Nikki Haley on Ballot for Hawaii Republican Presidential Caucus
Hawaii Among Highest Student Loan Payments
DoE sees Lahaina Fires as latest excuse to eliminate accountability
Hawaii Budget Director's Conflict Of Interest: He Owns HECO Stock
CB: … Luis Salaveria is helping plan an innovative Maui fire victims fund that could also help reduce Hawaiian Electric's liability ….
(PLAN: Victims accept funds, abandon lawsuits against HECO.)
The stock owned by Salaveria is valued at between $50,000 and $100,000, according to the financial disclosure report.
The ethics code prohibits state employees from taking any official action that would directly affect a “business or other undertaking in which the employee has a substantial financial interest.”
According to the Hawaii Ethics Commission’s “Guide to the State Ethics Code,” a person has a “financial interest” in a business if the person, or the person’s spouse, civil union partner or dependent child has any ownership, “including owning shares of stock in a business.”…
(CLUE: If HECO management is not liable, HECO does not go bankrupt, and PUC can raise rates to pay for HECO recovery costs. Then HECO stock goes back up.)
read … Hawaii Budget Director's Conflict Of Interest: He Owns HECO Stock
Hawaii Insiders in DC Looking for More Money
CB: … “It’s an exploratory visit,” said Esther Kiaaina, vice chair of the Honolulu City Council, a D.C. veteran who served as an official of the U.S. Interior Department and as a legislative aide to Hawaii U.S. Rep. Ed Case and U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka….
(CLUE: They are on the lookout for any info about Federal investigations of wrongdoing in Hawaii.)
The group members, who have labeled themselves the hui, included Kiaaina; Yuki Lei Sugimura, chair of Maui County’s budget committee; Laksmi Abraham, legislative liaison to Maui Mayor Richard Bissen; Kuhio Lewis, chief executive officer of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement; Sherry Menor-McNamara, president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, vice-chair of Aina Aloha Economic Futures, and Luke Bailey, chief financial officer of Maui United Way. Officials from Maui Economic Opportunity, the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Maui Economic Development Board also participated….
In a letter delivered last week to Hawaii’s lawmakers, the hui asked if pandemic-era loans from the Small Business Administration could be forgiven now that the island’s businesses face a whole new threat to their survival, whether HUD funding guidelines could be eased, whether Hawaii could be given access to federal WaterSMART funds through the Bureau of Reclamation and whether access to clean water funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could be increased for Maui….
The genesis of the effort was a casual conversation between Kiaaina and Menor-McNamara, where they were sharing their perspectives about the problems Maui businesses were facing. Both noted that many Maui executives are doubly stressed because they are still required to repay loans that helped tide them over during the pandemic at the same time they ponder taking on new loans to relaunch fire-damaged establishments….
FLASHBACK: Source: Esther Kia’aina and Andy Winer Warned Jim Lyon About Investigation
read … A Message From Hawaii To DC: 'We Don't Have Enough Money'
New Maui fire relief program draws high interest
SA: … A Maui nonprofit administering the new $100 million program for the state received about 600 applications since Friday when the program opened, and was overwhelmed during a Tuesday application outreach event at an American Red Cross disaster assistance center in Lahaina.
The offshoot of the federally funded Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, being called Maui Relief TANF, can provide qualifying families with up to $4,000 a month for housing plus additional money for automobile, utility, clothing and children’s school supply expenses for up to four months and potentially totaling $20,000 or more.
Maui Economic Opportunity Inc. is administering the program for the state Department of Human Services, and began accepting applications Friday….
read … New Maui fire relief program draws high interest
Bumpy Kanahele’s giant marijuana farm raided, thousands of plants seized
HNN: … Authorities have seized thousands of marijuana plants in a sunrise raid at the Care Waialua farm. Hawaii News Now was there as dozens of federal agents, state narcotics officers and Honolulu police moved in on the property with a search warrant.
The plants were pulled from the property greenhouse, wrapped in large plastic bags, then loaded onto box trucks.
Care Waialua is a polarizing site.
Described as a co-op, Care Waialua is not a licensed medical marijuana dispensary.
Owner Jason Hanley’s North Shore home was also raided, but he was not arrested.
Hanley has been open to lawmakers and the media about the property.
In February, he showed Hawaii News Now the crop as legislators and the public debated recreational marijuana…. (Oooops….)
KITV: Federal agents seize 1,100 plants in marijuana raid on the North Shore
read … Controversial medical marijuana farm raided, thousands of plants seized
Homeless Threaten Makiki With Flooding
SA: … “The DFM stream- cleaning crew left the ladder where it was to avoid confrontation with the individuals who were in the box culvert while the crew removed the trash from the stream and box culvert area. Again, the DFM stream-cleaning crew is a different group than typically conducts SPO enforcement, is not trained to address homeless situations, and did not have police support while they were cleaning the stream area.”….
read … Kokua Line: Will city clear homeless people from Makiki Stream?
Mystery lingers in Ireland case
SA: … The 1991 rape and murder of Dana Ireland, 23, who was visiting Hawaii island from Virginia, has been a tragic saga for more than 30 years now — and it’s still unfinished.
The latest turns have been the dramatic exonerations of the Schweitzer brothers, long but wrongly believed to have been among the perpetrators. Albert Ian, 51, was imprisoned for 23 years before being exonerated and released in January; Shawn, 48, who served a year in prison decades ago, just had his conviction vacated. He had taken a plea deal, due to fear of life imprisonment amid prosecutors’ zeal to convict in the high-profile case.
Still left unanswered: So who did kill Ireland? ….
read … Off The News: Mystery lingers in Ireland case
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