Eminent Domain: State Owes $7M and Counting for Maalaea Boatyard

Worst Place to Start a Business? Six Hawaii Towns Ranked

Better Consumer Protection needed regarding the disposition of surgical implants following cremation in Hawaii

Soft on Crime:  Cock Fight Shooter free on the street with Ankle Monitor – busted with ghost gun during Club Brawl

HNN: …  A man was arrested Sunday after he was allegedly found with a gun without a serial number and an ankle monitor.

(HPD Blotter name: Shae’Dan-Styles McEnroe-Keaulii.  Three years ago he allegedly shot up a cock fight on Waianae Coast.  Now he’s out walking the streets with a useless ankle monitor.)

According to the Honolulu Police Department, officers responded to a report of a fight involving multiple individuals across a nightclub on Kapiolani Boulevard shortly before 3 a.m.

Police said a man was observed displaying a firearm, and the suspect, a 19-year-old man, was arrested after a brief foot pursuit.

Authorities said they recovered the unmarked firearm, and the suspect was found to be wearing a court-ordered ankle monitor related to a prior case.

HPD said they will seek to have his monitoring status revoked and have him taken back into custody….

Same Guy, April, 2023: Court documents reveal new details in deadly shooting at Maili cockfight | Crime & Courts | kitv.com

Oct 2023: Cockfight murder suspect, 16, appears in court | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

KITV: Teen suspect with unregistered gun arrested following fight outside Honolulu nightclub | Crime & Courts | kitv.com

read … Man arrested after being found with unmarked firearm, ankle monitor | Hawaii News Now

Fatal Work Accident Exposes Illegal Immigration in Hawaii

CB: … Zhenxiong Lin left China and made his way via Vietnam to Mexico, the U.S. border and, in mid-2024, to Hawaiʻi. 

Days after arriving in Honolulu, Lin was in an accident at his new job that left him hospitalized at The Queen’s Medical Center. He would never recover. Eighty-seven weeks after he was injured, he died early this month, on April 3.

His death is now central to a pending civil lawsuit against his former employer. And his story, as it comes to light, offers a window into the vulnerabilities of undocumented immigrant workers….

read … Fatal Work Accident Spurs Hawaiʻi Immigrant's Widow To Fight Back - Honolulu Civil Beat

Precisely as Planned, Bogus Water Moratorium Kills Maui Housing Project

PBN: … Hawaii developer Avalon Group sold a property it owned on Maui that was slated for a housing development before a water moratorium made it unfeasible…. The 7.5-acre property in Kaanapali, off the intersection of Honoapiilani Highway and Halelo Street, sold for $3.4 million to Kaanapali Operations Association, a not-for-profit organization set up to help maintain nearby hotels….

Christine Camp, CEO of Avalon, told Pacific Business News by text message that the firm planned to build 36 housing units there before abandoning the project.

“They were planning to move to another location but they would have had to wait for new water connection just like we did for our new housing project,” Camp said. “At the end, we both came to the conclusion that it was a win-win for the tenant to purchase the existing site and we give up on building homes in Kaanapali.”

Camp is referring to water restrictions Maui County has imposed on new developments amid major drought issues….

(IQ Test:  Is Maui suffering from a drought or from flooding?  CLUE:  ‘Both’ is not a choice here.)

“Until the water is available for new projects, we won’t be evaluating vacant land on the west side unless it already comes with water meter connections for the intended use,” Camp said. “Our Maui activities are now solely focused on rebuilding our commercial assets on Front Street in Lahaina.”

read … Avalon Group sells Maui property as water moratorium stalls housing - Pacific Business News

SB3218 / SB3219: ‘Tax Increment Financing’ to Pay for Aloha Stadium Infrastructure?

PBN: … The massive undertaking is going to require a sizable investment. And as the project has already faced criticism for delays and increased costs, Robinson says it’s going to take some creative thinking to get it done.

As an answer to those challenges, Robinson suggested setting up tax increment financing, which is already common in similar infrastructure projects on the Continent. But Hawaii has yet to try it.

Tax increment financing, or TIF, works by freezing property tax assessments in place, so property taxes would be collected based on the frozen value of the property. But as that property value rises, the additional property taxes collected on that added value would go to a TIF fund instead of to the typical taxing entities.

In other words, the Aloha Stadium district's property tax bills would continue rising as is usually expected; the added taxes would be directed to the TIF fund, which would help pay the massive infrastructure bill over the next few decades.

“We are late to the party," Robinson said. "Everywhere around the country does this. We are one of two states not to use tax increment financing.”

Senate Bill 3218 and Senate Bill 3219, making their way through the Legislature, would create a constitutional amendment that would allow for the TIF fund.

Both bills passed the House Finance Committee on Wednesday during the panel event ….

read … Aloha Stadium project faces utility capacity challenges - Pacific Business News

Residency bottleneck drives exodus of doctors

SA: … Every year, dozens of Hawaii’s newly minted doctors face the same decision: stay home — or leave to become one. And for many, the choice isn’t entirely theirs.

Brennan Lee, a 27-year-old graduate of the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine, matched into an anesthesiology residency at Tufts University in Massachusetts — a specialty not offered in Hawaii….

read … Residency bottleneck drives exodus of doctors | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

More Hawaiʻi Students Are Prepped For College. Will They Attend?

CB: … Hawaiʻi has been pushing for more college and career readiness for high school students, but college enrollment is stagnant….

read … More Hawaiʻi Students Are Prepped For College. Will They Attend? - Honolulu Civil Beat

What's in a chee hoo?

ASD: … Generations removed from the plantation era that forged it, local culture is in danger of becoming a nostalgia-fueled performance of itself ….

read … What's in a chee hoo?

LEGISLATIVE AGENDA:

1. What’s in a Lieutenant Governor? 

2. Clash of Titans: Hawai‘i's Healthcare Leaders Disagree on Best Path Forward - Hawaii Business Magazine

3. Controversial housing resolution heads to full council - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

4. Maui Council hears appeals for agriculture and animal shelter relief : Maui Now

5. With New Federal Cuts Looming, Legislature Must Fulfill 100-Year Promise To Hawaiians - Honolulu Civil Beat

6. Hawaii tourism faces modest 2026 growth | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

7. Editorial: Use cams to check car registrations | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

FLOOD NEWS:

1. Big Q: How much were you affected by the recent severe weather? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

2. Body of missing person found downstream of Kauai arboretum | Hawaii News Now

3. Residents still on edge after significant flooding at North Shore homes

4. Ahupua‘a restoration on Molokai offers potential flooding remedy | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

5. One lane of Kamehameha Highway at Waimea opens but repairs to last months | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

QUICK HITS:

1. UH calls on colorful cast of AI chatbots to help engage and support students - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

2. Hawaii-is-new-member-of-global-effort-to-improve-public-health-emergency-response/

3. ‘Knock it off’: Molokai residents sound off after group of kids almost got shot | Hawaii News Now

4. HPD arrests suspect in two Honolulu attempted murder cases

5. Stolen Time: A Hawaiʻi Family Remembers WWII Incarceration - Honolulu Civil Beat

6. Column: Hawaii can lead the world in literacy, again | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

7. Hawaii restaurant sneaks 3% 'kitchen appreciation fee' onto woman's bill, but it backfired when she posted the receipt on TikTok – We Got This Covered