August 19, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

August 19, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 12:06 PM :: 292 Views

Indictment: Hawaii Targeted by Iranian Hackers

Crooked Kidney Foundation Bought COVID Van from Jim Ireland for $148K

CB: … in 2019, the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaiʻi had an idea to help.

The nonprofit went to the City and County of Honolulu with a request — a grant for a mobile clinic that could be used for health screenings and outreach in underserved areas of Oʻahu. The traveling program would help detect kidney disease earlier and, hopefully, prevent it entirely in thousands of island residents, the foundation said.

Honolulu City Council members at the time supported the idea and approved a grant request. The foundation ultimately got more than $73,000 in city funds. …

The Kidney Foundation purchased the mobile clinic from Jim Ireland, who is now director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department but at the time was working as a physician out of his practice in ʻEwa Beach.

Ireland said he purchased the mobile clinic in the spring of 2020 with his own money thinking it could be used by a nonprofit or medical professional to respond to the Covid pandemic, which was starting to cause panic across the country. He ultimately sold it to the Kidney Foundation for $148,222, almost exactly what he SAID he paid for it. He said the foundation used it multiple times in the summer of 2020 to screen homeless people for Covid….

Today, six years later, the 26-foot bus is collecting dust at a car lot in ʻEwa Beach.

Its interior, which contains a blood draw room, a bathroom and two exam rooms, shows no signs of use. Cobwebs have formed in crevices near the floor. The odometer reads just over 1,200 miles — the roundtrip distance of going from one end of the island to the other just 15 times. …

Read … Kidney Nonprofit’s Taxpayer-Funded Bus Is Collecting Dust - Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaiʻi Freshmen Failing: Ninth Grade Repeater Rate Among Nation's Highest

CB: … Hawaiʻi has held back high school freshmen at a higher rate than nearly any other state. …

Freshmen must earn five credits – the equivalent of five yearlong classes – to move on to 10th grade. Most high school students take several classes during their freshman year, meaning that kids can fail one or two courses and still earn enough credits to move up. Students must continue to accumulate credits and pass their core classes throughout high school until they earn the 24 credits needed to graduate. …

Hawaiʻi students and teachers attribute the high number of ninth graders being held back to a number of factors. Some say there’s more peer pressure to skip class and dodge assignments. Classes are harder and require students to have strong foundations in reading and math. Many students are unaccustomed to the strict credit requirements they need to fulfill to move to the next grade.

“It’s a shock for the kids to understand that unless they receive a certain amount of credits, they can’t move on anymore,” said Dean Cevallos, principal at Keaʻau High School on the Big Island. …

Other states like Mississippi and Florida are taking a more proactive approach to retention, holding students back as early as kindergarten through third grade. More than two dozen states require or allow schools to retain third grade students who aren’t proficient in reading. Hawaiʻi has no such law on the books.

Read … Hawaiʻi Freshmen Failing: Ninth Grade Repeater Rate Among Nation's Highest - Honolulu Civil Beat

East Honolulu voters file Supreme Court election challenge supporting Tommy Waters

HNN: … The challenge lists East Honolulu activist Natalie Iwasa at the top of the list of voters. “Well, you know, the determination about ineligibility from Judge Ashford came out right in the middle of voting, which isn’t fair to anybody in the district,” Iwasa said….

Waters was on the ballot because the city clerk had declared him eligible. The complaint says the court was wrong to allow anyone to challenge Waters’ eligibility, stating, “The statutory protections were circumvented, and the resulting chaos was unnecessary and preventable.”…

The complaint says the second error was the clerk telling voters that Waters’ votes were invalid. “By declaring Waters ineligible,” the complaint says, “the Honolulu Elections Division changed the primary election results and disenfranchised voters.

“If he’s ruled eligible, then we should have a new election,” Iwasa said. “Probably even if he’s ruled ineligible, have a new election because there are just so many votes out there, thousands of them, right, who voted with one thing in mind and then learning, oh, that’s not going to work.” …

SA: East Oahu voters challenge results of City Council election | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Read … East Honolulu voters file Supreme Court election challenge supporting Tommy Waters | Election 2026 | Hawaii News Now

Another Tropical Storm Heading to Hawaii?

W: … the NHC is watching for potential development (in) the area that is closer to Hawaii, labelled Invest 90E by the NHC ....

WaPo: After Lala’s flooding, another storm or hurricane could hit Hawaii this weekend

WN: Second tropical threat looms near hurricane-stricken Hawaii

Read … 2026 hurricane season maps tracker: Current storms, forecast

Man found dead in Big Island pasture believed to be second Hurricane Lala fatality

SA: … The Hawaii Police Department said the man’s remains were found in a pasture off Highway 11 near the 63-mile marker in Naalehu at 2:50 p.m. and were reported to police. A day earlier, the police had been asked to conduct a welfare check on a missing person in the Kau district but were unable to find the man….

Read … Man found dead in Big Island pasture believed to be second Hurricane Lala fatality | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Honolulu police-involved accident hospitalizes pedestrian

KHON: … A 57-year-old pedestrian has been hospitalized after being struck by a Honolulu police officer.

The collision happened shortly before 1 a.m. on Aug. 18 in the Honolulu area. This is the second police-involved pedestrian accident this month.

Honolulu Police Department reported a HPD Officer was travelling westbound on South Beretania Street near the intersection of Victoria Street when a pedestrian attempted to cross outside of a marked crosswalk.

The pedestrian entered the car’s path of travel and was then hit by the officer’s car, HPD said…

Read … Honolulu's second police-involved accident hospitalizes pedestrian

DoE Retaliation Games: Principal Harano must be reinstated

SA: … We are writing to call attention to Washington Middle School (WMS) Principal Michael “Mike” Harano’s unresolved violations of “due process” by the Hawaii Department of Education (DOE). He has yet to receive a formal written notice of why he was placed on Department Directed Leave (DDL) on May 15, prohibiting his return to WMS for the 2026 school year. Three months have passed since he was directed to surrender his school laptop, keys and pass by Complex Area Superintendent (CAS) Linell Dilwith, and physically escorted off campus.

As friends, colleagues and supporters of Mike, he informed us that he has not been given the written specific reasons why he was “expelled” from WMS. CAS Dilwith only provided verbal inference to an internal DOE investigation and an audit that had to do with the Line Studio, the world-class innovative facility that teaches and trains students to learn skills related to audio recording while integrating mathematics, science and engineering. He has not been contacted by an investigator and has not seen the audit that even CAS Dilwith had admitted to not seeing, as noted in the July 2 Hawaii News Now story by Daryl Huff….

Read … Column: Principal Harano must be reinstated | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

America suspended the Jones Act. Americans were the winners.

R: … In March, the Trump administration suspended the Jones Act for energy and fertilizer shipments. It's not the first waiver of its kind, but it is the longest in recent history. With the waiver's expiration looming, the administration just announced a 90-day extension along with stricter terms.

The numbers speak for themselves. The Cato Institute's Colin Grabow documented that in under five months, Puerto Rico took in more mainland fuel than in any full year since 2015. Shipments to the West Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii hit nearly 14 million barrels, about 170 percent of the recent annual average. Whole trade routes quickly appeared: Gulf Coast fuel to Hawaii, New Jersey jet fuel to California, propane to Puerto Rico.

America's government-protected fleet seldom served these locales. Remove a prohibition and the market pours resources where they are needed. As Grabow noted, "That's strong evidence for the longstanding critique that the Jones Act suppresses domestic commerce by preventing economically viable trade between Americans." …

Read … America suspended the Jones Act. Americans were the winners.

Second Maui Immigrant Pleads Not Guilty To Illegal Voting

CB: … Just two people have been charged with voting as noncitizens in Hawaiʻi in at least the last 40 years….

Read … Second Maui Immigrant Pleads Not Guilty To Illegal Voting - Honolulu Civil Beat

HURRICANE LALA:

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