February 26, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Thursday, February 26, 2026

February 26, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:22 PM :: 150 Views

Luke subpoenaed by AG? She won’t say

Job Posting up for Honolulu Police Chief

Maui County Fraud Risk, Let Me Count the Ways

Ethics in Hawaii: Hire your Family and Keep Their Frequent Flyer Miles

Hawaii County Police Officer Pleads 'No Contest' to Tampering with Evidence

UH launches search to re-establish UH Mānoa chancellor position

Blangiardi announces 2026 town hall meeting schedule

Share your thoughts on future transportation needs

Gun Bills on the Move in Legislature

Green’s $1.8B Tax Hike on Middle Class Can Be Stopped

SA: … Hawaii lawmakers are considering bills that would put an end to the phase in of the historic state income tax cuts that the Legislature unanimously passed in 2024.

These bills, House Bill 2306 and Senate Bill 3125, would effectively be a $1.8 billion tax hike on residents who are already struggling to afford basic necessities.

Gov. Josh Green and other advocates of the bills claim that the state needs the money to offset federal funding cuts (“Protecting Hawaii’s future demands pause on tax cuts,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 15).

But there are many other ways the governor and Legislature could balance the state budget that would not involve increasing our taxes.

For example, the state could reallocate several hundred million dollars a year by abolishing some or all of its vacant jobs. According to Grassroot Institute of Hawaii research, about $350 million is earmarked for the state’s 4,273 vacant, non-Department of Education jobs, nearly 10% of which have not been filled for at least four years.

Lawmakers could also zero out the millions of dollars sitting idle in various special, revolving and trust funds….

(IDEA: Use rainy day fund.)

read … Column: With lawmaker will, there are ways to implement tax cuts | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

More Rail Delays: Blame Game as HART Whipsaws Hitachi (again)

CB: … A consultant’s report that became public earlier this month shows the city instructed contractor Hitachi Rail Honolulu JV in late 2024 to begin design work on components of the rail operating system from Middle Street to Kakaʻako, the city center segment, but Hitachi did not follow through….

Now the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is scrambling to address the problem, and the consultant that monitors the Honolulu rail project for the Federal Transit Administration wants to do a thorough review of the construction schedule.

Hill International Inc., which oversees the rail project for the FTA, wants to determine if the planned March 2031 opening date for the city center segment “is still feasible.” …

HART issued a change order in 2019 to keep Hitachi on the job until 2024, but more delays followed in the construction of Segment 3 into the city center as HART struggled to hire a contractor that would build that stretch of rail line at an affordable price.

In an effort to ~~minimize costs~~ (fake its finances) during that pause in construction, HART Project Director Vance Tsuda told members of the rail board, the city issued an extended stop work order to Hitachi in 2021 to delay design and other work on Segment 3.

(CLUE: This ‘money saving’ costs more later.)

HART finally selected contractor Tutor Perini Corp. in the summer of 2024 to build Segment 3 from Middle Street to Kakaʻako. The rail authority then issued a “notice to proceed” to Hitachi effective Dec. 1, 2024 to restart design work on the rail operating system for Segment 3.

But by then the relationship between HART and Hitachi had soured considerably.

Weeks after HART issued that notice to proceed, Hitachi filed a lawsuit against HART seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages because of more than a decade of rail construction delays. That lawsuit alleges “mismanagement of the Skyline rail project has led to countless delays and other errors.”

HART later countersued, accusing Hitachi of filing false and misleading claims. The HART lawsuit also alleges that either Hitachi was responsible for most of the delays, or Hitachi was not entitled to compensation for the setbacks….

Tsuda also described the hardball negotiations that played out during a “year-long discussion” with Hitachi in 2025, with Hitachi initially demanding payment of $6 million for its costs that year. HART finally bargained the company down to less than $3.1 million, Tsuda said.

Work Has Not Begun

As for the design and interface tasks Hitachi had been instructed to resume in late 2024, according to the Jan. 12 report from consultant Hill International, “at this point HRH (Hitachi) has not begun that work.” In fact, as of Jan. 30 Hitachi still had not “fully mobilized” its subcontractors for the work, Tsuda told members of the HART board in a public briefing late last month.

Hitachi is responsible for designing and installing components of the operating and other rail systems into the elevated guideway and stations that Tutor Perini is tasked with building, but Tsuda said Tutor has not been provided with necessary design information.

“Hitachi’s interactions with Tutor have been minimal because they don’t have their subcontractors on board because they demobilized them as per our direction back in 2021,” he said….

(Now it is later. And it costs more money.)

BACKGROUND:

read … More Design Delays Could Push Back Honolulu Rail Project — Again - Honolulu Civil Beat

Why economist says high cost of living is here to stay

KHON: … “So prices are never going down,” said Dr. Gerard Dericks, HPU Center for Entrepreneurship & Economic Education Director. “Like the, so the general price level is never, is not going to be going down in our current monetary and economic system. That’s not going to happen.” …

Hawaii Pacific University economist Gerard Dericks says there would need to be a severe economic downturn for the price of goods to drop. And that hasn’t happened since the Great Depression.

He says the cost of living has been going up, but the rate at which it’s been increasing – otherwise known as inflation – has slowed down since COVID.

“We’re going to have increasing prices,” said Dericks. “So the question is, well, are they going to be increasing at rates that were very painful like we saw a few years ago, or are they going to be more manageable, more normal, like we’ve seen most years.” …

“Hawaii is its own market unto itself,” said Dericks. “I mean, what really dominates the cost of living over here, as everyone knows, is the cost of housing, which is quite exceptional. We’re the most expensive housing market relative to incomes in the United States.”

“Everything is just, it’s harder, that’s why more locals are moving out or moving off island,” said Zhang. “It’s hard to live out here, that’s why I have like four jobs.” ….

read … Why economist says high cost of living is here to stay

Lawmakers consider bill to make Hawaii a sanctuary for sex-change providers

HPR: … A bill moving through the state Legislature would protect patients and caregivers involved in gender-affirming care.

HB1875 … seeks to ensure that those providing ~~gender-affirming care~~ (castration, unnecessary double mastectomy, hormones) would be safe from out-of-state legal actions, insurance policies, or licensing consequences….

Currently, reproductive health care is protected under Chapter 323J of the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes. The proposed bill would expand these same protections to include gender-affirming care, which the bill defines as “medically necessary health care that respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient.”

(TRANSLATION: “Castration.”)

read … Lawmakers consider bill to protect gender-affirming care providers | Hawai'i Public Radio

Over 50 High-Profile Hawaiʻi Companies Push for Affordable Energy with LNG

RB: … More than 50 of Hawaiʻi’s leading organizations have called for immediate action to lower energy costs by replacing petroleum with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

The Coalition for Hawaiʻi’s Energy Future brings together Native Hawaiian leaders, healthcare providers, agricultural groups, tourism representatives, construction and retail associations and cost-of-living nonprofits.

Among its members are Aloha United Way, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, the Hawaii Agricultural Foundation and the Hawaii Farm Bureau. Collectively, they represent thousands of workers and families across the Islands, united in a shared goal of lowering electricity costs and strengthening grid reliability, with liquefied natural gas (LNG) positioned as a transitional fuel….

https://www.hawaiienergycoalition.com/

read … EXCLUSIVE: Over 50 High-Profile Hawaiʻi Companies Push for Affordable Energy with LNG - Hawaii Business Magazine

Emergency proclamation bill stirs controversy

ASD: … “[SB 2151 hands] one person — the governor — near-unchecked power to declare emergencies, suspend our rights, enter our property without permission, lock us down, seize assets, or disarm us, all with too-little real accountability from the Legislature or courts,” read one letter by resident Dawn O’Brien, which echoed sentiments repeated through much of the testimony at Tuesday’s hearing.

However, this is not what the bill does. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the bill’s primary introducer, told the committee Tuesday that he intended the measure to restrict the governor’s powers, and that much of the opposition facing the bill appears to be misdirected.

“There’s been a lot of testimony opposed to it seemingly thinking that this bill was expanding the governor’s power and it is certainly not,” Rhoads said.

As currently written, the bill prohibits any emergency declaration from overriding the state’s requirement to respond to public records requests in a timely manner.

Ige’s early Covid proclamations suspended the Uniform Information Practices Act, which requires public agencies’ records to be open to public inspection and review. They also included a partial suspension of the Sunshine Law — which requires state and county boards to hold meetings open to the public — to allow for meetings to be held entirely remotely.

By the 18th such proclamation, in Feb. 2021, the UIPA was only suspended insofar as agencies did not have to adhere to deadlines. However, the partial Sunshine Law suspension continued.

SB 2151 specifically prohibits a governor or mayor from suspending deadlines to respond to UIPA requests, or deadlines for the Department of Health to provide various patient vital records. However, the bill allows for a “reasonable delay” for the DOH to provide the latter during extenuating circumstances.

For those laws that can still be suspended through an emergency proclamation, another section of the bill specifically details how those suspensions can be carried out. As stated in the bill, any suspension of law cannot last any longer “than the governor deems necessary for the execution of emergency management functions.”

The same applies for county laws and emergency proclamations issued by mayors.

For every law suspended, the bill specifies that any emergency proclamation must identify the specific statutes affected and explain why the suspension is necessary for emergency management….

read … Emergency proclamation bill stirs controversy

Red Hill Activist Circus Continues

SA: … After ~~waiting~~ (stalling for) hours to hear the latest update on the Red Hill water crisis cleanup at a lengthy meeting Tuesday with the Commission on Water Resource Management, ‘concerned’ ‘community’ members ~~learned~~ (knew) the Navy had ~~left~~ (to leave) the meeting.

According to the agenda, the Navy Closure Task Force for Red Hill was scheduled to give an update after the committee took up Maui Land and Pineapple’s proposal to improve stream monitoring in lieu of a fine for management violations and issues regarding how the commission should move forward with groundwater use permits in West Maui.

(CLUE: Could’ve gone with Red Hill first on the agenda, but chose not to in order to create this ‘incident’.)

Around 4 p.m., when the commission was ready to hear the Red Hill update, acting chair and director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources Ryan Kanaka‘ole said the Navy’s water subject matter expert needed to leave the meeting. The commission would still hear from the public, he added….

recently, the Environmental Protection Agency agreed to drop the requirement for the military branch to meet with the Community Representative Initiative, or CRI, which is a group of 10 ~~elected community members~~ (professional activists) tasked with engaging directly with the Navy to ~~address the public’s questions and concerns~~ (stage a political circus)….

Marti Townsend, Earthjustice specialist and former CRI chair, noted that “(blablabla)”….

(See? Told you.)

SA: Editorial: Navy must engage on Red Hill issues | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

read … Red Hill: Fears linger over Navy reopening water shaft | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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