Ethics Complaint: Caldwell Hides Millions in Stock Options
After 10 Years and Recusal of Entire Supreme Court, State Finally Wins Flexibility on Retiree Health benefits
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TRO, Drunk Driving, and Criminal History Divide HD41 Candidates
Will Hawaii be First State to Have One-Party Senate?
SA: Longtime Republican state Sen. Sam Slom, who is the last remaining GOP member in the state Senate, faces his most formidable re-election challenge yet this year from Democrat and former Honolulu City Councilman Stanley Chang.
Slom, 74, points out Hawaii is already the only state where the Senate is so completely dominated by one party that there is just one Republican left. If Chang and the Democrats are able to eject him from office this year, Hawaii could become the only state in the nation where the entire state Senate is exclusively Democratic.
Slom, who is seeking his sixth term as senator representing East Honolulu from Hawaii Kai to Kahala and Diamond Head, said “it would be a loss for Hawaii” if the voters elect only Democrats to the Senate and discount or ignore the Republican perspective.
“Who’s going to speak up for the free-market economy, for lack of monopolies?” Slom asked. “If we had a Senate of all one party, I don’t think it would be a healthy system, and it certainly would deny the public access to different ideas and different theories.” …
Chang said he has knocked on at least 10,000 doors in East Honolulu….
“How can he say that he listens to the people when he consistently voted for the rail and consistently voted for higher taxes?” Slom said of Chang. “That’s not what our community is all about. That’s not what our neighborhood board is all about.”
Chang is a longtime supporter of the Honolulu rail project, while Slom has been so firmly opposed to rail that he once joined in a federal lawsuit to try to block the project….
Taxes will dominate the debate at the Legislature next year, when the city is expected to ask state lawmakers to authorize an extension of Oahu’s half-percent excise tax surcharge to bail out the Honolulu rail project….
read … One Party System
FBI to Investigate Attack on Kauai Hydro Dam? -- Anti-GMO Activists Implicate Themselves
KE: …Shortly after two Kauai residents circulated inflammatory emails about a new water pipeline, a dam diverting water to two Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) hydro plants was vandalized.
Because the action targeted a utility — KIUC Chief Executive Officer David Bissel termed it “a deliberate sabotage of Kaua‘i’s electrical infrastructure” — local law enforcement officials are treating it as an act of domestic terrorism. They have called upon the FBI to investigate. (YES!)
Given the extent of the vandalism, police suspect more than one person was involved. They apparently used a jackhammer or impact drill to chip a hole about 10 feet wide by 1 foot deep in the concrete, so that water flows through the dam, rather than over it and into a ditch. They also made multiple vertical cuts across the face of the dam….
On Sept. 27, Adam Asquith, a taro farmer and Seagrant employee working with Waipa Foundation, sent state aquatic biologist Don Heacock an inflammatory email. It greatly mischaracterized the county Department of Water's plan to construct an 18-inch water main from Kapaia Reservoir to Grove Farm's surface water treatment plant….
Heacock then sent the email on to others. Former mayoral candidate Dustin Barca posted the materials on Facebook, calling it a “a threat TO ALL OUR LIVES!!! This is WAR on our people! Everybody get ready to KU'E!!!!"
Dustin's post solicited a slew of comments, including threats and calls to action…
KKCR also got into the act, with Felicia Cowden hosting Asquith and Debbie Jackson, another misinformed water activist, on her show. At the 71-minute mark, Felicia takes a call from a man who says:
There's gonna be hundreds of people going to destroy all their water diversions and restore the natural flow. There are people on this island that are not going to let this diversion because of people and big business and everything and all the county council and all of that. They're not going to wait for that. If the river doesn't start flowing soon, people are gonna destroy the diversions. Local people who have culture that want to do their natural Hawaiian you know...
At this point, instead of denouncing the action, counseling against criminal property damage or cutting the guy off, Felicia interjects, “to correct the stream flow.” To which the guy replies, “Yeah, yeah." Felicia then ends the call with, “Thank you for that important piece. I appreciate that.”….
read … Musings: Water Diversion Vandalized
DUI, Hit n Run: Prosecutors Trick Helps Cop Get Off
KHON: …Earlier this week, we told you the case had been dismissed because prosecutors couldn’t get a hold of witnesses, who were in the car Sylvester allegedly hit, needed to prove the case.
That meant charges against Honolulu police officer Brent Sylvester had to be tossed out and cannot be filed again.
Prosecutors told us they made several efforts to get the witnesses to appear in court, but the victim told us Friday he never heard from them.
How could that have happened?
The Honolulu prosecutor’s office says it was never able to serve the subpoena, which has to be done in person.
Phone calls were made to try to reach the victim and his passengers, but it’s not clear whether they ever received them.
“When he hit us, our car kind of went at an angle, but it was still moving in a forward motion. It didn’t veer off towards the way that we were facing,” said Reupena Ah-Key, the alleged hit-and-run victim.
Ah-Key says he was driving eastbound on the H-1 Freeway when his car was smashed by a driver who then took off. He and his two passengers followed him and called police which led to the arrest.
That was in April and on Tuesday, a judge dismissed the charges because witnesses never showed in court.
“I was just very angry. How could they just drop this case?” Ah-Key said.
Ah-Key says nobody ever notified him….
SA: Driver says he was never told of DUI trial
read … Beat the Rap
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