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SB821: Illegal Fireworks Task Force
“Aloha Always WINS!” Children’s Program & Book Fights Bullying in over 300 Hawaii schools
Kidnapping: Will Political Connections Help Anderson Evade Felony Charge? -- Miske Lawyer Pressures Prosecutor, Victim
HNN: … Former City Council Chair Ikaika Anderson is vowing to fight a domestic violence charge.
The prominent politician was arrested at his Waimanalo home Monday night after a woman who was visiting him told police he injured her during an altercation.
The alleged victim is from the Big Island.
When she didn’t show up for work Monday a coworker contacted her and she texted that Anderson wasn’t letting her fly home and sent the coworker a picture of her injured arm.
IQ Test: ‘Kidnapping’
NOTE: All other media accounts have convenienly skipped over this point, thus demonstrating how the local media cover for political insiders.
The coworker called Hawaii Island police who alerted Honolulu police.
Anderson was arrested at 7:45 pm and taken to the Kailua police station, where he was charged with misdemeanor family abuse and released on $1,000 bail.
HPD highlights said that the incident happened about 11:30 a.m. Monday.
QUESTIONS: 11:30am to 7:45pm is more than 8 hours of restraint? What time was she supposed to be at work? 9am? When was her flight supposed to leave? Sunday night? Early Monday? How long was the victim restrained from leaving?
HPD said officers found Anderson and the victim at Anderson’s home ― and that she reported he had physically abused her, causing pain and visible injuries.
Anderson’s attorney, Thomas Otake, issued this statement:
“Ikaika’s arrest was based on a one-sided accusation of a misdemeanor offense. We will be cooperating with law enforcement and the Prosecutor’s Office to establish that no crime was committed. Ikaika has the utmost respect for the complainant and asks that the general public respect their privacy and withhold judgment as this process unfolds.”
Bakke said that’s not an unusual tactic.
“It means that they’re going to try to present evidence to the prosecutor directly to get them to not file the actual charges,” Bakke said.
Bakke and others said the city Prosecutor’s Office is more open to dropping cases at the victim’s request.
“He’s much more open to the fact that it may not always be in the victim’s best interest to pursue charges, especially at the misdemeanor level, because the level of violence involved is very, very minor,” Bakke said….
SA: Anderson, 45, was charged Monday with misdemeanor abuse of a family or household member.
read … Facing questions about his political future, Ikaika Anderson vows to fight abuse charge
Defueling Red Hill planned for October under latest timeline
SA: …The U.S. Department of Defense has once again sped up its timeline for defueling the Navy’s Red Hill fuel facility and now says that it expects to begin draining approximately 104 million gallons of fuel from the underground tanks in mid-October, largely completing the process in three months.
The new timeline, presented to federal and state regulators this week as part of a supplement to the Pentagon’s defueling plan, shaves off a year from the original timeline. Top military officials originally said that defueling would be completed by the end of 2024, before shortening that to July,2024 ….
read … Defueling Red Hill planned for October under latest timeline
Hawaii coal power plant to be dismantled, transitioned to battery farm
HNN: … AES Corp. said it will spend $20 million over the next two years to dismantle its coal power plant in Campbell Industrial Park.
But on the ashes of the shuttered complex, the company is considering building a new battery storage complex.
“I see energy storage as a very solid technology that is going to be part of the rest of the renewables,” said Bernerd Da Santos, chief operating officer and president of AES Global Renewables.
“Wind is going to remain, solar is going to remain.”
AES has a similar battery system operating near Los Angeles.
It receives and stores electricity generated during off-peak hours ― like mid-day when the sun is up or at night when the wind is blowing and demand is low.
It then discharges up to four hours of energy as demand picks up in the early evening.
AES said the battery system can even connect to and store energy from solar and wind farms that it doesn’t own….
read … Hawaii coal power plant to be dismantled, transitioned to renewables facility
Hu Honua News: Biomass is the opposite of sustainable
SA: … biomass is not only not renewable, it is worse than the fossil fuels we’re trying to replace.
Burning biomass to generate electricity poses two very serious problems. First, it contributes twice as much greenhouse gases to the atmosphere as coal and is an immediate health hazard to surrounding communities. Atmospheric pollution is causing mega-wildfires, worse and more frequent storms, prolonged droughts, sea level rise, an accelerating extinction of plants and animals world-wide, and threatening new plagues as well….
read … Biomass is the opposite of sustainable
Why Won't Hawaii Lawmakers Let The Public Vote On Important Policy Questions?
CB: … despite all those constitutional amendments proposed by legislators — more than 400 in the last decade —the fact is it’s very difficult to change the state constitution. Before one can even get on the ballot, it needs two-third’s approval of both the Senate and House, or majority approval of both chambers in consecutive sessions.
Legislators know this, and some propose amendments to score political points safe in the knowledge that the measures will go nowhere.
This is especially galling in Hawaii, the only state in the Western U.S. where citizens have no right to propose their own constitutional amendments through a statewide initiative process. And the only form of ballot measure permitted in Hawaii are legislatively referred constitutional amendments.
One of this year’s proposed amendments would have given voters the chance to change that, by the way. It went nowhere….
read … Why Won't Hawaii Lawmakers Let The Public Vote On Important Policy Questions?
State Says City Downplayed Public Health Risks From Kailua Sewage
CB: … The high bacteria levels occurred on 13 different days. On two of those days, the levels exceeded more than six times what’s allowed under state and federal environmental regulations, according to the Hawaii Department of Health….
That prompted state environmental health officials on May 5 to take the unusual step of issuing their own news release. The state release disclosed the severity of the bacteria levels and advised the public to stay out of most of the bay….
Meanwhile, both state and federal regulators continue to investigate the city’s sewage operations at the Kailua plant. The state hasn’t announced any enforcement actions….
The Environmental Protection Agency in December demanded that the city take action to more effectively treat the bacteria in the Kailua sewage with what’s called an “administrative order on consent.” The city has to take six different steps to improve those operations at the plant, and most of them have to be done within a year, according to O’Keefe….
CB: Mayor Insists City Didn’t Downplay Health Concerns Over Kailua Sewage
HNN: State walks back claim city ‘downplayed’ risk of bacteria levels linked to sewage treatment plant
read … ‘This Shouldn’t Happen’: State Says City Downplayed Public Health Risks From Kailua Sewage
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