September 24 2025 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

September 24 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 4:56 PM :: 1010 Views

Paia: Will Maui lose ANOTHER town to fire due to refusal to clear out Holomua Homeless Camp?

Judge signals six-month delay of Hawaii jet fuel contamination case

Green Emergency Order Allows COVID-19 Vax Without Prescription

Pay-To-Play: Hawaiʻi CEO Pressured Staff To Make Political Gifts

CB: … Real estate developer Timothy Lee pressured employees to donate to political campaigns in 2020 and padded a payment to a contractor to reimburse him for campaign donations, according to testimony before an Oʻahu grand jury.

The JL Capital CEO is facing nine felony counts of false name contributions — instances where named donors are not the source of funds to political campaigns. Prosecutors say he reimbursed employees for donations they made to the mayoral campaigns of Kym Pine and Keith Amemiya in March and April 2020.

Lee has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers are asking for the case against him to be dismissed. They argue the facts in this case don’t amount to crimes under the false names law, and say prosecutors failed to show that there was an agreement to reimburse any of the employees’ donations.

The motion to dismiss, which goes before a judge on Wednesday, included 150 pages of grand jury testimony with new details about how payments flowed to employees after they donated to mayoral campaigns….

Ka Wai Norman Chan, JL Capital’s former chief financial officer, testified to the grand jury that he overheard Lee and JL Capital Vice President Michael Vachio strategizing about donations to influence certain individuals in the City and County of Honolulu.

Chan recounted that on his second day at work in March 2020, one of Lee’s assistants went around the office asking for checks to political campaigns. Chan said he took out his checkbook and wrote a $1,000 donation to Amemiya in an attempt to fit in….

Ted Saihara, who owned a marketing company that did social media for JL Capital, said that he was reimbursed for donations to Amemiya. In March 2020, Saihara sent Lee an invoice for $1,500 for his services the month prior.

“It’s really 500 but added the 1,000 for Amemiya,” Saihara wrote….

In late April 2020, Lee wrote to Amemiya seemingly out of the blue to tell him that “We made a small $5,000 donation to Motiv8,” a foundation launched by quarterback Marcus Mariota. That donation appears unrelated to the campaign, but at the time Amemiya was leading a project to provide meals to students that was partially funded by the Mariota foundation….

Before her campaign cashed the donations, Pine, then a City Council member, had emailed Lee under the subject line “These Your Donors?” asking for the titles of employees who made donations — a reporting requirement for individual donations of $1,000 or more. Lee responded with the names of those employees and their positions with JL Capital….

read … Pay-To-Play: Hawaiʻi CEO Pressured Staff To Make Political Gifts - Honolulu Civil Beat

100s of Criminal Confessions to be retroactively thrown out because of new Hawaii Supreme Court ruling

HNN: … Hawaii Supreme Court justices overturned the Intermediate Court of Appeals decision in issuing this opinion last week.

Police departments in Hawaii are now required to use video and audio recordings of all interrogations done at police stations if the suspect is under arrest….

… The state’s high court also made this requirement retroactive so cases that are pending even those under appeal could be affected with confessions possibly thrown out.

Four of the justices concurred. Two of them concurred in part and dissented in part, and one dissented, Associate Justice Lisa Ginoza….

PDF: SC Ruling Zuffante | PDF | Miranda Warning | Right To Silence

B: Hawaii Supreme Court Expands Rights of Defendants, and Once Again Rebukes SCOTUS | Bolts

RS: State judge unleashes fury on Supreme Court in rulings - Raw Story

read … Confessions could be thrown out because of new Hawaii Supreme Court ruling

Cruise Lines Double Hawaii Capacity

BH: … Hawaii has long wrestled with how much tourism is too little, enough, or too much. That debate is now front and center again. State leaders from the Hawaii Department of Transportation say they intend to reduce cruise ship arrivals by up to 50% over the next five years. At the same time, the industry is moving in the opposite direction, with expanded seasons, longer voyages, and more stops across the islands.

One of the most visible pushes comes from Carnival Cruise Line. Beginning in October 2027, the Carnival Legend will operate a six-month Hawaii program from Long Beach, running through March 2028. The schedule features ten 14-day “Journeys” voyages with stops in Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, Hilo, Kona, and Ensenada….

Each departure carries about 2,100 guests and nearly doubles Carnival’s previous Hawaii deployment. It is a clear signal that the line is expected to see lasting demand, even as Hawaii’s leaders prepare to scale back….

TAW: Carnival Announces New 2027-2028 Deployments, Including First Dedicated Hawaii Series | TravelAge West

read … Hawaii Plans To Reduce This Tourism Sector Even As It Grows - Beat of Hawaii

Gov. Green says he'd sign a mandatory motorcycle helmet law—IF it gets to his desk (meanwhile only mopeds require helmets)

KHON: … Key Words: ‘Gets to his desk’ -- CLUE: We now have a helmet law for mopeds but not motorcycles because Legislators are afraid of MC gangs ….

Sept 19, 2025: Green Signs Executive Order to improve traffic safety

read … Gov. Green says he'd sign a mandatory motorcycle helmet law—if it gets to his desk

Maui Land & Pineapple files countersuit over Kapalua water shortage

SA: … Maui Land &Pineapple Co. filed counterclaims in court late Monday night against five entities suing the company over an irrigation water shortage that led the PGA to scrap a prestigious January 2026 golf tournament worth $50 million to Maui’s economy.

The former pineapple plantation operator alleges that the owner of two golf courses, three homeowners associations and one organic farm in Kapalua, which sued MLP in August, jeopardized the safety of the Kapalua community by using water barred by restrictions throughout June and three days in August.

MLP also contends in its legal filing that the water shortage isn’t due to any failure of its own to maintain the company’s delivery system, as plaintiffs contend.

“The problem is not MLP’s system; the problem is there has not been enough rain in the past year to supply stream water to all off-stream users in West Maui,” Race Randle, CEO of MLP, said in a statement.

CB: Maui Developer Fires Back In Claims Against Uniqlo Founder - Honolulu Civil Beat

KHON: Maui Land and Pineapple files countersuit against TY Management, citing defamation

KITV: A fight over water in West Maui spills over into court

read … Maui Land & Pineapple files countersuit over Kapalua water shortage | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Rising construction costs keep Hawaii home prices high

KITV … The state saw a year-over-year construction cost increase of a little more than 5%. That's according to the latest report from construction cost firm Rider Levett Bucknall….

"We are not going to see any decreases, which I think is been like that for the past three decades and but I want to say, slow down," Cassie Idehara, vice president for Rider Levett Bucknall, told Island News. "Hopefully the inflation is kind of slower, but it's still going to continue to inflate unfortunately."…

read … Rising construction costs to keep Hawaii home prices high | Business | kitv.com

City council delays vote on transit fare increases

HNN: … a proposal to raise fares stalled again in the Council’s Budget Committee Tuesday.

The Council has been considering fare hikes in Bill 54 for two months....

City Transportation Services director Roger Morton told the committee the increases would bring in an estimated $4 million more per year, less than one percent of transit costs.

“People say a drop in a bucket, but $4 million to me is real money,” Morton said.

But advocates for workers, the elderly and disabled say even small increases can discourage riders….

The Council is struggling more with how to protect vulnerable riders who depend on transit from the increases. But the current very low fare for people with very low incomes is hardly used, with about 4,500 using it out of a potential 110,000 eligible.

He said applying is difficult.

“That can be a daunting task for individuals and for households to go to the IRS and get certified copies of their tax returns and whatnot, and put them in a bundle that can be then analyzed by the Department of Community Services,” he said….

Transit systems always cost way more than the fares that are collected. Honolulu does have an ordinance that requires the city to get 25-30 percent of its cost from the farebox, but right now the system is collecting only 12 percent of the $400 million cost for the unified system and 14 percent for the bus system alone.

The required farebox ratio hasn’t been met since 2016 and a new resolution is proposing to repeal it, but Morton said it could be useful as the system matures….

read … City council delays vote on transit fare increases

Dole pesticide lawsuit back in Hawai‘i court

ASD: … A decades-long legal battle between Dole Fruit Company and a group of Central American citizens is back in Hawai‘i court.

In 1997, five men from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Ecuador sued Dole and several other companies — including Dow Chemical Company, Shell Oil Company, Del Monte Fresh Produce and others — over their use of the pesticide dibromochloropropane (DBCP) in their home countries. After some jurisdictional debate, the case landed in Honolulu Circuit Court.

Nearly 20 years later, that lawsuit is still hotly contested. On Monday, the Hawai‘i Intermediate Court of Appeals sent the case back to Honolulu Circuit Court for another round of hearings….

read … Dole pesticide lawsuit back in Hawai‘i court

Two boulders are crushing Hawaii: Trump’s tariffs and the Jones Act

TH: … Hawaii’s geographic isolation doesn’t just increase dependence on imports, it magnifies the harm of federal policies like tariffs and the Jones Act. …

Tariffs only tighten the squeeze. On April 2, the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs on imported goods. Most countries now face a 10 percent tariff, with China’s as high as 145 percent.

Beijing responded with tariffs of up to 125 percent. Even after adjustments, the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates the average U.S. tariff on Chinese goods at 57.6 percent and China’s reciprocal rate on U.S. goods at 32.6 percent.

In theory, tariffs should make U.S.-made goods more competitive. In practice, combined with the Jones Act, they drive up the price of goods before they even reach Hawaii. Either way, local families lose….

read … Two boulders are crushing Hawaii: Trump’s tariffs and the Jones Act

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