Don't Die Here: Hawaii 2nd Highest Estate Tax in USA
SPEED Summit to Modernize Hawaiʻi’s Permitting System
Direct2UH expands to all 10 UH campuses
Rock for Justice VII
Sex Toys: Nonprofit CEO admits to failed coverup after audit flags Vegas trip expenses
HNN: … “The moment this surfaced, we took immediate action. We ensured that at the end, taxpayers did not bear the cost of this, and it has since already been corrected,” said HomeAid CEO Kimo Carvalho.
(TRANSLATION: I was going to get away with making you pay for my bondage restraints, blindfolds, and feather ticklers, but then I got caught--so ‘Plan B’ was to cover it up. That failed, and now I am on ‘Plan C’--trying to minimize it.)
“My understanding is the Kauhale initiative is about $188 million in total,” he added. “HomeAid contracts total $39.9 million. We’re talking about $100 out of that total. I do think that this is being overly blown and sensationalized.” (He really did just say 'blown and sensationalized.' Maybe after Plan C fails, Plan D will be to 'sensationalize' the sex in order to justify the taxpayer-funded sex toys as being 'worth it.' I'm just trying to get ahead of the spin here.)
Green said he wants people to focus on the bigger picture…
(TRANSLATION: The Governor is still stuck on ‘Plan C’.)
… “I thought someone made something up. I thought it can’t be possibly true. This is a joke, right? But it’s not a joke; it’s actually in the audit,” said state Rep. Elle Cochran, R-Lahaina, Olowalu, Kapalua.
Carvalho said that as part of a financial reconciliation process, he paid roughly $17,982 back to HomeAid and got $6,465 back in expenses that he paid for on behalf of the state….
HNN political analyst Colin Moore said, “I thought someone is having a very bad day.”
“To me that’s one of the most troubling things about this is that most people who are on a government-sponsored trip know that they have to be very, very careful about what’s a personal expense, what’s a public expense, putting things on their own credit cards,” he added.
Carvalho talked about lessons learned.
“One of the biggest lessons learned for me personally is I need to be in the ‘weeds’ as much as I need to be in the ‘high’-level operations,” he said.
(TRANSLATION: Auditors need to double check for cannabis-related expenses.)
REALITY: Audit: Kauhale Director Billed Taxpayers for Bondage Sex Toys TWICE
read … Nonprofit CEO responds after audit flags Vegas trip expenses | Hawaii News Now
Gambling and Jones Act Money behind failed Keohokalole Ads
CB: … Ever since August, it’s been a mystery: Who was behind the dark money super PAC that was trying to oust U.S. Rep. Ed Case during the Aug. 8 Democratic primary?
Turns out it was a major player in Hawaiʻi’’s shipping industry and a Las Vegas casino conglomerate with deep ties to the islands.
Newly filed reports from the Federal Election Commission show that Matson’s political action committee and Boyd Gaming Corp. donated a combined $100,000 to Future Progress to fund a last minute advertising campaign supporting Hawaiʻi State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole’s unsuccessful bid to unseat Case. Most of that money — $75,000 — came from Matson’s PAC, which is funded by its employees….
Unfortunately for Keohokalole, the amount of money pumped into the PAC didn’t make much of a difference — he lost to Case by 20 percentage points.
It also forced Keohokalole, who had championed legislation seeking to eliminate the influx of corporate money into island politics, to answer uncomfortable questions about the sudden influx of dark money into the race on his behalf and the fact that the super PAC had used one of his campaign consultants to make its ad buys….
Read … Matson Bankrolled Dark Money Super PAC, New Filings Show - Honolulu Civil Beat
Maui’s Prosecutor Defends Mayor Bissen: What his press release leaves out
ASD: …“People have been quiet about [Bissen] because they’re scared of retaliation,” Pelletier said. “If you’re going to do this to the police chief? No wonder they’re scared.”
Bissen says no one has told him he is under investigation for anything. He says he learned of the commission’s vote only after it was made. Commission Chair Frank Tam calls the claim that the mayor influenced the decision “100% untrue.”
Enter Andrew Martin. The title of his press release is “Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin Refutes Claim that Mayor is Target of Criminal Investigation.”
The release walks through a timeline. Martin’s office opened a probe into county grant funds in January 2025. It worked the case jointly with the state attorney general. In March 2026 it handed the state sole say over any charges.
Martin says Pelletier broke a “fundamental tenet of criminal investigations” by naming a target in public before any arrest or charge. He says the chief “told the public something that is simply not true.”
The problem — which any first-year law student would spot — is that the headline and the body don’t add up. The headline refutes that the mayor is the target of criminal investigation. The body shows only that Bissen was not the target of one investigation, back when Martin still ran it.
Plenty of agencies can run an investigation: county, state, and federal. Pelletier named two investigations. One is run by the attorney general’s office. The other is a felony case he says his own department opened in August.
Martin’s release addresses the first. It does not mention the second. And on the first, Martin says the mayor “was not” a target of an investigation whose charging decisions he gave up six months ago. What the state has done with it since is not his to say.
It is somewhat unusual for a chief prosecutor to display such a loose grip on the basics of how law enforcement works. …
ASD: Pritchett Cartoon: Hot water
Read … Maui’s Prosecutor Defends Mayor Bissen: What his press release leaves out
Attorney for Maui police chief threatens legal action against Bissen Regime
MN: … "They are going to get blasted if we go to court because there is absolutely no justification for removing the chief without at least some kind of showing of factual or legal basis," Seitz said over the phone Wednesday. "As far as I know there is none. ... I guess the allegation is, 'This happened on his watch so you're somehow responsible for it.' I don't know."….
Read … Attorney for Maui police chief threatens legal action amid prosecutor’s rebuke - Maui News
Money flows into West Maui state House race
MN: … Three candidates are vying to represent West Maui at Hawaii's House of Representatives. Elle Cochran has represented Lahaina since 2022 and is running for her third term. Cochran switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican party this March. Sne Patel is running as a Democrat, and Paele Kiakona(, son of convicted meth dealer Moses Kiakona,) is running with the Green Party….
Patel has raised the most money in the state House race. Over 80 donors have given more than $62,000 to his campaign…
The campaigns supporting state House legislators Gregg Takayama, Linda Ichiyama, Kyle Yamashita, Troy Hashimoto, Mark Hashem, Richard Onishi and Greggor Ilagan have contributed over $7,000 to Patel's campaign….
Fifty-seven donors have contributed over $26,000 to Kiakona's campaign. Kiakona's 11 out-of-state off-island donors contributed over $3,100 for his campaign.
Top Hawaii-based donors for Kiakona's campaign include the ILWU42, a (mafia) labor union that represents dock and warehouse workers, and Amber Bobin, a Maui-based media strategist who worked on the Wailuku Film Festival and grassroots film "Lahaina Rising." Five of Hawaii's largest (mafia) labor unions have endorsed his campaign.
Kiakona's off-island donors include Angela Adrar, who is the director of the Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship at the New School (who tours the world taking pictures of herself ‘in solidarity’ with random causes)….
Other people who have donated to Kiakona's campaign include Lahaina Strong activists… and representatives from Aloha Air Cargo (do they transport shipments for daddy???) ….
REALITY: Meet the Meth Gang Behind ‘Lahaina Strong’
Read … Money flows into West Maui state House race - Maui News
$108M Hawaii Convention Center renovation faces another potential delay as contractors just now notice that roof is sloped
HNN: … Unexpected 4-inch roof slope was not in original engineering plans, officials said ….
Read … $108M Hawaii Convention Center renovation faces another potential delay | Hawaii News Now
Cost of Living Summit: People who haven’t left yet meet to talk about it
SA: … Struggles to pay for housing and basic goods have weighed heavily on Hawaii residents as the islands have seen an ongoing decline in population as people leave for better-paying jobs and cheaper costs on the mainland.
Mary Kishimoto, 31, helped plan Thursday’s summit and has been involved in the annual event from the start through the Young Professionals Program.
“It’s always so hard to get your start,” she said. “We’re still considered young per se, but especially right when you get out of college or you start in the workforce, getting that first five- to seven-year start in your career, in your life, that’s when most people leave.”
A study that the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Social Science Research Institute and the state Office of Wellness and Resilience released Monday found that half of Hawaii residents considered moving out of state in the past year, with the cost of living emerging as the leading reason….
Read … Cost of Living Summit addresses Hawaii’s higher-than-mainland inflation | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HPD to shift 100 officers to patrol to combat overtime, boost response
HNN: … In a press conference Thursday, HPD Chief David Lazar said the move will put “100 officers back on the road and back at the stations” without reducing response capabilities.
He said the goal is simple: “More officers available to serve our communities and a safer working environment for our personnel.”
Lazard said personnel will be reallocated from a variety of assignments, including the chief’s office, Community Affairs Division, Criminal Investigations Unit, records section, traffic unit, training division, narcotics vice unit, administration, major events division, technology division, human resources, and the misdemeanor follow-up section at district stations.
“We want to encourage officers to embrace the plan, knowing that they now have an opportunity to help out their fellow officers on the road so that everyone can remain safe and that we can deliver even better services to the community,” Lazar said.
The department will also end 4th Watch, or the additional weeks of training after field training, the chief said….
ASD: 100 HPD officers to be reassigned to patrol
SA: Honolulu Police Department to reassign 100 officers | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HNN: Shift of 100 HPD officers to patrol seen as painful but necessary move to cut overtime costs
KITV: What’s changing at HPD? Chief Lazar addresses patrol staffing | Local | kitv.com
KITV: HPD Chief Lazar announces plan to put more officers to patrol Oahu at press conference | News | kitv.com
Read … HPD to shift 100 officers to patrol to combat overtime, boost response | Hawaii News Now
The deadly tradition of cockfighting in Hawaii
SFG: … In 2010, then-Hawaii state Reps. Roland Sagum, Joey Manahan and Gil Keith-Agaran introduced a resolution aimed at protecting cockfighting specifically as a cultural activity. In 2024, lawmakers considered a bill that would have elevated cockfighting from a misdemeanor to a felony, but the measure ultimately died in the Senate….
one Saturday morning in June, an estimated 500 people surrounded a home on Hakimo Road, leaving no street parking. Brian Burns, president and founder of Trooper’s Chicken Rescue on Oahu, says that he sees this kind of thing all the time. “Cockfighting is unregulated,” Burns says about Hawaii, “and it’s everywhere.”…
Animal welfare organizations estimate there are tens of thousands of fighting birds raised and kept in Hawaii for illegal cockfighting, and that isn’t going away anytime soon. Some opponents describe a “lax” attitude among law enforcement, and some say the illegal environment surrounding chicken fighting rings can become a breeding ground for other crime....
Read … The fight to end the deadly tradition of cockfighting in Hawaii
DOJ Grilled On Making Immigrants Show-Face In Court
CB: … All four members of Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation are challenging the Department of Justice’s dramatic shift away from virtual hearings in the state’s immigration court recently uncovered by Civil Beat.
Civil Beat’s article found that new Trump-appointed judges are requiring immigrants and their attorneys to show up to court in person four times as often as their predecessors.
A letter sent Thursday to the Department of Justice — signed by Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono and Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda — cites the reporting in asking the DOJ why the longstanding use of virtual hearings was “abruptly reversed” and how the department will ensure that people living on neighbor islands — or out of state — are not deported simply because they cannot afford to travel to their hearings on Oʻahu.
Lawmakers propose setting up hearings – either via video or in person – on Maui, Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi island at least once a month or returning to the previous policy that allowed immigrants and their attorneys to join remotely if they would otherwise have had to fly to be in court….
Read … DOJ Grilled On Hurdles Immigrants Face In Court Following Civil Beat Story - Honolulu Civil Beat
Latest Hysteria Over Non-Exisitent Problem: Leeward Planning Commission OK’s bill aimed at banning data centers
HTH: … While there are not currently any proposals for this type of data center on Hawaii Island, members of the public expressed overwhelming opposition to the possibility (hysteria, because it is a way of ‘belonging’ and nothing is more important than ‘belonging’)….
(IDEA: Psychotherapy.)
“‘The community’ (ie – those who ‘belong’) has made it clear that data centers do not align with ‘our’ ‘island’ ‘values’ (ie: whatever we are hysterical about today),” said Ellen Lubrano of Kailua-Kona. “I urge the commission to enact an airtight ban on data centers on the Big Island, and I’m not sure that Bill 170 goes far enough to do all of that.”…
(IDEA: This law will soon be forgotten, but in the future, if somebody wants to build something in Hilo, involving large numbers of computers, an AI robot, based in a Mainland data center, will find this old forgotten law and send Robocop to enforce it.)
Read … Leeward Planning Commission OK’s bill aimed at banning data centers | Hawaii Tribune-Herald
ELECTION NEWS:
- Big Q: What do you think of White House press secretary Katie Zacharia’s first days on the job? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
- Voting explainer: 2026 Honolulu charter amendment ballot questions | Hawai'i Public Radio
- So what is a RISE bond anyway?
- Why Honolulu Needs An Office Of Data Innovation - Honolulu Civil Beat
- Kaua‘i Needs More Affordable Housing. Council Candidates Have Ideas - Honolulu Civil Beat
- Future Maui Development? Kahului Council Candidates Hold Opposing Views - Honolulu Civil Beat
- Honolulu Council: Former Member Faces Opponent Who Embraces Conspiracies - Honolulu Civil Beat
- Hawaii voters to decide on RISE bonds for housing - Pacific Business News
QUICK HITS:
- Chairman Smith Demands CCP-Linked Singham Network Nonprofits Comply with Subpoenas - Ways and Means
- News_Release_ndash_50_MILLION_RELEASED_FOR_WEST_HAWAIʻI_OUTPATIENT_CARE_CENTER.pdf
- UH officials host meeting on tuition hikes in Hilo | Hawaii Tribune-Herald
- PRESS RELEASE: PUC RESCHEDULES HAWAI‘I ISLAND PUBLIC INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS ON HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC’S SERVICE RELIABILITY | Governor Josh Green, M.D.
- Episode 178: Mayor Blangiardi on housing, Skyline, and bringing film production back to our islands | Office of the Mayor
- Maui County accepting applications for homeless services grant funding | Hawaii News Now
- Three more Hawaii schools locked down amid threat investigations | News | kitv.com
- Mililani High School locked down following phone threat, campus cleared | Local | kitv.com
- Hawai‘i Island police respond to Konawaena High School after threatening call made to campus : Big Island Now
- Lockdown lifted at two Hawaii high schools following threatening calls | Hawaii News Now
- Clemson, Hawaii lead research to boost global coffee and cacao productivity, benefit South Carolina | Clemson News
- HSTA presents online sessions about Hawaiian holidays and independence - Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association
- Hawaiʻi farmers face mounting losses after back-to-back storms | Hawai'i Public Radio
- Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation creates year-round hub for community to be ‘authentically themselves’ | Hawaii News Now
- Hawai’i Supreme Court Order of Immediate Restraint of Nathan Yan Ho Dykstra
- Former Mānoa provost, ocean engineering professor to lead Bishop Museum Board of Trustees | University of Hawaiʻi System News
- UH Mānoa chancellor invites campus to Oct. 21 forum | University of Hawaiʻi System News
- Family of North Shore surfer sues city, state over crash near Chun’s Reef | News | kitv.com
- County moves forward with temporary safe parking site - Maui News
- A boon for coffee, cacao: UH to receive $40 million grant to help boost production | Hawaii Tribune-Herald
- Tokyo's creative connection to Hawaii in gaming, manga
- Largest Hawaii employee-owned companies, 2026 - Pacific Business News
- Sea Dragon Energy Celebrates First-Fuel Milestone, Dedicates Hawai’i R&D Facility