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November 29, 2024 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 4:26 PM :: 810 Views

Green Approves THC Oils, Gummies and Drinks, calls it 'Hemp'

Nikki Haley: Russian Symp Gabbard Dangerous at DNI

TH: … Nikki Haley, a prominent Republican of Indian origin, said that Gabbard had not changed her stances on foreign affairs and warned that her rhetoric could be dangerous if she led the country’s intelligence efforts. “This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, or Chinese sympathiser,” she said, adding that the position of DNI was one that “has to analyse real threats”.

Abigail Spanberger, Democratic Virginia Congresswoman and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on X: “Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin.”…

Many within the Democratic Party view her as a political turncoat and opportunist. Soon after her appointment as DNI was announced, a video of hers from 2019 calling Trump “unfit to be our commander-in-chief” resurfaced on X.com. “He’s essentially pimping out our men and women in uniform to a foreign power who’s the highest bidder... He is unfit to be our commander-in-chief,” she had said then….

That Tulsi Gabbard has no Indian lineage is a fact that is well established, but often misunderstood in India, where she is often incorrectly (and possibly deliberately) referred to as Indian-American, which has even forced her to deny it publicly. But her close political ties with the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and other linked organisations in the US, are another story altogether….

In April 2014, ahead of the Lok Sabha election, Katrina Lantos, vice chairperson of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom, testified before the US Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, claiming that a Modi victory could harm the basic rights of India’s religious minorities. Gabbard swiftly criticised the timing of the hearing, telling US media that she believed it was no coincidence, given that India’s election was under way, and expressed concern that the hearing aimed to influence the outcome, something she deemed inappropriate for the US Congress….

Pieter Friedrich, an activist and journalist, who has investigated Gabbard’s alleged ties with the RSS, claimed that she owes her early political success to donations from RSS-linked sources. He said: “In the first three to four years of her career in Congress, she was getting, at least that I’ve documented, 20-25 per cent of her campaign funding from these sources.” He has since started an online petition to block her nomination as DNI.

In 2019, The Intercept news website found that Gabbard’s House campaigns had received donations from more than 100 individuals associated with the BJP and the RSS. Her participation in events hosted by Sangh affiliates and her meetings with Prime Minister Modi fuelled criticism that she was aligned with Hindu nationalist interests, but Tulsi has dismissed these allegations….

Tulsi Gabbard Accused Trump of Being Saudi Arabia's Bitch  --  She posted to Facebook, writing, “Despicable. Trump’s offering to place our military assets under the command of a foreign country—Saudi Arabia—is a disgrace and betrayal of my patriotic brothers and sisters in uniform and to our Constitution. We are not your prostitutes. You are not our pimp.”

read … Tulsi Gabbard: From Progressive Democrat to Controversial DNI Nominee under the Trump Administration - Frontline

When are the town halls on higher sewer fees?

  • >> Tuesday Dec 5 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center, from 10 a.m. to noon in the Oahu Room
  • >> Dec. 10 at Kailua District Park from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
  • >> Dec. 17 at Mililani District Park from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
  • >> Jan. 3 at Aina Haina Community Park from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
  • >> Jan. 6 at Kalanianaole Beach Park from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the craft room…

read … Kokua Line: When is town hall on higher sewer fees? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii's Last Sugar Lobbyist

CB: … In 1946, there were 34 sugar plantations in Hawaii, but by 1997, only five remained, including two on Maui and three on Kauai. Eventually all the companies gave up trying.

In 1996, the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association shut down its Washington office, laid off Roney and his secretary, and arranged for its large library of books and annual reports about the sugar industry to be sent back to the islands. Roney had done everything he could.

“It was heart breaking,” he said.

Roney was devastated, and out of a job.

But he was soon named director of economics for the American Sugar Alliance, which worked on behalf of sugarcane and beet sugar producers nationwide. He continued to look out for Hawaii’s interests with his new employer, remaining on the trade group’s staff until his retirement in 2021.

He visited Hawaii again a few years ago, when he was invited to stay with friends on Maui’s Kaanapali Coast. Driving from the airport to West Maui, once a verdant corridor cultivated by Alexander & Baldwin’s Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., Roney saw that the landscape had grown bleak and dry.

“It was such a depressing drive to me,” he recalled. “There used to be lush fields for miles and miles. It would have been less depressing if there had been some other kind of agricultural use, but it was mostly all barren and sand.”

He remains haunted by what was lost when the August 2023 fire all but destroyed Lahaina. When he saw the footage of the fire’s devastation, he reflected on the role of the end of the sugar era and its effect on the conflagration.

“Replacing thousands of acres of lush, green, irrigated sugarcane with easily flammable scrub brush must have been a factor in the brush fires there in 2018, and, more tragically, last year,” he said. “Another sad consequence of the demise of the Hawaiian sugar industry.”

read … Kirstin Downey: Hawaii's Last Sugar Lobbyist - Honolulu Civil Beat

Bill 123 Is Good Housing And Climate Policy For Hawaii County

CB: … Bill 123 will allow homeowners to build up to three accessory dwelling units on their properties. By allowing for increased density in urban areas with existing infrastructure, we are enabling the much-needed development of housing options for local families while protecting the environment.

This legislation marks a turning point in how we approach demand for local workforce housing. Rather than looking to the government to subsidize the development of housing, which can cost on average more than half-a-million dollars per unit, private landowners can maximize the use of already developed areas to build units that are more affordable because the land has already been paid for….

read … Bill 123 Is Good Housing And Climate Policy For Hawaii County - Honolulu Civil Beat

City postpones pretending to identify next landfill site

SA: … Although they said it would be named in November, Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration now says the future site for Oahu’s next municipal landfill will be made public in December.

That action, boosted in August by the state Land Use Commission’s decision to modify a special-use permit to extend a prior deadline to Dec. 31 to find the city’s alternate landfill, means the city has just over a month to officially name its next dump.

But whether the new dump site, which replaces the 35-year-old Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei, will actually be usable remains to be seen.

The city Department of Environmental Services, or ENV, asserts the state Legislature needs to change an existing state law, Act 73, governing where a dump can legally and safely be located in order to achieve a new, permanent landfill location on Oahu….

(TRANSLATION: They will keep using Waimanalo Gulch, as intended from the start.)

read … City postpones identifying next landfill site

Report reveals disturbing details in monk seal death involving state employee’s dogs

HNN: … Wildlife advocates are upset that a Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources employee is still on the job after her unleashed dogs allegedly killed a monk seal pup.

The sound of Luana, a female monk seal, in distress hours after the death of her pup on May 23 is still ingrained in the mind of environmentalist Carroll Cox.

On Wednesday, Cox and longtime monk seal advocate Melina Clark visited the spot where DLNR employee Lesley Macpherson’s dog allegedly attacked Luana’s pup, leading to the pup’s death.

The DLNR told us Tuesday Macpherson remains on the job.

In June, NOAA Fisheries fined Macpherson and dog owner James Armstrong Lyman a $20,000 civil penalty over the incident.

HNN has now obtained the NOAA Fisheries report detailing new information (scroll down to view the full report).

In the report, Macpherson states she left all four dogs outside her home near Mokuleia Beach around 5:30 p.m. to go to Hawaii Kai.

Macpherson says she got home around 1:30 a.m., eight hours later, and noticed only one of the dogs came to greet them.

Upon searching, she found the other three dogs — one of which had blood stains on its head — and nearby, the dead monk seal pup on the beach….

The report also highlights a 2020 incident where Macpherson’s unleashed dogs were allegedly harassing a different monk seal.

Cox and Clark have collected and submitted more than 1,000 signatures calling for her firing, but they claim it’s been radio silence from state officials and are concerned that more monk seals are at risk….

PDF: NOAA: Alleged Violation, Marine Mammal Protection Act 

read … Report reveals disturbing details in monk seal death involving state employee’s dogs

Four Inmate Suicides this year

CB: … Two more Hawaii inmates have died in prison this fall in what corrections officials believe were suicides, bringing the number of confirmed or suspected suicides in the system this year to four.

That would be the largest number of known suicides in the state correctional system in a single year since at least 2020. Three of the four deaths have been confirmed as suicides, and each of the three involved inmates with a history of mental illness.

The recent deaths come at a time when the state prison system is the target of a class-action federal lawsuit demanding improvements in the mental health services provided for Hawaii prisoners.

That lawsuit was filed by Honolulu lawyer Eric Seitz, who has described mental health services in the state system as “absolutely atrocious.” The lawsuit seeks appointment of a special master to oversee mental health treatment for Hawaii prison inmates ….

read … The Mental Health Crisis In Hawaii's Prisons: 'The Suicides Keep Coming'

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