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Wednesday, November 18, 2015
November 18, 2015 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 7:39 PM :: 4149 Views

Why does the Mafia Love Na’i Aupuni?

Thousands Sign Petition: No Syrian Muslim ‘Refugees’ in Hawaii

Hawaii Republicans Oppose Resettlement of Syrian Refugees in Hawaii

I am a Jihadist and I am tired of not being given credit

Full Text: Supreme Court Grants Temporary Injunction Blocking Telescope Construction

Will the Jones Act cause Hawaii’s last sugar plantation to close?

Hawaii Loses Ground in Business Tax Climate 

After Months of Posturing, Council Committee Easily Approves Massive Rail Tax Hike

SA: The Honolulu City Council Budget Committee gave preliminary approval to a bill that would extend Oahu’s 0.5 percent surcharge on the general excise tax through 2027 to help pay for the $6.57 billion rail project.  (But capped at $910M)

The vote was 4-1 with Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi casting lone vote opposing the bill. Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga voted yes “with reservations.”

The measure is now slated to be taken up at the Council’s Dec. 9 meeting, where all nine Council members will consider giving it the second of three needed approvals. If approved there, it would return to the Budget Committee for another go-around before returning to the Council again for a final vote….

Clue: All the Ernie Martin hype was just hype. 

CB: Elefante, Menor and Anderson — none of whom actually sit on the Budget Committee — all expressed reservations Wednesday about the cap

SA: Budget Committee also approves issuing $450 million in short-term bonds

PBN: Council Committee Votes to Allow HART Loans

read … Tax Hike

HART Finds Savings With Latest Honolulu Rail Bids

CB: …Honolulu received more welcome news Tuesday when transit officials opened bids to build three rail stations along the city’s $6.6 billion project corridor from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center.

Three of the four bids came in within the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s estimated range of $100 million to $125 million, allowing officials to rest a little easier about their plans to fight skyrocketing costs.

Watts Constructors, of McLean, Va.,  was the presumptive low bidder on the three-station package with a $112.7 million offer. The three stations will be located at Aloha Stadium, Pearl Ridge and Pearl Highlands….

SA: Lowest bid at $112M for 3 more rail stations

read … Manufactured Crisis

Ige says refugees welcome, state track record disagrees

SA: What goes, “Mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble BOOM! Mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble BOOM!”

Gov. David Ige, apparently.

Hawaii’s unleaderlike leader doesn’t really say much, but every so often he drops a bomb and then drops the mic. No discussion. No consensus-building. No town meetings or listening sessions. Ige likes an imperial fiat every once in a while.

His latest:  Hawaii is welcoming Syrian refugees….

It was a bit of political say-anything-because-it’ll-never-happen on Ige’s part. Is the U.S. really going to ship these beleaguered people all the way to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to join a community that is already bursting at the seams, packed on top of one another and priced only for the very wealthy to live comfortably?

To be fair, Ige was reacting to a national poll of the states. He might have gotten even more grief if he had answered, “Nah, pass.”

But it made people wonder whether Hawaii’s governor sees what we see.

Perhaps, we thought, Ige believes Hawaii’s homeless problem is on the verge of being solved. Or is solvable. Or will magically resolve itself in part due to his, I dunno, recent trips to Asia.

Perhaps Ige has faith that the hopelessly broken Hawaii Health Connector will be magically restored and Hawaii can offer health insurance to new refugees….

The next day, Ige called a hasty news conference to mumble through an explanation.

“This Syria issue is not of my making. It’s certainly not anything that I’ve spent any significant time on other than responding to media requests, so thank you all for keeping me busy,” he said to reporters with as much limp sarcasm as he could muster. When forced by the public to explain himself, maybe for the first time since he was elected, Ige sounded irritated….

read … Track Record

Star-Adv: Refugee Terrorism Concerns ‘Rational’

SA: …it’s hard to see how Hawaii would fit well within any resettlement program the federal government devises.

There are general public security concerns that have become heightened since the weekend terrorist attack in Paris that horrified the world. These are rational concerns, given that the terrorists struck soft targets, innocents who were simply engaged in ordinary pursuits. Hawaii would not be immune from such an attack.

One of those implicated in the horrific violence, for which the jihadist organization Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has taken credit, may have used a faked Syrian passport to slip into Europe disguised as a refugee. Global fears were ratcheted up further this week when German officials uncovered an apparent plan to bomb a soccer match….

read … Hawaii hard-pressed to help refugees

Native Hawaiian election results expected in less than 2 weeks

KITV: Voters have the option to mail in or cast their vote online -- everything is due by Nov. 30th….

The independent organization recommend voters to log onto its website to see candidate biographies. In late October, Molokai candidate Walter Ritte was the first of nine to withdraw from the race. Ritte asked voters to boycott it altogether stating the election process was not pono or righteous. …

read … Two Weeks

Nai Aupuni Critics Forum Set for Friday

KGI: …Critics of the ongoing Na‘i Aupuni election for Native Hawaiian self-governance will gather at Wilcox Elementary School Friday for a public panel discussion.

Speakers include Native Hawaiian advocates Walter Ritte, Trisha Kehaulani Watson- Sproat, Donovan Preza and Kaiulani Mahuka.

The event, set to begin at 6 p.m. in the school cafeteria, is sponsored by Aloha Aina Kauai….

read … Meeting

Na’i Aupuni: Few Clues on Land

ILind: …how I feel about sovereignty. I don’t think enough is known, or agreed on, to be able to figure out whether any form of sovereignty would advance or hurt the interests of the broader Hawaiian community, so at this point I’m not opposing or supporting the sovereignty idea in general….

I am interested candidates views on how a new Hawaiian governing entity can transform these institutions, or their essential functions, for the better, but there are few clues in the candidate statements.

Many candidates stress the importance of land.

Well, DHHL has land. So does OHA, on a smaller scale. What do they think a new Hawaiian governing entity can do to make better use of this land? How will any available land be allocated to address issues of homelessness and community economic development? How will the land controlled by the alii trusts be treated if a new governing entity is approved? I doubt the trusts are prepared to turn over their portfolios any time soon.

These, and a host of other questions, buzz through my head every time I sit down and try to systematically evaluate the candidates. And so far, I haven’t made it through the list or come close to casing my vote.

I will make decisions before the deadline for voting. But the process of getting there has me worried about whether the election, and the resulting convention, will be a success.

read … Agnostic

Hawaii small business' health insurance tax credits stuck in limbo by agency squabble

PBN: Federal tax credits for Hawaii small businesses' health insurance policies could be in jeopardy as the Hawaii Health Connector and the state duke out who is responsible for 2015 reporting to the federal government.

The Hawaii Health Connector closed its Small-business Health Options Program (SHOP) enrollment on June 15, and ceased offering employer eligibility determinations for plans or tax credits after July. Despite the SHOP closure, both the Internal Revenue Service and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services require additional reporting, for recordkeeping and to verify eligibility for the tax credit.

read … Another Obamacare Success Story!

Burdened With Rail, City Cannot Afford to Consider Buying HECO

HNN: But on Tuesday, the city's managing director told the City Council that it would not even participate in the discussion.

Managing Director Roy Amemiya said the city can't afford to pay more than $4 billion to buy HECO and isn't interested in letting the discussion get in the way of more urgent priorities, including building rail, improving water and sewer systems, and maintaining city services….

read … Price of Rail

Another Parent of Handicapped Child Forced to Sue DoE

MN: Kindergartner Taysia-Lee Alexander, 5, returned to Pomaikai Elementary School in Kahului on Monday after being out of the classroom for about two months. Luke filed the lawsuit in September and pulled her daughter from the school's Head Start program after the child was "battered and assaulted on numerous occasions" and had one of her hearing devices ripped from her ear, which caused it to malfunction, according to the lawsuit.

read … Another Day in the DOE

State’s Largest Homeless Camp full of Meth Addicts

CB: Twinkle Borge, a 46-year-old former meth addict who serves as the unofficial “governor” of Hawaii’s largest homeless community, didn’t recognize Gov. David Ige until after she gave him a high-five and welcomed him to The Harbor this summer.

“It’s not like I have Oceanic out here,” Borge says she told Ige apologetically, before taking him on a tour of about 100 tents and patchwork shelters tucked away from public view in the woods next to the Waianae Boat Harbor.

Ige didn’t say much during the tour — or after, according to state Rep. Jo Jordan, who had arranged the visit in the hopes that Ige would be as disturbed as she is that the camp has been allowed to flourish on state land.  She wants to see The Harbor cleared out, and the land developed for public use.

At the end of the visit, a member of Ige’s team asked Twinkle: If there was one thing the governor could do for the camp, what would it be?

“Leave us alone,” she replied….

read … About The Meth

Hawaii County Wants to Tax Marijuana

HTH: Hawaii County Council members want greater home rule over medical marijuana dispensaries and they want the chance to levy a tax on marijuana sales.

The Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development on Tuesday voted 8-0, with Puna Councilman Greggor Illagan absent, to advance two nonbinding resolutions asking the state Legislature to give county government greater say over where grow operations and dispensaries can be located.

The resolutions also ask for the ability for the county to charge up to 5 percent local sales tax on dispensary sales, and to remove the ban that starts in 2019 on patients assigning “primary caregivers” to grow their pot for them.

“We’re cut out of the decisions, and how do we become a part of the discussion,” said (anti-GMO) Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, sponsor of the resolutions. “There’s the power of monopoly. … We’re out of the conversation and yet we’re told, ‘You bear the burden.’ I see this as yet another unfunded mandate.”

Did You Know? Marijuana is a GMO

read … County Partner in Dope Deals

9 new cases of dengue fever bring outbreak total to 65

HNN: …The cases include 17 children, and 10 visitors.

Dengue fever is transmitted by mosquitoes, spurring the state Health Department to spray areas of Hawaii Island where dengue fever has been reported.

The outbreak started Sept. 11, and the new total includes cases reported through Nov. 10. …

HTH: Dengue fight extends to schools; Anti-Pesticide Activists Thrilled to Learn that Insecticide will be sprayed in Hilo, Kona starting this weekend

read … Concentrated in Anti-Pesticide Areas

DHHL Approves Maui Windfarm

MN: …The commission unanimously voted to approve the permit for Boulevard Associates LLC, an affiliate of NextEra Energy, to survey 500 acres of land at Kahikinui on the southern flank of Haleakala to determine if and where would be best to build 20 wind turbines on about 30 acres of land. According to project documents, the developer is eyeing land near the ocean on the southeastern portion of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' 22,860 acres at Kahikinui.

NextEra now has three to five years to assess the area and to conduct cultural, environmental and archaeological studies, as well as wind analysis and engineering assessments. In exchange, the Florida-based utility will pay the department $175,000 per year for the first three years and $200,000 per year for an additional two years, if needed.

If NextEra deems the project feasible at that point, it would enter into a 20-year general lease with the department. The lease rent has not yet been publicly determined. The commission voted Tuesday to give the Hawaiian Homes Commission chairperson the authority to negotiate the final terms and condition of that lease….

IM: NextEra's Maui Wind Farm Advances

read … Windfarm

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