Abercrombie taking $46M from DOE to balance state budget
Djou: Give Veterans a Private Healthcare Option
Court: No EIS Required For Haleakala Telescope
More Hollywood Homosexuals Sued over Alleged Child Molestation in Hawaii
Big Island Farmers File Latest Federal Court Salvo on GMO Front
McCain Endorses Djou for Congress
Abercrombie's road 'littered with human collateral damage'
Borreca: Faleafine now says that she has "no regrets" working in the Abercrombie campaign, but today admits she is disappointed.
"In my non-political expertise, the Abercrombie administration has had some big wins. Unfortunately, their road is littered with human collateral damage.
"There must be more emphasis on the value of people," Faleafine said on her blog.
In an interview she added: "Over the past four years, many people have been hurt and are still hurting. One example is how the relationship between the governor and his administration and our public school teachers played out in the public."
read ... Social media expert leaves Abercrombie to work for Ige
Did ERS Help Bail Out Central Pacific Bank?
CB: The ERS has owned the shiny 24-story City Financial Tower at 201 Merchant Street for the past quarter century, one of the last structures designed by renowned World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki before his death in 1986. The pension fund purchased the building, now its headquarters, for $68 million in March 1989, just a few months before it officially opened.
But one thing the ERS didn’t own was the ground underneath the building and its parking garage. That was owned by Citibank Properties, a subsidiary of Central Pacific Financial Corp., the holding company for Central Pacific Bank, which had acquired the real estate through a merger with CB Bancshares, the parent of City Bank. The land under the 360-space parking facility was owned by Kamehameha Schools, an operating unit of the $7 billion Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate.
For 20 years, the ERS dutifully made annual ground lease payments to Citibank and Kamehameha Schools. In 2008 negotiations to purchase the land began with Citibank and the haggling continued for several months until the ERS finally acquired the property in 2009 for $7.4 million.
Two years later, in December 2011, the ERS purchased the land underneath the parking garage from Kamehameha Schools for an undisclosed amount. Pension fund Executive Director Wes Machida said details of that transaction can’t be revealed because of a confidentiality agreement. However, real estate records suggest the purchase price was somewhere around $6 million....
According to heavily redacted minutes of executive sessions of the ERS trustee meetings in 2008 and early 2009 obtained by Civil Beat under a public records request, the pension fund first approached Citibank in early 2007, offering to pay $7 million for the land and was rebuffed by the bank.
However, in September 2008 Citibank contacted Heitman, offering to sell the property for $10 million, something required under the ERS’ right of first refusal to buy the land before it could be offered to somebody else.
It is unknown what changed the bank’s mind, although at the time it offered to sell the land, the country was in the midst of a financial crisis and Central Pacific Financial Corp. was having financial and intermittent regulatory problems of its own. It ultimately received $135 million in federal aid through the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program on Jan. 9, 2009, money that has been repaid.
The pension fund responded with a counteroffer of $6.5 million which was rejected by the bank. In December 2008 the ERS upped its offer to $7.4 million, a price accepted by the bank upon the condition of a quick closing in January 2009....
One pension trustee shut out of the negotiations was Colbert Matsumoto, who also served as a director of Central Pacific Bank. Supplemental minutes of discussions regarding Central Financial Tower during closed sessions were specifically marked “should be screened from Trustee Matsumoto.”
“I’m on the board at Central Pacific Bank, which at one time was a tenant in City Financial Tower and also owned a part of the (land) underlying (the building). So on all matters related to City Financial Tower, I was recused both at the ERS level and also at the Central Pacific Bank level,” Matsumoto said in an interview.
read ... City Financial Tower: Betting on a Building
While Building Kakaako, Abercrombie Signs Bill to Study 'Rising Seas'
CB: Best comment: "Hey Governor Abercrombie, is Kaka'ako near the shoreline?"
NR: Abercrombie today signed House Bill 1714
read ... Hawaii Governor Signs Law to Study Rising Seas
Housing First homeless program Will not 'Create Positions'
HNN: "It's going to be much harder, but I'm not giving up". Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell was upfront when assessing how the Housing First program will be implemented at 1/6th the budget he had hoped for.
The City Council approved $3 million. He wanted almost $19 million.
"In terms of administrating the rollout of this program, it takes a lot of people. And there's no funding for that part of it" the mayor said.
The program puts the chronically homeless into housing first, as the name suggests, before the administration of services....
An additional $32 million dollars was approved, but because that sum comes from general obligation bonds, it can only be spent on specific brick and mortar construction projects.
"Rebuilding a unit, purchasing a unit, or building a new unit" Mayor Caldwell remarked.
Most of those units will be focused in three areas: Waikiki, Downtown Honolulu and Leeward Oahu.
CB: $47 million could make a big dent in homelessness, but it's mostly for building or renovating — not managing and maintaining
read ... Housing First homeless program faces budget challenge
Kauai Anti-Agriculture Ballot Initiative Rejected
KE: The Kauai County Clerk has rejected Kauai Rising's sweeping proposed charter amendment on technical grounds.
The group apparently failed to follow the correct format for creating a petition, despite being given samples to work from. As a result, its paperwork is invalid and all the signatures must be collected again, within a month, for a chance to appear on the November ballot.
The 18-page anti-ag amendment would create an all-powerful Office of Environmental Health under the sole control of the County Council, impose stringent regulations on the use of toxins, greatly expand the right of citizens to sue and recover legal fees and damages even if they don't win, and would allow people to be found guilty of violations without requiring proof that the defendant "knew or intended that such action, activities or conduct, or failure to act, would cause or contribute to the violation."
read ... Kauai Eclectic
PUC Asked to Approve Sub-Prime Energy Loans
PBN: The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism has filed two applications with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission seeking approval to move forward with the Gov. Neil Abercrombie Administration’s Green Energy Market Securitization or GEMS program.
read ... Sub-Prime Lending is Baaaack
Voters Pick Candidate Who's "Coming on Very Hard"
HM: “If I see someone coming on very hard, I know he’s on the ball and he really wants it,” says a 66-year-old Democrat from Wahiawa who says he planned to vote along party lines.
But for the primary, he has options, so he says, “He’s gotta have the same hair as me,” which immediately ruled out Gov. Abercrombie. “I don’t know anything about (Sen. David) Ige, but I like him,” he added.
In the general election, there will be two black-haired candidates, but not only is former Mayor (and former Democrat) Mufi Hannemann running as an Independent, the Wahiawa resident says, “I gave him a chance before, but somehow he flubbed it.”
Abercrombie will be the beneficiary of one 36-year-old Aiea woman’s vote for governor. “I vote alphabetically, whoever is on top of the party list on the ballot,” she says, noting that she’s a Democrat.
However, another woman in Hawaii Kai, who would only say she was in her 60s, says she looks for names she recognizes. She carefully scanned the list of 12 gubernatorial candidates, her brow wrinkled and she mumbled she didn’t know anyone. Then, finally smiling, she pointed to Duke Aiona and announced, “He’s the only one I know. That’s who I’m voting for.” (While name recognition is a common way of voting, it’s hard not to point out that Aiona’s name was directly under our current governor’s, while former Mayor Mufi Hannemann and state Sen. David Ige were a little lower on the list.)
Others says they follow their union’s endorsements. A few says they’d vote for anyone but the incumbents because we need a change.
read ... Hair Alphabet
Third Handi Van Fire in Three Years
SA: "Thank you for saving my life," Ofelio Marcello Lopez told Chun on Monday. Lopez and his wife, Mayra, who uses a wheelchair, were heading to Sandy Beach on May 25 when Chun smelled something strange, exited the H-1 at King Street and pulled the Handi-Van over on Middle Street.
Smoke wafted from the vents below the windshield, and minutes later the van was consumed by fire.
Officials with Oahu Transit Services say they're confident that a problem in the van's fuel system sparked the blaze. They've inspected the other vans in the city's aging fleet, ensuring their fuel systems' hoses are intact and not worn, in order to try to prevent a similar fire in other vehicles, OTS President Roger Morton said Monday.
They'll continue to keep an eye on those systems through the life of the vans, he added.
It's the third time a Handi-Van has caught fire while on the road in the past three years, but it's the first of those blazes in which passengers were aboard. The previous two fires, in 2011, were found to be caused by electrical problems....
read ... Handi-Van Fires
HPD sued over violent arrest caught on video
HNN: Thirty-year-old Jonah Kaahu's violent arrest on Aug. 22, 2012 was captured on video by friends and patrons at Giovanni's Shrimp Shack in Haleiwa....
Kaahu was held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center for nine months before Circuit Judge Ed Kubo tossed his case last year due to police misconduct.
The judge found that police withheld more than 500 pages of documents, including witness testimony and cell phone videos of the beating taken by friends and tourist visiting Giovanni's.
"(Kaahu's) motion was granted in part as to the HPD officers accused of crimes of violence and dishonesty," Kubo's order said.
read ... HPD Sued
Forest City's Hawaii Housing Projects Need Further Investigation
HR: Never had it before, and never had it outdoors, at play, while working out, or after we moved into housing in Hickam Air Force Base.
We didn’t even now there was mold in our house until it started dripping down our walls from condensation.
Our dog developed liver problems while we lived there. My husband developed chronic headaches while there… never found a cause. Still has them. He used to blame it on working at PACOM. Now he is retired, though.
When we moved to Hickam, I was told not to wear my shoes in the house because of the toxins in the soil. We didn’t really do that anyway, so not a deal. But we had pets going in and out.
read ... Forest City
Star Advertiser credit card breach could impact hundreds, if not thousands, of customers
HR: It was HPD’s quick detective work that stopped the women.
One of the credit cards stolen was only used to charge the Star Advertiser fee.
That led HPD back to the storage locker, where through a process of elimination, they proved credit card records had been stolen.
Under Hawaii law, the Star Advertiser must notify the Office of Consumer Protection if during a data breach more than 1,000 individuals have their personal information breached, according to Brent Suyama, Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs Communications Officer.
The Star-Advertiser would not respond to inquiries as to whether they’d made that report.
Hawaii Reporter interviewed one person who had credit card information stolen. He said the Star Advertiser did not notify him of the breach, did not tell him to cancel his credit card or apologize to him for the incident.
read ... Not Reported?
Convicted Drug Dealer Ruggles Sues to get Marijuana Back
HTH: Two lawsuits have been filed in Hilo Circuit Court against the county and police by Puna residents who claim their marijuana was illegally confiscated even though they held medical marijuana cards and were (allegedly) in compliance with the law.
One suit was filed May 29 by attorney Ivan Van Leer on behalf of Bradley Snow, Frank Locke, Tamara Brooke and Marsha Swanson, and seeks the return of 28 marijuana plants or compensation of $5,000 per plant, a total of $140,000.
The second was filed Thursday by (convicted drug dealer) Michael Doyle Ruggles and names, in addition to the county and police department, Detective Ian Lee Loy and Officer Michael Santos. It seeks the return of 24 marijuana plants or compensation of $5,000 per plant, a total of $120,000.
Both Snow and Ruggles, who are neighbors in the Fern Acres subdivision in Mountain View, claim their properties were raided during marijuana eradication sweeps on June 14, 2014.
read ... Puna residents sue to get pot back
Letters to farmers: No crop, no tax break
WHT: The county tax division last week sent out letters to the first crop of property owners taking the agricultural tax break with no evidence of farming going on.
The letters, sent to 577 property owners, give them until Dec. 31 to submit a new application for an ag exemption or they will lose the tax break for the tax year starting July 1, 2015. The 577 properties were based on a review of aerial photography of more than 2,000 parcels, Real Property Tax Administrator Stan Sitko told the Real Property Tax Stakeholders Task Force on Monday. More letters are expected once the responses to those are processed.
Worried that too many property owners are taking advantage of the agricultural exemption without growing crops, the task force voted unanimously to recommend changing the current structure from an exemption that automatically renews every year to one that has to be reapplied for every three years. The property owner must commit to the three-year period and will also be required to present proof the land is in agriculture, under the recommended rule changes.
read ... What if they're farming marijuana?
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