Prince Kuhio's Fight to Americanize Hawaii
Credit Madness
HTA by any other name is still HTA
FSM: Top Micronesia Officials Guilty in Fake Ship Registry Scam
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted March 25, 2023
This Week’s Testimony from Grassroot Institute
Maui: Sterile Mosquitoes to Reduce Avian Malaria
Judge Orders Lawyer Otake Off Miske Case
ILind: … Following a Friday morning hearing, it appears very likely Federal Judge Derrick Watson will reject the request by Miske and other defendants to move their upcoming trial out of Hawaii. My story recaps Watson’s reasons for being highly skeptical of a survey commissioned by the defense that concluded there is too much community bias against Miske for these defendants to get a fair trial. Let’s just say Watson didn’t buy it.
And following the hearing, the judge posted an order granting the government’s appeal determining the position of Tom Otake, one of Miske’s key defense attorneys. Watson’s ruling effectively removes Otake from the Miske case due to a conflict of interest. It’s been a complicated argument, but Watson settled it in pretty definitive terms. And he puts some of the blame on Miske himself for arranging the 2014 meeting in a Waikiki school parking lot which put Otake in a legal bind.
Finally, the judge gave Miske’s remaining attorneys permission to file a motion asking for a further delay in the trial, currently scheduled for September, although any request for more time is likely to get closely scrutinized!….
PDF: Court Order
read … Judge poised to reject transfer of Miske trial to Las Vegas
Politicians focus on their 65% Pay Hike--Ignore Property assessment hikes
Borreca: … One of the jobs of the City Council is figuring out how much it should get paid.
Wait, that’s not the only job; the Council members also have to decide if they should give themselves more money. Not more money because they did a great job and everybody is talking about it, but just more money because you are still breathing and on the City Council.
To set the details, the Council has a self-appointed commission that every year tells the Council how much city officials like the mayor and others should be paid….
Not surprisingly, the recommendation is to give everybody more money. Annual salary for the mayor would go to $209,856 from its current $186,432. The head of the City Council would get a raise from $76,968 to $123,292, and a Council member’s salary would jump to $113,292 from $68,904, a 64.4% increase.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and city Managing Director Michael Formby told the commission, according to the article, that “such pay hikes were necessary to recruit and retain city workers — many of whom were short-term appointees — to live and work in expensive Honolulu.”
…So far there has been scant in-depth discussion about the looming property tax increase. Honolulu real estate prices are still at record levels, meaning property valuations and the resulting taxes are also soaring. There is a basic unfairness on basing a tax not on what you need or what is planned, but on what you are able to collect….
If you aren’t getting a pay raise close to the Council’s nearly 65%, I can see why you might be a tad upset….
read … On Politics: Voters, heed how vote goes on huge city pay raises
Pay Hikes: Politicians have become privileged class
SA: … The Honolulu Salary Commission just recommended bloated salary raises for top government officials. For City Council members, pay would inflate from $68,904 to $113,292 (a 64.4% increase), with a 60.2% increase to $123,292 for the Council chairman. Departmental directors would receive 12.5% raises.
What of the little people? Sharing the state’s pay classifications, city secretaries earn as little as $3,552 monthly, about $20.50 an hour (“SR-16” level). Typists and assistants make $2,863 monthly (SR-08), roughly $16.50. And the minimum wage is $12, less than $25,000 per year. Thousands of private workers juggle multiple part-time jobs in lieu of a full-time position….
read … Politicians have become privileged class
Will Dela Cruz Slip Boondoggle back into Budget? Massive law-enforcement training center excessive
SA: … The campus is vastly oversized, with every bell and whistle, including those that are plainly excessive. This is a time when the state needs to reinvest in the maintenance of its existing infrastructure (think: Hawai‘i Convention Center), and there are many other higher-priority and expensive new projects in the mill.
Instead, the campus conceptual plan includes, in addition to training facilities, an auditorium, retail space, fitness center, apartments, a cafeteria with kitchen staff, a community center and a 150-bed hotel.
Preposterous….
the state lacks commitment to the plan from all of the agencies that its official sponsor, the Hawaii Technology Development Corp., wants to put there. The Honolulu Police Department, most notably, is flatly unwilling to pledge its own resources to the project.
Fortunately, there’s now some significant pushback from the state House on this idea, which last week was moving through the chamber as Senate Bill 1469. First the Water and Land Committee crossed out the $100 million, leaving the amount blank but suggesting that the House Finance Committee consider allotting only half as much.
Even more forcefully, state Rep. Amy Perruso, who chairs the Higher Education and Technology Committee and took custody of the measure next, decided to call the whole thing off. Friday was the “second lateral” deadline, when all bills being heard by more than one committee must move to the last one — the Finance panel, in this case. Perruso held it instead, rightly.
While the bill itself appears to be dead for the session, the plan could still advance if one of its key supporters in Senate leadership — including the Ways and Means Committee chair, state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz — gets the money inserted into the overall state budget, moving separately….
At the House Water and Land Committee hearing, HPD Maj. Stephen Silva voiced “concerns” about HPD’s lack of funding to pay its share for the infrastructure and upkeep of the campus; further, it already has the “training facility, indoor firing range, emergency vehicle operation training track, helicopter hangar and technology storage facilities this bill proposes to create.”
So, what’s the point of this, again?…
read … Massive law-enforcement training center excessive
‘Visitor impact fee’ slush fund for Eco-Groups
SA: … where would that money go? It wouldn’t go to fix roads, renovate airports, improve schools or clean up beaches. Instead, it would go into a special fund that would be distributed to agencies and environmental groups for vaguely defined conservation and environmental purposes.
In other words, a visitor impact fee is unlikely to have much of an impact on our daily lives. It would be more useful to think of it as a direct funding source for environmental causes.
The bill includes penalties for those who don’t comply, raising the issue of how it will be enforced. Would police have to patrol state beaches, asking for proof that everyone is a resident? It’s a civil rights nightmare in the making….
March 22, 2023: New class of DOCARE officers to hunt tourists, extract money
SA: Enviros: Proposed green fee can help protect our coral reefs by putting money in our pockets
read … ‘Visitor impact fee’ impractical, legally dubious
Fast action, slow action or no action, our ills go unsolved
Shapiro: … And the quote of the month … from Josh Green on the military’s PR miscues on Red Hill and other issues: “I don’t want people using ‘ohana’ or ‘aloha’ if they don’t mean it.” Nothing says Hawaii like haoles lecturing each other on how to use the Hawaiian language….
read … Fast action, slow action or no action, our ills go unsolved
Raise Medicaid payments to providers
SA: … We applaud the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s March 22 editorial, “Raise Payments for Medicaid Care,” which supports both Senate Bill 397 and Senate Bill 1035. Both bills have been advancing in the Hawaii Legislature and now face hearings in the House Finance Committee, the last major hurdle to becoming law. Both the House and Senate should be commended for listening to patients and providers throughout the state who say they need help, now.
SB 397 would enable health-care providers to care for more low-income individuals and families, by making Medicaid reimbursements (called Med-QUEST in Hawaii) on par with Medicare payments. This is a financially viable bill for Hawaii; investments made by the state would bring in additional federal funding to serve the most vulnerable in our community.
With more than half of our keiki and over 465,000 residents in Hawaii on Med-QUEST, we must do everything we can to ensure that they have timely and affordable access to physicians and other healthcare providers. We need the House Finance Committee and the full Legislature to fund the state’s contribution and protect the health of ALL of Hawaii’s citizens, regardless of what insurance they can afford….
read … Raise Medicaid payments to providers
DoH Years behind Reporting on Hospital Infections
SA: … The state Department of Health has fallen several years behind in producing annual reports detailing infections patients acquire during hospital stays, leaving the public with less information about how well health care facilities are doing in controlling the spread of pathogens that can prove deadly.
State lawmakers passed a law in 2011 requiring the reports amid heightened concerns nationally about the toll infections were having on patients. That year, an estimated 650,000 hospital patients nationwide acquired infections at a health care facility and 75,000 died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal health officials warned the infections had become a leading cause Opens in a new tab of death in the United States and were costing the health care system billions of dollars in associated costs.
DOH issued its first report in 2013, detailing infections for the previous year, but the last report completed is for 2018….
(And they blame COVID, LOL!)
read … Pandemic delays reporting on Hawaii’s hospital infections
Homeless Criminal Behind Rash of Auto break-ins
TGI: … In January and February of this year, the South Shore was hit with a rash of car break-ins and burglaries.
Police Commission Vice Chair Andrew Bestwick was among those targeted by burglars, who managed to break into his Toyota Tacoma through a small back window….
Two suspects with outstanding bench warrants were identified as possible culprits. While one was apprehended in a Waimea home, the other proved more elusive.
Officers began a multi-week, cat-and-mouse chase with the remaining suspect, searching the Po‘ipu coastline on foot, and using their cellphones in “ingenious ways” to lure the suspect out of hiding, according to KPD Lt. Aaron Lester.
During one arrest attempt, the suspect, who was homeless, jumped out of a tent and pushed an officer aside before running away. On another occasion, he jumped out of a vehicle at a traffic stop and managed to escape on foot. The quick-footed suspect evaded police on foot a third time during a February arrest attempt at Mahalepu….
read … Kaua‘i Police Department officers honored for arresting evasive burglary suspect
Henry Curtis Has Been A ‘Thorn In The Side’ Of Developers And Power Company Execs For 30 Years
CB: … The longtime Life of the Land leader reflects on decades of pushing his clean energy and environmental justice agenda ….
read … Henry Curtis
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