Ige: Safe Travels to End March 25
DBEDT: Tourists Back at Record Levels by 2025
Results: Honolulu survey on spending of federal recovery funds
Blangiardi Appoints Sheet Metal Union Boss to HART Board
Hawaii Republicans Kick Off Campaign Season
Maui County Plastic Ban Now in Effect
Hawai'i Supreme Court Ends Deceptive Legislative Practice
DoH Declares Navy Water Safe in More Areas
Government Corruption: If you see something, say something
TGI: … Over the past 12 months, Hawai‘i government, at all levels, has been rocked by headline after headline, exposing the criminal activity of a wide range of public officials.
Sitting in jail at the moment, or awaiting sentencing, we have a former Kaua‘i County Councilmember, a former Hawai‘i County Councilmember, a former Honolulu police chief and his wife, a former deputy city prosecutor, up to five current and former employees of Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting, a former state senator and Senate majority leader from Maui, and a former state Representative and vice chair of the House Finance Committee from Waipahu.
In addition, there are several top administrators of the City & County of Honolulu under indictment, numerous government contractors who have pled guilty to bribery, and ongoing federal investigations at all levels of government….
Go to the FBI “tip line,” fbi.gov/tips ….
SA: U.S. Attorney for Hawaii Clare Connors joins the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s ‘Spotlight Hawaii’
read … Government Corruption: If you see something, say something
WSJ: Jonesing to Give Up Russian Oil
WSJ: … Hawaii imports Moscow crude, and the Jones Act is one bad reason why….
IM: PAR Hawai`i Refinery Holds Critical Stranglehold Point for Imported Fuel
read … Jonesing to Give Up Russian Oil
‘Serious Misgivings’ -- Bill to create new Maunakea governing body passes three House committees
HTH: … A joint hearing of three House committees — Water and Land, Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, and Finance — discussed the bill today. The Water and Land chair, Kohala Rep. David Tarnas, reiterated repeatedly that the bill is a “work in progress” and moved to recommend the bill’s passage with amendments.
All three committees ultimately voted to recommend the bill be passed, but not without serious misgivings from several lawmakers.
The Finance and Water and Land committees voted unanimously in support of the bill, but two members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs voted against it.
Having passed its three House committees, the bill will now face a third reading in the House before crossing over to the Senate….
read … Bill to create new Maunakea governing body passes three House committees
Retaliation: CWS is Just Another Tool
CB: …‘Grab And Go’: How Officials Seized A Fifth Grader To Live With A Father She Barely Knew….CWS helped take the girl from her school on the strength of a temporary restraining order filed by Keahiolalo, barring David from having contact with her own daughter. The judge who approved the order apparently did not know about the 2012 stipulation giving full custody of Bella to David and never intended the restraining order to be a vehicle for severing her custody….Moss said that he found it “incredible and unbelievable that William Keahiolalo … who had no visitation for eight years, could obtain custody,” according to a 2020 Hawaii News Now report on the case. Moss told the parties to work out custody arrangements for Bella….
CWS and the other defendants came to Bella’s school and forced her to immediately get on a plane to the other end of the state to live with a man she barely knew.
“What CWS and the police are accused of doing constitutes an appalling act of emotional abuse of a child – and supposed emotional abuse was the only possible grounds for CWS intervening in the first place,” Wexler wrote.
This was compounded, he said, by CWS’ decision to place Bella in other foster homes rather than returning her to her mother.
And as Wexler and Seitz both point out, the whole episode occurred without the oversight of a judge, who could get a full picture from both sides before authorizing the removal of a child.
In this case, Wexler said, there clearly was no imminent threat of harm to the child – the one exception to getting a court order.
David, too, was struck by how CWS and the other defendants acted on their own, without judicial oversight, to take her child.
“It was a lot of individuals acting as though they were judge, jury and executioner,” she said.
read … CWS Just a Tool
Alleged Groper May Walk Free -- Hundreds of misdemeanor cases are dismissed due to Hawaii Supreme Court ruling
KITV: … Hundreds of misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor cases on Oahu have been dismissed or thrown out since December due to a Hawaii Supreme Court decision.
Now, the Office of the Public Defender is asking the Court to dismiss the case in which a teenager reported being sexually assaulted at Ala Moana Center.
A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning in the case to discuss whether to dismiss it.
53-year-old Masachiro Asep is accused of fondling a 17-year-old girl in the service corridor to the Makai Market Food Court at Ala Moana Center on Presidents' Day. Both had been working in the mall.
The victim and her mother said they want to press charges.
However, the attorneys for the defendant argued in court documents that the criminal complaint was missing either the victim's signature or a declaration submitted in lieu of an affidavit.
They cite the case State v. Thompson, in which the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled on December 10, 2021 that cases may be dismissed if they do not follow that procedural law….
read … Hundreds of misdemeanor cases are dismissed due to Hawaii Supreme Court ruling
‘Waste of taxpayer money’: Socialist lawmaker opposes protecting coastal properties
KHON: … Rep. Amy Perruso, who surfs in the area (a DSA member), said the homeowners should pay the cost of moving away from the beach.
“Those structures are still going to fall in the ocean. They’re still going to pose a risk to others, so we have to protect the public good,” Perruso said.
“When it’s clear that the problem needs solving and additional study is not necessary or a study of a particular mechanism that we have already seen has failed is not necessary, then I think further inquiry or study is ludicrous and a waste of taxpayer money.”
(A socialist finally finds something she won’t spend our money on.)
Perruso is opposed to a bill proposed by the University of Hawaii and the DLNR to study the effectiveness of so called “beach burritos” on beaches….
read … ‘Waste of taxpayer money’: Some lawmakers oppose protecting coastal properties
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