Keli'i Akina: The Jones Act and Hawaii
Legislative Agenda: UH Budget Request for 2020
Revolving Door: Andrew Pereira leaving City for 'new opportunity in private sector'
Gabbard to Introduce Censure Alternative to Impeaching Trump
Land Use: Hawaii Supreme Court Creates New Procedural Hoop to Jump Through
Unique Accomplishment: Kauai Runs on 100% 'Renewable' for a Few Hours
Feds: Since Soft on Crime State Won’t Lock up Criminals, We Will
KITV: … U.S. Attorney for Hawaii Kenji Price told reporters that his office is prioritizing investigations and prosecutions of the most violent and dangerous offenders, meaning those with prior felony convictions.
He's also targeting criminal groups or organizations that prey on the vulnerable.
"There may be some folks running around town and causing havoc and thinking they'll escape federal prosecution because they're not committing a federal crime or our state system is overrun," Price said. "Violent criminals should know that will use any federal statute available to prosecute you. Whether it's a federal carjacking statute, robbery statute, unlawful firearms possession statute, or any other statute for that matter to provides us an avenue for holding you accountable. Our goal is to pursue charges that line you in custody."
Price hopes more enforcement and harsher punishments under federal law will deter criminals…. (Wow. What a concept!)
KHON: Hawaii’s US attorney lays out plan to stop Oahu’s violent crime wave
read … Amid rash of violent crime on Oahu, federal investigators to target most dangerous offenders
Another Criminal Killed by Soft on Crime Policies—Who will Save Hawaii Criminals from Do-Gooders?
HNN: … Ballard said the officer fired four rounds.
The officer sustained minor injuries in the incident and was treated at a hospital. He has 13 years of service with the force, and will be put on administrative leave as is standard procedure.
HNN is not yet naming the suspect.
But Ballard said he was on probation for unlawful entry into a vehicle and was wanted on a warrant for skipping court after being charged with abuse of a family member.
The moped he was operating was also stolen, she said….
(If he had been locked up in a nice safe moldy prison cell, he would be alive today. He was killed by Hawaii soft-on–crime Judiciary.)
read … Body cam footage shows what led up to fatal officer-involved shooting in West Oahu
Police Re-arrest 12-time loser after Judiciary Sets Him Free
HNN: … Pontes was booked for violating the terms of his probation and felony drug charges.
Records show is a convicted felon with 12 prior charges who had a warrant out for his arrest.
He was arrested in July for violating his probation but was released with conditions to get drug treatment….
(IQ Test—Are You Smarter Than a Judge? -- When the lawyer for a 12-time convicted felon says he wants ‘drug treatment’ should he be released?)
read … Fugitive found hiding in stranger’s closet in Ewa
In astounding confession, Hawaii child porn suspect claims 100 victims
HNN: … Federal agents have arrested a Japanese national attending university in Hawaii after a 19-month investigation that led to a huge trove of child pornography ― and an admission from the suspect that he was in contact with more than 100 young girls.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested Kenneth Hyon Lim at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Monday.
In allegations filed in federal court, investigators said Japanese police informed them in April of last year that a 9-year-old Japanese girl had been communicating online and sending explicit photos to two Hawaii IP addresses and that the suspect was a Japanese national living in the islands.
The IP addresses led investigators to an apartment in Honolulu where Lim lived alone.
He was first arrested in January 2019, when he arrived on a flight from Japan and his laptop and cellular phone were confiscated. Lim has dual U.S. and Japanese citizenship.
In an astounding confession, Lim told the agents that he had spent a month in jail in Japan in 2016 for exchanging lewd images with females and that since 2014 he had been in contact with over 100 girls between the ages of 10 and 13.
Although Lim denied there were pornographic images on his phone, forensic searches that took several months turned up what agents described as “thousands of images and hundreds of videos containing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
The collection also included children described as “toddlers” being raped by men.
Although Lim was apparently allowed to return to Japan after his initial arrest, and arrested again upon his return on the new charges, federal prosecutors are now asking a judge to hold him without bail as a flight risk….
The filings also don’t say how old Lim is or what school he is attending….
KITV: Officials forming statewide task force to combat human trafficking after multiple offenders busted
read … In astounding confession, Hawaii child porn suspect claims 100 victims
Maui Council brings back county manager debate
MN: … Council Member Tamara Paltin remembers what it was like to be a county lifeguard over 12 years of changing political pressures from Mayor Alan Arakawa to Charmaine Tavares and back.
“It was a really bad time to be a county worker because of the back and forth, and so many things that our county roles and responsibilities should not be politicized,” Paltin recalled Tuesday. “Regardless of who’s running the county, you still need to deliver the water to the water system, you still need to do the wastewater, you still need to do maintenance.”
(IQ Test: Are you impressed by this story?)
It’s why Paltin and some council members are supporting a newly revived proposal to hire a county manager to act as the chief operating officer of Maui County, in charge of the day-to-day operations of department affairs and separate from the two- or four-year terms of elected officials.
But other council members harbor concerns. The latest proposal would transfer several powers from the mayor to the manager, which they say would create an imbalance of power between branches of government.
“I do have a concern in that to me it blurs the lines of the separation of powers when the council gets overly involved in what I consider to be an executive function,” Council Member Alice Lee said.
On Tuesday, the council’s Governance, Ethics and Transparency Committee discussed the proposal but took no action; members said the purpose was mainly to get the ball rolling and allow people time to consider it before Election Day.
read … Council brings back county manager debate
Hawaii Co Energy code changes heading to council
HTH: … A bill that would make 46 changes to the county’s energy conservation code passed a County Council committee meeting Tuesday and will go before the full council.
Bill 126 makes a host of changes to the county’s current energy conservation code, which is based on a 2006 version of the International Energy Conservation Code and has been criticized for being overly stringent and poorly applicable to the Big Island…
Reaction to the bill during Tuesday’s meeting of the Public Works and Mass Transit Committee was largely positive. The handful of testifiers responding to the measure agreed that the amendments are significant improvements upon the current code, which is needlessly restrictive….
(See how that works? First let an absurd law take effect, then act like heroes repealing some of its effects. Meanwhile a county-wide requirement for solar hot water systems slips through.)
read … Energy code changes heading to council
City officials say homeless ruling won’t derail enforcement in Honolulu
SA: … On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found it unconstitutional (“cruel and unusual punishment”) to roust homeless people from public property when no shelter is available; the ruling stands. Read it at 808ne.ws/martinvboise.
Advocates for the homeless hail this as a significant protection, while officials in some affected cities, such as Los Angeles, say it deters the clearing of unsafe, unhealthy encampments.
Hawaii also is within the 9th Circuit’s jurisdiction, but Marc Alexander, executive director of Honolulu’s Office of Housing, said city practices won’t be affected. He said “compassionate disruption” already emphasizes intensive outreach, including emergency shelter being available for the homeless people affected by any given enforcement action.
There isn’t shelter space for all of Oahu’s estimated 2,400 unsheltered homeless people on any given night, but enforcement doesn’t occur islandwide, he said. Rather, enforcement occurs on specific streets (with at least 24 hours notice) and takes shelter availability into account….
read … City officials say homeless ruling won’t derail enforcement in Honolulu
QUICK HITS: