The Delphi Technique: Let’s Stop Being Manipulated!
OHA Math: Five Plus One Equals Zero
Hawaii Gun Permits Down 24%
Liliha-Nuʻuanu Complete Streets community meeting set
Ige Unveils Security Features Designed to Make it Harder for HGEA Members to Have Sex With Mental Patients or Let Them Escape
Kilauea Caldera Floor Drop Mirrors Run-up to 1924 Eruption
Competing Sunscreen Maker Behind Anti-Sunscreen Petition
PBN: …A petition urging Hawaii Gov. David Ige to sign a bill into law that would prohibit the sale of sunscreens containing certain ingredients found to be harmful to marine life is gaining traction, having garnered close to its goal of 40,000 signatures.
More than 36,000 individuals have signed the online petition as of Wednesday 3 p.m., which was launched by Nova Covington, founder of sunscreen and skincare company Garden Goddess.
(Translation: Ban my competition so I can make more money.)
“Hawaii's legislature is to be congratulated for taking a leading stance on this newly discovered and easily preventable threat – the chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate that are found in most sunscreens (money-making opportunity for meeee)” Covington writes. “Studies (well, actually one non-replicated ‘study’) have shown these chemicals make coral reefs more susceptible to environmental stressors and can even kill them. It's urgent that we remove these chemicals from our oceans (because I neeed mo’ money).”….
Meanwhile: Resident chronicles underwater damage (caused by mud, not sunscreen) in Hanalei Bay
read … Screaming Conflict of Interest
Big Island Bookings Down 50% due to Volcano Hype
WHT: …Tourism was bound to slow as Hawaii Volcanoes National Park remains closed because of safety concerns. The island’s most lucrative attraction, the park draws 2 million visitors annually and generates more than $150 million.
Several news outlets reported earlier this week that the island already had lost $5 million in tourism to the downturn caused by volcanic activity.
In actuality, it’s worse.
Birch said the $5 million figure applies strictly to lost lodging and activity company profits from May through June.
He surveyed roughly 110 accommodations and 60 activity companies to generate the figure, and $5 million is what he’s compiled with only 20-25 percent of those surveyed currently reporting.
“That’s just direct impact of the initial cancellations that we’ve seen,” Birch explained. “As long as there are sensationalized messages going on out there, we’ll expect this (trend) to continue.”
The more troubling development, Birch said, are reports that reservations for lodging and activity companies have dropped by 50 percent for June-August. Along with December-February, the summer stretch makes up for the year’s highest rate of tourist traffic….
read … Hysteria
Resort Fees Caused by High TAT
HNO: … The year was 2016. Hawaii hotels had begun adding a Resort Fee to their guest’s final bills. An article entitled:” The big Hawaii hotel conspiracy, tax evasion”, was reported by eTurboNews in August 2016 ….
Related: Reactionary Reaction to Resort Fees
read … Tax Evasion
New Super PAC With Pro-Rail Ties Emerges In Hawaii Elections
CB: …Joshua Magno, of the pro-rail Pacific Resource Partnership consortium of contractors, recently formed All Hawaii Stand Together, a political action committee that can spend unlimited amounts of money swaying voters in the 2018 elections.
The group, which registered April 30 with the Campaign Spending Commission, has not identified what races it may try to influence but if, as PRP has done in the past, it taps the resources of the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, it would be a formidable political player. PRP represents the carpenters council along with 240 contractors….
Aside from Hanabusa, the carpenters union donated thousands of dollars last year to the campaigns of Caldwell and Honolulu City Council members Ron Menor, Brandon Elefante, Ikaika Anderson, Trevor Ozawa, Joey Manahan and Kymberly Pine; Senate President Ron Kouchi and Sens. Michelle Kidani, Lorraine Inouye, Donna Kim, Gil Keith-Agaran and Kai Kahele; and Hawaii House candidate Tracy Arakaki, who lost a 2016 bid for an Aiea seat by 37 votes….
read … New Super PAC With Pro-Rail Ties Emerges In Hawaii Elections
Don’t Let The Mayor Pick Honolulu’s Top Cop
CB: …The Honolulu City Council is foolishly considering transferring hiring-and-firing authority from the independent Police Commission to the political office of mayor…..
Under Resolution 17-308, the mayor would have the power to hire and fire the police instead of the seven-member Honolulu Police Commission. If approved by the council and the mayor, the issue will go before voters this November.
This is a bad idea, one that attempts to fix something that is not (because it is no longer) broken, at least not anymore. It could also (is intended to) reverse significant progress that has been made to restore public trust in local law enforcement….
read … Don’t Let The Mayor Pick Honolulu’s Top Cop
Candidate: Sexual Harassment Requires Action Now
CB: …As a longtime constituent of former Rep. Joseph Souki and the only woman running for the seat he held, I’d like to comment on the news that the Hawaii House of Representatives is forming a working group on sexual harassment.
Prior to this action, I started an online petition to request that the state House immediately reform its policies on sexual harassment.
As pointed out by the Civil Beat Editorial Board, the existing policies are outdated and inadequate, partly because they deny victims multiple avenues of complaint.
While I’m glad House leadership is now taking this issue seriously, it shouldn’t take a great deal of time and effort to enact commonsense reforms. I stand by my call for prompt action and urge sitting legislators and candidates for office to join me.
read … Petition
Toxic Lot In Maili May Finally Get Cleaned Up
CB: …PCBs have been awaiting cleanup for years at a contaminated lot near a residential neighborhood in West Oahu….
A town hall meeting organized by Rep. Andria Tupola is scheduled for Thursday to provide up-to-date information on the planned clearing of the land. Health Department and U.S. Coast Guard officials will also be there to answer community member’s questions.
“This is going to be the full disclosure of the plan and that they’re already going to start removing the contaminated area,” Tupola said.
The meeting will be held at the Kamehameha Schools Learning Center at Maili from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m….
read … Toxic Lot In Maili May Finally Get Cleaned Up
When will UH Face Next Athletic Dept Disaster?
SA: …Through an NCAA investigation, a costly series of contract buyouts and escalating debt, the University of Hawaii has increasingly sought to calculate a proper level of Board of Regents oversight of athletics.
At a school where, over the years, some regents have been up to their elbows in athletics and others have been content to collect free tickets and stay far in the background, it is a question that has hung over sports in Manoa practically since the Board of Athletic Control was phased out in the late 1940s.
Now, the current regents take their swing at divining the so-far elusive formula on a couple of fronts at Friday’s monthly meeting….
What emerges will hopefully culminate a nearly six-year search to forge a formal statement of intent….
DP: The recall campaign has criticized Persky for letting Gunderson leave the state to play football for the University of Hawaii without notifying the state of Hawaii.
read … UH Regents seeking to find proper balance in oversight
Caldwell’s War on Lime a Quagmire
CB: In the first four days after a fleet of white, black, and lime-colored electric scooters suddenly materialized on the streets of Honolulu, the rental company that put them there — Lime — reports there were more than 3,500 rides.
Those numbers make Honolulu the highest-performing market out of Lime’s 60 locations so far, officials with the San Matteo, California-based company say
That’s also despite the city impounding about 90 of the scooters as of Tuesday morning, according to Lime.
“This kind of company coming in from out of state, disrespecting the laws that we have in place — I find that outrageous,” Mayor Kirk Caldwell fumed during in interview with Hawaii News Now on Monday….
SA: Rental scooters can’t flout rules
read … Quagmire
Schatz Leads Efforts to Punish Homosexual Rapists in Prison
SA: A few years ago, I received a harrowing series of letters from a man serving time in Halawa Correctional Facility in Honolulu. The man, whom I will refer to as Joseph, was desperate. He had been sexually assaulted twice, he said, each time by a different officer. When he tried to report the abuse, Joseph wrote, staff punished him severely. One of his letters included photos of his bloodied face — apparent payback for “snitching.”
Joseph’s story is depressingly common. Every year, 200,000 people are sexually abused in U.S. prisons, jails and youth detention facilities. Historically, this violence has been low on the list of national priorities. But a dramatic shift is underway. Advocates fighting to stop this violence, many survivors themselves, are being heard, including by leaders on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii has become one of Congress’ most outspoken champions of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)….
the fight is far from over; fortunately, work is already underway to get PREA funded in 2019 as well. And Schatz is leading a parallel effort to ensure the safety of detainees in immigration facilities, who are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse….
read … Bipartisan drive to end prison rapes includes Hawaii senator
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