How Much House Does $300K, $400K and $500K Buy You in Every State? In Hawaii it's about the size of a shipping container
Lawsuit Exposes Details of 2017 Kewalo Basin Kidnapping by Miske associates
ILind: … An accountant who was kidnapped, beaten, and terrorized in October 2017 by two thugs acting on orders from the late racketeering boss Michael J. Miske, Jr., has become the first of his victims to file suit seeking monetary damages from Miske’s estate.
Attorneys representing the accountant, Seung-Ji Robert Lee, filed a complaint in state court on March 3 asking for damages for assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Lee is represented by the law office of Eric Seitz….
Named as defendants are Miske, through his estate and/or personal representative; two Miske associates, Wayne Miller and Jonah Ortiz, who carried out the kidnapping; Tony Young Ho Kim, a Honolulu investor and business owner who sought Miske’s help in recovering nearly a million dollars he believed Lee had stolen; and Preston Kimoto, a manager for two Miske-owned pest control companies, who delivered Kim’s request for help recovering the money to Miske, who in turn ordered Lee’s kidnapping….
Lee’s kidnapping and assault resulted from a business dispute between Lee and Kim over the latter’s investment of about $1 million in Atlas Steel, a local manufacturer of steel building products….
Tony Kim and his wife had come to Hawaii from Korea in 1977. Starting with a cart selling puka shell jewelry in Waikiki, they eventually owned several retails stores in Waikiki, including Jewels of Hawaii in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, and Ala Moana Golf Shop in Ala Moana Center. In 2003, Kim and his wife formed KMC Broadcasting LLC, which purchased KHRA-AM, one of Hawaii’s two Korean language radio stations. Kim sold the station for a reported $790,000 in 2008….
Tony Kim lost about $970,000 of his investment when Atlas Steel closed its doors, and believed that Lee, who was president and sole officer of the company as well as a CPA, had embezzled the money. Kim told his daughter Lee had forged his signature on documents, allowing Lee to steal about a million dollars….
read … Victim files suit for 2017 assault by Miske associates
Study: 47% of State Prison Inmates were Under-Sentenced by Soft-on-Crime Judges
CB: …. Nearly half of Hawaiʻi’s prison inmates serve out their sentences without being released on parole, (because they weren’t given long enough sentences) and the state is failing (legally unable) to provide (force these criminals into) programs and services to help those former prisoners when they are finally released, according to a new state report.
(CLUE: They leave jail and begin looking for meth.)
The report by the Hawaiʻi Correctional Systems Oversight Commission found 47% of prison inmates released in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023 were never paroled, and instead “maxed out” when their sentences finally expired.
(TRANSLATION: 47% of State Prison Inmates were Under-Sentenced by Soft-on-Crime Judges.)
That means those prisoners were released directly from correctional facilities into the community without an adjustment period under the supervision of a parole officer. The former prisoners undergo an abrupt transition that can be especially difficult for people who have little family or other support on the outside.
(SOLUTION: Longer sentences. Even their own family doesn’t want them.)
The commission report warns that the jarring transition combined with limited services to help ease long-time inmates back into society (releasing criminals before they learn their lesson) can lead to new crimes that land people back in prison.
“The max-out population faces the highest recidivism rates and the lowest likelihood of success, primarily due to the lack of reintegration opportunities and support (short sentences,)” according to the report….
The state correctional system released more than 6,300 people in fiscal year 2023, and Hawaiʻi lawmakers have made an effort to ease their transition back into society….
(DO THE MATH: 6,300 x 0.47 = 2,961 criminals reoffending every year because of soft-on-crime sentencing. That’s 8 criminals per day.)
read … 'Damning' Report: Hawaiʻi Falls Short Helping Inmates Reenter Society
School Enrollment Down 13% as Families Flee Hawaii
CB: … Over the past 20 years, enrollment in Hawaiʻi public schools has dropped from nearly 176,000 to 152,000 students, a 13% decrease. The department predicts it will lose an additional 14,600 students by the end of the decade….
Some schools, like Keolu Elementary in Kailua or Kalihi Elementary in urban Honolulu, saw their student population drop by more than a third between 2014 and 2024. …
This year, 34 schools enrolled fewer than 250 children, the estimated number of students needed to adequately fund a school….
A 2017 study estimated that roughly 25 schools would be operating at less than two-thirds capacity by the 2021-22 school year, although the report significantly overestimated the state’s projected student enrollment….
HNN: State education officials outline steps for possible school consolidation
read … Hawaiʻi's Smallest Elementary Schools Could Face Closure
Pacific Biodiesel Occupies State Land In Keaʻau; No Lease, No Rent
EH: … 1.5-acre parcel near the mauka end of the Shipman Industrial Park in Keaʻau, just south of Hilo. The ADC purchased it in 2015 for $500,000.
Whether this land has, in fact, been managed at all in the nine-plus years since that acquisition is open to question. In the entire time the ADC has owned the land, it doesn’t seem to have collected any rent on it or leased it out to any party. County property tax records show the property is unencumbered.
Yet for years – at least seven, possibly more – the parcel has been used by Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, LLC, as a parking lot for its tanks….
EH: Editorial: In the Case of Keaʻau Lot, ADC Owes Taxpayers an Explanation
read … Pacific Biodiesel Occupies ADC Land In Keaʻau; No Lease, No Rent
SB1396: Another Massive TAT Hike to Create Green Make-Work Jobs
HTH: … The 2025 legislative session represents Green’s third consecutive attempt to raise new revenue to pay for the estimated $500 million the state needs annually to respond to climate change and reduce the risk of future wildfires across the state.
Before the August 2023 Maui wildfires, Green had proposed putting the cost predominantly on tourists, which then morphed into a wide range of ideas in the Legislature that included annual tourism climate impact “licenses,” charging visitors each time they entered Hawaii’s most popular state sites, trails and beaches, and increasing the transient accommodations tax that both tourists and residents pay when staying in hotels, short-term vacation rentals and Airbnbs on all islands.
The concept died during Green’s first legislative session as governor but took on sudden urgency months later when a wind-whipped wildfire inferno killed 102 people and all but obliterated Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023.
“We know we have to raise money to mitigate the risk,” Green told the Star-Advertiser last week in his fifth-floor office atop the state Capitol.
Hawaii’s tourism industry continues to push back against increasing fees and taxes for tourists, arguing the extra expenses will discourage visitor arrivals.
The latest version of Senate Bill 1396, the lone surviving bill that would increase the TAT to address climate change, offers no specific increase. In response to opposition from the visitor industry, Green said he wants a “modest” hike of 1% compared to his original hope to raise the TAT 1.7%.
He argued that requiring hotel guests to pay another $5 to $8 per night won’t discourage tourists from visiting Hawaii….
read … Plan to raise hotel room tax for climate change among surviving bills - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
HB286: Tax-free Individual Housing Accounts
HTH: … In a small indication of whether the bipartisan support would produce tangible results, the nine-member House Republican Caucus for the first time in at least 15 years saw one of its bills pass out of the 51-member House and into the Senate last week.
The latest version of the Republicans’ bill, House Bill 286, would increase the maximum annual deduction for contributions to, and the maximum account levels for, individual housing accounts.
Matsumoto wrote in a text to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it’s “unfortunate” that more Republican-sponsored bills don’t pass through the Legislature “because they are great ideas that will help the people of Hawaii.” She described HB 286 as “a strong bill that will help local families be able to afford a down payment for their first home.”...
read … Plan to raise hotel room tax for climate change among surviving bills - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
City ‘Climate Resiliency Fund’ Raided for Cesspools, Sewers
SA: … Oahu voters in November approved a City Charter amendment to create a city-managed climate resiliency fund. That fund — to be supported by 0.5% of the city’s estimated annual real property tax revenue — supposedly would finance preventive, restorative and educational measures relating to climate change.
Now the City Council is advancing a measure to use the fund to convert outdated cesspools on Oahu, possibly to more updated sewer systems.
Introduced in February by Council Vice Chair Matt Weyer and Chair Tommy Waters, Bill 15, which passed its first of three Council readings in February, would offer grants to assist homeowners with cesspool conversions….
During the Council’s Budget Committee meeting Tuesday, Weyer introduced a new draft of Bill 15 that, in part, proposes installations of new lateral sewer connections for unsewered properties that were not previously serviced by a public sewer main be deemed as a “preventive and ameliorative measure.”…
Based on current real property tax and revenue estimates, he said roughly $9 million per year would added to the new fund….
read … City Council discusses helping with cesspool conversion | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Activists Want to Turn Hawaii County into Sanctuary for Illegals
CB: … The spark for the debate was an otherwise routine County Council vote to allow the mayor to sign two MOUs.
One is between the Hawaiʻi County Police Department and the FBI’s Honolulu Safe Streets Task Force; the second with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, to embed an agent in the police department.
Unlike Hawaiʻi County, representatives of the Honolulu, Kauaʻi and Maui police departments said that they do not have agreements with ICE. All those departments, however, do have MOUs with other federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
Assistant Hawaiʻi County Police Chief Sherry Bird said her department just wants to formalize its standard annual renewal process. She said the department asked for the resolution after being alerted by the county’s legal counsel that all agreements with the federal government need council approval.
The MOUs fortify the police department’s ability to investigate drug and sex trafficking, cyber crimes and other serious felonies, Bird said, by allowing it to bring in federal agencies with more resources and reach in those areas of law enforcement.
“It’s very important that we continue to have that relationship with them for the safety of our community,” she said at a Feb. 18 meeting of the Hawaiʻi County Council’s Governmental Operations and External Affairs Committee, where the resolution was first introduced….
read … Alarm Sounded Over Big Island Police Pacts With Federal Immigration Agency - Honolulu Civil Beat
SB614: Sovereignty Activist Holiday for State Employees
SA: … On Nov. 28, 1843, Great Britain and France formally recognized, under a joint Anglo-Franco Proclamation, the kingdom of Hawaii as an independent nation — 50 years before the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy that preceded Hawaii’s 1898 annexation by the United States.
The intent of SB 614 is stated to “recognize the compelling history of Hawaiian independence and memorialize the injustice of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.”…
Conklin, in written testimony, characterized the bill as using a “182-year-old historical footnote” to give a small boost to “Hawaiian pride” at a large cost in money and undelivered government services.
Luis Salaveria, director of the state Department of Budget and Finance, said in written testimony for a Feb. 28 Senate committee hearing on the bill that the loss of state labor and productivity for one day is valued at about $18.3 million from payroll expenses, including Social Security, Medicare and pension costs.
Wilbert Holck, chief negotiator with the state Office of Collective Bargaining, said in written testimony that enacting a law to make La Ku‘oko‘a a state holiday would have no effect on public workers unless (as soon as) such a day off work were (is) negotiated and agreed upon mutually.
Nov. 28 is already a state holiday every five to six years when it aligns with Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November. That happened in 2019 and 2024, and will happen again next in 2030….
read … Senators push bipartisan holiday bill | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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