The Biggest Fruit Ever Grown in Hawaii
Ige: Hawaii Doesn’t Need Hanabusa’s ‘Backroom Deals’
CB: The governor says legislative leaders who now support Colleen Hanabusa are using their political power to manipulate the voters….
But Ige said disagreements he currently has with his former colleagues “is not so much about leadership but about politics, and the manipulation and expression of power. This election is about character and the fight is between those who would return to the old days of doing things and the attendant backroom dealings.”
The governor was responding to Civil Beat’s story Thursday that Senate President Ron Kouchi, House Speaker Scott Saiki, Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz and House Finance Committee Chair Sylvia Luke signed a fundraising letter on Colleen Hanabusa’s campaign letterhead….
“When one refuses to do the backroom deals there is a natural reaction to remove the one who refuses to deal,” he said in a statement Friday to Civil Beat. “The public needs to have and demands to have a transparent government, not one based on ‘cutting a political deal.’ If that is leadership, then deal me out. The people of this state deserve more, much more.”…
But the timing of the letter — in the middle of a legislative session — as well as the fact that top leaders in both chambers are aggressively working to depose a sitting governor in their own party’s primary is unusual….
The letter also raises questions about whether the four lawmakers, whose signatures included their titles prominently displayed, might have violated state law.
Hawaii’s fair treatment statute reads, “No legislator or employee shall use or attempt to use the legislator’s or employee’s official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment, for oneself or others.” …
Speaker Saiki declined to comment on whether the fair treatment law may have been violated. He also had no comment on whether the endorsement might damage working relations between the Legislature and the governor….
President Kouchi did not respond to an inquiry Friday.
Asked for comment on the fundraising letter, Hanabusa spokesman Keith DeMello said, “We’re grateful these respected leaders of the Hawaii Legislature are willing to give of their personal time to express support and confidence in Colleen Hanabusa.”…
Related:
read … Ige Fires Back: Hawaii Doesn’t Need ‘Backroom Deals’
Ige meets with leader of homeless Meth Addicts Tent City (again)
SA: …Friday’s meeting is certain to raise expectations about what, if anything, Ige plans to do about Pu‘uhonua o Waianae as state officials and Twinkle Borge, leader of the encampment, continue to tour state-owned sites along the Leeward Coast that might serve as a new home for the people of Pu‘uhonua o Waianae. At last count, Pu‘uhonua o Waianae organizers said, there were 169 (meth-addicted) people and 148 dogs (excuses) in 133 campsites on the property (no cats?)….
read … Ige meets with leader of homeless camp
Fake Satellite Launch Company Could Pretend to Build Anywhere in Hawaii and Score $25M Free Money
BIVN: The Senate Committee on Ways and Means (WAM) amended the language for a Special Purpose Revenue Bond (SPRB) to assist SpinLaunch, Inc. with the construction of a satellite launch system in HB2559 so it is no longer site specific. The bill initially recommended SpinLaunch, Inc. would construct a satellite launch system on the Island of Hawai‘i. At a hearing on March 29, the WAM Committee changed the measure to allow for the construction of a launch facility “in an unspecified area in Hawai‘i.”…
Sen. Wakai (what is he getting for this???) will be joining Moku O Keawe Aha Moku O Ka’u in a community meeting on April 14, 2018 at 10:00 at the Na’alehu Community Center to discuss the intent of the bill.
A special purpose revenue bond is a bond authorized by the Hawai‘i Legislature to assist a business to build a project in the public interest. The bonds do not use any public funds and the state is not liable to pay back the debt (until the company goes bankrupt). SPRBs are not grants or subsidies (Double lie—this is a grant of subsidized lending terms.)…. This is a financing option to allow a business to get a lower interest rate (See!)….
LINK: Senate Democratic Caucus News Release
Reality:
read … State senate amends bill for satellite launch facility after opposition from Ka‘u residents
30 Year History Shows Republican Tax Cuts are the Only Thing That Reduces Big Island Electric Rates
HELCO: Hawai‘i Electric Light customers will see lower electric bills if a rate adjustment proposal submitted to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is approved.
The proposal will lower the typical bill for a Hawai‘i Island residential customer using 500 kilowatt hours by $4.97 a month. The effective date of the new rate will be determined by the PUC.
Changes in federal tax law reduced Hawai‘i Electric Light’s corporate tax bill. In January, the company announced it planned to pass on the savings to customers….
The company made similar rate reductions in 1987 (Reagan) and 1989 (Bush I) following changes to federal tax law….
read … Proposed tax cut may provide savings for HELCO customers
Inspecting the Restaurant Inspectors
HPR: …The Department of Health has conducted 26,000 restaurant inspections since the program began and has only had to issue the red “Closed” placard six times.
The restaurant owners we spoke with feel the public notification has helped the industry improve. In 2014, inspectors found a violation rate of 30 percent. As of 2017, it’s down to 16 percent….
read … Inspecting the Restaurant Inspectors
Maui County to Appeal Injection Well Ruling to Supreme Court
MN: While Maui County is pursuing projects to reuse its wastewater, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the county’s request for a full-panel review of its Feb. 1 decision that the county violated the Clean Water Act by pumping treated wastewater into injection wells at its Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility since the early 1980s….
The county will appeal the 9th Circuit’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, Communications Director Rod Antone said Friday….
read … 9th Circuit rejects county’s request to reconsider ruling
Trump Admin Abandons Obama Effort to Seat Trannies in Hawaii School Bathrooms
HP: In January, HuffPost broke the news that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights was refusing to investigate these types of complaints. A month later, the Trump administration publicly discussed the protocol shift.
HuffPost has learned exclusive details about the students who are being left behind in the wake of this policy change.
There are at least four bathroom-related cases throughout the country, including Curts’, that have been dismissed by the Trump administration amid this policy change. In response to these claims ― which deal with school districts in Hawaii, Michigan, Texas and Florida ― the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) specifically told the complainant that the agency was no longer obligated to investigate instances of bathroom discrimination involving transgender students. The Trump administration contends that the federal education law dealing with sex discrimination does not cover gender identity.
…At least three school districts around the country are continuing to enforce potentially hostile restroom policies for (not elevating) transgender students (to the status of superior beings) after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights refused to investigate student complaints, HuffPost has learned. …
The last school, in Hawaii, did not get back to HuffPost with clarification on what current policy looks like by press time, but a representative from the Hawaii Department of Education pointed to district guidelines calling on schools to give students access to facilities consistent with their gender identities. …
read … HuffPo
Marshallese in Hawaii struggling with poverty, according to new report
SA: …An estimated 11.2 percent of Hawaii’s 1.4 million residents live in poverty.
Pacific islanders have the highest unemployment rates and among the lowest per capita incomes.
Marshallese are the worst off, with more than half living in poverty and 16.9 percent jobless. The population, with the largest average household size at 16 people, had the lowest median household income at $32,650 and per capita income of $5,963 from 2011 to 2015, according to a report released this week by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, which studied the top 14 ethnic groups in the islands….
read … Marshallese in Hawaii struggling with poverty, according to new report
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