Honolulu 5th Lowest Small Business Growth
Expand NATO to Hawaii
WSJ: … Keeping territory from the allied security guarantee can bring on war, as it did in the Falklands in 1982….
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty covers only Europe and parts of North America north of the Tropic of Cancer. Swathes of member countries’ land, such as Puerto Rico and French Polynesia, fall outside the pact. At NATO’s birth in 1949, this limit served to exempt far-flung colonies. Amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and Chinese saber-rattling, NATO’s self-imposed geographic limits absent the alliance from the Indo-Pacific and weaken it in the Atlantic ….
read … Expand NATO to Hawaii
Hawaii’s oil-dependent economy is being battered by Russia’s war
E: … But rules protecting the Aloha State’s natural wealth hinder green projects ….
read … Hawaii’s oil-dependent economy is being battered by Russia’s war
Some approved Hawaii legislative bills have already become law
SA: … As of Friday more than 55 bills had been sent to the governor for consideration, including one that spells out general grounds for impeaching a governor or lieutenant governor.
Not all of the bills received by Ige will likely become law. But nine already have, including one providing a $170 million bridge loan for the state Department of Health to cover past and future COVID-19 mitigation expenses….
On average during the past decade or so, about 250 bills a year have become law, or roughly 1 in 10 bills introduced in the same year.
This year lawmakers introduced 2,505 bills. Another 2,820 bills were introduced in 2021, and several dozen of them have been taken up this year, with some potentially becoming law under the Legislature’s two-year term, or biennium.
At the March 10 midpoint of this year’s session, 890 bills had advanced past a procedural deadline to stay in contention for final passage, though many of those measures have stalled since then….
Another bill that drew expedient attention aimed to fix a recently declared defect in pending criminal complaints filed by Hawaii prosecutors.
A December Hawaii Supreme Court ruling dismissed a domestic abuse case based on what law enforcement officials described as ambiguous and antiquated language in a 130-year-old procedural law. As a result of the ruling, more than 1,000 pending misdemeanor and petty misdemeanor cases had to be dismissed.
Act 2, derived from HB 1541, updated the old law, which governs who must sign complaints notifying defendants of criminal charges brought against them, so that it matched long-established court practices. The revised law enacted March 28 allows most of the dismissed cases to be refiled….
read … Some approved Hawaii legislative bills have already become law
Resolution: Hawaii DoE banned Hawaiian Language Until 1986
SA: … Rep Branco (D, Kailua- Kaneohe) has introduced a resolution formally apologizing for the treatment of his great-grandfather and untold other Hawaiian-language speakers between 1896 and 1986….
House Concurrent Resolution 130, which is written in both Hawaiian and English, also acknowledges the consequences of the law that made English the only language allowed in schools. Branco said he hopes the resolution also will address the historical and contemporary issues between the U.S. government and Native Hawaiians.
Before the language ban, an estimated 40,000 Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians in the state were literate in Hawaiian, and several newspapers were printed in Hawaiian.
By the end of the 90-year ban, however, the number of Hawaiian-language speakers had fallen to about 2,000, according to the resolution….
read … Apology sought for 90-year ban on speaking Hawaiian in schools
Experts say pandemic had an impact in the increase of child abuse
KHON: … the pandemic and school closures have likely had a large impact in producing more cases of sexual abuse, felony physical abuse, children who witnessed a violent crime, as well as other forms of abuse.
The data comes from the Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of Oahu which has placed 773 pairs of new slippers to represent the number of children they helped in 2021.
School closures during the pandemic stopped the most common reporting of child abuse. In 2021 the center tracked 2,060 children, which is up 19% from 2020.
“As we know when COVID was happening and children were not in school, that they’re homeschooling or doing it remotely, that there’s no opportunities, especially for mandated reporters, particularly schools to report the number one mandated reporter that we get numbers from our schools, teachers, counselors,” said the Statewide Director of CJC of Hawaii Jasmine Mau Mukai….
SA: State finds increase in sexual, physical abuse of children
HNN: Advocates: Hawaii saw cases of child abuse, neglect soar in 2021
read … Experts say pandemic had an impact in the increase of child abuse
Homelessness up on Hawaii Island; 1 in 3 unsheltered individuals considered ‘chronically homeless’
HTH: … A total of 837 homeless people were counted during this year’s count, with 300 identifying as “chronically homeless,” which mean having been continuously homeless for at least one year, according to the report released last week by Bridging the Gap Hawaii. Of the total homeless population, 314 were reported to have serious mental illness and 245 experienced chronic substance abuse….
read … Homelessness up on Hawaii Island; 1 in 3 unsheltered individuals considered ‘chronically homeless’
From Mexico, China: How hard drugs get to Kauaʻi
TGI: … According to Michael Short, acting assistant special agent in charge of the Honolulu District Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, most of Kaua‘i’s meth is produced in high-tech, cartel-run Mexican “super labs,” which can pump out multi-ton quantities of methamphetamine at low prices.
From there, the drug, also known as “ice,” is smuggled across the border, into source counties in Southern California and Nevada — primarily San Diego, Los Angeles and Las Vegas….
From Southern California, the product is shipped to the island “overwhelmingly via parcel service,” according to Short….
The packages are generally small, according to Kaua‘i Police Department Investigative Services Bureau Assistant Chief Bryson Ponce, between a half-pound and five pounds….
Another route smugglers take is transporting drugs through the airport, either on their person or in luggage.
“Taping the drugs, masking the smell, concealing it on different parts of their body to make it look normal,” Ponce listed of the techniques. “It’s very difficult to catch those for us. A lot of stuff goes undetected.”…
A rare but occasionally utilized option for traffickers are shipping containers, with Ponce reporting that two small busts had occurred involving these containers….
Fentanyl has an even longer journey to the island than meth, often beginning in China, according to Short. From there it travels to Mexico and Southern California before reaching Kaua‘i….
Related: Mehau in Majuro – How the US Meth Epidemic Began
read … From Mexico, China: How hard drugs get to Kauaʻi
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