VIDEO: Mauna Loa Erupts, Enters NE Rift Zone
Economic Freedom: Hawaii Ranks 48th
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US House Ethics Committee continuing investigation into Kahele campaign finances
Syringes and Feces: 13 Hawaii County parks are Now Homeless Management Zones
HTH: … During a recent County Council committee hearing, Hawaii County Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina made a presentation about how his department is managing homeless people in county parks. His conclusion was that after adding security at 13 sites islandwide, the number of incidents relating to people misusing parks has gone down, but the long-term solution remains elusive.
“I spend every single day going through accident reports, vandalism reports, theft reports, police reports, islandwide,” Messina said. “We have cut down on that quite a bit with the security.
“But it didn’t get turned around without a cost,” Messina went on, saying the additional security alone costs about $2.5 million, while the amount of work needed to keep park facilities usable after all the aforementioned accident and vandalism reports is staggering — he estimated that 25% to 30% of park caretakers’ work is strictly cleaning up after the homeless.
Messina presented a slideshow of common scenes in park facilities every day: used syringes, piles of human feces, grafitti, destroyed bathrooms, fires and even an entire tree-house built into a banyan tree….
(CLUE: If we are going to sacrifice 13 parks to these addicts, we should build shelters in those parks and force the homeless to live in them.)
CB: Danny De Gracia: It's Time To Have Uncomfortable Conversations About Homelessness
read … No easy fix for complaints about homeless
Two Oahu schools fight for survival as enrollment shrinks
SA: … Waiahole and Ka‘a‘awa elementary schools are “the heart of the community” for their neighborhoods, Obra says. “But we’re always on the chopping block because of our numbers. We really want to be the one to tell our own story. How can we work together and bring the best group together in our community to make sure that we are in existence for the next 100 years?”
The two schools have created a “Small Schools Hui” and are holding public meetings to pool resources and strategize. They organized the first meeting in October, and the next is 5-7 p.m. Dec. 5 at Waiahole Elementary School. Community members can go to bit.ly/KeAuHou to register and reserve a bento.
Waiahole and Ka‘a‘awa each are just over one-fifth the size of the average Hawaii elementary school of about 485 students, according the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education.
Student counts at the two schools have shrunk as their surrounding neighborhoods have aged and families with young children have gravitated toward new housing developments in places like the Ewa plain. Waiahole Elementary turns 140 in 2023; Obra believes it is the oldest school in Windward Oahu and one of the oldest in the state. Ka‘a‘awa Elementary is 118 years old….
read … 2 Oahu schools fight for survival as enrollment shrinks
It looks like “Aloha” to the Aloha Aina Party
ILind: …It appears the Aloha Aina Party, which was certified to have candidates on the ballot for the first time in 2020, will soon be notified that it will be decertified after failing capture the minimum number of votes to remain on the ballot…..
In 2022, the party fielded just five candidates. One for U.S. Senate, one for a state senate seat, along with candidates in three House districts.
The AAP’s candidate drew a total of 6,766 votes…
The law requires parties to receive a notice of decertification within 120 days of the election….
Aug, 2022: Aloha Aina party leader sues to remove Republican Party from Ballot
read … It looks like “Aloha” to the Aloha Aina Party
Hawaii Farmers Struggle As Worldwide Macadamia Market Goes Nuts
CB: … local growers are stepping up with a public education campaign urging people to buy locally grown mac nuts.
In the works is a partnership between a local growers’ association and an international firm that tests chemical and molecular properties of things like food and textiles to determine their origin. In the meantime, last week the farmers took out half-page ads in Big Island newspapers calling on consumers to make sure the nuts they were buying were grown in Hawaii.
After seed crops, such as genetically modified corn grown to produce seeds for farms elsewhere, mac nuts were Hawaii’s second most valuable crop in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hawaii macadamia nut farmers produced 51 million pounds of nuts valued at $62.7 million from 17,000 acres, the USDA reported.
But this year looks bleak, said Brad Nelson, director of the Macadamia Growers of Hawaii, who is also president and chief executive of Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Orchards, a 5,000-acre operation that employs 180 workers on the Big Island.
“Millions of pounds of macadamia nuts are on the ground and won’t be harvested this year,” Nelson said in an interview.
If the situation continues, Nelson said, the Hawaiian macadamia nut industry could go the way of sugar cane and pineapple: once important crops that have largely disappeared from Hawaii’s economy.….
read … Hawaii Farmers Struggle As Worldwide Macadamia Market Goes Nuts
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