Maui County Responsible for Lahaina Fire
SB1396: Parts of Green Fee are Already Doomed in Court
Hawaii County Tells Homeowner His 38-Year-Old House Is Actually Illegal
Guam: Ex-Cop Gets 5 years for Jury Rigging
Mayor establishes new Department of Housing and Land Management with City Council’s blessing
Multi-State Coalition Against Hawaii’s ‘Sensitive’ Places Concealed Carry Ban
Bissen names Meth Dealer’s Son to Maui County Board of Water Supply
KITV: “… Advocating for water rights flows through Lahaina-native Paele Kiakona's blood. "I do come from a family that has been fighting this water fight for about 20 years," Kiakona said, while explaining his family's decades-long push for public control over West Maui waters, which he plans to further as a newly-appointed member of the Board of Water Supply.”
REALITY: In August, 2024, Hawai’i Free Press asked Paele if he thinks his father's background as a methamphetamines dealer helps him gain credibility in Lahaina advocacy. At the time, he didn’t answer. Now he is touting his family history ‘for about 20 years’.
Here is the real history of the last ‘about 20 years’: Moses Kiakona, Paele’s father, aka Federal Inmate #95305-022, was in federal prison when Lahaina burned. He has been in and out of federal penitentiaries for multiple parole violations after his 2006 conviction and 14 year sentence as leader of a 20-lbs-per-month methamphetamines ring.
KITV: “Kiakona was born and raised in Lahaina and West Maui, and his grandmother lost her home to the 2023 fire.”
REALITY: Lahaina Strong spokesperson Paele Kiakona is filing suit for damages from the Lahaina Fire. His co-plaintiffs include two of West Maui’s biggest methamphetamines dealers. Co-plaintiff Moses Kiakona, Paele’s father, aka Federal Inmate #95305-022, was in federal prison when Lahaina burned. Another co-plaintiff, George N ‘Opelu’ Keahi, aka Federal Inmate #91712-022, was convicted as part of the same methamphetamines ring. Their suit is #2CCV-24-0000328, filed April 26, 2024--just 15 days after Moses Kiakona's latest release from federal prison.
QUESTION: Why is nobody else calling Bissen on this?
ANSWER: University of Hawaii Study: Native Hawaiians Fear Sovereignty Activist Violence
REALITY: Meet the Meth Gang Behind ‘Lahaina Strong’
MORE REALITY: How to use Control of Water to Block Lahaina Rebuild
read … Lahaina organizer appointed to Maui County Board of Water Supply
New Way to Attack Lahaina Fire Victims: Moratorium on Rebuilding Swimming Pools
HNN: … According to the county’s Maui Recovers dashboard, 10 homes have been rebuilt have so far, 380 building permits have been issued, 301 more are being processed, and 230 homes are currently under construction.
County officials were unable to confirm how many of those design plans include swimming pools on Monday. (TRANSLATION: We have no idea whether this is even a real issue.) But the area council member believes none should be allowed because (we are pretending that) water is scarce. (If she hassles fire victims enough, they will move to Vegas.)
“If we have water to spare for the luxury of a private swimming pool, then why do we need to conserve water?” said Tamara Paltin….
(IQ Test: Do you think her point is reasonable?)
read … Proposal puts moratorium on swimming pool construction in Lahaina
The kids need more ... indoctrination?
ASD: … A case study in how goofy ideas trickle down from New York to Honolulu. The latest argument? Hawai‘i's public schools need to be turned into factories of "resistance." Someone dust off the Pink Floyd albums!...
read … Pipikaula Corner: The kids need more ... indoctrination?
US Supreme Court Ruling On Charter Schools ‘Could’ Impact Hawaiʻi
CB: … Does public funding of a religious school violate the establishment clause of state and federal constitutions? ....
(CLUE: Environmentalism is a religion.)
read … US Supreme Court Ruling On Charter Schools Could Impact Hawaiʻi - Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaii DoE Looking Better Only Because Mainland School Districts Are Doing Worse
HBM: … the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP test for the Education Department, had been gutted to a tiny handful of employees, making future testing unlikely….
(TRANSLATION: Thanks to Trump, Hawaii DoE will soon achieve its goal of abolishing standardized testing. They will likely invent a bogus testing system to make themselves look good.)
Five years after COVID sent a paralyzing shock through the nation’s public schools, the impact of lost instructional time can still be felt. In every state, fewer young people are able to read and write with appropriate fluency, or accurately solve math and science problems.
In Hawai‘i, 39% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders lack basic skills in reading, while 23% of fourth graders and 42% of eighth graders lack basic skills in math, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Known as the “nation’s report card,” the NAEP test is administered every two years at select schools; it’s considered more rigorous than many similar state tests.
(But, thanks to Trump, NAEP testing is finished.)
Hawai‘i’s 2024 NAEP results still lag behind those from 2019, when 37% of fourth graders and 32% of eighth graders lacked basic skills in reading, and 22% of fourth graders and 35% of eighth graders lacked basic skills in math.
Chronic absenteeism is a lot higher, at about 25% compared with 14% in 2019; meanwhile, 52% of Hawai‘i high school graduates enrolled in two- or four-year colleges, compared with 55% in 2019. The percentage of Hawai‘i high schoolers who meet college-readiness benchmarks, based on the national ACT test administered to all public school juniors in the state, has slipped over the past five years, according to data supplied by the Hawai‘i Department of Education.
(TRANSLATION: Hawaii schools are getting worse.)
But these statistics don’t paint the full picture. Hawai‘i’s public school system is more agile and ambitious than it used to be. Unlike 20 years ago, when the state’s schools consistently ranked among the worst academic performers in the nation – “a perennial bottom-dweller,” as Terrence George, the outgoing president and CEO of the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, puts it – students now score in the middle of the pack nationally, and sometimes better than that.
(TRANSLATION: Hawaii schools haven’t improved. Mainland schools have failed.)
read … Hawai‘i’s Public Schools Are National Leaders in Academic Recovery. Can They Keep Up the Momentum? - Hawaii Business Magazine
Adults Can Still Marry Teens At 15 After Death Of Proposed Ban In Hawaiʻi
CB: … The bill’s main obstacle in the Legislature is Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, who chairs the health and human services committee and declined to give the measure a hearing.
In a statement, the senator said marriage can provide benefits to youth who are trying to escape an abusive family situation, are pregnant or want to get on their partner’s health insurance.
“I am always leery of national advocacy groups who just want to notch Hawaiʻi as a win without taking into account the culture and circumstances here,” San Buenaventura said.
More than 800 minors got married in Hawaiʻi between 2000 and 2022, according to Hawaiʻi Department of Health data analyzed by the advocacy organization Unchained At Last. The vast majority – 686 of them – were girls marrying adult men.
Most of the child brides were 16 or 17, but seven of them were as young as 15. On average, Hawaiʻi youth married adults between three and five years older than them, according to Unchained At Last’s data analysis.
In written testimony, the health department characterized most of the state’s underage marriages as “teens marrying teens.” However, the law puts no limits on the age of an adult spouse and there were outliers in which teens married adults 10 to 21 years their senior, the health department testified.. …
read … Adults Can Still Marry Teens At 15 After Death Of Proposed Ban In Hawaiʻi - Honolulu Civil Beat
Rapist Whines About Long Wait for DHHL
CB: … De Mont Kalai Manaole (Connor) has been the caretaker for vacant Hawaiian homelands in Nānākuli since December (which is a lot less time than he has been a registered sex offender)….
The lot used to be a dumping ground, but the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands wants Manaole to use it as an experiment for getting indigent Hawaiians into homesteads. He’s one of more than 29,000 applicants waiting for a homestead lease under a century-old federal mandate.
Specifically, he has the 11,203rd spot on the list for a residential lease on Oʻahu, putting him at virtually the bottom of the island’s applicant pool. Thousands have already died waiting for homestead lots since Hawaiʻi became a state in 1959.
“My mom died on the waitlist, my aunties died on the waitlist, my uncle died on the waitlist,” Manaole said. “It’s just been one atrocity after the next.”
ATROCITY REALITY: “Sodomy, Kidnapping, Rape”
Manaole, 60, would need to wait years more under the traditional process of depending on the Legislature to fund projects, having the state hire contractors to build them and then hoping his name is drawn for a lease. And once it is, he needs to have the money ready to finance a new home.
While pilot projects like Manaole’s could put little dents in the waitlist, the bigger problem won’t budge without significant investment from the state. But this year, DHHL got no new money for projects….
REALITY: Demont Kalai Manaole, a registered Sex Offender or Other Offender in WAIANAE, HI 96792 at Offender Radar
REALITY: University of Hawaii Study: Native Hawaiians Fear Sovereignty Activist Violence
read … Progress Report: Help With Housing Continues To Elude The Hawaiian Community - Honolulu Civil Beat
Matson cargo business from China is broadsided by Trump trade tariffs
SA: … On Monday, Matson said its container volume sank about 30% in April from a year earlier….
read … Matson cargo business from China is broadsided by Trump trade tariffs | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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