PUC Rejects NextEra Deal 2-0: Gorak Abstains
DLNR Officer: ‘Sucker Punched’ by Firing of Friel
HB1850: Governor’s Vacation Rental Veto Perplexing
Djou Raises $259K in First Month
Three Candidates For Mayor, Three Positions On Honolulu Rail
Full Text: AG Opinion Backs Ige’s PUC Appointment
Full Text: Attorney General Sues Bounty Hunter Duane Dog Chapman
HGEA Sues to Block Airport Security Privatization
GEMS: State Asks Cronies for $150M in Schemes
HART board tight-lipped about Next Scapegoat
PBN: The HART board of directors held its regular meeting on Thursday morning. According to the meeting’s agenda, Grabauskas was scheduled to receive his performance evaluation at the meeting. At that time, the board went into executive session for more than two hours.
When the board reconvened in open session, Chair Colleen Hanabusa immediately ended the meeting without commenting on Grabauskas.
Contacted by email and asked whether Grabauskas still has his job with the authority, HART spokesman Bill Brennan recounted the events of the open session of the meeting but said nothing about Grabauskas. (Translation: They voted to fire him)
Pacific Business News reached out to Grabauskas, who was reportedly out of town, for comment. (Translation: He’s too busy looking for his next gig.)
SA: Several key Grabauskas supporters — Ivan Lui Kwan, Carrie Okinaga and Don Horner — left in the past year or so.
read … HART board tight-lipped about job status of executive director
HART Board Member: Rail is Runaway Train
PBN: “It’s out of control. It’s a runaway train. I don’t want to play the blame game. I think everyone has to be responsible: the board of directors, the management, the city, the government. We’re just not coordinated and we don’t have a clear-cut goal. We need to revisit the original plan and put all options on the table.”
— John Henry Felix, who was sworn in at Thursday’s Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board meeting
read … He said it: John Henry Felix
Caldwell Spends $814K to Buy Election But Nobody Likes Him Anyway
SA: The Caldwell camp has spent $814,604 during the period. Included is $336,670 in payments to Honolulu- based Anthology Marketing Group for professional services, advertising and surveys. More than $250,000 has also gone to local television stations, multiple radio outlets and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for advertising….
Cataluna: A political career trajectory cannot always be predicted
read … Money Can’t Buy Everything
Modular houses near H-1 will go to the homeless
SA: Duane Kurisu’s vision to reduce Oahu’s homeless population by creating a plantation-era-style community has brought together the state and city to help turn the idea into reality.
“Instead of complaining, we’ve got to find solutions,” Kurisu told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Thursday before a news conference on Sand Island announcing his project. “We want to be part of the solution. But we could never do this without the city and the state. Government by itself cannot lick the problem of homelessness.”
Kurisu sits on the board of directors of Oahu Publications Inc., parent company of the Star-Advertiser.
Representatives from the city, state and Kurisu’s nonprofit aio Foundation teamed up Thursday to announce their joint effort to create a permanent, affordable community near Keehi Lagoon for 200 homeless families in the epicenter of one of the island’s most notorious encampments….
read … Modular houses near H-1 will go to the homeless
State Of Poverty: Recovery Has Left Too Many In Hawaii Behind
CB: An updated report from Hawaii Appleseed shows more than one in six residents living in poverty and real unemployment topping 9 percent….
read … Poverty
Star-Adv: ESSA should encourage local control
SA: If ever there was a time to contribute ideas on how to shape the future of Hawaii’s public education system, it’s now. Under the latest iteration of federal educational mandates — Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) — local control is a main thrust, steering clear of a one-size-fits-all approach.
All stakeholders must come to the table in the coming weeks and months to voice their suggestions on how to improve the state’s public schools. Nearly 1,000 people did just that Saturday during an education summit at the Hawaii Convention Center, but much more input and work is needed as the state’s ESSA plan must be ready next spring in order for implementation in the 2017-18 school year.
Gov. David Ige, who has made education a top priority, appointed a 19-member advisory team that is expected to come up with a blueprint, so to speak, for the state’s educational system. That team, which is planning town hall forums, is expected to craft recommendations for the state Department of Education (DOE) and the policy-making Board of Education (BOE) as it pulls together its ESSA plan….
read … ESSA
Dark Days for Anti-GMO Activists
KE: It doesn't get much darker than this, moaned the anti-GMO groups, when confronted with the new labeling bill that President Obama is expected to sign into law.
Which underscores just how screwed up their priorities are. Really? A deadly drought is hammering East Africa, 84 people in France were just mowed down by a terrorist, cops and citizens are killing each other in America and a fricking food label is the darkest thing on the horizon?
Still, I can't help but chortle when I see Andrew Kimbrell, director of Center for Food Safety, sputtering and wringing his hands in despair. Whassa matter, Andy? Worried about losing one of your longest-running fundraising gambits, the demand for labeling?
read … Musings: Dark Days
Prison Guard Arrested for Rape
SA: A 38 year-old prison guard is under investigation for multiple incidents of sexual assault on three inmates at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua over a two-year period.
The suspect, who was hired in October 2007, was temporarily transferred in January 2016 from the Kailua women’s facility to the minimum security Waiawa Correction Facility.
The police said the female victims, ages 30, 31 and 34, were allegedly assaulted beginning in March 2013 to November 2015.
The suspect was arrested on 37 counts of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault. He was arrested at the Waiawa facility at 6:10 p.m….
read … Prison Guard
Borreca: All Hawaii Republicans are Just Like Trump
Borreca: “Never Trump” was never an issue in Hawaii.
Hawaii’s Republicans, like those in other parts of the country, are backing the billionaire investor and reality television majordomo as he campaigns for president.
All that will be highlighted next week at the four-day GOP National Convention in Cleveland.
In March, a record-breaking 15,672 GOP voters participated in the Hawaii GOP presidential caucus.
Party officials said the number of voters represented a 53 percent increase from the 2012 presidential caucus.
Donald Trump, who used his political outsider reputation as validation for his campaign, won 43 percent of the Hawaii vote and will have 11 delegates and nine alternates out of the 19-delegate Hawaii contingent at the convention….
read … Sales Pitch for Straight line Dem Voting
QUICK HITS: