Hawaii Senate Public Safety Committee Hearing Anti-Gun Bills
Report backs UH Mānoa athletics response to Senate 'concerns'
HB126: Increase the penalty for high-profile bribery cases
HPR: … A bill that would increase the penalties for bribery in the state will move to its final hearing in the Senate.
House Bill 126 would change political bribery from a class B felony to a class A felony. That would double the maximum prison sentence to 20 years….
(LESSON: Don’t create trouble for the rest of us by getting caught.)
read … Increase the penalty for high-profile bribery cases
Hawaii is 'Paradise' — So Why the Doctor Shortage?
RCP: … expensive housing, an eye-watering cost of living and enough regulatory bureaucracy to make a saint doubt the existence of a benevolent God.
Those drawbacks have contributed to the state’s steady population decline over the past six years and a lack of healthcare workers that was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.
Hawaii is not the only state that’s suffering from a shortage of doctors and nurses, but it is one of the few states where residents have to get on a plane and fly to another county just to get specialist care.
According to the Hawaii Physician’s Workforce Assessment Project, the state is short 776 physicians, with deficits in certain specialties (like pediatric pulmonology) as high as 75%. Additionally, the Hawaii State Center for Nursing estimates that the state has 300 to 400 fewer nurses than required to meet demand.
The shortage of healthcare workers is severe enough that the state has created an emergency system for issuing temporary permits to out-of-state nurses….
read … Hawaii is 'Paradise' — So Why the Doctor Shortage?
Blangiardi will sign ‘sensitive places’ firearms ban into law
SA: … Mayor Rick Blangiardi plans to sign into law a ban on concealed firearms in 13 “sensitive places” across Oahu after the City Council this week passed Bill 57.
“Absolutely,” Blangiardi replied when asked if he would sign Bill 57 into law during an appearance today on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program.
Blangiardi also said the city will provide signage to businesses and facilities saying whether concealed weapons are allowed or prohibited….
read … Blangiardi will sign ‘sensitive places’ firearms ban into law
Rail testing, repairs expected ahead of paid service
SA: .. Twenty-one rail support columns have been injected with epoxy, and more material to fix the eight widest cracks is expected to be delivered within the month, according to the head of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.
HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina told the authority board Thursday that repairs to all the so-called “hammerhead” columns and testing of the nearly $10 billion rail system are expected to be complete by the end of May, two months before paid passenger service is expected to begin….
In 2018, cracks were discovered in 21 hammerheads that sit atop rail pillars and support stations. The widest gap was no more than 0.08 of an inch.
Ongoing testing of the rail system may be complete even before the end of May, Kahikina told the board….
Hitachi Rail Honolulu, manufacturer of the system’s driverless trains, is being evaluated for 144 emergency scenarios and has to have a 98.5% average success rate in the trial runs over a 30-day period.
“And so far they are doing pretty good; they’re in the high 90s,” Kahikina told the board Thursday….
read … Rail testing, repairs expected ahead of paid service
Drug smuggling remains a problem at Kaua‘i jail
TGI: …There have been two instances where drugs were found to have been smuggled into KCCC from 2022 to present, Department of Public Safety spokesperson Toni Schwartz reported in an email exchange with The Garden Island.
In both cases, inmates admitted to their involvement, she said. The facility opened a misconduct investigation, found two inmates at fault, and sanctioned them to 30 days of disciplinary segregation. ….
Citing safety and security concerns, Schwartz did not disclose information about what type of drugs were involved and how they were smuggled into the facility.
She listed some smuggling tactics seen at the jail, including authorized visits and tossing items directly from the highway that abuts the jail.
“It is not the size of the facility, but rather a person’s determination to smuggle any illegal item into the facility,” Schwartz wrote. “KCCC is challenged because of its proximity to the road and open areas in the front of the facility.”
Over the previous two years, there were no instances of drugs being smuggled into KCCC, Schwartz reported, though at one point a package of cigarettes was found in the Lifetime Stand garden. Officials believe these may have been thrown from the highway.
The presence of drugs in jails has had … consequences on Kaua‘i. In late 2016, Gregory Silva, an inmate with just months left on a long-haul, 17-year sentence, died of a toxic reaction to methamphetamine while incarcerated at KCCC. It remains unknown how he obtained the drugs….
read … Drug smuggling remains a problem at Kaua‘i jail
Paia Homeless: Armed conflicts and lots of body fluids
HNN: … Some who frequent Paia town say they don’t feel safe anymore.
“Many crazy things,” said Hookipa Surf Co. employee Sky Wallace.
“Lots of homelessness. Lots of transient people going through. I’ve seen armed conflicts. I’ve seen lots of body fluids. I’ve seen just a lot of wild behavior.”
Merchants like Wallace said they appreciate having a larger police presence in Paia, but add more needs to be done.
“I’d like to see more police presence just because I feel like it’s a deterrent from basically, like people defecating in the street and … public intoxication,” Wallace said.
It all stems from a recent uptick in illegal activity in the area.
Surveillance video from back in November shows a smash-and-grab at Hi-Tech Surf Sports store on Baldwin Avenue. Since then, police have increased their presence to deter the criminals….
read … Maui police ramp up foot patrols in Paia amid merchants’ complaints
Toxic Red Hill spill in 2019 came before anti-AFFF hysteria
SA: … The Navy said Friday that a spill of up to 1,500 gallons of toxic fire suppressant containing so-called “forever chemicals” at Red Hill on Dec. 7, 2019, did flow outside of the facility and contaminated the soil, requiring the soil to be excavated.
The Navy, which disclosed the spill this week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said that at the time of the release, it was not required to report the incident to regulatory agencies or internally within the U.S. Department of Defense.
The fire suppressant, called aqueous film-forming foam, had not yet been defined as a hazardous substance by the EPA, and DOD had not yet implemented reporting requirements, according to a Navy spokesperson.
The state Department of Health, which regulates the facility along with the EPA, did not respond to Honolulu Star-Advertiser questions Friday about the spill, including whether there were any reporting requirements at the time and when it was first notified of the release.
The Navy said the spill occurred near Red Hill’s underground pump house, an area near Makalapa Crater that is makai of Kamehameha Highway near Pearl Harbor….
Regulations governing AFFF spills, which contain chemicals called PFAS, have become much stricter in recent years as concerns have mounted about the health and environmental risks posed by the chemicals. PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that do not break down easily in the environment or the human body. They’ve been widely used over the years in industrial processes and can be found in such consumer products as stain-resistant carpeting, certain cookware and food packaging.
But AFFF, which is deployed by firefighters to extinguish flammable-liquid fires such as fuel fires, has been found to be the primary pathway for the chemicals to enter the environment, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Navy is now required to report AFFF spills to DOH, which it did when approximately 1,300 gallons of AFFF spilled at Red Hill on Nov. 29, requiring a major cleanup operation overseen by regulators and follow-up testing of the soil.
Following that spill, the EPA required the Navy to provide it with extensive information about past AFFF spills at Red Hill…
read … Toxic Red Hill spill in 2019 affected soil, Navy reveals
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