VIDEO: Kahuku vs HPD-- We did not throw rocks
WSJ ranks Honolulu Airport 15th of 20
Mauna Kea-Defining Sacred
North Shore Surfers Complain About Lack of TVRs
Surfer.com: …“I had hard time finding a place,” said ‘QS ripper Charly Martin. “Not much available online, and 1 week before I arrived I still didn’t have a place. Luckily I know some people here; I asked Coco [Ho] if she knew someone maybe and she sent me a message telling me she found somewhere at the a friend’s house.”
“I’m getting hit up by all these surfers, ‘Is there anything to rent?’ Everyone is freaking out,” says longtime North Shore charger and property owner, Joel Centeio. “The guys coming for the ‘QS who can’t commit to more than 30 days, it’s a disaster for them.”
Aside from the legally permitted rentals, there aren’t many options when it comes finding accommodation on the North Shore, save for Turtle Bay Resort and the Backpackers hostel.
In the town of Haleiwa, where an entire economy has cropped up in recent decades to support the short-term rental market, the impacts of Bill 89 are potentially devastating. Oahu Alternative Lodging Association has estimated the law could cause a loss of between 50,000 and 80,000 visitors per month, according to a report by the Associated Press.
“It’s not just property owners like myself who are being impacted,” says Centeio. “There are people cleaning houses, managing these properties, handymen—not to mention local restaurants and businesses—that depend on the income that comes from this influx of people each year.”…
read … North Shore Surfers Complain About Lack of TVRs
Kahuku nonprofit plans to sue AES
KITV: … The non-profit group, Keep the North Shore Country, wants to sue AES Corporation for not obtaining all government approvals for the Kahuku Wind Farm project.
Keep the North Shore President Gil Riviere said, “As AES keeps saying they have obtained all government approvals, but yet again, we find another corner has been cut and they continue their operations without all the necessary reviews or approvals.”
The group has filed a 40-day notice of intent to sue ….
CB: Kahuku Wind Farm Opponents Declare Intent to Sue Developer
read … Kahuku nonprofit plans to sue AES
Lawsuit, Audit: An eye on agribusiness
SA: … After years of operating fairly autonomously — some say too stealthily — the Hawaii Agribusiness Development Corp. (ADC) is suddenly under the public spotlight again.
A lawsuit has been filed over ADC’s diversified-farming project on some 1,200 acres of former pineapple fields in Wahiawa, acreage that the state agency bought for $13 million in 2012 from the Galbraith Estate. The plaintiff, Ohana Best LLC, led by Hwa Young Chung, is suing over alleged mistreatment by the “rogue” agency. Key among claims is that ADC failed to provide irrigation water, which led to a $1.5 million loss on a farm venture that didn’t materialize….
Over the past five years, ADC has been allotted more than $250 million in state funds to buy land and do market research — but is not required to submit financial statements; it didn’t even submit annual reports to the Legislature, as required.
Over the years, the agency has successfully rebuffed attempts for a state audit. This year, the Legislature finally mustered enough votes for an audit — an overdue look into the agency’s books, to be delivered in early 2021….
read … Editorial: An eye on agribusiness
LEAD: Drug Offenders will be Allowed to Keep Doing Drugs
WHT: … A new program to reduce incarceration and increase mental health and addiction treatment is launching in West Hawaii.
LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) gives police officers the discretion of offering intervention rather than arrest for nonviolent offenders, reducing a continuous cycle through the court system….
The pilot project, which received $650,000 in Ohana Zone funding from the state, launched its marketing campaign Thursday at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
“The program will be for repeat low level drug offenders and other low level offenders as well,” said Dr. Hannah Preston-Pita, CEO of the Big Island Substance Abuse Council.
The BISAC will operate the pilot project along with several key partners, including HOPE Services Hawaii, Going Home Hawaii and Bridge House. The Hawaii County Police Department and Prosecutor’s Office are also on board with the project, which will initially operate only in Kona but may eventually expand across the island.
“It is a harm reduction approach so they can be using substances throughout the program and we’re meeting them at the level they are at and where they’re ready to commit,” Preston-Pita said. “It’s a social service project that is intended to link individuals to services and keep them out of trouble.”…
(This is still based on trying to convince the homeless to accept shelter and treatment. The right approach is to FORCE them into treatment.)
“As you may be aware our local jail is at its maximum capacity,” Roth said. (This is the real issue. An artificial crisis created y the soft-on-crime crowd.)
read … Program launch in Kona focuses on community-based, harm-reduction intervention for law violations
Investigation launched after deputy sheriffs’ 15-Mile wrong-way chase on freeway
HNN: … A dash cam video of a portion of the chase, which started about 10:45 p.m (Thursday, Nov 7)., was provided to Hawaii News Now by a driver.
The driver said he was near the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport when he spotted the chase. In his dash cam video, you can spot headlights and flashing lights coming toward him.
One car goes by with a law enforcement vehicle close behind. Both were going westbound in the eastbound lanes of the H-1 Freeway.
On social media, another driver said the car being pursued clipped his vehicle head-on near Pearl City.
The chase stretched more than 15 miles going the wrong way, ending in Wahiawa.
And in the end the driver got away….
Honolulu police were notified by dispatch of the chase but did not join in or assist….
Sources say the chase started with a traffic stop near airport, where state deputy sheriffs have jurisdiction. The driver took off, and reportedly entered the freeway using the off-ramp….
read … Investigation launched after deputy sheriffs’ wrong-way chase on freeway
Grand jury indicts 4 for welfare fraud
WHT: … Nani P. Widmer was indicted on charges of first-degree theft and false swearing in an official matter. Widmer is alleged to have unlawfully collected public assistance, or SNAP, benefits between Dec. 1, 2013, and Feb. 28, 2018, totaling more than $20,000….
read … Grand jury indicts 4 for welfare fraud
Hilo workers allege hostile work environment under former Bay Clinic CEO
HNN: … Diane Kramer, who the administrative assistant for Bay Clinic CEO Harold Wallace, alleges he called women in the office derogatory names.
Her claims are supported by at least one long-time, former board member.
“He would be like: ‘f-ing locals. They’re so stupid,’" said former Bay Clinic board member Lynne Enriques. “As far as our local aloha culture, he had no clue.”
Wallace, who left the clinic in March, is widely credited for turning around the Hilo-based community healthcare organization, which serves more than 22,000 patients a year in East Hawaii — a community facing a severe shortage of healthcare providers. …
Kramer, meanwhile, lost her job in a restructuring earlier this year….
read … Hilo workers allege hostile work environment under former Bay Clinic CEO
Old Boy Kahele Picks up another Endorsement
TGI: … I, Bernard Carvalho, plan to continue to find a way to serve the people of Kauai and the people of Hawaii. Wherever that road takes me, I know I am more likely to be effective and successful with Kai Kahele representing me, my ohana and our island community in Washington D.C….
SA: Former Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho endorses Kai Kahele for Congress
(Translation: Carvalho has been promised something, just like Ing.)
read … Former Kauai mayor Carvalho endorses Kahele
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