OHA Insiders Plan to Neuter Audit
516 Candidates Register for Honolulu Neighborhood Board Elections
Hawaii pro-life centers fight abortion referral mandate
Hawaii Ranks Fourth for Millionaires
SB898: Anti-Gun Bill Scheduled for Committee Hearing Next Week
Hawaii Military Commissaries Offer 32.6% Savings—Highest in USA
Caldwell Goes on Vacation While Legislators Expected to Vote on Rail Tax Hikes
NR: …Mayor Kirk Caldwell will be leaving O‘ahu late this evening for a personal vacation, and is scheduled to return next Friday, February 24. Managing Director Roy K. Amemiya will serve as Acting Mayor while Mayor Caldwell is out of state from this evening, February 17 through Friday evening, February 24….
SA: $60M HART Payoff to HECO is ‘Good News’
read … No Skin in the Game
Incompetent Airport Division Wants Fee Hikes But Can’t Fix Leaky Roofs
KHON: Leaky roofs drench travelers at Honolulu airport, could take years to fix….
When heavy rain drenched Oahu this past Saturday, it created what appeared to a waterfall coming from the ceiling of Hawaii’s busiest airport.
A leaky canopy drenched luggage and tourists who tried to take cover outside the overseas terminal at Honolulu International Airport.
Inside the baggage claim, water gushed down from the ceiling and knocked out the panels.
Airport workers sent us video of the chaos, because they want to know why it’s happening and what’s being done to fix it. They say the problem has been going on for years.
read … Incompetent
Star-Adv: Greenmail Shakedown of Zuckerberg is a Good Idea
SA: A mere month after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg inadvertently rained attention onto the conundrum of kuleana land ownership, the Legislature is taking some needed, overdue steps toward aiding Native Hawaiians and others against the forced sales of such legacy lands.
House Bill 860 aims to amend Hawaii’s quiet title law, which allows lawsuits that ask a court to determine rightful owners of lands, including kuleana lands that were passed down through generations without recorded documents….
That’s where HB 860 is needed, to counter the forcing of such land auctions and to give descendants more of a fighting chance to retain their land entitlements if they so choose. The bill would mandate mediation between plaintiffs and defendants, and seeks to lessen the financial burden on (facilitate payoffs to any and all self-proclaimed) land descendants who opt to fight the forced sale…..
read … Star Advertiser Editorial
Diamond Head: Social Workers Chased out of Homeless Tent City By Knife Wielding Bum
HNN: Outreach workers were warning homeless on Diamond Head of an upcoming sweep Thursday when a man quietly walked up behind them, carrying a knife.
"I thought I saw like a military style gas mask cause it was something that was covering his face. He was waving something around in his hands," said Heather Lusk, of the CHOW Project.
A camera captured the moment the six member team realized what was happening.
"Oh my God, he's got a knife!" said one team member.
Outreach workers backed away from the man, who apparently lives in a tent on Diamond Head. With a knife in one hand and a broom handle in the other, he never said a word but trailed the workers as they left the area.
read … Knife Wielding Bums
Soft on Crime: 20 Priors Gets ‘Supervised Release’—Then Shockingly, He does it Again
KHON: …Honolulu police, with the help of U.S. Marshals and the SWAT team, arrested Amery Kahale-Sugimura, 38, Thursday night at a home on Wehiwehi Street in Waianae.
He was wanted for violating conditions of his supervised release, which resulted in more than $1.53 million in outstanding warrants.
Kahale-Sugimura is no stranger to the system with 20 prior convictions.
In 2016, he was arrested for car theft and a drug offense. In 2015, he was arrested after being caught on a stolen motorcycle, and two years before that, in 2013, he led Honolulu police on a wild chase near Alvah Scott Elementary School and was arrested for robbery and assaulting a police officer. Police ended up shooting him several times.
So why was he out to begin with?
KHON2 learned he pleaded guilty in January to five counts, including auto theft and drug charges. A judge granted him supervised release.
“The defense attorney said, ‘Give him a chance. Give him a chance at Habilitat, at drug treatment,’ and so the judge gave him a chance,” said deputy prosecutor Scott Spallina….
read … Soft on Crime
HPD Toddler Beating Gets National News Attention
ILind: A Civil Beat investigation into the near-fatal beating of a 17-month old at an Ewa Beach daycare operated by the family of a Honolulu police officer has received some national attention.
The issue highlighted in in today’s “Pick of the news,” a daily summary of top reporting on criminal justice issues compiled by The Marshall Project, a national group that presses for criminal justice reform by highlighting top quality journalism on related issues from around the country and the world.
It was selected as one of just five featured stories, which included others from Oregon, Kansas, Missouri, and North Carolina….
UKDM: Couple demand new probe into son's horror injuries after babysitter married to a cop was cleared in initial investigation
read … Civil Beat investigation draws some national attention
State says hotel illegally pumped storm water into ocean for more than a decade
KHON: A Waikiki hotel was draining storm water into the ocean for more than a decade, something it was not supposed to.
We first told you Thursday that the Moana Surfrider was illegally pumping bacteria-filled water into the ocean from a seepage pit….
So we checked with the state Dept. of Health, which then took action. The department says it considers this an unusual investigation, and is considering this not just a learning experience for the hotel, but the state as well.
So what are seepage pits? They’re underground pits containing liquids that seep into the ground.
What the Moana Surfrider was doing was draining its storm water from the pit through tubes — something it does not have a permit for. But according to the state Dept. of Health, the hotel has stopped its practices immediately and is cooperating fully.
This after the DOH says the hotel was illegally draining its seepage pit for over 10 years….
The DOH says it will likely give the Moana Surfrider a warning not to do this again.
read … Decade
SJWs Scream Blasphemy after Maui mayor says 'No such thing' as sacred rocks
HNN: Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa brushed off concerns Friday about the destruction of rocks considered sacred in Iao Valley as part of flood repairs, telling Hawaii News Now that "there's no such thing as sacred rocks." (Burn him at the stake!)
"The monarchy, starting with Kamehameha ... declared Christianity the religion of Hawaii," Arakawa said. "In Christianity, if I remember the 10 Commandments correctly, thou shall have no false god before me. There are no sacred rocks in that religion."…
Anti-GMO Activist Tiare Lawrence said Arakawa's comments are a disgrace, and show a lack of respect for the Hawaiian culture…. (Question: Is Gaia a Hawaiian Goddess?)
Maui County Council member Elle Cochran, meanwhile, demanded an apology (yadda yadda yadda)
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs also issued a statement in response to the comments. (Ca-Ching!)
"Pohaku (rocks) are a cornerstone of Native Hawaiian material and living culture, providing not only a vast array of utilitarian uses ... but also immense spiritual and political importance for the Native Hawaiian people." (Translation: Gimme money.)
Lilikala Kameeleihiwa, director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, said that Native Hawaiian say rocks are sacred "that's the truth."
State Rep. Kaniela Ing (South Maui), meanwhile, called Arakawa's statements "disgraceful." (Something Ing is well-acquainted with.)
Added state Sen. Kalani English (Hana-Upcountry Maui-Molokai-Lanai), "We have to respect everyone's belief systems and that's what's important." (Except Arakawa’s.)
He said Arakawa believes "a small mistake over the rocks is being blown out of proportion ... and he thinks native religion is being used for political purposes."
Arakawa took a much harder line, speaking on Hawaii News Now's Sunrise on Friday. During the interview, he intimated that the complaints were a non-issue.
"We have a group of people that are political wannabes that ran for office the last time, and they try to make an issue out of nothing," he said. "During an emergency situation, where people's lives are endangered, we have to do what we have to do. We're trying to protect people."
He added, "Nature created the situation where the river knocked out of a lot of trees. If you want to call a culprit, blame the trees."
read … Blasphemer!
So-Called Farmers Union Joins With Anti-Dairy Farm Activists
KE: That hackneyed buzzword "sustainability" reared its ugly head today in a letter to the editor from the Hawaii Farmers Union (HFU) opposing the Mahaulepu dairy.
Aside from the very relevant question of whether the HFU, which produces just a tiny fraction of Hawaii's agricultural product, should dictate policies and practices, there is that niggling issue of WTH actually constitutes sustainability on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific.
In her letter, Kapaa resident Eden Marie Peart writes:
[I]t is important for the public to understand the difference between HDF’s industrial dairy, with a large herd on limited acreage, and a sustainable dairy with sufficient acreage.
However, Peart doesn't put forth an image or definition of what a "sustainable dairy with sufficient acreage" would look like on Kauai. Nor does she tell us about HFU's own efforts to create the ideal it imagines. Instead — and this is what really bothers me about HFU and the antis they so often align with — she merely criticizes what is being proposed as not good enough.
Peart tells us that the National Farmers Union policy states a dairy program should "encourage and enable producers to use sustainable environmental practices” and “assist new farmers entering into farming,” before dismissing Hawaii Dairy Farms (HDF) as failing on both counts.
But HDF believes its rotational pasture model — based on New Zealand practices — is sustainable because it reduces the amount of imported fodder required to feed livestock. It also makes use of the manure to fertilize the grazing paddocks so they can produce fresh grass.
What's more, HDF will be contracting with local cattlemen to take the male calves, which enhances the sustainability of their ranching operations, and it provides a market for farmers — onstensibly some of whom may be "new" — who want to grow livestock fodder. If that production is able to reduce the importation of feed, it would boost the sustainability not only of the dairy, but others raising livestock on-island.
read … Musings: So Much Hot Air
Hordes of Anti-Agriculture Activists to Descend on Maui Public Hearing to Take A&B Water
MN: Public scoping meetings have been scheduled next week for Alexander & Baldwin’s application to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for a 30-year lease for water from streams in Nahiku, Keanae and Huelo.
The sessions are set for 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday in Maui Electric Co.’s community meeting room and 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Haiku Community Center, according to a notice published in the Feb. 8 issue of the Environmental Notice. (Suggested chant for protesters: “We want condos! We want condos!”)
Public comments are due March 10. Written comments may be sent to consultant Wilson Okamoto Corp., Attention: Earl Matsukawa, 1907 S. Beretania St., Suite 400, Honolulu 96826.
The long-term lease would be for the continued “right, privilege and authority to enter and go upon” state watershed lands for the “purpose of developing, diverting, transporting and using government-owned waters” through East Maui Irrigation Co.’s aqueduct system. EMI is an A&B subsidiary.
Last year, state lawmakers debated a bill to allow A&B to continue to divert water from East Maui streams, pending the outcome of its application for a long-term lease from the state.
read … Build Lots of Condos on Central Maui
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