October 20, 2026 News Read

By Andrew Walden @ 9:38 AM :: 200 Views

Navatek: How Trump’s FBI Purge Saved Lindsey Graham and James Clyburn From a Bribery Investigation

Hawaii State Debt $4,500 Per Taxpayer--and this is an improvement

Kauai Unemployment Jumps to 5.1% After Storm Damage

Hawaii Apartment Buildings Trade 100 to 200 Basis Points Inside Comparable Mainland Assets

42nd anniversary of Honolulu City Lights

Child Sex Abuse: DoE Waiting to be Sued Again

SA: … On Oct. 9, the Hawaii Supreme Court restored the full $14.17 million judgment owed to a young woman the court called “Amy” and to her mother, after the state Department of Education failed for years to protect her from repeated sexual abuse at a Honolulu public high school. …

Amy entered high school functioning at the level of a 5-year-old. Her disability was documented, and her education plan warned against placing her among general-education students. Over three years, staff repeatedly heard she was being sexually exploited by other students. Those reports were not escalated, not investigated, and in most cases never shared with her mother. When a psychologist warned that Amy should never be left unsupervised, and her mother pleaded for one-on-one supervision, the school did not provide it. Days into her senior year, Amy suffered a catastrophic breakdown. She will need psychiatric care for the rest of her life….

Here is what should trouble every parent: the rules that would have protected Amy already existed. Staff are already supposed to report suspected exploitation, honor a student’s documented supervision needs, and tell parents when their child is in danger. None of that required a new law. It required people to follow the rules and they did not.

Rules change nothing without consequences. People follow rules when breaking them carries a cost. That message belongs not only to the state but to the teachers and administrators it employs, who heard the reports and did nothing. This was not a close call; it was a warning heard and ignored for years. A duty with no consequence is only a suggestion….

Without waiting to be sued again, the DOE should guarantee that every report of exploitation is immediately escalated and investigated, that supervision plans are actually carried out, that parents are told every time, and that staff who ignore those duties face real accountability. Where the rules let a report die in a hallway, the state Legislature should close the gap with a clear, mandatory duty to escalate, to notify, and to answer for failing to do either….

What comes next is its choice: accept the ruling, make this family whole without delay, and fix the system — or wait for the next child and the next lawsuit….

Read … Column: Schools must listen to, protect keiki | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Kahele Crew Rushes to Select Summer Sylva as OHA CEO Before Election Ousts Souza

CB: … On Monday, the trustees met briefly to receive public feedback collected by OHA’s search firm to inform their decision on the next CEO. The firm received the most letters and public comments about Sylva while Apo’s candidacy had the least.

The trustees will meet again on Wednesday to recommend compensation for the next CEO, rank the finalists and recommend whether (that) Sylva, Park or Apo should ‘lead’ the office. The board is scheduled to make a final decision on Thursday….

A majority of the seats on the Board of Trustees are up for reelection this year, meaning the new chief executive could also be walking into a boardroom with new members (Souza out, Anderson in) who want to take a different direction on policies (will be distracted by different shiny objects) than the current group of trustees….

HPR: Why these candidates want to be CEO on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs | Hawai'i Public Radio

Read … Can OHA’s Next CEO Move The Needle On Rebuilding A Hawaiian Nation? - Honolulu Civil Beat

Kauai tourism collapse: Tourists Slosh back onto Maui following Hurricane

SA: … Hurricane Lowell battered Kauai’s visitor industry in September, but strong gains on Maui and steady growth on Oahu and Hawaii island helped keep statewide hotel performance positive.

Statewide hotel performance was largely driven by higher room rates rather than stronger demand in September, as occupancy held essentially unchanged at 69.7% while average daily rate (ADR) rose 3.2% to $324 and revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 3.3% to $226, according to a hotel performance report released by STR on Monday.

Stronger performances on Maui, Oahu and Hawaii island offset Kauai’s post- Hurricane Lowell tourism collapse, helping lift statewide hotel revenue even as occupancy remained flat. But hotel executives said the report paints a stronger picture than conditions on the ground and masks a widening divide among the islands. For instance, Kauai’s hotel revenue plunged 40.7% after Hurricane Lowell while Maui posted nearly 21% revenue growth….

Read … Statewide hotel gains mask Kauai tourism collapse following Lowell | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

$22M In Overtime: Some Honolulu Firefighters Double Their Hours

CB: … Some firefighters are working more than 100 extra days per year. The coverage is costing taxpayers millions….

Firefighters generally work 10 full-day shifts per month. With overtime, some are doubling their workload..

Covering those shifts comes at a cost. HFD budgeted $22 million for overtime during Fiscal Year 2026. That’s an increase of almost 25% from Fiscal Year 2025, when the city budgeted $17 million….

Hao said recruitment has dropped precipitously during the past 15 years. The application period used to open every three years and receive 5,000 applications, he said. Now, it opens every two years and receives less than half that amount….

read … $22M In Overtime: Some Honolulu Firefighters Double Their Hours - Honolulu Civil Beat

Criminal trial back on for HPD officers in near-fatal 2021 Makaha crash

HNN: … Four current and former Honolulu police officers will go to trial in April next year, after exhausting a special state Supreme Court appeal.

By the time a jury is empaneled, nearly six years will have passed since a chase and near-fatal crash left half a dozen people, including teens, seriously injured and some permanently scarred….

read … Criminal trial back on for HPD officers in near-fatal 2021 Makaha crash | Hawaii News Now

Meth survivors have one thing in common

ASD: … That scene sits near the end of a nearly 6,000-word piece by Civil Beat’s John Hill, who traces the stories of four Hawaiians through decades of meth use. The vignettes include prison, children taken by the state, trucks repossessed, a tent on the North Shore, and two bodies lying still in a stairwell on School Street.

Two of the four died. Two lived. Hill’s series will shape how the state spends on meth for years to come, and this installment contains the plainest evidence of what works. But the reporter skirts around the evidence.

Hill weaves a good story, and he’s willing to show Christian faith that many reporters would minimize.

He brings the reader into Manijo’s prison conversion. He prints Kapu Shoaf’s desperate late-night prayer, “God, if you’re really there, just hear me, I don’t like die this way, but I don’t see no way out. But if you heal me one more time, I’m not gonna hit that pipe no more … Heal me one more time, like you did before when I was 15.”

He also follows their stories: Kēhau Manijo sobered up, was released from prison, and divorced her husband Tommy. She now runs a sober home in Waiʻanae. Kapu Shoaf prayed and got sober.

A hostile writer would have cut the stories of salvation, or filed them under jailhouse religion. Hill did neither. The honest man reports faithfully what he himself cannot profess….

read … Civil Beat’s meth survivors have one thing in common

Scarlet Nightclub denied vote after liquor commissioners stage walkout

HNN: … Three commissioners walked out of a hearing, stalling Scarlet Nightclub’s request for extended Pride Month hours amid an ongoing dispute with city regulators….

read … Scarlet Nightclub denied vote after liquor recusals over harassment claims | Hawaii News Now

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