Who Needs DoT? Private Management Can Take Over Dillingham Airport
'Connected vehicle sensors' to Watch Big Island Roads
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Oahu vote tally topples record
SA: … The Honolulu Elections Division had tallied 313,320 ballots as of the end of day today, the office said in a Twitter post. City Clerk Glen Takahashi said his office mailed out 549,935 election packets earlier this month, which means 57% of the ballot envelopes already have been received.
Before this, the highest number of Oahu votes cast was 308,443 in 2008 — the year Hawaii-born Barack Obama was first elected president. The highest percentage of votes cast recorded was 93.3% in 1959, the first year of statehood, so that record likely will stand for now.
read … Oahu vote tally topples record
Honolulu Police Department has issued 60,000 coronavirus-related violations
SA: … “It’s a full misdemeanor, so it’s subject to up to a $5,000 fine and up to a year in jail. But one of the things that people don’t realize is it’s a criminal citation. It’s in lieu of an arrest. The citation you get is equivalent to that arrest, so if you’re convicted, you actually have a criminal record,” McCarthy said…. McCarthy urged people not to gather this weekend for Halloween, warning that HPD has staffed extra personnel for the holiday to enforce the rules across the island ….
read … Honolulu Police Department has issued 60,000 coronavirus-related violations
How SHOPO Keeps Trying To Hide Police Misconduct Despite New Disclosure Law
CB: … The statewide police union doesn’t want the public to have access to the arbitration decision that gave alleged abuser Darren Cachola his badge back….
Oct 26, 2020: City agrees to a tentative $320,000 settlement over HPD domestic violence case
read … How SHOPO Keeps Trying To Hide Police Misconduct Despite New Disclosure Law
Hawaii among top 5 states with highest mortgage fraud risk
PBN: … Hawaii is among the top five states for mortgage application fraud risk, according to a new mortgage fraud report by CoreLogic, which also found that Honolulu ranked in the top 25 metropolitan areas for fraud risk, despite a decline in fraud risk nationally….
Occupancy risk is the highest fraud risk for lenders and the only segment to see an increase in the past year — when a borrower says on an application that the property will be their primary home, when in fact it’s a rental, said Bridget Berg, principal, Mortgage Fraud Solutions at CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX). Income fraud risk and identity fraud risk declined, as did undisclosed real estate debt, transaction fraud risk and property fraud risk.
New York was the state with the largest amount of mortgage fraud, followed by Nevada and Florida, Hawaii and Maine. Honolulu was ranked No. 21 among metro areas for fraud risk.
Hawaii typically ranks as a higher-risk state because mortgage applications are for higher loan amounts, there is a higher share of jumbo loans and there is a greater concentration of second homes, Berg told Pacific Business News….
Berg said because of all those factors, Hawaii is nearly always higher than average for fraud risk….
CL: 2020 Annual Mortgage Fraud Report
read … Hawaii among top 5 states with highest mortgage fraud risk
Sec 8: State expects 20,000 applications when rental subsidy wait list is briefly opened
HNN: … The state is expecting an avalanche of applications when it briefly opens its Section 8 rental assistance program waiting list this week.
The last time the state opened the waiting list four years ago, 11,000 people applied for about 1,000 housing vouchers. This time, officials expect about 20,000 applicants for about 750 openings.…
CB: Current Oahu renters can sign up online between Thursday and Monday to try to get on the waitlist.
read … State expects 20,000 applications when rental subsidy wait list is briefly opened
Hawaiian Airlines’ Struggles Reflect The Pain Of The Tourism Industry
CB: … passenger revenue for the three months ended September 30 was down 95% from the year before, at $40 million compared with $694 million for the same period in 2019 ….
read … Hawaiian Airlines’ Struggles Reflect The Pain Of The Tourism Industry
Gun sales surge, creating a backlog to process permits
HNN: … Gun sales surge around the state, but some counties struggle to keep up with the growing number of firearms permits and registrations….
Hanson is a first-time gun buyer. He started the permitting process in February. He is still without a firearm, and will be into 2021.
"Add three months to get appointment, two weeks for background check, then 3 months for appointment to register it once i get it," stated Hanson.
Along with the surge of gun sales, there has also been a huge increase in permits issued on Oahu this year: nearly 3,000 more than at this time last year, which is an increase of nearly 40%. The same is true for firearms being registered.
Other counties also report increases, with Kauai registering a 50% jump in the number of firearms, going from 2,208 in 2019, to 3,294 in 2020.
Along with the number of permits piling up, so is the number of guns waiting to be picked up by customers.
"We have 222 guns, sold in the back. But we are waiting for customers to get their permit to acquire and get them out of here," stated Tenney.
read … Gun sales surge, creating a backlog to process permits
NTSB releases details from skydiving plane crash that killed 11 at Dillingham Airfield
SA: … In an email to the NTSB, Kuchenski said on previous flights “the pilot would sometimes take off at an extremely steep angle and aggressive climb right after leaving the runway. This was presumably done for fun to intentionally create a high-gravity environment momentary.”
Kuchenski asked the pilot not to fly in that manner because it could cause a stall, “which would be unrecoverable that close to the ground. He respected my opinion and no longer flew the aircraft in that manner while I was on it after I had that discussion with him.”
In a maintenance records report, Robert Seladis, a mechanic who performed maintenance on the aircraft, was interviewed a few days after the crash. FAA records showed that his certificates were revoked in 2005 due to falsification of records on two aircraft.
He was later allowed to be reexamined and a new certificate was issued in 2015. “Calls to Mr. Robert Seladis for a follow up interview were not returned,” the report said. “A letter sent to his last known address requesting a follow up interview was returned as no longer at this address.”
Seladis did contract maintenance on the airplane and was in possession of the aircraft logbooks, and attempts to retrieve those were unsuccessful, the report says….
HPR: Report: Pilot In Hawaii Plane Crash Had Risk-Taking History
read … NTSB releases details from skydiving plane crash that killed 11 at Dillingham Airfield
Petitions would add 3 excuses to medicated pot list
SA: … Petitions seeking to add anxiety, depression and insomnia to the list of “debilitating medical conditions” that qualify Hawaii patients for medical cannabis use will undergo a public hearing Thursday.
If approved by the Department of Health director, the trio of conditions would be the first added to the list since 2017 and would make Hawaii one of only a handful of states to accept anxiety as a qualifying condition.
The Health Department is required to hold public hearings at least once a year on formal petitions seeking to add conditions to Hawaii’s medical cannabis program. Petitions may be filed by a physician or “potentially qualifying patient” and should include medical or scientific evidence and letters of support from physicians….
read … Petitions would add 3 conditions to medical pot list
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