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Friday, August 27, 2021
August 27, 2021 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 6:07 PM :: 2499 Views

COVID Quackery: Medical Board Files Complaint Against Pang After Legislators Demand Firing

Poisoning of People

Hawaii: Highest Food Costs in USA

Maui Council Passes Organic Pesticide and Fertilizer Bill

Hawaii County's Failed Bus System Cited for ADA Violations

DBEDT: Delta Drives Down Hawaii Economic Forecast

Honolulu Council Affordable Housing ‘Solution’ -- A Billion Dollar Tax Hike on Houses

KHON: … nearly 40,000 units are vacant at any given time, according to a UCLA study the City commissioned in 2020.

“The idea is to get folks who have vacant homes to rent them out, or the sell them, hopefully to other local people,” said Honolulu City Council chair and presiding officer Tommy Waters.

(IQ Test: How many of these alleged 40,000 houses are vacant long-term vs momentarily?) 

A measure introduced in fall 2020 (Bill 76, 2020) made it through the first hoops at Council but was postponed in Committee. Lawmakers and advocates now want to take another crack at it after getting renewed attention from the latest round of the Real Property Tax Commission process….

Here is how it could work: Taxing units that just sit empty an additional 1% to 7% could generate nearly $1 billion dollars in property taxes, according to the UCLA study….

“Vancouver has it. Melbourne, Australia, has it. Washington, DC, has a form of it,” said Ellen Godbey Carson, spokesperson for Church of the Crossroads, an organization advocating for a similar plan in Hawaii. “So other jurisdictions with extremely high-priced housing have also needed to find new solutions.”

(Translation: They did this and their housing costs did not drop.  We at the Church of the Double Cross now want Honolulu to copy this proven failure.)

Waters said the empty House bill is likely to get moving again soon, along with other property tax bills like the second-home tax category….

Bill 20 (2021) would raise the residential a category from $1 million to $1.3 million,” Waters said. “As you know, if you own a second home that’s worth $1 million or more, you pay a slightly higher tax rate. Well guess what? Almost all homes on Oahu are $1 million now, and the landlords are passing on that tax to their tenants. So the idea really is to give these folks have break and hopefully they pass it on to their tenants.”

CB: "Here’s An Affordable Housing Plan That’s Already Working" (LOL!)

Flashback 2019: Debunked: Caldwell’s ‘Vancouver Tax’ Does Nothing to Ease Rental Crisis

read … Empty-home tax gains momentum on Oahu amid affordable housing shortage

Unanimous Honolulu City Council Nixes Plan To Build Affordable Housing in Kahuku

CB: …Facing immense community opposition, the Honolulu City Council on Thursday unanimously rejected a proposal to build a 91-home subdivision in Kahuku…..

(Translation: We want affordable housing--except when it is actually proposed.  Then we don't.)

SA: City pans Kahuku affordable-housing plan

read … Honolulu City Council Nixes Plan To Build Affordable Housing in Kahuku

Seeking greater opportunities, more Hawaii families pack up for the mainland

HNN: … More Hawaii residents are leaving the islands for the mainland, and experts predict the situation will only worsen as a result of COVID-19′s economic fallout.

The U.S. Census Bureau says more than 8,600 people left the islands last year alone.

One of those who packed up and left was a familiar face on TV.

Kanoe Gibson now lives in Las Vegas and says her move was an investment in her family.

“This is a really great opportunity. We get to take our kids to see new things, expand their minds and their horizons and still be able to call this home,” said Gibson….

“The biggest thing was state income tax,” said Gibson.

“If you look at a salary say a $47,000 salary in Vegas, it’s going to be equivalent to a $90,000 salary here, so you’re almost about doubling your salary.”…

read … Seeking greater opportunities, more Hawaii families pack up for the mainland

Green warns ‘life-preserving restrictions’ looming as city deploys mortuary trailer to morgue

HNN: ….COVID hospitalizations Thursday hit a new all-time high for the fourth time this week, with 427 patients sick with the virus being treated in facilities across the state.

Health officials said 87% of them are unvaccinated.

With no signs of Hawaii’s COVID surge slowing, Lt. Gov. Josh Green said Thursday he plans to call for “life-preserving restrictions” if the number of people hospitalized with COVID reaches 500.

“If the numbers don’t plateau, the governor will have to order additional restrictions,” Green said, adding, “probably a serious lockdown.”

Green’s comments follow his recent discussions with hospital leaders, who made it clear that together they can handle no more than 710 COVID patients.

“Getting to 700 or 710 would take a Herculean effort of moving patients around, getting extra staff in place. But we could provide that much care,” Green told Hawaii News Now. “That’s before we would see such a crisis that we would see loss of life over and above just the tragedy of COVID.”

Hawaii has seen nearly 16,000 COVID cases this month alone. That means some 27% of the total number of COVID infections in the islands since the start of the pandemic have happened since Aug. 1….

Officials at Kaiser Permanente say they’re waiting on a shipment from the mainland that includes 12 BiPAP machines, which are used to provide oxygen to people in need of respiratory care.

The hospital also has dozens more respiratory humidifiers, high-flow oxygen devices and vital sign monitors on order. Officials say the equipment is expected to arrive this weekend.

Meanwhile, a mortuary trailer is now sitting outside the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s office….

read … Green warns ‘life-preserving restrictions’ looming as city deploys mortuary trailer to morgue

Maui Activists Take Horse Dewormer for COVID--Say ‘Trust us we are anti-GMO’

MN: … Bruce Douglas, director of community outreach for the Pono Coalition who worked with Pang on Maui County’s GMO moratorium ballot initiative in 2014, said that Pang shouldn’t be punished for his comments and affiliation with the group as a private citizen.

(At this point you should meditate on the fact that these anti-GMO quacks were allowed to do so much damage to the State’s seed industry.)

“He stood as a private citizen as we stood up to Monsanto’s pesticides and GMO crops here on Maui, and he can stand as a private citizen to say what he believes separate from a public health officer,” Douglas said. “So to think that was tolerated for the GMO moratorium but not tolerated for COVID is irrational.”

(Good point.  We should stop tolerating anti-GMO quackery.)

Douglas, who said he and his wife recently came down with the virus and were prescribed ivermectin by a doctor, (Milhoan?) said that Pang is trying to create dialogue on early COVID-19 treatments….

FDA: You are not a horse.  Seriously.

read … Baker, lawmakers call for health official’s removal

The Miske Case: Death Penalty Is Off The Table

CB: … Mike Miske, the former Honolulu business owner who is awaiting trial on federal charges stemming from his alleged control of a violent racketeering organization in Honolulu over two decades, will not face a possible death sentence if convicted.

The government’s decision not to seek the death penalty was disclosed by Hawaii’s Acting U.S. Attorney Judith Philips in a brief Aug. 13 letter to Judge Derrick Watson and Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield.….

on July 1 the Justice Department issued a moratorium on executions amid a reexamination of death penalty policies, in line with President Joe Biden’s long-standing opposition to capital punishment….

The immediate result will be the termination of San Francisco-based Michael N. Burt, assigned as “learned counsel” because of his extensive experience in capital cases, as required by federal law when a case includes charges that could lead to the death penalty. Also affected will be an investigator previously assigned to identify mitigating factors to be considered when the death penalty recommendation was being made, as well as preparing arguments for the jury if it was eventually asked to consider a death sentence in the case.

Thomas Otake, the lead attorney on Miske’s defense team, advised Mansfield that based on his discussions with attorneys representing several other defendants, there is likely to be a request to further delay the trial, currently set to begin in March 2022.

The trial was originally to be held in September 2020, but was pushed back for a year after the case was declared “complex” due to the number of defendants and the amount of evidence to be reviewed. It was delayed again until March 2022 over the objections of attorneys for two of the defendants. Any request for an additional delay is also likely to be contested….

With the death penalty no longer being considered, the maximum sentence on each of these counts is life in prison. The first two charges call for life in prison as the mandatory minimum sentence if convicted….

read … The Miske Case: Death Penalty Is Off The Table

Yes there are limits to Emergency Power--U.S. Supreme Court allows evictions to resume during pandemic

AP: … The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The court’s action late today ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August. …

The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority.

“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court wrote….

read … U.S. Supreme Court allows evictions to resume during pandemic

Waianae Coast 65% Unvaccinated--25% Test COVID Positive

SA: … With the Waianae Coast surging with COVID-19 infections, some of its public schools are experiencing staff shortages so great that Department of Education staffers from state offices were brought in to help.

Volunteer reinforcements were requested for six area elementary schools this week to help with a range of duties, including substitute teaching, lunch-time cleanup, before- and after-school supervision and health room support.

“Some of our schools in the Nanakuli-Waianae Complex Area are dealing with staffing challenges for a variety of reasons, including staff temporarily isolating or quarantining after potential exposure,” DOE spokeswoman Nanea Kalani said Thursday in a statement….

At 35% the Waianae Coast has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the state. It’s a rate, officials say, that has made the area one of the state’s leaders in infections.

“We’re really facing quite a disaster, a crisis right now on the Leeward Coast,” Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center epidemiologist Jacob Schafer told the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.

The center earlier reported a testing positivity rate in the Waianae area as high as 25%, compared with just over 8% for the entire state….

The number of COVID-19 infections linked to public schools statewide has grown each week since the start of the school year Aug. 3. The latest weekly count numbered 383 — up from 325 last week — but only 107 of those are known to have had their infections active while on campus, officials said.

Interim state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi told the state Board of Education last week there has been no virus transmission at any of the schools and no school-related clusters as well. He said the schools would remain safe as long as they adhere to the multilayered health guidelines that emphasize vaccinations, proper masking, frequent hand-washing and keeping students and personnel home when they are feeling sick…./

A Waianae Elementary School teacher who asked to remain anonymous said his school was “severely understaffed,” especially in the kitchen. He said he saw various state office personnel this week helping with recess duty, lunch duty and during student arrivals and departures….

read … Waianae Coast public schools get state office support

8th House seat unlikely for Big Island: Reapportionment Commission begins its work

HTH: … Recently released census data does not support an eighth seat in the state House for Hawaii Island, the state Reapportionment Commission was told Thursday.

The commission, charged with allocating the number of seats in the House and Senate to the state’s four basic island units, is scheduled to vote on that recommendation — which basically leaves the allocation of legislative seats as they have been since the 2010 census — at its Sept. 9 meeting….

The discussion about whether Oahu would lose a House seat to the Big Island has been ongoing since reapportionment after the 2010 census resulted in Oahu losing a Senate seat following changes in population and a successful lawsuit by Big Island residents to remove nonresident military families and students from the counts….

The data released earlier this month from the 2020 census, however, showed Oahu grew more than earlier census estimates predicted and the Big Island grew less….

At the same time, the number of nonresident military families removed from the census, mostly from Oahu, is about a third less than it was during the last reapportionment process and the number of nonresidents students as of April 1 has also declined….

commissioners noted the extraction of military families already includes the extraction of military dependents who may actually be Hawaii residents. If a local girl, for example, marries a service member stationed in Hawaii, she’ll be extracted from the data as a nonresident even if she maintains her state residency….

read … 8th House seat unlikely: Reapportionment Commission begins its work

City narrows down new landfill to Makakilo or Wheeler (plus two fake sites on N Shore)

SA: … The city has identified four locations to replace the island’s only municipal landfill, Waimanalo Gulch, on the West side of Oahu.

The state Land Use Commission ruled in 2019 that Waimanalo Gulch must close by March 2, 2028, due to environmental justice issues, and the city must select a new location by Dec. 31, 2022.

The city has narrowed down the list to four locations from 12. Two of the remaining sites are near the North Shore, one is between Makakilo and Waipahu and one is near Wheeler Army Airfield….

(IQ Test: What is the chance of a new landfill being built on the North Shore?  Can you spell NIMBY?)

The four (two) remaining locations will be evaluated by the Landfill Advisory Committee. The committee will rank the sites and provide its findings to Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who will make the final decision on where the next landfill will go….

(Makakilo or Wheeler?)

Waimanalo Gulch has about 10 to 12 operable years left, but has been open since 1989. The West side of the island also hosts the private construction and demolition landfill PVT.

West side Council member Andria Tupola teared up during the meeting when no proposed sites were located in the area.

“Thank you for listening to the community,” she said….

(Reality: Most likely outcome is that Waimanalo Gulch operating life is extended.  The way to do that would be to pretend to pick one of the fake N Shore sites and then let litigation stop the project, thereby forcing Waimanalo Gulch to stay open.)

(Best Solution: Reduce waste stream with H-Power plus ashphalt and ashcrete.) 

read … City narrows down new landfill sites to 4 locations

Hawaii Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over County Police on Mauna Kea

CB: … The ability of counties to render aid to each other is also at issue in the case that stems from protests over the Thirty Meter Telescope in 2019….

E. Kalani Flores, a cultural practitioner, brought a suit against the three police chiefs to halt the deployment of off-island officers to Mauna Kea under a statute that would typically prohibit officers from exercising their police powers in a different county unless they were in the middle of an ongoing investigation….

WHT: Jurisdiction challenge reaches Hawaii Supreme Court

read … Hawaii Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over County Police Jurisdiction

After getting COVID, Vegan Surfrider Activist Admits She was Wrong to Refuse Vaccine

KHON: … A 29-year-old Oahu woman … broke out into hives and rashes after contracting the virus.

Doorae Shin does not drink, smoke and she is an active, healthy vegan. She believed COVID only impacted people with underlying issues or the elderly.

“I’m 29, I eat organic, I’m vegan, I exercise every day, I’m happy, you know, I’m just a very healthy person,” she said.

Her boyfriend returned from a trip to Connecticut. They believe he caught the virus on the airplane because they came down with symptoms the same day.

“Pretty much every single day was a new symptom for me it was like leg soreness, chills, headache, and then experience kind of these really bad hives,” she explained.

Her fever got up to 103.

“It’s terrible and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone,” she said. “I could barely get up, barely eat food, I felt nauseous.”

“I think admitting that I was wrong is was an important journey for me to say ‘yeah, I was totally wrong about how healthy I was and how safe I thought I was,’” she said.

Interested in jewelry heists gone wrong, other strange news? Check out Weird News

“You’re definitely not immune to getting really sick, she said. “And I just think getting vaccinated is a really important tool we have and it’s something that I wish I had done, and maybe I can encourage others to do it.”…

Meanwhile: VIDEO: Dalai Lama Gets the Vax--Says You Should Too!

read … Healthy Oahu residents regret not getting vaccinated after falling severely ill with COVID

Anti-Defamation League condemns attack on Lt. Gov Green, cites increasing anti-Semitic acts in Hawaii

SA: … “The antisemitic invective hurled at Dr. Green comes at a time of rising antisemitism in Hawaii,” according to the ADL.

Anti-Semitic slurs spray-painted on walls in Honolulu and the presence of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys at the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol complex were the incidents highlighted by the ADL as examples of increasing incidents of hatred.

“Dr. Green is a voice of reason, both regarding the urgent need to safeguard public health in Hawaii and the First Amendment rights of protesters” said Seth Brysk, ADL Central Pacific Regional Director. “ADL respects a person’s right to protest. But we strongly condemn the use of antisemitic and other hate-filled slurs. Extremists have blamed Jews for the pandemic’s spread. The escalation in antisemitic rants and Holocaust analogies tied to anti-vaccine and anti-masking protests is as alarming as it is inaccurate and offensive”

On Jun.18, the Aloha Freedom Coalition featured a black and white photo of Green’s face accented with light purple highlights on their Instagram feed with the word “FRAUD” written across the bottom of the frame. The caption read, “It would be a shame if someone posted signs like this all over town.”

On July 2, flyers identical to the Instagram post but bordered at the top and bottom by a handwritten banner featuring a repeating pattern that read “JEW” next to the Magen David, the Star of David were found downtown and on the area around Green’s condo.

The AFC denounced the fliers and said it had nothing to do with their creation.

The Star-Advertiser reviewed a photo taken July 2 of one of the fliers hanging from a light pole near Green’s apartment. The Star-Advertiser elected not to publish a picture of the photo….

read … Anti-Defamation League condemns attack on Lt. Gov Green, cites increasing anti-Semitic acts in Hawaii

HPD’s Use Of CARES Act Money On Robot Dog, ATVs And Overtime Was Legit, Feds Say

CB: … The Boston Dynamics robot dog, purchased for $150,045, was “necessary to allow for essential interactions” between police and homeless people in the POST program, the city stated. Specifically, the city said it was needed to perform contact-less temperature screenings, telemedicine, delivery of medical supplies and perimeter checks….

(Translation: Free money was falling out of the sky and we reacted accordingly.)

HNN: Since HONU opened in December 2019, 1750 people have gone through the HPD shelter. There have been 14 COVID patients since March 2020, the department said.

PDF: US Treasury Findings Report

read … HPD’s Use Of CARES Act Money On Robot Dog, ATVs And Overtime Was Legit, Feds Say

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