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Friday, April 18, 2025

April 18, 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:12 PM :: 2100 Views

Hawaii's Good Friday Holiday - What's Up With That?

Trump Re-Opens Fisheries within Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

Mayor Calls for Lawyers to Step Up--Needed to Commit Mentally Ill Homeless

Hawaii Coral Reef Insurance Policy Renewed

Second Measles Case Found on Oahu

SB1166: Hawaii Democrats Cooking Up Another Climate Lawfare Scheme

SB934: Dela Cruz Pork Gambit Puts Rail Project In Jeopardy

CB: … A little-publicized Senate bill to boost cash flow for the Honolulu rail project has been sucked into a mysterious gambit by Ways and Means Committee Chair Donovan Dela Cruz, who is also a longtime supporter of rail.

At the center of Dela Cruz’s curious maneuver is Senate Bill 934, which in February briefly featured language to help the city get access more quickly to millions of dollars in construction funding for the unfinished $10 billion Honolulu rail line.

That effort abruptly went sideways on Feb. 26 when Dela Cruz announced he was inserting new requirements into the bill that rail officials say are impossible for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to fulfill.

The bill as Dela Cruz amended it says HART must build a (useless $330M) park-and-ride facility in Pearl Highlands, and must also complete the entire rail line before it can get access to hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for the transit project.

In effect, the bill now says HART won’t get access to the money it needs to finish building the rail line until construction is done.

The perplexed HART board debated that language at length at its March 21 meeting. Roger Morton, a board member who is also director of the city Department of Transportation Services, told his colleagues “there’s no way to meet these conditions.”…

HART Board Chair Colleen Hanabusa, a former Senate president, said the requirements WAM inserted into the bill are a sign something has gone sour between HART and the Legislature.

“The question is, for this bill to have popped up, somebody pissed them off,” she said. “Somebody must have irked them, that represents HART, for them to do this, because for them, this is so out of nowhere that this hit.”

She added: “This is a WAM bill, so somebody upset Donovan. I don’t know who it was, but somebody upset Donovan.”

When Morton learned the alarming language in the bill was inserted by WAM, he remarked: “That would explain the Pearl Highlands portion of this.” …

HART indefinitely deferred plans for the Pearl Highlands 1,600-stall park-and-ride facility years ago because it was expected to cost about $330 million, and HART was under extreme pressure to cut costs.

Deferring the park-and-ride was a component of the painful 2022 rail recovery plan, which also required the city to truncate the rail line by stopping the project in Kakaʻako instead of continuing on as originally planned to Ala Moana Center.

Yu said the park-and-ride may never be built, and the rail line won’t be finished until 2031. “That’s not a secret. That is included in the recovery plan,” he said at the March meeting….

read … Senate Bill Would Put Major State Funding For Honolulu Rail Project In Jeopardy

‘Precedent Setting’ -- Activists Get Another Crack at Stopping Lahaina Fire Victims from Rebuilding Homes

MN: … A proposed $1.85 million project to rebuild an oceanfront home on wildfire-ravaged Front Street in Lahaina is getting support from neighbors who also want to rebuild while taking hits from critics concerned with coastline impacts, rising sea levels, and what one opponent called “another mansion on the shoreline.”

After an April 8 hearing before the Maui Planning Commission, the project returns Tuesday morning for more testimony and possible action on its application for a required special management area permit. Earlier this month, the commission heard testimony from 22 people — 13 opposed, eight in support and one neutral or unclear.

The recessed meeting will continue at 9:05 a.m. Tuesday with more public comments, but no further testimony from those already heard by the commission on April 8. A testifier list shows who already testified. (The Planning Commission also has an agenda for a meeting on the same day starting at 9 a.m. Planning Department staff explained Thursday morning that the recessed meeting will happen first, followed later by the regularly scheduled 9 a.m. meeting.)

The commission will reconvene its April 8 meeting at the Planning Department conference room in the Kalana Pakui Building, 250 S. High St., Wailuku. The meeting can be viewed via Webex. The meeting ID: 2663 673 1476; Password: 042225. Testimony also can be provided in person or online.

The Stanley & Dilara Deal Trust owns of 1045 Front Street, which had a single-family house originally built in 2018. The owners want to reconstruct their two-story, 3,617-square-foot, home to “substantially” the same condition it was when destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023, Lahaina wildfire, according to a Department of Planning staff report. Further project details are here….

… Kai Nishiki echoed Ii’s concerns, urging the commission to deny the permit to uphold climate adaptation policies and protect the coastline from erosion.

“This is a precedent-setting decision,” she said. “Approving this application would set a dangerous precedent that allows development in areas we already know will be uninhabitable within decades. It contradicts the spirit and intent of climate adaptation policies, threatens coastal access and undermines community resilience.”…

Barr … expressed frustration over what she called a double standard in the county’s approach to rebuilding Lahaina.

“Maui County believes seawalls will protect Front Street from erosion — but not our homes,” she said, pointing out that the county has publicly committed to maintaining Lahaina’s seawall to safeguard the wastewater infrastructure under Front Street. Yet, while Front Street is allowed to remain in place despite being inside the erosion hazard line, property owners behind the same seawall are being told to retreat inland.

She called for accountability and due process for fire survivors seeking to rebuild.

“We simply want to rebuild our previous homes where we had them before we tragically lost them in the fire,” she said. “Sea level rise, erosion, hurricanes, tsunamis and floods did not take our homes. It was fire.”…

CB: Lahaina Fire Stole Their Dream Home. Plans To Rebuild Reveal Deep Divides

read … Oceanfront Front Street home rebuilding project draws support, opposition

New University of Hawaii Athletics Director's base salary could top $500,000

KITV: … UH Board of Regent and former Governor Neil Abercrombie said at its meeting Thursday that if the university wants to attract a viable candidate it must offer a base salary of at least $500,000. This would not include incentives which could add more than $100,000 more to the new ADs compensation package.

UH President Wendy Hensel noted that previous AD Craig Angelos' salary was in the mid-$300,000s, well below the average salaries of the other ADs in the Mountain West Conference….

She said the average base salary for the ADs in the conference UH is joining in 2026 is $400,000 not including incentives.

Parker Executive Search is actively recruiting candidates and Hensel expects to name a finalist for the board to vote on by mid-summer if not sooner….

read … New University of Hawaii Athletics Director's base salary could top $500,000 | Business | kitv.com

UH loses only $30M in federal funds; only 36 research programs to be cut

SA: … The University of Hawaii announced Thursday it has lost $30 million in federal funding for research, just as the school sees the number of revoked student visas “literally (change) by the hour,” according to a Thursday announcement made by UH President Wendy Hensel.

(REALITY: Hensel said ‘fewer than five’ UH students are being deported. Star-Ad is using panic-inducing language to hype up the rabble.)

At a Board of Regents meeting at Kapiolani Community College on Thursday, Hensel announced that as of Tuesday the cuts had affected more than 40 employees and gutted 36 research programs related to “diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, sustainability, renewable energy, climate change and minority health disparities.”

In addition to the $30 million already lost, she said the 10- campus system possibly could lose $26 million in federal funds this fiscal year with more recent research funding cuts from the federal Department of Energy.

“We anticipate the number of affected programs will grow in the coming months and that by August, we will have a clearer picture of the full scope of the impact, which will likely include additional job losses,” Hensel said. “I am happy to say that at this moment, UH remains financially stable because of our reserved funds and careful financial planning in the past.”….

UH: President’s report: student visas, budget measures, AD search, 1st 100 days | University of Hawaiʻi System News

UH: President Hensel to discuss federal policy impacts at April 21 forum | University of Hawaiʻi System News

read … UH loses $30M in federal funds; 36 research programs to be cut | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

HPD officer arrested again in violation of restraining order

SA: … Since 2023, Aliksa’s ex-wife and mother of four of his children secured a temporary restraining order against him, as did his ex-girlfriend who is the mother of his fifth child.

He was arrested in July on Maui for allegedly operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant, and has a pending civil matter related to a $30,000 loan, according to state court records.

In a March 3 petition to the Family Court for a temporary restraining order, Aliksa’s ex-girlfriend, with whom he shares a daughter, detailed “extreme psychological abuse” and “coercive control.”

Aliksa, who she was with for seven years, allegedly “is renting vehicles to stalk me.”

“He knows my every whereabouts which I believe he has placed a GPS tracker on my vehicle,” the woman wrote. “(Aliksa) can repeat things I say/do on my phone which I believe (Aliksa) has something on my phone to stalk me. I am scared to leave my home out of fear because everywhere I go, Respondent finds me. I am constantly on edge and feel my life is threatened.”….

read … HPD officer arrested again in violation of restraining order | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Warning extended: Speed cameras catch 30k speeders weekly

KHON: … It was supposed to last two months, but now the state’s new speed camera warning period is getting a major extension….

The Hawaii Department of Transportation said it’s averaging 30,000 warning citations a week. By comparison, the Honolulu Police Department said between 25,000 and 26,000 speeding citations were handed out island-wide in all of 2024.

It’s a staggering number that’s forcing the state to hit the brakes….

The speed camera pilot project went live on March 1 as part of a 60-day warning period that was supposed to end April 30. With the surge in citations, DOT said they don’t want to overwhelm the system.

“That being said, we’re probably going to extend this warning period out to October, to give the public a little bit more time to adjust, but also to give us the time to work with our judiciary and our prosecutors to ensure that we have capacity in our programs to push these types of numbers through if necessary,” explained Sniffen….

“We’re right now targeting or sending out warnings for those that are going 11 miles per hour over the speed limit. So, if we had targeted seven or five miles per hour over you can almost double that,” said Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation….

read … Warning extended: Speed cameras catch 30k speeders weekly

Radiology workforce shortage hits Hawaii hospitals with thousands of patient scans in the queue

HNN: … Hawaii hospitals are feeling the effects of a worldwide radiology shortage.

Thousands of CT scans, PET scans, MRIs and other critical tests are waiting in the queue.

The Queen’s Medical Center is reporting a significant backlog of images needing to be reviewed by a radiologist.

Radiologists are medical doctors who interpret images crucial to diagnose and treat illnesses….

read … Radiology workforce shortage hits Hawaii hospitals with thousands of patient scans in the queue

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