Maui P D releases body cam footage from Lahaina Fire
Celebrate the Life of Senator Sam Slom
Three Months later, Red Cross Still Housing 6,700 from Lahaina Fires
HNN: … The Red Cross says its housing 6,700 people from 2,700 households in 36 hotels across Maui. The nonprofit has distributed over $22 million in aid.
“First in our immediate assistance program that was $11.3 million and then now over $11 million in our bridge program to folks who either they’re where they were living with either destroyed or had major damage or made uninhabitable.”
On Maui, there are 1,200 Red Cross volunteers. It’s hired 100 people from Maui and there are 70 open positions.
The Red Cross asks evacuees to check with their resident shelter worker every 48 hours. After some push back, Peters-Nguyen says it’s important to make sure people are okay.
“We had recently an elderly gentleman in one of the hotels, and he wasn’t responding. So finally, we sent someone up there to check and he was just really sick, he was too ill really even to answer his phone or anything like that,” she said….
read … Fire evacuees won’t be kicked out as West Maui fully reopens to tourism
Star-Adv Endorses Decision to Deny Lahaina Firefighting Water, Plan for ‘Venice of the Pacific’ Tourist Attraction
SA: … Shortly after the Lahaina fire, Glenn Tremble of the West Maui Land Co. asked CWRM for “ongoing authorization” to fill its reservoirs when a fire is reported; a suspension of interim in-stream flow standards and other regulations until the emergency period ends; and amendments to inflow stream standards to allow the company to keep more water “for fire suppression and our community as we face dry months in the years to come.”
It’s true that stored water in former plantation reservoirs can be used for helicopter drops to suppress or douse fires, if weather conditions permit. That should figure into CWRM’s fire-prevention plans. But CWRM should be skeptical of narrowly focused, self-interested requests from large landowners. It should take a more holistic approach, one that keeps more water in the streams, encourages conservation methods such as expanding the use of nonpotable and recycled water, and greens up neglected open spaces….
(TRANSLATION: We also would have rejected the request for firefighting water.)
“In light of the devastation we are currently dealing with, we are now presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make right the historical wrongdoing on our people by Pioneer Mill, the tourism industry and governing entities,” said Tiare Lawrence, a Maui activist. “There’s hope among many people in this room that the ecosystem and kanaka can flourish together once more.”
(TRANSLATION: We are going to use eminent domain to remake Lahaina as the ‘Venice of the Pacific’)
Lawrence spoke at a meeting of the state Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM) in Wailuku last week. It lasted nine hours. About 200 people showed up, many of them voicing views similar to Lawrence’s.
(TRANSLATION: 200 back plan to use eminent domain to remake Lahaina as the ‘Venice of the Pacific’)
Many Native Hawaiians and community activists envision a restoration of Maui Komohana (from Ukumehame to Honokohau, including Lahaina) — one that approaches what existed before the plantations and resorts, with traditional crops of taro and breadfruit, fishponds and streams flowing freely without diversion.
(TRANSLATION: We are going to use eminent domain to remake Lahaina as the ‘Venice of the Pacific’. We believe tourists will pay more for this experience.)
read … Editorial: Update West Maui water management
HECO Secret Accounting for Lahaina Fires
IM: … The Public Utilities Commission filed a letter with HECO on September 27, 2023. "More detail on the damage that has occurred, including when the Companies expect to complete their assessment of the damage and how such damage impacts the firm renewable generation and/or variable RDG proposed projects."
The Public Utilities Commission released a new Case & Document Management System in the summer of 2023. The new web-based system contains virtually all documents in all dockets opened in the last 25 years. Documents are normally in text, allowing viewers to cut-and-paste sections.
The HECO response, filed October 11, is a mix of text, photographs of text, and redactions. "Damage assessment of the West Maui transmission system is complete and requires the Companies to re-evaluate interconnection options for all Stage 3 Maui RFP projects… Major damage and changes to the West Maui transmission and distribution system that impact interconnection of Stage 3 and all other generation projects or systems (including distributed energy resources) include: [3 pages of] XXXXXXXXXX "…
read … Lacking Trust in Governmental Accounting for Lahaina Fires
Hawaii Halts Work On Another Computer System Upgrade
CB: … The state has paid more than $500,000 so far to the main vendor and consultants working on the $1.86 million project, but the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs opted in August to put the initiative “on hold” to reassess the effort.
(TRANSLATION: HGEA members are demanding an interface identical to their existing system.)
“The project’s prolonged suspension and changes in direction will result in increased costs, scope, and time,” according to a report on the project by a consultant called Accuity.
The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has its headquarters in the King Kalakaua Building, also known as the downtown U.S. Post Office. The DCCA has suspended work on a project to upgrade its business registration system. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2020)
Century Computers Inc., which does business as Pacxa, was awarded a $1.527 million contract in May 2022 to serve as systems integrator to modernize the state system for registering and maintaining records on businesses….
Accuity said in its report dated Aug. 31 that “strategic choices regarding system architecture and design should be revisited.”
(TRANSLATION: HGEA-driven tech demands are once again scuttling a tech upgrade.)
Earlier this year the state scrapped a much larger $16.5 million computer contract with a company called Labyrinth Solutions Inc. after state officials concluded the company could not meet the schedule, cost or performance requirements for replacing the state system to manage financial data….
REALITY: Audit fuels “clinically psychotic” HGEA effort to strangle tax collection
MORE REALITY: Tech: 'Clinically Psychotic' HGEA Signs Suicide Pact
read … Hawaii Halts Work On Another Computer System Upgrade
Offshore wind developer purchases land for Hawaii project
KITV: … A company planning to develop an offshore Hawaii wind energy project purchased about nine acres of land in Windward Oahu near a Hawaiian Electric Co. substation, Island News has learned.
Progression Hawaii Offshore Wind’s $5.2 million purchase of Kaneohe land is “part of its long-term commitment to providing a reliable renewable energy resource as the state strives to reach its renewable energy goals,” the company said in a statement to Island News.
Progression Hawaii Offshore Wind recently executed a mitigation agreement with the Department of Defense.
The proposed offshore wind site will undergo a federal leasing process that requires environmental assessments and community outreach ….
read … Offshore wind developer purchases land for Hawaii project
Marijuana farm owner says his raided greenhouses supplied 1,000 pot heads
HNN: … The owner of the Care Waialua ‘medical’ marijuana farm that was raided on Oahu’s North Shore said he supplied nearly 1,000 ‘patients’ — and they need their medicine.
(Now they have to buy weed from the oligarchy.)
Jason Hanley said he also expects to be arrested soon, but he doesn’t know what the charges will be.
Hanley said federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, Honolulu police officers and state narcotics officers spent hours ripping the plants out of boxes in the greenhouses while executing search warrants on his properties….
He said they also seized financial records and cash from the farm and his home (how much was Bumpy getting for ‘protection’?) ….
(Skip over lengthy sob stories from ‘patients’.)
Hanley said he will fight whatever charges are filed….
KITV: Care Waialua marijuana farm plans to reopen after raid
read … Marijuana farm owner says his raided greenhouses supplied 1,000
Funding denied to program that helps with transition Hawaii inmates back into community
KITV: … The program was created to help incarcerated people transition back in their communities by providing support and guidance for when they get out. Worknet Inc., and the Hawaii Friends of Restorative Justice are working together to continue the program.
However, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) denied funding to the program. Chas Williams, Worknet's Executive Director, wrote a letter asking why.
“There were four items stated in the rejection letter, but all four of the items of the same thing. There are statements and restatements of that particular cause,” said Williams.
Williams said they were rejected due to subcontracting the Hawaii Friends of Restorative justice…
“Basically, it was to get the people in the person's immediate family or support group into a circle, a literal circle,” said Crabbe.
To prevent his brother from going back to prison, Crabbe attended the restorative circles to help with his brother's transition back into the community.
“Each of us went around the circle and forgave him. And if there were some concerns, we'd address it. But at that point in time, we all understood that perhaps the methodology was to forgive and to really forget and not to look back,” said Crabbe.
Crabbe said without the program, his brother wouldn't be as successful as he is today and his family dynamic would be very different….
read … Funding denied to program that helps with transition Hawaii inmates back into community
Homeless Dude Beats Up Elderly Security Guard
HNN: … The victim has been identified as 81-year-old Wendell Weatherwax.
His daughter said he was working the overnight shift when the assault occurred.
The incident happened just before 6 a.m. at the Launahele Street neighborhood park.
Law enforcement sources told Hawaii News Now the victim was trying to wake up a man sleeping in the grass at the park when an altercation broke out.
Weatherwax was then beaten with a walking cane.
“He was dripping in blood,” said his daughter, Melody. “It looked like a horror scene. His phone was bloody. His whole outfit was bloody. His nose was falling off.”
Melody said her father’s nose was broken in half.
She said despite the gruesome attack, she knows it could have been worse as she remembers a stabbing in Kaneohe that killed 77-year-old Windward Shopping Center security guard Mike Chu.
Sgt. Chris Kim, of Honolulu CrimeStoppers, said it appears attacks against kupuna have been rising in the past several years. “Back in the day you would never dare touch a kupuna but it seems like those days are long gone,” said Kim.
Weatherwax says right now the family is concerned the suspect who attacked their father is still on the loose.
read … ‘Like a horror scene’: Suspect in brutal attack on elderly security guard remains at large
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