Grade F--Assessment of State Tech Projects
House, Senate Committees Schedule Budget Hearings
Young Bros announces new president
Jones Act lobby chairman steps down
Tourist Arrivals up 7.3% in November
Court Erupts--Coco Palms Homeless Grifters Still Haven’t been Paid Off
KGI: …First, Punohu Kekaualua, of Wailua, made a remark out loud questioning the judge’s authority, for which he was ejected and his cell phone confiscated. His mother, 70-year-old Debra Kekaualua, of Anahola, came to his verbal defense and she, too, was ejected.
A half hour or so later, when court reconvened after a recess, Punohu Kekaualua got into an argument with a court bailiff about whether he had been thrown out of court for the entire day’s session. Court personnel checked with Judge Michael Soong, who told them both Kekaualuas were banished all day.
But Debra Kekaualua had different ideas. She spoke up, objecting loudly to her son being thrown out of court. Bailiff Lee Jeal decided he had heard and seen enough. He ordered all spectators to leave the courtroom. But before people could reach the doorway, he walked into the back corner of the very last bench, where Debra Kekaualua was sitting.
As she continued her verbal protest, Jeal picked her up and, as she struggled, carried her a few feet and then appeared to drop her back onto the bench. Things got really ugly after that.
Angrily, Jeal summoned additional uniformed security officers from the Hawaii Department of Public Safety — the sheriff’s office. They succeeded in getting everyone out of the courtroom and closed and locked the door.
But it wasn’t over yet.
From the hallway, Debra Kekaualua could be heard screaming. She was being, as the incident could be pieced together later, handcuffed and taken to a holding cell.
By this point, the tension in the courtroom and the hallway was palpable and threatened to get out of control of court personnel. Kauai Police Department officers were called. Since the courthouse is directly across the street from police headquarters, KPD arrived within a few minutes, in force — five patrol cars and about 10 officers, including at least one lieutenant.
Debra Kekaualua emerged from the courthouse, having been freed by the court security officers. She was bleeding from (slightly scratched on) both wrists, as well as her ankles. She said she sustained the injuries when she was cuffed and removed. She said she was told no charges would be filed against her. She went off to Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
As incidents in courthouses that get a little out of hand go, this one was unusually unfortunate. Jeal might have chosen an action different from picking up a very slightly built older woman and then dropping her as a couple of dozen spectators looked on and shouts of indignation became deafening. The optics, as they say, could probably not have been worse (more profitable).
It being 2017, the incident was captured by numerous cell phone videos shot by spectators, getting to Facebook and other social media outlets within minutes.
The Garden Island’s Bethany Freudenthal caught the action on video, as well.
KPD officers later questioned witnesses after Debra Kekaualua complained she had been assaulted….
read … Coco Palms hearing erupts into court chaos
Master agreement signed to remodel, expand Mayor Wright Homes
HNN: …Today, the state and a developer, Hunt Companies, signed a master agreement for Mayor Wright.
“This is taking 364 public housing units over 60 years old, demolishing them, and building 2,500 brand new units for all incomes. Mixed income, mixed use, and TOD zoned, so very excited about the prospect of getting this done,” Hakim Ouansafi, executive director Hawaii Public Housing Authority, said.
The project estimates that bout two-thirds of the residential units will be affordable housing that is defined as a combination of public housing, low-income, low-moderate income, and workforce housing units affordable to those earning up to 120 percent of the area median income.
The remaining one-third will be market-rate rentals.
The project also includes up to 80,000 SF of retail and commercial space, structured parking, new internal roadways, a community center, and open space….
read … Master agreement signed to remodel, expand Mayor Wright Homes
Mother Waldron Latest Park to Be Closed for Homeless Damage
SA: …The city’s Mother Waldron Neighborhood Park in Kakaako, which has been over-run with homeless encampments following the closure of neighboring state parks, will be shut down from Tuesday night until Feb. 2 “for maintenance,” the city announced today.
The city said the closure will allow a “combination of maintenance work and a pilot project” to test anti-graffiti surface treatments intended to allow the easy removal of graffiti by simple manual scrubbing.
An estimated 50 chronically homeless people who were swept out of Kakaako Waterfront Park and its sister parks two weeks ago erected dozens of tents and shelters in nearby Mother Waldron Park and along Pohukaina Street.
Many of the homeless now living in the city’s Mother Waldron Park had been staying in one of the country’s largest homeless encampments that sprung up in the summer of 2015 around Kakaako Waterfront Park and have been getting swept onto private, city and state lands ever since.
Today the city said Mother Waldron will be closed to the public from 10 p.m. Tuesday until 5 a.m. Feb. 2….
Q: The homeless have been there for two weeks after wrecking Kakaako Makai. How much damage do you think they have caused at Mother Waldron?
AP: American Life Expectancy Declines Due to Opiate Addiction
read … Still Refusing Shelter
Failure of Enviros to Stifle Fishing Fleet Keeps holiday ahi prices down
HNN: …Officials at the Honolulu Fish Auction say they've brought in between 136,000 and 150,000 pounds of fish every day this week as retailers stock up for holiday sales.
"The quantities are good this year, the catch is good. This year the catches are great," said Guy Tamashiro, vice president of Tamashiro Market. "It's just starting to get crazy. People are starting to panic as we get closer to the time." ….
DVIDS: Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry completes at-sea fisheries enforcement patrol off Hawaii
read … When Enviros Lose Consumers Win
Prediction: 40% More anti-plastic hysteria is coming—or is it 100%?
KGI: …A 40 percent rise in plastic production is on the horizon…. (According to eco-lawyers quoted in the Guardian.)
oceanic garbage soup we know (know?) as the Great Pacific Gyre….+
Buoys, floats, bins, baskets, bottles, spoons, lighters and fishing gear are the mainstays on Kauai’s coastlines … (You know this used to be called ‘beachcombing’)
“We aren’t inundated with plastic bottles like some of the Third World countries,” said Scott McCubbins of Kauai Surfrider’s Net Patrol. “I truly believe that most of our plastic is from the commercial fishing industry.” (Focus the attack on the fishing fleet because that’s the target right now.)
The amount of plastic in production is set to nearly double in the next 10 years (Double is 100%—what happened to the 40%???)
Great Pacific Gyre spits out most of that marine debris… (I thought it was ‘garbage soup’. Personally I just wouldn’t eat garbage soup in the first place. I prefer tomato soup. But that’s just me.)
“No plastic bags. No Styrofoam,” he said…. (Secondary target.)
read … Kauai Again
Year in Review
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