Hawaii has 18th-lowest juvenile arrest rate in country
To Keep Pushing Abortion, Hawaii and Planned Parenthood Quit Title X
Hawaii Millionaire Will Go Broke Faster Than Any Other State
‘Too Busy’: Harry Kim finally gets around to holding second Telescope meeting – Without Protest Leaders
HTH: … Mayor Harry Kim will hold a second meeting with leaders of the Native Hawaiian community Friday regarding the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Kim said Tuesday that his efforts to find common ground between TMT opponents and supporters — a task assigned to him by Gov. David Ige in July — are continuing, although his own busy schedule has delayed his intended meetings. (Wow. Just wow.)
Friday’s meeting will be a repeat of one Kim held in late July, when he invited Hawaiian community leaders from around the state to provide “guidance” regarding the TMT issue.
After that meeting, Kim said those he invited came to no consensus, but agreed to have more meetings to reach a solution that all sides can agree upon.
Protest organizers were not at the meeting. (Useless.)
Kim said he has invited largely the same group of Hawaiian leaders from the July meeting to the Friday meeting….
others opposed to building the TMT have been occupying the Maunakea Access Road since July 15….
(Really Obvious Question: What is the definition of insanity?)
KITV: The people Kim is meeting with are not among the demonstrators
HNN: Hawaii County Councilmembers Whine About Cost of Policing Protest
read … Kim to hold second meeting with Hawaiian leaders
Who’s Getting More Than You? Database of 14,000 State Salaries
CB: … More than 14,000 state employees have been added to Civil Beat’s salary database, including many who earn more than the governor ….
read … The Fattest Paychecks In Hawaii Government Don’t Always Go To The Top Bosses
Council : HART will have to pay for Secret Employees Criminal Lawyers
SA: … A Honolulu City Council committee on Wednesday rejected a request for $300,000 in taxpayer money to be spent for private attorneys to represent employees of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, or HART….
Federal investigators earlier this year issued three subpoenas to HART officials in connection with possible criminal wrongdoing at the agency. HART CEO and Executive Director Andrew Robbins said earlier this month that several current HART employees have been subpoenaed but declined to say who the employees are, or even how many….
Federal investigators earlier this year issued three subpoenas to HART officials in connection with possible criminal wrongdoing at the agency. HART CEO and Executive Director Andrew Robbins said earlier this month that several current HART employees have been subpoenaed but declined to say who the employees are, or even how many….
SA: “It’s time to get rid of all the lawyers and let justice prevail.”
read … Panel rejects outside lawyers for HART workers
Hawaiian Electric proposes a rate increase
HNN: … The request is for a 4.1 percent increase in revenues, or $77.5 million. If approved, a typical residential customer on Oahu using 500 kilowatt-hours a month would see an increase of $8.67 a month.
The percentage increase varies by customer category.
After review by the Public Utilities Commission, any change would likely not take effect until mid-2020 at the earliest. The rate filing is part of a required periodic regulatory review.
The last rate review application was filed in 2016 and resulted in a decrease to customer rates overall, largely due to the pass-through of savings from federal tax law changes.
Since 2013, Hawaiian Electric has spent more than $1 billion replacing and upgrading equipment …
Many grid improvements are aimed at accelerating Hawaiian Electric’s switch from fossil fuel generation to a portfolio of renewable energy resources, with the goal of reaching 100 percent renewable electricity by 2045.
Hawaiian Electric rates are “decoupled” – a regulatory model that periodically adjusts rates to remove the company’s need to increase sales to recover a level of PUC-approved costs…
IM: Hawai`i Microgrid Policies Advance to Promote Resiliency
read … Hawaiian Electric proposes a rate increase
Honolulu’s New Trains Could Sap Power From Nearby Buildings And Homes
CB: … If the trains draw too much power as they speed up to leave stations, it could affect the use of household appliances and other electrical-powered equipment….
The trains will draw most of their electricity from existing HECO circuits, fed into 13 “traction” stations along the line that convert normal electrical service to power suitable to supply trains….
HART officials, meanwhile, aim to convince Ching and his HECO colleagues that the city doesn’t need to buy so-called static compensators, or “stat-coms,” to ease the strain of such voltage swings….
read … Honolulu’s New Trains Could Sap Power From Nearby Buildings And Homes
20 Years Later—Court finally hears arguments in DHHL trust case
SA: … The Hawaii Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a breach-of-trust lawsuit against the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands that has dragged on for 20 years.
But as with all other phases of the complex class-action case, the 2,700 plaintiffs will have to wait indefinitely before they learn what happens next.
On the 60th anniversary of Hawaii statehood, the justices listened to arguments from attorneys for both sides and peppered them with questions before taking the case under advisement. They didn’t indicate when a decision would be made….
The high court will decide whether to uphold key elements of a lower court ruling that found the department liable for damages for breaching a trust agreement by not providing homesteads to eligible Native Hawaiians on a timely basis. DHHL beneficiaries must be at least 50% Hawaiian.
The lawsuit, filed in 1999, has dragged on for so long that an estimated 300 to 400 plaintiffs have died, even as the wait list for DHHL homesteads has swelled to about 28,000 beneficiaries.
The lower court ruled a decade ago that the state breached the trust agreement — a fiduciary obligation it assumed as a condition of statehood — and was liable for damages.
“The case presents an opportunity for the court to say, ‘Time’s up, no more waiting,” Carl Varady, one of two plaintiff attorneys, told the justices….
read … Court hears arguments in DHHL trust case
Honolulu Council Suddenly Approves Ala Wai Boondoggle
SA: … The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday voted by a narrow 5-3 margin to approve a measure allowing Mayor Kirk Caldwell to move forward with the contentious $345 million Ala Wai flood mitigation project….
residents from Makiki to Kapahulu raised concerns that the project may increase the likelihood of flood damage in communities upstream from Waikiki….
Caldwell and other city officials warned that failure to pass Resolution 19-182 by Aug. 31 could jeopardize the $245 million federal share of the project.
Gov. David Ige has agreed, in principal, to use state funds to pay the “non-federal” $125 million share of the project, despite the Legislature’s decision last session to reject funding for it….
Several Council members said they are worried that the city would be stuck with paying the full $125 million if the state does not provide its share….
read … Council clears controversial Ala Wai plan
Second woman comes forth, alleging Maui officer tried to bribe her for sex
HNN: … “When it got to the point that it was uncomfortable for me and I could see the way he was leading the conversation, I ended it immediately and told him I’d contact MPD,” the woman said.
She added that she made an Internal Affairs complaint, but the detective insisted that she surrender her phone as evidence. As a business owner and mother, she says she was not willing to give up her phone. She did send screen grabs of the entire text string, and wonders why MPD didn’t seize Officer Saffeels’ phone instead.
This incident happened last year. State law protects officers who are disciplined, so it’s unknown if anything happened to the officer as a result,…
Last month, another Maui woman says she also got similar text messages from the officer after he arrested her for DUI....
read … Second woman comes forth, alleging Maui officer tried to bribe her for sex
SA Editorial: Reconciling statehood with sovereignty
SA: … “What I remember most about statehood was the celebration,” John Waihee, the state’s first governor of Native Hawaiian ancestry, recalled in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He described the horns honking in his boyhood home of Honokaa: “The people literally celebrated.” …
Waihee said that some people saw statehood as a justification of the injustice of the overthrow, a notion he bluntly dismissed as “revisionist bunk.” In fact, he said, his own parents celebrated because statehood was a far better outcome for the people than the territorial status that persisted for the first half-century….
Reality: Hawaii Statehood: Tiny 1959 opposition was anti-Japanese, not anti-American
read … Editorial: Reconciling statehood with sovereignty
Sunscreen: NOAA finds 92% Brainwashed
HPR: …A majority of Hawaii visitors are ‘aware’ of the impact of sunscreen chemicals on coral, but there’s still work that needs to be done. That’s according to a new survey from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration….
To gauge educational efforts on the state’s ban, NOAA researchers asked beach goers at two popular beaches on Oahu and Hawaii Island about their ‘awareness’ of the chemicals on coral reefs.
“We found that people were surprisingly ‘aware’ of the effects of sunscreen,” said Arielle Levine, the study lead. “It’s really been prevalent in the news, and people are ‘learning’ about it when they are researching their trips to Hawaii.”
Levine says about 75% of the people surveyed said they were ‘aware’ of certain chemicals being harmful to corals. Researchers found that around 92% of Hawaii residents were ‘aware’ of the effects of oxybenzone and octinoxate on coral. 75% of surveyed visitors from the U.S. mainland said they were ‘aware’, and around 63% of international visitors told researchers they heard of these issues….
read … Brainwashed
Telescope News
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