Feds: UH Manoa not Protecting Jewish Students from Anti-Semites
Pacific Biodiesel Occupies ADC Land In Keaʻau; No Lease, No Rent
Crackpot Lawsuit is all it takes--Maui Mayor Calls for Chief to be Suspended
HB476: Hawaiʻi could raise its capital gains tax to 9%
HPR: … Lawmakers are considering increasing the capital gains tax from about 7% to 9%. Capital gains are the profits earned on investments or through the sale of a property….
Hawaiʻi Realtors Association opposes the measure because it could impact seniors trying to sell their homes.
“The capital gains tax has a disproportionate impact on our kūpuna who may want to sell and downsize to a smaller home where they can age in place or rely on their investments to convert their assets to spendable income during their retirement, such as for medical expenses or to move into a care home,” the organization wrote in its public testimony.
It added that Hawaiʻi has the 10th highest capital gains tax rate in the nation.
The proposed increase would bring in an additional $84 million to the state each year.
The bill will next be heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee….
HB476: Text, Status
read … Hawaiʻi could raise its capital gains tax to 9%
HB1494: There is Still Time to Save Hawaii from Aloha Stadium Boondoggle
SA: … an alternative plan is gaining traction. House Bill 1494 proposes to upgrade UH’s Clarence T.C. Ching Athletic Complex, the temporary stadium on the Manoa campus, and making it permanent.
This solution would eliminate the main reason for a new Aloha Stadium at Halawa while allowing UH football to continue at a more realistic, financially sustainable level.
The stadium debate must be viewed in the context of major shifts in college football economics.
Power conferences (e.g., SEC, Big Ten) dominate the sport, securing multibillion-dollar television contracts. Schools in these conferences receive tens of millions in annual revenue, ensuring financial stability.
Programs like UH, in smaller conferences with limited TV exposure, struggle to generate revenue to remain competitive.
In light of these financial realities, Hawaii must adjust its expectations. An upgraded campus stadium is a more practical solution.
Instead of pouring money into an uncertain Aloha Stadium project, the state should repurpose the Halawa site for affordable housing. …
read … Column: Halawa stadium isn’t the right choice | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
'You mean to tell me they beat her to death and now we're standing here with them and her dead body?'
KITV: … An aunty describing online a tense scene at Azaeliyah's funeral. That's after loved ones noticed her covered in bruises.
Ha'ilau Acevedo wrote, "The tension in that chapel was wild. Everyone had their suspicions. No one spoke a word of it. During the closing of the casket a classmate of hers stood next to me, so innocently he said to his friend, 'You mean to tell me they beat her to death and now we're standing here with them and her dead body?' I turned to him and said, 'It seems so.'"
Police arrested Azaeliyah's adoptive mother Sina Pili on Friday for manslaughter.
According to police, Azaeliyah had abrasions to the outside and inside of her neck likely from strangulation. That's in addition to rib fractures and many other injuries ….
HNN: Family demands justice for 11-year-old allegedly beaten to death
SA: Death of Laie girl, 11, included in 2024 state child abuse report | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HNN: Police claim all four children were abused — hit with belts, barely fed, and only allowed to drink eight ounces of water a day.
read … Child advocates urge community to speak out against abuse | News | kitv.com
SB281: ‘We want to have every tool available to prosecute them’: Lawmakers to hear bill that would make torture a felony
KHON: … Two recent child death cases have put the spotlight on horrific acts of extreme, prolonged suffering, leading many to argue that Senate Bill 281 is needed. Honolulu Police echoed the support for the bill after last week’s arrest of Sina Pili for the death of her adopted daughter.
“Passing Senate Bill 281 will equip law enforcement with necessary tools to intervene effectively and hold offenders fully accountable. Right now, without this law, we are failing children like Azaeliyah,” said Honolulu Police Lt. Deena Thoemmes ….
Senate Bill 281 defines torture as the act of causing serious bodily injury to another person within the actor’s custody or physical control, suspending the minor or vulnerable person by the wrists, ankles, arms, legs, hair or other parts of the body, and forcing the victim to remain in an area unsuitable for human habitation, such as an area where urine or feces are actively present.
Prosecutors are also looking to amend the bill to include starvation, saying it would give them a stronger legal tool to ensure justice in cases of prolonged abuse ….
SB281: Text, Status
SA: Mother, girlfriend plead not guilty in starvation death of 3-year-old | Honolulu Star-Advertiser -- According to an autopsy report by the Honolulu Medical Examiner, Perez- Rivera was a month shy of her fourth birthday when she died, but at 20.5 pounds she was the average weight of an 11-month-old infant, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or that of a 14-month-old child, according to the World Health Organization.
HNN: Amid high-profile child abuse cases, torture bill advances at state Capitol
HNN: Judge denies bail for women accused of starving 3-year-old to death
read … ‘We want to have every tool available to prosecute them’: Lawmakers to hear bill that would make torture a felony | KHON2
After the Foster Care Disaster: Mental Patient Ends up Being Shot by Police
CB: … His family said they quickly accepted Deponte as a member of the family, and they were taken by the earnest, childlike way she viewed the world. She loved animals and had special bonds with the Schneiders’ 3-year-old Shih Tzu, Lulu, and rabbit, Chomper.
But Deponte was also guarded, they said, and revealed little about her past. “You could tell she didn’t trust people. You could tell that so many people had abused her trust,” Schneider said. “When I met Macayla, I saw such a broken soul.”
Over time, the family pieced together an incomplete picture of Deponte’s life before she came into their lives. She told them she had been raised by relatives until the age of 9, when she went into the foster system. She said she had been involuntarily hospitalized for psychiatric reasons at least once. She dropped out of school in her early teenage years and had experienced periods of homelessness….
read … Makawao Family Struggles With Loss of Troubled Woman Shot By Police - Honolulu Civil Beat
Why Does UH’s New President Need A $250,000 Adviser?
CB: … Before University of Hawaiʻi President Wendy Hensel took office, she already had plans to bring on a new senior adviser (girlfriend) from her last job in New York.
(CLUE: The question has always been ‘Dobelle or Greenwood?’ Now we have the answer.)
That adviser, Kim Siegenthaler, (LINK: Photo tells the story.) started work last week, earning $250,000 a year. In January, the university’s Board of Regents had created the new position just for her, opting to forgo formal recruitment….
In a recent interview with UH Beat, Sieganthaler said that she began working with Hensel at Georgia State University in 2020, where she was hired to develop online programs. When Hensel moved to City University of New York in 2022, she asked Siegenthaler to join her there.
Three years later, Hensel invited Siegenthaler come to UH. In the interview this week, Siegenthaler mentioned that this transition had always been a part of their plan.
“That was the plan, yes,” she said.
She declined to discuss her salary and what specific duties justify making $250,000 a year.
“I don’t feel any need to justify it,” she said. …
(TRANSLATION: Hensel is MRC Greenwood v2.)
read … Why Does UH’s New President Need A $250,000 Adviser?
HB818: Community Development District to Save Banyan Drive from DLNR Mismanagement?
BIN: … The late Big Island state Rep. Mark Nakashima spent 15 years trying to pass legislation to revitalize the Waiākea Peninsula that features Hilo’s once-thriving Banyan Drive.
The road had been a tourist attraction for people to see the big, elegant trees planted mostly in the 1930s through the 1950s by famous people of the time, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, aviator Amelia Earhart, baseball great Babe Ruth, vulcanologist Dr. Thomas Jaggar and Hawaiian royalty.
But over the decades the road and peninsula has fallen into disrepair, with some parts becoming a magnet for crime, homelessness, drug use and other issues.
Last year, months before Nakashima’s death from health complications due to a two-decades-long battle with diabetes, he made headway and got the state to set aside $1 million for the creation of a special fund within the Department of Business of Economic Development and Tourism’s Hawai‘i Community Development Authority to study the feasibility of revitalizing the area.
Nakashima secured the funding for three years, but so far no money has been spent. The reason? It requires the creation Waiākea Peninsula Community Development District Special Fund, which would need to be overseen by a yet-to-be-created Waiākea Peninsula Community Development District under the guidance of the state’s Hawai‘i Community Development Authority.
Last Friday, the House took a step toward creating both the fund and the district by passing House Bill 818. Now, it is in the hands of the Senate.
In 1976, the State Legislature established the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority to plan for the future development of underutilized urban areas of Hawai‘i through promoting and coordinating public and private sector community development. But these “Community Development Districts” has been underused….
HB818: Text, Status
read … State lawmaker trying to finish what Nakashima started: bill to revitalize Hilo’s Waiākea Peninsula : Big Island Now
HB1260: Hawaiʻi Lawmakers Are Pushing For Car-Free Roads
CB: … The first version of HB 1260 included all counties and was supported by the state transportation and health departments.
Rep. Darius Kila, chair of the House Transportation Committee, amended the bill last month after fellow Westside lawmaker Chris Muraoka said he didn’t like the idea of blocking cars from driving on roads.
The bill currently excludes counties with a population greater than 250,000 people, restricting the bill from covering Honolulu. Each county would submit plans to the state by the end of this year detailing locations, schedules, costs and proposed activities and amenities.
HB1260: Text, Status
read … Hawaiʻi Lawmakers Are Pushing For Car-Free Fun Zones — But Not On Oʻahu - Honolulu Civil Beat
Lahaina fire survivors await electrical infrastructure as HECO hits delays
HNN: … “Electricity for our part of Wahikuli and other parts of Lahaina Town in the burn zone, there’s still no infrastructure, no telephone poles, no undergrounding, nothing,” said Wahikuli resident said Wahikuli resident Jeremy Delos Reyes. “So, as you can see, there’s houses around us going to be online soon but they don’t have power. So, they cannot occupy their homes without power.”…
read … Lahaina fire survivors await electrical infrastructure as HECO hits delays
Trump cuts target an office in Hilo vaguely connected to greenhouse gas observatory
SA: … The Trump administration is considering canceling the lease of the support office for a renowned Hawaii climate research station, sources said, raising fears for the future of key work tracking the impact of carbon emissions on global warming.
The office is one of more than 20 rented by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that are proposed to have their leases ended under money-saving efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk.
The online listing on the DOGE website mentions an NOAA office in Hilo and an estimate of how much would be saved by canceling its lease — $150,692 a year.
Staff, researchers and other sources gave details on the building’s role as the main support office for the Mauna Loa Observatory about 30 miles west of Hilo….
read … Trump cuts target world-leading greenhouse gas observatory in Hawaii | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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