Hawaii Childcare Cost: 20% of Family Income
UPDATE: A Better Deal for Territorial? Blue Hill Asks Shareholders to Reject Hope
New survey finds up to 70% of locals want to move to more affordable state
KITV: … One of the most alarming things we found is when we asked folks if they'd need to move to a less expensive state, 70% said 'yes' or that they're unsure. Only 30% gave a definitive 'no.' Of the people who said they may need to move, almost half said they plan to move within the next five years."…
The profile of the people interviewed are "mostly middle-to-upper middle-income folks, working for local companies, who are happy with their jobs. They're mostly lifetime residents, deeply rooted in their communities. Based on income and family size, a typical example would be two local public school teachers and their keiki. These are the very people powering Hawaii's economy, now on the brink of leaving their homes behind," continued Wisch. "And yet we found that nearly two thirds of people in our survey have a difficult time saving any money from their paycheck, and housing is far and away the biggest expense for them."….
read … New survey finds up to 70% of locals want to move to more affordable state
First Time Ever: Sovereignty Squatters get Felony Convictions after Occupying Judge’s House
ILind: …Alicia Napuaonalani Hueu entered a “no contest” plea in a Maui courtroom earlier this year to 1st degree theft, a Class B felony, as well as two misdemeanor charges, obstructing a government function and criminal property damage. Two of her co-defendants also pleaded guilty to felony charges, one to 1st degree theft and another to 1st degree burglary. Charges against two others were dropped by prosecutors as part of their plea deal with Hueu.
All three defendants were granted a deferred acceptance of their pleas, and released on 4-years probation. If they stay out of trouble and comply with the terms of their probation, the convictions will be removed from their records….
Hueu was arrested on January 4, 2020 after she and others took over 3.3 acres of land and small two-bedroom home located along Hana Highway in Kipahulu, Maui. The property was owned by retired District Court Judge Douglas McNish and his wife, who had purchased it in 2006 for $1.55 million, and had listed it for sale in 2019, real estate records show.
McNish served as a family court judge on Maui from 1984 until his retirement at the end of 1999. News clippings show he was well regarded, and is credited with launching a program in 1988 requiring couples who have filed for divorce to attend a workshop concerning the impact of divorce on children. The program was later expanded into courts statewide and is now known as “Kids First.”
On November 29, 2019, five weeks before the confrontation that led to Hueu’s arrest, she sent a “cease and desist” letter by certified mail to McNish and his wife alleging they were trespassing, “illegally” occupying an “unpermitted” home on the property, and conducting an “unauthorized” land sale….
The letter itself identifies Hueu as “Governor of Maui” in the “Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.” … She also claimed the titles of “Captain” and “Judge Advocate General” in Occupied Forces Hawaiian Army, a Hawaiian nationalist group that purports to be the military of the Hawaiian Kingdom, now engaged in “civil affairs” while under occupation….
Sometime in the latter part of December, following the letter’s deadline, an associate chained and locked the gate into the McNish, according to Hueu’s later testimony before the Maui Police Commission. McNish apparently removed them, prompting Hueu’s associate call Maui police and file a complaint of criminal property damage, valuing the missing broken chain and locks at $95.
It was an audacious scheme, breaking into and taking over someone’s land and house, changing the locks, then accusing the legal owner of trespassing when they try to reenter their own property, and asking the police to enforce your fictitious title.
It didn’t work for long. Two days later, on January 3, a police report said Hueu was trespassing on the property.
The following day, police returned, cut a new set of chains and locks that had been placed on the entry gate, and entered the property. Hueu was taken from the scene in handcuffs and later charged with extortion, theft, and burglary, all felonies, along with a long list of related misdemeanors. After languishing in court for over three years, the case was concluded when Hueu accepted a plea bargain.
It remains to be seen whether prosecutors will be inclined to consider felony charges when the victim of this kind of calculated land theft is a regular citizen without the resources and connections of a retired judge….
This is believed to be the first time felony charges have been successfully brought against Hawaiians wrongly asserting native land rights under the false theory of “heirdom” promoted by Hueu, which asserts a “lineal descendant” of the original recipient of a Hawaiian Kingdom-era royal land grant retains an ownership interest “in perpetuity” that is superior to modern land titles and gives the right to control the property. In this view, neither time nor valid prior property sales or transfers can extinguish the ownership rights of descendants.
Whether its proponents are able to suspend their sense of reality enough to accept this theory as true, or have cynically weaponized it as a narrative to generate support for native Hawaiian land rights and sovereignty, isn’t clear from the record….
read … False theory about Kingdom land patents leads to first felony convictions
Half of Homeless are Chronics
SA: …A city team of emergency medical technicians and homeless outreach workers returned to Wahiawa and the North Shore last week, encountered a dozen homeless people and promised to keep coming back to provide first aid, wound care, social services, shelter beds and, ultimately, stable if not permanent housing.
The 10 EMTs and community health workers from CORE — or the Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement Program run by the city’s Emergency Services Department — arrived at Haleiwa Small Boat Harbor in refurbished ambulances and a repurposed city bus, wearing matching red CORE T-shirts and bringing along plenty of cold bottled water to break the ice with the homeless people they met.
John Kanaulu, CORE’s field operation supervisor, estimated that the North Shore alone, not including Wahiawa, is home to 600 to 700 homeless people, many of whom grew up on the North Shore only to end up homeless for years, often decades.
CORE teams began their outreach in December 2021 by initially working with homeless people in downtown, Chinatown and Waikiki before expanding less frequently to the Windward side, Central Oahu and the West and North shores.
About half of the people they have met across Oahu reported that they are “chronically homeless,” meaning they’ve been living on the streets a long time or repeatedly, often with common themes of mental illness and substance abuse.
SA: Off the news: CORE focuses on North Shore homeless | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Honolulu’s CORE team vows to keep addressing North Shore homelessness | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Maui Considers New Law To Regulate Homeless Sweeps
CB: … The intent of Bill 111 is to “provide the procedures to compassionately relocate people when necessary, including offering access to services and storage of personal property,” said committee chair Shane Sinenci. “Government cannot search and seize your personal property.”
Johnson, who introduced the bill, said part of the impetus was the Supreme Court ruling this year in the case of Sonia Davis v. (Mayor) Richard Bissen.
“We don’t want to be getting sued if we keep doing it this way,” Johnson said….
read … Maui Considers New Law To Regulate Homeless Sweeps
Ala Wai: DLNR boots Outdoor Dining to make way for latest half-baked development scheme
SA: … Pau Hana Place, a popular neighborhood eatery on a parcel at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, has closed following a battle over the terms of its revocable permit, and come December the state says it plans to temporarily turn the parcel into a parking lot until it can pursue a request for proposals to complete the community’s vision for the site.
Blue Water Shrimp International LLC, doing business as Pau Hana Place, permanently ceased its Ala Wai harbor operations Tuesday after the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a request from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation to end its next revocable permit Nov. 30….
DOBOR property manager Richard Howard said the agency is now preparing a request for proposals, and the timing will depend on whether the scope covers just the site vacated by BWSI or the entire harbor. Statts said the state’s parking concession Secure-P will begin using the site for additional harbor parking in December and will continue through the interim.
Chang cautioned, “I don’t think we want to have it as parking forever. Sen. Moriwaki and the rest of the community will not be happy with us.”
Statts replied, “We agree. We’ve got an RFP that we’ve been working on that was put on hold that we’re going to continue working on; so, it wouldn’t take much, I think, just to get to the point where we can put it out.”
Howard said DOBOR’s vision for an RFP could include a stage, food trucks, sustainable landscaping with native Hawaiian plants and concrete walkways, comfortable seating areas and shaded areas covered by sail shades — preferences closely aligned in a community visioning plan prepared for DOBOR by the University of Hawaii Community Design Center and UH’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
The UH visioning team identified a $251 million redevelopment option that included a maritime welcome center, market plaza, education and community center, watercraft park and surf community center. A pricier option, which costs over $100 million more, adds a parking garage to the watercraft park and a canoe storage and landing area to the surf community center, as well as greater boardwalk improvements, among other amenities.
Bonnie Flemon, part of BSWI’s management team, said in a news release that the state’s revocable permit with BWSI began after Robert Masuda, former deputy director of DLNR, approached BWSI’s cultural adviser Peter Apo several years ago to inquire whether BWSI’s Gilbert Sakaguchi Sr. was interested in developing a venue at the old boat repair yard….
read … Ala Wai harbor redevelopment is urged | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Lead Detected Near Marine Corps Shooting Range Revives Safety Concerns
CB: … All two dozen samples taken from the oceanside of the Pu‘uloa Range Training Facility in February tested positive for lead, copper and another heavy metal called antimony, according to a draft Marine Corps report submitted to the state health department. However, the extent to which those levels are hazardous is open to interpretation.
(CLUE: Copper and antimony are valuable.)
read … Lead Detected Near Marine Corps Shooting Range Revives Safety Concerns
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