May 11, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Monday, May 11, 2026

May 11, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 10:03 AM :: 264 Views

To Make Housing Affordable, don’t pave paradise to put up parking lots

Political Dark Money Limits Clear Hurdles in Hawaii, Montana—“that’s the whole ballgame”

BL: … Hawaii’s version is headed to the governor’s desk after becoming the first to clear a state legislature May 8, when lawmakers signed off on a compromise bill following weeks of negotiations. In Montana, twin voter initiatives—one statutory, one amending the state constitution—survived court challenges in the past few weeks that would have kept them off the midterm ballot.

Success in either state would likely force the US Supreme Court to decide if the move represents a legally viable counter to Citizens United—the landmark 2010 decision that effectively ended efforts to limit corporate campaign spending—or just a doomed end run around settled law.

The movement’s backers hope an eventual ruling in their favor will transform it politically into a “speeding freight train that nobody wants to step in front of,” according to Tom Moore of the Center for American Progress, the plan’s architect….

Rather than directly restricting political activity, the Hawaii legislation, Montana initiatives, and related proposals would remove the power to spend on elections from the statutes that authorize businesses, trade associations, and other “artificial persons” to operate in the first place.

Business groups, GOP politicians, and other opponents—among them many free speech advocates and labor unions—insist the strategy will crash headlong into the high court’s recent precedents.

Critics including Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) have cited the First Amendment argument, concerns that applying the law to out-of-state companies could violate the Commerce Clause, and the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine, which prevents states from hinging the exercise of one right on the surrender of another….

Concerns about the legislative process, meanwhile, proved prescient when the plan failed to advance this year in 13 of the 14 states that introduced bills, including California and New York. Those fears also foreshadowed complications that threatened to derail Hawaii’s Senate Bill 2471 before its surprise emergence intact….

The Montana initiative was initially seen as the theory’s most promising test thanks to its status as a referendum with the chance to steer clear of a legislative process that often spells death by inertia or special interest bartering….

The lack of a legislative minefield meant opponents looked to the courts to halt the initiatives. Those challenges came up short in April, when the state’s top tribunal said it would be premature to weigh the broader arguments against the law before voters have their say.

The decision rejected the idea that by affecting both the “powers” and “rights” of corporations, the proposal violated a state constitutional doctrine requiring ballot measures to embrace only a single subject.

Moore characterized the ruling—the first by any court to explicitly agree that altering corporate powers differs from curtailing corporate rights—as a major victory, although he acknowledged that the case’s posture was unusual. If Montana’s justices continue to honor the distinction between rights and powers when the constitutional issues are fully presented, “that’s the whole ballgame,” he said….

NR: Press Release | HAWAIʻI STATE SENATE PASSES SB2471 CD2 TO CLARIFY CORPORATE POWERS IN ELECTIONS AND BALLOT MEASURES | Hawaiʻi State Senate Majority

ASD: Pipikaula Corner: How the Clinton White House just bamboozled Hawai‘i

Unions Opposed

Read … Political Dark Money Limits Clear Hurdles in Hawaii, Montana

After SB2698 Fails, Cruise Ship Green Fee in Hands of 9^th Circuit Court

CB: … SB2698 was intended as a bit of a Band-Aid for the ~~wounded environment~~ (cash flow), a bill that ~~sought~~ (would have taken) about $10 million a year from cruise passengers for ‘harbor upgrades’ (instead of greenie make-work projects) ~~in case~~ (because) the industry (is about to) wins its lawsuit to be exempted from the state’s new green fee.

Yet it quietly died last month.

That leaves the state in an all-or-nothing court battle to ~~secure~~ (grab) the approximately $26 million in annual cruise ship payments included in the original green fee law.

… (shipowners filed) a lawsuit in federal court just three months after the bill’s signing, and all cruise ship collections were later put on hold. Now, the fate of the cruise ship portion of the fee rests with a panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges, who listened to oral arguments on the matter last month in San Francisco….

Concerned the provisions won’t hold up, legislators proposed, under Senate Bill 2698, that cruise passengers instead pay a different fee limited to something more directly related to their use of the islands: the harbor upgrades.

Although it would generate less than half the estimated fees, they figured getting something would be better than counting on the courts and potentially getting nothing. …

That approach, Deputy Transportation Director for Harbors Dreana Kalili told lawmakers in her testimony on the Inouye bill earlier this year, could fund “shore power,” where the ships could turn off their (diesel) engines and plug in to the ~~cleaner~~ (also-diesel-fired) electrical grid while in port.

(TRANSLATION: Literally moving the smokestack for $100M.)

Such an upgrade would cost around $100 million at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 2 alone, department officials said….

The bill passed both House and Senate but stalled during conference, which is where the two chambers try to work out differences on measures. The Senate never assigned its group of negotiators despite a request from Hawaiʻi island Sen. Lorraine Inouye to Senate President Ron Kouchi….

Oral arguments in the case took place before a panel of Ninth Circuit judges on April 13 in San Francisco. A key debate is whether Hawaiʻi’s new requirement that docked cruise passengers pay the transient accommodations tax violates the federal Tonnage Clause, which aims to keep states from interfering in interstate and foreign commerce….

(TRANSLATION: Legislators again ignore federal law and pay the price.)

Read … Effort To Get Cruise Ships On Board With Green Fee Is Sputtering - Honolulu Civil Beat

‘Renovation Aloha’ Again Proves Effective Real Estate Management Illegal on Oahu

CB: … The home flippers behind the hit HGTV show “Renovation Aloha” now owe $40,000 to the city of Honolulu for operating two illegal short-term rentals through the rental site Airbnb.

That includes a rental in Mililani that has been hit with a $10,000 tax lien.

(TRANSLATION: Effective real estate management is illegal.)

It’s just the latest trouble for husband and wife Kamohai and Tristyn Kalama, who gained popularity through their reality program that showed the couple renovating derelict Honolulu homes they bought relatively cheaply and quickly flipped for quick profit.

In fact, on their January 2024 show they moved far quicker than seemed legally feasible against the slow pace of permitting by the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting. Which, it turned out, was the case.

(TRANSLATION: All practical home improvements are illegal.)

In 2024, reporting by Civil Beat revealed that construction on eight properties in the first season of the show had begun before the work had been approved by the city, meaning not only were the Kalamas in violation of city laws but buyers were open to possible violations and liability for problems that could develop later.

Now it turns out the couple has also been running up fines for illegal short-term rentals. …

Read … ‘Renovation Aloha’ Hosts Fined For Illegal Airbnbs In Latest Misstep - Honolulu Civil Beat

HB1518: Help Criminals Get Back on Welfare Quickly

KITV: … HB1518 recently passed final reading at the legislature and is now awaiting action from Governor Josh Green….

The bill would require the Department of Human Services to create a pre-release SNAP application process for inmates nearing release by 2028….

Read … SNAP bill could offer second chances after incarceration in Hawaii | News | kitv.com

NYT Praises Hawaii Judiciary for Letting Lots of Female Criminals Evade Prison

NYT: … roughly 30 women to appear before Judge Morikawa at an all-women’s court called Mohala Wahine or “blossoming woman.” Begun as a pilot program through a law enacted in 2022, the court was made permanent by the legislature last summer and is the first of its kind in the country….

Read … A Quietly Radical Experiment in Criminal Justice

New tourism strategy to tackle Hawaii's traffic woes

KHON: … Proposals include peak-time traffic advisories, parking management strategies, ocean safety education campaigns, and a possible shuttle system aimed at reducing rental car traffic along Kamehameha Highway.

“The shuttle system — we’ve heard it for a long time from the community. There has to be a better way for visitors to get around that area,” Anderson said.

North Shore Representative Sean Quinlan says he has been working on the shuttle concept for years after seeing a similar model implemented on Kauaʻi’s North Shore near Hanalei….

Meanwhile: North Shore set for national spotlight as Mini Golf Championship comes to Kīlauea : Kauai Now

read … New tourism strategy to tackle Hawaii's traffic woes

Detained Immigrants Could Wait 19 Months For Their Day In Honolulu Court

CB: … Honolulu’s federal immigration court has become increasingly overwhelmed since 2020, with new data showing that the number of cases pending and the wait time for those cases to reach the courts both have hit their highest levels in 15 years.

Those problems, which predate the second Trump administration, have been further tested by a quadrupling of immigration arrests in Hawaiʻi in 2025 compared to 2024.

The pace of arrests was averaging 35 a month last year, then appeared to be tapering off in February, according to the latest data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is moving to limit the time allocated in courts for individual hearings in asylum cases, while ramping up requests for removals before hearings can be conducted.

Such policies are designed to close cases faster, DHS says, and so far the strategies have led to a reduction in the national immigration case backlog from 3.7 million at the start of the Trump administration to 3.3 million in March.

In a social media post on April 4, the department said that immigration courts were on track this fiscal year to surpass the historic number of cases closed in FY2025….

CB: With Immigrant Protection Bills, Hawaiʻi Joins States (pretending to be) Resisting ICE Crackdown - Honolulu Civil Beat

read … Detained Immigrants Could Wait 19 Months For Their Day In Honolulu Court - Honolulu Civil Beat

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