May 31, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, May 31, 2026

May 31, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 7:49 AM :: 158 Views

Federal Justice: Hawaii County ‘affordable’ housing official took $1.9M Bribes--sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison

Lawmakers choose innovation over red tape

Hawaiʻi Funding Project: Making the Flow of Tax Dollars into Hawaiʻi Visible

Legislative Wrapup: Two wins for housing

Our Big Tax Bill Act

Bill 88: Maui Council Pretends to Undo Bill 9 Theft of TVRs

'Deferred Maintenance' Hawaii's Billion-Dollar Challenge

PRP Floods Zone with Kawakami Ads

Cataluna: … Did you know that Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami is running for lieutenant governor?

Haha just kidding. How could you not?

His campaign commercial is everywhere, all the time, right in your face. You canʻt sit through the local TV news, a UH volleyball game, or a round of “Jeopardy” without being bombarded by images of Kawakami surfing, dancing, playing ukulele, pounding mochi, and — taking it completely over the top — hugging Sparky the Fire Dog. That’s a whole pile of likeability for one campaign commercial.

But wait, that is not his campaign commercial. It’s an ad from a well-funded political action committee. A politician’s campaign is not allowed to coordinate with a super PAC, so, assuming everything is on the level, it must be just the magic of editing and carefully plucked sound bites of Kawakami’s own voice and videos from his social media feed, all masterfully stitched together to look like it’s a first-person pitch for voters’ support. Amazing what can be accomplished with no coordination, yeah?

The big scary super PAC that put together the ad and paid for the ad time is called For A Better Tomorrow. It used to be called “Be Change Now,” but everybody knows that’s just the nom du jour for Pacific Resource Partnership and the Carpenters’ Union, the heavy-handed folks that have been trying to tell Hawaiʻi how to vote for years….

CB: Will Caron: Della And Goliath - Honolulu Civil Beat (Depicts Belatti slinging SB2471 at Kawakami. The irony is that SB 2471 is useless. It will be tossed out by the first Court that hears a lawsuit over it. SB2471 is an example of controlled opposition deviating followers into useless futility.)

SA: Della Au Belatti’s change of plans upends lieutenant governor, U.S. House races | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Read … Lee Cataluna: It's Not What You Say, It's How Often We Have To Hear It - Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaii Democrats select new party chair, as ordered

HNN: … Delegates selected Makai Freitas as the new chair ….

CB: Hawaii Democrats fight for “our transgender children”

‘This is our future’: Young Democrats urge youth involvement in politics | Hawaii News Now

Read … Hawaii Democrats select new party chair to focus on change, shared values | Hawaii News Now

2022 Republican Gubernatorial Candidate BJ Penn found mentally fit to stand trial

HNN: … The 47-year-old is accused of assaulting his mother last summer, claiming his family members were replaced by “imposters.”

Penn sat silent in court Friday as Penn’s attorney said he planned to file motions to dismiss Penn’s charges of abuse and violating his mother’s restraining order.

Last year, Penn missed his court-ordered mental fitness exam.

He faced a penalty of jail time if he had opted out again.

Penn is expected back in court on July 8….

(TRANSLATION: Total failure of mental health care system.)

Read … BJ Penn found mentally fit to stand trial

Honolulu Ethics Comm finds new way to Skirt Ethics Law

CB: … The Honolulu Ethics Commission has gone from bad to worse in its efforts to hire a new executive director without letting the public in on the decision-making process. And what’s even worse is the way Deputy Corporation Counsel Duane Pang handled an encounter with two Civil Beat reporters who showed up at a commission side session trying to figure out what was going on. Pang, who works for the taxpayers after all, was shockingly deceitful and dismissive.

Last week, The Sunshine Blog pointed out that the Ethics Commission was proposing to interview and hire its new executive director in a secret executive session, a clear violation of the Hawaiʻi Sunshine Law, which requires hiring, firing and job reviews of important public officials be done in open session.

The Public First Law Center sent the commission a letter reminding members of the law’s requirements and urging them to conduct any interviews, deliberations and votes in public. “The residents of Honolulu have a legitimate interest in observing the selection process and understanding why the Commission selected a particular candidate for such a critical watchdog position at the City,” the letter said.

So the commission cancelled last week’s meeting and instead scheduled a new meeting for this Thursday at noon. This time the agenda doesn’t include an executive session and says commissioners plan to discuss and vote on the new executive director and their salary in public.

Sounds good, right? Except what actually happened was commissioners instead met secretly with the applicants for executive director on Friday, dodging the Sunshine Law by having only two commissioners meet with each applicant. It’s a trick that the Honolulu Police Commission has used to interview police chief candidates, and it sidesteps any public vetting of the applicants who no longer have to respond to questions in public. And, perhaps not surprisingly, both the Ethics Commission and the Police Commission are advised by Pang, the corporation counsel.

Civil Beat got wind of the Friday interviews and sent a couple of reporters — Christina Jedra and Tia Lewis — to Kapālama Hale, the satellite city hall on Dillingham Boulevard, where the Ethics Commission meets. The door had two signs up: one saying the commission’s meeting was canceled and another saying the room was booked from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. — for the Ethics Commission. Pang and a commission staffer were sitting inside the conference room

Jedra and Lewis taped their 14-minute encounter with Pang so The Blog got to hear for itself Pang’s refusal to address their simple questions about what was going on and whether the commissioners were just going to interview the applicants privately instead of at a public meeting.

“There’s no meeting,” Pang said, when Jedra asked about why the commission had reserved the room.

“OK, is it for the interviews for the executive director?” Jedra asked.

“It’s not a meeting, so there’s no requirement to issue notice,” Pang unhelpfully replied.

“OK, so just one or two commissioners will be here today?” Jedra asked.

“You guys sent a letter saying we should cancel the meeting, so we canceled the meeting,” Pang answered.

And so it went, for most of the conversation. Pang was obviously irritated that Public First Law Center had sent what he called a “nasty” letter to the commission urging it to hold the hiring process in public. He repeatedly insisted that Civil Beat, the news organization, and Public First, the law center, are the same thing, which he of all people knows they are not….

Read … The Sunshine Blog: Honolulu Ethics Commission Is Still Dodging The Public - Honolulu Civil Beat

Octogenarian sues Honolulu over $600,000 fines

ASD: … An 83-year-old Honolulu woman is suing the City and County of Honolulu after she was fined nearly $600,000 over an improper apartment listing.

In 2019, Sandra May needed a tenant. She had owned a home on Wilhelmina Rise since the 1970s, with a lower unit in the home available for rent by long-term tenants. But after her husband died in 2019, May, living on a fixed Social Security income, needed to make ends meet, but couldn’t find another tenant.

To broaden her search, May listed the unit on several online rental platforms. But May — who her attorney Loren Seehase said “struggles to utilize any kind of technology” — had inadvertently listed the unit as available for less than 30 days.

That same year, the City and County adopted an ordinance hiking up fines against property owners illegally hosting short-term rentals. Violators could be fined up to $10,000 for each day a violation persists.

In November 2019, May received a notice of a violation from the city regarding an online property listing. She promptly corrected the listing to show that the unit was only available for periods of 30 days or more, and believed the matter to be done.

Two years later, after the lifting of the Covid-era moratorium on evicting tenants for non-payment of rent, May again was in need of new tenants. Once again she listed the unit online, once again (in 2023) she received a notice of violation from the city, once again she corrected the listing, once again she thought the matter over.

In April 2024, it happened again. Only this time, because this was a recurring violation, the city informed May that she would incur daily $10,000 fines until the listings were corrected.

Unfortunately, May spent much of late March and April in and out of the hospital following a car crash and other medical procedures. By the time she learned of the violation and was able to correct it, 59 days had elapsed — and now she owed the city $590,000….

READ … Octogenarian sues Honolulu over $600,000 fines

Civil Beat Runs Fluff Piece on Maoist Professional Protester

CB: … Wright helps fundraise for groups like Code Pink, a women-led anti-war nonprofit, and Veterans for Peace, a nonprofit of military vets that promotes alternatives to war. She has worked with groups such as Women Cross DMZ, which has pushed for peace in Korea and women’s leadership in the peace process. And she has accepted funds for travel purposes from groups like Code Pink for trips to Cuba, Venezuela, Yemen and Iran.

But Wright insists that she is not “a paid propagandist” working at someone else’s behest — something that her own sister has (recognized) ….

Code Pink Maoist Billionaire: Neville Roy Singham - Wikipedia

Meanwhile: Bayan-USA Activists Died Fighting for Filipino Communists

Read … Ann Wright, Hawaiʻi's Global Warrior For Peace, Is Not Giving Up The Fight - Honolulu Civil Beat

UH commits $5M in student-athlete pay despite failure at Legislature

SA: … UH Athletic Director Matt Elliott said his department already had committed to NIL deals with student-athletes for the upcoming academic year aimed at keeping major revenue-generating sports competitive.

“We’ve already promised essentially that $5 million budget to the student-athletes who will be here for the ‘26-‘27 academic year,” he said in a May 20 interview, nine days after the UH men’s volleyball team won a national championship and 12 days after the NIL alternate funding bill died on the last day of this year’s legislative session.

How to pay for those NIL deals remains undecided, though Elliott is exploring potential for UH to cover the expense.

“We’re in the budget process right now,” he said. “Our mindset is we’ve got to find those resources to cover those expenses. … We’ll find a way.”

Historically, UH athletics has often had financial deficits covered by other university funds….

Read … UH commits $5M in student-athlete pay despite failure at Legislature | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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