OHA to Take Control of Kahana Valley Living Park?
Mainland Drug Gang Busted Quickly After Foolishly Coming to Hawaii
Honolulu 2nd-Lowest Mortgage Delinquency Rate in USA
Hawaii 2nd-Fewest Job Openings in USA
After 45% Rate Hike: Young Bros wants Annual Automatic Rate Hikes
SA: … Hawaii companies and consumers could face multiple rate increases for interisland ocean cargo over the next few years as part of last week’s regulatory request by Young Brothers LLC.
The company’s Oct. 15 application to the state Public Utilities Commission not only seeks a general rate increase averaging 20% for most cargo, but also asks for annual automatic rate changes tied to inflation….
(YB is copying the Honolulu Council: Trickery: Will you be suckered into Voting to Give More Pay Raises to the Honolulu City Council?)
“General rate cases tend to be time consuming to both the water carrier and the (PUC),” the report said. “As a result, regulated cargo rates do not typically get adjusted annually and are sometimes subject to relatively large rate increases when the cases are completed.”
The first tier in the recommended annual increase would be equal to the annual percent change, up to 5%, in the gross domestic product price index reported by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The second tier would be based on expenses incurred by Young Brothers and subject to PUC approval….
REALITY: Young Brothers seeks 45% rate hikes
REALITY: Young Brothers Rate Hike Proposal Based on Fraudulent Numbers
REALITY: Young Bros: Another Jones Act Failure
read … Young Brothers seeks 2 kinds of rate increases for interisland ocean cargo | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Surprise: 59,000 Properties affected by new Flood Maps
SA: … “On the preliminary flood maps, the number of properties reclassified from Zone D to Zone X is approximately 55,000. Of this number approximately 52,000 are residential, and 500 are commercial. The number of properties being classified into high-risk flood areas for the first time (Zones A and AE) is roughly 4,000,” Mario Siu-Li of Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting Subdivision Branch said Tuesday in an email.
Zone D has an undetermined flood risk, generally because the area has not been analyzed. Zone X has a low flood risk. Zones A and AE have a higher flood risk, as Siu-Li said; it is properties newly mapped into these Special Flood Hazard Areas that are getting the most attention as officials highlight proposed updates to Oahu’s Flood Insurance Rate Map, which includes risk analysis along some Oahu streams for the first time. A link to Oahu’s preliminary FIRM and information about upcoming public forums are available at resilientoahu.org/getfloodready Opens in a new tab. The map is expected to be finalized in 2026.
read … Kokua Line: How many properties affected in new flood-risk map?
Tulsi Gabbard says she’s re-joining GOP
SA: … Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who now supports Donald Trump, joined him on stage in Greensboro on Tuesday night to announce that she’s (re)joining the Republican Party….
REALITY: Tulsi Gabbard
read … Tulsi Gabbard says she’s joining GOP at campaign stop with Trump
Viral attack on Walz features fake Hilo Resident
WaPo: … Matthew Metro didn’t recognize the face that popped up on his cellphone screen when he clicked a link that a friend texted him last week. But after hitting play on the online video, he was dismayed by what he saw.
“My name is Matthew Metro,” said the man in the video, who went on to describe life as a student decades ago at a high school in Minnesota where Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz was a teacher. Some of the details — including about being at the school when Walz worked there — matched the biography of the real Metro. But the man in the video went further, leveling fabricated allegations against Walz, whom the real Metro said he never met.
Millions of people have viewed social media posts containing the video since it was published Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter. For some viewers, the use of Metro’s name and verifiable biographical details created an aura of credibility around the false allegations. Not so for the real Metro, whom The Washington Post located in Hilo, Hawaii….
read … Viral attack on Tim Walz features fake former student making false claim - The Washington Post
Hawaii Catholics: Voting is a Moral Obligation
CH: … Voting is not only a civic duty but, as Catholics, a responsibility to engage in the electoral process with a heart aligned to our faith. The document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls it a “moral obligation.” …
read … A faithful citizen’s guide to voting in Hawaii
Kauai Open Spaces Fund to Become Slush Fund for Eco-Groups?
CB: …The question going before voters is: “Shall up to 5% of the County’s Open Space Fund be available for the maintenance of lands, property entitlements, or improvements that were paid for by the Fund?”
The Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund was created in 2002 and funded by a portion of the county’s annual real property tax revenue. This year, the Kauai Council appropriated more than $1.1 million for the fund….
In the past, the county has struggled to partner with volunteer and nonprofit organizations to maintain those areas, according to Kauai’s Charter Review Commission.
“We have community groups that are willing to step up and help maintain important public spaces,” commissioner Jan TenBruggencate said. “But they’re often just volunteers willing to work and don’t have funds for buying rakes and mowers and shovels.”
The proposal came from a commission that oversees the open spaces fund and was approved in September 2023.
At the time, questions were raised over how groups could access the funds if the charter amendment passed and who would have oversight of the spending. County attorneys said it could be similar to a grants process and suggested the commission create rules and reporting requirements for recipient organizations….
read … Kauai Voters Asked To Fund Groups Maintaining Natural Resources - Honolulu Civil Beat
Settlements Recommended after arrest of 10-year-old girl
CB: … A Honolulu City Council committee on Tuesday recommended approval of a $150,000 settlement in an excessive force lawsuit filed by the mother of a girl who was arrested at her elementary school over a drawing that had been deemed offensive.
The decision came after a judge ruled this summer that the police officers involved were not eligible for qualified immunity, a concept that supporters say protects employees from liability in risky jobs but critics say shields those employees from responsibility when they should be held accountable.
Tamara Taylor, the girl’s mother, sued the Honolulu Police Department and the Department of Education in 2022, claiming that police used excessive force and unlawful discrimination against her daughter, who at the time was a 10-year-old student at Honowai Elementary School….
read … Settlements Recommended For Honolulu Liquor Commission And Police Lawsuits
Hawaii man accused of lying for money to help Afghans enter the U.S.
HNN: … Marty Anthony Muller was arrested just after 3:00 a.m. Monday at Honolulu’s Daniel K Inouye International Airport.
He had just arrived on a flight from the Marshall Islands, where he works as a contractor.
Agents with the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service escorted him to a waiting vehicle before taking him to the Federal Detention Center.
Muller is a United States citizen who worked as a contractor in Afghanistan until 2017 when he moved to Hawaii….
CNN: CNN Must Open Books in Defamation Lawsuit, Judge Rules
Related: USA v. Habibi (1:24-mj-00416), Virginia Eastern District Court
read … Hawaii man accused of lying for money to help Afghans enter the U.S.
EA for Keaukaha project contains references to scammy startup company
HTH: … Despite appearing in a state environmental assessment, a private company’s concept for a water treatment facility in Keaukaha remains only hypothetical for now.
Earlier this month, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands published a final EA for a plan to subdivide a 1,334-acre portion of state land at King’s Landing into minimally developed lots for DHHL beneficiaries.
Within the 1,500-page document are occasional references to a proposed water treatment plant by startup energy company (schemers) Yummet.
According to the assessment, Yummet proposed building a “waste conversion facility” at King’s Landing that could process up to 5 million gallons of treated effluent from the nearby Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant per day. The process would separate clean water, which would be diverted to the community, from nonpotable water that would be flushed out into the ocean through the current wastewater pipeline system.
(And all you have to do is believe.)
The assessment also references Yummet’s proprietary technology the company claims can process waste into not just clean water, but also into carbon-negative concrete, clean air, hydrogen and biochar, which can be used to trap carbon and prevent it from entering the atmosphere.
(And all you have to do is believe.)
According to the EA, the King’s Landing community association Malama Ka Aina Hana Ka Aina, or MAHA, is “open to the possibility of partnering” with Yummet for the project.
However, the project currently is only theoretical….
2023: Clean Waste ‘Disneyland’ ‘Promises the Moon’--and Hawaii County Council Dumb Enough to believe it
read … EA for Keaukaha project contains references to startup company - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
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