August 6, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Thursday, August 6, 2026

August 6, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 10:09 AM :: 176 Views

Maui Police Department Lieutenant Charged with Taking Bribes from Criminals to Protect Chicken Fighting and Drug Operations on Maui

This Day in History: Truman Announces Hiroshima Bombing

AI Robot to Control Permitting for eligible residential projects beginning Sept. 1

DLNR to Increase Punishment for 'Harassing' Animals

Maui: Congressional Candidate Should Have Used a Hammer

Below average number of open state legislative seats in Hawaii in 2026

FEMA reviews Hawaii’s COVID funding after Sylvia Luke indictment

SA: … The Federal Emergency Management Agency is reviewing FEMA-funded COVID-19 work that has been tied to the public corruption indictment of Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and four others, and the agency said it may seek repayment or other enforcement actions if it finds improper spending.

In an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday, a FEMA spokesperson said, “Under President Trump and Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin, FEMA will not tolerate fraud, waste, or abuse of disaster assistance funds. Consistent with President Trump’s executive order establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, FEMA will review any information arising from the Hawaii indictment that may relate to FEMA-funded COVID-19 work.”

The spokesperson said FEMA’s Public Assistance program reviews claims for eligibility, documentation, cost reasonableness, duplication of benefits and compliance with program requirements before funding is approved….

However, the FEMA spokesperson noted, “if new facts show that any FEMA-funded costs were ineligible, unsupported, duplicative, improper, or affected by fraud or misconduct, FEMA will pursue all appropriate remedies, including recovery of funds and referral to the appropriate oversight or law enforcement entities.” …

July 29, 2026: Case: Federal review of Hawaii COVID spending likely after corruption indictments

Read … FEMA reviews Hawaii’s COVID funding after Sylvia Luke indictment | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

State agrees to $3.25M settlement with Peter Boy Kema’s siblings

HNN: … The state has agreed to apologize and pay $3.25 million to the siblings of Peter “Pepe” Kema to settle a years-long civil lawsuit over the 6-year-old’s tragic death.

An attorney for the Kema family said the proposed agreement would compensate Chauntelle, Allan, and Lina Acol, who filed the lawsuit against the state in 2018….

The proposed settlement is not yet final and still requires approval from both the court and the state Legislature….

Read … State agrees to $3.25M settlement with Peter Boy Kema’s siblings | Hawaii News

Maui County offers buyouts to iconic Lahaina properties as owners struggle to rebuild

HNN: … Three years after a wildfire destroyed the historic business district along Lahaina’s shoreline, Maui County is seeking $50 million in federal recovery funds to offer buyouts to owners of some of the most iconic waterfront properties. Meanwhile, other businesses ready to rebuild remain without permits.

The county is targeting roughly 10 owners of shoreline parcels — including the sites of former businesses such as Bubba Gump’s, Kimo’s and Lahaina Fish Company — located on a narrow peninsula makai of Front Street. The area is considered at high risk from sea level rise and subject to restrictive state laws….

Read … Maui County offers buyouts to iconic Lahaina properties as owners struggle to rebuild | Hawaii News Now

Lahaina voices: 'They're almost driving us out'

HPR: … “The program seems to constantly add more necessary documents to be qualified,” he explained of his experience. “So when you think that you've submitted everything you need, you get word from the program that they need something more, and then you think, ‘okay, we got everything now,’ and then there's (something else). And so it's reminding me of the FEMA process. It almost seemed like FEMA was trying to get us to leave the program. They were making it hard so that we would give up. This first homebuyer program is kind of feeling a little familiar.” ….

Read … Lahaina voices: 'They're almost driving us out' | Hawai'i Public Radio

Hawai‘i Could Hit New Low For Voter Turnout

CB: … As of Monday, 145,486 ballots had been returned statewide, according to the Hawaiʻi Office of Elections. Thatʻs a 9% drop compared to 158,688 at the same point in time in 2024 and a 24% decrease from 186,000 in 2022 – the last midterm election….

UPDATE: 160,000 as of Tuesday (plus 15K per day thru Tuesday = 265K total)

Read … Hawai‘i Could Hit New Low For Voter Turnout This Year - Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaiʻi Becomes a Polling Desert

CB: … Neither Civil Beat nor the Star-Advertiser nor HNN are polling Case v Keohokalole, nor the Democratic lieutenant governor’s race nor the races for mayors of Kauaʻi and Maui counties. We haven’t for a few elections now. In Civil Beat’s case, it’s mostly because polling became too ~~expensive~~ (embarrassing) for us to sustain.

(CLUE: Lack of interesting races = lack of polling.)

“I don’t think I have seen what I would consider to be publicly available data from election polls funded by objective parties in quite some time,” Becki Ward, founder of Ward Research, a market research company in business since 1980, told me….

On the evening of Aug. 11, 2012, I was at the former 99 Ranch Market in Māpunapuna when I got a call from a Civil Beat colleague who was also working that night. Mike Levine was across town at Ed Case’s primary night headquarters while I was at the campaign party for Mazie Hirono.

Hirono ended up humbling Case that night by a margin of 57% to 40%, to be exact. She would go on to do the same against Republican Linda Lingle in November, winning the seat of the retiring U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka.

Problem was, just nine days earlier a Civil Beat Poll had Case leading Hirono by a single percentage point. With a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8%, that meant the race was a statistical dead heat…. (Ooops!)

2012: “Civil Beat Poll – What the Heck Happened?”

2024: SMS Research Out of Business?

Read … Is Hawaiʻi Better Off Without Independent Political Polling? - Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaii's Green Fee Is Paying For Beaches. And A Slaughterhouse.

BH: … Hawaii has now finalized its first major decisions about where that money will go. Most of the spending plan still funds exactly those kinds of projects. But it also includes one item few visitors would have expected: $200,000 for a cattle slaughterhouse. Governor Josh Green signed the state’s supplemental budget, authorizing approximately $129 million in Green Fee funding over 18 months for 91 projects spread across 11 state departments….

Read … Hawaii's Green Fee Is Paying For Beaches. And A Slaughterhouse.

PUC rejects HECO’s power plant proposal ‘without demonstration of need’

SA: … The decision is the first indication of how the PUC may evaluate a plan by JERA Americas, a subsidiary of Japan’s largest energy company, JERA Co., to bring liquefied natural gas power generation to Oahu….

JERA Americas Vice President of Development Erik Montague told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the PUC’s decision on HECO does not impact its proposal. JERA’s proposal, he said, aims to replace aging and inefficient infrastructure.

“Oahu is in need of an upgraded thermal infrastructure and needs to benefit from the efficiency of new modern generation,” he said. “We’re still committed to putting forward all the details of that in front of the PUC for them to evaluate and determine if it’s in the best interest of the people of Hawaii.”

In an emailed statement, the Hawaii State Energy Office (HSEO) said it agreed with the PUC’s finding, and added that it has identified “a clear need to address Oahu’s aging, inefficient, polluting and increasingly unreliable oil-fired generation fleet.”

HECO’s 650-megawatt Kahe plant and 402- megawatt Waiau plant are both operating beyond their original anticipated service lives, while the logistics of the repowering project remains uncertain, the office said.

Together, the office said, federal data showed both plants consumed about 6.64 million barrels of oil in 2025 while operating at efficiencies below the national average and new power plants, ranking among the most greenhouse-gas- intensive power plants in the country when measured by the amount of electricity produced….

(CLUE: Because they are constantly ramping up and down to balance erratic wind and solar energy.)

Read … PUC rejects HECO’s power plant proposal ‘without demonstration of need’ | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Par Pacific ramps up renewable fuel production in Q2

BM: … During a second quarter earnings call, Par Pacific President and CEO Will Monteleone confirmed the company’s Hawaii renewable fuels business made steady progress during the quarter. “Renewable diesel production ramped through the quarter with June throughput reaching approximately 3,000 barrels per day before we commenced the Hawaii plant-wide turnaround,” he said. “In addition, we completed first commercial renewable diesel sales during the quarter. Volumes were small and reflect the early-stage nature of the commercial ramp, but they established the operational pathway from production to sales.”

Richard Cramer, executive vice president of refining and logistics at Par Pacific, said the company currently expects renewable throughout to average between 1,500 and 2,000 barrels per day during the third quarter, reflecting the plant turnaround that began in July and is expected to be complete in early August. …

Read … Par Pacific ramps up renewable fuel production in Q2 | Biomass Magazine

Cost of Housing Going Up: Tax Credit Schemers Pushing new Hot Water Scam Device

CB: … In 1976 we created a tax credit for solar hot water heaters. In 2008, Act 204 made Hawaiʻi the first state to require solar water heaters on every new single family home.

(Thus driving up the cost of construction by $1000s and forcing you to move to Vegas.)

Then came the loophole wars. The law allowed a variance for gas tankless heaters, and builders drove through it, more than 300 variances in the first 10 months. It took amendments and a lawsuit before a judge ordered the state, in 2019, to follow the statute’s intent. Eleven years in, the mandate finally worked as designed.

But while we spent 11 years ‘perfecting’ a (my self-serving) 2008 idea, ~~the technology moved on~~ (I found a new hot water scheme to push for profit)….

A heat pump water heater is a regular tank with a small refrigerator running in reverse on top. Instead of making heat, it moves heat from the warm air into the water….it runs roughly $3,000 installed….

(IDEA: Let the homeowners decide on their own hot water heater. No subsidies. No mandates.)

Read … Olin Lagon: A Subsidy Is A Statement About Who Matters - Honolulu Civil Beat

Unequal Protection: While Tourist is prosecuted for Throwing Rocks at a Monk Seal, Molokaians Continually Shoot Them with Impunity

CB: … recent killings of the protected species….Molokai, an island that still grapples with misinformation about the seals and sees occasional, deliberate killings by people…

Several months before RU99 came ashore at Kapaʻakea, the necropsy for a different seal revealed at least one bullet in the animal’s body. The seal was originally found alive but emaciated on Molokaʻi’s Moʻomomi Beach. It failed to recover and died in a rehabilitation center on Hawaiʻi island.

Federal investigators concluded the 7-year-old seal, RL80, didn’t actually die from the bullet. Instead, it perished because its jaw had broken after getting wrapped in stray fishing gear, leaving it unable to eat. The death follows a spate of monk seal killings on Molokaʻi in 2023 and around 10 suspicious deaths since then….

(Remember This? Tourist who threw rock at seal devastated at backlash)

On Saturday, another seal carcass was found on Moʻomomi, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials confirmed. It was badly decomposed, they said, making it unlikely wildlife officials will be able to determine the seal’s cause of death….

…deliberate killings and suspicious deaths occasionally occur. When they do, it’s usually at Moʻomomi. The remote and hard-to-reach beach ….

After watching the fish stocks there dwindle, some community members proposed making Moʻomomi the state’s first Community Based Subsistence Fishing Area where its marine resources would be protected through traditional management practice (of killing and eating delicious Monk Seals).…

(IQ Test: Do you detect the hypocrisy?)

Read … A Viral Hawaiian Monk Seal Changes The Conversation On Molokaʻi - Honolulu Civil Beat

CORE Forcing Homeless Mentally Ill into Treatment

CB: … Some suffered from severe psychosis. Others experienced methamphetamine-induced episodes that led them to wander into traffic, assault others or place themselves in life-threatening situations. Many lived with untreated diabetes, vascular disease, cancers, and infected wounds that eventually resulted in amputations or premature death….

That is why CORE was created….

Act 219, passed by the 2025 Hawaiʻi Legislature and signed by Gov. Josh Green, created a process allowing individuals experiencing severe mental illness or substance-induced crises, who present a danger to themselves or others, to receive emergency psychiatric evaluation through the MH-3 process.

Recognizing the opportunity to help some of Oʻahu’s most vulnerable residents, CORE partnered with the Honolulu Police Department and the Hawaiʻi Sheriffs to pilot this approach….

From late December 2025 through July 2026, these teams conducted more than 100 MH-3 interventions. More than half of those individuals were transported directly to the Behavioral Health Crisis Center, while others received emergency psychiatric or medical care at Queen’s Medical Center, Adventist Health Castle and Tripler Army Medical Center.

Every intervention involved a physician or nurse practitioner conducting the required medical assessment, CORE EMTs or paramedics providing safe medical transport, and law enforcement officers fulfilling the legal requirements established under state law. These are not simply transportation calls….

Read … Mayor Rick Blangiardi: Why Honolulu Needs CORE Now More Than Ever - Honolulu Civil Beat

Waimanalo homeless village underway

SA: … Hui Mahiai Village is a community village for homeless individuals and families on 13.5 acres in Waimanalo. When completed, it will move 188 people from Waimanalo’s streets and beaches into a stable, supportive community.

The Village will include 116 dwelling units, shared kitchens, bathrooms and laundry facilities, plus a community center, classroom, library and health clinic. Housing will serve individuals, couples, families, kupuna, women transitioning from trauma-related facilities and a resident nurse. These facilities are designed not simply as shelter, but as the foundation of a functioning neighborhood where residents can access daily necessities, education and health support in one place….

Read … Column: Waimanalo homeless village underway, poised to change lives | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

LA’s highest-paid homeless nonprofit CEO lives in Hawaii on $1.6M salary

CP: … Adelkoff has listed the Big Island of Hawaii as her primary residence for more than a decade, according to the outlet. Property records show she owns a 3,700-square-foot, four-bedroom home, and court records include testimony from her daughter that she was raised in Hawaii and that her mother lives there “year-round.” ….

A Los Angeles homeless nonprofit CEO earned more than $1.6 million in salary, bonuses and vacation payouts — despite living thousands of miles away in Hawaii.

Carol Adelkoff, from 1736 Family Crisis Center, was the highest paid executive in the industry in the city after earning the whopping figure over the last two years.

She collected $907,923 in 2023 and another $742,181 in 2024, compensation that dwarfed the pay of leaders running much larger homeless service organizations across LA County, the LA Times reports.

She said her base salary has remained around $405,000 for several years and that roughly $824,000 of the money paid over the two-year span represented accumulated vacation dating back decades.

The next-best-paid employee, the finance director, (only) made (a piddling) $206,000….

Read … LA’s highest-paid homeless nonprofit CEO lives in Hawaii on $1.6M salary

Honolulu police use drones as first responders in 2 districts

SA: …The Honolulu Police Department is using drones as first responders to 911 calls for police service and requests for help in two patrol districts as part of a push to use technology to expand public safety.

HPD started the Drone as First Responder pilot program on Wednesday using unmanned aerial systems in partnership with the state Department of Law Enforcement to “strengthen emergency response and public safety,” police officials said in a statement.

The program will operate from HPD’s Alapai Headquarters and serve District 1 — downtown, Chinatown, Nuuanu, Makiki, Ala Moana and Kakaako — and in District 5, which covers Kalihi, Iwilei, Kapalama, Alewa, Moanalua and Salt Lake….

Read … Honolulu police use drones as first responders in 2 districts | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii school buses short dozens of routes

KHON: … Officials said Kauai and Molokai are fully staffed, but all other islands are a bit behind.

The HIDOE said school bus service is holding steady from the end of the last school year, but remains about 30 routes short. Assistant superintendent Sean Tajima with Campus Operations and Support said the shortage leaves no margin for error.

“The perfect situation is if we had a driver bench where if drivers call out sick, then we have another driver who can fill in, but because of the shortage, we have the opposite situation. So, when a driver resigns or calls out sick, now we’re short multiple routes instead of one route,” Tajima said.

A concerned parent on the Big Island reached out to KHON2 on Monday, Aug. 3 about incomplete bus schedules as classes began. Education officials said just one driver being unavailable has a trickle-down effect on dozens of students.

“We had one driver on the Big Island in the Konawaena area who just unfortunately resigned yesterday, and they had a combo of three routes that put us down three routes, opening into the school year,” Tajima said….

The Department is currently two routes short on the Big Island and one short on Maui.

“But again, most of the shortages are on Oahu, but fortunately, things are a little closer on Oahu,” Tajima said. “Neighbor Island is just a lot more challenging because everything’s so spread out over there.”

Training to become a school bus driver in Hawaii generally takes between six and 12 weeks. There are certain requirements for applicants. Click here for more information….

Read … Hawaii school busses short dozens of routes

ELECTION NEWS:

QUICK HITS: