Best Cities for Public Transit: Honolulu Makes Top Ten
Kaneohe: 8.75M Gallons of Sewage Spill from City Plants
SB3088: Will Legislature Give Counties More Excuses for GE Tax Hike?
HTH: …Foreseeing the almost certain death of a bill raising the general excise tax, the Hawaii County Council voted unanimously Wednesday to put it on life support….
The council agreed to postpone further action until no later than May 5, even though the state-imposed deadline to have the law in place is March 31. If the bill is again taken up, it will need to be voted up twice to be passed….
Puna Councilwoman Eileen O’Hara, one of the three solid supporters of the measure, said she’s willing to “throw the die,” in hopes the state Legislature will grant the county an extension. The other supporters were Hilo Council members Sue Lee Loy and Aaron Chung….
O’Hara and Kohala Councilman Tim Richards, a no vote, submitted legislation to reduce the fuel tax if the GET is going to be raised. Richards said he was willing to vote yes Wednesday, if only to “make sure this conversation doesn’t end today.”…
Bills moving through the state Legislature would extend the counties’ deadline to June 30. In addition, the Senate version, SB 3088, would allow counties to spend up to 40 percent of the proceeds on expenses other than related to transportation and, in addition, allowing up to 2 percent of the surcharge on private roads that serve a public use.
SB 3088 is scheduled for its final committee vote, the Senate Ways and Means Committee, on Friday. The House Finance Committee on Feb. 16 passed the companion measure, HB 2587, with unknown amendments. The legislative session continues until May 3….
read … Extension?
Hawaii Transsexual Activist: Legalize Underage Prostitution
SA: …Issues concerning youth and their relationship to the sex trades need better data, understanding and coordination of social services….
Too much discussion revolves around a dominant narrative of young girls being lured or coerced into prostitution. The results are knee-jerk reactions wherein communities ask for a heavy law enforcement approach….
…boys and transgender girls (sic) make up a large slice of underage prostitution….
(Editor’s Note: Homosexual child molesters like to exploit homeless youth. The homeless children are undergoing reverse gay conversion therapy. Soon the Legislature will make it illegal to reverse the effects.)
…Today the new war on sex trafficking seems to be following the playbook of the old war on drugs. Scary stories that anger and alarm lead to calls for tougher laws, longer sentences and mass incarceration….
Compare that approach to that of addressing the abuses of child labor in many industries of the past. No one suggested closing factories or mines….
(Translation: Legalize underage prostitution.)
Meanwhile:
read … Next item on the Gay Agenda
Sheehan replaces Sword as head of Honolulu Police Commission
CB: Sheehan was a sharp critic of former chief Louis Kealoha and how the commission handled problems under his tenure….
read … Sheehan
HPD officer fired after violent video is getting his job back with years of back pay
HNN: Darren Cachola will be reinstated to the Honolulu Police Department and he'll receive years of back pay — that is the decision by an arbitrator.
Cachola was caught on video in 2014 fighting with his ex girlfriend in a Waipahu restaurant.
He was never arrested, instead getting a ride home from responding officers.
Weeks later a grand jury didn't indict him but then-HPD Chief Louis Kealoha (who?) still moved forward, improperly firing Cachola for failing to leave a liquor establishment. (Wait for it…) Which ended up being an improper reason to be terminated from HPD. (See how this works?)….
Last year, Cachola had another run in after his wife called 911 saying he was choking her.
When officers arrived at the home, sources say, she told them that she was not hurt. Again he was not arrested….
read … Thanks to Kealoha
Police remove Coco Palms occupiers
KGI: One person was arrested this morning as ejectment orders were carried out in Wailua at the site of where Coco Palms once stood.
Members of the State sheriffs office, Kauai Police Department, DLNR and the Attorney General’s Office were present for the ejectment.
According to Chuck Hanie, who has been living in the property for over a year now, two people were present on the property during the ejectment. One, a female, was arrested.
In a statement, Hanie’s wife Jessica said they are planning on returning to the property….
The ejectment happened the day before Coco Palms was scheduled to be in court for a motions hearing to strike a document filed by the defendants charging District Court Judge Michael Soong on several counts in the (so-called) Hawaiian Court of the Sovereign….
read … Police remove Coco Palms occupiers
Effort afoot to create shelter exclusively for homeless with severe mental illness
HNN: … Support is growing for the creation of a new homeless shelter exclusively for people suffering from severe mental illness.
Despite a law that allows the court to order treatment for people incapacitated by mental illness, the majority of those living on the street slip back into psychosis soon after leaving the hospital.
The head of the state's largest homeless service provider says that's because there's no place for them to go.
"The likelihood of them actually staying on their medication is really low," said Connie Mitchell, of the Institute for Human Services. "You really want someone to be able to monitor the treatment."
Now, some lawmakers are urging the state to open a new shelter that focuses on long-term recovery….
The idea is to start out small. Initially, the facility would have no more than 10 beds. (Need 1000) Staff would help clients re-learn basic skills and make sure they got their medication.
"We've seen people start to change after their first shot. In the beginning it's just making sure they have enough rest," said Mitchell.
Mitchell says after four to six weeks of treatment, many clients can improve enough to live in a group home and even permanent housing.
Scott Morishige, the governor's homeless coordinator, said he supports the concept but added the facility should offer services to more people.
"I think there may be a broader need of people who have serious mental illness that may not necessarily be involuntarily committed but may still be in need of a place to stabilize their situation," Morishige said.
The idea passed its first two readings. Its next hearing is set for Friday….
Related: Mental Health: Can Reform Solve Hawaii’s Homeless, Prison and Unfunded Liability Problems?:
read … Effort afoot to create shelter exclusively for homeless with severe mental illness
Deranged Killers Protected by Privacy laws
HNN: …They’ve killed, raped, and grievously injured innocent people.
(The mentally ill are an oppressor class unleashed on society by liberals.)
But when someone behind a violent crime is sent to Hawaii State Hospital, no one, not even the victim, knows when he or she is let out….
Not knowing about someone’s violent past can have deadly consequences. The Alcaraz family didn’t know about Emily Rauschenburg’s history when they took her into their care home.
In 1984, Rauschenburg was arrested for setting a Punchbowl boarding house on fire, killing a man. She was acquitted by reason of insanity and sent to the state hospital. She was eventually released.
Then in 2001, she stabbed her caretaker to death.
“She knew I didn’t like crackers, but she brought the crackers to annoy me,” Rauschenburg said in court in December 2002. “I just lost control, and I picked up the knife, and I stabbed her.”
In that case, Rauschenburg was sentenced to life in prison….
On Feb. 1, 2009, Iwamoto was stabbed 18 times and pushed off the top of the crater. He was in the hospital for a month….
The man who attacked him, Benjamin Davis, was acquitted of attempted murder by reason of insanity and sent to Hawaii State Hospital.
According to court records, in October 2016, the court granted Davis a conditional release, and he was moved from the hospital to a group home off hospital property.
Two weeks ago, the court granted Davis permission to move from the group home to live at his parents’ house, adding salt to Iwamoto’s wounds.
“I didn’t know that my attacker had been released to live with his parents until you told me yesterday,” Iwamoto said….
“His reintegration into society has become more important than public safety, and that is unforgivable,” Iwamoto said.
read … Insane
Feigning Credibility, HGEA Attacks Liberated Maui Hospital System
MN: The ‘head’ of about 800 union workers at Maui Memorial Medical Center said Maui Health System officials need “to step up their game” and start fulfilling “the bill of goods” touted by the private entity to improve former public hospitals on Maui.
(‘Head’ means Executive Dir Randy ‘F-U’ Perreira. The other ‘head’ would be the President, Jackie Ferguson-Miyamoto, mother of the rapist DLNR cop. But I digress.)
Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, said on Wednesday that in the past several weeks, union hospital workers have been reaching out to the union to express concern about inadequate staffing, mainly nurses, along with not having enough supplies or staff support at Maui’s only acute-care hospital….
In response, Maui Health System spokeswoman Chastell Ely said in an email that the hospital operator has “made considerable progress on stabilizing staffing” by recruiting full-time and part-time employees and significantly reducing the use of temporary traveler staffing….
Since July, when the system took over operations, 75 local registered nurses and 47 new graduates have been hired, Ely said.
Prior to that, in July, the hospital had 200 temporary or traveling registered nurses. Now that number is approximately 90, she said….
As for the HGEA, she said Maui Health System began negotiations with the union in early August….
The sticking points for the union, according to Perreira, are the employees’ medical plan, retirement and wages.
Related: Hospital Reform? Randy Perreira Says "F*** You"
read … HGEA nurses disgruntled over Kaiser management
HGEA—The Reason Why Opening A Dialysis Center Takes Years Longer In Hawaii
CB: …in Hawaii, certifying new dialysis centers usually takes about three years. Most other states take nine to 12 months, according to Steve Nottingham, an executive of Fresenius Kidney Care. Fresenius is the parent company of Liberty Dialysis, one of two dialysis center operators in the state.
Inspecting and certifying new dialysis centers isn’t a top priority for the short-staffed Hawaii Department of Health, which inspects facilities on behalf of the federal government. The feds place a higher priority on complaint investigations, for example.
There are 29 dialysis centers statewide, run by either Liberty Dialysis or U.S. Renal Care. Two centers built in 2015, one in Mililani and another Moiliili, are still awaiting certification…
Uncertified facilities are fully stocked but only capable of serving patients with certain commercial health insurance plans — usually obtained through their employers…..
Twelve (HGEA) surveyors are employed by OHCA. Just three or four have received the “highly specialized” training necessary to inspect dialysis centers, said OHCA chief Keith Ridley. A team of two surveyors usually spends four or five days inspecting new dialysis centers, he said.
State surveyors must follow a priority system for inspecting health care facilities. Higher priority inspections include complaint investigations and facilities that haven’t been inspected in a few years. Dialysis centers awaiting a recertification inspection can continue serving patients in the meantime.
Priorities are reset every year, meaning lower priority inspections aren’t always completed and may drop back to the bottom of the list. The state failed to review a single dialysis center in 2014 and 2015….
read … HGEA
Lawmakers scramble to find solutions to head off opioid crisis in Hawaii
HNN: …Hawaii Poison Center figures from 2011 to 2017 show the state below the national average when it comes to most opioid exposure rates, with the exception of Oxycodone, morphine and opioids mixed with aspirin.
"It's just making big jumps from zero to 1 percent, then to 5 percent in one year," said Alan Johnson, executive director of Hina Mauka.
He said some 500,000 pills are prescribed for about a third of the population. "That's huge numbers of over prescribing," he said….
bills would force doctors to use an existing monitoring system to ensure patients aren't getting pills from multiple doctors, and would require warning labels on certain drug bottles. …
read … Lawmakers scramble to find solutions to head off opioid crisis in Hawaii
Star-Adv: Crack Down on Illegal marijuana so our Crony Dispensaries Can have all the Business
SA: …allegations of illegal activity at last weekend’s Hawaii Cannabis Expo has cast a pall — on that event principally, but also, by extension, on the fledgling industry.
The state Narcotics Enforcement Division, part of the Department of Public Safety, is “researching allegations of illegal activities that were said to have occurred” at the event…
Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Kristen Consillio reported on Sunday that some vendors openly distributed cannabis seeds and other products at the Feb. 9-11 event. Some of the exhibitors were “giving away” seeds and asking for certain levels of donations for certain product packages.
This is really unacceptable, and few could agree more than the dispensaries. (LOL!)….
At the Legislature, industry leaders hope to advance refinements to the program, including a push for reciprocity, allowing credentialed patients from out-of-state to purchase medicinal products while in Hawaii. One such measure, House Bill 2729 is set for a hearing before House Finance, 11 a.m. Friday in conference room 308. (So everybody can buy from the crony dispensaries.)….
read … Illegalities would taint medical pot
State rules for Sierra Club in lawsuit over aging military fuel tanks
HNN: …A state judge on Wednesday ruled for the Sierra Club in a lawsuit against the state Health Department over fuel spills near water tanks located beneath Red Hill.
A spokesperson for the environmental advocacy group says Circuit Judge Jeff Crabtree granted the Sierra Club a summary judgement that says a previous exemption that was granted to the Navy for the massive fuel tanks violates state law…..
After repairs on the 2014 leak were finished, the Navy began conducting annual tests on the tanks. The most recent test, which began in November, resulted in passing grades for each of operating tanks beneath Red Hill.
The tests are conducted based on criteria determined by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Navy initially wanted 20 years to retrofit the facility, but Wednesday's ruling will likely force the military into action much sooner, the spokesperson said.
read … State rules for Sierra Club in lawsuit over aging military fuel tanks
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