List: Did Your School Have COVID this week?
COVID Spying: Saiki Wants 'Health Pass' to Enter Stores
HIDOE to implement weekly COVID-19 testing requirement
DLIR to Accept Telephone Appointments for Complex Unemployment Claims
Open-records law restored, but transparency still needed
Hawaii Union Lawsuit Based on Anti-Vaxxer Lies?
NewsMax Aug 14, 2021: … unions’ lawyer Michael Green adds that when you look at influenza, "when they found 53 deaths as a result of the vaccine, they suspended the vaccine. We can show 45,000 deaths, in 72 hours from this [COVID-19] vaccine. You have companies making a billion-plus a month. The pressure they put on the FDA to endorse these vaccines is unbelievable. I think they'd rather pay people for the deaths of their family members, then stop making a billion dollars a month."….
Reality:
PDF: Complaint
read … First Responders Sue Hawaii Over Vaccine Mandates
Char, Ige issue stern warning about COVID crisis: ‘We are on fire’
HTH: … The DOH reported more than 2,000 new cases in the past three days, an average of 729 new COVID infections each day….
“When we have hospitals that are really worried about being able to take care of people, that’s a crisis,” Char said. “When see this exponential growth in the amount of people that are getting infected with COVID every day — 2,000 people in the last three days — that’s a crisis. And at the point at which we overwhelm our resources, that’s a disaster. That’s where we’re heading, and we’re trying really hard not to get there.”
Hawaii’s hospitals are at or nearing capacity, and health care workers are strained amid the surge of coronavirus cases, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.
The concern, though, is not just about COVID patients in the hospitals, Char said.
“If the hospital is so consumed with taking care of patients with COVID, it means that there is less resource to take care of other patients,” Char said. “ … It’s really a system issue. It’s not just COVID, and COVID is just adding to an already existing, busy system. … It really is about people, resources and staffing, and that’s where we’re falling short, and that’s why we really, really need people to please step up and help.”…
“Our heroes in health care, on the front lines battling COVID, again are being asked to save us,” Ige said. “It is unfair. Unfair because we all can save ourselves. Our behavior can save us. The actions we take each and every day can make a difference in the battle against COVID. The choices we make can save us, and we can and must turn this around.
“We must change our behavior and take action.”
Char was to the point.
“Wear your masks indoors. Keep your distance. Get tested. And stay home if you’re sick. Get vaccinated,” she said.
Char said the Delta variant now accounts for 80% of COVID cases in Hawaii.
“It used to be that if you were fully vaccinated, you could do just about anything,” she said. “With the Delta variant being so pervasive, the fight has changed.”
According to Char, those infected with the Delta variant carry 1,000 to 1,200 times the amount of virus in them than those who had the original virus strain….
read … Char, Ige issue stern warning about COVID crisis: ‘We are on fire’
200 Students on Waiting List for Distance Education
SA:…State interim Superintendent of Schools Keith Hayashi said today that the state Department of Education would be looking at the possibility of adding more distance-learning options in light of the ongoing spike in coronavirus cases in Hawaii.
For now, however, the department is still trying to hire teachers in an effort to take care of a 200-student waiting list, Hayashi told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii online news show….
read … Students remain on waiting list for distance learning as Department of Education tries to find more teachers
Congress, Biden Must Act to Renew Pacific Island Compacts
RCP: … Out of the thousands of congressional staff and members working on Capitol Hill, fewer than two dozen are likely aware that elements of little-known international agreements, called Compacts of Free Association (COFA), are due to expire at the end of FY23 and FY24. The pacts are between the United States and three countries in the Pacific — the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Together, these strategically located countries represent an area the size of the lower 48 states, have enormous exclusive economic zones, and are clearly a prime target for Chinese influence.
FY23/24 might seem like a long way off but, given the importance and complexity of these agreements, the congressional and budget process, and significant outstanding items, action needs to occur immediately in order to meet these deadlines. The current compacts were approved in 2003 and the economic assistance portions expire in 2023 for RMI and FSM, and 2024 for Palau.
In April, Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso, the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to take action “given the strategic importance of these countries to the U.S. and our allies in the region, and the emerging assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China.” It is clear they want the administration to deliver to Congress the renewed COFA agreements for their consideration.
Hawaii’s delegation in Congress is certainly focused on this issue. Reps. Ed Case and Kai Kahele, and Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono have expressed concerns about the negotiations, and especially the significant social costs to Hawaii (and Guam) of Compact migrants….
read … Congress, Biden Must Act to Renew Pacific Island Compacts
Guam's delegate pushes for Jones Act exemption to lower costs of food and medicine
KN: … Matson shipping's chokehold on the economies and political powerhouses of the Pacific has caused an economy of political courage juice in the islands: a scarcity of conscience.
No reasonable and educated policy maker, who is honest with him- or herself, actually believes the century-old federal law that protects shipping companies and drives up all of our costs in the islands is a good law. Yet, from the Mariana Islands to the islands of Hawaii, a category 5 storm happens more often than a politician who takes a stance against the Jones Act, or who otherwise challenges Matson shipping ….
read … Guam's delegate pushes for Jones Act exemption to lower costs of food and medicine
Honolulu Police Department releases extended, heavily censored body-worn camera footage of Myeni shooting
SA: … Just days after Myeni, originally from South Africa, was shot and killed, HPD released about two minutes’ worth of footage from two officers who were at the scene, and on Friday it released that footage again but as part of three videos that together are more than 54 minutes long.
Not much new information is revealed in the videos, which contain mostly the aftermath of the shooting and is often censored….
LINK: Video
read … Honolulu Police Department releases extended, heavily censored body-worn camera footage of Myeni shooting
Why minority business leaders are celebrating the infrastructure bill
CNN: …the final version of the Senate bill includes a bipartisan amendment that would make the Minority Business Development Agency a permanent part of the federal government and expand its budget from $42 million to $110 million ….
read … Why minority business leaders are celebrating the infrastructure bill
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