With Daddy up on Drug Charges, Hawaii County Councilmember Suddenly Tries to Join 'Hawaiian Kingdom'
CATO: Hawaii 2nd-Least Free State in USA
Direct Impact? Hurricane Lane to Hit Oahu Friday
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UH Tourism Logic: Too Many Visitors to Mauna Kea so We Close the Office on Sundays
State: We don't have enough shelter space for everyone
HNN: …Hawaii doesn't have enough hurricane shelter space to meet the "estimated demand" of the population.
That was the conclusion of a state report issued earlier this year identifying the hazards that the islands face and how to handle them….
"We do not have enough shelters for everyone," said Tom Travis, head of Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency, at a news conference Tuesday. "If you're not in a flood zone, most citizens should remain in their homes. If you are in a flood zone, you should actively seek shelters elsewhere."
The state report issued earlier this year said that while Hawaii has a population of about 1.4 million people, there are only 277,376 available shelter spaces.
Here's the island-by-island breakdown:
Oahu: 182,797 shelter spaces
Big Island: 36,539 shelter spaces
Kauai: 17,395 shelter spaces
Maui: 40,645 shelter spaces
"It's obvious there aren't enough shelters," said Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, after the report was issued. "If you have a home you can shelter in, it's probably better to stay at home."
And while most hurricane shelters are in public schools, emergency officials say some of those buildings might not be strong enough to withstand disaster.
To address the lack of shelter space, the state has urged residents to harden their homes….
read … State: We don't have enough shelter space for everyone
Cat 5 Hurricane Coming—Homeless Drug Addicts Still Refuse Shelter
CB: …State homeless coordinator Scott Morishige joined outreach workers on Sand Island near Honolulu Harbor on Tuesday afternoon to warn people about the storm and encourage them to go to homeless shelters.
“A lot of the people we’ve talked to so far say they’re going to play it by ear,” Morishige said. “Not all of them are 100 percent sure that a storm is going to come.” (And they’re tweekers so we must trust their valuable and considered judgment.)
“Should need be we can deploy, we’ve been told, about 10 buses to go to communities where we know the homeless reside,” Caldwell said, adding shelters “probably need to be pet friendly because many homeless will not leave their area without their pets.”
City officials are looking at schools on Oahu’s west side that could be used to shelter homeless people during the storm. (Go West, Young Bum!)
Twenty-eight children who live at a large homeless camp near the Waianae Boat Harbor were sent to stay in homes of relatives or friends, Twinkle Borge, the camp’s leader, said Tuesday.
About 200 adults who live in the camp plan to remain, Borge said. Many are securing their tents, some using cars or trucks as weights to tie the tents down. Borge picked up 10 days’ worth of food, water and propane for herself and others who live at the encampment.
Two years ago, homeless people who live at the boat harbor evacuated during a tsunami warning and returned to find their possessions stolen (by other tweekers), Borge said….
HNN: Residents of Waianae homeless camp say they're staying put through Lane
read … Helping The Homeless To Survive A Hurricane
Elle Cochran is no friend of affordable housing
MN: Mayoral candidate Elle Cochran told the Kula forum that “you can’t build your way out of a housing shortage.”
I first heard this particular piece of wisdom from the NIMBY organization Maui Tomorrow. The housing shortage results from a lack of affordable homes. Simple supply and demand. If you don’t build new homes, where do they come from? Do they fall from the sky?
Given her anti-housing record, expect more of the same from a Mayor Cochran. She has rarely seen a housing development she could support. Despite a severe affordable housing shortage in West Maui, she spent years resisting a 70-unit Kahoma affordable housing project that included Habitat for Humanity and Na Hale O Maui. Wisely, the County Council didn’t follow her lead and the project is now being built.
A sadder case is Dave Spee’s 50-unit affordable senior housing project in Paia. Spee — a local businessman — proposed the much-needed project on Baldwin Avenue in accordance with the county’s plan for Paia. But continuous, dubious NIMBY opposition led by Tiare Lawrence and Cochran turned the council’s mood negative and stalled it. Meanwhile, the county is spending $20 million to build a similar but smaller project at Kulamalu. Spee’s project would have added to our affordable housing inventory at no cost to the taxpayers….
read … Elle Cochran is no friend of affordable housing
Ruggles booted from Aug 21 Council meeting for refusing to vote
HTH: …Puna Councilwoman Jen Ruggles was twice asked to leave council committee meetings Tuesday, after she abruptly announced she would not be voting because of her concerns about Native Hawaiian sovereignty and whether her votes constitute war crimes.
Ruggles, who formally leaves office in December after dropping her re-election bid in June, left Kona council chambers following tense exchanges with Corporation Counsel Joe Kamelamela and Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung.
Other council members seemed flustered by the unexpected departure from the agenda during a day that would have otherwise been taken up with routine matters. That business took a backseat several times, as Ruggles and Kamelamela debated about whether she had a right to participate in the meeting if she refused to vote.
After being excused early in the day, Ruggles returned two hours later, only to again be told she can’t sit at the dais as long as she refused to vote.
At issue for Ruggles is a letter (convicted felon and mortgage scammer) Keanu Sai of the Kingdom of Hawaii sent to elected officials…..
Related: With Daddy up on Drug Charges, Hawaii County Councilmember Suddenly Tries to Join 'Hawaiian Kingdom'
read … Ruggles booted from Aug 21 Council meeting for refusing to vote
Hooser: My Regressive progressives Believe the world is burning -- literally
KGI: …Progressives believe the world is burning, both literally and figuratively. They believe climate change is a disaster that is happening here and now…
Progressives see the massive economic disparity between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, as criminal, and a reality resulting in millions of people on every continent being locked into a dehumanizing poverty.
Progressives see the status quo as a con game being run by corporate oligarchs who control big business and big government, who convince the masses they are free and independent citizens all the while luring them into a culture of unbridled consumerism resulting in their perpetual dependence on banks, credit cards, (MMA fighters, surf Nazis) PayDay lenders and student loan institutions….
Progressives know that the corporate message is one of carefully crafted deceit intended to perpetuate their profits, while they pillage and poison our health and our planet. (Funny, this is exactly what Hooser did to Kauai and Maui.)
Progressives will decry the fact that America is the largest arms (and Superferry) dealer on the planet and advocate loudly against the obscene amounts of money spent on missiles, bombs, and tanks, to the detriment of schools, hospitals, and homes….
Progressives refuse to accept the status quo and need no further evidence to know that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. Progressives know that the answer is for everyday people to organize together and to take back control of our government from the corporate interests that now run the show.
Progressives know that it does not have to be this way and that other countries and other civil societies do in fact exercise citizen control over the polluters and the banks. (Venezuela, North Korea ….)
Progressives know that in many countries, health care is seen as a fundamental right and is provided to those in need regardless of their ability to pay.
Progressives know that in many countries the government tightly regulates the chemical industry and prohibits the use of a wide range of pesticides and other chemicals, with no detrimental impacts to their economy or to the food supply (and yet, somehow these other countries still burn their fields to harvest the sugar….)
Reality: Hawaii’s regressive “progressives”
read … believe the world is burning, both literally and figuratively
State voter rolls need updating
SA: …Each year I call the voter registration office to notify it of the discrepancy. Each year I am told to return the card with a note on it saying they are no longer registered in this state. Then each year I go to the polls and sure enough, I find their names still on our register.
Each year I have the election personnel write a note next to the names and indicate that they vote in different states. So in my household alone, it looks like we have a 33 percent participation rate, when actually it’s 100 percent. Who’s in charge of this? If these lists were scrubbed, I bet our voter turnout numbers would not be as dismal as they seem….
read … State voter rolls need updating
Hawaii Soldier To Plead Guilty In Terrorism Support Case
AP: Court documents allege Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang told informants that if he joined the Islamic State he would become a suicide bomber and attack Schofield barracks….
A confidential informant told authorities Kang watched videos depicting beheadings and other violence in his room for hours every day, according to court documents.
Kang told the informant that if he became an Islamic State member, he would be a suicide bomber and attack Schofield Barracks, a sprawling Army base outside Honolulu, according to an affidavit filed in court.
Kang began researching the Muslim religion in 2014, couldn’t wait to move to the Middle East to “join the cause” and was “only in the military for a paycheck,” the informant said, according to the affidavit.
When Kang met with the undercover agents at a home in Honolulu, he pledged allegiance to the group and kissed an Islamic State flag, according to court documents….
read … Hawaii Soldier To Plead Guilty In Terrorism Support Case
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