UH: Homelessness plays a large role in unnecessary hospitalizations
Matson purchases second-hand ship for new Marshall Islands service
Hawaii a case study in how government can make basic healthcare a nightmare
Full Text: PIG Proposes Updated EIS Rules
Next HART CEO Behind Disqualified Bidder’s Protest, Lawsuit?
SA: …If the board follows through and hires Andrew Robbins, he would become former rail CEO Dan Grabauskas’ permanent replacement. He would also eventually take over for interim Executive Director Krishniah Murthy, who has a yearlong $400,000 deal to oversee HART through December.
(UPDATE July 31, 2017: HART Board today voted 6-1 to select Robbins as CEO. John Henry Felix voting 'No.' Star-Adv, KHON)
Robbins would join HART as train and system testing is expected to accelerate under the agency’s “core systems” contractor, Hitachi-owned Ansaldo Honolulu JV. In 2011, Ansaldo and Bombardier were among the three rival finalists vying for that public contract — the largest in the state’s history. The winner would design and build the train cars, and it would operate the transit line for up to 10 years.
Ansaldo’s bid came in at $1.4 billion; Bombardier’s was $234 million less, but Ansaldo received the contract after the city disqualified Bombardier’s bid. Soon after, Robbins helped lead a protracted protest and legal challenge against the city to overturn the Ansaldo award.
The dispute centered on a proposed liability cap and whether Bombardier’s push to change part of the cap’s contract language, which it found faulty, should have led to its disqualification. Robbins, as Bombardier’s vice president for business development, argued that city officials unfairly disqualified its bid without giving the proper chance to appeal.
“They played gotcha. ‘We gotcha. You’re out,’” he told City Council members in 2011, shortly before they deferred a resolution that called for reversing the Ansaldo award.
However, over the next year the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, a Hawaii Circuit Court judge and the Intermediate Court of Appeals would all rule against Bombardier and find that the city properly followed the state’s procurement procedure. The firm eventually dropped its court challenge.
Under Grabauskas, HART would later blame the Bombardier challenges (plus a DCCA challenge by the third firm that competed, Sumitomo Corp. of America) for costing the rail project more than $29 million in change orders to automate the tracks at the rail operations center in Pearl City, where the 20 four-car trains will be stored and repaired.
The challenges prevented HART from talking to Ansaldo about the project, and previous rail leaders had to choose whether to start the design work without Ansaldo’s input or risk waiting too long if the challenges to the contract award lingered, according to Grabauskas, who joined HART in 2012.
“No one knew how long” those challenges from rival bidders Sumitomo and Bombardier would take, he said in early 2014. Former HART board member Kesli Hui once called those change orders a “very expensive lesson” about proceeding too quickly with design work….
Flashback:
read … Rail board said to be near to hiring new chief
Lawyer: Islam is a Mental Disorder Caused by PTSD
CB: …“The first thing I’m going to do is the first thing the military should have done — get him a full mental evaluation,” Kang’s attorney, Birney Bervar, said in an interview with Civil Beat. Bervar was appointed to represent Kang because the court determined he didn’t have the money to pay for his own defense.
Kang converted to Islam while deployed in the Middle East. According to an FBI affidavit, he attempted to give military documents to undercover agents representing themselves as officers of the Islamic State, tried to provide videotaped combat training instruction to ISIS soldiers and maintained a collection of ISIS recruitment information — including a video he called his favorite that showed people being beheaded by ISIS soldiers.
Bervar said he is making the mental-health examination request to federal prosecutors because of what he learned from a brief meeting with Kang in prison, from reviewing court documents and from speaking with members of Kang’s extended family in Hawaii.
In published reports, Kang’s father said his son was behaving oddly and that he believes he may have had untreated PTSD.
“It’s very unclear what, if anything, was done” to provide Kang with medical care after his behavior at work became increasingly disturbing to co-workers, Bervar said….
read … Islam is Insane
Civil Defense Warning Texts Will Appear on Cellphones Starting in November
GM: …The new siren will debut the first work day in November and will be preceded by radio and television scripts about what residents are about to hear and what to do.
Clairmont said a missile could reach Hawaii from North Korea in about 20 minutes. It would take U.S. Pacific Command about five minutes to discern the threat and notify the state. That would activate the siren and a series of other alerts, which would take three or four minutes, giving the public about 12 to 15 minutes to react.
In addition to the siren, mass notification via Emergency Alert System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA), radio, television and cellphones will be deployed in 17 different languages. Because of the threat of tsunami and hurricanes, the infrastructure is in place.
The four counties have mass notification systems that residents can opt into like Nixle and Blackboard, but the state wants to notify everyone “where they stand,” Clairmont said.
“When someone gets off a plane, their cellphone will receive the WEA message and we’ve included the visitor industry in this initiative,” he said. “All hotels have info about hurricanes and tsunamis, and they will be adding this content. So no matter where you come from, the moment you turn on your cellphone, the service provider in Hawaii, there are several and all are tied to WEA, will transmit the message.”…
read … Governing
Stakeholders outline plan to turn ‘King Tides’ into Research Grants for Global Warming Hypesters
CB: With the impacts of climate change (not) bearing down on Hawaii, government officials and community members need to make some important decisions (grant money) about the islands’ iconic coastlines, said Dolan Eversole, a coastal hazards expert (and potential grant recipient) with the University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant (see!) program.
“That’s the policy question that we’re faced with now — what’s more important, protecting the property or protecting the beach?” he said. “It’s not a simple answer.” (And you need to pay me to give you an answer.)
Eversole was addressing a roomful of state and county officials (grant providers), nonprofit leaders (grant providers) and others (moochers) Thursday at the annual State of Hawaii Drowning Prevention and Ocean Safety Conference at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu.
Even under conservative projections, he said Hawaii will have to adapt to a suite of issues that are exacerbated by increasing temperatures and rising sea levels, including coastal erosion, hurricanes, tsunamis, high surf, high winds and flooding. (IQ Test: Do you believe ANY of this?)
“Climate change is not necessarily an independent problem,” Eversole said. “It’s going to overlie the problems that we have and in many cases make them worse.” (Translation: I can justify grants from any budget.)
The “king tides” that caused flooding in Waikiki and other parts of the state this summer were in many ways a glimpse into the future, he said. (And we told you that this monthly phenomenon which has been going on for eons will now be used for sea level rise hysteria. We were right.)
Eversole is also heartened by Hawaii having a climate adaptation plan underway. The first part of that plan, due in December, will show how sea-level rise will likely affect hotels, homes and other properties in the coming decades. (Translation: Hit the hotels up for grant money. The Council should require them to have a sea level rise plan in place written by a certifiable eco-faddist. Five figures per hotel.)
Honolulu Emergency Services Director Jim Howe, who was the city’s longtime ocean safety chief, said the city has much of the necessary information and has started to respond. (Translation: We already wrote a bunch of grants. You’re late.)
He said the newly created Office of Climate Change, Resilience and Sustainability has held its first major gathering of stakeholders to gain input. A full report from that meeting with roughly 350 individuals from businesses, nonprofits, government and environmental groups is coming, he said, but the preliminary results illustrate the need to focus on the coastal areas and infrastructure. (Wake up and smell the money!)
KGI: Sea animals get $1.3 million (but they don’t even have a bank account!)
Reality for they very few who can handle it: Sea Level Rise? Nonsense, Oahu is Rising From the Sea for Next 1.5M Years
read … Hysteria is Profitable
H-1 Sweep Forces 9 Homeless to Accept Shelter
SA: …More than 80 people were estimated last week to be living in the targeted areas on Nimitz Highway from River Street to the Pearl Harbor interchange; and the H-1 freeway from Middle Street to Kahala.
Of the nine people who went into shelters or permanent housing, eight were placed at the Next Step shelter in Kakaako, and one woman has been placed into permanent housing through the city’s Housing First program administered by U.S. Vets, Morishige said.
The woman was assessed by outreach workers from Kalihi-Palama Health Center and The CHOW Project, and in one day she received a housing voucher and signed a rental lease for a housing unit, Morishige said.
The sweeps are funded by $2 million from the Legislature and $2 million in DOT money…..
ARRL: Homeless Dude is HAM Radio Hobbyist
read … 71 Still l Refuse Shelter
What Does it Take to Get a Charter School Up and Running in Hawaiʻi?
HPR: “That’s what a lot of people don’t understand is that you are approved and you have a year to open, and then you don’t receive any funds for that,” says Jeff Vilardi, Director of Kamalani Academy, “And so many, many people are donating their time and volunteering to do work without being paid….
read … What Does it Take to Get a Charter School Up and Running in Hawaii?
Ask for Homeschooling? Get CPS Investigation Instead
HNN: …Parents who want to homeschool their kids don't encounter any resistance, not even if they're under investigation by the Child Protective Services.
A Hawaii News Now investigation has found, there is only one form to fill out, form 4140, to request that a child be pulled from the public school system.
We've also learned, the Hawaii State Department of Education does not have the authority to deny any request.
Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth wants to change that and he already has the support of several lawmakers.
"Anybody can pull a kid out for homeschooling," says Roth, who is drafting legislation that would require the DOE to provide the information to CPS for review before approving an application. Roth says his proposed bill would require further review if a family is in the CPS system and a family court judge would intervene.
It would close a loophole that has allows child abusers to pull the kids from the school system where educators are mandatory reporters, meaning they have to notify authorities if they believe a student is in danger.
The push for better oversight comes just days after the arrests of Kevin Lehano and Tiffany Stone, the parents of 9-year old Shaelynn Lehano Stone, who died last year from starvation. Her grandmother, Henrietta Halaka Stone had custody of the girl. All three are charged with murder.
The 9-year old had been in the CPS system since she was a toddler, but her family was allowed to pull her out of Hilo Union Elementary School in November of 2015. Seven months later, she was found unconscious in her Hilo town apartment. She died hours later. ….
read … Homeschool
Who is using the Bikeshare Hawaii service?
PBN: …Biki has had more than 47,000 rides since its launch last month, with 12,737 total users, according to statistics from Bikeshare Hawaii….
Of the total users, 10,397 are casual users while 2,340 are members. Data is not yet available regarding how Biki riders are using the service, and the breakdown of local users and visitors….
The bikeshare service, launched by nonprofit Bikeshare Hawaii on June 28, has 89 Biki stops throughout Honolulu, with 800 bicycles in service. The most popular stop is Kalakaua Avenue at Paoakalani Street in Waikiki. Waikiki has six of the most popular Biki stops, while the Ala Moana/Kakaako area has four…..
read … Biki Stats
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