Guilty of Bribery, Embezzlement: Caldwell Admin CARES Act Administrator Hanalei Aipoalani
Outdoor Weddings up to 100 People Now Allowed on Oahu
A spending spree, really?
Former Kauai JROTC instructor arrested for sexual exploitation of former student
USFWS Proposes Downlisting the Hawaiian Stilt Thanks to Strong Conservation Partnership Efforts
Kauai instructor accused of child sex crimes was also a longtime foster parent
HNN: … Law enforcement is working to track down dozens of former foster children who spent time with Victor Aguilar over several decades, sources told Hawaii News Now.
Aguilar, 65, was booked into the Federal Detention Center by agents with Homeland Security Investigations on Thursday. He’s charged with two counts of child exploitation for the purpose of producing child pornography.
Kauai County prosecutors also charged Aguilar at the state level last month for allegedly sexually assaulting a former student at Waimea High School, where he was an athletics coach and JROTC instructor since 1995.
Aguilar and his wife fostered about 40 children total and investigators want to know if he abused any of them….
Court documents said law enforcement identified “approximately 1,000 artifacts-both videos and photographs” of the underage victim….
read … Kauai instructor accused of child sex crimes was also a longtime foster parent
HB1067: Conference Committee to Decide UH Capital Improvement System—PLA Coming for UH Contracting???
SA Editorial: … In 2013, amid accusations that the University of Hawaii may have wasted millions of dollars by mishandling construction contracts, the Legislature cracked down. It passed a bill that took away the role of the UH president — M.R.C. Greenwood at the time, in the last few months of her tenure — as chief procurement officer for construction-related projects.
The State Procurement Office (SPO) reassumed the role, resulting in what UH called a “bifurcated procurement system” …
And so in 2018, after five years of relative calm under the current UH president, David Lassner, the Legislature changed its mind, sort of.
It returned to the UH president the role of chief procurement officer for construction projects, but tacked on a sunset date of June 30, 2021, in case things went bad….
Now the Legislature is considering lifting the sunset date and returning control to the UH president permanently — a move endorsed by the SPO. House Bill 1067 would have done just that. But when the bill crossed over and emerged from the Senate Higher Education Committee this week, it was amended to include another sunset clause: June 30, 2024….
In February, while HB 1067 was moving through the House, the General Contractors Association of Hawaii submitted testimony in support.
The GCA, Hawaii’s largest construction association, wrote that UH worked with the association to find ways “to improve the delivery of university projects. The University of Hawaii has been open to hearing feedback and identifying ways in which it can improve in the execution of important repair and maintenance projects and new construction by ensuring the process is efficient and transparent.”
Unlike typical government construction, UH uses a more simplified and efficient “design build” process that keeps everything within UH instead of the more traditional “design, bid, build” concept, which could require multiple reviews and change orders for unbudgeted costs, Young said.
He described a complicated and years-long effort to get a hypothetical $1 million school cafeteria built, starting with designs that might not fit with later construction realities and would likely require multiple requests for funding from the state Legislature as the project progresses, a process that could take at least three years.
Instead, using the design-bid process in-house, Young said UH does not have to award contracts to the lowest bidder and can work more closely with designers and builders on projects within budget that make sense for all sides.
And UH can lump together several projects, such as roof repairs for multiple buildings, instead of requesting individual funding for specific building projects from the Legislature.
“That is not an approach that is customary for the state,” Young said. “We will be back in a situation where we have to procure for individual building work.”…
CLUE: Kinney testifying for a UH PLA (see pg 6) Translation: The Building Trades want to use the Conference Committee negotiations to impose a Project Labor Agreement on UH in exchange for accepting the design-build process and allowing UH to handle its own contracting.
SA: University of Hawaii could lose control over decisions on construction, renovation and backlogged repairs across 10-campus system
Project Labor Agreement Coming for UH?
read … Construction at University of Hawaii
Hawaiian Airlines CEO says state should loosen interisland travel restrictions
HTH: … Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram said during a livestreamed interview Friday that the state should remove coronavirus testing requirements for interisland travelers regardless of whether a “vaccine passport” program is implemented. Currently, the state enforces a 10-day quarantine for travelers to any island that isn’t Oahu, unless the traveler tests negative for COVID within 72 hours of departure….
Ingram also believes a vaccine passport program — where travelers who can prove they have been fully inoculated against COVID-19 are exempt from travel restrictions — is the next logical step from the state, even if such a program comes with logistical issues.
“The biggest impediment to that is the logistics of verifying that you’ve had your vaccine,” Ingram said. “People who’ve had their vaccine, they’ve all got their little white piece of paper that shows that. There’s really not an easy way to validate that, I understand, by uploading it into the Safe Travels application. So we may have to look at pieces of paper for some period of time.”
As for international flights, Ingram said Hawaiian Airlines currently is offering limited flights to Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul, but added that the major sticking point for most travelers is the fact that traveling from Hawaii to Japan or South Korea and then back again will require at least three COVID tests at the traveler’s expense.
Until those countries lower their own travel restrictions, Ingram said, there isn’t much the airline can do to make those flights more practical….
read … Hawaiian Airlines CEO says state should loosen interisland travel restrictions
Hawaiian Airlines calling employees back to work as its CEO sees bluer skies ahead
SA: … Speaking on the Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii livestream show this morning, Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram said the carrier is now seeing consistent load factors in the mid-60-to-70% range.
The airline is calling some furloughed employees back to work, he said….
Hawaiian Airlines Feels Wind In Its Sails
After lockdowns and layoffs, businesses are feeling something new: Optimism
read … Hawaiian Airlines calling employees back to work as its CEO sees bluer skies ahead
Vigilantes Claim 100 COVID Arrests
KITV: … The fact that so many people both locals and visitors violated state mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic made her so angry, she created a Facebook group to help hold those people accountable.
More than a year later, Angela Keen and members in her group Hawaii Quarantine Kapu Breakers, report helping law enforcement make nearly 100 arrests across the state. The organization is a resource that tracks down people who violate state and county COVID-19 mandates.
She was tested mind and body and has bags filled with hate mail to prove it. It hasn’t been a pleasant journey and she’s not keen on simply being called a rat….
read … Angela Keen, tested mind and body
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