Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted June 21, 2025
Miske Made Possible by “corruption or inaction within local law enforcement and city agencies”
ILind: … Michael J. Miske Jr.’s longevity as an alleged crime leader, spanning at least two decades, was reportedly facilitated by a combination of systemic factors, including his sophisticated use of legitimate businesses as fronts, alleged corruption or inaction within local law enforcement and city agencies, his reputation for and strategic use of violence and intimidation, and his methods of financial concealment and exploitation of regulatory weaknesses….
(CLUE: Only the faces have changed.)
Read … Harnessing Google’s AI to tease out insights from my Miske files | i L i n d
Will Maui County Waste $1.6B Buying Up TVRs?
BH: … Some wonder if the new funds could eventually allow the county to buy back units for permanent housing….
Read … Maui Gets $1.6B—Can Vacation Rentals Survive What’s Coming? - Beat of Hawaii
Hawaii tourism is 'significantly down,' and experts are worried
SFG: … Hawaii has not reached 10 million visitors again since 2019. As the state worked to regain ground by enticing travelers to come back after COVID-19 and then after the Maui fires, it has been thrown another challenge: a new presidential administration. …
Read … Hawaii tourism is 'significantly down,' and experts are worried
State Buys $21M Food Processing Machine, it sits unused because Health Department ‘isn’t used to it’
CB: … the new state-owned Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center. The facility was built around a new high-pressure pasteurization machine that can extend the shelf life of products like Daguzan’s.
But for him or anyone to use it they have to navigate a web of regulatory hurdles.
Nobody has used the machine in more than a year since the center opened.
Peter Oshiro, the program manager at the state Department of Health’s food safety branch, says the state is used to more traditional methods of pasteurization and preservation. Chemical preservatives and heat pasteurization have been the most common for a long time. Using pressure to kill germs only came on the scene in the late 1980s but never really took off until the 2010s.
(TRANSLATION: This technology is only 40 years old. Give DoH another 40 years to catch up.)
“The only thing we’re not familiar with is the use of that machine. Everything else is basically (written) for us, it’s standard practice,” he said. …
LINK: HPP Incubator - Pilot Plants - Hiperbaric
Read … Machine To Turn Local Meat And Produce Into Fancy Food Is Tangled In Red Tape - Honolulu Civil Beat
Firewise: Long before last week’s 330-acre blaze, Kahikinui community spent years preparing for fires
MN: … “A lot of the survivability of that house can be attributed to the vegetation management,” Maui Fire Department Chief Brad Ventura told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative Friday.
Maui Fire Department spokesperson Chris Stankis said other homes had fire approaching from one or two directions. Those homes also had similar vegetation management done to minimize the risk.
The result was no homes had burned and no injuries had been reported in the fire, which as of Thursday was 95% contained. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which has taken over command of the fire, could not be immediately reached for an update on the fire as of Saturday.
Cutting back the thick grass around their homes is one of the many steps that Kahikinui homesteaders have taken over the years to prepare for the regular threat of wildfires in an area with few paved roads and limited access to water.
In 2016, Kahikinui became one of the first three communities on Maui to gain national certification under the Firewise USA program, which helps educate and empower people to protect their communities against the threat of wildfires.
Since the 2023 wildfires in Lahaina and Kula, the number of certified communities statewide has doubled from 15 to 34, with another 16 going through the application process, according to the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization, which helps communities get Firewise recognition….
Read … Long before last week’s 330-acre blaze, Kahikinui community spent years preparing for fires
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