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Wednesday, November 19, 2025

November 19, 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:06 PM :: 235 Views

Feds: Green Fee is 'Illegal Extortion Scheme'

Maui DWS Admits -- Just One Well Will Solve Most of Water Problem

Gun owner fights silencer ban at Ninth Circuit

DoH Updates Rules for Marijuana Dispensaries

Military Land Negotiations: OHA Tries to Sideline Governor Green

Exposed: How DHS, ‘Experts’ Covered up Ariel Sellers’ Broken Bones

CB: … Ariel Sellers kept breaking bones — first one finger on each hand, then her clavicle and finally her leg.

Doctors and other ‘experts’ were concerned. What could be causing the young girl’s spate of injuries in just four months? One doctor suggested that maybe Ariel was impervious to pain, and missed the neurological signals telling her that her bones were breaking.

The condition is extremely rare, affecting an estimated 1 in 25,000 people. …

Other ‘experts’ opined that Ariel might suffer from a disease that made her bones brittle and susceptible to breaking. State officials (need names) and others involved (need names) with the girl’s case kept repeating these possible causes.

But could there be another explanation? Could Ariel’s foster parents, Isaac and Lehua Kalua, be abusing her?

Not likely, the ‘experts’ (need names) said.

“All fractures have a plausible explanation and are not consistent with child maltreatment,” a panel of ‘experts’ known as a multi-disciplinary team wrote in February 2020, “… however, further evaluation may be needed to rule out a medical cause such as bone disease.”

The team recommended that her biological parents’ rights be terminated, opening the way for her adoption by the Kaluas….

(Identify and fire every one of these ‘experts.’ And strip them of all professional licenses.)

… in response to a Hawaiʻi Supreme Court order, hundreds of pages of her foster care and adoption case history have been unsealed. Despite extensive redactions, they reveal a wealth of new information about how the state, in its drive to permanently remove Ariel from her biological parents, overlooked or discounted warning signs that her foster parents could have posed the graver danger.

First and foremost were the injuries. The Kaluas reported that they noticed her swollen fingers on Oct. 14, 2019….

PF: https://www.publicfirstlaw.org/case/kalua/

read … The Foster Girl's Bones Kept Breaking. Expert Suggested She Didn't Feel Pain - Honolulu Civil Beat

Green flip-flop: Income Tax Hike Coming

HNN: … Gov. Josh Green says with the shutdown, Trump’s tariffs, and the overall cuts to federal funding, the state is losing about $3 billion.

Gov. Josh Green on how Hawaii is faring now that the federal government is back open, and what the state is doing in light of potential future shutdowns.

“A recession is upon us, just because of the multiple variables that have happened,” Green said. “I mean the shutdown had a direct consequence, just because people didn’t have pay checks and we had to pay, I think it was over 1,000 people unemployment briefly. It had an impact on travel, of course. It also forced me come up with $42 million right away to feed people.

(CLUE: The State can’t tax itself out of a recession.)

“I have told my team, we’re going to have a flat budget next year. In other words, don’t expect increases in any of the departmental asks,” Green said. “We will focus instead on what’s absolutely necessary, and that again is security, food, housing.”

The governor says when it comes to balancing the budget, everything is on the table, including potentially scaling back some of the tax breaks passed two years ago for higher income earners.

No matter what, the state is going to have to dip into its reserves.

“We will look and use the rainy day fund on some level,” Green said. “I think it’s safe to say that that is not a secret. We have $1.58 billion in the rainy day fund. ... I will not be surprised at all if we have to take several hundred million dollars to make sure we keep everything together.” …

IM: Tax Proponents Coming to 2026 State Legislature | Ililani Media

read … Spotlight Now: Governor warns of slow recovery for Hawaii’s economy post-shutdown

Maui Prep Evac Center: “These weren’t government officials. These were families from other parts of Maui that had gone to Walmart or Target”

G: … “Hey, Dad, there’s a police officer at the door and he wants to talk to you.” I went to the door. He said: “Hey, are you Ryan, the principal of Maui prep?” I said yes. He goes: “We got to open your school right now. We have to set it up as an evacuation centre because there’s buses on their way up to the school. You need to open everything up.”

I hopped in the car and drove up to the school, roughly 1km away, out of the fire zone. The police officer had his lights going and I was following. Everything was just black. There’s still no power. But, at one point, you could see this big, orange, arching glow over the whole town. The stark contrast: this bright orange glow with pitch black sky. Feeling the weight of knowing something tragic was going on but not having any idea of the scale of the devastation.

There were several cars and a bus waiting. The police officer and I opened up the gates and as many classrooms as we could. All these city buses started arriving full of people covered in smoke and ash and soot. They were just black head to toe. People were injured. Some were in their clothes. Some were in their pyjamas. Some were soaking wet.

The buses just kept coming. An influx of people and buses. Maui prep families started showing up to the school to help. Our school is only 300 kids. That night, we had 800 people on our campus.

I remember we couldn’t cook anything. There’s no power. We had a little concession area. We started handing out all of our bags of Cheetos or ice-cream. We had some bottled water. Tourists, visitors and residents started dropping off food, water and clothes. These weren’t county officials. These weren’t government officials. These were families from other parts of Maui that had gone to Walmart or Target in central Maui, bought as much stuff as they could with their own money, drove it out to us and unloaded truckloads of supplies at the school.

We gave as many as we could to the evacuees and we still had all these supplies. We said: “We’ll serve as a food, water, clothing distribution site.” We let four cars in at a time. A volunteer would come and say: “Hey, what are your needs?” “Oh, man, it would be great if we could just get some water.” Here’s a whole crate of water. Next car comes in. A line of several hundred cars parked down the hill, out to the highway.….

Because the power was out, we had restaurants bringing up food. One family took it upon themselves to feed all 200 of the volunteers. They brought propane grills, cooking breakfast burritos or sausages and bacon and eggs. They cooked up some expensive steaks. I remember those smells and going: “Boy, this is the best-tasting and smelling piece of bacon I’ve had in my life.”…

read … ‘We sent the kids home. Then all our cellphones went out’

Green Injects ‘Desalination’ Scam into Lahaina Water Wars

HNN: … Rolfing said he has been pushing the governor, course owner and Maui Land and Pineapple to work together to save the economic asset.

Governor proposes desalination partnership

Gov. Josh Green said he wants the parties to partner on desalination.

“I’d like them to partner, and I’ve been meeting with them to do desal. They did it in Kona it works pretty well. That’s a future solution,” Green said.

(CLUE: Kona ‘desal’ only works because they are bottling overpriced seawater to sell in Japan.)

Other proposed (ie real) solutions include more reservoirs to catch overflow from heavy rains and pipelines to move available recycled wastewater where needed….

(CLUE: ‘Drill a well.’)

Sept 2025: Next Boondoggle: Useless $204M Kalaeloa Desalination Plant

read … West Maui water conflicts raise hope for future solutions

Maui County in ‘Earliest Phases’ of Phony Desalination Scam Project

MN: … With a desalination plant, the department would have additional water resources to meet growing demand including direly needed housing developments, such as the 500-home Pulelehua project, which is currently stalled without available water….

REALITY: Maui DWS Admits -- Just One Well Will Solve Most of Water Problem

… There are saltwater desalination plants in places such as Carlsbad, Calif.; Antioch, Calif.; and the state of Texas. The Lone Star state has 53 municipal desalination facilities that have a capacity of producing 157 million gallons of drinking water per day. Sixteen of those facilities use brackish surface water as a source of raw water; 36 facilities use brackish groundwater; and one facility uses reclaimed water as a raw water source….

(CLUE: Brackish water has far less salt content than sea water. It therefore requires far less energy—and therefore money--to desalinate. They are hoping you don’t know this. But now you do.)

… Solar power is the preferred energy alternative for the new plant. …

(TRANSLATION: Desal is an energy hog. The ONLY purpose for desal is to sop up ‘curtailed’ wind and solar energy. They are hoping you don’t know this. But now you do.)

Maui County’s desalination initiative is currently in its “earliest phases,” building upon a preliminary feasibility study developed by Brown and Caldwell for the Department of Water Supply, according to Stufflebean.

(QUESTION: Do you like paying more for water?)

MN: As frustrated West Maui community waits for state water permit approvals, dispute over golf course irrigation grows : Maui Now

MN: Analysis: West Maui water demand exceeds reliable capacity (unless they drill a new well) | News, Sports, Jobs - Maui News

Sept 2025: Next Boondoggle: Useless $204M Kalaeloa Desalination Plant

read … Maui Water Department begins initial planning for West Maui desalination plant : Maui Now

State Commission on Water Resource Management Explains How it is Stalling to Create Artificial Crisis

MN: … Karyn Kanekoa has watched the kalo that she and other farmers grow deep in Honokōhau Valley slowly rot in the parched earth as warmer water and less streamflow take a toll on their crops, with up to 60% spoiled in some patches.

Kanekoa is tired of waiting for the state Commission on Water Resource Management to make a decision about who will get permits for water in West Maui. Water users applied for those permits over two years ago to meet the state deadline, which was just one day before most of Lahaina town was destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023 wildfire.

(IDEA: Drill a well. Fix the ditches. Give everybody permits.)

Bottom of Form

“The water shows in Lahaina and across Hawai‘i … it’s not going to get better if all we keep doing is sitting down and talking about it,” Kanekoa told the water commission Tuesday via remote public testimony from Maui. “We need action. We need movement.”

The commission has had two years to review over 140 applications for existing and new water uses in West Maui.

While they deliberate, some say that precious water is being wasted during the extended drought, including going to golf courses in Kapalua where the environmental law firm Earthjustice claims millions of gallons of potable water were used for irrigation unlawfully with the knowledge of the water commission chair.

Commissioners and staff said at the Tuesday meeting in Honolulu that the process is taking so long because of delays from the fire, issues with incomplete applications, and limited staff to review more than 4,000 parcels of land serviced by public and private water systems.

Ayron Strauch, hydrologist for the commission, said a “very small but mighty team” is processing the applications, which include 93 for existing uses and 48 for new uses. However, none of the applications were complete — some didn’t have enough data, and others contained inaccurate information….

read … As frustrated West Maui community waits for state water permit approvals, dispute over golf course irrigation grows : Maui Now

Waikiki restaurants struggle as tourism lags and costs rise

KITV: … The recent federal government shutdown, which led to airlines cancelling flights, has only made things worse.

"Those people did not come to Hawaii because now they don't want to deal with canceled flights, standing in long lines and all of the challenges," said Sheryl Matsuoka, president and CEO of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. "That really hurt our already struggling restaurants."

Restaurants have seen sales drop as much as 20% compared to last year….

"It's challenging. When you don't have sales that starts with the top end. On top of that, you got rising costs on every front, the cost of goods," Palmer said. "You got the minimum wages going up Jan. 1 by $2 an hour. Restaurants are freaking out about that, how they're going to offset that. So there's a lot of headwinds."…

read … Waikiki restaurants struggle as tourism lags and costs rise

Hawaiian Airlines CEO Issues Apology -- Problems Expected to Continue for Next 6 Months

BH: … Hawaiian Airlines’ new CEO, Diana Birkett Rakow, acknowledged this week the issues travelers have been facing. They include widespread technical problems with booking, seat selection, check-in, and customer support. The admission, sent in a November 2024 email to customers, marks her first major communication since becoming CEO and confirms what frustrated travelers have been saying here for months.

The timing follows the leadership change we covered earlier in our article Surprise CEO Exit At Hawaiian Airlines. What’s Next For Travelers, as she set the stage for what Hawaiian wants customers to expect during the transition ahead….

read … Hawaiian Airlines CEO Issues Apology As Problems Continue

Fatal HPD Chases Cost City Millions. New Law will make it Worse.

CB: … multiple high-profile, pursuit-related incidents over the past four years that resulted in deaths, serious injuries and at least $34 million in city payouts to victims and their families ….

Four years after 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap was fatally shot by Honolulu police officers during a police pursuit, members of a City Council committee today will consider whether or not to approve a settlement for his family….

At the time of Sykap’s killing, Honolulu police had a relatively loose pursuit policy that did not specify that the person being chased had to be suspected of committing a serious crime….

In 2019, 40% of pursuits began as traffic violations and only 12% began as felony crimes.

The new law lays out strict standards for what justifies a pursuit.

For example, officers cannot pursue unless the suspect poses a serious risk of harm to others and the danger of failing to apprehend the person outweighs the potential risks of pursuing them. It also lists crimes the person must be suspected of committing, including felonies involving physical injury, sexual offenses, kidnapping, robbery, first-degree assault, abuse of a family or household member, first-degree escape or driving under the influence.…

(TRANSLATION: Ghetto lottery shysters now have more excuses to extract money from the taxpayer.)

read … Fatal HPD Chases Cost City Millions. Will New Law Change That? - Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaii I.C.E. Map Tracks Raids

HB: … Hawaii Business Magazine’s I.C.E. Map began playing a role in the state.

When 44 people were arrested in Kauaʻi earlier this month, Hawaii Business Magazine’s I.C.E. Map (Hawaiʻi Ice Map – Hawaii Business Magazine) received numerous alerts to the sightings of agents. We host this map in order to give businesses, their employees and others in the community the necessary information to stay informed. ….

LINK: Hawaiʻi Ice Map

read … Hawaii I.C.E. Map Taps Into Community Concerns About Unorthodox Raids - Hawaii Business Magazine

Green Signs Six More Emergency Orders

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