December 26, 2025 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Friday, December 26, 2025

December 26, 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 9:09 AM :: 282 Views

Lahaina: Tourists Better be out of Town by Sundown

Did Aliamanu Deaths Change Attitude Towards Fireworks?

SA: … Nearly one year after a massive illegal fireworks explosion tore through a Salt Lake neighborhood, killing six people and injuring at least 20 others, the three-story home where the blast occurred is repaired and dressed for the holidays, with hanging lights lining the house and glowing Christmas inflatables — a Grinch and Santa Claus — perched on the second-floor porch. Families have moved back in, and life has resumed its routines.

But one thing is missing this year.

Neighbors say the near-daily fireworks that once rattled the neighborhood have stopped, leaving Aliamanu quieter than it has been in years.

For residents who witnessed the Jan. 1, 2025, explosion — and for lawmakers and law enforcement dealing with the aftermath — the Aliamanu tragedy remains a defining moment that permanently altered how Hawaii views illegal fireworks.

“It took six people to die for us as a community to say, enough already,” state Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Pearl Harbor) said. “That threat of death and property damage has to be more evident in people’s minds after what we saw this past January 1.”

read … Change comes to Aliamanu in aftermath of fireworks blast | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

DOE still has a thumb on the scale when it comes to charter schools

ASD: … Though they are public schools, the charter schools get no funding for facilities unless they are among the original four conversion charter schools…

State government, at large, has always been hostile to having an internal competitor to its main DOE system. One example of this, which is missing from CB's otherwise good timeline of the 30-year history, is that Hawai‘i capped the number of charter schools to 23. That anti-competitive pressure preserved the DOE's monopoly on public education until it was finally scrapped in 2012. As CB notes, there are now 40 charter schools statewide.

The DOE still has a thumb on the scale when it comes to charter schools. The State Public Charter School Commission, which grants and occasionally revokes charters, is answerable to the Board of Education….

read … Pipikaula Corner: Missing details on charter schools

Hawaiʻi Charter Schools Need Facilities

CB: … Charter schools spend roughly 15% to 30% of their budgets on school facilities, according to the charter commission, although expenses have escalated much higher for some campuses. Hālau Lokahi, which closed in 2015, spent roughly $33,000 a month on facilities. Before it closed in June, Kamalani Academy used more than half its budget — roughly $39,000 — to rent an old Catholic school campus in Wahiawā.

The DOE, meanwhile, is looking at redistricting some of its schools to avoid closing ones too small to be financially sustainable. Past efforts to shutter small schools have drawn strong opposition from families and teachers, who say the campuses serve as important gathering spots for communities and are a source of local pride.

Some charter school advocates say there’s another alternative to closure that would also help charters: allowing them to share campus space with shrinking DOE schools.

It’s ideal for charters to move into existing schools, rather than build their own campuses from scratch or renovate buildings not created for teaching, said Gokce, who opened Kūlia Academy in another former Catholic school building in Kalihi. Kūlia is looking for additional campus sites as it serves more grade levels, he said, and would be open to renting unused space from the DOE.

Gokce isn’t the only charter school principal to see potential in DOE facilities. In 2017, the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability developed one of the first facility-sharing agreements between a charter school and the DOE, moving onto Kaimukī High School’s campus and teaching middle school classes in unused classrooms and tents.

SEEQS was hopeful it would be able to permanently share a campus with Kaimukī High School, founder Buffy Cushman-Patz said. SEEQS didn’t have to pay rent while operating on Kaimukī’s campus, she said, although the charter school pitched in for small facility projects like installing water fountains.

“We thought it was our forever solution,” Cushman-Patz said.

But within a few years, leadership at Kaimukī and the DOE had changed, and the department said SEEQS would need to leave the high school campus by summer 2021. At the time, DOE was developing long-term plans for Kaimukī’s campus, Cushman-Patz said, although she wasn’t sure what happened to the extra space. …

(IQ Test: The ‘extra space’ at Kaimuki is vacant now. T/F?)

read … Hawaiʻi Charter Schools Need Facilities. Could The DOE Be A Solution? - Honolulu Civil Beat

Kauai's Next Outsider Top Cop To Take Over Department over SHOPO’s Objection

CB: … The Kaua‘i Police Commission chose Tai to run the department from a pool of four finalists at its Nov. 21 meeting despite concerns from the state’s influential police union. The job opening, which carries a $181,800 salary, attracted 42 applicants.

(CLUE: SHOPO is already working to get rid of him. They will never accept an outsider as Chief anywhere. Why? Insiders have ‘mutually assured destruction’ – they all have dirt on each other.)

It is a conditional job offer, pending ongoing background checks, with an undetermined start date that Tai said he expects will fall sometime in February or March.

Tai, 60, is the San Diego Police Department’s second-highest-ranking member….He was born in Hawai‘i, raised in Pearl City and has been a San Diego cop since 1990….

read … Kauai's Next Top Cop To Take Over Department With 'No Direction' - Honolulu Civil Beat

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