Supreme Court Passes On Chance To Correct Hawaii Ruling Finding ‘Spirit Of Aloha’ Trumps Second Amendment
Tulsi Gabbard as U.S. Spymaster?
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted December 6 2024
‘Monkey Business’ -- OHA too crooked to run Graveyard
CB: … Kai Kahele, newly elected to chair the board of trustees of OHA, said his agency, established to represent the interests of Hawaiians, is the right pick to oversee the burial grounds.
“We have the talent here to do it, we just have to work with the administration to bring that to fruition,” Kahele said.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye, who chairs the Senate Water and Land Committee, said she plans to introduce a bill transferring management of the grounds to OHA….
Inouye also acknowledged that OHA comes with some baggage. The office and its trustees have previously been criticized for mismanaging the office’s finances. An audit two years ago found possible instances of waste, fraud and abuse in OHA contracts within the last decade, which prompted the office’s leadership to tighten its internal controls.
In addition to the state, the Aliʻi Trusts, whose namesakes are buried at Mauna ʻAla, have also contributed to improvements at the site under an agreement with DLNR from 2013.
Three of the largest trusts — Lunalilo Home, Liliʻuokalani Trust and The Queen’s Health System — either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment on the future of Mauna ʻAla.
In a written statement, Kamehameha Schools said that the care and guardianship of Mauna ʻAla “demands the highest standards from all who are entrusted with this sacred responsibility.”
“We trust that OHA and DLNR will continue to work together, alongside the community, to malama this special place.”
After Chong was appointed earlier this year, DLNR Director Dawn Chang said that she met with the Aliʻi trusts, royal societies, Hawaiian civic clubs and members of the family that have traditionally cared for the burials, but there was no consensus among them regarding the proposed transfer of Mauna ʻAla to OHA.
…the descendants hope to see a nonprofit established that could manage Mauna ʻAla in partnership with the Aliʻi trusts — removing the site from state government management entirely.
“The OHA solution is just too political,” Mary ‘Amaikalani Beckley Lawrence Gallagher, one of the Hoʻolulu descendants, said.
James Maioho, who comes from a branch of that family, is trying to get support from the Alii trusts and other royal societies to eventually transfer management to a nonprofit run by the family.
“You’re giving that 3.3 acres back to Kanaka control, back as sovereign land,” Maioho said.
Gallagher said that family members have already been discussing who could be the next caretaker and who should be trained to succeed them should the family take over management of Mauna ʻAla.
She said the family has weathered through numerous regime changes over the years as management passed from the Hawaiian Kingdom, to the territory and now to the state.
“We’ll keep our chins up,” Gallagher said, “and keep ourselves out of the monkey business.”…
read … Who Should Be Trusted To Manage Remains Of Hawaiian Royals? - Honolulu Civil Beat
West Oahu Has A Domestic Violence Crisis. The Cost Of Living Makes It Worse
CB: … West O’ahu is experiencing a domestic violence crisis unparalleled in any other community on the island.
Domestic violence incidents were 40% higher in 2023 than they were pre-pandemic. Police officers in District 8, which stretches from Ewa Beach to Ka’ena Point, responded to more than twice as many incidents of household abuse in 2023 as their counterparts in other districts. Of the island’s 158 patrol areas or beats, the 10 with the highest number of felony and misdemeanor abuse reports were all in District 8.
The crisis surfaces from time to time, in a smattering of incidents dramatic enough to make the news: a 60-year-old Waianae man who shot at neighbors with a homemade rifle amid a fight with his girlfriend in August, a man arrested in Ewa that same month on attempted murder charges after stabbing a woman in the neck, a 20-year-old man arrested in November for assaulting his father.
Despite the high number of calls for help, the Honolulu Police Department has no programs or efforts underway that specifically target the disproportionate number of domestic violence reports on the Westside. …
read … West Oahu Has A Domestic Violence Crisis. The Cost Of Living Makes It Worse - Honolulu Civil Beat
City prepares to announce new landfill site; here’s what’s being considered
HNN: … “We’re not saying yet which site we are going select. The sites that have not been removed from consideration are all possible sites,” said Roger Babcock, director for the Department of Environmental Services.
The city’s planned announcement is coming before a deadline from the state Land Use Commission, which is requiring a decision by the end of this month….
SA: City to update search for new Oahu landfill | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … City prepares to announce new landfill site; here’s what’s being considered
Legislative Agenda:
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