Sierra Club Endorses Ige for Reelection
Kakaako Senate Race: HSTA, Moriwaki Co-Sponsor Homelessness Forum
Election Officials Mail Absentee Ballots to Voters Affected by Lava
HPD: We Need Institutionalization to Help Honolulu’s Mentally Ill
CB: …The Honolulu Police Department is planning to overhaul the way it trains officers to respond to people in crisis.
And a new report by a collaboration of police and health care agencies reveals that one-fifth of citizens who come into contact with a police officer consulting with a psychologist go on to become involved in at least two, and as many as 20, additional police encounters.
The report’s conclusion: people with severe mental illness aren’t getting the help they need.
“There aren’t adequate beds, there aren’t adequate treatment programs and then at that point it just becomes a revolving door,” said Michael Christopher, a police psychologist who leads the Honolulu Emergency Psychological Services and Jail Diversion Program. “Often these people go back on the street. We are keeping them out of jail but we’re not helping them get better.” ….
In May, police responded to a 38-year-old man with an arsenal of loaded weapons in a Waikiki hotel room. Officers seized the man’s guns, which he possessed legally, and transported him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. The man’s psychiatric medication was found on the scene.
About two weeks later, police found the man in another hotel room with a sword, according to Deputy Police Chief John McCarthy.
McCarthy points to this as a dramatic, but not uncommon, example of a systematic failure to provide those who are sickest with adequate help.
In the first half of 2017, more than 200 people who were assisted by a police officer working with a psychologist were taken to the hospital involuntarily two or more times, according to the report.
Each time a mental health intervention falls short, research shows the person becomes sicker and more likely to engage in serious criminal behavior.
“We’re going to get back to the point where they are institutionalized at some point,” McCarthy said. “We almost have no choice because these people cannot function in the so-called free world — its just a matter of when and at what cost.”… (EXCELLENT IDEA!)
Although 60 percent of everyone arrested by HPD last year suffered from serious mental illness or severe substance abuse, just 2 percent of all people who interface with a police officer working with a psychologist have been arrested since 2007….
read … Law Enforcement’s Struggle To Help Honolulu’s Mentally Ill
Puna: Bumbling Scott Nago Gives Hanabusa an Issue to Exploit
KITV: …The Office of Elections is mailing early absentee ballots, and encouraging voters to cast ballots in other early walk-in locations such as Hilo, Kona, Pahala and Kamuela.
However, Hanabusa said these current plans are not enough, and make it difficult for people to vote.
She called on the Office of Elections to find a clear location to host voters in the area both before, and on the day of the primary….
read … Hanabusa calls for protection of Puna voters
McDermott: The Problem is Illegal Immigration
HNN: Two prominent Hawaii voices from opposing sides of the immigration issue weigh in on how it affects people here in Hawaii.
While both rep Bob McDermott and Hawaii ACLU director Joshua Wisch agrees separating children from their parents is a bad idea, they dont necessarily agree on who's to blame.
"The cause of it is illegal immigration." said Rep McDermott. "My wife's an immigrant she came here legally. so the problem is parents taking their children but they get arrested and separated"
Rep McDermott adds that Hawaii is a melting pot full of immigrants, and that those who are opposed to illegal immigration get falsely labeled as racist.
"It doesn’t affect us locally other than the political rhetoric dividing our community more than it is," he added.
Wisch says that the Hawaii ACLU has not had any reports of people being directly affected here in Hawaii….
read … Two opposing Hawaii voices weigh in on immigration issue
Developer questioned on number of affordable units in its Ala Moana project
SA: …At a public hearing on the project held Wednesday by the Department of Planning and Permitting, a representative for union Unite Here Local 5 questioned the claim that Avalon was providing 90 affordable units, pointing out that 31 of the units are targeted for those making up to 140 percent of area median income. The city’s proposed Ala Moana Transit Oriented Development plan, which is before the Council, defines affordable units as those aimed for people making up to 120 percent AMI….
read … Developer questioned on number of affordable units in its Ala Moana project
NELHA: One Subsidized Failure Morphs into Another
SA: …NELHA said it expects to desalinate water at a cost that’s 40 percent less than current state-of-the-art technology, where electricity can account for up to half of a desalination plant’s operating expenses.
The project will produce fresh water for NELHA tenant Cyanotech Corp., a company that grows microalgae in ponds and makes nutritional supplements.
Other partners in the project are California-based water purification firm Trevi Systems Inc. and local freshwater think tank Hawaii First Water LLC.
The system is designed to produce 130,000 gallons of fresh water daily and will test the energy efficiency and durability of forward osmosis filter membranes from Trevi.
If the project succeeds, it could be scaled up as a new commercial technology, according to the Department of Energy.
(It won’t work. Its just who these people are.)
The endeavor, dubbed the Hawaii SunShot Desal Project, is one of 14 proposals recently funded by the federal agency, which awarded a total of $21 million to projects in 11 states to advance desalination technology.
Under the Hawaii grant award, NELHA and its partners expect to contribute $2.3 million toward the project — $1.3 million from Trevi, $800,000 from NELHA and $200,000 from Cyanotech.
Barbour said winning the award is important for desalination technology and allows the state to make use of a failed $20 million photovoltaic system that was privately financed but also received state tax credits….
HNN: Desalination has largely been abandoned in Hawaii. But that's about to change
read … State to harness idle solar farm for fresh water
Military details $1 billion radar on Oahu to detect possible missiles
SA: …A $1 billion radar to track what are expected to be increasingly complex ballistic and hypersonic missile threats to Hawaii may be positioned high on Kaena Point….
read … Military details $1 billion radar on Oahu to detect possible missiles
Election News:
Volcano News:
QUICK HITS: