September 13, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Current Articles | Archives

Sunday, September 13, 2026

September 13, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 11:10 AM :: 115 Views

DoE Loses Another 1.6%--Charter Schools Continue to Grow

Building a more free and prosperous Hawaii — together

Limited access to Kaumālapa‘u Harbor Lanai Sunday, Sept. 13

Jurors recalled in Maui doctor's bid for new attempted murder trial

A Fair Tax

How to file for Hawaii property tax relief in 2026

Honolulu Charter Commission leaves zoning board reform off ballot

Hawaii could face costly scramble to deliver ballots

SA: … No matter how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a U.S. Postal Service plan to regulate mail-in election ballots, Hawaii has no choice but to hold an election on Nov. 3.

It may notbe as convenient for voters to cast their ballots as they have since Hawaii embraced universal mail-in voting in 2020, “but there will be an election,” according to Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago. “There has to be an election by law.”

State Sen. Karl Rhoads worries what the Nov. 3 election would look like if voters lose the ability to receive, then return their ballots through the mail.

It could require Hawaii to spend millions of dollars to hire private companies to deliver ballots to every household where someone is registered to vote. But voters could not use the mail system to return their ballots, so individual voters would have to place them in drop-box locations or at in-person voter service centers.

Rhoads (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Iwilei) is preparing voters to be ready to vote in person as soon as voter service centers open, to ensure their votes are counted.

Otherwise, if Hawaii tries to hastily ramp up an in-person election system to accommodate thousands of voters, that would require finding enough in-person locations and recruiting enough volunteers to staff them.

“It’s going to be a nightmare,” Rhoads said. “People are going to be standing in line for hours and hours.”

“If it comes to this, I would go to the voter service center the first day it’s open,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to stand in line for hours, so I’m telling people not to wait until the last day.” ….

MEANWHILE: Long Lines Suppress Votes on Election Day: Election Officials Plan to do it Again in 2026

Read … Hawaii could face costly scramble to deliver ballots | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Voters seeking top leaders don’t look to the legislators

Shapiro: … Before he was disqualified from running for a third City Council term, Tommy Waters is believed to have hoped to run for mayor in 2028 as the sitting Council chair.

Ironically, he may have improved his chances by getting bumped off the Council ballot by a state Supreme Court ruling upholding the two-term limit.

History shows the City Council is seldom where voters look for executive talent to fill the city’s top job; the last Honolulu mayor elected directly from the Council was Frank Fasi in 1968….

Read … David Shapiro: Voters seeking top leaders don’t look to the legislators | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

State tech transition stalls Hawaii business approvals, worsening economic hurdles

HNN: … A DCCA software switch has caused monthslong processing delays, adding hurdles for local businesses after CNBC ranked Hawaii the worst state for business….

Read … State tech transition stalls Hawaii business approvals, worsening economic hurdles

Office building overhaul adds affordable rental units in Honolulu

SA: … Michael Vachio, senior vice president of construction and development at JL Capital, said the conversion of the obsolete office building demonstrates the potential for more adaptive reuse of similar buildings.

“We want it to be an example of what other projects in this area can become,” he said, adding there are a lot of underutilized commercial buildings in Honolulu’s urban core that are an opportunity to be turned into housing.

Other Honolulu office buildings have been converted into housing by developers in recent decades, including the Bishop Place tower Downtown, the former NCR Building in Kakaako now known as Vanguard Lofts, the downtown mid-rise Queen Emma Building, the downtown mid-rise 1060 Bishop, and a mid-rise now known as Six Eighty Ala Moana in Kakaako.

At least a few others are planned….

New affordable housing in Honolulu at Amana Lofts

Read … Office building overhaul adds affordable rental units in Honolulu | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Maneuvering: UH seeks changes to Maunakea summit master plan

HTH: … “In February of this year, the Board of Regents directed CMS to begin the process of looking at amending our master plan to ensure its consistency with Act 255 and the guidance that Act 255 provides MKSOA as it pertains to the reuse of decommissioned sites,” Chun said.

One difference, he said, was that as part of a commitment to decrease the number of observatories at the summit, the UH plan, which was drafted in 2022, prohibited the site of decommissioned observatories from being considered for future astronomy-related uses.

Act 255, on the other hand, states that MKSOA’s plan for the mountain may include “prioritizing the reuse of footprints of observatories that are scheduled for decommissioning, or have been decommissioned, as sites for facilities or improvements over the use of undeveloped lands for such purposes.”

Chun emphasized that the proposed amendments would not impact UH’s previous commitment, which laid out its intention to have no more than a total of nine observatories on the mountain after 2033. There are currently a dozen, down from 14 astronomy sites in 2020, with several more set to be decommissioned.

“There are no changes to our commitments in our master plan to the overall astronomy footprint post 2033 — which is what our plan covered — that we said there would only be nine observatories going forward beyond that, and our commitments to decommissioning, as stated in the master plan, remain unchanged…,” he said. “The only thing that changed here was the eligibility to reuse those decommissioned astronomy cells.”

MKSOA Board member Neil Hannahs questioned whether the changes were aimed at facilitating the potential construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope, a proposed observatory that would have been the largest at the summit area, but was put on hold following large protests in 2019.

Since then, TMT management has announced the intention to explore placing the observatory at the former site of the decommissioned Caltech Submillimeter Observatory instead of its originally planned location….

REALITY: HB2592: Maunakea authority has 2 years to fail—then telescope area goes back to UH control

HTH: Palikapu Dedman, activist and founder of Pele Defense Fund, dies at 80 - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Read … UH seeks changes to Maunakea summit master plan - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Hawaiʻi And New Hampshire Are Magnets For PAC $$$

CB: … The dark money super PAC that tried making a last minute splash for state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole in his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Ed Case is back at it again — this time in New Hampshire.

Newly filed reports with the Federal Election Commission show that Future Progress dropped $1.2 million in advertising in the Granite State’s Democratic primary race between Stefany Shaheen and Maura Sullivan in the days leading up to the contest.

But similar to its experience in Hawaiʻi, when the group spent $100,000 on advertising in support of Keohokalole, the maneuver didn’t pay off….

… What the races in Hawaiʻi and New Hampshire also have in common is that voters still don’t know who funded the Future Progress ad campaigns.

We know from previous reporting by Nick Grube that Future Progress has hired Hamburger Group Creative, a consulting firm founded by Martin Hamburger, a mainland politico who has worked on several campaigns in the islands, including Keohokalole’s….

Read … The Sunshine Blog: Hawaiʻi And New Hampshire Are Magnets For PAC $$$ - Honolulu Civil Beat

On Kauaʻi, Derek Kawakami is using Lowell to his advantage, without making it seem that way.

CB: … This week brought a look at Kawakami free of packaging and promotion by a deep-pocketed PAC.

He was there at the county emergency operations center holding a stack of papers but not referring to them. Instead, he spoke extemporaneously, assuring people that everyone was going to get through the storm together. Kawakami came off as someone who believes the best in people. He has said over and over again how proud he is of Kauaʻi.

“We have this tremendous opportunity, I mean, if you take a look at the news around the world all eyes are on Kauaʻi and Niʻihau right now, and this is our opportunity to let people know who we are, how we come together as a community, how we take care of one another, and how we just make lemonade out of lemons day after day.”

In contrast, the City and County of Honolulu’s pre-storm press conference was a lot of scolding, including a Grumpy Uncle line from one department head telling people to stay off the roads: “Don’t be niele. Don’t be mahaʻoi. This is not the time to be capturing content.” ….

Read … In Kauaʻi, Derek Kawakami is using Lowell to his advantage, without making it seem that way.

ELECTION NEWS:

HURRICANE NEWS:

QUICK HITS: