Chair of State Council on Developmental Disabilities Indicted for International Financial Fraud
Former ILWU Officer Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison for Embezzlement
DOD Implements New Overseas Cost-of-Living Allowance Adjustment Process
Native Hawaiian Convention to Feature Drag Show
Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to NOAA Requirement that Vessels Pay Monitoring Fees
Study: Hawaii Smallest Drug Problem of any State
DLNR, DOA Continue Act 90 Partnership
SB1230 Allows Storage of Loaded Firearms in Vehicle
Another Crackpot Election Lawsuit Thrown out of Court
Molokai Police Shooting: Schizophrenic is Dead Today Because he Was Not put in Mental Hospital
MN: … Assistant Chief of Uniformed Services Keola Tom said that what happens afterwards is that “Mr. Naki eventually advances toward one of the officers and gets within two arms’ length before both officers almost simultaneously discharge their weapons.”…
His sister told Hawaii News Now that he was bipolar and “had his good days and bad days,” and that the TRO was in place for when his mental illness was too much for their mother to handle.
According to court records, both his mother and father filed temporary restraining orders against Naki this year, saying they were afraid of his actions.
His mother, Julieann Naki, said in an ex-parte petition for a temporary restraining order that on Jan. 17, her son got upset as her grandson had changed the music, so he elbowed the grandson in the head and face, and the child fell.
Julieann Naki said she pushed her son away to stop him. He yelled at her, so she called the police.
“I’m afraid because Nathaniel isn’t in the right state of mind and he may come after next,” she wrote in the petition.
Nathaniel Naki’s father, Raymond Naki, also filed for a temporary restraining order on April 14, saying his seven dogs needed protection.
He referred to verbal abuse by Nathaniel Naki and said he exhibited “continuous yelling and screaming obscenities to myself and people visiting my property.”
“People have been terrified by his actions,” Raymond Naki wrote. “I need the help to enforce his medication and seek assistance to hospitalize.”
(KEY WORD: “Hospitalize”. If Naki had been hospitalized, he would be alive today.)
The elder Naki said his son hurts the animals and has been threatening and has caused destruction of property.
Dr. Dara Rampersad, who around a decade ago helped launch MPD’s and the state’s first Crisis Intervention Team program aimed at improving first responder services to people living with mental illness, said more and more first responders in Hawaii and the nation are encountering people with mental illness, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted people’s mental health with lasting effects….
SA: Maui police had tried to get services for shooting victim
CB: MPD releases body camera footage following officer involved shooting in Molokai
read … Body cam shows officers telling man to drop machete multiple times in tense exchange
HECO Customers Still Paying for Conversion from Coal to Oil
SA: … The state’s largest utility, which serves the entire state except for Kauai County, said Wednesday that the typical residential bill on Oahu this month is $6.54 lower than May 2022 but still about 9% higher than before oil prices spiked. Some of that increase is due to the discontinuation of burning lower-cost coal for power generation last year, Hawaiian Electric said….
HECO: May electric bills lower, 1 year after oil price surge
KHON: The discontinuation of burning coal, a fuel that has been linked to global warming, for power generation last year has contributed the increase.
read … Hawaiian Electric bills lower than a year ago
Usual Suspects Create Chaos to Block Affordable Housing Legislation
CB: … The bill faced a tough run in the Legislature and faced significant pushback, with public testimony citing the importance of the LUC’s role in deciding the fate of agricultural land, cultural resources and mitigating potential for environmental impacts.
(Translation: You are moving to Vegas.)
In its original form the bill empowered counties to make district boundary amendments without LUC approval for tracts of county-owned lands over 15 acres, and by the time it reached conference committee, a cap of 30 acres was placed on the bill along with other requirements intended to ensure responsible redistricting.
But during conference committee, led by Hashimoto and Inouye, the cap was lifted to 100 acres and a new section was added, rendering moot the requirements that tasked counties with ensuring the projects dedicated at least 75% of the redistricted land to affordable housing and adopted pre-conversion processes akin to the LUC’s.
This would have potentially led to loose and widespread redistricting of county owned lands according to former Maui Planning Commission chair Dick Mayer and former LUC Chair, Jonathan Likeke Scheuer.
(Just doing his part to ensure legacy landowners like KSBE and A&B continue to have a monopoly on legally entitled developable land.)
HB 676 took on similar language to now-dead companion bills targeting affordable housing Hashimoto and Inouye introduced this year for up to 100 acre parcels of land.
Hashimoto, who introduced HB 676, puts the late changes down to a drafting error, one made during Friday’s legislative time crunch, when lawmakers rallied to hear bills before their conference committee deadline.
It definitely wasn’t the intent to make a clandestine change to the law, Hashimoto said in an interview.
if lawmakers wanted to lay a better foundation for counties to build more housing then far less regulation is needed, according to the policy think tank Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
Grassroot’s director of policy Malia Hill says removing LUC’s oversight and adding eight other requirements renders the HB 676 flimsy at best.
“Basically what they’ve created is ‘government can build houses’,” Hill said in an interview.
Hashimoto and Inouye’s dead companion bills would have been preferable, according to Hill, but what has resulted is something everyone appears unhappy with.
“Sometimes it’s the sign of a good bill. In this case I think it’s the sign of a bill that won’t do very much,” Hill said in an interview. …
read … ‘Fox Watching The Henhouse’: Last Minute Tweaks To Land Use Bill Create A Stir
Probe HMSA comp, its nonprofit status
SA Editorial: … HMSA hasn’t behaved like a nonprofit in recent years — aside from reaping the benefits of its savings from state tax exemptions. And it’s time for state authorities to take another look at that nonprofit status.
HMSA’s top executives received generous raises and bonuses during the pandemic, upgrades unveiled Sunday in a comprehensive report by Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Sophie Cocke. President and CEO Mark Mugiishi’s total compensation, including salary and bonus, increased from $2.5 million to $3 million, to cite just one example….
Additionally, the company’s board of directors voted to begin compensating themselves annually, for the first time in the nonprofit’s history. The highest-paid directors, prominent and well-paid Hawaii execs, got around $100,000 in 2022. According to the National Council of Nonprofits, the vast majority of board members of charitable nonprofits are unpaid volunteers.
On the austere side of this split-screen view, a total of 107 HMSA employees lost their jobs during a company restructuring last year, with 89 additional workers transferred to another company, or “rebadged,” to firms based in India and Maryland.
The topper in all this may be that, owing to HMSA’s particular nonprofit status, it pays no state taxes on revenue from its insurance premiums and is also exempt from certain financial transparency rules regarding board compensation….
In 2008, for instance, state House Concurrent Resolution 146, which was not adopted, called on the insurance commissioner’s office to initiate an investigation and corporate audit of HMSA. Among its introducers: then-Rep. Josh Green, the House health chairman, now the governor….
Big Q: Do you agree with the pay upgrades for HMSA’s top executives and board?
read … Probe HMSA comp, its nonprofit status
SB1437: Hawaii Governor Weighs Federal SALT Deduction Cap Workaround
B: … Hawaii is close to becoming the latest state to enact an elective tax to help partnerships get around the $10,000 federal cap on deductions for state and local taxes.
Lawmakers sent the bill (S.B. 1437) to Gov. Josh Green (D) on Tuesday. Spokesperson Makana McClellan said the Democratic governor hasn’t taken a position yet but is aware the bill would be consistent with more than 30 other states that already have SALT cap workaround options, and would benefit Hawaii businesses accordingly.
“The passage of this bill would have minimal impact on the state treasury ...
CB: Tax Bill Could Help Businesses At No Cost To State
read … Hawaii Governor Weighs Federal SALT Deduction Cap Workaround
Police Commission Postpones Decision On Legal Representation For 2 Makaha Cops
CB: … The Honolulu Police Commission postponed making a decision on whether it would provide taxpayer-funded legal representation for two police officers charged with felonies for their alleged role in a 2021 pursuit in Makaha that injured six people.
Honolulu Police Officers Erik Smith, Robert Lewis III and Jake Bartolome were charged March 16 with charged with a class C felony for “hindering prosecution in the first degree,” which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence. They were also charged with a misdemeanor for conspiring to hinder prosecution, punishable by a maximum one-year jail sentence. Officer Joshua Nahulu was charged with a class B felony for “collisions involving death or serious bodily injury,” which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. All four officers pleaded not guilty March 23.
Smith and Nahulu requested legal counsel from the Honolulu Police Commission, its agenda read. But the commission decided not to discuss it Wednesday.
“We’re going to defer” considering the requests for legal counsel the items “to the next meeting,” commission chair Doug Chin said.
The next police commission meeting is scheduled for May 17. The officers’ trial is slated for May 29….
read … Police Commission Postpones Decision On Legal Representation For 2 Makaha Cops
$75M Slush Fund: Luke Admits List of Preschool Projects is not accurate
HNN: … After the state released $75 million to pay for the construction of new preschool classrooms last week, the Hawaii Department of Education compiled a list showing where the money would be spent.
But Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke — who is spearheading the state’s $200 million preschool expansion plan — said the list isn’t accurate.
“Oh, no. So that was a preliminary list,” Luke said.
The list included $20 million for the Kamaile Academy in Waianae to build 10 new classrooms and $6 million for Kapaa Elementary School on Kauai.
Sources said some of the schools were already expecting the money. Gov. Josh Green even sent out letters to state lawmakers informing them about preschool expansions in their districts.
In one letter to state Sen. Angus McKelvey of Maui, the governor wrote that McKelvey’s district will see a total of $5 million in preschool construction at Kihei and Princess Nahienaena elementary schools.
“This investment in our keiki addresses barriers to child care so prevalent in our islands,” he wrote.
But Luke said many of the preschool projects might be impractical at this time.
“Different schools might say, hey, you know what, we would like 10 classrooms or five classrooms. And then when the Department of Education and our departments go and investigate, there is not enough room for 10 new classrooms,” she said.
“Or, they’re not quite ready because you need significant amount of foundational work, which will be really costly.”
DOE officials confirmed that the list is only preliminary. They added that any decisions on how the $75 million will be up to the Lieutenant Governor.
read … State releases $75 million in funding for preschool construction, lawmakers question
Health Dept. HQ building full of Asbestos-- looks to spend $100M to renovate
HNN: … Under the preliminary plan, the building would also house mental health treatment beds, but lawmakers are not sure if the project is viable.
Kinau Hale, on Punchbowl Street, was built in the years before the danger of asbestos was known. Walls on the first floor don’t touch the ceiling to avoid disturbing it. Renovation has been on the backburner for years, partly because of the uncertainty of how much the dilapidated building will cost to renovate….
(Yup. The Hawaii Department of Health is in a building full of asbestos. Has been for years.)
The money would also pay to convert the first floor — where folks now come for vital records and marriage licenses — into a mental health crisis unit including stabilization beds. That’s part of a movement to distribute services closer to the people who might need them….
The appropriation will receive final approval Thursday — the day the Legislature wraps up its 2023 session….
read … Health Dept. looks to spend $100M to renovate rundown headquarters building
Army Corps Still Won’t Restore Forests As Part Of Ala Wai Flood Control Project
CB: … The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving ahead with its reboot of the Ala Wai flood control project, an effort to help shield urban Honolulu from strong and fast-moving storm waters, after scrapping the previous attempt amid rising costs and controversy.
But the federal agency’s latest effort is already facing community pushback similar to the prior proposal, which abruptly ended in 2021.
That’s largely because the corp has rejected using ecosystem restoration as part of its new plan, even though residents in Manoa, Palolo, Makiki and other parts of the vital watershed have been asking for years for the agency to seriously consider a nature-based approach to the area’s flood control….
(CLUE: More Concrete = More Money.)
read … Army Corps Still Won’t Restore Forests As Part Of Ala Wai Flood Control Project
On abortion, UH medical school doesn’t speak for me
SA: … While I support the right of all people to make choices regarding their health care and their bodies, I also believe we should value all human life, including the life of the unborn. As a society, we all already agree that there are limits to personal autonomy. A person’s legal right to choose ends when that choice harms another human being.
Moreover, I believe parents have an even greater responsibility to protect their children even if the children are unexpected, inconvenient or unwanted. I understand that there can be so much heartache and distress from an unwanted pregnancy, but the solution is not to end an innocent life….
read … On abortion, UH medical school doesn’t speak for me
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