City to begin installation of Active Transportation Monitoring devices across Oʻahu
Katherine Kealoha ‘appears desperate’
HNN: … The disgraced ex-city prosecutor’s latest handwritten letter from the Federal Detention Center to the court is 32 pages. She wrote that sometime between November 2019 and January 2020, she had a meeting with federal agents and special prosecutor Assistant United States Attorney Michael Wheat.
She said she provided the first and last name “as well as the street address of the individual she believes to be the mailbox thief.” She adds that it is a belief “she holds with great certainty.”…
(IQ Test: Are you laughing?)
Kealoha later accused Wheat of doing nothing with the information, writing that he “intentionally refrained from investigating this lead because he knows it will expose the real mailbox thief.”
She claims the details would prove there was never a conspiracy….
The letter is part of her argument of prosecutorial misconduct. It’s also her second attempt to get Wheat kicked off the case. The first attempt failed when a judge denied her request to have him removed….
Ken Lawson, of the University of Hawaii Law school, said Kealoha appears desperate.
“She’s grasping for straws,” he said.
Lawson said it happens a lot to people who lose at trial, “After the conviction it’s, let me blame my lawyer. Let me blame the prosecutor. Let me talk about the judge,” he said….
read … Katherine Kealoha claims to have told prosecutors who stole her infamous mailbox
131 Dead: Meth remains Oahu’s top overdose killer
SA: … Overall, during the two-year period spanning 2020-21, there were 131 overdose deaths, 107 of which were attributable, at least in part, to methamphetamine. Opiates contributed to another 37 deaths. Many of the overdose deaths involved more than one drug.
The data also lists cannabis as a factor in 28 overdose deaths during that period….
The dashboard also includes figures for emergency room discharges related to substance abuse. Alcohol was by far the biggest factor and is listed as a cause in 33,854 ER visits related to substance abuse in the years 2018-21. Stimulants, including methamphetamine, is listed as a cause for 6,287 visits, and cannabis, 3,684 visits. In many of the visits, multiple drugs were involved.
The data also tracks what portion of the patients were suffering from substance abuse and mental health disorders.
Additionally, the portal is keeping tabs on the number of calls to the Hawaii CARES crisis helpline, which assists people needing help for substance abuse or mental health problems. Between April and September the center logged 53,000 calls….
KITV: UH Manoa and Hawaii DOH launch addiction and behavioral health dashboard
read … Meth remains Oahu’s top overdose killer
Full Circle: HPD chief considering ‘broken windows policing’ for Chinatown
KHON: … The Daiso Operations Manager Steven Fond shared some of his experiences with the police chief, he said they have dealt with suspicious people coming into their store ever since they recently opened.
Fong said, “Running into a lot of issues with the homeless and some of the chronic people that have been coming in and out of our store almost on a daily basis.”
Logan said he is considering different approaches to policing, he said “broken windows policing” could be a tactic to bring to the department. …
“Broken windows is an older version of really zero tolerance kind of policing,” Logan said. “You litter, you get arrested, if you’re sleeping where you’re not supposed to be sleeping.”
Meanwhile, he said the department is still waiting on new security cameras that are meant to be installed in Chinatown….
read … HPD chief considering ‘broken windows policing’ for Chinatown
Homeschooling enrollment in Hawaii increasing, public school enrollment decreasing
HNN: … According to recent data, the 2020 to 2021 school year, the number of registered home schooled children in Hawaii jumped by 44%. Hawaii's public schools experienced its third consecutive decline in enrollment in 2022.
Parents decide to take their kids out of school because of violence, bullying, too much testing, and health issues caused by the pandemic.
Most parents plan to homeschool their children tentatively, but stick to it once they realize all the benefits it has on their kids….
Click here to find the link for Time4Learning. …
read … Homeschooling enrollment in Hawaii increasing, public school enrollment decreasing
Why Parents Want ‘More Of A Voice’ In Hawaii’s Education System
CB: … Hawaii’s public school system has a communication problem. At recent community meetings across the state, parents and teachers have said they often don’t know who to go to with complaints. And, when they try, they run up against a steep chain of command and responses are few and far between….nonprofit leaders and educators say engagement efforts were lukewarm and lacked follow-through….Bradley DeCastro, whose son attends Kalakaua Middle School, said communication with parents often comes at the last minute, is vague and filled with unfamiliar acronyms. “Parents are calling parents trying to figure out what is going on — it’s like a game of telephone,” DeCastro said….Only 30% of Native Hawaiian students met language arts proficiency standards on last year’s statewide assessments, compared to 52% of all students and only 18% were proficient in math, compared to 38% of all students. The numbers were lower for Pacific Islander students….
“Parents want to be heard on the first or maybe the third time that they call, not the 15th time that they call,” she said.
McClellan said that parents at the Nanakuli—Waianae meeting were upset because they found out about the meeting at the last minute through social media rather than from their school or the DOE directly.
Even principals say that relevant information sometimes fails to reach them before they make decisions.
“It’s kind of frustrating,” said McKinley High School Principal Ron Okamura. “Sometimes I’ve got to watch Hawaii News Now to know what is happening.”…
Earlier this year, James Shon — former director of Hawaii Educational Policy Center — and a group of educators and policymakers put together a document that analyzed previous strategic plans and proposed ways to make the next one more effective and measurable.
Shon said the BOE’s failure to respond to them inspired little hope that a wide range of feedback would be truly considered this time around.
“Are the community meetings really asking the public to look at systemic (for every school) decisions rather than adopting nice sounding goals?” he wrote in an email.
David Sun-Miyashiro of HawaiiKidsCAN said that during previous transitions from one strategic plan to another, he never heard a full accounting of why most student achievement targets were missed.
Shon says that is because previous strategic plans have not included built-in accountability measures. …
read … Why Parents Want ‘More Of A Voice’ In Hawaii’s Education System
Department of Education braces for increased electricity bills
HPR: … In the past, Hawaiʻi’s public schools have gone before legislators asking for help to pay the power bills. It’s likely schools will ask for an emergency appropriation due to surging electricity rates. Meanwhile, Gov. David Ige has rolled out adding 1,200 more air conditioners to cool down classrooms. The Conversation talked to Facilities Assistant Superintendent Randy Tanaka about the dilemma….
read … Department of Education braces for increased electricity bills
Career Standoffer on Trial for Second Armed Standoff with Police
SA: … The state is trying to prove to jurors that Kaua, 54, is guilty of first-degree attempted murder for trying to kill three officers, not including Frye, who the state contends was threatened.
Kaua’s attorney offered a suicide-by-cop defense, that his client never intended to shoot police and even begged officers to shoot him.
The standoff is reminiscent of Kaua’s dramatic 1998 22-hour hostage situation involving his wife and another woman at an upper Pearl City home, which also paralyzed the Pacific Palisades community, which could not leave the area for fear of being caught in the crossfire.
The night before the 2019 standoff, girlfriend Marika Tachera broke up on the phone with Kaua, Deputy Public Defender Earl Aquino said during his opening statement. Kaua wanted his life to end but believed suicide was an unforgivable sin, and instead wanted to die at the hands of police with Tachera by his side….
read … Officer who shot during 2019 standoff on Oahu testifies
HPD audit finds nearly 100 body-worn camera violations
KHON: … “There were 46 failure to activate violations found, late activation was 26, failure to activate when using lights and sirens was 17, early activation was four and not turned on or in buffering mode was two,” said Maj. Brandon Nakasato of the Honolulu Police Department.
There were a total of 95 violations as of September 30 compared to 58 for all of 2021. Honolulu police commissioners understand body-worn cameras are fairly new, but question the increase.
“You have for 2022, it’s not even a 12-month period, it’s for nine months out of the 12 months,” said Doug Chin, a Honolulu police commissioner. “So what we’re looking at is potentially twice as many body-worn camera violations for 2022 as compared to 2021.” …
The police union said in a statement: “Honolulu police officers get nearly a million calls for service a year, almost 2,500 calls for service a day, requiring them to activate their cameras hundreds of thousands of times. These numbers show that even under rapidly escalating, dangerous situations, our officers are correctly using their cameras….”
Big Q: What do you think of body cameras worn by police officers?
SA: Honolulu Police Department body-worn camera violations rise
read … HPD audit finds nearly 100 body-worn camera violations
Ex-MPD officer serving time for fraud is sentenced in child enticement case
HNN: … Former Maui police officer Brandon Saffeels was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday for attempting to solicit sex from a minor.
The sentencing comes a year after he was ordered to serve two and 1/2 years for offering to sabotage a Kahului woman’s drunk driving case in exchange for sex.
“This guy was was a ticking time bomb. What he has gotten away with in that Maui community, we will never know,” said attorney Michael Green, who represents several women who have accused Saffeels of misconduct….
Federal authorities said Saffeels admitted he sent text messages seeking sex for money from an undercover officer posing as a 13-year old girl. When Saffeels showed up at a Maui store last December to meet her, he was arrested.
That arrest came a month after Saffeel was convicted on the public corruption charge involving the Kahului woman….
read … Ex-MPD officer serving time for fraud is sentenced in child enticement case
Honokaa People’s Theater Drag Queen Show Invites Kids
CB: … The Mauka Makai Drag Show on Saturday at the Honokaa People’s Theatre is a fundraiser for the Honokaa Business Association, and is open to ticket holders of all ages….The show is dubbed Mauka Makai because some of the performers are coming from Denver….
Some of the emails equated organizers of the show with “groomers,” meaning pedophiles attempting to exploit minors.
“Anyone who allows this grooming of children into perversion should be ashamed of themselves,” said Juhl Rayne, a South Kona resident who emailed the business association….
read … A Big Island Business Group Is Putting On A Drag Show Despite The Handful Of Haters
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