May 18, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Monday, May 18, 2026

May 18, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 9:07 AM :: 139 Views

DHS at Center of Secret Multi-Million Dollar Medicaid Fraud Case – sealed by Court

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted May 15, 2026

EPA Rejects Plan to Shut Power Plants in Kahului and Hilo

SB2471 Doomed in Court: Undermines free Speech, freedom of Association

NLR: … Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez warned the state legislature that the legislation, SB 2471, was likely unconstitutional, explaining that Citizens United did not confer First Amendment speech rights on corporations per se, but rather, recognized that corporations are “associations of citizens” who do not lose their speech rights when they obtain corporate status. This distinction is not merely semantic and indicates that efforts to prohibit corporate political speech face a steep uphill battle.

As forecast by the Attorney General, Hawaii’s law is likely to be invalidated on First Amendment grounds. As the majority in Citizens United explained, “[t]he Court has thus rejected the argument that political speech of corporations or other associations should be treated differently under the First Amendment simply because such associations are not ‘natural persons.’” 558 U.S. 310, 343 (2010). Moreover, according to the Court, “[i]f the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” Id. at 349 (emphasis added). In other words, the First Amendment rights at issue in Citizens United belong not to corporations but to the citizens who choose to associate using the corporate form.

Hawaii’s law rests on the same premise the Supreme Court rejected in Citizens United — that corporate spending on political speech should be restricted because it has a “corrosive and distorting” effect on the political system. As the Court explained, accepting this rationale “would permit Government to ban political speech simply because the speaker is an association that has taken on the corporate form.” Id. at 349. Hawaii’s attempt to revive this repudiated theory, albeit indirectly through its corporate code, will likely prove unsuccessful.

Attorney General Lopez also advised legislators that SB 2471 was subject to challenge as a content-based speech restriction because it “disfavors political speech.” In addition, she warned it may impose an unconstitutional condition on corporations by requiring them to forego a constitutional right (i.e., the First Amendment right to speak on political matters) in order to receive a public benefit (i.e., corporate status). Hawaii’s law may also violate the federal Commerce Clause to the extent it imposes burdensome restrictions on out-of-state corporations seeking to transact business in Hawaii.

In short, the Hawaii law suffers from multiple constitutional defects that make its survival unlikely. Its attempt to engineer an end-run around Citizens United is likely to collide with the same constitutional barriers that have doomed many other efforts to undermine the speech and associational rights of American citizens. If proponents succeed in placing a similar matter on Montana’s ballot this year, Montana organizations may soon face the same restrictions and uncertainties….

Read … Hawaii Enacts Law Targeting Corporate Political Spending

Homelessness drops 91% as City Forces Bums out of Waikiki core

SA: … A point-in-time count on April 16 found 201 people experiencing homelessness across Waikiki and nearby areas, down from 251 in September 2022, according to WBID and the University of Hawaii. The steepest decline came along Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues and Kuhio Beach, where unsheltered homelessness fell about 91%....

“The people we come in contact with in Waikiki … are mostly mentally ill or suffer from substance abuse,” Okamoto said….

Many of Waikiki’s homeless are transplants who like any other visitors to Hawaii are drawn there first, Abarzua said. WBID will pay for travel home if a vetted support system is in place….

Waikiki resident John Deutzman, who tracks crime data and partners with the Safe & Sound Waikiki initiative, said the improvements in the Waikiki core are visible and measurable.

“I used to call it ‘area 666’ for a reason, and now it’s like heaven,” Deutzman said. “It’s been a dramatic improvement. The numbers don’t lie, and the University of Hawaii is tracking it in a very scientific way.” …

While Zone 2 — Waikiki’s core corridor — dropped to just 10 people, the April count showed increases elsewhere. Zone 1, including Fort DeRussy Beach, rose to 57 from 49 in October 2025. Zone 6, which includes Ala Moana Beach Park outside the WBID boundary, climbed to 49….

Read … Homelessness drops 91% in Waikiki core | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

SB2108: Make it even harder to try juvenile felons as adults

CB: … Hawaiʻi is poised to become one of the first states in the nation to require a judge to consider a child’s exposure to trauma before charging the youth as an adult.

Senate Bill 2108, which would also bar minor victims of trafficking or sexual assault from being charged as adults for going after their abuser, is the state’s latest juvenile justice reform.

The move reflects research that shows most youth in the criminal justice system have experienced significant trauma – something experts, judges and even wardens say can be better addressed through a more rehabilitative approach on the juvenile side rather than a punitive one on the adult side. Experts say that incarceration at restrictive facilities meant for adults and for lengthy sentences is rarely effective.

“We send young people to adult court because we think it’s going to make us safer. In fact, it is probably making us less safe,” Jessica Feierman, chief legal officer at the Juvenile Law Center, a national group working on youth justice issues, said. “The adult court is not set up to provide the kinds of services and supports that will help young people to thrive.”

It’s rare for juveniles to be charged as adults in Hawaiʻi. Between 2014 and 2023, only 36 cases were moved from family court to adult criminal court through a process known as a waiver, according to the Attorney General’s Office. In 2022, the number was zero.

In the last three years, there have been a smattering of cases. Shaedan-Styles McEnroe-Keaulii, now 19, is facing murder charges related to a shooting at a cockfight in Māʻili two years ago. Branston Medeiros pleaded guilty in 2025 to killing another teenager in Mākaha in 2023 when he was 16. Chantston Pila Kekawa was 17 when he allegedly shot a rancher in 2024, landing him in lockup facing second-degree murder and weapons charges.

It’s unclear whether this bill would have changed anything in those cases or what impact it will have on future cases. Aside from specific cases involving a victim of trafficking or sexual abuse, the bill doesn’t require judges to keep teens in the family court, but rather leaves judges with the discretion about when to transfer the case to adult court….

READ … Requiring Judges To Consider Past Trauma Of Youth Offenders Aim Of New Law - Honolulu Civil Beat

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