October 30, 2025 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Current Articles | Archives

Thursday, October 30, 2025

October 30, 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 4:19 PM :: 256 Views

Petition: Investigate Legislator who took $35K Bribe

Hawaii is Failing in Affordability and Homebuilding: Can Gov. Green Change That?

Royal Hawaiian Band kicks off Christmas Season with free “Kalikimaka Ho‘omau” Holiday Concert at Blaisdell Nov. 28

Koko Head Shooting Complex Back at 100%

State Opens up Welfare Spigots to Make up for Loss of SNAP

Time Magazine Honors Josh Green for Discovering New Way to Use ‘Climate Change’ as Excuse to Raise Taxes

TIME: … The devastation on Maui forced a reckoning: how do we address the underlying risk, not just the aftermath? How do we raise long-term, reliable funds to harden our infrastructure, restore natural buffers, reduce wildfire fuel loads, and prepare our water, transportation, and energy systems for the new climate reality?

(TRANSLATION: The Lahaina Fire was just another excuse to raise taxes.)

Out of that need, we introduced legislation to create the Climate Impact Fee, also known as Hawaii’s “Green Fee.” The concept was simple but powerful: if tourism, which depends on our natural beauty, contributes to our environmental footprint, then a small portion of visitor lodging taxes should help pay for climate resilience. The burden is modest, just 0.75% added to the state’s Transient Accommodations Tax, but the return is transformative.

(TRANSLATION: The Lahaina Fire was just another excuse to raise taxes.)

Under State Senate Bill 1396, signed into law in May 2025, this surcharge is projected to generate at least $100 million annually. That revenue will be dedicated exclusively to mitigate climate impact. It cannot be swept into unrelated spending. Instead, it will support coastal restoration, firebreak construction, invasive species control, stormwater system upgrades, and other climate-buffering projects, with a state climate advisory council and annual legislative review providing oversight.

(CLUE: Everything can be made to seem ‘climate related.’ Now all departments have an incentive to shape their ‘ask’ accordingly.)

We also expanded the fee to cruise passengers, prorated by their time in port.

(CLUE: Unconstitutional. Lawsuit coming soon.)

Altogether, this is the first fully integrated, statewide system in the United States to fund climate adaptation through tourism.

(CLUE: Tourism has devolved into the annual cleansing ritual of the environmental religion. Tithing is part of the ceremony.)

And critically, it is forward-funded. We no longer have to wait for disaster to strike and hope for emergency appropriations. We are investing now, before the next devastating storm, fire, or drought….

(TRANSLATION: We don’t need a disaster because we have conjured one up in your mind so you want to keep on paying.)

TIME: Josh Green: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 | TIME

read … The Case for a Climate Impact Fee | TIME

Cult News: FBI opposes push for Gabbard to take lead on counterintelligence

HTH: … The FBI informed Congress last week that it “strongly” opposed a proposal to make the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the lead counterintelligence agency for the federal government, bringing into public view a rift among top national security officials.

The disclosure, made in a pointed and unusual letter obtained by The New York Times, underscored the broader concern at other agencies, including the FBI, over a House bill that would empower Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to play a more prominent role in counterintelligence issues.

It also appeared to be an effort to undercut Gabbard, who planned to endorse the change in a separate letter, given that the bill would step into what has typically been the bureau’s purview.

The FBI letter was the latest example of tensions between Gabbard and her counterparts at other intelligence agencies, including FBI Director Kash Patel. A bid by Joe Kent, a top Gabbard ally who leads the National Counterterrorism Center, to investigate the circumstances of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing had already raised alarms at the FBI, after Kent went so far as to examine the bureau’s files ….

REALITY: Articles Main > Tulsi Gabbard

read … FBI opposes push for Gabbard to take lead on counterintelligence - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Bissen News: Maui County Funded Groups help Mainstream Lahaina Strong Meth Gang

MN: … Halloween Lahaina Strong Tent or Treat Mākeke: Co-sponsoed by Maui Behavioral Health Resources, Ka La'i Ola, West Maui Green Cycle, Hawaii Community Foundation, Maui Economic Recovery Commission, Hui No Ke Ola Pono, and Lahaina Strong Neighborhood Watch …..

(IDEA: To get them started as future customers, sprinkle meth on the kiddies’ Halloween treats.)

REALITY: Meet the Meth Gang Behind ‘Lahaina Strong’ > Hawaii Free Press

read … Lahaina Strong to host 2nd Mākeke on Halloween : Maui Now

Bermudez dumps another attorney

ILind: … Lance Bermudez was the last of about 18 associates of the late racketeering boss, Michael J. Miske, Jr., to be sentenced. On July 14, Judge Derrick Watson sentenced him to 30 years (360 months) for drug trafficking, with lesser sentences for racketeering and assault to run concurrently to the drug term. It was the longest prison sentence among that 18 or so of Miske’s co-defendants and other associates who pleaded guilty.

He is currently serving his sentence at a federal facility in North Carolina.

Within days of his sentencing, Bermudez filed a notice that he would be appealing to the 9th Circuit Court. At the same time, his attorney, Myles Breiner, filed a motion asking to withdraw from the case. In a declaration filed in court, Breiner said Bermudez wanted a court-appointed attorney to take over. Breiner also said there could be a conflict of interest if Bermudez were to appeal based on a claim of “ineffective counsel.”

A California-based attorney, DeAnna Dotson, was appointed to replace Breiner on August 14….

read … Bermudez dumps another attorney

Pohoiki Bay Dredging Was A Onetime Job

CB: … On Hawaiʻi island, there are two kinds of harbors.

Honokōhau, on the Kona side, is federal — part of the Army Corps’ navigation network with regular dredging and a standing maintenance budget. Each year, Washington covers the cost because tourists sail from it, charters launch from it, and commerce depends on it.

Then there’s Wailoa in Hilo. State-managed. Shallow. Choked with silt after every storm. Its dredging depends on whatever the Legislature can spare that year. Sometimes it gets a little. Sometimes nothing at all.

It’s a culture of repair without relationship — a system that measures success by the first press release, not the second tide.

Pohoiki sits below even that. No federal authorization, no maintenance plan. Its one lifeline was a FEMA grant written for recovery, not resilience. When the project failed, the money was gone.

A 2021 State Auditor’s Office report found hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred harbor work statewide — a backlog built on the same quiet logic: fix what breaks, not what lasts ….

read … Will Bailey: Pohoiki Bay Dredging Was A Onetime Job — That's How Feds Do It - Honolulu Civil Beat

Kamehameha Ending Scholarships For Students Attending Other Schools

CB: … Kamehameha distributed $7.1 million to 828 Kipona Scholarship recipients in 2024. Over the years, about 36% of eligible applicants who applied for the scholarship were ultimately awarded aid, the data showed….

read … Kamehameha Ending Scholarships For Students Attending Other Schools

QUICK HITS: