Hawaii Homeowners Pay Some of the Highest Insurance Costs in the Country
Hawaii Mixed Scores on Mental Health
Lawsuit Challenges Hawaii Youth Gun Ban
Another $10B Boondoggle: Scam to Double Rail Project Length Passes Second Read 6-2
SA: … “Right now, we can’t plan to go beyond the East Kapolei Station,” Dos Santos-Tam said, during the Council’s Infrastructure, Transportation and Technology Committee on Sept. 24. “And we always hear, ‘Why doesn’t it go to Ka Makana Alii (shopping center)?’ Well, the reason is we can’t plan to go that far.”…
“And if we don’t start planning now, in 2025 or 2026, we are not going to be ready for 2031 or 2038 … or whatever it might be if we continue to a place like UH Manoa or out to Ko Olina or wherever else it might be,” he said. “We need to start now … and if now is not the right time then when is the right time?”…
(The plan is to just keep building at both ends regardless of the fact that nobody rides it.)
Esther Kia‘aina — whose Council District 3 spans Windward Oahu, which has no city rail line — stated she did not support Bill 60. And she cited the Star-Advertiser’s Sept. 19 editorial entitled, “Prove rail’s worth before extension,” as part of her decision-making on the matter.
“Because we’re not even at Ala Moana,” Kia‘aina said. “We are about to enter into Segment 2, and I would like to see the viability of rail through Segment 2 and, of course, eventually up to Ala Moana.”
“Top of mind for me is not just the overall operational costs, but the maintenance costs that will incur,” she said. “And where are we going to get all of the money for this?”
Also, Kia‘aina asserted her Windward Oahu constituency has the least support for rail on Oahu. “So, as someone in my situation, I would like to be fiscally prudent in how we move forward,” she added.
Tulba agreed.
“This bill sets policy that allows HART to begin planning for more rail before we’ve even completed the segment we’re already committed to,” he said. “That’s premature and fiscally irresponsible.”
He also contended “bus ridership remains low, and transit usage overall has not rebounded to past expectations.”
And he added, “We’ve been told that ‘If you build it, (transit-oriented development) will follow.’”
“But development around stations has lagged far behind expectations,” Tulba said. “If we authorize more extensions now, without evidence that (the) existing system has stimulated meaningful growth, we risk repeating the same mistakes of building rail to empty stations.”
“This bill calls for more planning and preliminary engineering, but it comes with no new funding,” he said. “Our capital budgets are stretched, and maintenance costs are growing.”
“Without committed funding for construction and operations we’re laying the groundwork for plans that may never be viable and expecting taxpayers to foot the bill,” he said.
Ultimately, the Council voted 6-2, with Kia‘aina and Tulba dissenting, to pass Bill 60, and refer it back to committee for further review.
Council Vice Chair Andria Tupola was absent from the meeting.….
read … Proposed Skyline extension to UH spurs debate | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Three Times Slower: Honolulu Permit System Opens Door to Corruption
CB: … In the first two months of new software called HNL Build, only 809 building permits have been approved, and that includes projects that first applied under the old system. Even fewer – just 428 – were created and approved within HNL Build, according to data DPP shared with Civil Beat.
During the same time period last year, the city approved 2,463 – three times as many. …
The previous system, POSSE, was in use since the late 1990s, and despite its faults, people had become accustomed to it. But DPP is not going back, Takeuchi Apuna said….
Meanwhile, the introduction of an artificial intelligence program called CivCheck, which the mayor said would start “accelerate everything” by September, has been pushed off another month or two. …
And Takeuchi Apuna has heard that some actions in HNL Build are not properly tracked and logged – that a staff member could make a change to an application without leaving their digital fingerprints on it. Following a bribery scandal that sent five former DPP workers to prison, Takeuchi Apuna said it would be very concerning if the new system was open to quiet manipulation….
(CLUE: Manapuas.)
Department spokesman Davis Pitner said in a follow-up email that the system has safeguards and an ability to audit, but that there is a “balance to be struck between enforcing tighter controls within HNL Build and allowing staff the flexibility they need to effectively do their work.”
(CLUE: Manapuas.)
“If you too tightly restrict workflows, it can prevent or drastically slow work processes, that affect service output,” he said. ” Ultimately, personnel must be accountable via ethics and role expectations that they do what is proper.”
(CLUE: Manapuas.)
Applicants are having issues, too.
They’ve complained that information from POSSE isn’t yet visible in the new system. Data migration is a work in progress, the director said.
A number of individuals who submitted plans under the old system had to completely start over in HNL Build. The director said the city had advised people to hold off on submitting new plans into the old system right ahead of the transition, but perhaps not everyone got the message.
Certain applicants who used to be able to get an automatic permit online for small jobs – called a quick permit – were instead put into the queue for a full review in HNL Build. Takeuchi Apuna said this experience was limited to certain groups, like those in coastal areas, and the city is pursuing a workaround for those projects. …
read … Honolulu Permit Director Blames Delays In New System On Growing Pains - Honolulu Civil Beat
Zero Emissions By 2045? Maybe With Geothermal Or Advanced Nuclear
CB: … But both face daunting regulatory and cultural obstacles for Hawaiʻi….
read … Zero Emissions By 2045? Maybe With Geothermal Or Advanced Nuclear - Honolulu Civil Beat
Honolulu Investigator Accused Of Witness Tampering Has Been Reinstated
CB: … Sometime in 2023, Moon started a relationship with the complainant. And it didn’t take long for things to turn tumultuous. The police responded to the couple’s fights a dozen times between November 2023 and February 2025, the records show. …
months later, in February 2025, the woman started posting about Moon in a Facebook group called “Are We Dating The Same Guy?” …
Moon is not a witness in any current cases, according to Denton. “We are very mindful of the problems that are presented,” Denton said, “if he were to be called to testify in a case.” …
PDF: Honolulu prosecutor employee investigation records re witness tampering | DocumentCloud
read … Honolulu Investigator Accused Of Witness Tampering Has Been Reinstated - Honolulu Civil Beat
CNHA Agenda: Fed Wreck and Casinos
SA: … It’s the second time that the Hawaiian Council has held its convention on the continent and the first time it has held it on federally recognized tribal land.
Located north of Everett and the Snohomish River and west of Marysville, Wash., the Tulalip Indian Reservation was created to provide a permanent home for the Snohomish, Snoqualmie, Skagit, Suiattle, Samish and Stillaguamish tribes and allied bands living in the region.The tribal population is over 5,000 and growing, with 2,700 members residing on the 22,000-acre reservation, which has more than 50% of its land held in federal trust status.
The venue is an opportunity for the Hawaiian Council to learn how the Tulalip Tribes perpetuate their culture and drive the economics of the community through casinos and lodging. Teri Goben, chair of the Tulalip Tribes Board of Directors, will provide the convention’s opening remarks on Tuesday following an opening ceremony with the Hawaiian Council, the Tulalip Tribes, and Native Hawaiians from Hawaii and across the continent.
The Hawaiian Council, like the Native Hawaiian community that it represents, has differing views on federal recognition, which will be discussed Tuesday during a breakout workshop entitled “What is Federal Recognition?” Panelists, including Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Interim Administrator Summer Sylva, Honolulu City Council member Esther Kia‘aina, and Breann Nu‘uhiwa, who advises and advocates for native governments and business enterprises, will discuss the current state of law for Native Hawaiians and how other indigenous people operationalize their sovereignty.
Lewis said that he is more focused about what Hawaii can learn from the Tulalip Tribes about economic rather than political sovereignty.
The Tulalip Tribes also are looking to Hawaii for social and economic partnership opportunities, perhaps even in the gaming industry. A breakout panel entitled, “Gaming: Reclaiming wealth, and restoring the Lahui,” will be held on Wednesday at the convention. Panelists Brie Coyle Jones, Brandon Maka‘awa‘awa, and Anthony A. Marnell III will explore how gaming, led by Hawaiians for Hawaiians, can serve as a path toward reconciliation, economic sovereignty and community-led wealth.
Maka‘awa‘awa, who is the vice president of the Nation of Hawai‘i, where he assists Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele in the operations of Pu‘uhonua O Waimanalo, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “Gaming might be something that might be able to unite Hawaiians. It gives us an opportunity to look at providing economic sovereignty for our people, but it must be done the right way and controlled by Hawaiians and not by outside corporations.”
read … Native Hawaiian Convention: Federal cuts, shutdown elicit a call for unity | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii’s legacy of literacy contrasts with modern crisis
SA: … Hawaii’s history as one of the world’s most literate societies in the 19th century now sits in uneasy contrast with a modern reality: tens of thousands of adults across the state still struggle with the basic reading and writing skills needed to fully participate in family life, work and civic life.
Advocates say that without urgent, coordinated investment, low literacy will continue to hamper the state’s economy, strain health systems and perpetuate intergenerational poverty.
Jill Takasaki Canfield, executive director of Hawaii Literacy, noted that while Hawaii performs better than the national average of 22%, about 17% of adults in the state still face challenges with basic reading skills, with rates climbing to 25% in some communities. She explained that tens of thousands of adults read at around a third-grade level or lower, which means they can manage short, simple texts but often have difficulty with essential daily tasks such as filling out forms, completing job applications or supporting their children with homework….
read … Hawaii’s legacy of literacy contrasts with modern crisis
Homelessness: Because the Insane Get to Decide
CB: Not all (Most) homeless people (don’t) want a home(, they want their next rock). Surls-Kane, a 33-year-old Hilo woman with a history of trauma, drug addiction and severe, untreated mental illness, is one of those people.
(CLUE: Mental health care must be forced. The insane cannot be allowed to make decisions.)
Allured by the prospect of a hot shower and a good meal, she put herself on a path toward picking up the pieces of her fractured life when she followed a social worker out of a Sand Island homeless camp in late August and drove with her to a psychiatric crisis clinic that specializes in working with the city’s toughest homeless cases.
The state-run Behavioral Health Crisis Center in Iwilei offers connections to housing and mental health programs. But after a nap, Surls-Kane tried to walk out. Staff who understood she was doing poorly — experiencing delusions and coming down from illicit street drugs — sent her to Adventist Health Castle, where she received psychiatric treatment, without her consent, for 72 hours.
(CLUE: ‘Without her consent.’ But 72 hrs is not nearly enough.)
What happened next illustrates how the tedious work of nudging the state’s most vulnerable and volatile people toward better choices is so often a cycle of progress and backsliding. The city’s system of care navigates a difficult (phony) ‘balance’ between protecting a(n incompetent) person’s ‘civil right’ to refuse treatment, a moral obligation to help people living on society’s fringes and public safety.
(Simple solution: Bring the insane before a judge who rules them mentally incompetent. Then stop allowing them to make decisions. Take away their ‘civil rights.’)
… At the end of 17 days of forced psychiatric treatment, Kuuipo Surls-Kane climbed into a taxi waiting outside a Kailua hospital and told the driver to drop her off at the same Sand Island homeless encampment that her family, a psychiatrist and several social workers had tried so hard to pry her away from.
(CLUE: Mental health care must be forced. The insane cannot be allowed to make decisions.)
In many ways Surls-Kane was back where she started, still nursing a broken jaw from a Big Island assault in early August. The process has left her family members frustrated, but her circumstances have measurably improved.
(CLUE: Mental health care must be forced. The insane cannot be allowed to make decisions.)
Every other day, a social worker on a team dedicated to Surls-Kane’s case meets with her to assess her mental condition and continue the slow, intensive work of coaxing her toward better circumstances. Surls-Kane is polite at these park bench meetings but she says very little. One social worker ordered Surls-Kane a flip phone, delicately building trust.
(CLUE: Mental health care must be forced. The insane cannot be allowed to make decisions.)
If Surls-Kane’s condition deteriorates, her case managers can evaluate whether to use legal maneuvers to force her back into hospital care. Meanwhile, outreach workers try to persuade her to accept an EBT card, a sandwich, a powerful injectable medicine that suppresses symptoms of psychosis for weeks. This careful, hands-on work hinges on the philosophy that, over time, even a small acceptance of help can be leveraged to solve a person’s more serious problems….
(CLUE: If she were forcibly injected, her family might be able to get her back to Hilo. The insane cannot be allowed to make decisions.)
read … Back To The Streets Of Honolulu: One Woman's Cycle Of Homelessness - Honolulu Civil Beat
Robots Control Zombies: Honolulu to open AI Homeless Command Center
SA: … A new, homeless “command center” will open in January at new city offices at the former Central Pacific Bank building on North School Street for the Department of Community Services, which oversees the city’s homeless efforts.
It will use artificial intelligence to sift through homeless provider apps to get more data on how homeless services are meeting the specific needs of Honolulu’s homeless, which could include mental health issues, substance abuse or serious medical treatment, said Anton Krucky, director of the Department of Community Services.
Under Mayor Rick Blangiardi, Krucky said the city’s focus has been to “create as many creative things to get a homeless person to say ‘yes’ to engage the system and change our services to meet that. You need to come up with a compelling reason for them to say ‘yes.’ You just need to have places to treat them.” …
read … City, state to gather detailed data to reduce homelessness
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