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Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted January 20, 2024
Grubbing for Money: OHA sues over Mauna Kea management authority
HNN: … A special board set up to manage Mauna Kea in the wake of the Thirty Meter Telescope conflict is being challenged by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
In a lawsuit filed this week in Circuit Court, OHA says the new Mauna Kea management authority is unconstitutional and should be repealed.
The protest that blocked against TMT and complaints of a history of mismanagement led the state to replace the university and the land department as managers of the summit with the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, which has begun meeting toward taking over the mountain in four years.
But the Office of Hawaiian Affairs attorney Robert Klein says the authority can’t effectively protect the trust relationship between the state and Native Hawaiians, required by the state constitution, when it comes for former Kingdom lands….
(TRANSLATION: This is leverage in Master Lease negotiations.)
KWO: OHA Lawsuit Seeks Repeal of Act 255 - Ka Wai Ola
HNN: New Mauna Kea power struggle focused on 11-member oversight board
CB: OHA Challenges Constitutionality Of New Mauna Kea Oversight Authority - Honolulu Civil Beat
PDF: 1CCV-24-0000082 OHA vs MKSOA (“lease” appears 233 times)
read … OHA sues over Mauna Kea management authority
Tripler Botches Botches and Botches Again--Kills 31 yr old mom
SA: … After cutting apart her small intestines, as routine during the procedure, Tripler surgeons reattached Bond’s small intestine backward, causing a hernia that necessitated emergency surgery three days later.
During her emergency surgery, anesthetists damaged Bond’s lungs, and she developed blood clots. On the day that she would have needed a machine to remove the clots, the machine at Tripler’s facility was broken. While The Queen’s Medical Center was willing to accept Bond and remove the clots, her doctors chose to instead administer a clot-busting medication called tPA — which would cause micro- hemorrhages throughout her brain.
The emergency surgery would leave Bond in a coma, and when she awoke from the coma, she was a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic — without the ability to talk, breathe, eat or move on her own — and experienced “locked in” syndrome, as she was conscious of everything going on around her.
“She could only blink and cry and depend on machines for her life’s functions,” said Loretta Sheehan, a partner at Davis Levin Livingston and one of the attorneys who represented Bond’s estate, at the news conference. “Because of Tripler’s negligence, Donald has lost his wife, three small children have lost their mother and Beth has lost a daughter. This is a terrible tragedy that never, ever should have happened.”
Bond died from sepsis on Dec. 16, 2020, approximately a month and a half after her gastric bypass procedure….
The case is the latest in a series of malpractice lawsuits against Tripler since 1997. In 2023 the U.S. government awarded $29.5 million to a local military family for an incident involving their then-month-old daughter that led to her losing most of her intestines. In 2022 the government paid a $15 million settlement for a baby who suffered brain damage after a delayed cesarean section in 2018….
read … Tripler settles malpractice lawsuit with $9.5M payout
HART Board Members Question Whether Track Defects Fall Under 'Routine Maintenance'
CB: … City officials tried to play down the recent flaking and spalling along the train tracks. That only prompted more questions….
The story was based on inspection reports and emails from a former Department of Transportation Services track inspector who said the damage’s appearance just six months after rail operations started pointed to “long-term” track issues that should be addressed.
Neither Morton nor his deputy, Rapid Transit Director Patrick Preusser, mentioned those reports Friday. HART board members did not bring them up either.
Preusser told the HART board that the track defects fell under routine rail maintenance. The contractor hired by the city to run Skyline, Hitachi Rail, has its engineering department doing an analysis to determine the root cause of the track damage, Preusser said.
Switching from a grease lubricant on the track to one that’s oil-based could help minimize future flaking and “spalling” along the track, Preusser added. The damage has appeared at track crossings and areas where there’s stronger forces at play due to the grade, speed and braking, he said.
But Preusser’s comments only prompted more questions from the board.
“Patrick, I’ve got to tell you, I thought it was nothing until you just started to talk,” HART Chair Colleen Hanabusa said.
Hanabusa asked whether the damage had anything to do with the larger, custom-designed train wheels or the welding HART had done to help deal with Skyline’s troublesome “frog” problems at the track crossings. Preusser said that it didn’t.
Board member Robert Yu, president of Oahu Transit Services, which runs TheBus, also expressed some skepticism.
“It almost seems contradictory when you and Director Morton mention that this is all routine maintenance and is not a big deal but then on the other hand you’re testifying that you have investigators looking into it, right?“ Yu told Preusser.
“It just seems a little weird if it’s routine. Why would we go through all that? Is it really routine?” he added….
(CLUE: Track tolerances too tight. Duh.)
read … HART Board Members Question Whether Track Defects Fall Under 'Routine Maintenance' - Honolulu Civil Beat
Industrial businesses on Oahu may have a tough time expanding
KITV: … The industrial real estate market may continue to remain tight all throughout 2024.
The number of available industrial properties on the market on Oahu is at historic lows, with only 64 properties remaining on the market by the end of 2023 including this one here on Halekauwila Street in Kakaako.
Colliers Hawaii - which just released its fourth quarter 2023 industrial market report - says that the current vacancy rate remains an astoundingly low 0.64 percent. It's one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country….
read … Industrial businesses on Oahu may have a tough time expanding
Soft on Crime: Man who attacked Honolulu police officer gets verdict downgraded
SA: …Hokuokalani Patoc escaped a possible life sentence without parole.
The 40-year-old was on trial for first-degree attempted murder in the Feb. 16 attack on a police officer in Laie, but an Oahu Circuit Court jury found him guilty Friday of the lesser crime of first-degree assault….
Patoc could have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole had he been convicted of first- degree attempted murder, an offense that includes attempting to intentionally or knowingly cause the death of a law enforcement officer while performing his official duties.
Although the first-degree assault charge, a Class B felony, has a penalty of 10 years, jurors must return Tuesday for the sentencing phase and will determine whether Patoc should be subject to an extended term of imprisonment. …
(CLUE: He won‘t.)
read … Man who attacked Honolulu police officer gets verdict downgraded
Program Aims to Put More Dangerous Lunatics on Streets
KITV: … The City’s $17.2 million Iwilei Homeless Resource Center was sitting empty from 2022 to June 2023 until the Honolulu Emergency Medical Services Crisis Outreach Response and Engagement or CORE program started operating its medical respite out of the first floor. Now, the state is creating a crisis resource hub in another part of the building. Services will be contracted out to Care Hawaii.
“For now, we’re going to do a softer opening with acute suicidal patients, who may be mh1’s and other folks who may be referred by law enforcement and take referrals from places like Queen’s and Castle ER,” said Dr. Koyanagi.
The goal is to keep the mentally ill out of emergency rooms and jails and stabilize them instead. According to the DOH, 17 percent of people with serious mental illness are in jail. With the most common disorders ranging from substance and alcohol abuse to PTSD. That’s where a pilot program in the District and Circuit courts has stepped in, diverting certain individuals to treatment with the possibility of their case being dismissed. The State Department of Health said the program has screen 675 people so far.
When it comes to the post-booking trial diversion program, officials said there are some hiccups within the system. The Honolulu Prosecutor’s office said, the program in District Court is on pause due to a risk assessment tool that is unavailable at the moment.
“The reason we get approval is if they’re successful, we’ll move to dismiss the case and as that staff worker got stabbed at the Hawaii State Hospital, that’s the potential for every one of these cases seriously so we have to be careful with this,” said Steve Alm, Honolulu Prosecutor….
read … New Iwilei crisis hub in the works to divert mentally ill from hospitals, jails | KHON2
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