Green signs bills aimed at alleviating Hawaii’s housing shortage
Blue State Blues: One-Party Control? In Hawaiʻi It’s More Like No-Party Control
CB: … Running as a Democrat or Republican says more about political calculation than party allegiance or ideology ….
Party activists tend to occupy the fringes of the political spectrum, thus coming up with platforms and resolutions that their candidates may not even read, much less run on. ….
While the GOP state party works hard on the challenging task of recruiting candidates to run as Republicans in Hawaiʻi, new Democratic candidates seem more likely to be recruited by current officeholders or the special interests that support them, such as the carpenters union….
Read … Blue State Blues: One-Party Control? In Hawaiʻi It’s More Like No-Party Control - Honolulu Civil Beat
What Did Green Veto?
CB: … Gov. Josh Green had until Wednesday to announce what bills he would veto out of the more than 300 passed in the 2025 Legislature. He ended up making his decisions early, announcing on the eve of the long July 4 weekend that he would veto just eight measures.
They include one regulating the use of electric bicycles and another ending tax credits for the film and solar industries. But Green ended up approving a bill that lets law enforcement seize property in investigations so long as the property owner has been charged with a crime. That still didn’t go as far as his attorney general and other law enforcement officials wanted, which was to veto the bill and leave in place the current situation that allows them to seize property before someone’s even been charged, let alone convicted.
The governor also signed off on a measure that would reduce pension benefits for future Hawaiʻi judges. Senate Bill 935 was not on his original intent-to-veto list in June, but he added it later. In a press release Thursday Green said he’d had “thoughtful discussion” on the bill with the Legislature, which supported it (particularly Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz who made quite the argument for leaving the bill alone in his weekly newsletter), and Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, who did not.
Following Green’s veto announcement, House Speaker Nadine Nakamura and Senate President Ron Kouchi said there will be no veto-override session this week….
RELATED: Green Vetoes Eight of 20 on 'Intent to Veto List'
Read … The Sunshine Blog: Police Pizzazz? Thank The Mayor - Honolulu Civil Beat
Police chief to face commission on Thursday
HTH: … The Hawaii County Police Commission has scheduled a special meeting for 10 a.m. Thursday, with the only agenda items relating to the fate of Hawaii Police Department Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz as the Big Island’s top cop.
Moszkowicz submitted his resignation in a June 4 email to commission Chairman Rick Robinson that said his last day on the job would be July 15.
Two days earlier, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced that Joe Logan, Honolulu’s police chief — who had fallen from Blangiardi’s good graces — would be retiring and Moszkowicz was Blangiardi’s choice to become Honolulu’s interim chief.
Moszkowicz withdrew his resignation in a second email to Robinson mere hours later. That came after some members of the Honolulu commission — which later selected Honolulu Deputy Chief Rade Vanic for the interim job — and other high-profile observers publicly opined that Blangiardi had overstepped his bounds….
RELATED: Moszkowicz will not seek Honolulu Chief Position
CB: The Sunshine Blog: Police Pizzazz? Thank The Mayor - Honolulu Civil Beat
Cataluna: Ben Moszkowicz Promises He'll Never Do It Again - Honolulu Civil Beat
Read … Police chief to face commission on Thursday - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
With old ‘leaders’ ousted, Hawai‘i Tourism Authority finally resolves late invoices, interest payments
SA: … The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority has resolved a dispute with its largest contractor, the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau, without having to make an additional payment to cover interest on millions of dollars in late payments.
HTA also has caught up with back payments to its second- largest contractor, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement’s Kilohana program, which handles destination stewardship, according to Caroline Anderson, interim HTA president and CEO.
“We identified the issues that caused the interest due in 2024 and we refined our internal procedures to prevent this situation from occurring in the future,” Anderson said in an email Thursday.
She has only served in HTA’s top job since the March 21 departure of Daniel Naho‘opi‘i, former interim president and CEO.
Anderson also highlighted that back payments due to the tourism agency’s contractors and interest to HVCB were resolved as part of a 90-day action plan she created to shore up HTA during its staff leadership transition….
Read … Hawai‘i Tourism Authority resolves late invoices, interest payments | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Third Parties Petitioning for Hawaii Ballot Access
CB: … the Green Party of Hawaiʻi, which is collecting signatures so that it can field candidates for the 2026 ballot. That was a priority for the Greens last month at a statewide convention held over Zoom. It has until Feb. 19 to collect 861 signatures from registered voters, and Green delegate Nick Nikhilananda says they are halfway there.
(The figure is based on one-tenth of 1% of total registered voters in the 2024 general election, as the state requires.)
…A spokesman for the Office of Elections, meantime, tells The Blog that two other third parties, the Aloha Aina Party of Hawaii and the Ohana Unity Party, are seeking to gain ballot access, too. The Libertarian Party of Hawaiʻi is good to go until the 2030 election, when it will have to re-petition for ballot access….
Read … The Sunshine Blog: Police Pizzazz? Thank The Mayor - Honolulu Civil Beat
Air Force suspends SpaceX project on Pacific atoll
SA: … The U.S. Air Force has suspended plans it had proposed with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to test hypersonic rocket cargo deliveries from a remote Pacific atoll, according to a report this week in Stars and Stripes, an independent publication of the U.S. military.
The suspension came after Reuters reported that biologists and experts said the project would harm many seabirds that nest at the wildlife refuge on the Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated U.S. territory nearly 800 miles southwest of Hawaii.
The Air Force had said it would undertake an environmental assessment of the project, but publication of a draft assessment was delayed after opposition to the plan by environmental groups….
read … Air Force suspends SpaceX project on Pacific atoll | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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