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Friday, September 13, 2024
September 13, 2024 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:05 PM :: 951 Views

AG Lahaina Fire Report Rips Maui's 'Siloed Command Structure'

Debris cleared from 100 percent of residential properties in Lahaina Impact Zone

Secret ATF Report Remains Hidden: Federal Investigators Still Won't Say What Caused The Lahaina Fire

CB: … Two months after the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shared its findings on the cause of the Lahaina wildfire with Maui County officials, the agency continues to withhold that information from the public. 

The bureau’s spokesman said he is mystified as to why.

Jason Chudy, a bureau spokesman in Seattle, said he couldn’t explain the months-long delay in releasing what is supposed to be the definitive report on what caused the conflagration, which killed 102 people and destroyed much of Lahaina more than a year ago.

“It’s at headquarters,” Chudy said of the ATF’s written report. “I don’t know where it is in the process.”

“I don’t know who’s got the report now,” he said. “All I can say is we expect it to be done soon.” …

Friday’s report follows a first report that Lopez released in April. Titled the “Lahaina Fire Comprehensive Timeline Report,” the 375-page report included a minute-by-minute chronology of the fire’s devastating progress through Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023. It was based on thousands of data points, including police and fire department dispatch records; communications among police, firefighters and emergency management officials; reports from Hawaiian Electric Co., and hundreds of photographs and videos from residents with time stamps showing when the images were recorded.

One thing missing was the cause of the fire. The report’s authors said the ATF’s report would address that….

In late June, Chudy told Civil Beat that ATF officials had been on Maui that week briefing the Maui Fire Department on the ATF’s findings and answering questions. Chudy said then that the ATF planned to post the report on its website, but only after Maui County released its official report, which would rely on the ATF’s findings.

Asked when that would be, Chudy said, “It’s all Maui Fire Department’s call.”

At the time, Chris Stankis, a fire department spokesman, said the department didn’t have an estimated date for finishing its report.

In July, Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura issued a statement saying the ATF report wasn’t complete and that his department could not finish its work until the ATF report was complete. Now Chudy says the delay is all the ATF’s fault….

RELATED: Is the US Department of Justice still ‘investigating’ the Maui Wildfires?

read … Federal Investigators Still Won't Say What Caused The Lahaina Fire

Mayor says its wrong to blame city property enforcement for Waianae mass shooting

HNN: … With some in the Waianae community blaming lack of property law enforcement for the tragic mass shooting. Mayor Blangiardi called together administration leaders Thursday afternoon, a meeting that reinforced that the city’s powers are limited.

“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding here,” Blangiardi said to give the city more power the laws must change.

Before Hiram Silva shot five people on August 31, killing three woman of the Keamo Ohana, he’d run up half a million dollars in fines for illegal grading and dumping on his 20-acre ag lot. He’d also been warned that the so-called “Silva Dome” - a party and concert venue - was illegally built. He defied the city and threatened neighbors when they complained about rowdy parties. That’s what happened the night he attacked them.

But the Mayor said its wrong for people to assume the city could have easily shut the dome down.

“We’ve got to go through our own Corporation Counsel and then take things to court,” he told Hawaii News Now….

Blangiardi says he will go to the legislature for a fourth time for the ability to foreclose on certain properties with defiant or absent owners, without going to the courts….

The Mayor says he’s not taking immediate action against the Silva property and is waiting for the police investigation to see if there are lessons to be learned from the tragedy….

HNN: Honolulu mayor calls together administration leaders to address crime in West Oahu (hawaiinewsnow.com)

read … Mayor says its wrong to blame city property enforcement for Waianae mass shooting (hawaiinewsnow.com)

Hawaii Supreme Court Justices grill county attorneys over new evidence in Dana Ireland murder case

HNN: … Deputy prosecutor Shannon Kagawa responded, “I definitely hope not, but I think we do have to allow the police department to do the investigation.”

Justice Vladimir Devens said he understands that police need to do a “thorough and complete investigation,” but he pointed out that the Schweitzers have spent decades either in prison or living with the stain that comes with the conviction of one of Hawaii Island’s most brutal attacks.

Devens also said the new evidence points away from the Schweitzers.

Their attorneys agreed, telling the court that not one piece of evidence showed the Schweitzers were involved.

Kagawa said that because Lauro was never a suspect before this year, the police are going back to his life in 1991, including figuring out who he hung out with and what kind of vehicle he drove.

The county did not ask for a specific amount of time before they would be willing to turn over the records.

Justices could take months to make a decision on the evidence, but legal experts have noted that this case does seem to be moving quicker than most….

SA: Editorial: Dana Ireland case begs full disclosure | Honolulu Star-Advertiser 

HTH: HPD wants state’s high court to block order by Hilo judge in Ireland case

SA: Dana Ireland murder investigation case revisited

CB: Hawaii Supreme Court Is Considering Whether To Release Investigative Files In Dana Ireland Case - Honolulu Civil Beat

KHON: Hawaii county prosecutors: Schweitzers still suspects in Ireland murder despite guilty verdicts being thrown out | KHON2

read … Hawaii Supreme Court Justices grill county attorneys over new evidence in Dana Ireland murder case

Strike set for 7AM Friday after negotiations between nurses, Kapiolani Medical Center end without a deal

HNN: … A spokesperson for the Hawaii Nurses Association confirmed there was no solution reached between them and Kapiolani Medical Center administration.

This means hundreds of nurses will likely hit the picket line Friday as previously planned. Union members previously approved a one-day strike, starting at 7 a.m.

The hospital later responded by saying anyone who strikes will not be allowed back inside the facility until they accept the center’s latest contract offer….

read … Strike set after negotiations between nurses, Kapiolani Medical Center end without a deal

Maui Ethics Board Says Water Authority Appointee Has No Conflict of Interest

CB: … The fact that Young worked on the charter amendment and served as executive assistant to Council member Shane Sinenci, who championed the water authority’s creation, did not pose an ethical conflict, the board determined on Wednesday….

Young sought the ethics opinion after three County Council members declined to vote on moving her appointment forward, voicing concern that she may have had unfair advantages in the job application process — and a conflict of interest because she helped draft the charter amendment that led to the water authority’s creation.

Chair Alice Lee, Upcountry representative Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tasha Kama, whose district covers Central Maui, have also previously questioned the need for the 11-member authority, which was approved by voters in 2022 to negotiate the public acquisition of long-term water leases and an irrigation system that has been held in private hands for decades….

Ethics board vice chair Michael Lilly said in a phone call Thursday there was no substance to the idea that Young might have a conflict of interest because she worked on the charter amendment.

“This is the clearest example of why we need full-time staff,” Lilly said, referring to the all-volunteer ethics board that meets monthly.

With an executive director, “this would never have come before us,” he said. “She would have been able to call our executive director and gotten a green light. It wouldn’t have taken up our time.”…

read … Maui Ethics Board Says Water Authority Appointee Has No Conflict of Interest

Bill would Streamline Naturalization Process for American Samoans

CB: … Aumua Amata — American Samoa’s delegate to the U.S. House — and government officials on the islands oppose birthright citizenship because of potential effects on Samoan culture. But in an apparent compromise, Amata recently introduced a bill to streamline the naturalization process for people like Fitisemanu.

“Instead of applying blanket citizenship to the locals and undercutting their indigenous rights, my bill attempts to … make it possible for individual Samoans to accept full citizenship before relocating to a state and without being subjected to the same bureaucratic hoops as foreigners,” Amata said in a news release. …

American Samoa was never conquered or purchased by the United States. Instead, a group of matais, or chiefs, entered into what were known as Deeds of Cession with the federal government in 1900 and 1904, on the condition that the U.S. respect their Faa Samoa.

In the 20th century, some territories, such as the Philippines, gained their independence, while other territorial residents were made citizens by official acts of Congress. American Samoan leaders rejected those options, arguing the Deeds of Cession protect their cultural autonomy, including a system that prohibits land ownership by anyone who is less than half Samoan.

One told Congress: “Washington should not force anything down the Samoans’ throat.” 

Officials today still prefer this arrangement, Amata has said, “due to associated benefits in the form of traditional government and indigenous land rights.” Ninety percent of land there is held communally, no U.S. citizens may serve in the legislature, and only matais are allowed to serve as senators…

The government of American Samoa maintains there is no movement for citizenship, with Amata at one point calling Fitisemanu’s case the product of “special interest lawyers … focused on a national agenda.”

Even in Fitisemanu’s family, views on citizenship are varied. His siblings, he says, were upset about seeing his name in the news. “They said, ‘Hey, nobody wants anything like that. They just want to be left alone.’” …

read … Debate Persists Over Rights Denied To Millions From U.S. Territories

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