How Christmas Came to Hawaii
Am Samoa, N Mariana Governors Switch to Republican
Long-Term Recovery Plan for Lahaina Does not commit to Rebuild Front Street
Maui County to receive more than $2B in federal disaster recovery funding
Native Hawaiian Contractor Chris Dawson Suicide as FBI Closes in
CB: … Christopher Dawson, a prominent Native Hawaiian defense contractor, was found dead Thursday on Oʻahu, according to the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office.
(CLUE: Miske copycat. Case against Dawson disappears.)
Dawson’s death, which the medical examiner determined to be a suicide, comes as he was under federal investigation for alleged financial crimes, including wire fraud and money laundering. The cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the medical examiner said.
Dawson, 62, was the founder and former chairman of the Hawaiian Native Corp., a nonprofit that owns 11 for-profit subsidiary companies that have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts, mainly from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Dawson’s family sent a statement Monday morning that said Dawson “has unexpectedly passed away of unknown causes.”
“Despite recent media reports to the contrary, we have spoken with the Medical Examiner’s office who advised us that they are looking at additional evidence. Their position is that the investigation is still ongoing,” the statement said.
(CLUE: Also like Miske, apparent suicide, suddenly undetermined. Insurance doesn’t pay on suicide. Has the ME become this politicized?)
Late Monday, city officials sent a statement confirming that the medical examiner listed the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head and neck and the manner of death as suicide.
Ian Scheuring, a spokesman for Mayor Rick Blangiardi, noted in the statement that a law enforcement investigation is ongoing and the final autopsy report isn’t complete. “The Office of the Medical Examiner has agreed to conduct a second examination, the results of which will be incorporated into the final autopsy report,” he said.
Hawaiian Native Corp. has relied heavily on sole source and set-aside contracts awarded through a minority-contracting program with the Small Business Administration, which require that a portion of the profits be given back to the Native Hawaiian community.
Some of the Hawaiian Native Corp.’s charitable giving has included paying the electrical bills at Iolani Palace and sponsoring the Hawaiian “Word of the Day” on Hawaii Public Radio. It’s unknown exactly how much money has gone toward these charitable endeavors because the SBA considers that information confidential….
Dawson stepped down from his position as the head of the organization last year after federal agents from the Internal Revenue Service and Defense Criminal Investigative Service executed a search warrant at the Hawaiian Native Corp. headquarters in downtown Honolulu.
He was subsequently removed from the board and relinquished his control of the Hawaiian Native Corp.’s subsidiary companies, which employ more than 1,200 people in the U.S. and internationally.
Two of his family members, including his mother, Beatrice “Beadie” Dawson, and his sister, Donne Dawson, also have been replaced on the Hawaiian Native Corp. board, their names removed from its website. Beadie Dawson is a well-known Native Hawaiian lawyer and previously served as a director emeritus on the Hawaiian Native Corp. board. Donne Dawson is the head of the Hawaii Film Office.
In addition to government contracting, Dawson was well known in the polo community…
HPR: Christopher Dawson, founder and former chair of the Hawaiian Native Corporation, has died
SA: Hawaiian Native Corp. executive under federal investigation dies
June, 2023: Prominent Native Hawaiian Defense Contractor Is Part Of New Federal Criminal Probe
Aug, 2023: Hawaiian 8a Racial Contracting Finished?
Feb, 2024: Skimming Nuclear Munitions Contract? Lawsuit Alleges Dawson is Fake Hawaiian Company
read … Native Hawaiian Contractor Chris Dawson Has Died While Under Investigation - Honolulu Civil Beat
Another Honolulu Rail Contractor Demands More Money, Citing Years Of Delays
CB: … Long years of rail construction setbacks may again inflict pain on Honolulu taxpayers. Hitachi Rail Honolulu JV — one of the most important contractors working on the project — is demanding $324 million in compensation because of the delays.
Hitachi is responsible for installing and maintaining the operating system for the driverless trains on the 18.9-mile Skyline route. The entire rail line was originally supposed to be open to the public by 2020, but the latest estimates are construction won’t be finished until 2030.
Hitachi on Friday sued the city and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation alleging that “Defendants’ mismanagement of the Skyline rail project has led to countless delays and other errors.”
Hitachi also claims in the lawsuit the city “delayed any good faith efforts to resolve HRH’s claims, no doubt to delay further public criticism of its Skyline project mismanagement. As a result, HRH has effectively been required to fund a large part of the project itself.” ….
read … Another Honolulu Rail Contractor Demands More Money, Citing Years Of Delays - Honolulu Civil Beat
Permanent disaster relief for Lahaina?
SA: … resources that the federal government must provide ….
…to permanently authorize and fund the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program….
…to fully fund FEMA’s disaster relief efforts and make their important programs available for all storms since 2021….
read … Column: Permanent disaster relief for Lahaina | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Why won’t state automatically refund GET overpayment?
SA: … “For general excise tax refunds, HRS section 237-40(d) provides:
“Refunds. No credit or refund shall be allowed for any tax imposed by this chapter, unless a claim for such credit or refund shall be filed. …
read … Kokua Line: Why won’t state automatically refund GET overpayment? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
2 local election challenges focus on rejected absentee ballots
CB: … Two challenges to local elections, for an Oahu House district and a Maui Council seat, are now waiting for decisions by the state Supreme Court.
Both are raising the same questions about how the counties handle absentee ballots and are possibly losing votes in the process.
In Hawaii, the counties verify the authenticity of signatures on absentee ballots, both through computers and by hand, but the election challenges say they are rejecting too many valid ballots — and making it too hard for voters to get their ballots counted.
Corey Rosenlee lost his race in Ewa to Representative Elijah Pierick by 11 votes and former Councilmember Kelly King lost her challenge for the South Maui seat to Tom Cook by 97 votes. Both say they might have won — if all the votes were counted….
“Oh, I got a letter in the mail a week after I put it in and then it said that something was wrong with the signature. It couldn’t validate the signature,” he said.
Kamalo was one of 1,533 Maui voters whose ballots were initially rejected. He rushed to the county building in Wailuku after Election day, because the Kelly King race was so close (he works for her company, Pacific Biodiesel). He said the clerk looked at his ID and accepted his ballot after all, without further explanation….
The county says 594 voters cured rejected ballots — but 939 went uncounted. King’s attorney, Lance Collins, says that’s significant enough to hold a new election….
Attorneys for Rosenlee make a similar argument. In his race, 111 ballots were initially rejected and only 47 were cured and counted, and Rosenlee, who did better among people who voted absentee, expected to get most of them.
Of the last 21 votes that were cured after the election, he got 16 votes to Pierick’s five….
read … 2 local election challenges focus on rejected absentee ballots
Mindless Bureaucracy Blocks Office Conversion to Housing
SA: … Avalon’s first downtown acquisition, the Davies Pacific Center, an office building on Bishop Street, was initially intended for conversion mostly into condominium units. The project, dubbed Modea, stirred a lot of interest, and Camp confirmed that many of the proposed market-priced condominium units have sold.
However, she said, Avalon has been waiting for permits and changes to the housing code that require the Legislature and the City Council to make changes to laws that would be “helpful in adaptive reuse,” but it is taking a long time.
“We’re probably not going to be building condos” at the former Davies building, she said. “We’re pivoting away from the original plan. I’m not sure what that will be.”…
read … Topa Financial Center property sale another sign of evolving downtown | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
AI could create virtual lunatic asylum for Homeless in Hawaii
SS: … Christine Sakuda, Hawaii’s chief information officer, tells StateScoop in a video interview that the state has at least two early AI projects that could indicate future work, including using AI to analyze the state’s call management systems to understand the types of problems people most commonly have, and an integrated strategy for health care, housing and homelessness, which she said is a pet project of Gov. Josh Green, a medical doctor who has worked in family medicine and emergency rooms in Hawaii. “How can we build a system that integrates that data together or enables data sharing so that you’re able to address the whole citizen and not just parts of the citizen,” she says ….
read … AI could help integrate health care, housing in Hawaii
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