Hawaii: April 19 is Tax Freedom Day
Kawananakoa Letter Debunks OHA LLCs Claim to be Immune from UIPA
Race for Hawaii Republican Party Chair—Interviews with Ostrov and Tupola
Video: Free Market Solutions for Hawaii's Economy
Office of Maunakea Management awarded 2017 Preservation Commendation
Nearly half of likely voters say Hawaii is moving in wrong direction
HNN: …A newly-released poll shows that just 37 percent of Hawaii residents are optimistic about Hawaii's trajectory. Some 47 percent feel Hawaii has gotten "pretty seriously off track."
The poll was commissioned by Pacific Resource Partnership, a labor management organization that represents the Hawaii Carpenters Union and its unionized contractors.
PRP's poll is representative of Hawaii's electorate, and included 800 likely voters. The margin of error is 3.46 percent.
The survey also sought voter feedback on a range of issues, including Oahu's beleaguered rail project and illegal vacation rentals.
And the question over Hawaii's direction is aimed at taking the temperature of voters at a time when the state is grappling with a homelessness crisis, a rising cost of living, and significant concerns over major projects with big price tags, including Oahu's rail line.
On Oahu, half of likely voters said Hawaii had gotten off track, while 34 percent said the state was moving in the right direction.
On the Neighbor Islands, the gap was significantly smaller.
Some 42 percent were optimistic, while 41 percent said the state was moving in the wrong direction. Seventeen percent said they didn't know….
read … Nearly half of likely voters say Hawaii is moving in wrong direction
The word on the streets is that they are horrible
SA: …Oahu’s streets get sorry marks from likely voters, with only 1 percent ranking them as “very good.”
On the other end, 26 percent of those surveyed in the latest Hawaii Poll said Oahu streets are in “very poor” condition.
The Hawaii Poll asked likely primary voters to rank the condition of Oahu streets on a scale from 1 (“very poor”) to 5 (“very good”). A plurality of respondents, 38 percent, would not go so far as to say the island’s roads are “very poor,” but they came close, rating them only a 2 on a scale from 1 to 5…..
PDF: Public poll on Oahu road conditions
read … The word on the streets is that they are horrible
Anti-GMO Losers Take over Hawaii County Democratic Party
WHT: Fueled by the 2016 Bernie Sanders anti-GMO movement, a new wave of leadership is taking over the Hawaii County Democratic Party.
The county party is planning its annual convention May 6 at the Keauu High School library. There are 13,283 active registered party members on Hawaii Island and 74,336 statewide (and most of them aren't anti-GMO activists, but that doesn't matter).
The change starts at the top, with anti-GMO former Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, a Sanders supporter, running unopposed for county chairwoman. Wille lost her county council reelection bid last year (because of her anti-GMO nonsense) and is currently co-chairwoman of the state party legislative committee.
Wille said she wasn’t actively seeking the position, but agreed to serve after she was called up….
read … Anti-GMO Losers Take Over
Anti-GMO Activists to Focus on Denying Water to Agriculture
KE: …Even as the GMO battle still rages, a new brouhaha is brewing. This time, it's all about water.
We've already seen it bubbling up on Maui, where folks are challenging A&B's longstanding diversion of East Maui streams, in part through litigation that exposed deficiencies in the revocable permit process that the Legislature addressed last session.
Kauai activists have also tried to pump it up as an issue, first with unsuccessful attempts to have Lihue declared a ground-surface water management area and later through vandalism and false claims about the Wailua diversion.
Now, in a throwback to the 2013 Earth Week “pollinators and pesticides” panel that gave Kauai anti-GMO activists Gary Hooser and Fern Rosenstiel a platform for pushing Bill 2491, Kauai Community College is hosting a Thursday afternoon panel discussion on water….
KE: Musings: Oh, the Irony
read … Musings: Dishonest Debate
Billionaires Pay City to Impose ‘Resiliency’ Officer of the Eco-Religion
SA: …the city has secured a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation that for the first two years will cover the $135,000 salary of a new “chief resilience officer,” otherwise known as the executive director of the climate-change office….
read … Eco-Elite impose their Religion
Gabbard Rakes in $2M, Hanabusa Pays Herself $200K
CB: …Hanabusa’s biggest expense was repaying a $200,000 loan she made to herself during her 2016 campaign, when she ran for a seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Rep. Mark Takai. Her late entry did not give her much tine to raise money for the race, which she won handily.
According to the first-quarter filings, Gabbard raised $169,000, and Hanabusa $42,000.
Most of Gabbard’s money came from individuals, mostly small contributions from people living on the mainland. Most of Hanabusa’s came from political action committees, and in larger amounts….
Gabbard’s husband, Abraham Williams, was paid $694 for “video equipment rental for filming campaign event,” $211 for “batteries, tools and other miscellaneous video accessories”; $2,428 for “video, audio and computer storage equipment”; and $2,262 for “camera equipment rental and travel expenses.”
That last payment appears to be reimbursement for the couple’s controversial trip to Syria in January….
Hanabusa’s name has been mentioned in some political circles as a possible challenger to Hawaii Gov. David Ige….
read … Campaign Cash
'We should be angry': Attorney says state liable for Peter Boy's death
HNN: The new attorney for "Peter Boy" Kema's relatives says the state's Department of Human Services should be held accountable for the decision to return the 6-year-old to his abusive parents 20 years ago, despite multiple warnings that the child's life could be in danger….
"It's very painful to know that this child was subjected to this kind of behavior over a prolonged period of time," says Lane.
The report includes memos from DHS social workers, including one who warned that the Kema children were at "extreme risk" if they were returned to the parents.
The children had been removed from the home to live with their grandparents, where all of them were thriving. But Child Protective Services workers subsequently returned Peter Boy and the others to the Kemas.
Lane's report indicates that Kema's siblings told counselors that "Peter Boy" got the worst of the abuse from their father -- that he was often chained to the foot of the bed overnight and he would be locked in the trunk of the car, even in the hot sunlight.
Lane also said that multiple people reported the boy's injuries to DHS employees, but that those reports were ignored.
One injury on Peter Boy's arm, according to the report, was so bad that investigators believe it got infected and ultimately led to his death.
The conclusion of Lane's report?
"It is probable that had CPS complied with their own standards and protocols and acted ... as the law required Peter Boy would alive today."…
read … 'We should be angry': Attorney says state liable for Peter Boy's death
Kauai PD: Positive Experience With Body Cameras
CB: ..the Kauai Police Department was already on board.
The department had tested the technology in late 2014 as part of a pilot program. In June 2015, the Kauai County Council unanimously approved purchasing 105 cameras for its patrol officers from Taser International for $176,718. Kauai officers have been wearing them ever since.
“At first the officers were a little reluctant,” Perry said. “Of course change is always difficult, but as time has gone on they’ve adapted. They understand the value in terms of recording what actually happened both to protect the citizens and to protect themselves from false allegations.”
According to KPD, the number of use of force incidents dropped from 37 in 2015 to 11 in 2016. So far this year, the department has reported only two cases in which officers used force while making an arrest or subduing a suspect.
The department has also seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of time it spends investigating false allegations of officers acting rudely or otherwise being unprofessional or discourteous while interacting with citizens, such as when performing a traffic stop.
Before body cameras were in use, the department’s internal affairs division used to spend approximately 30 hours investigating a citizen complaint against an officer. When there’s body camera footage available, KPD officials say that figure drops to about five and half hours.
Perry said the mere fact officers and citizens know they’re being recorded can help mitigate potentially tense situations. Both sides know they’re being watched, Perry said, which often keeps citizens and officers on their best behavior.
It also reduces the likelihood of an officer letting his or her temper get the best of them when a suspect is being belligerent. Perry said that reduces the chance someone becomes a victim of “street justice” at the hands of an officer.
“That’s what we don’t want,” Perry said. “This is a very good program, and the officers deserve it.”….
KGI: Perry seeks HPD chief job
read … Hawaii Police Agencies Struggle To Equip Officers With Body Cameras
State Supreme Court hits some bank foreclosures
ILind: A post here last week discussed a recent federal court opinion that concluded condominium associations were not allowed under Hawaii law to pursue nonjudicial foreclosures against individual owners who failed to pay their regular maintenance fees.
But there was another recent foreclosure-related decision that could have much more of an impact.
In the case of Hungate v. Rosen, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a bank conducting a nonjudicial foreclosure must publish a new public notice each time it postpones a scheduled foreclosure sale.
Apparently it was a common practice for banks to pursue nonjudicial foreclosures under the “power of sale” provisions in their mortgages, publish a notice of the planned sale, and then postpone it at the last minute. A new date would be set but not announced. Sometimes this would be repeated a number of times, and when the sale was finally held, the bank would be the only bidder present….
read … State Supreme Court hits some bank foreclosures
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