LGBTQ Commission Pushing Green to Sign Executive Order Making Hawaii Sex-Change Kidnapping Sanctuary
Discovery of unknown publications by Batimea Pua’aiki (Blind Bartimeus of Hawaii)
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted July 11, 2025
Keohokalole, Tokuda Whine About Difficulties of Being in Congress
SA: … Tokuda has two sons at her alma mater, Castle High School, and flies home to be with them and her husband most weekends, which includes whirlwind visits to constituents across the neighbor islands.
In between, Tokuda said she’s greeted every Thursday after landing and being greeted with “my mommy do list” that’s “very long every week.”
Her responsibilities include “making sure the fridge is stocked,” Tokuda said.
She has not spoken to her Kaneohe neighbor, Keohokalole, about the travel and time zone demands as a voting member of Congress the farthest away from Washington, D.C.
But Tokuda appreciates the debate that must be going on in Keohalole’s house.
She was in Kaneohe over the weekend and said, “This week, I’ll fly back (to Washington D.C.) Sunday and I’ll come home Thursday night, then I’ll leave on Sunday again. So my normal rotation is I’ll leave D.C. Thursday right after votes and I’ll get home at 10 o’clock at night and then on Sunday at 5 o’clock (at night) I’ll leave again and then I’ll repeat the process.”
The stress on her body already required Tokuda to have back surgery last year and she may need another.
“This is brutal when you think about flying back and forth,” she said.
She and her husband continue to discuss whether to relocate the family to Washington, D.C…..
Read … Keohokalole mulling challenging Case for Congress
State Sued for Playing Fast and Loose With Special Funds
CB: … Hawaiʻi law sets out specific criteria for special funds. To qualify, a fund must demonstrate a clear financial need, a direct connection between the source of the money and its use, and the capacity to be financially self-sustaining. However, the Dam and Appurtenance Improvement or Removal Grant Program Special Fund was funded entirely through general fund appropriations with no clear means of becoming self-sustaining.
The State Auditor’s Office flagged this in a 2024 report, stating that the fund did not meet statutory requirements. Despite that, the Legislature moved forward — as it did with other special funds that same year, including the Automated Speed Enforcement Systems Program Fund and the Apostilles and Certifications Fund, which also failed to meet the criteria according to the auditor’s analysis.
Many Funds Don’t Meet Standards
If this sounds familiar, it should. From 2019 to 2025, the auditor’s office identified more than $250 million sitting in special and revolving funds that didn’t meet legal standards. But the auditor’s findings are only advisory. The office has no enforcement power, and the Legislature has no obligation to act on its recommendations.
That’s part of what the Tax Foundation hopes to change with this lawsuit.
“This dam special fund is not the only one out there,” Yamachika said. “Some of them are good. Some of them meet standards, some of them don’t. But I think if we are able to achieve some success in the lawsuit, then people are going to start taking the legislative auditor’s reports more seriously. They’re going to start looking at special funds more seriously.”
The lawsuit argues that the dam fund not only violates the state’s statutory criteria but also undermines key constitutional safeguards. According to the Tax Foundation’s complaint, by shifting money into a special fund, the state sidestepped both the general fund’s expenditure ceiling and the requirement that appropriations lapse after a set period….
Read … Beth Fukumoto: State Sued For Playing Fast And Loose With Special Funds - Honolulu Civil Beat
New ownership unlikely to quench conflict over Maui water
SA: … Maui Pono over the last seven years has gradually expanded farming on what had been fertile but largely fallow fields once filled with sugarcane until 2016, when A&B shut down its then-subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., the last major sugar operation in the state after nearly 150 years in existence.
Close to half of Mahi Pono’s 41,000 acres are in production, including over 9,000 acres of pasture supporting the grass-fed beef operations of affiliate Maui Cattle Co., and over 13,000 acres planted with more than 2 million banana, coffee, avocado, macadamia, coconut, ulu, lemon, lime, orange and tangerine trees.
The company also grows onions, watermelon and lilikoi, and in the past has produced potatoes. Produce is sold across the state often under the company’s Maui Harvest brand.
Citrus fruits are Mahi Pono’s largest crop harvested in most months, though in some months seasonal row crops such as watermelons and onions can be bigger.
For instance, in June the company sold 800,000 pounds of watermelons statewide.
In total, the farm last year sold about 9 million pounds of food, including beef, and expects the total to grow by about 50% this year.
Mahi Pono projects that it can reach full productive use of all its farmland, including rotational pastures for cattle, within the next three to five years, provided it can obtain enough water.
EMI has let the state Board of Land and Natural Resources know that it anticipates having a need for up to 82 million gallons of water a day to support diversified agriculture. Mahi Pono said this amount is roughly half the amount historically diverted for sugarcane and leaves enough water to comply with interim state stream-flow standards.
But contention over the diversion of stream water for agriculture use in Hawaii is strong….
Read … New ownership unlikely to quench conflict over Maui water | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
HPD: Number of illegal game rooms down in 2025
KHON: … New data from the Honolulu Police Department shows that the number of operational illegal game rooms has gone down between 2024 and 2025, with a projected 70 game rooms for this year compared to the 160 game rooms last year….
HPD urges those who see anything suspicious related to any illegal game room activities to contact the 24-hour Narcotics/Vice Division at (808) 723-3933 or fill out their online form….
Read … HPD: Number of illegal game rooms down in 2025
ʻEwa Developer Settles Marina Case For $40 Million
CB: … But instead of the promised marina, the LoPrestis and thousands of other buyers got a lagoon: no slips, no ocean access, no way to sail a little dinghy out to sea from the oceanside planned community. This week, Haseko agreed to pay a group of homebuyers including the LoPrestis $40 million to settle a class action lawsuit that triggered more than a decade of litigation and extensive media coverage.
After 14 years, the case of the disappearing marina is over.
Under the deal approved Wednesday, the LoPrestis and other homeowners will each receive more than $8,600 to settle the class action lawsuit accusing Haseko of what the homebuyers said was a massive bait and switch. The settlement amounts to twice the $20 million previously awarded by then-Hawaiʻi Circuit Court Judge Karen Nakasone, which both parties had appealed to Hawaiʻi’s Intermediate Court of Appeals….
Haseko also mounted a public relations campaign to show the lagoon was not just cheaper but better for the public than a marina, which was originally sold as being suitable for deep-draft America’s Cup-style racing yachts.
Becker Communications drafted rebuttals to news articles critical of the abruptly changed plan and wrote canned talking points and responses to anticipated questions from reporters and lawmakers, trial exhibits show. The company even drafted fake letters from fictional supporters of the lagoon. A “Community Relations Plan” drafted by Becker asserted that “a preliminary exploration of the potentials related to a lagoon indicates that a lagoon would benefit a public much larger than
the boating community.”
Haseko hired Kailua economist Paul Brewbaker to produce reports showing the economic benefits of the lagoon. In an email to then-Haseko executive Sharene Tam, who expressed concern that the City and County of Honolulu wanted the marina to remain an option, Brewbaker wrote, “Who says a marina is an option? FOOL. Ain’t nobody going to build one, yo. You be dreaming. It’s lagoon versus nothing, dumb-ass.” …
Read … ʻEwa Developer Settles Marina Case For $40 Million - Honolulu Civil Beat
TRUMP NEWS:
LEGISLATIVE AGENDA:
QUICK HITS: