4-3 Vote: OHA Trustees Decide not to seek Exemption from Sunshine Law
Blangiardi goes full DEI -- signs City’s updated non-discrimination legislation into law
In Hawaii, parasites and viruses team up in the battle against fruit flies
September Tourist Count 96.1% of Pre-Pandemic Numbers
South Korea Refuses Visa to Honolulu-Based North Korean 'Collaborator'
Ghost Papers: More Hawaii journalists get pink slips
CB: … Carpenter has been whacking journalists (and newspaper carriers) since it took over operations from Black Press in March, including the entire reporting staff at West Hawaii Today. This week six more Honolulu Star-Adv journalists got their pink slips, including two veteran photographers — Cindy Ellen Russel and Craig Kojima — and longtime religion reporter Pat Gee. Also on the hit list: Stanley Lee, Richard Couch and Jeremy Nitta. At least six other non-newsroom employees also were let go.
(CLUE: West Hawaii Today, The Garden Isle, and Maui News are all ghost papers now.)
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser Guild sent around a scathing indictment of the new owners on Tuesday, saying “These losses cut deep at our ability to continue serving communities across Hawaii.”
The Guild contends Carpenter is following “a pattern” of buying a bunch of newspapers followed by deep cuts at the same papers. Similar blood-letting has happened in Washington state and Oregon in recent months where Carpenter Media Group has landed….
(CLUE: Local newspapers need to find a profitable business model. They haven’t had one since Craigslist destroyed their classified adv business.)
read … The Sunshine Blog: 'Corporate Vampires Continue To Suck Us Dry'
Oahu: 213,142 Ballots Cast
HNN: … ballots are continuing to pour in on Oahu.
As of Thursday, election officials said over 16,000 mail-in ballots were received bringing the total count to 213,142.
A little over 1,100 people voted in-person on Halloween Day, bringing in-person voting to a total of 7,800….
UPDATE: 376,635 Early Votes cast in General Election
read … General Election is just 4 days away. Here’s how voting is going
Star-Adv: HMSA must not direct patient care
SA: … In today’s health-care world, increasingly dictated by insurance companies over physicians’ expertise, it is encouraging that the Hawaii Supreme Court is expediting a lawsuit that has hefty potential to aid those who really matter: the patients.
In a surprising move last week, Hawaii’s high court directly transferred the case — Nitta et al. vs. Hawaii Medical Service Association — to itself, bypassing the Intermediate Court of Appeals. That was good to see, given the precedent this consequential case might have over health-insurance prior authorization or “pre-authorization,” a process that could have life-or-death bearing on other patients’ medical care going forward. A court date is eagerly awaited.
The 2022 lawsuit against HMSA was filed by Hilo obstetrician-gynecologist Frederick Nitta, claiming the insurer failed to cover certain medications and treatments he considered necessary for patients. The suit cites various incidents involving about 30 patients who were denied needed care by HMSA’s preauthorization process: one contract was for Charlene Orcino, whose prescribed pregnancy medication was denied coverage by HMSA; her condition worsened and she was medivaced to Oahu, where she gave birth “dangerously prematurely” to a son who weighed less than 3 pounds.
Nitta’s lawsuit claims that HMSA’s rejections of his diagnoses or treatments forced patients to forego treatment or pay for it without coverage, despite paying for insurance. In some cases, it alleges, HMSA changed the proposed treatment to something unhelpful, even detrimental. ….
2024: Court: HMSA Physician Contracts “oppressive, unconscionable, and unenforceable”
2022: Class-action lawsuit accuses HMSA of denying needed medical treatments
read … Editorial: Insurers must not direct patient care | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Why workers fired for refusing COVID vaccines are starting to win in court
R: The lawsuits I've reviewed, whether targeting a food conglomerate in Arkansas, an airline in Hawaii, hospitals in Oregon or a host of cities, revolve around similar claims that employers wrongly refused to accommodate devout workers who asked to be exempt from COVID-19 vaccine mandates….
Liberal San Francisco is hardly a hotbed of anti-COVID vaxxers – more than 90% of the city’s population got the shot, according to government data.
That’s partly why I found a verdict, by a San Francisco federal jury last week in favor of six public transit workers who were fired for refusing to comply with their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds so unexpected.
Jurors awarded the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, ex-employees more than $1 million each for workplace civil rights violations, for a total of $7.8 million….
read … Why workers fired for refusing Covid vaccines are starting to win in court | Reuters
Judge denies attorney’s motion to stop construction at Coco Palms property
KN: … Fifth Circuit Court Judge Randal Valenciano on Thursday denied an attorney’s motion to grant a preliminary injunction to stop all construction work on a controversial 350-unit hotel on the site that once housed the iconic Coco Palms Resort on Kauaʻi.
Honolulu-based attorney Keith Kiuchi had filed the motion in an attempt to get leverage for his client, mortgage broker Paul Honkavaara, who claims he is owed $1 million by the previous developer.
The motion requested that Valenciano order the current developer of the property, Reef Capital Partners, to stop all work on the $400 million project….
Background: Work on Coco Palms project could be halted by mortgage broker seeking ‘owed’ $1 million commission for securing funding
read … Judge denies attorney’s motion to stop construction at Coco Palms property
Peeking down a sovereignty movement rabbit hole
ILind: … You may wonder how Alicia Napua Hueu got the title “Governor of Maui” that she used in the “cease and desist” letter described in Monday’s post concerning the January 2020 takeover of a property in Kipahulu.
I puzzled over that, wondering how one comes to believe they are an island governor in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.
Then I recalled something I had found online a couple of years ago while reporting on the takeover of several acres of agricultural land in Kunia, above Waipahu. Hueu was a cheerleader and advisor to the group involved in that incident which involved several other members of Occupied Forces Hawaii Army. Hueu claimed the rank of Captain in OFHA as well as “Judge Advocate General.” She took her role seriously enough that she appeared in court and attempted to represent OFHA, but of course was not allowed to do so because she is not an attorney….
read … Peeking down a rabbit hole
Criminal Escapes Hawaii Prison, Allegedly Commits Murder in Mexico
HNN: … Deputy Attorney General Adrian Dhakhwa said Adams deserves the consecutive time because he didn’t turn himself in; he was captured four years after he escaped.
“He not only left the jurisdiction, he re-offended,” Dhakhwa said. “He got subsequent convictions in Texas and California.”
Breiner told the judge his client won’t be getting out of prison because he is wanted in the federal system for other crimes including border violations and a murder case.
He is accused of killing his girlfriend whose body was found in Tijuana, Mexico. No charges could be found on the federal court system, but Breiner said in court that he was in touch with deputy U.S. attorneys out of San Diego who told him his client was wanted for the murder case….
read … Hawaii ‘master of disguise’ sentenced for escape, now facing murder charge out of California
$20K Cesspool grant program notifies 100 awardees on Kauai
TGI: … A grant program aimed at helping island residents convert cesspools on their properties has selected 100 recipients, each of whom are eligible to receive a $20,000 reimbursement.
The County of Kauai Housing Agency said Wednesday it notified recipients via email. In order to receive the grant, recipients must acknowledge and confirm their interest by Nov. 4.
“A grant agreement must be signed to finalize the award,” the Housing Agency said in an update on the Residential Cesspool Conversion Grant Program….
KN: 100 Kaua‘i recipients awarded reimbursement to upgrade existing cesspools : Kauai Now
read … Cesspool grant program notifies 100 awardees on Kauai
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