ConAm: Supreme Court Strikes Down HSTA Poison Pill
HSTA Property Tax: Two Wolves Fight Over Dinner
Tulsi Gabbard weighing 2020 presidential bid
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More taxes won’t cure our ills
Jones Act: How it Impacts the Military and the State of Hawaii
SA: HPD body-cam footage shows tense moments before fatal shooting
Permitting Delays Encourage Bribery
SA: …general contractor J.R. Moorhead said it’s not uncommon for him to wait six months for a permit to redo a shower.
Because the threshold for requiring a building is so low, a minimum of $1,000 of work, “it encourages people to go around the permitting process” and just build without a permit, he said.
“It also encourages people to go with unlicensed contractors,” Moorhead said. “It costs a lot of money to be licensed and insured.”
Lauren Hudson, a civil engineer and permit router, said the delays “almost put me out of business.”
While there are some honest and competent DPP supervisors and plan reviewers, she said, she also believes “gifts and favoritism” play roles in who gets permits. She’s refused multiple requests from clients to “pay a gift to a friend inside DPP to have their permits pass through,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to pay a civil servant a gift to do their job,” she said.
She said she sees one fellow permit router eating lunch with DPP employees in an area typically closed off to the public, someone who appears to obtain permits more quickly than she does.
DPP Acting Director Kathy Sokugawa said after the meeting that she knows of only one current investigation into accusations into an employee accepting a bribe. There’ve been no other instances that she knows of, simply rumors without any specifics or solid evidence, she said.
Anyone in the public with knowledge of wrongdoing should contact Honolulu police, while city employees can contact an “integrity hotline” if they suspect illegal or improper actions by colleagues, she said….
Big Q: Do you support a bill mandating a 60-day deadline for the city to process family dwelling building permits? 75% – YES
read … Council bill would address lengthy building permit times
Haleiwa solar farm fined $1K for storm water runoff on North Shore
HNN: A Haleiwa solar farm has been fined $1,000 for storm water discharge into Chun’s reef last month.
The state health department says Kawailoa Solar didn’t have adequate safeguards to prevent storm water runoff from polluting the shoreline and nearby reef.
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of runoff spilled into the ocean.
The runoff occurred during heavy rains and while construction of the new solar farm was ongoing….
read … Haleiwa solar farm fined $1K for storm water runoff on North Shore
Soft on Crime: Rapist Gets Early Release, Becomes Child Molester
SA … The alleged assaults occurred on or about Nov. 1, 2015, to Feb. 29, 2016. It’s unclear at this time where the assaults occurred.
Pineda was previously convicted of rape involving a woman more than 30 years ago.
The sexual assault occurred in July 1984 when Pineda was 21 and resided in Mililani. According to a 1984 Honolulu Advertiser story, he was accused of breaking into a home where he tied up and sexually assaulted the victim. He then robbed her of cash and handguns.
Police also had investigated him at the time for other burglaries and sexual assaults that occurred in his neighborhood.
Pineda pleaded no contest to the charges under a plea deal. Circuit Judge Robert Klein sentenced him in 1986 to a maximum 20-year prison term for felony rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, robbery and burglary.
A state Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said he was paroled in March 1994.
According to the Hawaii Sex Offender Registry website, Pineda has resided at a home at 94-143 Hulahe St. in Waipahu since July 2012….
read … Soft on Crime
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