November 14, 2025 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Friday, November 14, 2025

November 14, 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:13 PM :: 119 Views

Remember 313,000? A look at HART's shifty ridership projections

Green Names Advisory Committee for Military Land Negotiations

Coast Guard Intercepts Russian Spy Ship 15 Miles off Barbers Point

Honolulu Grand Jury Indicts Two in Realty Scam

Former death row inmate sentenced to life for sex trafficking in Hawaii

Trump signs executive order to improve foster care

Feds now Claim $35K Legislative Bribery Case Does Not Exist

SA: … The acting U.S. Attorney for Hawaii told the state House speaker that a public corruption probe that convicted two state legislators and a Maui County official for bribery remains “active” and that any parallel state probe could interfere — also clarifying that a bribery offense referred to in court documents did not involve an “influential state legislator” mentioned elsewhere in court filings.

In response to a Nov. 7 letter from state House Speaker Nadine Nakamura inquiring about an alleged $35,000 in campaign contributions in January 2022 involving an unnamed state lawmaker and a paper bag, acting U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said he understood the “legislature’s concern regarding public corruption investigations that may touch upon the activities of individual legislators.”

Sorenson told Nakamura the U.S. Department of Justice can “clear up some confusion” generated by the partial unsealing of a filing detailing how former House Committee on Finance Vice Chair Ty Cullen worked as an informant for the FBI after he and ex-state Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English were caught taking bribes from a wastewater executive to manipulate legislation.

“The filing references a ‘chargeable bribery offense’ and many have erroneously arrived at the conclusion that this is a reference to the ‘approximately $35,000 in funds’ mentioned in previous paragraph of the motion. To clear up any misconception, the referenced ‘bribery offense’ is unrelated to the $35,000 in the paper bag,” wrote Sorenson in his response Nov. 10. “Put another way, the so named ‘influential state legislator’ was not involved in the ‘bribery offense’ alluded to in the filing. Hopefully this addresses your most pressing concern.”…

Sorenson noted that federal investigative work must many times operate under a “cloak of secrecy in order to augment the possibilities of success.”

“Some of our investigations take years to complete, and most require absolute secrecy in order to have any chance of bearing fruit,” he said….

read … Federal corruption inquiry still going following 3 convictions | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

False Dichotomy: Lawmakers, advocates ‘defend’ mail-in voting

SA: … State representatives, along with members of the ACLU, Common Cause Hawaii and the Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action held a news conference Thursday after the Hawaii Elections Commission voted to urge the Legislature to end universal mail-in voting and return to one-day, in-person voting. Rep. Adrian Tam, right, spoke during the news conference at the state Capitol. Also pictured, from left, are Aria Juliet Castillo of HAPA, Josh Frost of the ACLU, Common Cause Hawaii Director Camron Hurt and Rep. Tina Grandinetti….

In October the Hawaii Elections Commission voted 5-3 to ask the Legislature to rescind the state’s universal mail-in voting system and return to single-day, in-person elections with limited absentee ballots — (which would be) a dramatic reversal of the 2019 law that established all-mail voting statewide (if the Legislature enacted the proposal, which it obviously won’t)….

(MEANWHILE: The plan to suppress Election Day and Primary Day walk-in voters will continue for another cycle.)

(REALITY: Adding more polling places on Election Day does NOT require an end to, or reduction of, mail-in balloting.)

Reality, for those who can handle it: Long Lines Suppress Republican Votes on Election Day: City Clerk Plans to do it Again

read … Lawmakers, advocates defend mail-in voting | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

No Surprise: Green’s TMT letter draws strong opposition at Maunakea authority meeting

HTH: … The Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority took no vote Thursday but heard hours of testimony sparked by Gov. Josh Green’s recent letter outlining a path for permitting the Thirty Meter Telescope on a previously developed site atop Maunakea.

The meeting came as the authority continues its (pretend) management transition under Act 255 — the 2022 law that created the panel and set a five-year handover of Maunakea governance from the University of Hawaii. The transition is now 29 months into a 60-month process scheduled to conclude July 1, 2028….

Following a Sept. 11 presentation to the board in Hilo, TMT project manager Fengchuan Liu informed members that (in between Spanish lessons) the team behind the roughly $3 billion telescope is considering redeveloping a former observatory site. The potential redevelopment could include the location where the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory stood until it was decommissioned last year….

read … Green’s TMT letter draws strong opposition at Maunakea authority meeting - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Maui: Usual Suspects Getting Closer to Grabbing Mahi Pono Water and Dumping it Down Stream Beds

CB: … The sugar plantations have all since shut down, and Mahi Pono, a diversified agriculture company owned by a Canadian pension fund, assumed full control this summer of East Maui Irrigation, the A&B subsidiary that for 140 years operated the ditch-and-tunnel water diversion system.

The future of East Maui water is now at a crossroads. Pahukoa, along with other taro farmers, cultural practitioners and environmental advocates, wants the state to put this resource back into the hands of the public while Mahi Pono wants the state to give it a long-term lease so it can divert up to 85 million gallons per day from the streams.

State land officials have recommended the Hawaiʻi Board of Land and Natural Resources hold a contested case hearing to decide the best course of action — either approve a 30-year water license by public auction or give the county control via governor’s executive order. The board plans to vote Friday on whether to proceed with the administrative hearing, following years of legal battles over the annual revocable permits it has granted in the interim….

read … The Fight Over The Future Of East Maui Water Returns To The State Land Board - Honolulu Civil Beat

Lacking Space in Lunatic Asylums, City Gives Homeless Tickets Instead

CB: … Yvonne Almond was supposed to be in court to face one of 233 charges she has been hit with in the past year for being homeless in Honolulu. But when the judge in Courtroom 7D called her name, she was nowhere to be seen.

The judge promptly dismissed her case anyway, for lack of evidence. In barely a minute and with a few key strokes by the court clerk, the case was closed and Almond’s latest charges – sitting or lying on a public sidewalk and littering – went away.

That had been the outcome for Almond dozens of times already this year and would be again just a week later….

read … Honolulu’s Crackdown Traps Homeless In Loop Of Citations - Honolulu Civil Beat

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