Rep Thielen: Bring Rail Down to Earth
TVRs: No Taxation Without Legalization!
CyberStates: Hawaii Lags
Global Warmers: Waikiki Sea Level Rise Will Drown Trump Hotel
VIDEO: Lawyers Want Your Help to Keep the Homeless, Homeless
SA: A Honolulu law firm that challenged the city’s tactics in clearing the once-sprawling Kakaako homeless encampment is now asking city officials to provide video they may have shot of Monday’s unannounced sweep of homeless encampments on state-owned land along Nimitz Highway.
The Honolulu law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd &Ing and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii in January 2016 won a federal class-action injunction against the city that requires officials to store any personal property they seize for 45 days; video-record any items seized with less than 24-hour notice; and give advance warning of a sweep by 3 p.m. the day before, said law firm attorney Nickolas Kacprowski….
read … Lawyers Seeking Money
Eco-Lawyers Help North Korea Reach Targets
SA: Environmental law group Earthjustice has put the National Marine Fisheries Service on notice that proposed federal regulations over Air Force bombing practice off Kauai would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
“The testing, which involves hundreds of missiles and bombs detonating in the ocean over the next five years, could harm a number of whale and dolphin species, including endangered sei whales, humpback whales, dwarf sperm whales, pygmy sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins and striped dolphins,” Earthjustice said in a release….
read … Let the Missiles Through
Contractor Begins Rail Work at Airport
KHON: …We’re getting our first look at the construction site for rail at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
But before construction can actually begin, the contractor has to do some tests.
Inside Lot J, there is heavy machinery and that’s where we met Rusty Lucido, the foundation manager for STG, the contractor for the 5.2 miles of guideway at the airport.
“Right now, we are currently in the design build phase, and we are validating our design through the means of a load test and a means and methods pile,” said Lucido….
SA: STG secured an $875 million contract last year from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to build rail’s elevated guideway and four stations to Middle Street
read … Tests underway before rail construction can begin at Honolulu airport
Hawaiian Health: Victimhood or Empowerment?
SA: …“Kaneho‘alani: Transforming the Health of Native Hawaiian Men.” The 45-page report, which overlays cultural and historic factors onto the well-being of Native Hawaiian males today, found their health to be substantially worse than other men here. The spectrum of dismal findings include: higher rates of obesity, asthma, mental health problems and cancer deaths, as well as arrests and confinement.
The grim study provides context to the plethora of problems. It links many of the problems to the historical changes here after Western contact in the late 1700s, then the influx of immigrants that forever altered the cultural landscape for Native Hawaiians….
This valuable deeper understanding, though, can’t become an excuse against betterment in today’s world. Living in the present means dealing with manifestations of the past. Many Native Hawaiians today are active in the righteous cause of indigenous self-determination, and it’s that sense of empowerment that also must be applied to overcoming poor health conditions of today’s kane.
A crucial part of the complex remedy must be culturally aware early intervention — to break negative cycles at the earliest ages…
…There are two paths of response to Kaneho‘alani’s dismal news: One is the trap of perpetual victimhood; the other, more constructive path comes via empowerment. It’s this path that OHA, other vested agencies, families and the men themselves, must forge if they want to see Native Hawaiians not merely survive, but truly thrive….
Background: OHA releases report on the health of Native Hawaiian men
read … Victimhood
Regulations May Make Marijuana Sales Unprofitable
SA: “Everything’s inflated. Lease areas, getting expensive equipment shipped on-island, finding the space,” said Michael Rollins, chief administrative officer of PharmLabs, a lab based on Maui that is awaiting certification from the Department of Health.
Given Hawaii’s small population, it’s not a certainty that labs will earn enough revenue to cover costs, unlike Seattle, with its large population and laws permitting recreational marijuana, Dansky said. Some states with small populations, such as Rhode Island, do not require lab testing, she said.
Changes in Hawaii’s regulations are also complicating the process for labs that are trying to open, Rollins said. For example, labs were originally required to test for 700 different pesticides, but the rule was changed to require testing for about 150 pesticides, he said. “That changes what type of equipment you need,” he said.
State officials say they are waiting on documents from the three laboratories that have applied, and are likely to approve at least one lab sometime this summer. But they don’t want to rush and risk approving an unsafe product.
Aloha Green had expected labs to open in May, Lee said. The crop can keep for up to one year in a cool, dark environment, but over time it loses potency, said Tai Cheng, chief operating officer of Aloha Green.
“I understand people’s frustration, but building an industry up from the bottom up, requiring as much regulation as we have, is going to take time,” said Hawaii Rep. Della Au Bellati, who pushed for the dispensary law….
KGI: Kauai Marijuana dispensary shoots for October opening
read … Over Regulated?
Neighborhood sit in stops Biki installment
KITV: Honolulu Bikeshare’s Biki program faces opposition as it nears its launch-date at the end of the month. City crews started installing bike-stations, or Biki Stops, on Thursday.
Some residents of Pualei Circle near Diamond Head are so strongly against it, they held a Sit-In this morning.
“Nobody had any knowledge of what was going on here. It was just being thrown on us. We're going to get all these rental bikes placed right here, in quiet Pualei circle." Said the circle’s site manager, Thor White.
Residents of Pualei Circle say the proposed space for a Biki station has been a “No Parking Zone” for 30 years as well as a space needed for fire trucks to be able to turn around. All reasons why they were surprised to see Bikeshare crews preparing to install a station Friday morning.
Because of the sit in, Bikeshare chose to scrap the idea. ….
read … Neighborhood sit in stops Biki installment
Kauai: Venomous Hatred of Republicans
PBN: …I served in the Northern Persian Gulf at the tail end of the Iraqi-Irani War as a navigator of a Special Forces patrol boat conducting classified missions….
That was nearly 30 years ago. Some of our band of brothers got together during the Memorial Day weekend. We met just outside the Death Valley National Park for a camp out and target shooting event. Along with my old buddies were their extended families. About 33 people including moms and children. During the evenings as the kids roasted marshmallows, conversation turned to politics.
I had been prepared to bite my tongue if I heard any hateful speech from people I had just met. I was prepared to hear some unvarnished and coarse, if not racially charged words. I thought of the bravery of my mother (now in her 70s).
During my nearly 30 years living on Kauai I have similar strongly held liberal views as our overwhelmingly Democrat population. I am always puzzled by the amount of pure hate toward the Republicans that my friends display venomously … and often.
I was taught that the Democrats should try to promote peace and love and acceptance. I am always befuddled just how hate filled some of our left-leaning women and men are. Talking about physical violence toward the right is unsettling.
So…as some marshmallows were toasted perfectly and others flamed like sugary meteors, I was braced to hear more anger and more hate than my liberal Kauai friends and acquaintances voice. Surely the “racist, gun-toting, fascists” would spat the hate and narrow vision when the subject of Democrats and liberals in general were tabled as the target of discussion. I was completely floored by any and all omissions of negative speech.
I heard not one racial epithet or slur. I heard only politically correct references, like…”My African American Amigo, Tony just restored his 1966 Mustang.”
I heard discussions concerning global warming. Some of the group very worried at its evident existence, others who weren’t convinced listened openly to the proponent’s views.
Once the actual Democratic Party became the subject, I was unable to discern the hate and anger I was prepared to hear mirrored from my liberal friends. I heard only befuddlement. No anger, only confusion why the left was so angry (reference even before Donald J. Trump’s election)….
read … Puzzled
Illegal Alien was Leader of Punatic Circus
WHT: …Graham Ellis, who made headlines this week after he was picked up by the Department of Homeland Security and subsequently given 45 days to depart the country voluntarily, will leave a few loose ends on Hawaii Island when he returns to England on July 20.
Known for his community outreach through circus arts and performing, Ellis was also a central figure in a dispute that came to a head in 2014 between the Department of Land and Natural Resources and two nonprofit organizations with which Ellis was involved.
Hawaii’s Volcano Circus (HVC) and the Village Green Society (VGS) were found in violation of Hawaii Administrative Rules and ordered by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to remove several illegal structures — including eight buildings and a horse corral — from a nearly 60-acre parcel of state land south of VGS’s Bellyacres community in Kalapana Seaview Estates.
The organizations were also found to have cut down protected ohia trees on the parcel and were subsequently fined in the amount of $53,743. Ellis served as chairman of HVC as well as corporate secretary for VGS at the time.
Nearly three years later, the matter has not been resolved.
“The (fines) have not been paid,” said Ellis….
read … Clown Show
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