How Unemployment Insurance Fraud Exploded During the Pandemic
NEA announces support for educator vaccine and testing requirement
Public Employee Unions Join Anti-Vaxxers
Curfew could be implemented as hospitalizations, cases continue to soar
KHON: … Just one month ago, there were 50 COVID patients in the hospital, as of Sunday, Aug. 15, there are 300.
“So 274 of those individuals are unvaccinated and the other 26 have waning immunity, they’re very old, they’re our kupuna in general,” explained Lt. Governor Josh Green.
Intensive care units are at or nearing capacity. Over at Hilo Medical Center, some patients can’t receive the care they need.
“We do have a hold in the emergency department that requires intensive care or critical care,” explained Elena Cabatu, Hilo Medical Center Director of Marketing. “And we floated an ICU nurse down there to take care of this patient, there’s this critical patient has nowhere to go and receive critical care in our ICU, that’s how serious the situation is.”
“The hospital is very full. I was talking to the health supervisor, she is categorizing the situation as awful and heartbreaking and it’s her job to find a bed, and right now there are no beds,” Cabatu added.
She said HMC has one unvaccinated COVID patient who is on their 100th day at the hospital.
Cabatu said four weeks is the average hospital stay for an unvaccinated patient.
“So we are now really approaching the max, we’re going to cut back on pretty much all elective procedures in the coming weeks,” Green said of the current situation.
With 8,000 active cases statewide, health officials said the state can expect another 350 people to be hospitalized in the coming weeks.
“That means we’re going to have to scale back everything in society if that doesn’t change,” Green added.
“If this continues and case counts continue to be this high, the mayor’s, the governor, are going to have to consider the following, they’re going to have to consider curfews, they’re going to have to consider scaling back people going into any place without a vaccination card,” Green explained. “That’s exactly the opposite of what the non-vaccinated community wants, so I’m not recommending these things, I’m saying this is reality.”
Over the last several nights, people have gathered outside Green’s apartment complex protesting vaccines and mandates while he treats COVID patients on Hawaii island….
read … Curfew could be implemented as hospitalizations, cases continue to
Covid-19 Treatment In Hawaii Is Getting More Expensive For Some Patients
CB: … Kaiser stopped covering costs for Covid-19 patients this month, affecting about 260,000 Hawaii residents….
(Solution: Get vaxxed.)
read … Covid-19 Treatment In Hawaii Is Getting More Expensive For Some Patients
More Hawaii private schools act to establish vaccine mandate
SA: … ‘Iolani spokeswoman Michelle Hee said the faculty and staff already have a 99% vaccination rate, while eligible students in the Upper School (grades 7-12) are at 95%. The school isn’t requiring Lower School (grades K-6) students to get vaccinated, as most would be ineligible for a shot….
At Punahou all eligible students and employees are required to either be vaccinated or to test on a weekly basis.
“We have also implemented a vaccine requirement for all students participating in interscholastic athletics, with the exception of medical and religious exemptions. Today, more than 97% of our regular K-12 faculty are vaccinated and more than 85% of eligible students are vaccinated. We expect this number to continue to rise,” the school said in a statement.
At Island Pacific Academy in Kapolei, faculty, staff and administrators are being required to receive a COVID- 19 vaccination or undergo weekly testing, according to the school’s newly released health and safety plan. As for students, the school “strongly recommends” they receive a vaccination if and when they become eligible.
Not every school has a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Among them is Mid-Pacific Institute, which started classes Aug. 9.
School spokesman Kevin Whitton said the faculty at Mid-Pacific has a 97% vaccination rate. “Mid-Pacific did not need to mandate vaccinations because of their incredibly high vaccination rate,” he said….
At Kamehameha Schools all campuses and preschools have returned to full in-person instruction after nearly 1-1/2 years.
But there is no vaccination mandate. The school issued the following statement:
“After nearly 1-1/2 years, our campuses and preschools returned to full in-person instruction to enable haumana (students) to receive the learning experiences they deserve in a safe environment. While we continue to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations we also respect personal health choices and will continue to provide a weekly testing alternative for those who are not registering with us as vaccinated. We’re also continuing daily wellness checks, and indoor and outdoor masking, along with other precautions.”
There also is no such mandate at Saint Louis School….The faculty is already 95% vaccinated, he said, while the school is still trying to determine the vaccine rate for its student body of nearly 900….
When Parker announced its decision to establish a vaccine mandate, it was largely welcomed by a school community with an estimated 85% vaccination rate, said Dunn, the school’s top administrator since 2019.
But some parents did get a bit testy, he said. Some were even protesting with signs outside of the school Aug. 7….
read … More Hawaii private schools act to establish vaccine mandate
U.S. battery power capacity grew 35% in 2020: Hawaii one of Five top States
GTL: …Much of the recent increase in new storage capacity comes from battery energy systems co-located with or connected to solar projects.
The report said five states account for more than 70 percent of U.S. battery storage power capacity as of December 2020, with California alone accounting for 31 percent of the U.S. total (506 MW). Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Hawaii each have more than 50 MW of power capacity.
(Hawaii likely far outstrips the others on a per-capita basis)
More than 400 MW of small-scale total battery storage power capacity also existed in the United States as of 2019, with California accounting for 83 percent of the capacity. Small-scale batteries have a nameplate power capacity of 1 MW or less.
U.S. battery system energy capacity also continued to increase, reaching 1,688 megawatthours at the end of 2019, a 30 percent increase from 2018….
read … U.S. battery power capacity grew 35% in 2020: EIA
Census: All Hawaii Counties Add Housing Units
SA: … One of the biggest head-scratchers in the 2020 Census data is Hawaii’s ranking among only five other states where all counties reported an increase in housing units since 2010…..
Background: U.S. Census Bureau Delivers Data for States to Begin Redistricting Efforts
read … Housing increasing in Hawaii?
Maui Charter Commission Vets Record Number Of Reforms On Elections, Police
CB: … A review is underway of 135 proposals to alter Maui County’s charter, a once-a-decade process to give citizens of Maui, Molokai and Lanai a chance to refine the political system that shapes their daily lives. …
The charter commission started soliciting amendment proposals in March and began the process of reviewing them in June.
The end of January is the deadline for the commission to submit its final list of no more than 15 approved charter amendment questions to appear on the 2022 election ballot.
Background: 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist to Rewrite Maui County Charter?
read … Maui Charter Commission Vets Record Number Of Reforms On Elections, Police
Four Years After Deadly Fire, Many Honolulu High-Rises Still Lack Sprinklers
CB: …The July 2017 fire, which killed four people, prompted a law to be passed the next year requiring older buildings over 10 stories tall to install automatic sprinkler systems or pass a point-based system measuring other safety features such as smoke detectors, alarm systems and concrete walls.
But most of the buildings have either not complied or failed the so-called Life Safety Evaluation. The deadline for compliance has been extended to May. Those that fail the evaluation have until 2025 get a passing score.
Many property owners say the requirement is too expensive since the process of retrofitting the aging buildings is complicated and can cost tens of thousands to millions of dollars….
read … Four Years After Deadly Fire, Many Honolulu High-Rises Still Lack Sprinklers
A Precious Criminal is Dead Because he and his Cellmate were not Forced into an Insane Asylum
CB: … A jail inmate who admitted to the fatal beating of another prisoner in 2019 has been acquitted of murder, concluding a case that triggered scrutiny of the state’s practice of withholding information when prisoners die in custody.
(But not scrutiny of the absence of forcible mental commitment for the insane.)
Judge Rowena Somerville on Wednesday cited mental evaluations of Payton Nathaniel Hough that found he was mentally ill and not legally responsible for his actions when he attacked 56-year old Jacob Russell on Nov. 19, 2019.
Somerville found that Hough stomped on Russell’s head and neck during the attack, and Russell fell into a coma before dying on Christmas morning that year. Family members have said Russell also had a long history of mental illness.
The case attracted attention last year in part because corrections officials did not publicly announce the death when it happened.
(NOTE: No mention of the fact that neither lunatic was forced into a lunatic asylum where they could be forcibly medicated to improve their mental health.)
Both men were locked up in the Oahu Community Correctional Center at the time of the attack….
(And this is being used as an excuse to release these lunatics back on to the streets so they can inflict themselves on us.)
During a bench trial in the case, Somerville acquitted Hough of second-degree murder, ruling that at the time of the attack he suffered from a mental disorder.
She cited letters from a court-appointed psychiatrist who found Hough was not criminally responsible for his actions at the time of the attack, and another from a psychologist who said Hough was “psychotic and delusional” when he beat Russell.
The psychiatrist and two psychologists who examined Hough found he suffered from an array of mental conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anti-social personality disorder, a developmental disability, and alcohol and marijuana use disorders.
Somerville ordered him committed to the Department of Health for treatment at Hawaii State Hospital.
(Barn door closed after horse escapes.)
read … Failure of Mental Health Care Exploited to Promote Even Worse Policies
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