Cool Schools? DoE Cuts a Little Red Tape
Mauna Kea: Police Arrest 7, Issue 610 Citations
Traffic: Number of 'Super Commuters' up 81% on Oahu
Deadline Nears to Block UHPA Political Fund Deductions
$15 Minimum Wage Differential for City & County of Honolulu Employees Ratified
Former union boss charged in massive fraud, embezzlement indictment
Lawsuit: HART COO Conspired to Bankrupt Island Air
HO: … HART and Island Air may be connected in a conspiracy of corporate greed, lies and possible fraud in hiring David Uchiyama. A complaint filed in on August 12 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Honolulu alleges Uchiyama was hired knowingly by Island Air owners to run the company into the ground.
Many loyal workers for Island Air lost their job and health insurance overnight. Hawaiian Airlines became an almost monopoly overnight, increasing their market shares and airfares….
Did HART know about the federal lawsuit filed by Elizabeth Kane, Bankruptcy Trustee, the Airline Pilots Association International and Allied Workers Union alleged Uchiyama was put into the position as the COO of Island Air to run it out of business when they hired Uchiyama for a top job to lead Honolulu rail?
The 100+ page suit demonstrates why Uchiyama was put into the position to lead Island Air with the owners knowing he never worked for an airline in a leading position before….
read … THE ISLAND AIR AND HONOLULU RAIL CONNECTION IN FEDERAL BANKRUPTCY COURT?
Brainstorming Beyond The Mauna Kea Standoff
CB: … I convened a small confidential discussion with nine other people who have considerable familiarity with the disputes taking place on the mountain. …
Include a further expansion of TMT’s benefits package that makes many more scholarships available for Hawaiian children to become the best scientists in the world. Not just astronomers; biologists, botanists, geologists, archeologists, historians, linguists, anthropologists, and other professions….
Create a complete paradigm shift and transfer summit management into Hawaiian hands. Direct the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to hand over full authority and responsibility of the science reserve to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs….
Designate specific sacred sites and areas on the mauna under the complete control of Native Hawaiians. No entry by non-Hawaiians without permission….
Create a “Sacred Places Collective” as a community resource for anticipating, preventing, managing and resolving future conflicts….
Create a visitors center that the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands controls on their lands at the entrance to Mauna Kea access road. Charge fees that then further DHHL’s mission….
Enable a group like Aha Hui Kū Mauna or Kahu Kū Mauna to update the Comprehensive Management Plan, the Master Plan, and the Decommissioning Plan. Give them real authority, not just consultation.
Secure a commitment that UH will not embark on any further projects until Aha Hui Kū Mauna or Kahu Kū Mauna has had the opportunity to work on those plans….
read … Brainstorming Beyond The Mauna Kea Standoff
Star-Adv: Hirono Wrong to Compare Telescope Protesters to King, Gandhi
SA Editorial: … U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono arrived on Mauna Kea Monday, but commented only vaguely. “I believe in the rule of law and that there has been an appropriate process,” she said, “but I also believe that people have a right to civil disobedience.”
On top of being noncommittal, that assessment is off-base. The “civil disobedience” of freedom fighters such as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. is described as peaceful resistance to unjust laws.
There is no intrinsic lack of justice in the process that reviewed TMT. The Native Hawaiian opponents to the telescope applied the law themselves, arguing in the contested case hearing and in court through the 10-year legal battle. The project has prevailed and has the right to proceed. Opponents simply do not accept the result.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case is more straightforward in his support of the project, and restated that position this week in a meeting with the Star-Advertiser editorial board. The Hilo-born Case remembered that astronomy was pursued as a means of rescuing Hawaii island’s economy after the 1960 tsunami devastated the town; it plays to Hawaii’s strengths, he said.
“I think it would be a tragedy to lose that.”
Case added, rightly, that any compromise that denies TMT its permit will fatally damage trust in this state’s institutions, and have a corrosive effect on its diverse communities.
Another important voice heard this week was that of Chad Kalepa Baybayan, the former Hokule‘a captain and navigator-in-residence at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i. In a “Tech View” interview, he reflected: “As a Hawaiian, I recognize that I am a descendant of some of the best naked-eye astronomers the world has ever known. It is culturally consistent to advocate for Hawaiian participation in a field of science that continues to enable that tradition and a field of work in which we ought to lead.”
Hawaii has many competing interests, but paramount is the interest of finding a path that serves all its people. One must exist that is both culturally respectful and forward-looking. And at the end, it can lead to TMT….
read … Hirono Wrong
WOTUS: 9th Circuit’s ruling expands the scope of Clean Water Act
MN: … The County of Maui is appealing the 9th Circuit ruling in Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al. v. County of Maui to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 9th Circuit found the county in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) because it does not have a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the operation of its underground injection control wells at its Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility (LWRF). The court ruled that since LWRF-treated effluent was fairly traceable from the wells through groundwater to the ocean, an NPDES permit was required.
In its 40 years of operation, the county has never been required to have an NPDES permit. Instead, these wells were permitted under the Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulations established under the federal and state Safe Drinking Water Acts.
I was retained by the county as an expert witness, and to analyze and evaluate NPDES permit issues in the case. I have 57 years of academic and professional experience analyzing the fate and transport of contaminants and tracers in the water environment, including rivers, lakes, groundwater and the coastal ocean.
The CWA requires an NPDES permit for discrete, single-point discharges to the waters of the United States (known as navigable waters, which do not include groundwater), and such permits are in place for the ocean discharges that I have been associated with in Hawaii (Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, Barber’s Point Refinery and East Honolulu Wastewater Treatment Plant).
In these cases, there is an identifiable single point of discharge to the ocean and NPDES permitting is required….
read … 9th Circuit’s ruling expands the scope of Clean Water Act
Police Shootings Board Still Unsure On Public Disclosure
CB: … Two years after its creation, Hawaii’s police fatalities review board is still struggling to figure out whether it should release its investigative findings and materials to the public.
The oversight body was established by the Legislature in 2017 to independently review officer-involved deaths to increase transparency, and also to make recommendations to prosecutor’s offices on whether to press charges.
However, the board has been hung up over what it’s legally allowed and required to do as far as releasing its findings and the material it used to come to its conclusions.
The nine-member board held a public meeting Thursday morning, but almost immediately went into closed session to seek legal advice and did not reconvene a public session afterward….
read … Police Shootings Board Still Unsure On Public Disclosure
Councilwoman Tsuneyoshi To Biki: Pay Up For Public Space
CB: … Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi wants “reasonable compensation.” Biki’s director says the city is already getting a good deal. ….
read … Councilwoman Tsuneyoshi To Biki: Pay Up For Public Space
Lahaina Republican HD10 Candidate Plea Deal in Child Molestation Case
MN: … Chayne Marten strikes deal for endangering a minor; sex assault counts dismissed ….
read … Former House candidate enters no-contest plea
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