Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted December 14, 2019
Homelessness: Kauai LEAD Program Launches
HART Secretly Fired Spokesman After Union Corruption Conviction
CB:…After initially declining to provide details about Russell Yamanoha’s exit, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has now confirmed the agency’s former media specialist was fired.
Yamanoha was terminated on Oct. 2, HART spokesman Bill Brennan said in an email last week. About a month prior to his firing, Yamanoha pleaded guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy in a 2015 union vote-rigging scheme unrelated to the rail transit project.
Initially, HART appeared to support Yamanoha staying on board. Executive Director Andrew Robbins said in September that he saw no immediate reason for him to leave the agency (because his criminal record made him fit in better)…
Aug 2019: Former union boss charged in massive fraud, embezzlement indictment
Oct, 2019: Embattled Russell Yamanoha no longer with HART
read … HART Reversed Course And Fired Embattled Employee
Mayor signs Plastic Ban into law
KHON: … Caldwell signs one of the strictest plastics ban into law today following a 7-2 vote on the City Council level earlier this month.
Under the ban, plastic service ware like utensils, straws and stirrers will no longer be allowed by 2021.
The year after that, plastic and Styrofoam food carriers such as cups, plates and clamshell containers will be banned.
The environmental services will be in charge of enforcement and providing exemptions for businesses. …
KITV: Bill 40 signed into law, banning most disposable plastics on Oahu by 2022
SA: Single-use plastic ban becomes law on Oahu
read … Mayor signs Plastic Ban into law
Agenda: Residential Property Tax Hikes to Pay for Rail
SA: … This year, the total value of Oahu properties increased by only 1.7%. The upshot could be some abrupt constraints on the (growth of the) city’s budget….
In March, anticipating the need to step up staffing for the opening of the 20-mile rail line’s first segment in December 2020 and pay for growing fixed costs for employees, Caldwell called for various increases in fees for city services — and raising property tax rates in the categories of hotel-resort and high-end Residential A, homes valued at $1 million-plus not occupied by owners.
The Council took the recommended action, which establishes a rail operations funding stream. Before any attention turns to also sizing up residential rates to feed the stream, the city must show taxpayers that its overall operations are as fit and lean as possible.
Big Q: Did your property taxes go up this year?
read … Less property tax take will mean city squeeze
Fake state or fake history?
WHT: … In regards to the protest on Maunakea, and the claims that the USA illegally annexed Hawaii, and that the State of Hawaii is what we hear so often referred to as a “fake state.”
To me, it seems a bit of a double standard when on two separate occasions we have gone to the mountain to gain access to the summit, and we asked the protesters to please move the cones, so that we may pass, as we have a cultural tradition to go up to the summit to gather snow for our keiki.
The response today that we captured on video was the protesters hollering for the nearby police to move us off of the road. Six times the kia’i that were managing traffic control at the summit road beckoned for the police to move us while we were in our car negotiating with them to move the cones, and their plea to the police was to come and move us so that we were not “blocking the road.”
Why would people who believe in obstructing a public road, believe it is not OK for us to do the same thing? Not only that, why would they believe that it is a proper response to the situation to beckon the police to come and remove us from our place on the road?
Do they or do they not believe that the police have jurisdiction on that road? Do they or do they not believe that the state of Hawaii is not legitimately organized by the USA?
This double standard of taking money and assistance from state organizations like DHHL, OHA, and the police, and then decrying that the police, the state, and the USA are “fake” is beyond hypocritical….
Also, a video from Dec. 13 where the kia’i who was at the mountain misrepresented a different visit that was made to the kupuna tent at the protest site. Online they passed around pictures of the license plates of the car that parked there, and they made a lot of inflammatory claims that my friend Lisa Malakua had drove erratically to the site, got out, swore at the protesters, and then threw “something” at the kupuna, and drove off.
But the reality is in this video.
read … Fake state or fake history?
How Hawaii Tax Dollars Keep Lunatics on the Streets
SA: … Across Oahu every day, outreach workers from ‘Ohana Health Plan work with nearly 90 “Level 5” chronically homeless clients such as Jeffrey Chipman, who sees people who do not exist and hears voices telling him to kill himself.
Chipman struggled the other day to remember how old he is — he’s 52 — outside of Chinatown’s Mental Health Kokua offices, which he visits every day to get daily medications, including an antipsychotic injection.
Chipman has been housed before, but got evicted because of his drinking and because he invited in homeless friends who trashed his place.
So a special team of ‘Ohana Health Plan workers work specifically with the most complex Level 5 candidates on Oahu such as Chipman. They include five Oahu case managers, a Level 5 housing coordinator, a psychiatrist and a psychiatric nurse, a certified substance abuse counselor and two mental health supervisors.
‘Ohana Health Plan is the only organization in Hawaii contracted through a Med-Quest program that serves Medicaid adults who qualify with a diagnosis of a serious and persistent mental illness, according to Theresa “Reese” Lyons, director of ‘Ohana Health Plan’s behavioral health community care services.
Kelly Whipple, ‘Ohana Health Plan’s behavioral health supervisor, defined Level 5 clients as “actively psychotic, with multiple suicide attempts who are frequently at the hospitals. They may have physical conditions, substance abuse issues and often are difficult to engage with and haven’t been able to be successfully treated in the past….
Solution: Reopen Lunatic Asylum. Put lunatics in asylum. It is inhumane to keep them living on the streets in cardboard boxes when a nice clean padded cell can be provided.
read … Inhumane ‘treatment’
State budgets $2.5M to replace state Capitol’s carpeting
SA: … The price tag for a project to replace the carpets in offices and meeting rooms on four floors of the state Capitol is approaching $2 million, with crews working seven days a week to get the first phase of the job finished in time for the Jan. 15 opening of the state Legislature, according to state Comptroller Curt Otaguro.
Otaguro said the Department of Accounting and General Services has budgeted $2.5 million to re-carpet 284 rooms including 15 conference rooms in the basement, second, third and fourth floors of the landmark building, but that still won’t cover all of the Capitol.
The state will have to enter into a new contract later to re-carpet the House and Senate chambers where lawmakers (lie like a rug) gather for floor votes during each session, he said.
Better idea: Bare concrete. Its real trendy right now—and its free!. Plus it will help acclimate legislators to jail….
read … State budgets $2.5M to replace state Capitol’s carpeting
Aiea Board Gives Its Blessing To Preliminary Plans For A New Jail
CB: … Many neighborhood board members don’t really want the new facility in Aiea, but they see the need for improving conditions for Oahu’s inmates….
read … Aiea Board Gives Its Blessing To Preliminary Plans For A New Jail
Public comment workshop set for new stadium project
SA: … Public comment and discussion concerning the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District is being solicited at a master planning community workshop Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Aloha Stadium hospitality room….
read … Public comment workshop set for new stadium project
Georgia Adoption Consultants Helped Honolulu Lawyer Place Marshallese Babies
CB: … The Christian referral service said it didn’t know Marshallese women were flying to the U.S. for adoptions, but the materials it sent to adoptive parents on behalf of attorney Laurie Loomis made it clear….
Meanwhile: She ran a multi-million dollar operation bringing women to California so their children would get US citizenship. She’ll be sentenced today
read … Georgia Adoption Consultants Helped Honolulu Lawyer Place Marshallese Babies
Avoiding Carbon Offset Scams
CB: … Carbon offsets are donations to projects that aim to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. From planting trees to capturing methane at landfills, the projects range in complexity and scope.
Civil Beat reader Marissa Culp was intrigued by the concept, but wary of scams.
“Please explain more about buying carbon offsets and how that really helps the environment. It seems to me it’s just putting money into corporation [sic] pockets,” she wrote….
(Reality: All Carbon Credits are a scam. Don’t buy them.)
2018: Lawsuits Close in on Hawaii’s Largest Carbon Credit Scheme
read … Avoiding Carbon Offset Scams
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