Hawaii gang enforcer gets 30 years, ending landmark case
State Job Growth? 'Health Care and Food Services'
HDoT Awards Contract for Removal of 'Falls of Clyde'
Honolulu Rewards City Employee for Alleged Stealing – Five Years Paid Vacation
CB: … Brandon Kaaa-Swain hasn’t been to work since October 2020, but the Honolulu prosecutor’s office investigator continues to collect a taxpayer-funded paycheck.
Put on paid administrative leave so officials could investigate his mileage reimbursements, Kaaa-Swain remains on leave nearly five years later, the prosecutor’s office confirmed last week.
Whether Kaaa-Swain is guilty of falsifying his expenses or not, a Civil Beat review found the county has now paid him at least $300,000 and counting while he’s been out — about 25 times the amount he is suspected of stealing….
Read … Honolulu Worker Paid Not To Work For Nearly Five Years - Honolulu Civil Beat
Ousted Kahuku head football coach sues DOE, former team captain, and player’s father
HNN: … a lawsuit names the DOE, superintendent Keith Hayashi, complex area superintendent Samuel Izumi, parent Kalani K.G. Hallums, and his son, Tavian “Manoa” Hallums, who graduated in 2024 and was a team captain.
Seitz says a year and a half ago, Carvalho was told he was under investigation because of complaints by a disgruntled parent, allegedly over his son’s playing time. The lawsuit shows those complaints on social media….
“This parent apparently did the same kind of things with another son who is at Saint Louis and this same child who was at Mililani. He’s a serial abuser and it’s really not something that the DOE should allow, let alone fire a coach over,” he added….
“This is a case in which he was already rehired and he was told by his principal and his athletic director that they stood behind him, but then the the higher administration of the DOE stepped in and decided to fire him,” said Seitz….
Read … Ousted Kahuku head football coach sues DOE, former team captain, and player’s father
Hawaii Pushes Back on Anti-Tourism Sentiments in New Maui Campaign
TMR: … A recent study by the Hawaii Convention & Visitor Bureau (HVCB) revealed that 25% of social media posts about Maui tourism were negative and shared anti-tourist sentiments. Of that 25%, about 98% of the posters or commenters were not from and did not live in Hawaii. …
Read … Hawaii Pushes Back on Anti-Tourism Sentiments in New Maui Campaign
Man charged in meth money-laundering scheme
SA: … A California man is facing federal criminal charges after he allegedly sold more than 35 pounds of methamphetamine, five pounds of fentanyl and laundered drug money for an undercover law enforcement officer.
Dylan Tai Dang allegedly told an undercover law enforcement officer he could launder drug money for a 5% commission and 40% of the profits from the investment vehicle used to clean the money.
Dang allegedly used holding companies to make real estate investments in California, other U.S. states and Asia with revenue from illegal drug sales, according to federal court records ….
Read … Man charged in meth money-laundering scheme | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Developer Loses Court Fight To Build Luxury Homes On 'Anthrax Graveyard'
CB: … After five years of battling a developer’s plan to build luxury homes on an overgrown golf course that sits atop the decomposed remains of hundreds of cattle killed during a series of anthrax outbreaks more than a century ago, community activists have won their effort to protect the area as open space.
Fifth Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe ruled on Monday in favor of Lorraine Mull and Fran White, the plaintiffs in the legal challenge whose multimillion-dollar homes overlook the proposed development site. The argued that developing the golf course could release potentially life-threatening anthrax spores into the community.
The development plan would also go against Princeville’s original incorporation papers, which envisioned a neighborhood centered around open space, according to the court’s judgement….
Read … Developer Loses Court Fight To Build Luxury Homes On 'Anthrax Graveyard' - Honolulu Civil Beat
Kahala oceanfront condos face looming deadline
ILind: … Owners of apartments in the Kahala Beach Condominium are preparing to surrender their properties and walk away empty handed in just two years. The original 60-year ground lease for the 196-unit oceanfront project expires on July 15, 2027, and ownership of the buildings will revert to the landowner, Kamehameha Schools….
Kamehameha Schools also owns the land under the neighboring Waialae Country Club and Kahala Resort and Hotel, but previously extended those leases to 2060 and beyond.
However, Kamehameha has declined to extend the Kahala Beach lease, and refused to consider several offers from the Assocation of Apartment Owners to purchase the fee interest.
Although individual lessees have purchased their condominium apartments, the leased land and any improvements (meaning the buildings themselves) revert to the landowner when the ground lease expires. Hawaii is one of the few places in the United States where leasehold residential properties are found….
As the Kahala lease expiration nears, owners have reported Kamehameha Schools may offer short-term lease extensions, perhaps just a year at a time, while it works on a longer term plan for the property.
During an extended legal battle over setting of the lease rent for the final 10-year term (2017-2027), consultants concluded the “highest and best use” would be an ultra-luxury condominium development that maximizes the site’s best attributes, such as its direct ocean frontage and allowable height and density. It’s current A-2 zoning imposes a 60-foot height limit, 50% higher than the current 40 foot building height….
Read … Kahala oceanfront condos face looming deadline | i L i n d
TheBus considering pushing West Oahu riders to use Skyline to get to town
KHON: … Route C, Country Express, runs from Makaha to Ala Moana Shopping Center and back via the H-1. But the city is considering changes….
A proposal is looking at stopping the town bound route at the rail stop at UH West Oahu. So any riders coming into town would have to use the rail to the airport, then jump on another bus to get to their final destination….
So this would be an inconvenience then basically? Absolutely it’d be a total mistake,” said Kolaski.
“Ah that’s gonna hurt some people coming from Makaha, Waianae,” said Defalco. “I used to live in Makakilo and take it to Ala Moana to go work out so yeah, that one shot’s nice. So losing that’s gonna, it’s gonna hurt.”…
Read … TheBus considering pushing West Oahu riders to use Skyline to get to town
Two ex-HPD officers indemnified in wrongful death suit
HTH: … he 9-0 vote on Wednesday authorizes the county to cover any monetary damages a court awards the plaintiffs — Josephine Bishop and Nelson Kahele — from officers Chad Taniyama and Justin Gaspar for the fatal shooting of their 32-year-old son, Kainoa Kahele-Bishop, on March 10, 2023.
Taniyama was a detective with 25 years service and Gaspar was an officer with 13 years service when they shot into a silver Chevrolet Malibu stopped at the intersection of Kamakaeha Avenue and Palani Road, killing Kahele-Bishop.
Both Taniyama and Gaspar are being represented in court by the Corporation Counsel, the county’s civil attorneys. Neither are currently employed by the department, according to HPD spokeswoman Denise Laitinen.
According to police, Kahele-Bishop, who allegedly was an associate of then-wanted fugitive Ronald Kahihikolo, ignored the officers’ commands to show them his hands, instead reaching for an object, after his vehicle was disabled in a traffic collision….
Kahihikolo, who evaded police in a separate pursuit and ditched the Dodge sedan he was driving, was apprehended the following morning in Hamakua and has since been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the nonfatal shooting of his 42-year-old girlfriend in Ocean View….
Read … Two ex-HPD officers indemnified in wrongful death suit - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
This Common Precursor To Murder Is Too Rarely Prosecuted On Maui
CB: … The Maui County Prosecutor’s Office is looking to crack down on domestic abuse cases involving strangulation, which experts say often precedes homicide….
Read … This Common Precursor To Murder Is Too Rarely Prosecuted On Maui
Investigator: Vocal Red Hill Whistleblower Faced Pushback For Speaking Out
CB: … Before the fuel leaks, Feindt said she was in good professional standing and had a positive rapport with her command, with whom she was on a first name basis. While Feindt’s complaint was being investigated, she said she was passed over for promotion and iced out by her colleagues who now refer to her formally as Maj. Feindt….
Read … Investigator: Vocal Red Hill Whistleblower Faced Pushback For Speaking Out - Honolulu Civil Beat
Staff shortage hinders Navy program in Hawaii tasked with cleanup of contaminated sites
SAS: … The Navy program overseeing cleanup of toxic “forever” chemicals at the Red Hill fuel facility is operating at half its staff after six months of workforce reductions and a hiring freeze by the Trump administration, the program’s manager told Hawaii lawmakers Monday. “We have taken a significant cut,” Jocelyn Tamashiro, manager of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command’s Pacific Environmental Restoration Program, said during a meeting of the House Special Committee on Red Hill in Honolulu. “In terms of people, we are very short-handed,” Tamashiro said in response to a committee member’s question about whether federal workforce reductions had affected the program. The program evaluates and cleans up hazardous material spills and former waste disposal sites on military properties in the Pacific region….
Read … Staff shortage hinders Navy program in Hawaii tasked with cleanup of contaminated sites
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