Lava Suits Begin as Lloyd's Denies Claims
Tupola: "Let's Give Displaced Families Something They Can Count On"
Seeking Applicants for Independent Grand Jury Counsel – Fifth Circuit (Kauai)
Ige Appoints Jon Yoshimura to Espero's Senate Seat
Poll: Ige 43% -- Hanabusa 34%
CB: Buoyed by support from moderates and Japanese-Americans, Gov. David Ige has surged ahead of Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa in the latest Civil Beat Poll.
Ige had 43 percent support from likely voters, compared to 34 percent for Hanabusa. That’s a 15-percentage point swing from Civil Beat’s May poll, when Ige trailed Hanabusa by 6 percent.
The most recent poll was conducted July 19-21 among 871 likely voters in the Aug. 11 Democratic primary. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percent….
In the May poll, Hanabusa had 33 percent of the support from Japanese-American voters compared to Ige’s 35 percent and Hee’s 11 percent. In the July poll, Ige’s support surged to 55 percent compared to 26 percent for Hanabusa.
Ige held sizable leads across all ethnic groups aside from Hawaiians, a small voting bloc that Hanabusa led by 11 percent, and whites, in which she had just a 1 percent advantage….
read … Poll: Ige Ahead Of Hanabusa In Hawaii Governor’s Race
Poll: Tupola 39% – Carroll 22%
CB: …In the Republican primary race, state Rep. Andria Tupola has a strong lead over former state lawmaker John Carroll. She gathered 39 percent of the support among likely GOP voters compared to 22 percent for Carroll.
Ray L’Heureux, a former state Department of Education assistant superintendent, trails with 4 percent. Nearly 22 percent were still unsure about who to support in the Republican primary.
Tupola does far better than the other two candidates in every ethnic category and leads among moderates and conservatives. Carroll has a 1 percent lead over Tupola among liberal voters.
The Republican poll is based on a survey of 219 likely voters in the GOP primary and has a margin of error of 6.6 percent. It was conducted July 19-21. This is Civil Beat’s first poll of the GOP candidates.
In a Honolulu Star-Advertiser poll in March, Carroll led Tupola with 40 percent to her 28 percent and 32 percent were undecided. In the newspaper’s July poll, Tupola had taken the lead, with 41 percent support from likely primary voters to Carroll’s 28 percent….
PDF: GOP Poll Results
read … Poll of Republicans
LG Poll: Green 31% – Tokuda 17%
CB: … With 31 percent of likely Democratic primary voters saying they would vote for the Big Island senator, Green was well ahead of the rest of the five-candidate field, according to a Civil Beat poll.
Oahu Sen. Jill Tokuda was a distant second, with 17 percent.
Lagging Green and Tokuda were Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., with 13 percent, former Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto, with 10 percent, and state Sen. Will Espero, with 5 percent. About 25 percent of those polled were undecided….
read … Josh Green Is Far Out Front In The LG Race
Caldwell criticizes Hanabusa’s HART role
SA: …Hanabusa…failed to control the exploding cost of rail while she led HART…. Hanabusa left HART at a critical time just as the search for a new executive director was getting underway. Hanabusa resigned from the authority in late 2016 after she decided to run for Congress….
“When I appointed Congresswoman Hanabusa to the HART board, and she went on to become the chair of the board, I expected her to get better control of the construction costs for rail, and that did not occur under her,” Caldwell said. “In fact, construction costs went up. That’s the simple, bottom-line fact.”…
Hanabusa “pushed and aided and abetted” a flawed plan by state lawmakers to use hotel room taxes to help pay for rail instead of extending for an extra year the half-percent excise tax for rail. Caldwell said that plan has now left city taxpayers responsible for $348 million in unfunded rail costs.
“The only way we’re going to raise that kind of money is we’re going to have to look at either raising real property taxes or cutting core services,” he said….
Hanabusa joined the HART board in 2015, and by mid-2016 the price tag for building the 20-mile elevated rail line had climbed again to more than $8 billion. HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas resigned in August 2016, and Hanabusa stepped down Oct. 28, 2016….
read … Caldwell criticizes Hanabusa’s HART role
HCCC warden called to court to answer for erroneous release of murder suspect
HTH: Peter Cabreros, warden for the correctional center, was ordered by Judge Melvin Fujino to “show cause” on Aug. 9. The order comes after Brian Lee Smith was mistakenly released from the facility on July 24. The Department of Public Safety and Hawaii County prosecutors were unaware of the release until Thursday….
This is at least the second time this year Cabreros has been ordered before a 3rd Circuit Court judge in Kona to explain why a prisoner was released earlier than intended.
In March, Cabreros appeared before Judge Robert D.S. Kim with the Department of Public Safety’s attorney general Michelle Agsalda to address Kim’s concerns of the early releases of Adam Glassbrook, Tandi Ezzo and Ryan Wiles.
During the hearing, Kim questioned the warden about the early release of Glassbrook. In this case, bail was reduced to $2,500 and Glassbrook was ordered to appear in court on Feb. 22.
However, the defendant was released without posting bail.
Agsalda stated to Kim during the March hearing that HCCC takes full responsibility for the release. There were two additional offenses that weren’t inputted in the system, resulting in Glassbrook’s release….
In November of 2016, Ezzo was sentenced to one year in jail and was to be released into inpatient drug treatment. That didn’t happen.
He was released early. Agsalda told the court he was released early because he had accrued 90 days credit for time served, which was the correct move, according to DPS.
However, according to the court, a judge had put Ezzo’s case back on deferral, specifically stating no credit for time served.
“Even when the deferral is revoked and placed back on probation, the credit for time served for all time would apply,” Agsalda stated to the court.
Wiles’ case was also discussed. Facing repeated drug-related offenses, the special conditions to his release were modified by a judge in April of 2017.
Wiles was to serve one year jail with credit for time served of 30 days and early release into residential treatment.
Wiles was released early and not accepted into treatment….
read … UPW Incompetence
Photographer challenges Hawaii Taser ban on 2nd Amendment grounds
HNN: …A recent federal appeals court ruling struck down restrictions on who is allowed to openly carry a firearm in Hawaii.
But the attorneys who helped secure that decision are also taking aim at Hawaii's law that bans civilians from owning stun guns and Tasers.
Photographer Andrew Namiki Roberts wants to carry a Taser along with his pricey gear when he goes out on shoots.
The Kapahulu resident filed a lawsuit in federal court in April after the Honolulu Police Department told him that it's illegal for anyone to possess electronic arms, including stun guns and tasers. Only law enforcement and military members assisting civil authorities are allowed to have them.
"A Taser outside of the home would provide a way to defend myself, defend my property. I'm a photographer so I'm often carrying expensive equipment, which is a high target for crime," Namiki Roberts said.
State Sen. Karl Rhoads said he understands why some people may want the devices for protection in their homes, but he doesn't think it's a good idea to allow citizens to carry them around….
read … Photographer challenges Hawaii Taser ban on 2nd Amendment grounds
Homeless Criminals and Drug Addicts Returning to Nimitz Freeway Camp and Pearl Harbor Bike Path
HNN: …Since the last crackdown, homeless campers have erected more than a dozen shelters and tents along Diamond Head side of the stream, behind the city's Keehi Refuse Transfer Station.
Some of the shelters were built on makeshift docks on the mangroves, with one camper even opting to park a boat next to his home.
"(There's) lot of rubbish, a lot of smell," said Michael Allen, a foreman at a nearby business.
"It's like you clean your cupboards and put down your baits and kick out all your ants and roaches out, but they always find their spot to build their nest again,"
Allen said.
In the last year, he said there have rubbish fires and stolen equipment in the area, as a result of the homeless resettlement.
Allen said things initially improved after the city conducted a sweep last June, which took away more than 150 tons of garbage and refuse….
…officials say there are plans for in motion for another sweep in August….
read … Moanalua residents dismayed after homeless return to after city sweep
ATM Robber Arrested – Was Already in Jail
SA: …Prosecutors charged this afternoon with first-degree robbery a teenager who was the subject of a CrimeStoppers bulletin and seen robbing at gunpoint a man on July 19 at an ATM in Makiki. (Near the Alder St Detention Center.)
Police arrested the suspect, a 17-year-old boy, at 9:40 a.m. today on suspicion of first-degree robbery in Honolulu.
The teenager was already in custody at the Alder Street detention facility for youths for a previous offense. (Was he in detention there on July 19th?????)
The male suspect was caught on a surveillance camera approaching a man at 4:15 a.m. with a handgun and demanded money. The victim fled to a nearby gas station.
An off-duty police officer intervened, and the suspect fled on a moped….
read … 17-year-old boy charged in gunpoint robbery at Honolulu ATM
Convicted Mortgage Scammer Wants to Rewrite Hawaii DoE Curriculum to Ease the Con
HPR: …Every public high schooler in Hawaiʻi is required to take a semester of Modern Hawaiian History. The course typically covers what happend following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, beginning with American annexation in 1898 – an event this scholar says never happened.
“So when I may first say that, people will be shocked,” says Dr. Keanu Sai, a political science professor at the University of Hawaiʻi.
Dr. Sai completed his doctoral dissertation in 2011. (UH degree is worth how much if Sai has one?) In it, he argues Hawaiʻi is illegally occupied by the United States….
Last summer, Dr Sai’s research got the attention of the National Education Association or NEA, who acknowledge Hawai’i’s history of prolonged illegal occupation at their annual gathering….
(Translation: The fish rots from the head.)
Reality: Sovereignty Mortgage Scammer Keanu Sai at it again with help from Legislators, Maui Council, University
read … Help Keanu Sai Make A Buck
Snorkel Rentals Kill: 383 Deaths from Drowning in Four Years
MN: …Battalion Chief Kevin McAfee and other members of the ocean safety team will be on hand to talk about drowning prevention efforts in Maui County in an effort to battle the fifth leading cause of fatal injuries in Hawaii, drowning.
Drowning is the leading cause of fatal injuries for visitors, the Department of Health said. From 2013 to ’17, there have been 383 deaths from ocean drowning in Hawaii.
Ocean-related activities are the second most common cause of spinal cord injuries in Hawaii with 80 percent of these injuries involving visitors….
read … Snorkel safety event planned in Kaanapali today
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