HART Plan to Control Expenses-Pay Robbins Crony $85K per Month
Senate Committee to Hear Anti-Gun Bills
The last time Congress created a new state
HART Spends Money to Prove Spending Money is a Good Idea
Hawaii State Government -- 2nd-Lowest Federal Dependency Ranking
Liberty and Economics -- Hawaii Together with Keli'i Akina
Pentagon IDs $452M in Hawaii military funding for border wall plan
SA: … The Pentagon identified a pool today of $12.9 billion in unobligated military construction funding — including $452 million for projects in Hawaii — that could be tapped to help build President Donald Trump’s southern border wall.
The list of Hawaii projects includes:
>> $25 million for a barracks at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island.
>> $50 million for a helicopter parking apron at Wheeler Army Airfield.
>> $45 million for a drydock waterfront facility at the shipyard.
>> $73.2 million for a Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam sewer line.
>> $66.1 million for a corrosion control hangar at the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay.
>> $26.5 million for security improvements at Kaneohe Bay’s Mokapu Gate.
>> $78.3 million for a Pearl City water transmission line.
>> 65.9 million for a communications/cryptologic facility in Wahiawa.
>> $17 million to construct an addition to a Hawaii Air Guard F-22 Raptor fighter facility at Hickam.
>> $5.5 million for an Air Force Reserve consolidated training facility at Hickam.
The bulk of the $12.9 billion in identified funding derives from projects for fiscal 2018 and 2019 that were unawarded as of Dec. 31.
read … Pentagon IDs $452M in Hawaii military funding for border wall plan
SB1428: Let Hawaii County Fritter Away GET funds on Anything
HTH: … consent is by no means a given, with three of the Big Island’s seven state representatives recently voting with reservations and a fourth voting no on House Bill 1394, the state House version of the flexibility bill. All four of the island’s state senators voted yes on the Senate version of the bill, SB 1428.
The bills would allow counties under 500,000 in population to use the GET proceeds for public safety and infrastructure, in addition to its currently allowed uses of transportation, mass transit and bikeways and trails….
Several Big Island lawmakers say the county needs to catch up on roads and the public Hele-On bus system before it spends the money elsewhere. The county surcharge on the state tax was given to the counties in conjunction with allowing it for Honolulu, which needed money to pay for construction of its $9.2 billion rail project.
Rep. Joy San Buenaventura, D-Puna, was the Big Island’s no vote. She said the 2018 disasters wreaked havoc on roads, especially in her district, and roads need to be rebuilt over the lava flow so her constituents can go home.
“I’m concerned that if we allow the county to use the GE tax extension for other purposes we will continue to have poor mass transit and poor road maintenance,” San Buenaventura said.
read … Kim seeks more flexibility in use of GET funds, but some lawmakers push back
Bureaucratic Turf Fight Holds Toddlers Hostage: Ige Backs Team DoE
CB: …Gov. David Ige’s remarks suggest he believes the statewide school administration, not the office delegated to bolster early learning programs, should be in charge…..
Sen. Michelle Kidani, chair of the Senate Education Committee, chided the governor’s legislative staff at a hearing on Friday.
“My recommendation is that the governor sit down with the players because you’re really putting the legislators between adults who should be making decisions for themselves,” she said to Ford Fuchigami, Ige’s administrative director….
read … The Battle Over Preschool Puts Hawaii Governor On The Hot Seat
Inmate: Broken phones a starter for ‘riot’ at jail
MN: … Twenty-one inmates, identified as “aggressively” participating in the incident, were transported to Halawa Correctional Facility on Oahu on Thursday, the Public Safety Department said….
In a letter obtained by The Maui News, an inmate said just before the incident began that a jail official was listening to concerns from inmates over phones that had been broken for months.
The jail official responded with “lies,” saying the phones were going to be fixed, the inmate wrote. The official told the inmates that they needed to comply and lock down, otherwise they would use full force and open fire.
That left the inmates “pissed off,” and they started the riot, the inmate wrote.
Another inmate from Module A said the incident was not a “disturbance” as the Public Safety Department has described, but a “full-blown riot.”
It broke out because of “unstable, inhumane conditions and unconstitutional living conditions,” the inmate said. The inmate cited overcrowding, delayed repairs, uncollected mail, broken phones, among other things, as conditions that precipitated the riot.
The inmate said the fire that broke out “burned from the floor to ceiling” and that those inside the modules could only see 6 inches in front of their faces due to smoke.
There were reports of inmates being unable to get out of their smoke-filled locked cells and that jail staff were unavailable to assist, according to inmates’ family and friends…..
“MCCC continues to staff an armed perimeter as a precaution, but since removing the 21 inmates who aggressively participated in last week’s disturbance, the mood and overall atmosphere has calmed,” the news release said….
To alleviate overcrowding, the department is planning a new $7.5 million 80-inmate module at the Wailuku jail, Schwartz said. The 2017 Legislature appropriated the construction funds for the project….
read … Inmate: Broken phones a starter for ‘riot’ at jail
Soft on Crime Meets Hot Lead: 51 Convictions Out on streets—gets shot dead
HTH: … According to court records, the judge gave Santos credit for time served and took the remainder of the time under advisement, allowing Santos to be released from Hawaii Community Correctional Center that day. In return for Santos’ plea, prosecutors dropped charges of unauthorized entry to a motor vehicle, unauthorized control of a motor vehicle and habitual property crime.
The charge Santos was convicted of, as well as those dropped in the plea deal, are all Class C felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
Police identified Santos as the victim in a shooting in Fern Acres subdivision. According to a statement, officers responding to a 12:30 a.m. Monday call found Santos’ body — with what they described as “an apparent gunshot wound” — on the driveway of a Plumeria Street residence….
(Reality: He was murdered by soft-on-crime liberals who just wouldn’t keep him in a nice safe jail.)
Court records indicate Santos had a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1999, with convictions on 51 charges, seven of them felonies — including robbery, drug and drug paraphernalia possession, escape, bail jumping and unauthorized entry to a motor vehicle….
SA: Big Isle police issue all-points bulletin for suspect in Puna homicide
read … Killed by Soft-on-Crime Policy
Bill 89: 4,000 TVR Permits
SA: … A bill allowing up to 4,000 new bed-and-breakfast permits to be issued while at the same time strengthening enforcement of residential vacation rentals moved out of the City Council Planning Committee on Monday.
Bill 89 (2018) now goes to the full Council for further review and still needs several more approvals before becoming law.
No permits for vacation rentals outside resort- zoned areas have been approved on Oahu since 1989, but the estimated number of illegal rentals has jumped to what the city estimates as between 8,000 and 10,000 units….
read … 4,000 TVR Permits
Unused vehicles raise spending concerns at EMS
KHON: … Some workers have complained about specialized vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which have never been used.
Among them is a brand new $185K gas truck bought three years ago for nearly $200,000. And it's been sitting in a warehouse since.
An EMS worker who did not want to be identified sent in a photo of the gas tanker truck inside the storage warehouse. There have been complaints among the ranks about why EMS would spend so much money on a vehicle that has gone unused for years.
In the meantime they say they're stuck with old ambulances that are breaking down. EMS says of the 53 ambulances on Oahu, 23 of them have more than 200,000 miles….
Also sitting in the storage facility is an EMS bus, known as the AmbuBus. EMS got it in 2015….
The bus was transferred to EMS from the city and a federal grant was used to convert it into an AmbuBus….
read … Unused vehicles raise spending concerns at EMS
Settlement reached in lawsuit against the city in firefighter’s death
ILind: … The firefighter who was operating the jet ski testified under oath during a pretrial deposition.
His testimony was recounted by attorneys for the Rigsbee family in their pretrial statement.
“[He] testified that during the incident, with Firefighter Rigsbee lying prone on the attached rescue sled behind him, he first punched the RWC, a 180-horsepower Yamaha Jet Ski, straight through the whitewater of two broken waves. For both waves, the whitewater was above his head, which he estimated was about 4 feet above Firefighter Rigsbee laying prone behind him on the sled. In other words, the whitewater after the waves broke was higher than 4 feet.”
[He] testified he then accelerated the RWC straight up the face of a third wave that “caught” them, and then came down on the other side of it feeling a “drag, a drop sensation, and then a jarring feeling” “[s]ort of all together”.
He immediately looked back at Firefighter Rigsbee and saw him face down, unresponsive, next to the rescue sled.
…Rigsbee suffered severe “blunt force injuries to the head and neck” despite wearing protective head gear. These whiplash-like injuries were the primary cause of death, according to testimony by the city’s chief medical examiner. According to documents filed in the case, Rigsbee suffered a broken neck similar to what is known as a “hangman’s fracture.”
Documents obtained during legal discovery also identified 26 prior incidents in which Honolulu Fire Department personnel were injured during rescue watercraft training, six involving injuries to the head or neck, and two under circumstances almost identical to those in which Rigsbee was hurt.
read … Settlement reached in lawsuit against the city in firefighter’s death
Hawai`i Can Reach 100% Renewable Energy by Clearcutting Forests
IM: … Lamplighter Energy, a Hawaii renewable energy company, held a press conference at the State Capitol in January 2017 to announce that it would grow and export biofuel in pellet form from Hawai`i to South Korea`s Hanbo Energy. The pellets would be enough to power 320,000 homes.
Last March, Lamplighter Energy proposed purchasing Molokai Ranch, the seventh-largest landowner in the state. Lamplighter wanted to convert the 85-square-mile Moloka`i property into a hibiscus farm to produce biofuels….
Using biomass to create energy has a great history in Hawai`i.
The sugar industry had 221,000 acres in cane cultivation in 1978. “Approximately 2.9 million tons of bagasse were produced ... some 2.4 million tons were burned in the sugar factory boilers. This is roughly equivalent to 2.2 million barrels of fuel oil. ... Biomass fuels now provide 51% of the electricity for Kauai County, 45% for Hawaii County, and 23% for Maui County,” according to Hawaii Integrated Energy Assessment (1981)….
In 2007 HECO proposed importing biofuel that would be grown in the Borneo, Indonesian, and Malaysian rainforests.
If Hawai`i were to chop down every tree in the State, and burn them while blending the fuel with imported coal, the resultant electricity would be defined under Hawai`i law as renewable energy, not very environmental, but very renewable….
Hu Honua used similar reasoning to assert that their proposed biomass plant in Hamakua would have no climate impact….
read … Hawai`i Can Reach 100% Renewable Energy by Clearcutting Forests
Tourists Required to Convert to Eco-Religion Before Tour
KGI: … Holo Holo Charters, a 20-year-old, locally owned boat-tour company, has created a “Pono Pledge,” and is encouraging passengers to complete it before they actually set sail on their Kauai ocean adventure.
The online pledge brings more than just awareness about the importance of reducing plastics and keeping toxic sunscreens from ending up in the ocean, said Chandra Bertsch, general manager of Holo Holo Charters. Island visitors on Kauai now consciously make a promise when taking the pledge to live a “lifestyle of stewardship.”…
(B-b-but what about GMOs???? Oh. That was last year’s hysteria.)
read … Tourists Required to Convert
Ocean Plastic Cleanup Boom Still Stranded in Hilo Bay
SW: … The million-dollar project Ocean Cleanup, which is supposed to remove trash from the Pacific Ocean, is currently at a standstill in Hawaii….
the system has not been able to retain the collected plastic….
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Wilson could not catch the wind in order to move fast enough thus causing it to not be able to hold on to the garbage. Furthermore, a piece of the pipe has broken off. "The floater pipe breaking, a/o based on information from the manufacturer, was among the least expected potential failures of our system's design, so it came as a surprise. Our working hypothesis is that material fatigue (caused by about 1.5 million load cycles), combined with a local stress concentration, caused a fracture in the HDPE floater….
The people behind the project are currently working hard to find the cause of the first operation's collapse, and they expect to work out the necessary measures that will enable Wilson to return the Northern Pacific and continue to collect waste later this year….
read … Maersk-backed cleanup project at a standstill in Hawaii
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