June 24, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Wednesday, June 24, 2026

June 24, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 9:07 AM :: 291 Views

16 Years Since Amber Jackson's Murder on Kaua’i

Hawaii Hemp Retail Enforcement Begins July 1

X-Caliber arranges $431M financing for Coco Palms Resort in Hawaii

Hawaii Gun Control: Another feeble attempt to circumvent Court

Act 121: 99-Year Leasehold Ownership

Feds Charge Oahu Pharmacist With $1.5M Medicare Fraud

Illegal? Mayor vetoes budget cuts to Office of Economic Revitalization

Ethics Comm: Legislators' Headshot Banners Illegal

City Cancelled Dredging Contract just weeks before Otake Camp Floods

CB: … Weeks before the Kona low storms, Honolulu reported that it was canceling another long-stalled project to dredge a flood-prone North Shore stream.

The city owns the final stretch of a stream called Kaukonahua, and over the years, it had become clogged with islands of sediment and trees. The project was too expensive, the city said. Then the rains came in March, overwhelming the choked waterway and inundating nearby homes and farms.

Many residents just barely escaped as mud and water buried their homes and swept away their belongings. The disaster was likely preventable.

Since the early 2000s, the City and County of Honolulu has spent more than $450,000 on plans and designs to dredge Kaukonahua and an estuary it flows into. These plans followed years of studies that sought solutions to prevent recurring flooding.

Yet in the last 20 years, it has done nothing, according to area residents and a review of budget records. Kaukonahua stands out among city-owned streams for the warnings that went unheeded and for the devastation that followed.

It was not the only derelict waterway. Across Oʻahu, from the Waiʻanae Coast to Windward O‘ahu, a paper trail of shelved studies on flood prevention, some going back three decades, preceded damaging floods.

Those reports predicted the location, intensity and damage from the floods with remarkable precision in part because nearly every location that flooded earlier this year had flooded before.

Such was the case with Kaukonahua, the subject of flood studies since at least 1980. …

Meanwhile: Emergency repairs on Tantalus Drive scheduled | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Read … Honolulu Spent $450K On Plans For Flood-Prone Stream. Then It Did Nothing - Honolulu Civil Beat

Punk Rocker? Dems Moot Three Names for Kidani Seat

CB: … several Democrats said a likely applicant for the seat could include Danielle Bass, the state sustainability coordinator with the Hawaiʻi Office of Planning and chair of the Mililani, Waipi‘o and Melemanu Neighborhood Board.

Beth Fukumoto, a former GOP House leader (tied to David Chang ponzi schemes) who later left the party to become a Democrat (including serving two years as the party’s executive director), was expected to announce her campaign for the seat this week. She is currently on leave as a Civil Beat columnist.

(Former punk rock guitarist) Ken Inouye’s name has also been mentioned. He is the son of the late U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye and lost a primary challenge to La Chica two years ago….

Phil Roque, executive director of Democratic Party of Hawai’i, said in an email Tuesday that the party would work with its Oʻahu County Committee as it goes through the process. Roque said it would be similar to how Democrats filled the Senate District 19 vacancy when Henry Aquino retired last last year.

“We will send out an official press release with these details and the relevant dates soon,” said Roque, who said the party could not yet comment on how the appointment process would work for the general election….

2017: Campaign Contributions, Financial Disclosure Tie Rep Beth Fukumoto to Alleged Ponzi Scheme

2023: Beth Fukumoto: We Passed Crisis Level With Mental Health Services A Long Time Ago -- In the past seven years, I have seen a therapist between one to four times per month. My therapists have helped me change negative thought patterns, overcome social anxiety and manage emotional distress. These last six months have been the longest I’ve gone without an appointment.

Read … Central O'ahu Voters Are Being Shortchanged In Replacing This State Senator - Honolulu Civil Beat

$17M settlement paid for 2021 Red Hill jet fuel spill victims

KITV: … More than 600 victims impacted by the 2021 Red Hill jet fuel spill incident have been paid out by the United States.

The U.S. Justice Department said the settlement totaled around $17 million and called it “the latest example of the United States’ good faith efforts to resolve over 6,500 claims.”…

Officials said in 2024 the claims of 17 Plaintiffs went to trial, where the Civil Division reached settlements with 3,600 civilian Plaintiffs, including the 629 who were recently paid.

The Justice Department added that settlements are still being processed and they have also filed additional motions for settlement approval.

“Currently, there are more than 300 Feindt and Hughes Plaintiffs that have met all settlement criteria and need only provide a signed release,” officials said….

Read … $17M settlement paid for 2021 Red Hill jet fuel spill victims

Navy moves to reopen Red Hill well

SA: … The Navy released its environmental assessment for its planned Red Hill Water Treatment Facility this month with a “finding of no significant impact” for the project — or FONSI — issued May 26 by Rear Adm. B.J. Collins, commander of Navy Region Hawaii.

The FONSI said that reconnecting the Red Hill water shaft will “restore it as a drinking water source to provide adequate resiliency and redundancy to the Navy’s drinking water system for consumers and multiple Department of War operations at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.” …

Read … Distrust, uncertainty as Navy moves to reopen Red Hill well | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

State Supreme Court: Pervert OK if Outdoors

KHON: … It’s June 2018 in Kona. A man is outside a vacation home and holds his phone up to the bathroom window, trying to take video of a teenage girl taking a shower.

That man goes on trial in 2022 and is found guilty. But on Monday, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled to overturn that conviction.

“I presented the argument that the rule, the statute, the rule of law, made his conduct not a crime,” said Hermann Heimgartner, defendant’s attorney.

The man was charged with violation of privacy in the first degree, which states in part, “installed or used, or both, in a private place without the consent of the person or persons entitled to privacy, any device for observing, recording, amplifying and/or broadcasting another person in a stage of undress in that place.”

You see the word “in” twice in that statute. And according to Justice Todd Eddins, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion on this case, that is the key, stating simply, “in means inside.” And since the camera was not inside, the conviction cannot stand….

Read … Supreme Court voids guilty verdict in voyeurism case

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