Supreme Court: Doctors and Patients May Skip Arbitration and Sue HMSA
Aloha Stadium Subject of Secret Deal
Hawaii Legislature sued over "blank" bills
UH Manoa Scores 'F' on Free Speech
Charitable Giving Under 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Aloha Stadium: Can we start arresting the crooks yet?
Borreca: Earlier this month the Star-Advertiser reported some bad news from officials saying the stadium will not be finished until 2029, instead of 2028. Also, the new facility will have capacity for 22,500, a reduction from earlier plans. The dreams of another 50,000-seat edifice have moved into the category of “what were they ever thinking.”
Today’s scheme, however, is a complicated one because it is based on various independent operations happening in close coordination.
For example, building the stadium is supposed to happen at the same time that newly named developers work on 93 acres surrounding it with dreams of turning the real estate into restaurants, shops and affordable housing. This isn’t a strip mall scheme — developers are being asked to come up with an entirely new destination location, like a Hawaii Kai or Kapolei….
There are enough culpable hands in the project for scads of people to get some of the blame for the lack of diligence, foresight and planning in the crumbling stadium — and its scatter- shot implementation for a new structure….
(TRANSLATION: ‘Culpable’ = ‘Guilty’)
read … On Politics: ‘Termite Palace,’ ‘Rust Palace’ counter lofty visions | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Star-Adv: ‘Bring more charges for Red Hill fuel spill’
SA: … federal prosecutors work to pin criminal charges on two Navy civilian employees for their alleged roles in a cover-up, as their former military bosses sit relatively unscathed.
“I have a suspicion these two gentlemen may be scapegoats in this case,” Bill Harrison, Floyd’s attorney, said to reporters after the Sept. 6 not-guilty pleas — and he’s not wrong.
It’s hard to imagine alleged falsifications of this magnitude happening in the military without the knowledge and condoning of top brass. Floyd and Wu’s trial, at the very least, must shed more needed light on what truly occurred out of the public eye.
When the Navy censured its Pearl Harbor leaders in 2023 for the fuel fiasco, it stated that “despite prior organizational challenges and continued oversight failures associated with Red Hill maintenance, modernization, operations and response, a naval officer is never absolved of the personal requirement to discharge faithfully the duties of the office to the best of their abilities.”…
read … Editorial: Bring more charges for Red Hill fuel spill | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Scott Nago's Bumpy Ride As Hawaiʻi's Chief Election Officer
CB: … Just two years after he was named chief election officer there were already calls to fire him.
In the 2012 general election there was a lack of ballots provided at dozens of polling places, including in East Honolulu and Mililani and on Kauaʻi and the Big Island. Some suspected the shortage was intentional….
Just days before the Aug. 9, 2014, primary, Tropical Storm Iselle was moving toward the Big Island. The big race on the ballot that year was a primary showdown for the U.S. Senate between Brian Schatz and Colleen Hanabusa.
Iselle prompted the closure of roads in the Puna region and left the area — home to 8,255 registered voters — isolated. Nago, in consultation with the attorney general, canceled voting at Hawaiian Paradise Park Community Center and Keoneopoko Elementary School just two days before the election.
A makeup election for the area was held Aug. 15, but many homes were still without power and fallen trees limited access. There were also reports of counting glitches on Maui. Some 800 mail ballots went uncounted until they were discovered four days after the primary.
Schatz ended up beating Hanabusa by a mere 1,782 votes.
At an Elections Commission meeting the following week, state lawmakers and concerned citizens accused Nago of disenfranchising voters….
Ballot counting problems persisted, though they were not widespread. In November 2018, former state Rep. Tommy Waters lost a Honolulu City Council race to incumbent City Council member Trevor Ozawa by just 22 votes. He filed a complaint with the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court charging that Nago and Oʻahu county clerk Glenn Takahashi miscounted or misapplied 39,610 votes in the contest.
The court invalidated the results. In a special election in April 2019, Waters defeated Ozawa 17,491 votes to 16,487….
Later that year, county clerks on Maui, Kauaʻi and Oʻahu geared up to modernize their vote-counting systems in anticipation of the state conducting its 2020 election primarily with mail-in ballots. …
More glitches followed, though. More than 900 primary ballots were not counted because they were received after deadline. And on Election Day in November, thousands of voters waited for hours in line outside the state’s eight voter centers to cast their votes in person….
REALITY: Long Lines Suppress Republican Votes on Election Day: City Clerk Plans to do it Again in 2024
read … Scott Nago's Bumpy Ride As Hawaiʻi's Chief Election Officer - Honolulu Civil Beat
CMS: Only One Hawaii Hospital Gets 5-Star Rating
BHR: … only Adventist Health Castle (Kailua) gets a 5-star rating …
read … 290 hospitals with 5 stars from CMS - Becker's Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis
Where are meetings on state climate plan?
SA: … Sessions were held last week at the Manoa, Kailua and Salt Lake-Moanalua public libraries, with more scheduled this week and next. Here’s the upcoming schedule, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources:
- >> Monday at 5 p.m. at Mililani Public Library
- >> Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Waimanalo Public and School Library
- >> Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Kahului Public Library
- >> Thursday at 3 p.m. at Wailuku Public Library
- >> Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hilo Public Library
- >> Sept. 23 at 11 a.m. at Lihue Public Library
- >> Sept. 23 at 4 p.m. at Kapaa Public Library
You can read the CAP or an executive summary of it via links at hiclimate. consider.it Opens in a new tab, where you can also submit your opinions about it. The online portal will accept public input through Sept. 30….
read … Kokua Line: Where are meetings on state climate plan? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Kamehameha Schools prepares to defend admissions policy again
SA: … Attorney Sherry Broder, who has represented OHA and other Native Hawaiian institutions, said the case is being wrongly framed as a racial matter.
(CLUE: She said the same things 20 years ago. In the end, KSBE bribed the plaintiffs with $7M to keep the case out of the 9th Circuit because they know the 9th will rule against them.)
“The Native Hawaiian culture, the Native Hawaiian people, Native Hawaiian lands — these are all integral parts of our society in Hawaii,” she said. “Kamehameha Schools’ lands are the former lands of the Hawaiian monarchy. This is a private trust, and Hawaiians are a political class, not a racial classification. Just like other Native peoples in the United States, they have their own lands, their own schools.”
Broder also noted that Kamehameha’s admissions preference is not absolute.
“Their policy is a preference. It’s not an exclusionary policy. They do accept people who are non-Hawaiian,” she said.
In her view, the trust stands on solid legal footing. “They’re in a very good position to defend their programs, and I will be totally supportive of the important role they fulfill in our community,” Broder said ….
read … Kamehameha Schools prepares to defend admissions policy again | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Schatz “Don’t let this algo pickle your brain and ruin your soul”
CB: … On Thursday, Schatz had this to say in a post on X regarding all the breathless speculation on social media about the possible motivation of the shooter:
“What fucking difference does it make if this murderer was left or right. Pull yourself together, read a book, get some exercise, have a whiskey or walk the dog or make some pasta or go fishing or just do anything other than let this algo pickle your brain and ruin your soul.”
The Blog figures that calmed everybody right down.
In another post Friday, Schatz paid homage to Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for his measured response to the shooting in his state. Setting a far different tone than President Donald Trump’s flame-throwing effort to blame the political left, Cox said at a media briefing that “there is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable.”
“If there’s one GOP pol best situated to try and take down the temperature after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, it might have been Spencer Cox,” Schatz wrote. “He’s seized the moment.” ….
read … The Sunshine Blog: Political Violence Is A Tricky Subject These Days - Honolulu Civil Beat
Lawsuit: Police Rough up Reporter Photographing Arrest
CB: … The Honolulu Police Department is the subject of another lawsuit, this time because officers allegedly roughed up a news photographer who was taking pictures of them arresting a woman at Ala Moana Center in 2023.
According to the filing, Barry Markowitz, a photojournalist who lives in Honolulu but shoots for the Samoa News among other outlets, was at the mall to have work done on his cell phone when he saw unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers taking a woman into custody. Wearing his press credentials on his shirt, he took a few photos but was soon hassled by the cops.
One officer punched him in the shoulder while another was swearing at him, the complaint says.
Markowitz says he showed them his press badge and one of the officers grabbed his hand and yanked the badge away. Markowitz needed medical treatment for his hand and shoulder and is still receiving treatment to his shoulder two years later, the lawsuit says.
The case was filed late last month by Honolulu attorney Eric Seitz, who is no stranger to suing the HPD and other government agencies who allegedly overstep their authority.
What caught The Blog’s eye, besides alleged bad behavior toward a fellow journalist, was that state Rep. Della Au Belatti’s name appears under Seitz as the No. 2 lawyer on the case. She is, of course, a partner in his law firm.
So perhaps this is what prompted Belatti to introduce House Bill 595 this past session, clarifying a citizen’s right to photograph police and creating a right of action against police who interfere in the photographing.
HB 595 passed the House Labor Committee and then the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, where Belatti is a member but appears to have had little to say about it — such as declaring a conflict of interest if Markowitz was a client by then. Then it died the usual politically mysterious death in House Finance.
Its companion measure, Senate Bill 307, made it out of the full Senate and back over to the House where it once again passed the Labor and Judiciary committees and then also died in House Finance with no reason given….
read … The Sunshine Blog: Political Violence Is A Tricky Subject These Days - Honolulu Civil Beat
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