Full Text: State Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Telescope
Telescope: Cultural Property Ownership Gets You Only One Proceeding
Watch This Before Saturday
Peter Apo: Who Should Replace Me at OHA?
HD43 Republicans Lose Chance to Replace Disqualified Candidate
Waianae Ag Park Heavily Damaged in Brush Fire
Hawaii: First State to Pass CEDAW in All Counties
Hanabusa’s Legislators Against Hawaii County Volcano Recovery Package
HTH: …State legislative leaders, however, are questioning why local lawmakers, such as Rep. Joy San Buenaventura and Sen. Russell Ruderman, Democrats who represent the hardest-hit areas in Puna, haven’t been kept in the loop.
The two lawmakers relayed their concerns to the County Council.
“We all understand the county administration is working as hard as they can,” Ruderman said. “We’ve been locked out of the process, but we have to move forward with all of us moving on one page. … If all of us aren’t on the one page, it’s going to fail.”
Ruderman said the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee asked him why the requests are coming from the county and not the legislative delegation.
“It is horrible to be excluded,” Ruderman said.
San Buenaventura echoed problems with miscommunication. She said she received a call from House Speaker Scott Saiki just before the meeting, asking for details about the $550 million the county is seeking.
“I didn’t even know there was a $550 million ask until I read it in the paper,” San Buenaventura said. “It’s really difficult to answer the questions, to be able to smooth these things through if we don’t know what the heck is going on.”
Kim said the plan is for the benefit of the whole island, which has suffered not only increased expenses for the government and a loss of tax dollars from ruined properties, but also a decrease in tourism because of the closure of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the island’s prime tourist attraction.
“The package is big, the dream is big, but I think it is very necessary,” Kim said.
The funding package includes creation of a redevelopment agency, housing for the displaced, a plan to rebuild affected areas, infrastructure and public facilities and economic development. The county’s goal is to make the island better than it was before the lava flow….
“We’re preparing for the ask of a lifetime,” said county Planning Director Michael Yee, “as that will have lasting impacts for generations to come on this island.” (Yeah. Higher taxes.)
read … Lawmakers want more info about mayor’s $550M recovery plan
Hawaii GOP Financial Position Improves Slightly
CB: …The Hawaii GOP, chaired by Shirlene Ostrov since May 2017, had $81,000 in cash on hand as of July 27 after spending $49,000 during the first seven months of the year, according to its most recent filing with the state Campaign Spending Commission.
That is well above where the party has been in recent elections. The Hawaii GOP had just $10,000 on hand heading into the August 2016 primary after spending $48,000 during the seven months leading up to it. And it had only $19,000 a week before the 2014 primary after spending $25,000 during the same period.
The party did not report giving any money directly to candidates, but it did use the funds to help defray their campaign costs, offer training events and print mailers and booklets. Airfare for Rep. Andria Tupola, the frontrunner in the Republican race for governor, was reimbursed for her to attend party meetings on Maui and the Big Island.
The biggest single expense was $17,591 to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser for a full-page ad about the rail project and other issues last September, according to the campaign finance report….
From Jan. 1 to July 27, the Republican Party reported raising $64,232. Two individual donations accounted for $50,000 of that amount….
The RNC has given the state party about $38,000 since the beginning of 2017, with the biggest single contribution being $17,500 on April 16, according to the Federal Election Commission.
That’s a notable uptick too. In all of 2015 and 2016, the RNC only gave the Hawaii GOP $9,800….
The Democratic Party of Hawaii, by contrast, had $25,131 cash on hand after spending $251,000 from Jan. 1 to July 27. The party raised $268,091 during the same period.
The party’s biggest donors are Friends of Kim Coco ($5,600), Hawaii PAC ($2,750), Tulsi for Hawaii ($3,000), Sen. Josh Green ($2,030), Imanaka Asato LLC ($4,800), SPEC Bank of Hawaii ($2,000), USA Realty Construction Group ($3,000), and $1,000 each from Island Insurance Employees PAC, Alexander & Baldwin Inc. HI PAC, and Mana’Olana Partners Inc. of Los Angeles. Gordon Arakaki of Waipahu gave $1,000 as a state convention sponsorship.
Other sizable donations to the Democratic Party came from Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa’s and Gov. David Ige’s campaigns for governor, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., Lt. Gov. Doug Chin and various unions.
Like the Republicans, the Democratic Party did not make contributions directly to candidates. It mostly spent the money on state and county conventions. It cost $83,000 for the venue and catering at the Hilton Waikoloa Village for the state convention in May….
read … Billionaires Boost Hawaii Republican Party’s Finances
Attorney: Randall Saito got help from visitors at Koolau Clubhouse
KHON: …Attorney Michael Green says Saito was able to get three fake ID's from his visitors. He adds that records from the clubhouse could also help Saito spend less time in prison. (Oh joy.)
The Koolau Clubhouse is a few blocks away from the state hospital, and is a place where patients can go for additional services to hang out and watch TV. Saito's attorney wants the state to show records of who visited Saito at this facility. (There won’t be any.)
"The question who's he meeting with? And if they can't tell me that, (they can’t) I'd like to know if people are searched when they go in there," said Green….
(Answer: They didn’t search anybody at the club house either. The clubhouses are just an HGEA make-work scam.)
A spokeswoman says state hospital patients have not been allowed to go to the Koolau Clubhouse since Saito escaped. It will stay that way until the state finishes its investigation. (But don’t worry. The HGEA members still show up to ‘work’ every day.)
KITV: Hawaii State Hospital is getting a new building
read … Attorney: Randall Saito got help from visitors at Koolau Clubhouse
Ethics board warns against accepting tournament gifts (again)
MN: …Some council members accepted thousands of dollars in tickets last year, with some saying they gave the tickets away to charity or youth groups so they could experience the tournament.
Some council members stopped accepting the gifts after receiving a July 11, 2016, cautionary letter from the Board of Ethics. The board sent that letter to officials who received gifts and asked them to consider whether the gift was meant to influence or reward them. And, if the response were affirmative, the board recommended they decline the gift.
But, after seeing some elected and appointed officials continue to the receive the tournament gifts, the ethics board went further to approve an advisory opinion.
Outside the meeting, Murai said the opinion is purely “advisory” and not a command or order for officials to follow. But he said the board hopes officials will comply. If they don’t, the board could file a complaint.
He noted that the board does not have the power to levy fines or penalties, but it can refer the matter to the Maui County Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for further action, if any….
read … Ethics board warns against accepting tournament gifts
Hypocrisy: After Attempting to Force Pregnancy Centers to Promote Abortion, Planned parenthood Cries Censorship over Cutoff of Funds
HNN: …Health practitioners and government leaders locally and nationally are gearing up for a showdown with the Trump administration over a proposed rule change that would withhold federal funds to family planning clinics that provide information about or refer women seeking an abortion.
Nearly two thirds of the state's family planning services could be impacted by the rule.
"The administration may say it's not a gag rule, it is a gag rule," said Doris Segal Matsunaga, maternal child health director at Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services. "It is a gag rule banning certain speech."
Title X funding provides money for birth control and other family planning services….
read … Hypocrisy
AP, 9th Circuit Team up for New Wave of Pesticide Hysteria
AP: “Court orders EPA to ban pesticide harmful to children’s brains” and “chlorpyrifos, a pesticide initially developed as a nerve gas during World War II.”
IQ Test: Do you believe either of these statements?
What’s really happening? Somebody has a new chemical nd they want to drive chlorpyrifos off the market so they can take the business for themselves.
KGI: “Shift one molecule over and we’re ready to go to war, one molecule over and we’ve got nerve gas”
FactCheck.org: Chlorpyrifos was NOT "initially developed as a nerve gas during World War II"
read … Court orders EPA to ban pesticide harmful to children’s brains
Kauai: No Island Is Immune From The Opioid Scourge
CB: …Today, the Kauai Police Department routinely recovers dirty used syringes and other big-city drug paraphernalia. All manner of prescription pain drugs, like Oxycontin, turn up.
Unsurprisingly, the police and Kauai’s tiny community of treatment providers were the first to notice. Last September, commenting on a rash of suicides — 21 by that time of the year — that clearly constituted an epidemic, police sources said they had started to see a trickle of heroin overdoses….
read … Kauai: No Island Is Immune From The Opioid Scourge
UH Manoa Sociologists – Child Molesters Living in Parks is no Big Deal
CB: 15 paragraphs on why sex offender registries are bad and having child molesters living in parks should be OK. Here are the authors:
…Nick Chagnon is a lecturer and post-doctoral fellow at UH Manoa in the Departments of Sociology and Women's Studies. He teaches criminology and sociology courses, and researches topics such as police reform and gender violence. He is a member of Hawaii J20+….
David T. Johnson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii Manoa. He received his PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California Berkeley and moved to Hawaii in 1997….
IQ Test: Are you surprised to hear this from sociologists?
read … Some Nonsense About Sex Offender Registries
LNG better than oil on Hawaii’s way to 100 percent renewables
SA: What do the islands of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Malta and Japan have in common? They all import liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet their energy needs.
Why? Because they find natural gas as reliable as oil, but also cleaner and cheaper. Using LNG for power generation in Hawaii makes sense for precisely the same reasons.
The Pacific Rim would provide Hawaii’s LNG and currently, it is a buyer’s market. LNG delivered to Oahu, at today’s price, would be 30 percent cheaper than oil. This differential between oil and LNG can be fixed in a long-term fuel supply contract.
We estimate that the savings for customers from having LNG would be about $5 billion over the 20 year life of the import project. The average residential customer would save about $25 a month, with the average commercial user saving about $300 and the average industrial user saving about $35,000 each month.
How is this possible? Natural gas offers benefits that go beyond savings on the cost of fuel. It can help minimize the cost of upgrading the grid to integrate high levels of renewable energy.
Generation that is flexible — which can be ramped up and down quickly, and which can be turned on an off several times a day — is critical to keeping the lights on as more and more wind and solar generation is added to the grid. Oahu’s generation units are old, inefficient and inflexible, and therefore not well-suited to work with the high levels of renewable energy planned….
Meanwhile: Clean Energy Fail: While Most States Clean Up, Hawaii CO2 Emissions Rise Since '08
read … LNG better than oil on Hawaii’s way to 100 percent renewables
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