Hawaii Supreme Court Affirms TMT Permit 4-1 -Dissenting Opinion Published
House Republicans Select Gene Ward as Leader
Bad News has a Silver Lining
Higher taxes do not make housing cheaper
Meet the New and Recycled Faces in the Legislature
SA: … there will be about a dozen fresh faces in the upcoming Legislature
… in the clamor for lieutenant governor, Josh Green, Jill Tokuda and Will Espero all left comfy state Senate seats. They will be succeeded, respectively, by Dru Kanuha, Jarrett Keohokalole and Kurt Fevella. The latter will be a newbie to the Legislature as well as, gasp, the Senate’s sole Republican. Fevella beat Matt LoPresti (b-bye), whose vacated state House seat will now be filled by (recycled) Rida Cabanilla (LINK: Rundown).
The 1st Congressional District race, meanwhile, lured Kaniela Ing (b-bye) and Beth Fukumoto (b-bye) away from their state House seats — and that made way for Tina Wildberger and Val Okimoto, respectively. Okimoto will help her fellow Republicans retain a five-member presence in the House; meanwhile, Andria Tupola, who gave up her House seat to run for governor, will be replaced by Stacelynn Eli.
Other newcomers to the 2019 Legislature include Sharon Moriwaki and David Tarnas, both of whom beat incumbents in the Democratic primary (she over Brickwood Galuteria (b-bye), he over Cindy Evans).
Neophyte representation also will come to Wahiawa via (socialist) Amy Perruso, who ousted incumbent Lei Learmont; and to Windward districts, with Lisa Kitagawa and Scot Matayoshi filling vacancies left by Keohokalole and Ken Ito, respectively, who both vied for Tokuda’s Senate opening….
read … Fresh faces in the Legislature
Telescope: Wilson Dissent Published, Protesters Given 10 More Days to File
HNN: …The lone Supreme Court Justice opposed to the Thirty Meter Telescope issued his dissent Friday, accusing the court of opening the door to more deterioration of Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources.
Justice Michael Wilson, a former chairman of the state Land Board, took issue with the majority’s finding that because prior telescopes had already substantially impacted the summit, the addition of TMT was not a “substantial and adverse impact” that would have violated conservation law.
Wilson said that essentially means Mauna Kea is no longer protected by the conservation law….
“Under this new principle of natural resource law,” Wilson wrote, “one of the most sacred resources of the Hawaiian culture loses its protection because it has previously undergone substantial adverse impact from prior development of telescopes.”
Wilson argued that the TMT project “eclipses all other telescopes in magnitude” and should not have been granted a permit.
Opponents have asked for more time to seek reconsideration of the Court’s 4-1 decision that upheld the permit, because they were waiting for Wilson to public his dissent….
read … State Supreme Court’s lone voice of dissent on TMT accuses colleagues of weakening state conservation laws
Maui Eco Activists Horrified at Possibility of Coffee and Citrus Spreading Across Maui Cane fields
MT: … A Canadian pension fund is completing the due diligence process in the final stages of a 55,000-acre purchase of Alexander and Baldwin’s Maui land holdings, a high-ranking State of Hawai‘i official (allegedly) told a group of (so-called) farmers at the (anti-GMO) Hawai‘i Farmers Union Convention in October, multiple (anti-GMO) sources told MauiTime Friday. Individuals who overheard the comment told MauiTime that the state official said the Canadian buyer intends to grow citrus and coffee in Maui’s Central Valley, with the coffee operations as part of a deal to supply Starbucks. “They are mono-cropping and it’s conventional,” one source said. “In other words, food for export (which means they are the devil in our religion).”
Local companies and organizations that were in discussions with A&B to purchase the Central Valley agricultural lands for farming now say their negotiations with A&B have stalled.
“We are not actively marketing our agricultural lands for sale,” Alexander and Baldwin spokesman Darren Pai told MauiTime in an email Friday. “We are engaged in discussions with agricultural users who are interested in farming substantially all of the acreage. Our primary goal since the shutdown of HC&S has been to find third parties with viable farming plans, and we believe we are making progress in that regard.”…
KGI: ‘New era in agriculture’
read … Some Hysteria from Maui Time
Homeless Lunatics Must be Forced to Accept Shelter—but Politicians Would Rather Play Politics
SA: …It’s hard enough persuading homeless people on Oahu to move off the sidewalks and into a proper shelter. It’s harder still when the City Council and Mayor Kirk Caldwell won’t stop squabbling about it.
A Council committee this week pushed ahead with Resolution 18-246, which would throw another roadblock in front of the administration’s effort to enforce two recently enacted ordinances that bar blocking public sidewalks and illegal public lodging.
The resolution would require the administration first to provide more specific and detailed plans on how it would address homelessness in each of the nine Council districts. The 95-page action plan the administration did provide was deemed inadequate by some Council members, who also expressed concerns about court challenges.
…doing nothing more than generating action plans guarantees they won’t be successful. And those who live with large homeless populations, especially on the west side, are crying for help now. It would behoove the Council to allow enforcement to go forward, and for Council members to set aside political gamesmanship and work with the administration — in a spirit of cooperation and mutual interest — to address the homeless problems unique to each of their districts….
read … Move ahead on homeless laws
Failure of Mental Health Care System: Lunatic Terrorizes Local College
SA: … Court documents said Tumulac was enrolled at a college on Oahu in the spring. He allegedly sent more than 130 emails to one of the professors from February to mid-October, a majority of which were sent from his personal email account and approximately a dozen sent from his college email account.
The content of the initial emails initially sent the teachers was described as bizarre and included accusations of “mental manipulation.”
Later emails became more hostile. In one he told a professor “you will die a painful death” and “you are a dead man.” Other messages to the same professor contained racial and homophobic slurs.
Court documents said the professors filed a request for a temporary restraining order against Tumulac in July, but the court dismissed it without prejudice because Tumulac reportedly moved to Las Vegas.
But the digital menacing continued. In August, Tumulac allegedly sent one professor an email in which he repeatedly wrote, “I will (expletive) murder you,” emphasizing the threat with capital letters.
Court documents said the emails distressed the professor, prompting him to keep a knife under his bed and install a security video surveillance camera at his residence.
The other professor said the emails caused her to be “constantly on edge worrying Neill might do something violent.”
During an investigation, federal agents discovered YouTube videos allegedly posted by Tumulac that contained homophobic slurs. The videos have since been removed.
Court documents also indicated Tumulac underwent a psychiatric evaluation in June 2017 after his father reported to Honolulu police that Tumulac threatened to kill him.
In September while Tumulac was in Las Vegas, police took him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after they found him slashing the walls of his apartment with a sword.
Las Vegas police found substances in the residence believed to be ingredients to make heroin. Court documents said Tumulac told police he was trying to make DMT, a hallucinogenic drug….
(He hasn’t done his requisite mass shooting yet. Give him time to act so we can exploit his act to undermine the 2nd Amendment. That’s what he’s out on the streets for.)
read … About More People Oppressed by the Mentally Ill
Falls of Clyde to be Returned to Scotland
ME: …The Falls of Clyde, the last sail-powered oil tanker in the world, will soon return to Glasgow, the city where her keel was laid some 140 years ago.
The Clyde has been moored in Honolulu, Hawaii since 1963, and she is in deteriorating condition. A non-profit group, Save the Falls of Clyde International, hopes to move her to Scotland and restore her. It has recently reached an agreement with heavy lift firm Sevenstar Yacht Transfer to provide the transportation. She is scheduled to depart the week of February 3, 2019. …
Background: Scottish Nationalists Demand Ige Return Falls of Clyde
SA: New deal to transport Falls of Clyde to motherland
read … Last Sail-Driven Tanker is Bound for Scotland
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