Green 2025 Budget Adds $1.2B New Spending
Chinese Illegals: CNMI DMV Chief Convicted of License Fraud
DCCA Makes It Hard To Find Information On Political Insiders
CB: … The agency used to do the search itself for free if you knew to call and ask. Now, you have to pay $1,000 a month for a subscription to look up a person's name on the public database….
When Gov. Josh Green recently nominated Honolulu attorney Vladimir Devens to a seat on the Hawaii Supreme Court, he failed to make public one important fact: Devens had for years served as the director a powerful political action committee that had helped put Green in office.
That information became public knowledge only after Devens was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and confirmed by the full Senate. His leadership role with the Be Change Now PAC — affiliated with Pacific Resource Partnership — was never mentioned and the nominee was never asked about it.
When the relationship was revealed in a Civil Beat story days after the confirmation, Green’s office defended the lack of transparency, saying the information was publicly available in the files of the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, where Be Change Now is registered. …
There’s just one problem with that explanation: It’s nearly impossible to search DCCA’s business registrations by a person’s name. Under DCCA’s system, finding Devens’ connection to Be Change Now would require going through hundreds, perhaps thousands, of registrations on the agency’s site….
Civil Beat randomly checked other state business records sites and found more than a dozen other states that let the public do such searches. …
Consider, for example, Dane Wicker, the deputy director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. A financial disclosure required by state ethics laws shows that in addition to a state salary of $100,000 to $150,000, Wicker earned or received $10,000 to $25,000 from Wicker Enterprises LLC.
Type “Wicker Enterprises LLC” into DCCA’s business search site, however, and all you can see is that Wicker is the agent and sole manager of the LLC. There’s no way to search deeper — to see, for instance, what companies Wicker or his Wicker Enterprises are connected to.
Wicker Enterprises is a partner with Wicker’s former boss, Hawaii Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz, in a tea company called Kilani Brew LLC. But the only way to see the connection between the state’s second-highest economic development official and the senator who controls the state’s finances is to search for Kilani Brew on the DCCA site.
“If you can’t search by officer name, you cannot identify business associations,” Wright said. “And that makes it impossible to vet people, but also to be fully informed about who you’re dealing with.”…
read … Hawaii’s Business Records Agency Makes It Hard To Find Information On People
Governor looks again to climate impact fee — this time aimed at vacation rentals
HNN: … The estimated $500 million in wildfire costs includes an initial $60 million for death and injury payoffs from the Ohana Recovery Fund. The fund will pay out $1.5 million to families who must agree not to sue the state, county or Hawaiian Electric.
The governor said he wants the $1.5 billion rainy day fund to remain untouched because a surplus leads to less expensive borrowing costs.
That’s important because to balance the budget the governor converted about $170 million in construction, renovation and repair projects from cash to bond financing.
As for the proposed climate impact fee, the governor said he wants at least $50 million a year, potentially from putting the fee on short-term vacation rentals.
“It will both incentive people to move toward long-term rentals, so we have the housing, and we’ll have the money,” Green said.
The governor says the state can also afford to reduce taxes, with what he calls phase two of his Green Affordability Plan, which offers tax credits for families with children or dependent adults and proposes adjusting tax brackets, which he said would cut income taxes for almost everyone….
Maui state Sen. Troy Hashimoto said this could be the year for reform after prior efforts failed.
“The timing wasn’t right,” Hashimoto said. “And I think now we have a catastrophic event. And so I think now more than ever, we probably there’s a big desire to take some action.”
State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said senators had previously proposed adding taxes to vacation rentals….
read … Governor looks again to climate impact fee — this time aimed at vacation rentals
HPD chief says he’s ‘not aware of all the facts’ in alleged mishandling of crash involving officer
HNN: … After two months and more than a half-dozen interview requests, Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan is finally responding to a series of exclusive HNN Investigates reports regarding an officer-involved crash that left a motorcyclist seriously injured…
While Logan is still refusing to speak directly with HNN Investigates or provide any information to HNN on where the case stands — citing the fact that it’s still under investigation — it appears he had a lot to say when he was asked about the case on a live local radio show.
On Thursday morning, Logan spent nearly 15 minutes answering questions on a talk show that airs on New Radio 830 called the Rick Hamada Program….
Here is Logan’s response to the footage: “It shows various things that were happening. But we have to understand all the facts and circumstances because it’s only a short snapshot of time.”
Prior to the crash, law enforcement sources say, Isala had attended a party.
Meanwhile, the accident report shows he was never given field sobriety test.
And the box asking if officers suspected impairment was left blank. That same document also revealed that when the crash scene investigator showed up, Isala was gone but the report makes no mention of where he went.
We’ve asked HPD multiple times if officers drove the corporal home after the crash because they suspected he was intoxicated. The department still refuses to answer the question.
Logan said in the radio interview, “I’ve heard rumors about a party and stuff but I don’t have any facts. I haven’t seen anything. I didn’t get an invitation to the party.”
Retired Maui Police Department Traffic Commander William Hankins listened to the interview with the chief saying, “These are not necessarily rumors. These are allegations.
“And an allegation is something that has to be looked into.”…
read … HPD chief says he’s ‘not aware of all the facts’ in alleged mishandling of crash involving officer
Sue and Settle: Hawaii Governor Proposes Additional Funds to Pretend to Fight Youth Climate Lawsuit
IM: … The Department of Budget and Finance released its Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Supplemental Budget on December 18, 2023…
The youths are represented by Our Children’s Trust, and Earthjustice. The Environmental Court of First Circuit set the trial date for Navahine F. v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation from June 24 - July 12, 2024.
The Executive Supplemental Budget adds $2,250,000 for additional expenses for a special deputy attorney general to jointly represent the Department of Transportation and the State in the environmental court litigation concerning climate change….
(CLUE: AG must find way to lose case that most advances the eco-religion.)
read … Hawai`i Governor Proposes Additional Funds to Fight Youth Climate Lawsuit
Hawaii Federal Court Denies Motion To Certify Covid-19 Vaccination Class Action
DM: … In O’Hailpin v. Hawaiian Airlines Inc., No. 22-CV-00532, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 220734 (D. Haw. Dec. 12, 2023), Judge Jill Otake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii denied a motion for class certification brought by current and former employees of Hawaiian Airlines alleging discrimination under Title VII and the ADA against individuals who requested medical or religious accommodations from their employers’ COVID-19 vaccination policy. The decision is pro-defendant and well worth a read in terms of strategies to oppose and prevent class certification of employment discrimination claims….
read … Hawaii Federal Court Denies Motion To Certify Covid-19 Vaccination Class Action
Benioffs donate 282 acres for Self-Help Affordable Housing to Hawaii Island nonprofit
HTH: … The gift by Marc Benioff, CEO of the software company Salesforce, and his wife, Lynne, includes 282 acres solely for residential use by low- and moderate-income households.
According to a press release announcing the donation, the project is intended for self-help housing, turnkey single-family-for-sale housing and potentially low-rise multifamily housing. It will include other facilities such as parks, community spaces and open space.
Development will begin with an initial 43-unit Self Help Affordable Housing project at Ouli. The gift from the Benioffs also includes an additional $7 million to facilitate site planning and infrastructure development. It follows an earlier $1 million gift to HICDC to enable the organization to expand its capacity to help the community in other ways….
LINK: HICDC (hicdcorp.org)
read … Benioffs donate 282 acres to Hawaii Island nonprofit - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
FBI Busts Hilo Satanist-Anarchist on Kiddie Porn
SA: … “The defendant’s history and characteristics justify detention. The defendant adheres to the beliefs of a group known as ‘764.’ That group is a radical offshoot of a satanic anarchist group, The Order of Nine Angles, which espouses the belief that society must be destroyed from within. O9A (Order of Nine Angles) encourages members to engage in criminal acts, including violence, sexual assault, murder, and terrorism, to accelerate and cause the demise of western society,” wrote Khatib. “O9A advocates ‘culling,’ a form of human sacrifice, to eliminate Jews, people of color, and others deemed to be inferior under their Social Darwinist views.”
Limkin is scheduled for a detention hearing Thursday at 10:30 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rom A. Trader. The charge of receipt, distribution and possession of child pornography is the result of an investigation by FBI agents working with the Hawaii Police Department….
BI: FBI Busts Neo-Nazi Cult That Used Discord to Groom and Exploit Kids (businessinsider.com)
read … Alleged leader of satanic cult arrested in Hilo | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)
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