Rep Kaniela Ing Caught Lying About Arrest--Claims 'Conspiracy'
Heart Association: Second Hand Marijuana Smoke Worse than Tobacco
Djou: Open to More Money for Rail as Long as it is not Tax Money
KHON: Djou: I’m not going to spend more than $7 billion appropriated by the people. If we can get more from other sources, that’s great, but we’re not going to take any more from the people than the $7 billion in tax money….
KITV: Watch Debate
read … Debate
Caldwell Slips out of the Office to Meet with bank Board of Directors
SA: …On Thursday night former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou questioned the propriety of incumbent Mayor Kirk Caldwell drawing a more-than-$200,000 salary as a member of Territorial Savings Bank’s board of trustees, which Djou called “a part-time job,” on top of his $164,928-a-year salary as Honolulu’s top executive. “We deserve better than that,” Djou said.
Caldwell did not address the accusation during the debate, which was sponsored by KITV and Civil Beat. Afterward, however, Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he received several opinions from the city Ethics Commission (back before he destroyed it) stating it was not a conflict to serve on the Territorial board. Caldwell said he takes vacation time two hours a month (ask your boss for a 2-hr vacation) to attend bank board meetings and that it does not affect his job as mayor. (IQ Test: Do you believe this?)
During the debate, Caldwell hammered Djou for criticizing the city’s $8 billion rail project (which helps banks make mega profits by borrowing lots on money)
read … Conflict of Interest
Fire Grabauskas on August 8? Caldwell Not Willing to Say
CB: Asked if Grabauskas was the best person for the project, Caldwell dodged the question, saying it was up to HART to decide whether or not he stayed.,
Carlisle said he was a good leader and Djou said the project needed new leadership.
read … Fire Grabauskas
HART Board Member Walkout Stops Action on Property Purchases
SA: …at Thursday’s meeting, the HART board discussed a new proposed City Council resolution introduced by the Council’s Budget Committee chairwoman, Ann Kobayashi, urging that HART suspend its property acquisition and eminent domain proceedings until the city has an official “recovery plan” for how the project will proceed past Middle Street.
In June the HART board instructed the agency’s property acquisition staff not to file any new eminent domain actions past Middle Street, but it also said to keep pursuing acquisitions in which the landowners are open to the transactions. Those instructions were publicly disclosed for the first time Thursday, and they came out of a closed-session meeting with its legal counsel June 16.
Rail officials told staff that the Council’s Executive Matters committee might review Kobayashi’s resolution on Aug. 22. They asked for guidance on how to testify before the Council, but the board lost its quorum midway through the discussion Thursday, so it couldn’t take action.
Hanabusa speculated that the Council might take solace when it sees that HART has already started addressing what to do about property acquisitions along the rail line’s last stretch through town. “They may find that acceptable,” she said.
read … Trying to Slip one Thru?
Lawmaker Rebuffed At DOE Meeting
CB: … The DOE’s Brent Suyama said the meeting involved representatives of 36 qualified contractors, subcontractors and other companies for the AC project. The purpose was to clear up “some potential misconceptions regarding the project” on matters such as design.
As widely reported earlier this summer, the first bids for the project came in very high.
“We think we have some clarity on a bunch of the issues,” Suyama said of Thursday’s meeting.
Suyama said there are concerns about having a sitting lawmaker somehow involved in the state’s procurement process.
But LoPresti said that, while the procurement code is an “important way to maintain integrity for government contracts, this is a special situation and a special meeting where there is a lot of public questions about additional costs from contractors.” ….
read … Lawmaker Rebuffed At DOE Meeting
Three Charter Schools Nearing Approval
SA: …The committee voted to accept the evaluators’ recommendations to advance the applications of Alaka‘i o Kaua‘i Charter School and Kamalani Academy. It also advanced the application for Kapolei Charter School despite a recommendation from the evaluation team to deny the proposal.
Meanwhile, the committee voted to recommend that the applications for DreamHouse Ewa Beach, IMAG Academy and Kilohana Academy be denied. The committee voted to defer to the full board on Accelerated Learning Laboratory-Hawaii’s application, which evaluators had recommended for approval….
read … Three More Options
Anti-GMO Activists Demand Removal of HD7 Democrat District Chair
WHT: Valerie Barnes, with the backing of four other local party members, filed a formal complaint Tuesday with the state Democratic Party against Patti Cook of Waimea, the chairwoman for the party’s District 7. The complaint accuses Cook of campaigning for Tim Richards, who is not a party member, over incumbent Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille.
Wille, incidentally, is the party’s District 7 first vice chairwoman, under Cook. She’s also a member of the party’s State Central Committee.
Barnes says Hawaii Democratic Party bylaws clearly state party members cannot endorse outside the party. She’s calling for Cook to step down as chairwoman….
Cook, who’s been the district chairwoman for more than a decade, said she won’t step down….
Frankie Pang, the third vice chairman of the district and also a Richards supporter, resigned after the July 17 meeting…. (Antis claim one pelt.)
read … Dems to be 100% Anti-GMO Psychos in HD7
Other Gays Call Tranny a Prostitute After Recreation Department Employee Busted
DB: …In footage reviewed by The Daily Beast, the boss asked Milho to perform oral sex—all before bragging about his other community-service hookups, which he said included one young mother who was “the best I had in a long time.”
Milho secretly livestreamed the July 22 encounter on Facebook and got 197,000 views before she removed the video this week after receiving hateful messages online, including from other members of the LGBT community, who accused her him of being a prostitute who egged the man on.
“I took it down because I was getting so much backlash,” she said. “People were saying it’s my fault. People were making fun of the situation. I wasn’t comfortable being a punchline to something serious that happened to me.”
On Tuesday, Honolulu cops arrested 47-year-old Harold Villanueva, Jr. and charged him with fourth-degree sexual assault, a misdemeanor….
read … Prostitute
Civil Beat Upset Because Homeless Cant Pee on Things Freely
CB: Incumbent Kirk Caldwell, former mayor Peter Carlisle and former congressman Charles Djou all support city laws that make it illegal to sit or lie in certain places, urinate or defecate in public or leave private possessions on public property….
Djou, a former City Council member, has been supporting similar measures for at least a decade. He also backed sweeps of Ala Moana Park and Kapiolani Park, contending in 2009 that the presence of “vagrants” was unacceptable.
The relative unity of the candidates on the issue would seem to be good news for business owners and Honolulu residents who don’t want to see homeless people in Waikiki or business districts….
read … Force the Homeless to accept shelter
Homeless Shack Runs Aground, Washed out of Keehi Tweekers’ Camp—Lawyers Called
HNN: …"I think the greater good of the community is pull that thing out of here. Destroy it and get rid of it," he said. "But it's not as simple as that. The individuals who are living there have rights to their property even if it's not supposed to be there."
That means the shack stays -- at least for now.
On Wednesday, homeless outreach workers made contact with the couple, but they declined to move into a shelter.
Later, state Department of Land and Natural Resources workers posted a notice on the shack telling the couple they have to leave.
A friend of the couple tried to tow the structure back to the homeless camp but couldn't move it without damaging the frame.
Wakai says he wants the structure out of the water as soon as possible but is afraid (AFRAID!) to have anyone touch it. (Is is sacred.) "The thing is so rickety that if we pull it on shore and it falls apart then, what, are we liable for putting it back together?" he said. (Under Davis-Bacon rules the rebuild could cost upwards of $700psf—not counting asbestos removal. And since it is a boat, it will have to be done at an expensive US Jones Act shipyard.)
So the state is consulting with its lawyers on the issue to avoid getting sued.
"We have to figure out if we have to hold on to this structure for 90 days in case the two people want to reclaim it," Wakai said.
But race organizers are determined to have it out of the water -- and soon.
"We have a job to do over here," said Luana Froiseth, president of the Oahu Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association. "We have a state championship coming up next weekend. I guarantee you next week Saturday it won't be here." ….
read … Need More Canoe Clubs to Solve Homelessness
Police Union Shouldn’t Block Body Cameras In Kauai
CB: Hawaii’s labor board ruled that union consent isn’t needed for Kauai’s body camera program. The ruling should be upheld….
KGI: Legal dispute presents ethical conflicts for county
read … Block
Cow Manure: Anti-Dairy Phonies Find New Excuses to Whine
KGI: A shift in the basic model for the proposed 577-acre dairy farm near Mahaulepu is only one of the changes in the updated waste management plan.
But, it’s one of the changes being challenged by opponents of the dairy, who are also questioning the timing of the update — delivered to the Department of Health just days before the release of Hawaii Dairy Farm’s draft environmental impact statement.
“Before now, HDF claimed the New Zealand model was successful and the best footprint for the design and operation of their dairy plan,” said Bridget Hammerquist, president of Friends of Mahaulepu, the main entity opposing the dairy. “Now with the stroke of a pen, it’s been abandoned without any real explanation.”
Amy Hennessey, spokeswoman for HDF, said the switch to the new model, the Cornell Model, doesn’t change the heart of the proposition and simply brings that same New Zealand model under U.S. standards….
SA: Feds press state to post signs noting Kauai beach’s bacteria
KGI: EPA says state must make beachgoers aware of bacteria-laden water
read … Phonies
Oahu, Big Island nearing Solar Cap
SA: Oahu and the Big Island are closing in on the total capacity the state allows for residential solar systems that can export excess power to the grid and receive credit.
Oahu is at 70 percent of its total limit, and the Big Island is at 70.6 percent, according to Hawaiian Electric Co. numbers released last week.
Meanwhile, solar applicants on Maui hit the limit in June. Maui Electric Co. said in June it stopped approving the solar systems because the county hit the 5-megawatt cap regulators placed on the program. Maui is at 99 percent of its cap, according to Marco Mangelsdorf, president of ProVision Solar Inc….
Maui County residents who want to install new solar systems now have to buy batteries to hold any excess power generated by the panels. The only program Maui residents can apply for allows solar owners to draw power from the grid when needed but prevents them from sending additional power to the grid. The solar-plus-battery systems are called “self-supply.”
Both Oahu and the Big Island have jumped 10 percentage points closer to the cap since the last report was filed.
Colin Yost, principal at RevoluSun, said unless the PUC increases the limit, Oahu will likely run out of room by September.
“From the pace of grid supply submissions on Oahu, it looks likely the cap will be reached by the end of August, unless it is raised by the PUC,” Yost said….
read … Cap
Democratic National Convention Coverage
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