Feds Bust Two Legislators in Cesspool Bribery Scheme
Bribery Arrests: "Proof the system is rigged"
Safe Travels: Ige Drops Planned Booster Shot Requirement
Poll: 70% Reject $18 minimum wage
SA: … much division exists among Hawaii Poll respondents over how high the increase should be.
Most who support an increase said they favor a hike that isn’t as high as what lawmakers have proposed.
The most popular higher minimum wage level in the poll results was $15 an hour, favored by 49% of those who said they support an increase. Twenty-one percent of supporters said they prefer $12 an hour ….
An $18 hourly minimum wage was favored by 16% of Hawaii Poll respondents supportive of an increase, while 9% said they favor $20 an hour. Five percent of respondents who support an increase did not indicate a preference for how much ….
read … An article titled: 'Hawaii residents strongly back minimum wage increase, poll finds'
Poll: Opinion Split on Destroying Tourism Industry
SA: … Only 48% of those polled support reducing or limiting the number of Hawaii tourists, and 46% are opposed.
At the same time, 70% support charging tourists fees to visit certain state parks, with 20% opposed ….
read … Hawaii voters split on limiting tourism, support fees for visitors
Red Hill Security Cameras Were Disconnected Before Fuel Leaks, Kahele Says
CB: … Security cameras that should have captured two major fuel leaks at the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility last year were not recording because months prior, someone cut an electrical line “rendering all the cameras unusable,” Rep. Kai Kahele said during a Facebook Live event on Tuesday evening….
In January 2021, a contractor severed a cable that provided power to 44 out of the 57 closed-circuit cameras, including those that would’ve recorded the areas of the May and November leaks, according to the Navy’s response to Kahele, which his office shared with Civil Beat.
“Because of the loss of power, there is no footage of either incident,” the Navy told him.
The Navy said the severing of the line was done “inadvertently,” according to Kahele.
There is “mobile device footage” that was taken after the November leak started, and that was turned over to military investigators, the Navy told Kahele.
That the cameras were out of service less than six months before one of two major leaks is “incredibly unbelievable,” Kahele said, but without any evidence to the contrary, “I’ve got to take them at their word.”…
SA: Cameras positioned to record Red Hill fuel leaks inoperable, Hawaii Congressman Kai Kahele says
SA: Navy detects high levels of contaminant in Red Hill water samples
SA Editorial: Navy’s actions don’t match words
read … Red Hill Security Cameras Were Disconnected Before Fuel Leaks, Kahele Says
MPD recruit who suffered heat stroke is in Oahu hospital
MN: … A Maui Police Department recruit was transferred to an Oahu hospital after she suffered a heat stroke Friday while running during physical training as part of the police academy, family members said Tuesday.
They confirmed information posted in a GoFundMe fundraising account set up for 27-year-old Alexa Jacobs.
Her body temperature was 107 degrees when she was taken inside, according to a post by a friend. “Although they were able to cool her down, her body and organs began to shut down on her,” the friend posted Monday. “She is currently in a coma and on dialysis and we will know within the next 24 hours if she needs a liver transplant.”
A police news release issued Monday said the recruit “became ill” at about 3 p.m. Friday and was transported to the Maui Memorial Medical Center emergency room for treatment….
Jacobs was part of MPD’s 92nd Recruit Class, which started Feb. 1 with about 10 recruits….
read … MPD recruit who suffered heat stroke is in Oahu hospital
COVID Only Killed Nine Criminals in Jails, Prisons
CB: … The 23 deaths recorded in Hawaii correctional facilities in 2021 are more than any other year since 2012, but officials with the Department of Public Safety could not say if that death toll is an all-time record. The mortality data compiled by the department only extends back to 2012, according to a spokeswoman.
All but one of the inmates who died last year were men, and Halawa had the most deaths by far with 13. Oahu Community Correctional Center reported three deaths, and Maui Community Correctional Center reported two deaths last year. The other fatalities were scattered across five other correctional facilities in Hawaii and Arizona.
The pandemic had a significant impact on the number of fatalities inside. The state announced last February that six unidentified prisoners at Halawa Correctional Facility died in January and February of last year in what were described as “Covid-19-related deaths.”
Corrections officials don’t identify prisoners who die in custody, but they say five of those who died with the coronavirus last year were over 65 years old, and the sixth was between 60 and 70 years old.
Covid-19 has been blamed in a total of nine inmate deaths in the Hawaii correctional system since the start of the pandemic ….
read … Only Nine
Teacher absences improve in Hawaii as omicron wanes
SA: … Teacher absences across Hawaii’s public schools are still higher than usual but continued to fall last week, mirroring the declining wave of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
For the school week of Jan. 31 through Friday, absent teachers statewide made an average of 1,500 requests per day for substitute teachers to temporarily fill in, according to state Department of Education data.
That was a 7% decrease from the week before, when there was an average of 1,621 requests for substitutes per day….
Teacher absences spiked dramatically earlier in the omicron surge, with requests for substitutes reaching a high of 2,159 on Jan. 14.
By comparison, in early December, before the surge, a more typical number of substitute teacher requests was about 1,300.
With so many teachers out and not enough substitutes signing up to cover the jobs across the state’s 257 public schools, some campuses had to recruit other staff to supervise students who were minus their regular teachers, and students at times were consolidated in other classrooms, cafeterias and auditoriums….
For the Jan. 31 school week, there were 178 substitute teacher jobs unfilled on average per day. That was down 31% from the week of Jan. 24, when there were 259 substitute jobs unfilled on average per day….
read … Teacher absences improve in Hawaii as omicron wanes
Hawaii is not among the top 20 U.S. States in its use of renewable electricity
IM: …The U.S. has 48 states, along with most of Canada and parts of Northern Mexico, that are part of three massive transmission grids. This allows each region to use the rest of the inter-regional grid as a battery. Many states have hydro and or nuclear. Thus, Hawai`i is not among the top 20 U.S. States in its use of renewable electricity.
If Hawai`i were its own country, it would not rank among the top 50 nations.
Hawai`i is a global leader among islands without very reliable power, no transmission cables to elsewhere, and no large hydroelectric facilities.
Like most islands around the world, Hawai`i is dependent on petroleum for electricity. By contrast, continental grid systems rely on gas, coal, and nuclear. This makes comparisons to continental grids complex….
read … HECO Company Electric Grids are 21% or 38% Renewable
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