Sorry OHA, Free Trade Zones are not free of the Jones Act
Obama Administration Promoting Race-based Hawaiian Election
Plantation Era: They Came With Hope
$6.8 million in grants promote STEM jobs for Hawaii
Unfriendly Skies?
March for Life--State Capitol January 22
War on Coal: How Hawaii Clean Energy initiative Killed HC&S
SA: …Alexander & Baldwin Inc., the kamaaina owner of HC&S, said its main reasons for ending 146 years of sugar cane farming and shuttering the plantation with 675 employees was two bad years of low sugar production and prices that put a roughly $33 million dent in net income last year and had little prospect of being turned around.
But the company also lost a lucrative deal late last year to supply Maui Electric Co. with power that would have provided HC&S with $19 million in projected revenue this year and next year, according to documents filed with the state Public Utilities Commission.
HC&S generates electricity by burning the fiber known as bagasse left over from processed cane, as well as coal, in a boiler to power its sugar mill and irrigation pumps. A smaller hydroelectric system on the farm also provides power. Historically, HC&S sold extra power to Maui Electric on terms that significantly helped the agricultural operation.
For instance, Maui Electric used to pay HC&S $1.8 million a year just for its commitment to provide power.
However, Maui Electric, which once relied on HC&S for about 10 percent of its electricity supply, sought in recent years to amend the power-purchase agreement in part due to its effort to move electrical generation toward more renewable sources and reduce use of dirtier sources such as coal.
HC&S, which ships raw sugar to California on a company-owned ship, would fill the ship with coal for the return trip to Hawaii. In 2014 the company burned 57,100 tons of coal, according to A&B’s most recent annual financial report….
SA: Plantation closure has Maui utility looking for new backup
read … Demise of power-purchase deal is final blow for HC&S
A sad week for agriculture in Hawaii – Pakalolo Plantations in our Future?
Shapiro: It’s been a sad week for agriculture in Hawaii — and not only because Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced that it’s closing Hawaii’s last sugar plantation, the company’s 36,000-acre farm on Maui.
The same day, longtime Hawaii island farmer Richard Ha told employees he’s shutting down his Hamakua Springs Country Farms, at least for the growing of crops that people eat.
Ha stopped growing his tomatoes last year and now will no longer produce his mainstay bananas after the current crop goes to market.
While A&B talked vaguely of transitioning its massive acreage to diversified farms, cattle, flowers, agroforestry and biofuel, Ha said he’s exploring an option where the future of Hawaii agriculture may truly lie: pakalolo.
He’s been approached to lease some of his 600 acres and hydroelectric — and lend his expertise on “growing things” — to one of the groups that has applied for a state license to grow and sell medical marijuana….
read … Dopey Future
Maui--Enviros Talk About Water, Get Luxury Homes
SA: …environmentalists are looking forward to the release of more stream water by the corporation’s subsidiary, East Maui Irrigation….
“Immediately, post-sugar, we are likely to have less cultivated acreage and, if so, our water needs will change,” said corporate representative Tran Chinery. “But as we transition the plantation to new agricultural uses, our need for water will increase.”
Lucienne De Naie, a board member with the environmental group Maui Tomorrow, said sugar cane requires more water than most agricultural crops and she looks forward to more water remaining in the streams even with farms growing other crops.
“I think it’s hopeful … They’re likely to use less water than (they did for) cane,” she said.
Earthjustice attorney Isaac Moriwake said Hawaii law is clear.
“If you don’t use the water, you have to leave it for the environment,” he said. “When they shut down sugar, they should be returning a lot of water immediately.”
Moriwake said massive amounts of water were returned to Waiahole on Oahu after the closure of Oahu Sugar Co., and he expects similar action to take place in East Maui….
Maui County’s water director, David Taylor, said East Maui Irrigation has assured the county that it will continue to provide water to residents and farmers.
“It’s too early to know what future impacts may or may not be occurring,” Taylor said. “We are going to continue to communicate with EMI.”
Nakanelua said he understands the need to provide stream water for farms that may occupy former sugar lands but he said so far, he hasn’t noticed much of a change, except for more luxury homes, even when pineapple plantations ceased production on Maui about 15 years ago.
“We didn’t get additional stream flow,” he said….
SA: Generally, how should A&B’s Maui acreage be used after sugar ends this year? -- Mostly housing/development
read … Job-killing Zero-growth crowd
Update your calendars for the 2016 political year
Borreca: March 8: Hawaii GOP Presidential Caucus….
Related: Where to Vote: Hawaii Republican Presidential Caucus
read … Calendar
State tax refunds might be late again this year
SA: Hawaii residents who expect state income tax refunds in 2016 may have to wait.
State Tax Director Maria Zielinski says it will again take up to 16 weeks to process refund payments this year because the state is continuing to aggressively scrutinize tax returns in its ongoing crackdown on fraudulent filings.
A similar slowdown in refunds last year triggered an angry outcry from Hawaii taxpayers who were forced to wait weeks or months for their state refund checks.
The Department of Taxation last year deployed new “filters” to screen tax filings to ferret out fraudulent returns, and that effort exposed more than $32 million in fraudulent filings for refunds, Zielinski said. However, the extra screening also slowed payment of legitimate refunds….
read … Another Tech Triumph
Hawaii AG contests court order to increase DHHL funds
SA: Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin says that the courts overstepped their authority in ordering the state to boost funding for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands by about $18.4 million this year.
In a motion for reconsideration filed late last month, Chin asks Circuit Judge Jeannette Castagnetti to reconsider her November decision because it violates the constitutional principle of separation of powers. The Legislature has also asked the court for permission to file a motion in support of Chin’s position.
If the motion is denied, Chin intends to appeal the order, he told lawmakers during a budget briefing at the state Capitol on Tuesday.
“What it does is it invites the beneficiaries to sue every single year the Legislature makes an appropriation if the Legislature doesn’t appropriate exactly what the DHHL director asked for,” said Chin. “So I think that’s a problem.” ….
VIDEO: Rep Gene Ward Questions Hawaii AG on DHHL Case
Background: Full Text: Court Orders State to Fund Hawaiian Homelands
read … DHHL
Record high construction costs slam Honolulu
PBN: When developer Castle & Cooke Hawaii first proposed the 3,500-home Koa Ridge project in Central Oahu, the average prices of the project’s single-family homes were expected to be about $300,000.
It’s been more than a decade, and Hawaii’s skyrocketing construction costs have pushed those average home prices to more than $700,000.
Construction costs in Hawaii, which jumped by a staggering 13 percent in 2014 — the highest percentage in the United States and more than double the national average — have reached a breaking point. The high costs are causing projects to be canceled or shelved and are the reason for the more than doubling of the asking prices of homes on such major projects as Koa Ridge….
read … Breaking Point
Caldwell: I want City Workers to be forced into Unions and Controlled so they will vote for me
SA: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association.
Late last year, I authorized the Honolulu Corporation Counsel to join an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief that explains why having city workers represented by active unions serves the interests of cities themselves.
The plaintiff in this case, Friedrichs, argues that even though they receive salary and health benefits from the union agreements, non-union members should not have to pay fees.
This simply is not fair. (Translation: I need those union voters to be told to vote for me.)
I believe the city and all other government organizations with unionized workforces, including those with non-members, benefit from labor and management working together to improve the efficient delivery of municipal services.….
Reality: Friedrichs v CTA: Will Supreme Court End Mandatory Union Membership for Government Employees Nationwide?
read … Caldwell forced Unionization
Homeless are cleared again from Kakaako
SA: City cleanup crews cleared Kakaako makai sidewalks of campers (who refuse to accept shelter) and property Friday, the first time they’ve done so in 2016.
The area, which includes Ilalo, Ohe and Cooke streets, was one of five Honolulu neighborhoods where Department of Facility Maintenance work crews enforced the sidewalk nuisance ordinance and the stored property ordinance, leading to the removal of people and property Friday.
The other areas cleared of campers Friday were the Ala Wai promenade, Stadium Park, Moiliili and Kapahulu, city spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said.
Citations were issued for three sidewalk nuisance violations and one stored-property violation during the various sweeps. The crews collected three cubic yards of metal, eight bins designated for storage and three shopping carts, said Broder Van Dyke….
…enforcement actions have taken place in five of the first eight days of the new year. Waikiki has been cleared twice. Other areas include the Waialae-Kapahulu, Iwilei, Ala Moana and Mother Waldron Park neighborhoods….
(Still plenty of shelter space available.)
read … Cleared
Hawaiians at risk: Keiki locked in cycle of foster care system
SA: For years the percentage of Native Hawaiians in the state’s foster care system has significantly topped the percentage of Hawaiians in the overall population of children statewide.
Those with Hawaiian blood make up half the roughly 2,300 children who have been removed from their families because of abuse and neglect concerns and currently are in foster care. Yet Hawaiians comprise only a third of the statewide population of minors….
The studies mentioned the typical factors, such as drug use, child abuse and economic hardship, that contribute to youth getting into trouble. But for Hawaiians two additional reasons were cited: political disenfranchisement and the erosion of strong family authority after colonization…. (Real answer: After the 1960s.)
(This is the only mention of the collapse of nuclear family structures in the entire article. ‘Bias’ is mentioned five times. Cultural is mentioned 16 times.)
The parents who spoke to the newspaper acknowledged that they were not blameless. They said their poor choices, such as drug use, contributed to the state’s decision to take custody of their children….
(Sex and drugs, but what about rock and roll? It turns out that low income families are preyed upon by social workers.)
Poor families tend to rely on more public services, such as food stamps and Medicaid, that bring them in contact with workers who are required to report signs of abuse or neglect, creating more opportunities for such reporting. Wealthier families, the researchers say, have fewer such contacts, and when questions of abuse arise, the parents usually have the resources to pay for services like counseling that can help keep their children out of the system.
In Hawaii, 18 percent of Native Hawaiian families with children live in poverty, compared with 12 percent of all families with children statewide, according to census data.
SA: Simeon U‘u’s six children spent years in foster care before he changed his ways and got them back
read … Locked in Cycle
Hawaii GMO Success Story
HR: …one of the most successful GMO products available in your grocery store was developed for Hawaii farmers. If you weren’t aware of this, it’s time to acquaint yourself with the godfather of Hawaii’s GMO papaya, Dennis Gonsalves….
read … Success
Aloha Aina Party Holds Petition Drive for Ballot Status
BIVN: …A rally for the Aloha Aina Party was held at Aunty Sally’s Luau Hale in Hilo on January 3. State of Hawaii Elections Board requires 707 qualified signatures on a petition to qualify the Aloha Aina Party for ballot status for the 2016 election.
Organizers say the Aloha Aina was a political party founded in 1997, but it went inactive. In 2015, the Aloha Aina Party was legally registered with the State of Hawaii DCA as Aloha Aina, LLC by its founding members, Desmond Haumea Antone, Pua Ishibashi and Donald Kaulia. The founders were on hand to talk story at Aunty Sally’s (video above).
February 25 is the deadline to form a new political party in Hawaii. So far, the 2016 qualified political parties are the Democratic Party of Hawaii (D), the Green Party of Hawaii (G), Hawaii Independent Party (I), Libertarian Party of Hawaii (L), and the Hawaii Republican Party (R)….
HTH: Aloha Aina group hopes to become recognized political party
read … Ballot Status
Historic North Kona church heading to tax auction after pastor Falls for Sovereignty Scam
HTH: Mauna Ziona Church, established by the early missionaries who came to Hawaii more than a century before statehood, is scheduled for tax sale Tuesday in Hilo.
Taxes haven’t been paid on the iconic green wooden church with the red tin roof since it was released by a church conference in 2009….
The church owes a total of $167,562 on two adjacent properties totaling 70 acres. The 10-acre parcel that includes the church building on the mauka side of Mamalahoa Highway accounts for $46,641 of that, with the remainder attributed to the 60-acre parcel….
Keanaaina said the county can’t collect property taxes on the church property because the property is held by an allodial title, having come down through inheritance from the days of Kamehameha. That would be like the county collecting taxes on government land, he said….
read … Auction
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