Hawaii limits on concealed carry headed for Supreme Court
UHERO: 'Politically Vulnerable' Hawaiʻi nonprofits face losing more than $100M in federal cuts
Green's Budget and Finance Director Resigns
Foster Home Abuses: “You are a fool, Mr O’Brien”
CB: … The 2022 deposition was part of a reckoning two decades in the making.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the state had relied on Teixeira to take in boys who it said no one else would accept, nearly 60 in all by his own count.
JR decided to act after hearing a radio ad from a law firm about a Hawaiʻi law that allowed child sex abuse victims to file suit even if the statute of limitations had run out.
He alleged that a state caseworker dropped him off with Teixeira one day in 1998 and barely checked in on him again, leaving him to fend for himself in a home where much older boys and his foster dad preyed upon him.
He started contacting some of his foster brothers to see if they, too, would come forward.
He also talked to the mother of Rahiem Morris, a former foster boy who committed suicide in 2020, a year or more after he agreed to testify in JR’s lawsuit….
The deposition didn’t seem to have the desired effect, especially when he was questioned by Frank O’Brien, Teixeira’s attorney. At one point, O’Brien asked if he got an erection when his foster father took his penis into his mouth.
“You are a fool, Mr. O’Brien,” the witness said. “No, you are a fucking fool.”…
Teixeira has never faced criminal charges for the abuse. One Hawaiʻi law makes it a Class A felony to sexually abuse a victim under the age of 14 “continuously.” The perpetrator must commit three or more acts of sexual contact or penetration over time.
The law has no statute of limitations….
read … Foster Home Abuses Were Secret For Years. A Lawsuit Exposed Them - Honolulu Civil Beat
Arguments wrap up over steep increase in regulated interisland shipping rates
SA: … The state Public Utilities Commission will render a decision, anticipated by the end of the year, on how much of an increase is deserved by the financially listing carrier Young Brothers LLC.
Young Brothers seeks a 26% boost, and also wants automatic annual raises based on inflation….
One of the largest drivers of the proposed rate hike is $74 million Young Brothers spent to buy two new barges and two new tugboats put into service at the end of 2024….
on the third day, PUC member Colin Yost tried to get a handle on dividend payments Young Brothers has made to its Seattle- based parent, transportation and distribution conglomerate Saltchuk.
The dollar amount of the dividend payments are confidential, but Yost wanted to know from Ashlee Kishimoto, Young Brothers director of finance, if it amounted to more than $20 million….
Young Brothers filed its new rate application Oct. 15, seeking the 26% increase that includes a 20% average increase on most cargo and up to 45% on some service.
As an interim measure, the company asked the PUC in February to approve a general 20% rate increase effective April 1 followed by an additional 5% by July 1. Then in April, Young Brothers applied for annual inflationary increases, and asked for the first one by July.
On June 27, the PUC approved an 18.1% interim general rate increase that took effect July 1….
(Wow. Too bad Hawaii doesn’t have the Superferry as an alternative.)
read … Arguments wrap up over steep increase in regulated interisland shipping rates | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii colleges see 14% drop in male students over past decade
PBN: … Female enrollment in higher education in Hawaii remains higher than male enrollment, with a 61% to 39% split….
PBN: Colleges and Universities: Full-time Enrollment - Pacific Business News
read … Hawaii colleges see 14% drop in male students over past decade - Pacific Business News
FEMA Scales Back Direct Lease Housing For Maui Fire Survivors
CB: … At least 14 contracts with Lima Charlie, a California-based company specializing in disaster relief housing and property management, were terminated on Aug. 28. FEMA said it had secured temporary housing for all of the eligible households enrolled in its direct housing program and there were “no remaining unmet needs,” according to agency spokeswoman Nicole Timon-Shipman.
“As families transition out of the FEMA temporary housing program, we will continue to release the units they vacate,” she said in a statement.….
By September, FEMA had reduced the number of contracts with Lima Charlie that were associated with the direct lease program to 27, according to federal data. The agency had 42 contracts with the company in August and 637 over the course of the last two years.
Two other private companies, North Carolina-based Aesthetic Home Investments and Florida-based Parliament LLC, were also contracted by FEMA to manage rental units on Maui. Since September 2023, the agency has had a total of 446 contracts with Aesthetic Home Investments and Parliament, according to publicly available data. Last month, FEMA only had 14 contracts — some of which were related to multiple units — with the two companies for Maui properties….
read … FEMA Scales Back Direct Lease Housing For Maui Fire Survivors - Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaiʻi County Presses ICA To Allow Vacation Rentals on Ag Land
EH: … More than a year ago – September 2024 – the state Supreme Court issued a ruling on the question of whether short-term vacation rentals are allowed on land in the state Agricultural District….
… county attorneys profess to be confused by the ruling and the Planning Department is allowing “hosted” vacation rentals to continue to operate in the Agricultural District, claiming that the Supreme Court decision was actually much narrower than it would seem at first glance. And the county is defending that claim in a case pending before the Intermediate Court of Appeals…
Read … Hawaiʻi County Presses ICA To Allow Vacation Rentals on Ag Land
Man, 50, with 4 convictions, killed in shooting with Honolulu police
SA: … A suicidal 50-year-old man, who had a gun and four criminal convictions, was fatally shot this morning by two Honolulu police officers near the The Queen’s Medical Center, Interim Police Chief Rade Vanic said at a news conference this afternoon ….
read … Man, 50, with 4 convictions, killed in shooting with Honolulu police | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Health care workers plan massive strike across California, Hawaii and Oregon
BJ: … The United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) announced Friday that they have delivered a strike notice to Kaiser Permanente executives, setting the start of the strike for Tuesday, Oct. 14.
The announcement of the strike falls within the ten-day window that health care unions must provide employers prior to a strike….
HNN: Unionized Kaiser workers prepare for possible strike after contract expires
read … Health care workers plan massive strike across California, Hawaii and Oregon - The Business Journal
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