Hawaii: Where Clean Energy Projects Go to Die
Audit: How to Speed up Building Permits
Grassroot Council Testimony: Cutting Red Tape to Build Housing
Bill 2591 Changes Kauai Zoning to Allow Farmers' Markets
VIDEO: Grassroot legislative wrap-up tour
HI-EMA Fuel Tank in Violation Since 1997
'Evil' teen bullies get taste of vigilante 'justice' after they were filmed beating disabled woman
DM: … The brutal April attack was posted online earlier this month and sparked widespread anger from the Wahiawa community, who took matters into their own hands and hunted down the suspects.
The community members livestreamed themselves as they went looking for the bullies at their homes, with as many as 11,000 people watching at one point, as reported by Hawaii News Now.
Footage shows dozens of students and parents heading to the suspects' residences, with someone climbing up a building's exterior at one point. The vigilantes knocked on their doors and demanded the bullies came out and ‘meet’ with them….
KITV: State leaders hope to stop vigilante justice after Wahiawa mobbing | News | kitv.com
read … 'Evil' teen bullies get taste of vigilante 'justice' after they were filmed beating disabled woman | Daily Mail Online
In yearlong wait for vote on short-term rental ban, Maui condo sales, prices have dropped significantly
MN: … In the year since Mayor Richard Bissen proposed a bill to phase out more than 7,000 short-term rentals to create more housing for local residents after the 2023 wildfires, far more condos are going up for sale, and they’re selling for a lot less — if at all.
University of Hawai‘i economists predicted a 20% to 40% drop in condo prices if the ban passed. But the decrease is happening even before the Maui County Council has made a decision about the bill, in which Bissen requested that the ban take effect on July 1 for West Maui and on Jan. 1, 2026 for the rest of Maui County.
The council originally planned to discuss the bill at the end of 2024, but delays caused by problems conducting a study have led to the bill now expected to be taken up shortly after the fiscal year 2025 budget is completed in the coming weeks.
Realtors and condo owners say this waiting in limbo, plus the economic uncertainty at the federal level, are driving the major downward spiral in the market.
The median price for Maui condos has dropped nearly 25%, from a whopping $962,500 in April 2024 to $727,000 in April of this year.
And as of April, 910 condos were up for sale, a nearly 70% increase from the 536 condos on the market in April 2024, according to the latest data available from the Realtors Association of Maui….
read … In yearlong wait for vote on short-term rental ban, Maui condo sales, prices have dropped significantly : Maui Now
Rail line a ‘curse’
HNN: … Change will also come faster downtown, like at Bishop Street and Ala Moana Boulevard, where the owners of the historic Dillingham Transportation Building and Pacific Guardian Tower have told HART they don’t want rail users walking through their pedestrian plaza.
“They don’t want us,“ Kahikina said. “They actually want a wall or some kind of barrier built. There’s concerns about vandalism, homelessness. So that is unfortunate.”
Kahikina said the company could still put up movable barriers when the rail isn’t operating.
“This is the attitude that we’re getting from them,” Kahikina said. “So I hope people do not criticize HART later for not being better partners and integrating into Pacific Guardian. But they don’t want us.”
Kahikina was upset enough about Pacific Guardian’s position that she documented it in a letter to the company, which she copied to the HART board and the city.
An attorney for the company says they are cooperating and waiting for more information about HART’s construction plans.
Kahikina said she’s heard criticism of HART for failing to integrate its stations at places like UH West Oahu and Pearlridge Center.
She said its usually because the property weren’t willing to host stations.
Deputy project manager Matthew Scanlon says it’s disappointing that so few rail line property owners have embraced rail stations as an opportunity.
“It’s not always up to us,” he said. “It’s up to the property owners seeing that vision and working with us to integrate more fluidly into their existing operations or property.”
Even with the hopscotch over Kalihi, HART still doesn’t plan to deliver the finished rail system to the city until 2031, which may be time for them to convince landowners the rail is a blessing, not a curse..….
SA: Servco Pacific seeks pause on HART’s eminent domain of Kakaako property | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Rail guideway construction hop over Kalihi causes conflicts
93% Reduction: Army proposes giving up leased Oahu land
SA: … As the Army prepares to move into negotiations to renew leases on state-owned land it has used for training for decades, on Oahu it’s proposing a significantly smaller footprint.
The Army’s Oahu leased lands currently include 1,150 acres at Kahuku Training Area, 4,390 acres at Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area and 782 acres at Makua Military Reservation. The Army obtained all those lands, along with a leased state parcel of 22,750 acres on Hawaii island at the Pohakuloa Training Area, for a mere $1 in 1964.
The leases expire in 2029. In its final environmental impact statement for Oahu lands released last week, the preferred-alternatives section indicates that the service would prefer to lease only 450 acres at Kahuku and not pursue renewing leases on any state land at the other two sites — a roughly 93% reduction….
read … Army proposes giving leased Oahu land | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawai‘i County Council passes first reading of FY 2025-2026 budget
BIN: … The Hawai‘i County Council on Thursday passed first reading of the approximately $953 million Hawai‘i County budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26, which is a 3.5% increase over last year’s budget.
“That’s the smallest increase we’ve seen within the last five years,” County Managing Director Bill Brilhante told the County Council on Thursday during the special budget meeting. “I think that’s very conservative, and it’s fiscally responsible.”
Click here to review the proposed budget.
Draft 2 of the proposed budget passed first reading with eight ayes. Council Member Rebecca Villegas was absent. The second and final reading of the budget will be June 5.
Brilhante said 50% of the county’s proposed expenditures are related to salaries, wages and benefits.
In draft 2 of the budget, there is a $15.5 million increase from the first budget submittal to the council in March. …
read … Hawai‘i County Council passes first reading of FY 2025-2026 budget : Big Island Now
'Tesla road rage guy' alleged Hawaii attack is a 'failure of the system,' attorney says
CBS: … Alongside three alleged victims of the "Tesla road rage guy," attorney Gloria Allred called it an "absolute failure of the system" that he was released from a Los Angeles County prison, allowing him to allegedly strike again.
Nathaniel Radimak pleaded not guilty on Thursday in a Hawaii courtroom to a felony charge for unauthorized entry into a more vehicle and two misdemeanor charges for assault to the third degree, according to Allred.
Those charges were in connection with his arrest earlier this month in Honolulu. Police said he exchanged words with an 18-year-old woman from a Tesla as she was attempting to park her car. He then allegedly assaulted the young woman and her 35-year-old mother.
Radimak, 38, has a history of similar attacks in California.
He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a series of road rage attacks throughout Los Angeles County. He only served about 250 days after his sentencing; however, he was given credit for time served and 212 days for good behavior.
Although it appears Radimak will remain in custody as the legal process plays out for the new charges, Allred criticized the handling of the case in California. She alleges that, before his 2024 early release from prison, the victims of the crimes he was convicted weren't able to give their input, a legal right.
One alleged victim on Friday, identified as Vivian Romero, said she's not surprised that Radimak allegedly struck again.
"Had he served a sentence of five years in California, these new attacks on women may have been prevented," she said. "I believe that these incidents were a foreseeable consequence of a system that repeatedly failed to address his pattern of violence and his pattern of behavior." ….
NBC: LA victims outraged after Tesla road-rager was arrested again – NBC Los Angeles
read … 'Tesla road rage guy' alleged Hawaii attack is a 'failure of the system,' attorney says - CBS Los Angeles
Trump to the Rescue: After pathetic State Judiciary Sets Rapist Free, Man who terrorized UH Manoa student now facing deportation to Micronesia
HNN: … The man who kidnapped a University of Hawaii at Manoa student, raped and tried to kill her is back behind bars.
Austin Quale Joseph, 29, was picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and FBI agents Wednesday morning in downtown Honolulu, according to an HSI spokesperson.
The immigration arrest comes two weeks after Joseph was sentenced for terrorizing former University of Hawaii Manoa student Aoi Shinagawa on April 3, 2019….
He got into her car, held a knife to her, tied her up and sexually assaulted her. Four hours later he dragged her to the ocean to drown her….
Joseph pleaded guilty to kidnapping and robbery. In exchange, all the sex assault charges were dropped and he was released with credit for time served.
Shinagawa was angry about his quick release: “I firmly believe we need to put this dangerous person away so that I’m the last victim.”
Joseph is from Micronesia and his attorney, Randall Hironaka, told HNN Investigates that Joseph was expecting the deportation process to begin.
Retired federal public defender Alexander Silvert said it is standard in the federal criminal system that a convicted person be deported right after the sentence is complete. Joseph was convicted in state court so that could be why there was a two-week lag….
read … Man who terrorized UH Manoa student now facing deportation
Keanu Sai News: Another Sovereignty Scammer Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud
SA: … Heart caused a tax loss to the IRS of $1,618,985.54. She is free on bond until sentencing Sept. 8.
Her co-conspirator, Sook Young Jung, accepted a plea agreement March 20, 2024, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the federal government. Jung will be sentenced Sept. 25.
Heart and Jung were among six people charged in connection with the scam.
At the center of the scheme was “co-conspirator 1,” the owner of Gimmel Group LLC, a domestic limited-liability company in Hawaii that “purported to be a personal investment business,” according to the 15-count indictment handed down July 15, 2021.
Gimmel Group was incorporated April 29, 2015, and administratively terminated by the state on Dec. 7, 2018, according to records from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Heart and Jung conspired with Gimmel Group’s owner and a signatory of Mortgage Compliance Advisors & Solutions LLC, a Florida company, by recruiting at least five other people to file false tax returns to get refunds they did not deserve…
BACKGROUND: Fraud: Another Sovereignty Scammer Pleads Guilty -- Rose Dradi, manager of Gimmel Group, was a Keanu Sai / Dexter Kaiama collaborator.
read … Honolulu woman, 66, pleads guilty in $1.6M federal tax fraud | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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