Debt: Honolulu 4th Worst 'Sinkhole City'
Another CWS Hell House: Four Children Tortured, One Girl Starved to Death
CB: … At a press conference late Thursday, Honolulu Police Department Lt. Deena Thoemmes said the children — ages 6, 5, 3 and 2 — had been beaten by Perez and Utley with hands, sticks and paddles. After Sarai was found unresponsive at the Kapolei house, two of the other children were admitted to the hospital suffering from extreme dehydration.
The girl’s grandmother last year told Civil Beat that she had tried to alert the state’s Child Welfare Services after noticing how skinny Sarai had become.
“I did see something. I did say something,” Sarai’s grandmother said. “But the problem is that it didn’t matter. It didn’t work because no one listened.”
Two weeks later, Perez emailed a different relative to say that the CWS investigation had been closed.
Perez texted the relative a photo of a shelf full of soup and other canned food and asked the relative to tell her mother, Sarai’s grandmother, that she had been cleared by CWS….
“Their Kapolei residence possessed sufficient food to feed their children, but they chose not to,” Thoemmes said….
Civil Beat reported on Sarai’s death last year after obtaining a heavily redacted report from a team of experts about the circumstances. Emergency responders found the girl on June 13 after being called to the home.
The almost 4-year-old girl was severely underweight and had bruises at different stages of healing on her lower legs, left thigh, back and trunk, as well as a “massive” bruise on her left hip and abdomen….
Eighteen minutes after arriving at the hospital, she was pronounced dead. The experts, known as a multidisciplinary team, found that she had suffered from extreme pain, mental distress and exposure to domestic violence.
She had been deprived of food, clothing, medical care or education, the panel found, and she had been given dangerous drugs….
KHON: HPD: 2 arrested in connection with child’s death | KHON2 -- Police have identified the suspects as 25-year-old Janae Perez, the child’s mother, and her partner, 33-year-old Ashleigh Utley. The pair was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 27, in the Kalihi area.
SA: Hawaii's State Legals & Public Notices (Paternity Suit by CSEA)
KITV: Two arrested in connection to death of 3-year-old girl in Kapolei | News | kitv.com
read … Honolulu Mother And Her Partner Arrested In Abuse Death Of 3-Year-Old - Honolulu Civil Beat
SB281: Outlaw Child Torture
SA: … On Thursday, Thoemmes advocated for Senate Bill 281 and its companion bill, House Bill 388, which died in early February before the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs. The bills aim to directly address the torture of children.
“Child torture is insidious. It is gradual, calculated and systematic, and designed to break the victim’s will,” Thoemmes said. “Its effects are deliberate and devastating. Our existing legal framework does not adequately address those acts of torture, making it difficult to hold offenders accountable.”
There is no specific child torture statute in Hawaii’s laws. Instead, child abuse cases are typically prosecuted under existing laws, such as assault, endangering the welfare of a minor, manslaughter or murder, depending on the severity of the abuse.
SB 281 would clarify definitions, prohibit the offense of torture, and make torture a Class A felony.
“Passing this bill will equip law enforcement with the necessary tools to intervene effectively and hold offenders fully accountable,” Thoemmes said. “Right now, without this law, we are failing the victims.”…
read … 2 Oahu women arrested in starvation death of 3-year-old girl | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
The Cost Of A New Aloha Stadium Is Now Up To $650 Million
CB: … Developers of a new Aloha Stadium district now say a replacement for the aging facility could cost as much as $650 million, nearly double what lawmakers first allocated to the project six years ago.
Stanford Carr, one of the leaders of a partnership attempting to build the new stadium and a surrounding entertainment district in Hālawa, said in an interview Thursday that the $350 million set aside for the new facility in 2019 is a “stale number from years ago.”
Carr has proposed two revenue streams to make up for the stadium costs that wouldn’t saddle taxpayers with the additional financial burden. One of those sources depends on a Senate bill that’s scheduled for a hearing Friday. Another would require county approval in the future.
A separate proposal to get the stadium additional funding via a casino in Hālawa is dead for the session….
A joint Senate committee plans to take up a measure, Senate Bill 534, that includes a provision on tax increment financing on Friday.
Senate Bill 534 deals with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ attempt to build residential towers on land it owns in Kakaʻako. But tucked in the bill is language that would give the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority power to negotiate tax increment districts with the City and County of Honolulu for lands the authority controls on Oʻahu, which includes the land the stadium sits on. The bill language doesn’t limit those tax increment districts to Kakaʻako.
The Honolulu City Council would also need to approve the TIF district. The council has introduced a resolution to explore the city’s use of those districts, but it hasn’t been scheduled for a hearing yet.
Carr also said that he plans to pursue a Community Facilities District, which would levy a tax on property owners in the stadium district to fund improvements in that district. Such a proposal would also require council approval….
Feb 14, 2025: $550M Short, Stanford Carr might be forced to walk away from Aloha Stadium project
read … The Cost Of A New Aloha Stadium Is Now Up To $650 Million
Survey: Crime and safety, affordable housing, cost of living among top concerns for Hawaii residents
HNN: … Despite the state’s efforts to address the housing crisis and high cost of living, a new survey shows more than half of residents still feel Hawaii is on the wrong track.
The Pacific Resource Partnership (PRP) released the fourth iteration of its Hawaii Perspectives report, a survey of more than 900 residents across the islands, and found their top three concerns remain affordable housing, cost of living, and homelessness, similar to the previous year.
Among the notable findings:
- 88% of respondents believe the price of goods worsened over the past year
- 76% of homeowners reported higher insurance premiums
- 63% felt recent policies to address affordability have been ineffective
For the first time, crime and safety came in as the 4th most pressing issue, surpassing fixing local government, economy and jobs, and inflation.
Crime came in as the 7th most pressing concern by respondents in 2023. This time, 63% of respondents believe violent crime in Hawaii is getting worse….
PDF: Hawaii Perspectives Winter 2024 Report
read … Survey: Crime and safety, affordable housing, cost of living among top concerns for Hawaii residents
1981-82: Hawaii No. 1 home-price yo-yo
SJMN: … My trusty spreadsheet eyeballed price indexes from the Federal Housing Finance Agency dating to 1975 to get a long-running look at real estate swings for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Look, watching home prices is not for the faint of heart. That’s true whether you’re an owner or house hunter. By averaging state-by-state rankings for a half-dozen measures of annual price change over 49 years, you see where stability was most common – and where it was rare.
The final grades showed Hawaii and Vermont had more price variability than California. Nevada was fourth in price gyrations, followed by Arizona.
Now, if you prefer calm pricing, these calculations say Kansas is your spot. Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and Indiana are next for limited price movements.
The largest one-year gains occurred in the early 1980s when mortgage rates swayed as the Federal Reserve battled ugly inflation. Hawaii home prices jumped 74% in 1982, Vermont soared 65% in 1982, and Alaska jumped 36% in 1981….
The 1981 mortgage madness caused gigantic losses. Hawaii’s prices tumbled 54% that year, while Vermont lost 38%. Nevada’s 26% dip, the third-largest, occurred in bubble-busted 2008….
Another volatility yardstick is the gap between a state’s best and worst years.
California’s fattest gain (27%) and largest loss (23%) are 50 percentage points apart, the seventh-biggest gap and nearly double the nation’s 29-point median.
The widest gap was Hawaii’s 128-percentage-point chasm, followed by Vermont at 103 and Nevada at 60….
Now, contemplate a more formal volatility measurement – what statisticians call “standard deviation.” Basically, it’s the typical swing in a collection of numbers….
The wildest deviations were in Hawaii at 16.6%, Vermont at 12.2%, and Nevada at 10.5%. The smallest were less than 4% in Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska.
Losing years were most common in Connecticut, 14 times, Rhode Island (13) and Hawaii (12). One-year drops were rarest in South Dakota, occurring just four times in 49 years….
read … California is No. 3 for home-price volatility – The Mercury News
HEI is selling Hamakua Energy
IM: … As part of HEI’s comprehensive review of strategic options for certain assets of Pacific Current, on February 7, 2025, Pacific Current entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement to sell all the membership interests in Hamakua Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pacific Current, to an unaffiliated third party for cash consideration to be determined under the provisions of the agreement. Hamakua Holdings, LLC has two wholly-owned subsidiaries: Hamakua Energy, LLC, which owns a 60-MW combined cycle power plant that sells power to Hawaii Electric Light under an existing power purchase agreement, and HAESP, LLC (created in connection with the current on-going Stage 3 RFP process). Upon closing, both Hamakua Energy and HAESP, LLC as wholly-owned subsidiaries of Hamakua Holdings will no longer be owned by Pacific Current. The close of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions and is expected to be finalized in March 2025….
HECO: 10K Report to SEC
read … HEI is selling Hamakua Energy | Ililani Media
Hawaii May Get Four New Waste-to-Energy Facilities
IM: … A Senate bill, SB 964 SD1, would add one sentence to state law. "The Hawaii state energy office MAY establish a public-private partnership to develop a waste-to-energy generating facility in each county having a population below eight hundred thousand."
The bill introduced by Senator Fevella will be heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee tomorrow….
The Hawai‘i State Energy Office supports all forms of renewable energy. The Energy Office asserted that a Kauai plant would be about 5 MW, a Maui plant would be about 5-10 MW, and a Hawai`i Island plant would be about 10 MW. The use of state resources would trigger the need for environmental impact statements….
The Final Environmental Assessment for the Aloha Sustainable Materials Recycling and Fertilizer Facility (Aloha SMRFF) under development in Kapolei was published by the State of Hawai`i with a Finding of No Significant Impact.
The Aloha Carbon project would divert construction and demolition waste from landfilling and recycle the waste into new building materials, fertilizer, and power.
read … Ililani Media: Hawaii May Get Four New Waste-to-Energy Facilities
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