Hawaii Attorney General Releases Annual Firearm Statistics
Each Iron Worker pays George Paris $811 per year
CB: … Some of the leaders of Hawaiʻi’s most powerful unions are bringing in hefty paychecks, according to the latest filings with the U.S. Department of Labor and the IRS.
Topping the list is George Paris, the executive director of the Hawaiʻi Iron Workers’ Stabilization Fund, who was earning a whopping $570,406 as of 2023.
Paris has been one of Hawaiʻi’s highest paid union leaders for at least 30 years, media reports show.
The stabilization fund is not a union in and of itself — it has no members per se — but it represents the interests of the Iron Workers AFL-CIO Local 625. That union, which had 703 members as of last year, is run by George Paris’s son, Bronson Paris, who made $199,640 as of 2023.
($570,406 / 703 = $811 each x 30 yrs = $24,330 each)
The state’s second highest paid union leader is Ron Taketa, an executive with the politically powerful Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, who made $371,147 last year.
Taketa represents the interests of some 6,000 carpenters in Locals 756 and 756….
(Insulators AFL-CIO Local 132 business manager and secretary/treasurer Douglas Fulp, represents only 108 members but ‘earns’ $227,898 = $2,110 per member per year.)
Read … Data Dive: Hawaiʻi's Highest Paid Union Leaders - Honolulu Civil Beat
Maui's Bill 9 close to getting a vote
KITV: … Some county council members worry local residents would not be able to afford the cost of these condos if they are sold.
"Are you open to compromise and on what?" asked council chair Alice Lee.
"Yes. We are open to compromises that allow local people to purchase properties," replied Laksmi Abraham, Maui County Director of Communications.
Condos cost an average of around $500,000, making it difficult for local residents to buy, especially first time homeowners.
"When you are dealing with first time home buyers, little down equates to higher risk and risk usually equates to 'no'," said mortgage banker Cara Beltran.
Maui County expects it would need to expand down payment assistance for its first time home buyers program, where already 300 people are currently on the wait list.
Meanwhile not all properties may stop being short term rentals. There are five properties which have dual zoning and could apply for hotel zoning status.
"Some units may be better suited for long-term housing, but we can empower each property if they want to transition in their zoning," added Abraham.
In addition to discussing concerns, council members talked about at adding amendments to Bill 9 that could include variances for some properties, measures to address sea level rise, or ones that may make up for lost tax revenue if current short term rental units sit empty.
"If we did a vacancy tax, we could catch up to what is lost in three years," added Johnson.
Members also talked about delaying the start of Bill 9, possibly up to three years before the estimated 6,000 short term rental units would revert back to long term housing….
SA: Maui County officials defend vacation rental conversion bill | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
MN: Lahaina Weak: From GMO to STR — Maui’s fight to end the rule of profit over people (no mention of methamphetamine dealing)
Read … Maui's Bill 9 close to getting a vote | Local | kitv.com
City wages climate lawfare against Big Oil at cost of residents
SA: … Over the last decade, Hawaii has become ground zero in a wave of partisan climate lawfare — activist litigation that threatens economic stability, democratic lawmaking and constitutional limits nationwide. These lawsuits weaponize the judiciary to achieve what the activists themselves cannot win at the ballot box.
Initiated in 2020, the City and County of Honolulu’s lawsuit seeks to bankrupt major energy companies for allegedly creating a public nuisance by contributing to climate change. Later this month, a Hawaii state court will hear arguments as to whether the city’s lawsuit should be dismissed.
The case is one of nearly three dozen copycat lawsuits filed across the country — driven by the same team of trial lawyers using the same playbook — aimed at undermining the legislative process and advancing the same radical energy mandates that the people of Hawaii and countless other Americans oppose.
The city may present its effort as altruistic, but it is nothing more than a politically calculated move by an elite few who care nothing for how the end result would impact the people of Hawaii — how they cook, drive, eat and live. Meritless on its face, the litigation should be rejected by the court.
The lawsuit here in Honolulu mirrors others in large metropolitan locales on the mainland where governments have used public nuisance claims to target industries they have deemed harmful. These actions are wasteful and punitive, extracting massive fines from energy companies — hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions — while ignoring the vital role energy plays in powering Hawaii’s economy and sustaining daily life on island.
The good news is that the U.S. Constitution and federal law bar local judges from dictating national energy policy. No court in Hawaii has the authority to regulate pipelines in Pennsylvania or oil refineries in Texas. Indeed, in the nation’s founding documents, including the Federalist Papers, insist upon an “equal sovereignty of states” that prevents cities and states from imposing their personal — and overtly political — policies on other states and localities. Courts in multiple other states have already dismissed similar climate lawsuits, recognizing that federal law preempts the claims….
The Hawaii court should side with the Constitution — not fringe activism — rejecting this meritless lawsuit, restoring lawmaking to the people of Hawaii, and sending these lifestyle mandates of the elite back where they belong: the ballot box….
Read … Column: City wages climate lawfare against Big Oil at cost of residents | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Decarbonization proposal raises eyebrows at Council meeting
ASD: … More questions than answers surround a state plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation industry.
In June, the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation published an “Energy Security and Waste Reduction Plan,” a proposal to reduce carbon emissions across the transportation sector to meet the state’s 2045 deadline to achieve 100% clean energy.
Currently, the plan is in the midst of an extended public comment and review process, with a final draft expected to be published in October. As part of that process, DOT representatives are holding online meetings on the proposal over the next several weeks, with the first one held July 15.
While sparsely attended, that first meeting raised questions about the impacts of some of the strategies proposed in the plan. For example, the plan calls for a 75% reduction in cruise ship ports-of-call by 2045 — which would have significant impacts on local businesses….
Mā‘ili Rep. Darius Kila attended the committee meeting in person to question its relationship with reality, noting that many of his constituents are “counting pennies” to stay in the state.
“When you have green, it’s easy to go green, but when you don’t have green, you cannot go green,” Kila quipped.
Kila went through many of the plan’s proposals, highlighting where they will likely raise costs for residents. For example, plans to decarbonize maritime shipping, switching vessels from diesel fuel to “renewable diesel” will require shipping companies to retrofit their fleets to use a less efficient fuel — with which Kila said companies will “gladly comply,” as they can simply pass on the increased costs to the end users in Hawai‘i.
Other proposals, including one for congestion pricing in urban zones, will disproportionately impact rural residents who can’t afford to live and work in the same neighborhood.
Kila also said plans to entirely phase out internal combustion vehicles are unfeasible, particularly in the face of likely rollbacks of federal incentive programs for EV adoption.
Further complicating matters is the announcement by Matson earlier this month that the shipping company will no longer transport EVs on its vessels, citing risks of lithium-ion battery fires.
And Kila warned that the proposed cutback of cruise ship traffic will have predictable, devastating impacts on local businesses, restaurants and tour operators.
“Hawai‘i has been an amazing leader in leading the charge [toward decarbonization], but if we’re leading the charge and people are still left behind, that’s not progress at all,” Kila said. “There is a reality for Hawai‘i residents that every penny that increases their costs of living … is pushing [the question] whether they should stay in Hawai‘i or not.”
Additionally, Councilman Tyler Dos Santos-Tam noted another side effect of decarbonization: loss of fuel tax revenue, which is used to maintain road infrastructure. As adoption of EVs increases, the county’s fuel tax revenues have already dropped from $51 million in 2019 to an anticipated $43 million next year, Santos-Tam said — “and it’s going to go down every single year thereafter.”
“So the question is, do we put [the shortfall] on the users, the people who are driving, the people who are consuming gasoline?” Santos-Tam said. “Or do we do things like property tax revenue, which affects everybody, including non-drivers?”
Answers for all these questions were not immediately forthcoming at the committee hearing Wednesday. However, further public meetings on the plan will be held online on July 27 at 2 p.m. and July 28 at 6 p.m. Additional meetings in August have yet to be scheduled.
The final draft of the plan is slated for publication in October. Much of the proposals mentioned in the document are expected to be part of a 2026 legislative package….
Read … Decarbonization proposal raises eyebrows at Council meeting
Proposed Ala Wai Watershed District raises concerns
SA: … Howe said contrary to prior versions of the group’s draft bill, which he said dated back many years, the newly revised measure for an Ala Wai district does not include funding via assessments to property owners, or individual parcel IDs, located within the Ala Wai Watershed.
The prior version had involved a 115-page addendum to the older draft bill, listing what appeared to be thousands of potentially taxable land parcels. The newly proposed Ala Wai district may access “state or city and county grants” to fund and maintain restoration activities, Howe said.
Moreover, Howe said the new revised draft received assistance from another local group. “So we talked with Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds (group), and they were really helpful in helping update this bill,” he said previously.
But Sidney Lynch, Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds president, said her group — which, according to its website, promotes “nature- based watershed restoration and protection” within the Ala Wai, Makiki, and Manoa-Palolo watersheds — does not endorse HGG’s plan.
“Though (Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds) gave feedback on HGG’s CIVic, it did not help create it nor does it support it as we question the need for such a powerful institution potentially controlled by Waikiki business interests,” she said….
Read … Proposed Ala Wai Watershed District raises concerns | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Lawsuit alleges sex assault, climate of fear at Youth Challenge Academy
HNN: … The military-style residential program is designed to help teens turn their lives around, but six youths have joined a lawsuit saying they experienced a climate of fear and sexual exploitation.
The lawsuit alleges that a gang of teenage cadets was allowed to terrorize the academy with bullying, beatings, and even sexual assault, and a staff member who encouraged gang activity was a sexual predator himself….
The lawsuit said in 2013, two female cadets alleged sexual misconduct by two cadres employed at the Kalaeloa campus, which led to a conviction of a staff member for harassment.
In a 2018 case, a cadre at the Hilo campus was sentenced last year to 10 years for sexual assault of an underaged female cadet…..
“He experienced pretty horrific things,” she said. “Basically, every night he would lay down to sleep was in fear of what could come next and who might barge in the room where they might be taken.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Davis, Levin, Livingston law firm, which led the legal action against Kamehameha Schools over sex abuse by a contracted psychiatrist.
Attorneys Chase Livingston and Hannah Matsunaga are handling the case.
“These cadres would bring youth to what was referred to as the dungeon, which was a room in the campus that was used for the sole purpose of abusing these youth,” Livingston said. The lawsuit also alleges staff tried to hide the abuse….
The HPD did confirm an investigation is ongoing….
SA: Suit alleges abuse at Hawaii Youth Challenge Academy | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Read … Lawsuit alleges sex assault, climate of fear at Youth Challenge Academy
Working group set to meet to discuss bringing nuclear energy to Hawaii
KHON … As part of the state’s goal to reach 100-percent renewable energy by 2045, lawmakers passed a resolution this session to form a working group to talk about bringing nuclear energy to Hawaii….
“I’m a believer that if the science is going this way, the policy should be meeting it at a certain point rather than the science having ready for consumer use, and then we figuring out the policy,” Wakai said….
Technology is better and small modular reactors, or SMR’s, could work in Hawaii…
it would need to be approved by both two-thirds of the State House and two-thirds of the State Senate….
The working group is scheduled to convene in September and have a report ready for lawmakers before next session.
“Ultimately, we have to keep the lights on and we have to do it at a reasonable cost and we keep all options on the table,” said Zanfes….
IM: Is nuclear power the answer for Hawai`i | Ililani Media "A small, self-contained, thorium reactor that goes through a five step Hawai`i life -- import, plug-in, use, unplug, export – does not violate the state constitution.
Read … Working group set to meet to discuss bringing nuclear energy to Hawaii | KHON2
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