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Hawai‘i's bizarre legacy of population control (and why it's still here)
ASD: … In the 1970s, Hawai‘i gave in to fears of overpopulation, so much so that population control was put into the State Constitution….
A primary architect of the measure, Nadao Yoshinga, was not solely worried about the influx of outsiders. Natural population growth among existing residents was another worry. Yoshinaga, an influential member of the State Senate, would push contraceptive access in the name of limited Hawai‘i’s population growth over the coming years. Limiting population by whatever means necessary (in the confines of the law) was the objective....
During this time, national commentators were fretting about the global population’s growth. Paul and Anne Ehrlich had co-authored The Population Bomb in 1968. Internationally, the Club of Rome furnished the Limits to Growth report, which only further argued against overconsumption. Political views wrapped in scientific dogma started-off a new movement whose cultural salience was confirmed by the 1973 film Soylent Green.
While societies were wasteful and inefficient, these reports didn’t necessarily call for more efficiency. Instead, they called for fewer people....
At around this time, Robert C. Schmitt, the State Statistician of Hawai‘i, took note of the emerging field of population policy. Proponents of population control, at least in the early Statehood era, had started to organize in the late ’60s through such organizations as the University of Hawai‘i-sponsored Zero Population Growth-Honoulu, Citizens for Hawai‘i, Life of the Land, the Sierra Club, and Save our Surf.
These groups advocated for policies to halt population migration, economic development, and other factors like densified communities in the name of environmentalism. Perhaps tragically, this misguided approach to Hawai‘i’s prevailing problems created a manichean world of values in conflict with one another.…
Hawai‘i … inserted a section into its Constitution at the 1978 Constitutional Convention that called for population planning. To date, it is the only Constitution in the United States with such explicit language ….
RELATED: Ed Case's 2006 "felony" vote: Greens vs. Illegals
read … Hawai‘i's bizarre legacy of population control (and why it's still here)
Battery, Hydrogen Scams Cut: Funding for 6 Hawaii energy projects terminated
SA: … At least $67 million in federal funding for six Hawaii energy projects appears to have been pulled by the Trump administration over qualms about worthiness….
Funding being severed now apparently includes a $39 million award to in part enhance energy resilience and reliability for Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam under a partnership between Ameresco Inc., the U.S. Navy and Hawaiian Electric. The Pu‘uloa Microgrid and Backbone Project is (was) designed to draw power from a planned renewable energy project called Pu‘uloa Energy in the event of a grid outage to supply the base and some civilian communities with electricity.…. (More money burned to allow use of more useless intermittent ‘renewable’ power.)
Other affected funding in Hawaii, according to a list Tokuda and other members of Congress have received, includes $18 million for two projects intended to improve resiliency and renewable energy capacity for Kauai’s electric grid operated by the customer-owned nonprofit Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative. (More money burned to allow use of more useless intermittent power.)
The bigger of the two Kauai projects was to receive $16 million with KIUC investing an equal sum to add battery storage and advanced grid forming inverters to two existing solar power plants. (See? Told you.)
One benefit of the project was to further the capability of KIUC’s grid to accommodate 100% use of renewable energy. (See? Told you.)
The other Kauai project was to receive nearly $2 million with matching funds from KIUC to add a grid-forming capability to an existing generator at the Port Allen power station to accommodate stable operation of high penetration distributed variable renewable generation…. (See? Told you.)
The other Hawaii energy project awards on the list are:
>> $5 million granted in 2023 for local technology company Oceanit to further development of a system called HALO for clean hydrogen production. (CLUE: It takes more energy to refine the hydrogen than is produced by burning the hydrogen produced. This is called: ‘Moving the smokestack.’)
>> $4 million granted in 2023 for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii to develop fuel cells using clean hydrogen. (DITTO.)
>> $1 million for HSEO to assess how more county and state vehicle fleets can be shifted to zero-emission vehicles supported by charging infrastructure. HSEO was awarded $1 million for this $1.3 million project, and said it was notified of the funding reversal Thursday by the Energy Department….. (A study on buying e-cars and building charging stations. Useless.)
TGI: Kauai Island Utility Cooperative funding in jeopardy - The Garden Island
SA: Hawaii can absorb shutdown for ‘weeks to months,’ Green says | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Funding for 6 Hawaii energy projects terminated | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Can touri$m be re$pectful? CNHA used $27M HTA Money to promote its own luaus
WaPo: … The Native Council, (CNHA) a (profitable) ‘nonprofit’ group which now calls itself ‘Hawaiian Council’, won a $27 million marketing contract in 2023 from the state tourism agency. Lewis said the group has used the money to advertise local programs like the Kilohana luau on Waikiki and to promote local businesses, from fruit stands to ecotours….
FLASHBACK: Denby Fawcett: 'Culture Is Colliding With Policy' In Fights Over Native Hawaiian Shows
FLASHBACK: Free Kilohana hula show ends its run in Waikiki
read … Can tourism be respectful? Native Hawaiians have a plan. - The Washington Post
Defamation lawsuit looms as attorneys, attorney general clash over officer-involved shooting case
HNN: … Breiner and Revere represented the family of Delmar Espejo.
Espejo was an unarmed, homeless man with a disability who was shot in the back by deputy sheriff Gregory Bergman, who caught Espejo with an open bottle of alcohol on Capitol grounds in the overnight hours.
The attorney general’s office represented the state and deputy Bergman in that trial.
During the proceedings, it was revealed that crucial evidence, including surveillance video, body camera footage, and other recordings of the incident, had disappeared.
This led the judge to sanction the state, ultimately resulting in the large verdict.
Just three weeks after that verdict, Attorney General Lopez filed complaints with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) against both Breiner and Revere.
Breiner stated that Lopez was “trying to shift the blame for whatever incompetence and ineptitude exists at the AG’s office in their civil division, and try to offload that on the attorneys who got a jury verdict.”…
In Lopez’s letter to the ODC, she said she was submitting the complaint in both “her individual capacity as a lawyer” and as the attorney general.
She claimed that during the trial, Breiner’s conduct was “willful” and “reprehensible” and prevented her office and the deputy from receiving due process.
However, after several months of investigation, the ODC sided with Breiner and Revere. They concluded that they “found no clear and convincing evidence to support an actionable finding of a violation.”
The lawyers sent a letter to Lopez’s office last month notifying them of their intent to sue for defamation….
read … Defamation lawsuit looms as attorneys, attorney general clash over officer-involved shooting case
HART files eminent domain for Servco property in Kakaako
KHON: … Eminent domain proceedings have started for HART’s Skyline to take over about a half-acre in Kakaako. That leaves the business owner—and its customers—in limbo.
Preliminary roadwork is already underway on Halekauwila Street for Skyline’s Civic Center stop. It’s right next to Servco Pacific’s Kakaako Service Center. The work will soon be on Servco’s property.
Skyline needs a temporary easement for construction, and two permanent easements, for a support pillar and for the actual station itself….
read … HART files eminent domain for Servco property in Kakaako
Woman from Hawaii on flotilla detained enroute to Gaza
MN: … those taken into Israeli custody include Jasmine Ikeda, who was born in Hawaii and raised on Kauai. Earlier this year, Ikeda was on Maui teaching young women how to sail….
(blablabla)…Laila Popata, founder of Maui for Palestine….(blablabla)….
AW: Same person IDed as being from Washington State, LOL!
read … Woman from Hawaii on flotilla detained for trying to bring aid into Gaza | News, Sports, Jobs - Maui News
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