Eight Names: Who will be the next ICA Chief Judge?
Hawaii’s Firearm Laws Challenged in Federal Court
Lahaina Benefits Expire: Another wave of Locals Leaving Hawaii
NBC: … Expiring financial help, insurance gaps and rising rents leave Lahaina homeowners struggling to either stay and rebuild or leave and start over….
For many Lahaina homeowners, rental assistance through their insurance ended in October after they’d spent the first couple of months post-fire filing claims and getting shuffled into hotels.
Now, they’re feeling a multipronged pinch of expiring financial assistance, rising rents and an insurance gap that has left them unable to pay for rebuilding costs….
Burke is part of a large swath of Lahaina homeowners who had hoped insurance companies would extend their loss of use (LOU) and additional living expense (ALE) benefits past 12 months, like companies had done after wildfires in other states, but they didn’t. Before they can apply for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s rental assistance, homeowners must first exhaust all of their LOU and ALE policies, which cover rental costs when a disaster makes your home uninhabitable. Burke said she applied as soon as she qualified, but it took two months to get approved and the amount was based on her mortgage, not current sky-high rental rates….
FEMA Regional Administrator Bob Fenton said the lag between applying for assistance and approval often has to do with filing proper paperwork and can be “as quick as 24 to 48 hours” or take “an extended amount of time.” Around half of the valid and referred Maui survivors who have applied for FEMA have been approved for aid, according to the agency.
Burke said she tried multiple avenues of assistance and even negotiated her rent with her landlord to no avail. Stuck with paying $3,100 for her mortgage and $7,600 in rent, she said it was the first time she considered leaving her hometown. …
With LOU and ALE coverage expiring, they are now having to pay rent, their mortgage and sometimes homeowners association fees, while navigating the rebuilding process and the costs for permits, architectural plans, contractors and materials on an island with finite resources.
Meanwhile, rents on Maui have climbed significantly. To house survivors in the immediate aftermath of the fire, FEMA put up many in short-term rentals and paid the vacation rental market rate. That cost increase was passed on to survivors with or without FEMA assistance, and they now pay 43%-80% more rent for a home with the same or fewer bedrooms, according to a University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization survey released last month….
Since the fires, about half of survivors have had to move out of West Maui, and nearly a tenth of that group have relocated to the continental U.S. or overseas, according to the UHERO survey. While a third said they plan to move back in the next year, data researchers and community leaders wonder if they will.
Lahaina’s exodus exemplifies what’s happening with Native Hawaiians across the state. As of 2022, nearly a quarter of all Native Hawaiians born in Hawaii had moved away to the continent, according to data from the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. Today, more Native Hawaiians live in the continental U.S. than in Hawaii.
“What happens is, you just have people holding on as long as they can, and then eventually they break,” said data researcher Matt Jachowski, who compiled the data for the council. “You hear, ‘Oh, if I move to Texas, if I move to Vegas, if I move to Washington, I’m going to get higher wages. I’m going to get better housing.’”…
read … Over a year after Lahaina fires, Native Hawaiian homeowners hit another breaking point
Vote-by-Mail Produces More Election Challenges
SA: … Large-scale legal challenges of election ballots have not happened here as they have in key swing states on the mainland. But the broad issue of mail-in ballots has come up for the second straight general election in a Maui County lawsuit.
This time County Council candidate Kelly King contends that a higher-than-normal percentage of sealed mail-in ballots were rejected by County Clerk Moana Lutey. The clerk had flagged 1,069, primarily due to signature deficiencies ….
read … Off the news: Signatures prompt election challenge | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Jury awards more than $2M to family of homeless man killed by deputy sheriff at Capitol
HNN: … The jury reached the verdict Friday afternoon after starting deliberations on Wednesday morning following nearly four days of testimony.
The family of Delmar Espejo, 28, filed a lawsuit against the state of Hawaii and the deputy sheriff who shot him in the back during a scuffle at the Capitol back in February 2019.
The jury agreed that former deputy sheriff Gregory Bergman was responsible for the force used on Espejo. They also found the state liable for failing to properly train and supervise Bergman.
Bergman and Espejo got into a physical altercation after being confronted for having alcohol on Capitol grounds.
Bergman was never criminally charged. But Espejo’s family filed a civil suit against him and the state….
CB: Jury Awards More Than $2 Million To Family Of Disabled Man Killed By Deputy
read … Jury awards more than $2M to family of homeless man killed by deputy sheriff at Capitol
Cannabis caregivers and large grow sites will soon be illegal in Hawaii, impacting thousands
HNN: … Thousands of Hawaii medical cannabis patients depend on caregivers to grow and process marijuana for them as medicine.
But those caregivers will be illegal in just a few weeks, along with the large community grow sites many of them depend on.
Lawmakers say that was a mistake that they will try and fix as soon as possible, according to House Public Safety Chair Rep. Della Belatti.
“It really was a failure that we did not address this impending deadline, and now we have the crisis upon us,” she said….
Care Waialua is under a legal cloud after a federal raid 14 months ago that still hasn’t led to charges. Hanley said more than 500 patients and caregivers stopped coming after the raid….
Although law enforcement officials expressed suspicion that caregivers and community grow sites were leading to the black market, lawmakers say they will try to make them legal again as soon as possible to protect patients….
read … Cannabis caregivers and large grow sites will soon be illegal in Hawaii, impacting thousands
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