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State Court Shakedown Extracts $700M over Mis-labeled Blood Thinners--oil companies next
Who Killed TMT?
ASD: … On Friday, NSF published a Congressional budget request for the 2026 fiscal year which briefly mentioned that the federal agency has removed TMT from consideration for funding for its U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Project.
The agency had announced in 2024 that it could only feasibly fund one of two large-scale telescope projects: either TMT on Maunakea, or the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.
The Friday announcement leaves $1.6 billion off the table for TMT, which TMT officials had previously said is essential for the completion of the project.
While the budget request does not shed much light on NSF’s decision to reject TMT — it devotes all of one paragraph to the Extremely Large Telescope project — the decision was informed by the findings of a 2024 panel evaluating both projects.
The panel was made up of four science advisors: Persis Drell, former director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California; Kelvin Droegemeier, former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Rick Farnsworth, former associate director of the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory; and James Hurrell, former director of the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The panel’s evaluation was published Dec. 2024. While the report doesn’t make any explicit recommendations, it does highlight some key deficiencies in the TMT project that may have ruled it out.
Critically, the evaluation notes that site access on Maunakea is a key risk to the entire project, and that being unable to build on the summit would be “an existential threat” to the entire enterprise.
The question of access has loomed over the project for decades. In 2019, Native Hawaiian protestors, in an effort to protect the mountain from further industrial development, camped for months at the Maunakea Access Road, leading to multiple standoffs with police and the arrest of 33 kūpuna.
While TMT has named the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands as a possible alternate site, the evaluation determined that contingency has not been developed to the same level as the Maunakea plans.
“If it became apparent Maunakea was not going to be available, (TMT) would switch to adapting plans for TMT to the Canary Islands site,” the evaluation read. “There was no timeline associated with these decision points … The panel finds (TMT’s) mitigation strategy for this risk, taken as a whole, to be inadequate.”
The backlash by Native Hawaiians to TMT may have had another unexpected impact on the panel’s findings. The panel evaluated both projects’ ability to offer educational outreach programs from K-12 all the way to graduate programs.
But while GMT’s offerings involve universities and organizations in both the U.S. and Chile, TMT’s outreach programs are “almost exclusively focused on Indigenous Hawaiian populations.”
The evaluation stated that TMT would be best served to expand its outreach efforts as quickly as possible to jurisdictions beyond Hawai‘i….
ANSWER >>> Ethics Board: Harry Kim Violated 'Fair Treatment' Rules by Letting Telescope Protesters Violate Laws
Big Q: What do you think of the Thirty Meter Telescope being defunded by the National Science Foundation? 84% - ‘Bad: TMT was worthwhile project’
SA: National Science Foundation drops TMT from budget, cuts Hawaii funds
read … Who killed TMT?
Gay flag to fly over Hawaii State Capitol for the first time
KITV: … For the first time, Pride flags will be flown at the Hawaii State Capitol throughout June, as Governor Josh Green, M.D., has declared it Pride Month ….
NR: City and County of Honolulu to recognize Pride Month | Office of the Mayor
SA: Off the news: Flags show state’s true colors | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii joins Wisconsin in raising LGBT flag to ring in Pride Month - YouTube
read … Pride flags to fly at Hawaii State Capitol for the first time in June | Local | kitv.com
Cost of HECO Wildfire Safety Plan Suddenly Jumps to $350,000,000
IM: … The Hawaiian Electric Companies filed their Wildfire Safety Strategy 2025-27 application (WSS) in January 2025.
The Public Utilities Commission stated that Hawaiian Electric could file an application that would open a PUC proceeding to address cost recovery while the Wildfire Safety Strategy was being reviewed.
HECO filed their cost recovery request, docket no. 2025-0263 on May 29, 2025.
HECO did not made any changes to their strategy and mitigation plans, but did adjust the cost estimates in the five months since the Wildfire Safety Strategy was filed.
Initially HECO expected that the costs would be $239 million but now assert the costs will be $350 million….
SA: Hawaiian Electric seeks approval for wildfire safety work | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … HECO Wildfire Plan Will Cost $350,000,000 | Ililani Media
Hawaiʻi's First State Fire Marshal In Decades Has A Long To-Do List
CB: … Booth’s first priority, according to Green, will be ensuring the implementation of 10 recommendations made by the Attorney General’s Office in its final report on the Lahaina wildfire. They include addressing gaps in fire regulations and fire codes, ensuring better management of fire-prone vegetation on now-unmanaged lands, educating the public about wildfire risks and fire safety, and working with utility providers to make infrastructure safer.
But her responsibilities will extend far beyond those recommendations — everything from fire codes to fireworks. Among her tasks: Starting the office from scratch in the Department of Law Enforcement and hiring seven staffers, including fire inspectors and investigators.
Her appointment comes after state lawmakers worked over two legislative sessions to revive the state fire marshal’s office, which was dissolved in 1979. Lawmakers passed a bill last year reestablishing the office, but it didn’t provide enough funding and staffing.
They addressed those issues this year with House Bill 1064, which awaits the governor’s signature….
FSJ: Hawaii appoints first state fire marshal in 46 years
NR: Governor Green Welcomes New State Fire Marshal
SA: Hawaii gets first state fire marshal in 46 years | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Hawaiʻi's First State Fire Marshal In Decades Has A Long To-Do List - Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaii's film incentives stay; Governor Green vetoes controversial bill
KITV: … Governor Josh Green vetoes a bill that could have dimmed Hawaii's film industry by reducing tax incentives….
read … Hawaii's film incentives stay; Governor Green vetoes controversial bill | News | kitv.com
We taxpayers won’t have a say in decisions on AD, stadium
SA: … At some point, maybe as early as this week’s Board of Regents committee meetings, the University of Hawaii will decide on a new athletic director.
Or not.
And at some point, maybe this month or one of the months within our lifetime, a signed agreement will be finalized on a developer to raze Aloha Stadium and then raise a new stadium in Halawa.
But at no point will you, or you, or me, or you over there, have any input into the hiring of a new athletic director or the construction of a new stadium….
read … Stephen Tsai: We taxpayers won’t have a say in decisions on AD, stadium | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
PUC Anticipates Explosive Growth in Shared Solar
IM: … The HECO Companies have 2070 MW of firm power and 1647 MW of non-firm (intermittent) power. Ten years after shared solar became law, the existing shared solar market represents a mere 0.26% of non-firm power, or one part in 400.
The mechanism is as follows: a solar energy company proposes building a mid-size solar project. Residential and business ratepayers can pay the solar energy company for the right for a share of the solar output which HECO will credit against the ratepayer’s electric bills.
The solar energy company must have most of the solar output allocated to subscribers. The subscribers can leave the program whenever they want to. In order to lure in new subscribers, the solar energy company offers a rate that is lower than the utility rate.
The Hawai`i Governor issued Executive Order No. 25-01 to fast-track renewable energy development. The Public Utilities Commission published a chart to show how they would implement this between 2024 and 2030.
The Commission expects 200 MW of new shared solar projects between 2025-30, starting slowly with 0.24 MW in 2025, picking up slightly with 16.25 MW in 2026-27, and then exploding with over 180 MW in 2028-30.
If shared solar does take off, it is unclear what percentage will go to residential and businesses that have the means to use alternative mechanisms such as rooftop solar, versus what percent of low to moderate income people will participate….
read … PUC Anticipates Explosive Growth in Shared Solar
State Housing Czar Demands Church Return Housing For Homeless Elderly
CB: … The state’s Office on Homelessness and Housing Solutions is demanding that a Korean church either return or pay $20,000 apiece to buy 20 state-owned tiny housing units installed in their Honolulu parking lot.
The demands were outlined in a letter sent to the pastor of Hawaii Cedar Church by the governor’s homelessness coordinator, Jun Yang. In it, Yang said the Kalihi church was not authorized to use the units and must immediately stop.
The units are occupied by previously unhoused kūpuna and families. Installation of the units was completed in August during the tenure of Yang’s predecessor, John Mizuno, using donated contracting services….
The Cedar Church kauhale was specifically named in a presentation Green and Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi gave in May last year about Hawaiʻi’s response to homelessness as one of 17 projects then on track to open.
But Civil Beat has confirmed the state and church had no written agreement regarding the installation of the 20 units, and that appears to be where the church project has run afoul of Yang’s office.
Yang declined a request for an interview Friday and in an emailed statement said the letter was sent in anticipation of a management and performance audit of the state’s Kauhale Initiative required under a bill approved by legislators this session and sent to the governor for approval.
“As such, we are taking steps to ensure that state property is safeguarded, state contracting standards are met, and that tiny homes like those on the grounds of Cedar Church in Kalihi, are used in accordance with state standards for kauhale services,” he wrote. …
read … State Housing Czar Demands Church Return Housing For Homeless Elderly –
U.S. defends detention, deportation of military wife in Honolulu, noting ‘unusual activity’
HNN: … "Nicolle Saroukos’s recent long-term trips to the United States and suspicious luggage resulted in her being reasonably selected for secondary screening by CBP. Officers determined that she was traveling for more than just tourism. She was unable to remember her wedding date just four months prior. Saroukos met her now-husband during a trip on December 13, 2024, the same day her ex-partner left her. The two spent only eight days together before she returned to Australia on December 21. Saroukos then got married on January 24, 2025, after only knowing her husband for just over a month.
During screening, CBP noted there was unusual activity on her phone, including 1,000 deleted text messages from her husband because she claimed they caused her ‘anxiety.’ Saroukos even claimed that her husband was going to leave the U.S. military, despite him telling CBP he was adding her to his military documents.
If you attempt to enter the United States under false pretenses, there are consequences." ….
read … U.S. defends detention, deportation of military wife in Honolulu, noting ‘unusual activity’
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