Fake Tribe Denounced: “This change is intended to circumvent legal, congressional processes, and Hawaiian community input”
Fake Indian Tribe: Many Silent as Hawaii Politicians Respond to Interior Department Rule
Video: Obama Hopeful Next President Will Pursue Tribal Government for Native Hawaiians
Abandon Rail Project: Atta, Formby, Hanabusa, Fuchigama – “Don’t Look Back”
SA: Acting rail Executive Director Mike Formby says he intends to leave that post — and his work at the city — in early November.
By that time, Honolulu rail officials have signaled, they hope to have found an interim director for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation who can help further move the severely cash-strapped transit project beyond the era of former Executive Director Dan Grabauskas, who resigned in August, and into an uncertain future.
In an email Thursday, Formby said he has “no current plan” to return to his post as the city’s Department of Transportation Services director. “My personal philosophy in life has always been to move forward and not back,” said Formby, who left DTS on Aug. 18 for what was believed to be a temporary period to lead HART. “There are so many new and interesting things I’ve yet to tackle in life.”….
Formby’s announced departure came a day after Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s office told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the city’s legal counsel has determined Deputy DTS Director Mark Garrity, who’s filling in as the department’s acting director, can also fill Formby’s seat on the rail board of directors.
Last month, city officials said Garrity would not fill Formby’s HART board seat because Garrity is only the acting DTS director.
Along with Garrity, the city’s acting Department of Planning and Permitting director, Art Challacombe, will fill a seat normally occupied by his boss, George Atta, on the HART board. Atta recently went on medical leave….
Some HART board members interviewed this week about looming vacancies before the city shared its decision about the acting directors did not appear to know that Garrity and Challacombe would be joining their ranks. HART board Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa said she learned Tuesday after speaking with the Star-Advertiser.
Caldwell often touts his appointment of Hanabusa to the volunteer, unpaid rail board as a solid pick to help get a better handle on the massively overbudget project — but she’s now running to reclaim her former congressional seat. Hanabusa says she’ll step down from HART sometime before the Nov. 8 election….
Additionally, state Department of Transportation Director Ford Fuchigama has been able to attend only two meetings since May 2015, according to online HART board minutes and officials with the semiautonomous government agency. Fuchigama sits on the board per Honolulu city Charter. In January, he informed his rail board colleagues that he wouldn’t be able to attend most of this year’s meetings due to his state responsibilities….
Meanwhile, HART board member Terrence Lee said Wednesday he is confident “based on what I’ve seen and heard so far” that the HART board could have an interim executive director running the agency prior to Nov. 8. The City Council appointed Lee to the rail board in 2015.
“HART needs to move on. This is too important a position,” Lee said, referring to the executive director job. The agency needs to focus on recovery and financial plans for rail that will satisfy its federal transit partners in the months ahead, he said….
SA: Stop crying about the rail project. Admit it, folks, it’s going exactly as planned
read … Acting rail director intends to leave in November
20% of Homeless have Major Mental Illness, Only 18% Admit they do Drugs
SA: …Of the 4,940 homeless individuals counted on Oahu in the 2016 Point-in-Time survey, 1,002 adults said they had a serious mental illness and 873 adults reported a substance abuse disorder. (A person who cited mental illness and substance abuse would be listed in both categories; there is overlap.)
Of the homeless individuals reporting mental illness, 371 were “sheltered,” meaning they were staying in homeless shelters, transitional housing or safe havens, and 631 were “unshel- tered,” meaning they were living in cars or parks, or on beaches or the streets.
Of those reporting substance abuse, 250 were sheltered and 623 were unsheltered, according to the report, which you can read in full at 808ne.ws/2016 PITreport.
Of the total 4,940 people counted, 2,767 were sheltered and 2,173 unsheltered….
read … Homeless census includes data on mental illness, drug use
Housing Offered to 289 Homeless—9 Accept
SA: …like others, Borge has little intention of leaving the place she calls “Pu‘uhonua,” or place of refuge.
It’s where she’s lived for the last 13 years, and where she got sober 10 years ago.
“Some people are set in their ways,” Borge said. “For me, this is my home.”
A family of six, a couple and one other person agreed to move out of the encampment and into a shelter, according to the state homeless coordinator’s office, which organized the outreach.
In all, an estimated 150 people attended the four-hour event. People seeking services tended to visit more than one organization and collectively they added up to a total of 467 contacts.
A group of University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University student nurses provided first aid while other homeless people lined up to learn about getting help with security deposits and first and last months’ rent that could lead to a traditional home….
…the Waianae encampment of 289 people tucked among the brush includes 48 children and 147 dogs….
read … Refuse Shelter
Kaneshiro: Auto Theft Laws Must be Changed to Enable More Prosecutions
KHON: …last year, the Honolulu Police Department opened 324 cases in which a suspect was identified. Officers made 276 arrests and prosecutors charged 142 suspects, or 51 percent of those arrested.
We also learned that there were 191 conferrals, which is when HPD recommends to the prosecutor’s office that the suspect get charged. But prosecutors still declined 46 of them. That’s 24 percent or one out of four.
Kaneshiro says there’s nothing wrong with that.
“If the detective feels there was enough evidence, that’s not good enough one out of four times?” KHON2 asked.
“The detective didn’t go to law school. Can the detective tell you what the law is, the case law is?” Kaneshiro replied.
We also asked Kaneshiro to address the frustration from police officers after they told the victim to contact us when no charges were filed.
“What we got from police officers is a sense of frustration for them to tell the victim you should call our station, because they felt something was wrong with what’s going on here,” KHON2 told Kaneshiro.
“If they’re frustrated, what do you think we feel? We’re just as frustrated,” Kaneshiro said. “You think we don’t want to support the police in their charges?”
We asked Kaneshiro if the law needs to be changed, and he said yes….
read … City prosecutor explains why man arrested inside stolen car was not charged
Navy Publishes Guidance Warning Sailors Not to Protest National Anthem
MC: …In late August, a sailor attached to the Naval Air Technical Training Center at Pensacola, Florida, posted a video to Facebook of herself sitting down during the base's morning "colors" ceremony, which quickly received viral attention on the social media platform.
Naval Education and Training Command officials confirmed the sailor, who has not been publicly named, had been subject to administrative action, but had been retained for service in the Navy.
And Sept. 21, Petty Officer 2nd Class Janaye Ervin, an intelligence specialist based in Hawaii, wrote in a public Facebook post that she was being punished by the Navy for remaining seated for the anthem two days earlier. A spokesman for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam said only that actions regarding Ervin are under review….
read … Navy Publishes Guidance Warning Sailors Not to Protest National Anthem
‘Green’ Energy Necessitates Giant $1.6M Battery
SA: …HECO said Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, a renewable energy and environmental technology research and development unit at the University of Hawaii, paid for the battery. (Don’t worry. Ratepayers will pay for the next one and the one after that….) The energy storage system will be studied over a 2-year demonstration period. (See?)
The purpose is to test the system’s safety and its capability to help connect more renewable energy to the grid. (Translation: More tax credits for national Democrat campaign contributors.)
“To achieve our 100 percent renewable energy goal, we need to be able to smooth power flowing to the grid from variable renewable generation like wind and solar as well as shift electricity generated when the sun is shining to when people use the most electricity in the evening,” HECO’s vice president for corporate planning and business development, Shelee Kimura, said….
read … HECO connects a $1.6M battery to the electric grid
QUICK HITS: