Racists in Congress fought against statehood for Hawaii
Hawaii Statehood: Tiny 1959 opposition was anti-Japanese, not anti-American
Polls Showed Solid Support in Run-up to Hawaii Statehood
HART Awards $1.66B Contract for Center City Rail
DBEDT Releases 2023 Hawaii Data Book
UH President finalists expected in September
Blangiardi Vows to Remove 1,000 Homeless from Streets within One Year
CB: … Rick Blangiardi said he’ll take 1,000 people off the streets within a year, and that he's not worried about legal challenges….
Emboldened by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that gives local governments more power to clear homeless encampments, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi plans to double down on removing homeless people from the street.
“I’m going to be very aggressive about that, and you’re just going to begin to see it now,” he said.
His team is still figuring out what that looks like. But during a recent interview, Blangiardi said that he interprets the court ruling to give officials wide latitude, allowing city workers to remove homeless people from sidewalks on the charge of trespassing.
“Counties can determine how they want to enforce trespassing anywhere,” he said. …
About two-thirds of Oahu’s roughly 4,500 homeless people sleep outside rather than in shelters, a big change from a decade ago when a majority of homeless people were sheltered. That new level of visibility is spurring Blangiardi’s drive to clear the streets.
To help with tougher enforcement, the city’s legal team is reviewing a new state law, Senate Bill 3139, which allows police officers to call for mental health professionals to treat homeless people who appear incapacitated and unable to care for themselves.
And the city is setting up a command center to keep track of individual homeless people’s whereabouts and statuses. The intention is to help connect homeless people to shelters and services, spokesperson Adam LeFebvre said. More details will be released in the coming months as city officials discuss ideas with service providers….
read … Honolulu Mayor Vows Tougher Approach On Homelessness
Why Hawaiian Electric Plunged 12.8% This Week
MF: … It's usually not a great sign when a company files an important disclosure late on a Friday. Last week, Hawaiian Electric filed its second-quarter 10-Q, which contained "going concern" language that suggested bankruptcy is a possibility.
Earlier this month, Hawaiian Electric and other parties reached a (FAKE) settlement agreement with plaintiffs on all tort claims resulting from the wildfire, amounting to $4 billion. Hawaiian Electric's share of the settlement liability is $1.99 billion.
The problem is that Hawaiian Electric only had $550 million in cash on its balance sheet as of June 30, and is also paying a lot in capital expenditures toward future wildfire prevention measures. Hawaiian Electric has also said it won't raise utility rates in order to account for the claims.
So, the utility will have to raise more cash. In a press release earlier this month, the company said it would come in the form of "a mix of debt, common equity, equity-linked securities, or other potential options."
However, finding that financing still isn't guaranteed. And in last Friday's quarterly report, the company warned:
These conditions raise substantial doubt about HEI's and the Utilities' ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that financial statements are issued. The ability to continue as a going concern is dependent primarily upon the Company's ability to raise the capital necessary to fund the contribution to the settlement of wildfire tort claims while also meeting their obligations to repay their liabilities arising from normal business operations when they become due….
read … Why Hawaiian Electric Plunged 12.8% This Week
Money News: CNHA Completes Takeover of Tourism Agencies
SA: … Come September, all three of Hawaii’s top state-funded tourism management and destination branding organizations, which together control more than $128 million in state funds, will have a Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander at the helm.
Aaron J. Sala’s appointment as the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau’s new president and CEO begins Sept. 1. He said of his appointment, which was announced Thursday at an HVCB membership event, “The responsibility is ours — there’s no one else to blame. These are some of the wants that we have articulated, and these boards have responded. The community has responded, and now we are in these positions of leadership and authority and now we have a responsibility to follow through in this work.”
Sala joins other major Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander leaders such as the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s interim President and CEO Daniel Naho‘opi‘i. The HTA board chair is Pacific Islander Mufi Hannemann, who also heads the Hawaii Lodging & Tourism Association, a powerful, privately funded tourism advocacy organization.
HTA, which got $63 million from the state Legislature in 2024, awarded its longtime partner HVCB a $38.5 million multiyear contract in 2023 for destination brand management and marketing services, which will include pre-arrival visitor education.
Native Hawaiian Kuhio Lewis heads the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, which formed its tourism arm Kilohana to go after its first state-funded HTA tourism contract. In 2023, HTA awarded CNHA a $27.1 million multiyear destination stewardship contract, which includes post-arrival education.
Hannemann said, “This is historic that we have people of Polynesian ancestry at the helm of our No. 1 industry in the state.”
He added that the newfound scale is a natural evolution given Hawaii’s increasing focus on regenerative tourism, where visitors and hosts have a relationship of reciprocity….
SA: Aaron Sala tapped to lead Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau
ETN: New President and CEO at Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
read … Polynesians lead Hawaii’s 3 top tourism agencies
This Year’s Excuse? DOE blames school bus companies
KHON: … “This school bus crisis happened last year,” said Rep. Trish La Chica (D), Education Committee Vice Chair. “Happened the year prior to that. So the issue is not new. Yet we are really struggling to understand why it happened yet again this year.”…
Bus operators would be ready. That’s what top school officials said the Department of Education was told before school started.
“If we knew two weeks ago what we know now, we would’ve probably, maybe three or four weeks before school started, sat down with the contractor and say ‘you think you’re gonna do it but it doesn’t look like it,'” said Randy Moore, DOE interim deputy superintendent….
CB: 'They Have To Have Known': Hawaii Scrambles For Solutions To School Bus Driver Shortage
HNN: In wake of school bus route suspension, DOE says it will conduct ‘after-action’ report
read … DOE: Bus companies said they’d be ready for school year
11-Time Loser Shot Dead by Police
SA: … The 60-year-old man fatally shot by a Honolulu police officer Wednesday night in Waianae had fired shots into a neighbor’s home after his girlfriend fled there seeking safety following the couple’s heated argument, HPD Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan said during a news conference today.
Suspect Alston “Kaipo” Awong was declared dead at the scene by Emergency Medical Services paramedics. Awong has 11 prior state felony convictions, including drug and firearm offenses and terroristic threatening….
(REALITY: He was killed by the ACLU. If he had been locked up in a nice safe jail, he would be alive today.)
SA: Honolulu police chief appeals for help in wake of fatal shooting | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)
CB: Man Killed In Waianae Is The Fourth Officer-Involved Shooting Death This Year - Honolulu Civil Beat
read … HPD: Officer killed Waianae man after he fired shots into neighbor’s home | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)
DoH: Underage Transsexuals are Often Drug Addicts
KHON: … The data shows that LGB youth are 2.5 times more likely to smoke cigarettes and nearly 4 times more likely to have injected illegal drugs compared to heterosexual youth.
Transgender or unsure gender youth face even greater risks, being 6 times more likely to smoke cigarettes and 14 times more likely to have injected illegal drugs compared to their cisgender peers….
(CLUE: The adult that is molesting them gets them hooked first.)
You can click here to find out more from the DOH study….
read … DOH addresses SGM disparities amongst Hawaiʻi youth | KHON2
Desecrated by Homeless Meth Addict Grave Robbers--Pearl City cemetery finally sees hope
HNN: … 12 years ago the cemetery’s owner died leaving a management vacuum so homeless encampments quickly came in.
Since then three fires broke out destroying all records, crypts were left without doors, its walls are crumbling and headstones were toppled. They were once used as makeshift flooring for the encampment.
“We had to move them. There were 25 of them and we still don’t know where they go,” said Larry Veray, president of Friends for Sunset Memorial Cemetery.
More than 4,000 people are buried here. Their families are suffering from broken hearts.
“My dad struggled to have him clean it up,” said Maureen Andrade.
She has 8 family members buried at the cemetery including her mother, father and sister.
What looks like tiny homes at the cemetery are actually mausoleums. Veray says homeless are still living inside. There’s trash every where and it smells terrible….
Governor Green signed House Bill 2192/Senate Bill 2850 and on Thursday Pearl City community members gathered to celebrate the new state law giving them the power as a nonprofit to oversee and repair the abandoned private cemetery. The new law has broad implications for all abandoned cemeteries.
“This is one of the few times that I’ve known that the solution has been to look to our citizens for a solution that government cannot handle on its own,” said State Rep. Gregg Takayama (D-Pearl City, Waiau, Pacific Palisades)….
read … Desecrated Pearl City cemetery finally sees hope (hawaiinewsnow.com)
Lahaina Fire News:
QUICK HITS: