May 4, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Monday, May 4, 2026

May 4, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 9:42 AM :: 135 Views

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted May 1, 2026

The ‘New Tourism’ -- More Money Spent at Hotels and Less at Small Businesses

SFG: … Hawaii Island visitors are spending more on accommodations and exploring less… On the island of Hawaii, which has seen the largest increase in hotel prices across the state, the small businesses around the island are feeling the ripple effects.

“A definite decrease in tourists,” Big Island Brewhaus co-owner Jayne Kerns told SFGATE in a text. “We used to [rely] on busy season December-February when kids were out of school and the snow birds were on island, a spring break bump & then summer vacation busy-ness but none of that has been reliable the last few years,” Kerns continued….

Traveling to the island has become more expensive, leading to a different kind of traveler: higher spenders who may not be frequenting small businesses as much as in previous years. Higher prices have become a factor as well: What used to cost a Hawaii Island visitor $178.45 per person per day in 2019 cost $245.41 in 2025, an increase of 37.5%.

“I’ve been hearing this for more than a year, ‘It’s so expensive now,’” Aughe told SFGATE by phone. “You’ve got to pick and choose. Maybe in the past, you did five events, and now maybe you’re doing two, and you’re not driving around the island as much, maybe renting a car for a day and go see the volcano or whatever. The reality is small businesses help run a huge percentage of the economy. There are less people spending more money that go to the resorts and don’t leave.” …

Read … A new type of Hawaii visitor is emerging

Kona Low Storm Damage: 260 Oahu homes ‘uninhabitable’

CB: … At least 260 homes, or 17% of all homes damaged during record rainfall and flooding, were deemed uninhabitable without major repairs, based on reports from residents verified by the county.

And the damage wasn’t just confined to the North Shore where at least 20 properties were reported as total losses, mainly in Waialua and Mokuleia.

Hundreds of homes were also left uninhabitable down the Windward Coast and into leeward Mānoa and Nuʻuanu based on verified accounts.

At least 22 homes in Haleʻiwa were immediately unlivable after the floods, but five properties in Kāneʻohe also suffered major damage and two — on Okana Place and Waiāhole Valley N. Branch Road — were verified as total losses….

Another 445 properties suffered non-structural damage that required lower levels of repair and were habitable, respondents said.

Another 443 residents reported damage at the nuisance or cosmetic level, and a handful reported their homes were unaffected….

It was essential to compile an inventory of damage quickly, Walter said, to reach the critical threshold for unlocking potential federal assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency and other programs….

(TRANSLATION: Pump it up to score free money from the federal sky.)

SA: Hawaii farmers hit by storm face long road to recovery | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

LINK: Damage Reports — One Oahu

Read … Kona Low Storm Damage: It Wasn’t Just The North Shore That Was Hit Hard - Honolulu Civil Beat

Soft on Crime: Juvenile Killers Released to their Mommy—do it again

CB: … Shae’Dan-Styles McEnroe-Keaulii had just gotten into a fight and was holding a ghost gun, police said, when he was arrested outside a nightclub last month.

But he had something else unusual on him as well: an ankle monitor.

The 19-year-old was on supervised release after being charged with murder two years ago, accused of shooting a woman at a Māʻili cockfight.

Normally, such a serious charge would land someone behind bars until their trial. But McEnroe-Keaulii was enjoying an unusual freedom, thanks in part to his age, the fact that his mother (who gave him that name and then did such a fabulous job raising him) was there to sponsor him during his pretrial release hearing and the state’s expansion of ankle monitoring as an alternative to incarceration.

It’s not the first time a young man accused of killing someone when they were a minor was released into the community, only to be arrested again.

Branston Medeiros, who was charged with murder at 16 for killing another teen at Mākaha Beach in 2023, was also released to his mother’s home in July 2024 on an ankle monitor while awaiting trial.

He was re-arrested last year after cutting off his ankle monitor and fleeing from his mother’s house. His whereabouts were unknown for more than five weeks. Prosecutors say he also tried to hire a hitman, a fellow gang member, to kill his girlfriend’s new boyfriend around the time he was re-arrested, court records show, but Medeiros hasn’t been charged for that….

Read … Murder Charges, Then Freedom: Teens’ Pretrial Release Questioned - Honolulu Civil Beat

Retaliation Games: Honolulu Forced To Rehire Fired Paramedic Supervisors Because Sleeping on Job is Legal

CB: … Two Honolulu paramedics (supervisors) didn’t think much of taking their official city vehicles home with them in the spring and summer of 2023. There was no rule against it. If a call came in, they figured, they had their phones and radios on them and could quickly respond.

What they didn’t know is an investigator hired by their bosses was outside taking pictures of their department SUVs and building a case that they were sleeping on the job.

The investigation into the two paramedics would get them sidelined on paid leave and eventually fired in February 2024 before they were reinstated two years later. An arbitrator ordered the city to give them backpay, but as of this month, the city acknowledged, they still haven’t gotten it.

The probe cast aside two supervisors in a department that was already suffering from chronic understaffing and burnout. And with each employee making in excess of $97,000, taxpayers were left to pay for more than $300,000 in work not performed. …

“I really believe this was a targeted investigation and termination,” Lee said.

The Honolulu Emergency Services Department launched the probe in reaction to an anonymous complaint in May 2023. An EMS official then hired a friend’s security company to conduct the investigation and guided the inquiry, telling the investigator which witnesses to talk to and what questions to ask, the city records show. The official also disclosed the employees’ home addresses without their consent, which the company used for surveillance.

The official, who is unnamed in the documents, “wrongly controlled and directed the secret investigation,” the arbitrator wrote in a June 2025 order reinstating the employees.

In the end, an arbitrator concluded the city erred in its investigation of the employees and improperly fired them for breaking a rule that didn’t exist. The employees got their jobs back….

One of the paramedics alleged that the investigation was retaliation for speaking out against proposed shift changes during a union members-only Zoom call on May 11, 2023.

“I don’t have evidence,” the paramedic said. “It’s a feeling. I feel this was a personal attack on me for what I’ve spoken up for my field personnel.” …

Read … Honolulu Forced To Rehire Fired Paramedics After Botched Investigation - Honolulu Civil Beat

Taxpayer funding to pay state legal claims tops $20M

SA: … The state is preparing to pay $20.4 million this year to settle legal claims that include a $1.2 million reimbursement of federal funding spent on COVID-19 rental assistance for undeserving households.

Claim payments, which are expected to receive final approval at the Legislature by Friday, also involve two wrongful convictions, two prisoner deaths and two school sex assault cases.

The single biggest settlement outlay from Hawaii taxpayers this year sought by the state Department of the Attorney General is $8 million to settle an administrative case in which the state Department of Education failed to provide two years of compensatory education that a state hearings officer ruled was owed to a severely disabled public school student in 2023….

The 2023 administrative ruling stemmed from allegations that DOE had been providing the student with inconsistent special education and related services since 2018. Parents of the student said the failures severely harmed their child, and the state could have faced a federal lawsuit over the matter.

All the claims slated for payment this year — 36 in all — are listed in House Bill 2250.

This year’s cost more than doubles the $9.5 million for 38 claims in 2025. In 2024, there were 41 claims costing $18.1 million that followed 35 claims costing $25.7 million in 2023.

Some lawmakers this year questioned the validity of a few claims, including the size of two wrongful conviction claim settlements and the settlement of a federal fine over a big cesspool on state land…

Read … Taxpayer funding to pay state legal claims tops $20M | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

LEGISLATIVE AGENDA:

QUICK HITS: