Ted Cruz on the Ballot for March 8 Hawaii Republican Presidential Caucus
10 Ideas that Could Improve Life in Hawaii
Hawaii Senate Democrats: 2016 Legislative Priorities
Priorities not Politics for New Schools
Highlights of HART Rail Project (2004 to 2015)
Indict Somebody: Judiciary Hiring Independent Grand Jury Counsel
Kauai Girls Court Celebrates Success of First Cohort
Families Identify Missing Marines after helicopters crash
DHHL Funding: Are Hawaii Public Trust obligations enforceable?
Lawsuit Challenges Secrecy at UH Manoa Bio-Safety Lab
Search for Missing Marines Continues
Plantation Closure: Doing a dance or drinking champagne is hurtful and mean-spirited
MN: I know we are all still reeling from the news about Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. stopping its sugar operations this year. The company expects to lay off nearly all of the 675 employees by the end of the year, save about 15, which means quite a number of families will be affected.
I mentioned earlier that this was a highly emotional time in our community. So please, if someone has lost his or her job, don't talk about doing a dance or drinking champagne because you're happy that you don't have to endure cane smoke anymore. It's hurtful and mean-spirited….
CoC: Preparing for tragic loss of HC&S
read … Alan Arakawa
Star-Adv: State Should Seize HC&S Water
SA: The landowner, Alexander &Baldwin Inc., has pledged to keep the land in agriculture, and is considering several options, including growing food crops, grass for cattle and crops for biofuels.
But A&B won’t have the last word.
Years of legal struggles over water rights in Hawaii have elicited a fundamental guiding principle, enshrined in the Hawaii Constitution: Water must be managed as a precious public resource — with the emphasis on public.
In a landmark ruling in 2000, the Hawaii Supreme Court, addressing a dispute over the Waiahole Ditch irrigation system on Oahu, reaffirmed the public trust doctrine as it relates to the state’s water resources.
And the court placed responsibility squarely where the Hawaii Constitution (Art. XI, Sec. 7) says it belongs: with the state’s water resources agency.…
read … Plant Condos
Police Reform Gaining Steam At Honolulu Charter Commission
CB: Commissioners seem intent on asking voters to improve police accountability and oversight in Honolulu based on several high-profile cases….
read … Reform
State confirms it knew rape suspect had been fired by Honolulu Police Department
HTH: The state’s Human Resources Department knew Ethan Ferguson had been fired by the Honolulu Police Department but hired him as a Department of Land and Natural Resources law enforcement officer, according to emails between a senator and the state’s human resources chief.
The 39-year-old Ferguson is charged with sexually assaulting a minor girl on a beach in the Keaukaha area of Hilo on Jan. 1. Police say the girl told them her assailant was in uniform.
The HR department says it was informed Ferguson had been dismissed from HPD but wasn’t given details about his termination.
HPD, however, says it told the state that Ferguson — who reportedly falsified reports and lied to superiors about transporting a juvenile female runaway — shouldn’t be hired.
State Sen. Will Espero, a Leeward Oahu Democrat and the legislative body’s vice president, is investigating why Ferguson was hired as a Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) officer on June 27, 2013, after being stripped of his badge earlier that year by Hawaii’s largest law enforcement agency….
read … Rape Suspect
Candidates Line up for Big Island Mayor
WHT: So far, former Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann is the only candidate who has announced he’s running for mayor and has opened a campaign spending account with the state. Two other candidates, Kawika Crowley, who won the 2012 Republican primary for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, and Wendell Kaehuaea, who’s run unsuccessfully for public office 21 times, have said they’re running.
Two-term Mayor Billy Kenoi is term-limited and can’t seek a third four-year term for the nonpartisan seat.
Candidate filing runs from Feb. 1 through June 7. Polls open for early voting Aug. 1, with primary Election Day on Aug. 13….
Several would-be candidates said there’s been an increasing push from labor unions and other interests to line up mayoral candidates. Representatives of the local unions Hawaii Government Employees Association, United Public Workers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, contacted Thursday, did not respond by press time Friday….
County Managing Director Wally Lau is among potential candidates close to deciding.
“I’m seriously considering it,” Lau said this week.
Other names that have surfaced for the open seat include former Mayor Harry Kim, Hilo Councilmen Aaron Chung and Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, former South Kona/Ka’u Councilwoman Brenda Ford, unsuccessful Republican candidate for state House Marlene Hapai, former Hilo Councilmen J Yoshimoto and Donald Ikeda and former Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong….
read … Marlene Hapai
Some think KIA tenants should have option to buy
HTH: State land officials presented a few options for the future of Hilo’s Kanoelehua Industrial Area — from lot consolidation to placing tenants under one master lease — at the Aupuni Center on Friday.
But it was one idea not on the table that some members of the business community there seemed to favor most — selling the public land and giving tenants right of first refusal.
Following the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ presentations, members of the audience peppered officials with questions largely focusing on the land title issue.
The KIA covers 70 leases initially established to help businesses displaced by the 1960 tsunami. At the time, businesses were given the option to buy the land, and some in the audience, including state Sen. Lorraine Inouye, said that should be considered again.
“This is a unique site,” said Inouye (D-Hilo, Waimea, Waikoloa). “I want the state to look at the options and talk to us (legislators) first.”
Russell Tsuji, state land administrator, said selling any public land would require a supermajority in the state House and Senate. He added that might be difficult to achieve since the state views the mostly industrial land as part of its public trust….
Reports about potential lot consolidation or master lease arrangements are available at: http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/ld/kanoelehua-and-banyan-drive-studies.
Comments can be submitted until Feb. 1….
SA: New agency to lead effort to revitalize Banyan Drive
read …. Fee Simple Ownership
Hawaii Speaker: Lottery Bill A ‘Distinct Possibility’
CB: The speaker of Hawaii’s House of Representatives was expecting the question: Would lawmakers consider a lottery?
“It’s a possibility that we will be coming up with some kind of legislation, thanks to your Civil Beat column,” Joe Souki said at a press conference Friday at the Capitol….
Billionaire’s Website: Hawaii Lottery? It’s Time To Reconsider The Question
read … Lottery
After Dengue: Babykiller Zika Virus Arrives in Hawaii
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