Ethics

... The Hawaii State Legislature has passed the following bills and resolution concerning the Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA) and Sunshine Law ....

... Kahele was picked for the Senate by the best friend of a double murderer.  A bribery convict helped him "transition to the State Senate", a friend of Katherine Kealoha works for him, and Honolulu's unindicted mayor made way for his Gubernatorial campaign ....

... Is there a public safety hazard?  DPP’s Michael Silva can’t say ....

... the draft report upon which our comments were based was missing findings, had numerous placeholders, and was missing complete sections altogether ....

"... to provide valuable data on the purchase of residential real estate by persons possibly involved in various illicit enterprises ...."

... What do these three multi billion dollar failures have in common? ....

... OHA LLCs make hundreds of payments to Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot and other retail outlets and hundreds of payments directly to named individuals ....

... a statutory exemption to Hawaii’s open records law ....

... Two Leaders Of ‘We Build The Wall’ Online Fundraising Campaign Plead Guilty To Defrauding Hundreds Of Thousands Of Donors ....

... Federal Jury Convicts Big Island Pain Doctor Rudolph B. Puana of Conspiracy and Distribution of Oxycodone and Fentanyl ....

... Kahele is cosponsoring legislation and taking action as a committee member that directly affects his outside employer, which is further evidenced by Hawaiian Airlines lobbying on the bills Kahele cosponsored ....

... FDIC-supervised institutions’ prices equal or surpass payday lenders’ in Hawaii ....

... When a couple of penny-stock touts, one of whom is listed in the Panama Papers, team up to sell timber futures and carbon credits what does the Legislature do? ....

... Karamatsu Bonds have been a legislative perennial ever since he got two DUI’s while spiraling down from Vice Speaker of the House to working in Keith Kaneshiro’s corruption-riddled Honolulu Prosecutor’s office and promoting rave parties ....

... auditors found 20% of case files where the state, FBI, and/or child abuse and neglect clearances were missing ....

... On March 7, 2022, Co-Vice Chair of Honolulu Liquor Commission, Darren Y Lee, resigned ‘effective immediately’ .... 

... DLNR Land Division failed to bill/collect the proper base rents for the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel lease and failed to collect over $500,000 ....

... New procedures have been put in place to access the Capitol building ....

... The biggest change during the pandemic came in the number of routine requests estimated by the agencies ....

... there had been serious concerns over the integrity of the program, including concerns over favoritism ....

... The purpose of the Commission is to dissipate reform energy in order to preserve the status quo. ... 

... Harleman faces up to 20 years imprisonment on each of the wire fraud counts and up to 10 years imprisonment on each of the money laundering counts, as well as a fine of up to $250,000 on each count, plus a term of supervised release up to three years ....

... a deliberative process exemption to the UIPA would be little more than a loophole by which state agencies could evade records requests ....

... None of these insiders know anything about electricity so Schatz makes federal taxpayers to pay for experts who can do the actual work for them ....

... resulting in misstatements in eight different ADC accounts and a three-year delay in financial reporting ....

... OHA has implemented 11 and partially implemented 13 of the 39 recommendations made in our report. An additional nine recommendations were not implemented and we determined six to be not applicable ....

... The Employees asked whether a private business they co-own may procure the services of an Agency research facility ....

... Kanuha Awarded Meritorious Torch of Light Award; San Buenaventura and Others Earn Lava Tube Dishonor ....

... the only declared Hawaii Republican gubernatorial candidate to previously hold elected office has divorced her cocaine-dealer husband ....

... The Nominating Committee of the Hawaii Supreme Court is seeking to fill four attorney and two non-attorney positions on the Disciplinary Board of the Hawaii Supreme Court ....

... Honolulu ‘ethics’ function--covering up for the big sharks while spearfishing manini to make it look like they are doing something ....

... We reviewed 104 Senate and House bills introduced during the 2022 legislative session proposing 63 special and revolving funds.  None satisfied the criteria set forth in section 23-11, HRS ....

... one month after the arrest of English and Cullen, all state facilities managed by DAGS will reopen to the general public ....

... The practice of gut-and-replace allowed state lawmakers to pass laws without a full set of public hearings ....

... The Judicial Council nominates two individuals for each vacancy on the Commission. The nominees’ names are sent to the Governor, who selects one of the nominees for appointment....

... HB2303 HD1, which would exempt “drafts, internal memoranda and correspondence, and other deliberative and pre-decisional materials that are a direct part of an agency’s internal decision-making process” from Hawaii’s open records law ....

... Ige will choose one of the three who, remarkably, don't include former HSTA president Rosenlee ....

... The Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee has recommended approval of a bill that would ban fundraising activities for lawmakers during legislative sessions. ...

... Defendants Sentenced for Scheme to Defraud Local Housing Programs of Over $100,000 ....

... Heidi's husband, Chad Tsuneyoshi, is a federal ex-con convicted for his part in a 1000kg cocaine ring ....

... Former Executive Director of the Hawaii Commission Sentenced To 46 Months in Prison for Embezzling from AmeriCorps And Offering a Bribe in Return for CARES Act Grants ....

... The committee on JDC has scheduled a public hearing on 02-22-22 at 9:30 am. ...

... Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund Revolving Fund $15,448,000 ....

... Dems will forward Rosenlee and two others to Gov Ige so he can pick Rosenlee ....

"The CLFCU unit was to spearhead the criminal prosecution of White Collar and government corruption crimes. So far, completed cases that were sent to the unit have not been forwarded for indictments and are held in abeyance for no reason." -- Chief Investigator Daniel Hanagami

... SB2916 would prohibit the governor or mayor from suspending requests for public records or vital statistics during a declared state of emergency ....

... The House is re-opening the State Capitol to the public beginning March 7, 2022. House members, House staff, and the public will be required to adhere to the state vaccination policy to enter the State Capitol ....

... Each defendant faces maximum penalties of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 at their sentencings, which are set before Judge Mollway on July 5, 2022 ....

... At times, it’s nearly impossible to know exactly why a bill was killed or who was for or against it. Such things happen behind the scenes ....

... According to the indictment, Martin Kao, 48, Clifford Chen, 48, and Lawrence “Kahele” Lum Kee, 52, all of Honolulu, were employed by a defense contractor prohibited from making contributions in federal elections ....