into The Miske Trial? Better Than You Might Think, Experts Say
CB: … They are the most important people in the room, the ones who will decide the fate of a man charged with 19 counts connected to what prosecutors say was his operation of an organized crime ring. Some of the counts, including murder in aid of racketeering and murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death, carry mandatory minimum life sentences if he’s convicted.
About four months into the trial with months still to go, many court observers wonder how the jury is holding up, how they’re able to retain and process so much complex information and how they’ll be able to come to a fair decision when it’s all over. A draft of the jury’s instructions, which is a set of rules to guide them on their deliberations, is 176 pages long.
Since they’re prohibited from speaking about the case while the trial is ongoing, the jurors’ current thoughts and feelings are unknown, but experts say they’re likely more engaged and less bored than one might imagine. Scholars and jury consultants who’ve interviewed dozens of jurors post-trial say most of them find the experience rewarding and, in lengthy trials especially, often develop lasting friendships with fellow jurors. …
(QUESTION: Are they color-coordinating?)
read … How Are Jurors Holding Up 4 Months Into The Miske Trial? Better Than You Might Think, Experts Say
An overlooked group of Lahaina fire victims
ILind: … There’s a class of victims in the Lahaina fire disaster that hasn’t been mentioned publicly yet, at least that I’ve been able to find.
I’m talking about the thousands of Hawaii retirees who lost up to 3/4 of their retirement savings when the value of their investments in Hawaiian Electric Industries, the parent company of Hawaiian Electric Company, or HECO, plummeted almost overnight in the days after the fire.
While institutional investors with their computerized trading systems and full-time investment managers got out from under the HE stock without major damage, most retirees are “buy & hold” investors who just aren’t that nimble when things go topsy-turvey.
One recent estimate is that individual retail investors hold 35.59% of the company stock.
One financial website reported: “The share price as of May 17, 2024 is 11.50 / share. Previously, on May 22, 2023, the share price was 36.29 / share. This represents a decline of 68.31% over that period.”…
read … An overlooked group of Lahaina fire victims
Hawaiian Electric Reports Nine Blackouts in April
IM: … The Hawaiian Electric Companies had nine significant outages in April. The HECO Companies filed a “System Interruption Reports” with the Public Utilities Commission. The reports are in non-docket 2024-05-17….
Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) had an outage on April 14.
Hawai`i Electric Light Company (HELCO) had outages on April 3, 4, 5, 12, 14, 26, and 27.
Maui Electric Company (MECO) had an outage on April 25.
read … HECO Companies File Outage Reports | Ililani Media
‘I thought it was a joke!’: Rising grocery prices spur formal complaint from Hawaii lawmaker
HNN: … Prices for everyday staples in Hawaii are known to be higher than usual, but a loaf of bread over $13 on Kauai caused a Councilman to file a complaint.
The loaf in question was a Loves Jumbo Wheat bread at a Kauai Times Supermarket in Lihue, being sold for a whopping $13.39.
“I thought it was a joke!”
Kauai County Council Chair Mel Rapozo says he verified the price and then expressed his frustration online, prompting hundreds to vent their outrage and dismay….
read … ‘I thought it was a joke!’: Rising grocery prices spur formal complaint from Hawaii lawmaker
Hawaii faces shortage of 800 physicians, with neighbor islands hit hardest
KITV: … The most recent data by John A. Burns School of Medicine, reports, Hawaii has a shortage of nearly 800 full-time physicians and the need is more pronounced on the neighbor islands.
The federal government designated our neighbor islands as medically underserved areas as many residents are forced to fly to Oahu to obtain appropriate health care…
read … Hawaii faces shortage of 800 physicians, with neighbor islands hit hardest
Big Island rejected more gun permits than other counties in 2023
HPR: … A recent Hawaiʻi attorney general report on firearm registrations contained some puzzling numbers.
According to the report, the number of gun permit rejections in 2023 hovered at 1% or lower in Maui, Kauaʻi and Honolulu counties. But in Hawaiʻi County, 6.9% were denied.
To put it another way, Honolulu rejected 142 of the nearly 13,700 applications, while Big Island police denied 332 of just over 4,800 applications….
read … Here's why Big Island rejected more gun permits than other counties in 2023
EPA Gives Activists $2.1M for ‘Reusable foodware plan’—it still doesn’t work
HTH: … A proposed project to replace disposable foodware at Hilo food establishments with reusable items needs a little more time in the oven.
The project, which received $2.1 million in grant funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year, would develop a system for distributing reusable food containers to restaurants and other participating organizations, and could be launched by February of next year, said Jennifer Navarra, program director for Zero Waste Hawaii Island.
Zero Waste Hawaii is administering the project in partnership with Perpetual, a nonprofit that has worked on similar programs around the country, and the Hawaii County Department of Environmental Management.
Customers would receive their food in reusable containers and then, when finished, would dispose of the empty containers at public collection sites, where they would be collected, sanitized and redistributed back to participating businesses….
Users would have 10 days to return an item to a collection site, after which a nominal fee would be charged to their credit cards if they never dropped the item off.
“You could get an extension,” Navarra said. “For example, if you live in Volcano and don’t come down to Hilo that often, you could get an extension like you would for a library book.”
The draft plan also mentions a possible “redemption value” for the reusable items, wherein users who find abandoned foodware could receive a nominal payment — the plan recommends $0.15 per item — for returning it to a collection site. Furthermore, Navarra said that people who incurred a nonreturn fee could be reimbursed if they return the item themselves.
However, that solution doesn’t account for users who pay in cash, Navarra said, and further refinement will be necessary….
read … Reusable foodware plan still in the works - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
How The System Keeps the Homeless, Homeless
HNN: … On April 30, 64-year-old man Roger Kumura — a hospital bracelet still on his wrist — slept in front of Kuakini Medical Center. Those who walked by dropped off food and money….
In a statement, Kuakini says the patient did not need to be admitted was treated and released. The hospital later clarified that when the patient was released, a hospital security officer escorted him outside and gave him some money. He walked on his own and when the security officer left, that’s when the patient laid down on the ground. A spokesperson said the city’s C.O.R.E. program brought the man to the hospital, but it wasn’t immediately known if the hospital called C.O.R.E. afterward.
The situation was similar to a situation where a homeless man in need of medical treatment spent days on a sidewalk right outside Queen’s Medical Center last year.
Meanwhile, 61 and wheelchair bound, Lovey Aona has been hospitalized at Queen’s West for a week and a half because of an infection.
She had been living at the Ulu Ke Kukui affordable housing complex in Maili on Hawaiian Home Lands property after advocates briefly occupied the complex in January 2023 to demand housing. She and some others were allowed to stay, but it was only temporary….
(IDEA: Forcibly incarcerate them in a shelter after duly convicting them of vagrancy.)
KHON: Empowering Hawaiʻi’s working unsheltered, a conversation with DLIR Director Jade Butay, part 2 | KHON2
read … Across Oahu, a growing dilemma: How to care for kupuna living on the streets
State Installing New Cameras At Women's Prison After $2 Million Settlement Over Sex Assaults
CB: … That last feature grew out of a federal court lawsuit that resulted in a $2 million settlement with current and former inmates. The inmates involved in that litigation alleged they were sexually assaulted by staff at the facility, including cases where staff had sexual contact with prisoners inside the control booths….
Federal court filings alleged there were more than 50 sexual assaults of inmates by staff at the prison in 2015 and 2016, and about two dozen of those occurred in the prison control stations.
Staff in some cases offered snacks, methamphetamine and special privileges to the inmates involved, but the lawsuit alleged the women were coerced and characterized the sexual misconduct as “rapes.”
Any sexual contact between a prison inmate and staff is a felony under Hawaii law because prisoners cannot legally give consent.
Two former WCCC staffers who were named in the lawsuit were convicted in connection with the assaults….
read … State Installing New Cameras At Women's Prison After $2 Million Settlement Over Sex Assaults
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