Fireworks: Culture and Traditions?
Electricity-Caused Wildland Fires: Costs, Social Fairness, and Proposed Solution
Hawaii #1 -- lost greatest share of population to other states
OHA’s new Kakaako housing scam: Give 500 ‘Affordable’ Units to Political Insiders
SA: … The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs has rekindled an effort to undo a ban on residential use of land it owns in Kakaako, but with a new twist aimed at swaying past opponents and a majority of state lawmakers.
OHA, a state agency created to benefit Native Hawaiians, has drafted a bill that proposes allowing some residential use in Kakaako, makai of Ala Moana Boulevard, with a caveat that more than 50% of all resulting homes be reserved for Hawaii resident households that don’t earn over 140% of Oahu’s median income.
Furthermore, buyers of the reserved homes would have to be owner-occupants, and a preference would be given to those who work within 5 miles of the area in “essential” fields that include education, health care, law enforcement, hospitality and construction (OHA execs, Honolulu Hale, the Legislature, HQ Offices of State and County Departments and Downtown Banks, Lobbyists, and Lawyers)….
Less than half (500 to 1,000) of what could be 1,000 to 2,000 homes on much of the 31 acres OHA owns in what is known as Kakaako Makai would be market-priced housing, according to the plan…
The Legislature in 2006 passed a law to prohibit residential use in the area to block a private project on public land solicited by HCDA aimed at enlivening use of the area….
several proposed bills since 2012 to allow residential development on at least some of the nine Kakaako Makai parcels owned by OHA have failed at the Legislature despite strong support in the Senate.
Much of this legislation died under the direction or heavy influence of longtime House member Scott Saiki, who represented Kakaako and had been House majority leader and then House speaker during OHA’s earlier bids to allow residential use in Kakaako Makai.
Saiki lost his seat in the Aug. 10 primary election to former state Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto, and Rep. Nadine Nakamura (D, Hanalei-Princeville-Kapaa) became the new speaker of the House.
(Apparently Iwamoto’s genius followers were sold on the lie that he would become Speaker if he ousted the Speaker.)
Now OHA is floating a new strategy for consideration by revamped House leadership and the rest of the Legislature….
The income limit, which at 140% of the median is the top end for affordable housing under state regulations, equates to about $137,000 for a single person, $156,000 for a couple and $194,000 for a family of four. Maximum home sale prices tied to such incomes could range from roughly $500,000 to $720,000 under state guidelines and current interest rates….
(Roughly the income of a lawyer married to a lobbyist.)
The Model: Amemiya Joins Pack of Insiders Grabbing ‘Affordable’ Housing Units for Themselves
read … Kakaako housing plans revived | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hearing Blocked: Gabbard blames ‘snow’ for delays in ethics disclosures and FBI background check
A: … Senate Democrats are forcing a delay in Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation hearing next week, claiming she hasn't provided required vetting materials — while Republicans accuse them of playing games, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's the first taste of what's expected to be a drama-filled few weeks as the Senate takes up some of President-elect Trump's most controversial Cabinet picks.
- Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is balking at GOP requests to hold a hearing for Gabbard early next week, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations.
- Gabbard, a former member of the House, is Trump's pick for national intelligence director.
- Warner has pointed out that the committee has not yet received Gabbard's FBI background check, ethics disclosure or a pre-hearing questionnaire, a source familiar with the matter told us. Committee rules require the background check a week in advance of a hearing.
The other side: Gabbard completed the background check process last week, according to a source working with the nominee. Her active security clearance also means the process will be expedited.
- Gabbard submitted an initial pre-hearing questionnaire and intends to submit a second on time and was given a Thursday deadline, the source said.
- Another source familiar said the ethics disclosures have been delayed for multiple nominees due to the snow and other logistics but are expected to come through soon.
(IQ Test: Are you laughing?)
Between the lines: Either way, without the materials or sign off from Democrats, the hearing for one of Trump's most vital national security officials could be pushed to late next week — if not the week following…. (or never)
TH: Warner on Gabbard meeting: ‘I had questions going in. I have questions coming out’
CC: Is Hindutva’s foreign interference buying U.S. political power?
read … Scoop: Senate Dems delay Tulsi Gabbard nomination
DLE Makes Excuses for Lack of Fireworks Arrests
KHON: … “Because of threats, your tips have basically diminished,” Dela Cruz said. “Now, you don’t have the same amount of information that you used to have?”
“That’s correct,” Lowe said. “We will need another technology solution to do that.”
Some other potential solutions include funding a DLE forensic lab to test confiscated explosive material, large-scale X-Ray or particle scanners for ports and creating new task force positions.
“Please understand our current illegal fireworks task force really consists of two investigators,” Lowe said.
Lawmakers also pressed Lowe about shipping.
“To what extent are the heads of the shipping companies participating and working with your law enforcement team to be able to crack down on this kind of activity,” Sen. Carol Fukunaga asked Lowe.
“I think the best way to answer that question is we will use all investigative strategies to interdict,” Lowe said.
The DLE also presented budget requests to the State Legislature on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Those requests will go through a lengthy review process before they could be approved….
Big Q: What should the Legislature do to combat illegal fireworks? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
SA: Explosive Enforcement Unit is proposed to combat illegal fireworks | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HNN: Lawmakers learn price tag for fireworks crackdown
CB: Fireworks Disposal Planned At Aloha Stadium Saturday - Honolulu Civil Beat
KHON: A booming problem: 0 illegal fireworks arrests in Hawaii this year
read … Hawaii only has 2 illegal fireworks investigators
Fireworks Come To Hawaiʻi On Passenger Jets 'Almost Daily'
CB: … Illegal fireworks are being transported to Hawaiʻi on passenger airplanes on an “almost daily” basis, challenging the presumption that explosives only come here inside shipping containers and raising the specter of a mid-flight explosion, a top state law enforcement official said Tuesday.
Law Enforcement Director Jordan Lowe told lawmakers that officers have intercepted packages of fireworks weighing up to 200 pounds that were shipped through the postal system via commercial airlines.
In the aftermath of the New Years Day explosion that has killed four and injured dozens, a state fireworks task force reported it had seized more than 200,000 pounds of illegal fireworks in the last year-and-a-half. Most of the seizures came during tariff inspections of shipping containers at Hawaiʻi ports….
read … Fireworks Come To Hawaiʻi On Passenger Jets 'Almost Daily' - Honolulu Civil Beat
Kauai police have not made any cockfighting-related arrests in the past five years.
CB: … The rooster farm’s southeast edge runs up against a half-dozen homes on grassy lots dotted with fruit trees and an in-ground swimming pool. The homes, built 15 to 20 years ago, long predate the roosters, which arrived in November, legs tethered to A-frame huts.
Previously, the agricultural land was overgrown. A donkey sometimes meandered in the pasture, rendering an idyllic backdrop to its neighbors’ backyards. Now, the distance between a squawking bird beak and back door is roughly 60 yards.
The rooster farm lot is owned by John and Crystal Contrades, according to county property records. Until last year, the parcel had an agricultural dedication that gave the owners a reduced tax rate. When it expired, the property tax skyrocketed by well over 2,000%, from $179 in 2023 to $5,065 in 2024.
Neighbors say the landowner began leasing the farm to a rooster breeder to help shore up the tax bill. Efforts to reach the landowner and rooster farm operator for this story were unsuccessful.
Kauai police have not made any cockfighting-related arrests in the past five years. …
read … Kauai police have not made any cockfighting-related arrests in the past five years.
Family of man killed by dogs says petty misdemeanor charges are ‘insufficient’
HTH: … Kalani Burgher, a 33-year-old man, and Keli Toyama, a 46-year-old woman, have been charged with negligent failure to control a dangerous dog under a Hawaii County ordinance that makes the offense a petty misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail.
Shannon Matson, the daughter of the victim, Bob Northrop, who died Aug. 1, 2023, after being attacked by four dogs on the roadway of Outrigger Drive in Ocean View, called the charge “completely insignificant and insufficient.”
“I mean, it’s a homicide. You can say whatever word you want to say, but they should’ve been charged with a felony,” Matson said Tuesday. “And that was the failure of the prosecuting attorney’s office.
“We provided them with contact (information) of somebody who says that they were attacked by the same dogs about six months prior. We felt that was enough to justify further charges, as well, but they felt differently.”
County Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen told the Tribune-Herald on Wednesday he wasn’t free to charge the pair under a state law passed last year making negligent failure to control a dangerous dog a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison, because the incident occurred before that law went into effect….
read … Family of man killed by dogs says petty misdemeanor charges are ‘insufficient’ - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Trump promises to end new wind farms
SA: … President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that “no new windmills” would be built in the United States when he takes office, a direct rebuke of the Biden administration, which has approved 11 commercial-scale offshore wind projects.
In a meandering news conference, Trump angrily (wisely) attacked President Joe Biden’s decision this week to ban oil drilling off most of the U.S. coast and criticized federal spending on clean energy as throwing money “right out the window.”
But he saved some of his sharpest words for wind turbines, huffing (breathing) new life into false (accurate) claims he (and others) has made over the years about wind, an energy source he has bashed ever since he unsuccessfully tried to stop an offshore wind farm from being built in view of one of his Scottish golf courses. Trump insisted that wind farms “obviously” kill whales, although scientists (wind farm flacks) have said there is no evidence to support that, and he said turbines “litter” the country and are like “garbage in a field.”…
Saved by Trump: ‘Insane’ Oahu offshore wind farm plan gets ‘really angry meeting’
read … Trump promises to end new wind farms | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
City, Legislators Kabuki Theater Inexorably Leads to Continued use of Waimanalo Gulch
HNN: … Lawmakers grilled city leaders Tuesday about the controversial plan to put the next landfill in Wahiawa.
Those at the hearing know Oahu’s trash needs to go somewhere, but lawmakers seemed frustrated by the lack of ideal options.
Leaders from Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration and Board of Water Supply chief engineer and manager Ernie Lau answered questions at the State Capitol about the city’s plan to build a 150-acre landfill in a Wahiawa pineapple field owned by Dole Food Company.
The city says most of the waste that would go into a landfill is burned into ash, but there’s debate over whether toxic chemicals could be contained.
Despite strong opposition to the landfill site, city leaders insist it can be built safely over the aquifer.
“Landfills contain contaminants that can enter ground water if it leaks out of the landfill and that leachate is pretty contaminated,” said Lau.
“We believe when we reduce what goes into the landfill, and then we have better systems that protect the substrate, soils and aquifer that we can safely operate a landfill over the aquifer,” said Mike Formby, city managing director.
The city says its current landfill, Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, in Nanakuli has never leaked and the risk is low, but Lau says if there was an accident, contaminated water would head toward Waialua or Haleiwa.
The Land Use Commission mandated the city can no longer accept waste at its westside landfill in March 2028, which is the last year of Blangiardi’s second term.
“I don’t think there is any possibility of getting a landfill up and running in the next four years, no matter what site we choose,” said State Rep. Sean Quinlan.
“I think we kicked the can down the road and now everyone is kind of stuck, and when people get stuck, they propose things that are unreasonable, like citing a landfill above an aquifer,” he said.
Hawaii News Now asked Formby how awkward is it to have Lau, the head of the Honolulu’s municipal water system, testify against the plan.
“It’s not awkward at all. We’re completely comfortable with it,” said Formby….
(TRANSLATION: All part of the script for this play titled ‘Waimanalo Gulch Infinity Loop’)
CB: Some Legislators Unhappy With Proposed Site For New Oʻahu Landfill - Honolulu Civil Beat
read … ‘Everyone is kind of stuck’ as lawmakers hear debate over Wahiawa landfill site
NIMBYs Block Mililani Teacher Housing Project
CB: … Originally, Pacific Housing said it planned to fund, build and run the project on its own in exchange for leasing a portion of Mililani High School’s land from the state. That would have required little state investment, except for the money needed to move the high school’s agricultural program and gardens.
But the new location is a more expensive venture, hillier and farther away from city sewer and water lines, Fujitani said, adding that Pacific Housing is still estimating the costs of building on this site.
“The path is long and precarious ahead,” Fujitani said, “but overall, I’m pretty confident because we have everyone pointed in the same direction.”
There’s no guarantee lawmakers will provide more money for the project. Lawmakers initially proposed $170 million for teacher housing projects across the state in 2023, but the funding dropped to $5 million due to budget constraints after the Maui wildfires.
House Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita said he was unaware of the need for more project funding, but his committee will consider the request once the authority has an estimate of the construction costs.
Even if funding from the Legislature comes through, building on the alternative site may require more time and planning. The School Facilities Authority originally said it hoped to know the project’s construction costs by December, but estimates were delayed since the agency held additional meetings for community input. Nathan Hokama, a spokesperson for Pacific Housing, said the project could still be completed by late 2030 if the permitting and environmental assessment process goes smoothly.
He said the schedule is still in flux with so many unknowns….
(TRANSLATION: ‘Dead.’)
read … Honolulu Teacher Housing Complex Faces Possible Delays, Funding Shortfalls - Honolulu Civil Beat
ACLU Court Win Helps Keep the Homeless, Homeless on Maui
HNN: … The ACLU says the county ignored repeated requests for a hearing to contest the sweep.
Then last year, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the constitution requires the county to hold a contested case hearing before seizing and destroying property of homeless people.
On Tuesday, a Maui judge ruled they will finally get that hearing, which will allow both sides to present evidence, testimony and cross-examine witnesses ….
(Good. Without legions of drug-addicted bums to buy meth every day, how could dealers afford lifted trucks with chrome wheels? Truck customization shops are relying on ACLU to keep the tweekers from getting forced into treatment.)
MN: Maui court confirms residents should have received hearing before sweep of homeless encampment : Maui Now
read … Maui homeless suing county over sweep celebrate after ruling
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