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Friday, August 21, 2026

August 21, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 7:51 AM :: 130 Views

Hawaii Statehood: Tiny 1959 opposition was anti-Japanese, not anti-American

Racists in Congress fought against statehood for Hawaii

Kindergarten Hawaii Vaccination Rates Drop

Hawaii Unemployment Rate Creeps up to 2.7%

Joint hearing slated Tuesday for 2 Honolulu City Council election challenges

SA: … The Hawaii Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday in two cases contesting recent Hawaii primary election results for a Honolulu City Council seat held by Tommy Waters.

The court decided Wednesday to consolidate oral arguments for the two legal challenges — one initiated by Trevor Ozawa, who is trying to succeed Waters, and one brought by 40 voters in the district served by Waters.

Five justices on the high court, including three replacements due to two recusals and one vacancy, also added new defendants to the case filed by the group of voters….

Read … Joint hearing slated for 2 Honolulu City Council election challenges | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Lala Triggers Nation's First Coral Insurance Payment

CB: … Hurricane Lala has triggered the first payment from a novel coral reef insurance policy created by The Nature Conservancy.

(CLUE: Pretty corals are part of the tourism amusement park and we have to maintain them.)

In 2022, the organization worked with the German company Munich Re to create a policy — the first of its kind in the U.S. — that would pay out up to $2 million in damages when coral reefs are hit by hurricanes and tropical storms. The Nature Conservancy, with funding from the Howden Foundation, has been paying premiums ever since.

Now, the storm has triggered the policy’s minimum payout of $200,000, which will pay the Hawaiʻi Emergency Reef Restoration Network — a coalition of groups created to receive the insurance funds — to ~~assess and repair the reef~~ (go diving).

The payout amount is probably not enough to cover all the ~~work~~ (diving), especially as a second storm prepares to hit the state, and it’s only about half of the $432,000 the nonprofit has paid in premiums over the last four years. …

Read … Lala Triggers Nation's First Coral Insurance Payment - Honolulu Civil Beat

Dozens Of Hawaiʻi's Mentally Ill Inmates To Move to Waiawa Prison

CB: … The head of the state prison system plans to overhaul part of the minimum security Waiawa Correctional Facility in Central Oʻahu to create a new space for prisoners with mental illness who are now being held in the state’s largest prison.

The men who would qualify to transfer from Hālawa Correctional Facility to Waiawa would be minimum-security prisoners who are stabilized on their medications and are approaching their parole or release dates, according to Tommy Johnson, director of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

“We’re looking at clearing out an entire dormitory and converting that to a more therapeutic environment for them,” Johnson said. “It’s a better environment than Hālawa, and it’s outdoors, and it’s considerably less restrictive, so we think that’s better.”

Waiawa is an minimum-security work camp in a fairly isolated area of Central Oʻahu about 3 miles from Mililani Memorial Park cemetery. It can accommodate up to 334 men, but as of last week housed only 189. The inmates there all participate in education or substance abuse treatment programs….

Waiawa prison is in the state House district represented by Rep. Trish La Chica, who wondered what kind of care the inmates will receive at Waiawa that they can’t get at Hālawa.

“I’ve been there, it’s a minimum-security facility,” she said. “It was not designed or built to be a specialized mental health treatment facility. Everything is open. There’s no bars.”

Johnson said “walkaways” are a possibility at any minimum-security prison, but they are very rare. By the time inmates qualify to be housed in the open environment at Waiawa they are approaching their furlough or parole dates, “so why run? They worked to get there.”

To qualify for transfer to Waiawa, the inmates will have to be within 60 months or less of their release, he said. “They’ve earned their way there, and so they don’t want to mess that up and go back to Hālawa.”…

Read … Dozens Of Hawaiʻi's Mentally Ill Inmates To Move to Waiawa Prison - Honolulu Civil Beat

HURRICANE LALA:

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