UPDATE: Police Demolish 3rd Illegal Structure on 'Sacred' Mauna Kea
The cure for Hawaii’s doctor shortage
DHS Amends REAL ID Rules for Micronesia
Maunakea Observatories support vehicles vandalized
SA: … Two Maunakea Observatories Support Services vehicles were apparently vandalized last weekend while parked in Hilo.
According to an incident report, two vehicles — a white 2017 Toyota Sienna and a gray 2018 Nissan Frontier — were found Sunday with punctured gas tanks after having been parked overnight in front of the Maunakea Observatories Support Services office on Makaala Street.
(Wow. Causing a nasty environmental spill into the aquifer!)
University of Hawaii spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the two vehicles were marked with UH insignia and were confirmed to be in fine condition Saturday afternoon. However, after smelling gas the following day, drivers discovered multiple punctures in both vehicles’ gas tanks.
The total damage to both vehicles is estimated to be more than $3,000….
read … 2 Maunakea Observatories support vehicles reportedly vandalized
Helicopter Company Fined $10K/Day for ...uh... Unpermitted Structures... Near Anti-Telescope Activists’ Hanapēpē Salt Ponds
HPR: …. A Kauaʻi helicopter company is facing fines of up to $10,000 a day for structures that lack permits on its property in Port Allen. The tour company’s initial request for the Kauaʻi County permits was met with strong opposition from traditional salt makers who practice in nearby Hanapēpē.
Maverick Helicopters is appealing the County’s order to remove the structures erected without approval at Kauaʻi’s Port Allen Airport. The company declined to comment on whether it plans to take down the structures, which include a bathroom, an office trailer, and two shipping containers….
Traditional Hawaiian saltmaker Malia Nobrega says she’s happy Kauaʻi County is enforcing the planning and zoning laws but she wonders if anything will change. …
Nobrega says she’s waiting to see if the County actually levies the fines. If not, she says she and her group of traditional saltmakers known as the Hui Hana Paʻakai plan to seek legal help….
Back in June, the Kauaʻi Planning Commission approved the saltmakers’ request for a contested case hearing after more than 80 people testified against Maverick Helicopters’ permit request….
read … Helicopter Company Fined for Unpermitted Structures Near Hanapēpē Salt Ponds
Financial Times: Rain in Hawaii and Brooklyn
FT: … I did indeed see clouds in Hawaii . . . They were over the Airbnb place where we were staying, which will no longer be legal for its owner to rent for less than 30 days. I came back to New York City to a knock on my door from four cops advising the same for our Brooklyn home. Why do I mention this in the context of your political note? Because it’s part of the public crackdown (driven in this particular case by the hotel lobby but also by unions and city officials) on the digital giants which is in turn part of the shift away from wealth creation and towards wealth distribution which I think will drive the 2020 election. I suspect these forces won’t favour our president….
read … The Financial Times
UH Will Ask The Legislature For $236M To Build, Demolish And Consolidate
CB: … The University of Hawaii plans to ask the Legislature next session for $236.5 million for new buildings and improvements in 2021.
The extra money is part of UH’s ambitious, six-year plan to modernize its aging infrastructure, and also meant to revive some projects the Legislature didn’t fund last session. Last year, UH asked for $319.5 million in 2021 as part of its two-year budget plan. The Legislature gave it about $93 million.
The plan includes the long-term goal of reducing UH’s total building space to decrease its maintenance backlog, while also consolidating academic departments….
read … UH Will Ask The Legislature For Money To Build, Demolish And Consolidate
Schizo Homeless Running Amok on Kauai
KGI: … A schizophrenic homeless man was acquitted Tuesday on burglary charges in two separate cases on the grounds that he was not responsible for the crimes due to mental illness.
George Simental, 30, faced up to 10 years in jail for a pair of felony burglary charges he picked up earlier this year after breaking into two North Shore homes in eight days….
Simental is no stranger to law enforcement. According to court records, he was arrested five times in the two years leading up to the recent break-ins. He was charged with trespassing twice in 2017 and again in April 2018. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, but police arrested him the next month for shoplifting at the ABC Store in Kapaa. This time the sentence was five days.
A few days after his release, according to charging documents in yet another case against him, Simental committed “a lewd act which was likely to be observed by others who would be affronted or alarmed, to wit, by exposing his private parts to public view.” He got another 10 days in jail but was released, having already spent nearly a month in lockup awaiting trial….
How long Simental will spend in the state mental hospital is set to be determined at a court hearing in November, when a judge will rule on whether he is a danger to the public.
read … Schizo
Long-time Hawaii law enforcement officer arrested at airport in theft case
HNN: … A former Honolulu police officer who once ran a special crime unit for the city prosecutor was arrested Thursday on suspicion of theft after allegedly stealing a laptop from an airport tenant.
A spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety confirmed to Hawaii News Now late Thursday that Don Carstensen was arrested Thursday morning. He was booked for second-degree theft and released pending investigation….
Carstensen spent years on Honolulu’s police force and played a pivotal role in helping Chuck Marsland, Oahu’s first elected proscutor, bring down legendary mob hitman Ronnie Ching.
Sources tell Hawaii News Now he was currently working as a Securitas employee at the airport.
While working for Marsland, Carstensen reportedly befriended Ching and convinced him to become a government witness. The mobster eventually pleaded guilty to killing four people, including the murder of Marsland’s son and the shooting of state Sen. Larry Kuriyama.
The Department of Public Safety says the investigation the alleged theft involving Carstensen is being run in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General….
SA: Don Carstensen, and as legend has it, he happened to have worked on interisland barges at one point with Ronnie Ching.
read … Long-time Hawaii law enforcement officer arrested at airport in theft case
Star-Adv Runs Larry Mehau Fluff-Piece
SA: …Some said he was the godfather of local organized crime…
“Mehau hired big, strong guys,” Chapman wrote, “often Kamehameha graduates like himself and trained them in martial arts and sumo. They wore jeans and aloha shirts and rode into the Honolulu night to fight (establish Mehau’s control over organized) crime.” …
In one 11-month period, he raided 485 gambling games and made 4,126 arrests (of criminals who weren’t paying him protection). (Eventually all the competition was eliminated.)…
Mehau, who had been promoted to lieutenant, turned in his badge No. 84 and left HPD in 1963. He went into the security business, buying out Hawaii Protective Association, which at the time provided security to Hawaii airports (thus gaining control over drug trafficking).
Faced with a problem, he always tried diplomacy first. Mehau was called on to mediate gang disputes. Criminals knew he was always true to his word and trusted him. (In other words, he was the Godfather of Organized Crime.)
“Larry was often called on to settle differences between local underworld factions, just as he had in his days as a cop. There is no disputing that he knew all the bad guys and had their respect….” (In other words, he was the Godfather of Organized Crime.)
He used common sense to cool things down and convince them that continued violence would only hurt both sides….(In other words, he was the Godfather of Organized Crime.)
(He gained control over entertainers) It was Mehau who convinced Jesse Kuhaulua to pursue a professional sumo career. Kuhaulua wavered but Mehau persuaded him….
At the height of Don Ho’s stardom, a representative of a mainland mafia family flew to Hawaii to extort protection money from him, Chapman says.
Ho called Mehau. Mehau met with the gangster and told him to call his bosses right then. “If you’re looking for trouble, I’m gonna help you find it.
“So call whoever it is told you, you could come over here and do whatever you want. I hope you can swim good because there’s no place for you to hide, and you’re going to have to swim a long way.”…
Concert promoter Tom Moffatt found himself in similar trouble. A Korean national who was trying to get into the concert business here blamed Moffatt for his lack of success and put out a hit on Moffatt’s life. Mehau intervened, and the whole thing was called off….
(Smirking,) Chapman (wants you to) believes Mehau was mislabeled the godfather of organized crime. He says that the appellation came from Maui newspaper publisher Rick Reed, who told Chapman recently that he did a lot of drugs back then!
(IQ Test: See how this works?)
April, 2018: Waihee, Media Agree: Mehau was the Good-father
read … Rearview Mirror: From sumo wrestler to cowboy, the head of HPD’s Metro Squad wore many hats
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