Palacios' death leaves NMI vulnerable to China
‘New’ HTA board taking off with same old baggage
Hawaii Basketball Coach Sentenced to Over 33 Years for Child Exploitation and Harassment of 10 Victims
DBEDT Releases 2024 State of Hawaii Data Book
Hawaii Named Least Affordable State for College Grads
Green Smoking Something: “Another $500M will fall from sky--Aloha Stadium to be ready in 2028—will seat 38,000”
KHON: … The new stadium is now scheduled to have a capacity of 22,500 seats, which Governor Josh Green says isn’t necessarily a final destination.
“22,500 seats is a start,” he said. “We think of that as kind of phase one. I’d like to get us up to 35 or 38,000 over time. Stanford is a great developer. We have incredible trust and history with him. So, what we’d hope is, and this is their plan, to go through phase one due to 22,500 seats, and then phase two as soon as there’s more money, to go to that larger 35-38,000 seat stadium.”
Another move in last week’s announcement was the date of opening back from the kickoff to the 2028 University of Hawaii football season to March of 2029.
“We are still talking about the possibilities of getting it ready for 2028,” Gov. Green added. “We want to be cautious about that. I don’t want to put too much pressure on them, but Stanford would like that to happen.”
More additions to the project can come through the private developer AHDP.
“So, he’s [Carr] bringing in some other investors. He’s been really working hard, as have I, to find another big partner so they can put in $300, $400, $500 extra million dollars and not just accelerate the project, but get it big enough so that we are a major Division I player,” Governor Green said….
read … Gov. Green says New Aloha Stadium can expand, hopes for earlier opening date
After years of pie-in-the-sky promises, UH and its supporters have learned they only can believe in themselves
SA: … After Aloha Stadium was shuttered for spectator-attended events in December 2020, we believed, sort of, when it was projected a replacement would be ready for the 2023 season. And then, for sure, by the 2025 opener, which is in five days. Last week, it was announced Aloha Stadium will be razed and a 22,500-seat replacement will open by March 2029, 10 months later than the 2028 due date promised at a July meeting.
Aside from the sections of bench seats and absence of roof covering, the new stadium would have the smallest seating capacity in the Mountain West and tie with Ball State’s Scheumann Stadium for seventh smallest among 136 FBS home venues. It also would defy the spirit of the promise to the Mountain West of building a stadium meeting the league’s standards….
The thing is, the Hawaii football community — which includes boosters and donors — never lit a candle and hoped that promises would be fulfilled.
When Aloha Stadium was shuttered — possibly a staring contest into forcing a new stadium — UH decided it could not wait to see who blinked first. Then-UH athletic director David Matlin led the retrofitting of the Ching Complex into a 9,000-seat venue for the Warriors. By completing the project in less than 10 months and under $10 million, the Warriors were ready for the 2021 home opener.
When fans grumbled about Ching’s bench seating, seat backs were installed in the sideline sections. When visiting teams complained about curtains being used to cordon off part of the “locker room” on the concourse of neighboring Les Murakami Stadium, wooden walls were built. After a state senate committee grumbled about the Ching Complex being retrofitted without its blessing, UH officials apologized and then expanded Ching to 16,909 seats.
With no grass practice field, artificial turf was added to the makai sideline this year to create more workout space for the Warriors.
The Warriors also rejuvenated Na Koa, the football booster club. UH started a meal program through Braddahhood Grindz. They formed collectives to arrange and compensate players with name, image, likeness deals. With help from associate head coach Chris Brown, they found previous untapped revenue sources, such as the Iron Workers Union. This past Saturday, head coach Timmy Chang’s wife, Sherry, and a childhood friend, staged the Braddahhood Ball. A who’s who of Hawaii’s business leaders attended. Stanford Carr, whose company is the developer of the new stadium, donated $10,000 during the program.
After years of pie-in-the-sky promises, UH and its supporters have learned they only can believe in themselves….
SA: Billy Hull: Enough of the ‘I told you so,’ at least stadium project is finally making some progress | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Stephen Tsai: When it comes to stadium matters, don’t believe what others say, trust your beliefs | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii plans $1.4B transit-oriented development in East Kapolei
PBN: … The state of Hawaii is planning a massive $1.4 billion transit-oriented development on170 acres of state-owned land in East Kapolei, adjacent to Hoopili. The state's ambitious plan for East Kapolei includes housing, a hotel and commercial space ….
read … Hawaii plans $1.4B transit-oriented development in East Kapolei - Pacific Business News
Pushback Against ‘Affordable’ Housing
CB: … The apartments at 1427 Ernest St., which opened with fanfare in 2023, were billed as an early success story in a city plan to fast-track new low-rise affordable rental units.
While the 26-unit new building has provided housing, it also has become a point of tension among neighbors who complain about new competition for already tight street parking and other concerns, in what has become a common refrain for development in Honolulu.
At neighborhood board meetings, critics said the program might be well-intentioned, but they called for more guardrails to cushion the impact on neighborhoods.
Last month, City Council member Scott Nishimoto introduced a bill to add three new requirements to this type of project in response: more off-street parking, on-site managers and presentations from developers to the local community on what’s being built before applying for permits.
“It’s not just one project,” Nishimoto said. He said residents in Makiki and McCully have told him that they’re frustrated with new housing units that are built without any notification….
read … Backlash May Prompt New Rules For Affordable Rentals In Honolulu - Honolulu Civil Beat
Kapalua Sues Maui Land & Pineapple Over West Maui Water Shortage
CB: … Yanai’s Honolulu-based TY Management Corp. owns and operates the Kapalua Plantation and Kapalua Bay golf courses, which it acquired from Maui Land & Pineapple, and has contracts under which Maui Land & Pineapple is supposed to provide non-potable irrigation water to the courses. The suit alleges that hasn’t been happening.
Joining Yanai are several residential developments and homeowners associations, which say they also have contractual relationships with Maui Land & Pineapple through Hawaiʻi Water Service, whose assets Maui Land & Pineapple previously owned.
In the 154 days leading up to the suit’s filing, the complaint says, Yanai and his fellow plaintiffs “have been restricted to using no irrigation water for 136 days, and restricted [to] using only forty percent of their historical irrigation water usage for the remaining 18 days.”
The suit, which was filed Monday in Hawaiʻi Circuit Court on Maui, asks the court to require Maui Land & Pineapple to honor its agreements and “undertake all commercially reasonable steps necessary to inspect, repair, and maintain the Ditch System … in a condition adequate for the reliable delivery of water.” ….
MN: Maui County, US Geological Survey collaborate on West Maui water project : Maui Now
read … Uniqlo Founder Sues Maui Land & Pineapple Over West Maui Water Shortage - Honolulu Civil Beat
Nearly 1 In 5 Warning Sirens On Oʻahu Were Broken During Tsunami Scare
CB: … Statewide, more than 18% of the 421 warning sirens in Hawaiʻi either need to be fixed or are completely inoperable. That figure is slightly higher on Oʻahu, according to data published after the most recent siren test Aug. 1….
The Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency says two dozen new sirens will be installed by the end of the year….
read … Nearly 1 In 5 Warning Sirens On Oʻahu Were Broken During Tsunami Scare - Honolulu Civil Beat
Lawsuit: Another Murder Inc Murder in Halawa
CB: … Daniel A.K. Smith was indicted May 13 on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of infamous convict Raita Fukusaku.
Myles Breiner, who was Fukusaku’s lawyer, said in an interview that he warned prison officials in writing almost 11 months before his client’s death that he had been “targeted for assassination by gang members” at the prison.
Fukusaku, 59, had served 30 years for the murders of Japanese fortune-teller Toako “Kototome” Fujita and her son Goro. That case triggered a media uproar in Japan in 1994, in part because Fujita had been consulted by prominent Japanese business and political leaders….
Breiner said in an interview that Fukusaku told him the threats came from the prison gang called Murder Inc., and he was being pressured to transport drugs within the prison. That gang, which has links to gangs outside the prison, is currently a focal point of a trial related to another inmate killing….
Fukusaku suffered from a (terminal, malignant) brain tumor, and was moved an average of twice a day from his housing module to the prison medical unit for care, Breiner said. He also made monthly hospital visits, even when the rest of the prison was locked down.
That made him “an ideal person for a mule for the gangs,” Breiner said….
read … Hawaiʻi Inmate Charged For Killing His Cellmate At Hālawa Prison - Honolulu Civil Beat
Acid attack suspect made civil rights, hate crime allegations
HNN: … Marquis Johnson, 34, turned himself in at Honolulu police headquarters Sunday evening and is being held on suspicion of first-degree assault.
In recent years, he has filed complaints about civil rights violations and claimed he was a victim of a vicious hate crime in Chinatown three years ago.
Those who spoke on and off the record for this story emphasized that they have sympathy for the victim and are not defending Johnson or even saying he is innocent.
But in court records and conversations, he has admitted his mental health has been affected by experiences in Hawaii.
Daniella Stolfi helped Johnson in 2022 post a call for witnesses after he said he was the victim of a beating in Chinatown by a gang yelling racial and anti-gay slurs.
“He woke up in a hospital,” she said. “They had cut his face with bottles. I think his back had been broken. He had some his bones in his face broken and then he left.”
“He did say, ‘Dani, Hawaii’s not the same, you know. People are so hateful,’ and he didn’t feel safe anymore here and that’s why he said he left,” she said.
Johnson also claimed in a 2022 lawsuit to have been roughed up and illegally arrested by Honolulu police in Waikiki in 2020.
He said police mistook him for a car thief when there were other Black suspects. That civil lawsuit has settled, but hasn’t reached the city council for final approval.
In another lawsuit filed that year, Johnson claimed he was being recorded by hidden cameras in a house he was allowed to stay in during the 2020 COVID lockdown. The owners denied there were any hidden cameras and he did invite people into the house despite pandemic restrictions.
Johnson came back to Hawaii from Georgia to be questioned in that lawsuit. That deposition happened the day before the acid attack….
SA: Chinatown acid attack ‘out of character’ for suspect, friend says | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Acid attack suspect made civil rights, hate crime allegations
Hawaii Solar Lobby Loses $61M Subsidy
SA: … The Environmental Protection Agency announced its termination of the $7 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s Solar for All program on Aug. 7, designed to enable 900,000 households in disadvantaged communities across the country to benefit from distributed solar energy.
Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Authority was one of 60 grant recipients in the U.S. and was awarded $62.45 million to launch its SFA-HI program, reducing nonrenewable energy use and financial burden for residents by financing the installation of solar and storage systems on single-family homes and multifamily rental projects….
Glick told the Star-Advertiser that removing the SFA funds — $62.45 million — means “eliminating the possibility of reduced energy costs for over 2,000 low-to-moderate income households.”
(DO THE MATH: $62.45M / 2,000 = $31,225 per installation.)
“Based on the current cost of $5.60/watt for installed solar plus storage, our office estimates the proposed clawback of over $62 million in Solar for All funds will diminish distributed energy generation by 11 MW of power,” he said in an email….
read … End of EPA solar program to affect thousands in Hawaii | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii County, ex-R&D director sued for favoritism
HTH: … The lawsuit, which also names the county as a defendant, was filed on Freedman’s behalf by Honolulu attorney Bosko Petricevic. It alleges that Freedman, who was born in 1961, was passed over when he applied to become the county’s film commissioner because of his age and Adams’ “blatant misrepresentations” and “predetermination to hire” Aulani Freitas for the position in 2022, 10 months after previous film commissioner Justin Finestone retired….
Freedman also claims that Adams “as hiring manager had a prior working relationship with Freitas and waited for Freitas to become available for the position, thus resulting in a delay of 10 months from the time the previous film commissioner, Mr. Finestone, retired to the time in which the position was ‘opened.’”…
According to Freedman’s complaint, he communicated occasionally with Adams after Finestone’s departure, and Adams allegedly told him numerous times the film commissioner opening hadn’t been posted. Freedman also claims that prior to opening, Adams “purposely misled the County Council, leading them to believe that he had posted the job and was not getting any qualified candidates.”
Freedman further alleges that Adams informed him on March 7, 2022, via blind-copy email “that the position had ‘opened’ and was now publicly posted.”
“Upon reviewing the post, (Freedman) noted that the application window was for a very small window of only nine days,” the complaint states. The lawsuit calls the application window “absurdly narrow.” …
read … County, ex-R&D director sued for age-discrimination - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
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