OHA LLCs Funnel Dollars to COO, Individuals, Lawfirm
Hawaii Family Forum Legislative Week in Review
Swimming in money, legislators could easily add to debt burden
Stealth Taxes in 2022
290 Candidates Pull Papers
UHERO: Astronomy impact on Hawaiʻi even greater with ‘spillover’ effects
Hubris and self-destruction: Kai Kahele Campaign Dead on Arrival
Shapiro: … Hawaii’s freshman U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele is setting new speed records for breaking foundational campaign promises, and possibly blowing up his political career in the process….
He never moved his family to Washington, and a report by the Republican Ripon Society said in 2021 Kahele was often absent from Washington and had others cast 92 proxy votes on his behalf, compared with 11 for fellow Hawaii Democratic Rep. Ed Case.
According to Honolulu Civil Beat, in 2022 Kahele has cast only five of 125 votes in person and none since January — more proxy voting than all but three House members.
All while hinting he’ll abandon the seat after one term to run for governor.
Plotting a race for governor isn’t all he’s done while in Hawaii with Congress in session. Kahele has kept his job as a Hawaiian Airlines pilot, according to Civil Beat, under a deal between Hawaiian and the Air Line Pilots Association that lets him make up to the House outside earnings limit of $29,895, in addition to his $174,000 congressional salary.
Hawaiian and ALPA are campaign supporters and often have business before the House Transportation Committee on which Kahele sits, raising calls for an ethics investigation.
Kahele hasn’t personally addressed his absences, leaving staff to claim it’s because of his fear of COVID-19 and the effect on his family.
That’s specious, as the pandemic was far more dangerous when he was running for Congress and making his promises, with deadlier strains and no vaccines….
It’s sad to see such hubris and self-destruction….
With recent disclosures, a Kahele campaign for governor seems dead on arrival. If he runs for reelection, he could face prominent Democrats who have pulled papers to run….
read … Kai Kahele’s bizarre D.C. absence dims his political future
HART Board Illegally Excludes Iwasa from Secretive ‘Executive’ Sessions
SA: … Six of the 12 board members who oversee the city’s rail project have not signed mandated confidentiality agreements but only one has been excluded from private board discussions, including again on Friday.
Natalie Iwasa, a member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s board of directors, filed a public records request under the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act asking which board members had signed confidentiality agreements.
Iwasa and board members Anthony Aalto, Kika Bukoski, Lynn McCrory, Roger Morton and Dean Uchida have not, Iwasa told board Chair Colleen Hanabusa during Friday’s meeting….
“So I would respectively ask that I be allowed into the executive sessions for today and hopefully this issue will be cleared up soon,” Iwasa said.
Hanabusa still blocked Iwasa from participating in Friday’s closed-door executive sessions.
In November, Hanabusa required confidentiality agreements to be signed by Iwasa and three other board members appointed by either state Senate President Ron Kouchi or House Speaker Scott Saiki. The other board members were appointed by city officials.
Hanabusa on Friday told Iwasa that she is “not a chartered designated member, and your oath of office — if anything — would be dictated by the state.”…
Reality: www.TheRealHanabusa.com
read … Honolulu rail board still hung up on confidentiality agreement
All Fake: Hawaii lawmakers refuse to pass even a watered down pretend-ban on campaign contributions during legislative sessions
SA: … Hawaii lawmakers don’t seem inclined to pass legislation this year that would fulfill a special commission’s recommendation to outlaw campaign fundraising during the legislative session.
The recommendation was issued by the Commission to Increase Standards of Conduct on March 31, about two months after a pair of former Hawaii lawmakers were charged by federal prosecutors with taking bribes while in office….
SA Editorial: Lawmakers punt on ethics reforms
Precisely as Explained: Corruption Reforms: What They Left Out
read … Hawaii lawmakers pan suggested ban on campaign contributions during legislative sessions
Common Cause presses for transparency, accountability by elected and government leaders
Borreca: … “Since I started with Common Cause Hawaii, the issues have not changed — accountability, ethics and transparency — but I would say they have grown more urgent and pronounced, exacerbated by the pandemic, corruption charges against state legislators and government employees, and allegations of severe police misconduct against minority populations,” Ma said in an interview.
“The people must know and trust that their government — elected officials and executive branch employees — are working for them and not for their own personal interests or special interests.”…
read … Common Cause presses for transparency, accountability by elected and government leaders
Corruption prosecutions didn’t start with the Kealoha case
ILind: … It’s easy to get caught up in current news and conclude that the current investigations and prosecutions of political corruption are something new….
read … Corruption prosecutions didn’t start with the Kealoha case
Sovereignty Mortgage Scammer could face additional prison time
ILind: … A Maui woman convicted nine year ago of scamming about 200 people with a Hawaiian sovereignty-based mortgage debt relief scheme, is back in Honolulu’s Federal Detention Center awaiting a hearing on a government motion to revoke her supervised release.
It’s a reminder that there is a history of scams and frauds that have utilized popular theories of Hawaiian sovereignty to convince victims to part with their money.
Mahealani Ventura, formerly known as Mahealani Ventura-Oliver, was convicted after an 11-day jury trial in 2013 on 15 counts of mail fraud, one count each of money laundering, conspiring to submit false tax returns which sought $1.5 million in refunds, submitting a false tax return, and conspiring to use fictitious financial instruments. The jury found a co-defendant, Pilialoha Teves, guilty of conspiring to use fictitious financial instruments and 12 counts of mail fraud. Two others, including Ventura’s then-estranged husband, John D. Oliver, pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. A fifth defendant was determined not to be competent to stand trial….
2011: Naming names: Who are the alleged Sovereignty-mortgage scammers?
read … Ko Hawaii Pae Aina defendant could face additional prison time
DOBOR Project Accidentally Ends Sea Level Rise--But Eco-Priest Pushes Back Against Unfaithful
CB: … It’s a welcome side effect of the construction of the nearby Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor, which interrupts the natural sand movement along the Kekaha coast. The harbor traps sand, leading the shoreline on one side to erode while the beach on the other side measurably grows.
(Its called ‘accretion’. Look it up.)
Where the beach is widening, the harbor is delaying the effects of sea level rise, according to University of Hawaii climate change expert Chip Fletcher.
(No. We have been told that erosion IS sea level rise. Therefore DOBOR's accretion-causing project has ended sea level rise. I am just following the eco-logic here. Remember: We have consensus. If you doubt me, I will send you back for more diversity training.)
It’s a paradox that’s wedged a degree of psychological distance between some coastal homeowners here and the inevitable consequences of climate change that threaten to submerge their properties sometime this century.
(IQ Test: Are you laughing?)
And it’s undermining a possible future county effort to get oceanside residents to relocate inland by swapping land.
“Every beachfront house will eventually fall into the ocean,” said (intoned) Fletcher, associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at UH Manoa. “People just don’t realize that they’re doomed.”
(IQ Test: Are you laughing?)
Yet as residents here watch the beach expand, some (dimly see thru the eco-lies and) question whether the risk of their houses going underwater is really so imminent. Others (succumbing to temptations of the oil devil) have come to think they can cope with shoreline erosion on their own while remaining in their homes — at least for now….
read … This West Kauai Beach Is Growing So Why Move Inland?
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