Democracy in peril: Upholding government transparency during a crisis
A 50-State Visual Guide to Unemployment Benefit Claims
275 Candidates File for Election
Partnership to provide meals to the newly unemployed
COVID Count: 3 new cases, 19 released
Bill 41 Property Tax Relief for Businesses?
SA: … Bill 41, introduced by Ann Kobayashi and Carol Fukunaga, would allow property tax deferrals for eligible businesses forced to close because of the emergency. The option also would apply to property owners who allowed deferral of lease and rent payments from businesses on their property that had to close.
There is no doubt that many businesses need relief. Forced to close through no fault of their own, they are confronted with fixed costs — mortgage, rent, property taxes — that they are losing the ability to pay.
It certainly won’t help the economic recovery if scores of already struggling businesses are evicted or foreclosed on because they can’t make the regular payments.
Gov. David Ige has imposed a moratorium on evictions of tenants on residential and leased properties. The Council is considering a resolution that would urge Ige to issue another moratorium “on all commercial and residential tenant evictions and homeowner mortgagor foreclosures.”…
Bill 41: Text, Status
read … Beware consequences of deferred property taxes
Kauai Council eyes reducing current budget
TGI: … As the county anticipates less incoming revenue, some previously approved infrastructure projects may need to be put on hold.
Earlier this month, the County Council were proposed Bill 2791, amending the county’s budget for the current fiscal year (ending June 30) by dropping the estimated General Excise Tax Fund collections by $2 million. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has put tourism and other industries on hold.
Of the $2 million revision, the county Department of Public Works Roads Division reduced its budget by $1.9 million, the Transportation Agency cut $75,000 for administration, computers and accessories, and $25,000 in operations….
“As far as next year’s GET, that is going to be incorporated in this next budget that we are currently working on,” Kaneshiro said.
The regular Excise Tax Fund is in the $26 million range, Kaneshiro said during the meeting, where the $2 million is coming from.
“We already saw the initial budget that the mayor sent over,” Kaneshiro said. “We saw the numbers that they were expecting without COVID-19, and I’m sure the supplemental (budget) will see a much lower number based on our current situation.”
A public hearing on this bill is Wednesday, May 6. Public testimony can be sent to the the council at counciltestimony@kauai.gov, as the council continues to meet remotely with no physical public participation allowed….
read … Council eyes reducing current budget
Covid impact on Hawaii home sales will be more severe next month
PBN: … There are only 22 condos on Maui that are currently in escrow, which is 84% fewer than the 138 units that were pending at this time last year, while there are only 27 single-family homes pending, a 76% drop from 113 homes pending at this point in April 2019.
On Oahu, there were 215 condos in escrow as of Thursday, which was a 43% drop from 379 at the same point last year, while there were 213 single-family homes pending, a 30% drop from 305 this time last year.
Locations last week reported that new escrows were running at a rate of 29% lower than a year ago.
New listings so far this month, meanwhile, were down by more than 40% for both categories on both islands.
read … Covid impact on Hawaii home sales will be more severe next month
Hawaii Paid $68 Million In Unemployment Claims This Week
CB: … Between April 17-23, eligible applicants received a total of $68,097,470, including federally funded $600-a-week bonuses. That is more than six times what the state paid in benefits in the second week of April, which was already double what the state paid the same time last year.
About 66% of the $68 million was covered by funding designated for Hawaii from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which went into effect March 27.
The federal boost included $600-a-week bonuses….
SA: Hawaii unemployment officials finally distributing extra COVID-19 federal aid
read … Hawaii Paid $68 Million In Unemployment Claims This Week
Hawaii lawmakers are advised to prepare for more cases of COVID-19
SA: … As Hawaii leaders continue to explore ways to reopen the economy, the state’s top epidemiologist warned lawmakers Friday that a second wave of COVID-19 is likely on the horizon and the state had better be ready.
“We’re in a marathon, not a sprint,” State Epidemiologist Sarah Park told senators at the Capitol. “A vaccine is a long time coming and we have to prepare. It won’t be business as usual. We have to think about social distancing in earnest and as a normal part of our lives.” …
When providers are forced to close because they don’t have enough masks, for example, patients can’t get their prescriptions or the medical care they need, so they end up in emergency departments, placing an even greater burden on hospitals, she said….
“One thing we have maintained through this is the contact tracing,” she said. “But many of my colleagues (in other states) stopped long before because they could not handle it. They did not have the resources.”
The final measure the state needs before opening up, Park said, is a variety of social-distancing guidelines to help slow the spread of the coronavirus when it’s reintroduced.
“We cannot keep it out, but we can slow it down. We know how to slow it down,” she said….
read … Hawaii lawmakers are advised to prepare for more cases of COVID-19
State attorney general tells Hawaii Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 that 14-day visitor quarantine may last
SA: … Connors said the 14-day quarantine, which is motivated by a health and safety crisis, meets constitutional requirements. More invasive ideas to to tighten quarantine enforcement have been brought up, but they need to be vetted, she said.
Some ideas include:
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>> requiring quarantining visitors to wear ankle bracelets that ping when they leave their room;
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>> employing Facebook recognition;
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>> using 24/7 GPS monitoring;
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>> requiring visitors to stay in designated locations, which might be guarded.
Connors said she’s having conversations with the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, the state Department of Transportation and law enforcement officials about designating specific quarantine locations and supplying ankle bracelets to one or all hotels….
SA: More visitors arrived Friday, pushing Hawaii’s tourist count above 3,700 since the quarantine
read … State attorney general tells Hawaii Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 that 14-day visitor quarantine may last
With donations, nonprofit puts homeless families up in Waikiki hotels
HNN: … Family Promise of Hawaii said it has moved 32 people — parents and children — into hotels.
The program was funded by the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Resilience Fund, and is in partnership with OLS Hotels and Resorts. It wasn’t immediately clear how long the families would be allowed to stay.
Family Promise of Hawaii typically houses families in places of worship.
But that’s been made incredibly difficult due to social distancing guidelines….
meals are being provided by community partners ….
read … Tourists out Homeless In
Young Brothers requests to scale back service to Maui, Hawaii counties
KHON: … The company says that this is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the decreasing cargo volumes for all ports. Young Brothers say that they will also implement changes to hours of operation at all of its ports…
requested temporary changes to YB’s sailing schedule for Maui and Hawaii counties beginning May 5, 2020, subject to PUC approval. All other county sailing schedules will not be affected. To view YB’s updated sailing schedule for the two counties, click here ….
IM: COVID-19 --- Young Brothers Proposes Cutting Service
HNN: If approved, the schedule change would go into affect on May 5th.
NR: Mayor Victorino comments on YB's request to adjust its schedule
read … Young Brothers requests to scale back service to Maui, Hawaii counties
Coronavirus outbreak strikes another U.S. Navy ship after Pearl Harbor Port Call
YN: … Eighteen sailors from the Kidd, a destroyer underway in the eastern Pacific Ocean, have tested positive, the Navy announced Friday. The ship, which has a crew of about 350, is returning to port, according to Navy spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Megan Isaac, who said operational security prevented her from identifying the destroyer’s destination. Its home port is Everett, Wash.
The Kidd is the second Navy ship to be sidelined by COVID-19, following the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which was forced to extend a previously scheduled port call in Guam because of an outbreak that ultimately infected more than 800 sailors.
The destroyer left its last port of call, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on March 20, according to Isaac. The more than one-month gap between its departure from Pearl Harbor and the first COVID-19 diagnosis suggests that one or more sailors were infected while in Hawaii, but asymptomatic. The ship had previously visited Guam in mid-February, according to a Navy news release. …
read … Coronavirus outbreak strikes another U.S. Navy ship
About 100 victims come forward with new claims of sex abuse
HNN: … At least 100 former students, medical patients and church members have come forward with new allegations that they were sexually abused years ago.
Many are victims of known sex offenders -- pedophile priests, doctors and teachers.
But at least five ex-Punahou girls basketball players -- including MMA champ Ilima-Lei MacFarlane and former University of Hawaii women’s basketball standout Shawna-Lei Kuehu -- are raising new sex abuse allegations against their former coach Dwayne Yuen.
Attorneys said the lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg.
“I know (that) for a fact, because I’ve talked to people who are still out there and are still undecided about coming forward," said attorney Randall Rosenberg.
A large number of the suits are against the Catholic Church, which is paying out millions to settle prior cases….
Lawyers said that many of these new cases will go to mediation and not to a courtroom because the accused priest, teacher or doctor is a known offender.
Among those are several dozen new claims against pedophile psychiatrist Dr. Robert Browne, whose victims in the 1960s and 1970s were usually referred by Kamehameha schools.
The school is paying $80 million for prior Browne cases. Kamehameha Schools said it was saddened by the new cases and said it would work with the victims to do what is pono.
Another doctor -- pediatrician John Stephenson who practiced at Straub clinic at about the same time as Browne -- is the subject of about a dozen claims. Lawyers said Stephenson killed himself in 1970….
read … About 100 victims come forward with new claims of sex abuse
Aquarium trade releases final EIS for reopening West Hawaii fishery
WHT: … West Hawaii’s coastal waters — closed to aquarium fishing for more than two years — should reopen to just 10 commercial aquarium fishermen, a final environmental impact statement released Thursday states.
Produced by the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council with help from Stantec Consulting Services, the final EIS amended its initial proposal, reducing the suggested number of Commercial Aquarium Permits issued for the West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area (WHRFMA) from 14 to 10.
It also includes a bag limit of five for both yellow tang and kole — which combined account for more than 90% of total aquarium fish collected in the WHRFMA prior to the aquarium fishing halt by the Hawaii Supreme Court on Sept. 6, 2017 — and 10 for the achilles tang.
The EIS is aimed at bringing the aquarium trade into compliance with the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act after the state Supreme Court ruled collection without environmental review violates the act.….
read … Aquarium trade releases final EIS for reopening West Hawaii fishery
The Trash That Fuels Oahu’s Power Plant Is Vanishing As Fast As The Tourists
CB: … garbage — sent to the island’s H-Power waste-to-energy plant has dropped 15% since early March, the city’s Department of Environmental Services reports.
That translates to about 5,000 less tons of trash in the era of COVID-19 so far, department spokesman Marcus Owens said in an email….
Less garbage generated on a small island generally sounds like a silver lining.
However, the city faces steep financial penalties if it doesn’t send enough trash each year to the H-POWER plant, where the material is burned and converted to electricity.
Under contract, the city must pay H-Power operator Covanta for the company’s lost energy sales whenever the city fails to deliver at least 800,000 tons of trash a year.
From 2013 to 2105 the city paid out $6.2 million to cover the tons it missed and Covanta’s lost electricity revenues, according to a 2017 auditor’s report….
In recent years, the city trash has gotten closer to that 800,000-ton mark. It fell about 49,000 tons short in 2018, paying Covanta nearly $579,000. In 2019, it fell nearly 15,000 tons short, owing Covanta about $180,000 in lost revenues.
Despite the tonnage lost during the crisis, the city still hopes it can send nearly 750,000 tons this year to H-Power, based on its latest projections….
(IDEA: Stop all paper and plastic recycling since it is just a fraud anyway and send it to H-Power.)
read … The Trash That Fuels Oahu’s Power Plant Is Vanishing As Fast As The Tourists
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