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Monday, April 4, 2016
April 4, 2016 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:48 PM :: 4777 Views

Charges: Kenoi Tampering, Lying

SA: …On Oct. 20, 2011, the last day associated with one of the theft charges, Kenoi paid a $320 bill at the Hilo Yacht Club. One of the tampering charges accuses Kenoi of lying when he said it was for an office strategic planning luncheon.

When Kenoi repaid the county in March 2012 for the two bills, he listed the Sansei charge as “Dinner for staff/volunteers” at the film festival and the Hilo Yacht Club charge as “Lunch meeting.”

Kenoi used his county credit card on Jan. 17, 2013, the first day of the other felony theft charge, to pay a $170 bill at Clyde’s Gallery Place restaurant in Washington, D.C., and again on Jan. 18 to pay a $600 bill. He was in the nation’s capital to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting Jan. 17-19.

Another tampering charge accuses him of lying when he said he made a $125.95 purchase on March 17, 2013, at a Longs Drugs store in Kailua-Kona for a Sam Choy’s Poke Contest volunteer appreciation event. Kenoi also paid a $300 bill on June 28, 2013, the last day for the theft charge, at Tsukeneya Robata Grill restaurant in Honolulu.

According to county documents, Kenoi paid back the Longs purchase in May 2014 and the Clyde’s and Tsukeneya restaurant charges in March 2015.

The felony charges against Kenoi entail second-degree theft involving property or services worth more than $300. Each charge could involve other purchases within the date range specified, as long as the total value per charge is not greater than $20,000.

The misdemeanor theft charges are for expenditures between $100 and $300.

Kenoi used his credit card to pay a $200 bill at the Volcano House restaurant on June 30, 2014. He also used the credit card to pay a $170 tab at Tommy Bahama Restaurant in Mauna Lani on Nov. 16, 2014, the first day of the four-day 2014 Financial &Insurance Conference Planners annual conference at Hilton Waikoloa Village.

The third tampering charge accuses him of lying when he said the Volcano House restaurant bill was for U.S. Conference of Mayors visitors….

CB: Resignation Is The Only Option Left For Billy Kenoi

WHT: Kenoi won’t get punished

read … Kenoi Tampering Lying

Criminal: Hee’s Company Asks DHHL to Certify it to Receive Federal Megabucks

SA: …Embattled telecom-munications company Sandwich Isles Communications has asked the Hawaiian Homes Commission to certify it as an eligible telecommunications carrier so that it can potentially resume receiving millions of dollars in federal ratepayer funds to subsidize its phone and Internet service on Hawaiian homelands.

The move represents an attempted end run around the state Public Utilities Commission, which typically issues such certifications.

Sandwich Isles turned to the Hawaiian Homes Commission after the PUC declined to recertify the company last year pending the outcome of ongoing investigations by the Federal Communications Commission into the company’s finances.

The FCC suspended payments of about $1.4 million a month to the company in June while it conducts an audit of the company’s finances.

It’s far from clear whether the Hawaiian Homes Commission even has the authority to certify Sandwich Isles. And at least one Hawaiian Homes commissioner contends it would be unwise to become ensnared in the company’s “public relations issue.”

The company’s founder, Albert Hee, was sentenced in January to 46 months in prison on tax fraud charges after federal prosecutors say he siphoned some $4 million from Sandwich Isles’ parent company, Waimana Enterprises, to pay for personal expenses.

He was initially ordered to turn himself in to federal authorities today to begin serving his sentence, but that was extended to June 15 under a court agreement dated March 24….

read … Still on the Loose

Evenwel Unanimous

TA: …Bull markets tempt investors into unwise wagers. History, I suspect, will so regard the appellants in Evenwel v. Abbot, the “one-person-one-vote” (OPOV) case decided Monday. In Evenwel, the Court unanimously rejected an advocacy group’s invitation to throw American politics into turmoil, and in the process to shift power from immigrants to natives, from non-whites to whites, from young people to the aging, and, by coincidence, from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

The needed votes, it now appears, were never there. The Court’s decision was unanimous; equally important, the majority opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attracted six of the Court’s eight justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy. Even more importantly, the six-justice majority not only decided against the conservative theory, it made it much harder for advocates to pursue the conservative theory in future cases….

Beginning in 1962, a series of landmark cases held that states couldn’t consciously favor some kinds of voters over others. (For a good account of the old regime, see On Democracy’s Doorstep by the historian J. Douglas Smith.) The skew was toward rural districts, regarded as more virtuous than what used to be called “the mob,” meaning people in urban areas.

The language of these cases was sometimes inexact, but the basic rule was clear: within a rough 10 percent margin, districts were to be drawn on the basis of raw population—counting, that is, not only voters but those who, by age, criminal conviction, or citizenship status, could not cast ballots. In only one case did the Court permit any deviation from that principle; that case, Burns v. Richardson,approved a Hawaii map that counted only permanent residents of the state. Hawaii argued that its circumstances were unique: Because it had so many military personnel and tourists, it said, its map would be distorted by counting them. The Court approved that Hawaii map— “only because” it “produced a distribution of legislators not substantially different from that which would have resulted from the use of a permissible population basis.”

The principle rested there until 2013. Then the Project on Fair Representation rushed into federal court to challenge the new Texas senate map….

read … Evenwel

State Defense Department Salaries

CB: The department is almost entirely federally funded, but there are a few hundred positions that state taxpayers shoulder.

read … The Cost Of Keeping Hawaii Safe

PR Hype on HECO $340M ‘Smart’ Grid Plan

IM:  …HECO’s March 31, 2016 Smart Grid Press Release also stated, “Hawaiian Electric started the development of the smart grid program in 2014.”

But HECO’s Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) Report(2013) stated in its Chapter on Smart Grids, “The Companies’ Smart Grid work started in 2006.”….

Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) filed their Smart Grid Application with the Public Utilities Commission.

The document was received on the same day as all of the parties in the HECO-NextEra Merger Proceeding were filing their Opening Briefs.

The Commission`s Data Management System was overwhelmed. No one has seen the report. But many have read about HECO`s public relations piece praising its Smart Grid plan.

Radio, television, print media, blogs and other social media ran stories on HECO’s social media release.

Once the report is actually released to the public, and analysis is conducted, the resulting story will probably appear buried deeply in the back pages of the print media which will have moved onto newer items.

SA: Moving ahead on ‘smart grid’ a welcome move

Background: Hawaiian Electric Proposes $340M Rate Hike, Blames Smart Grids

read … Hawaii Social Media on the Rise

Hawaii Gas slashes LNG costs by a third

PBN: Hawaii Gas, which has plans to ship liquefied natural gas in bulk amounts yo the Islands as a replacement for oil, among other uses, has sliced its project cost for this venture by $100 million, a company spokesman confirmed to PBN.

A recent study commissioned by the state’s only regulated gas utility showed that the estimated infrastructure cost for the importation of LNG to Hawaii in bulk amounts would amount to $200 million, down from the company’s original $300 million estimate.

In January, Honolulu-based Hawaii Gas revealed in its 18-month study that the use of LNG as a replacement for oil would have saved Oahu electric utility customers $132 million in fuel costs.…

News Release: Hawaii Gas Releases Market Facts About Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) For Hawai‘i

read … LNG Costs

Kauai Council Decides to Keep Island Traffic Jammed

KGI: The island’s great transportation experiment is based on the Kauai Multimodal Land Transportation Plan, adopted by the Kauai Council in 2013. The plan’s goal is to lower the number of vehicles on the road, while increasing the use of other modes of transportation — the Kauai Bus, walking and biking.

“We shouldn’t just be putting all of our efforts into serving automobiles,” Noyes said. “It’s not efficient and not helping in the long run.”

The multimodal plan outlines the goal of transitioning from 54 percent of Kauai’s transportation taking place in single-occupant vehicles in 2010 to 39 percent in 2035. That would result in an increase in bicycle, transit and walking.

KGI: New bus routes on tap (sort of)

read … Traffic Jams are a Political Tool

Hawaii’s Trifecta of GMO Cases May Be Heard By Appeals Court In June

CB: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may hold hearings in June on three cases related to genetically modified farming in Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties.

The appeals court hasn’t officially scheduled the hearings yet, but it notified parties recently that they may be held June 13-17 in Honolulu.

The oral arguments before a panel of three judges would be a critical step in a multi-year effort by neighbor island residents to regulate genetically modified farming.

read … Trifecta of Hype

Surfrider Sewage Scheme to Stop Dairy Farm?

CB: …Mahaulepu is the site of a proposed 578-acre dairy farm that generated opposition from environmental groups and others concerned about potential impacts, such as odor, flies and wastewater runoff.

Hawaii Dairy Farms, funded by Ulupono Initiative, wants to bring in 699 milking cows, and has already been blamed for contaminating water in the area.

But as the study notes and HDF spokeswoman Amy Hennessey has said, there are no cows there yet.

In 2014, Hawaii Dairy Farms began installation of an overhead irrigation system, drilled water quality monitoring wells, and began planting kikuyu grass its their leased land, the state study says.

“No grading or grubbing of the land has taken place, no buildings are being constructed, and no dairy cattle have been brought to (Mahaulepu Valley Sub-Watershed),” the study says. “The only disturbance to the ground has been for the drilling of water quality monitoring wells, the installation of the overhead irrigation system, and field plowing to grow Kikuyu grass.”

HDF is in the process of voluntarily conducting an environmental review of the possible impacts.  (Something that other farmers will not be able to afford.)

Hennessey said she anticipates a finding of no impact because of plans to reuse the manure on the farm, establish setbacks and create vegetative buffers to prevent waste from leaving the farm.

read … Anti-Agriculture Pro-Tourism

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