June 25, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Thursday, June 25, 2026

June 25, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 9:30 AM :: 230 Views

Supreme Court defangs Hawaii’s ‘vampire rule’ for gun owners

Hawaii's new Brother Joseph Dutton Day honors layman's care for Hansen's disease patients

Fentanyl and Methamphetamine Trafficker Sentenced to Over Eighteen Years in Prison

Government regulation responsible for 58% of price of a new condo in Hawaii

PBN: … Regulatory costs account for more than a quarter of the cost of a new single-family home nationally, according to a report by the National Association of Home Builders. In Hawaii, it if more than half the cost for condominiums, and regulations are only getting worse, Building Industry Association of Hawaii CEO Roseann Frietas told PBN.

The NAHB report, released earlier this month, found that in 2026, based on the national average price of a new single-family home, which is $499,500, government regulations account for $131,734, or 26.4%, of the final house price.

The report did not give specific numbers for the Hawaii market, but in 2024, the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization released a study that showed government regulations accounted for 58% of the overall market price of a new condo in Hawaii, meaning they added $387,000 to the median price of a new condo in Hawaii, which in 2024 was $672,000 for a two-bedroom unit.

Read … NAHB: regulatory costs surge 40% in five years - Pacific Business News

Hawaii SNAP: 11% Fraudulent

SA: … The state Department of Human Services has backslid on progress reducing federal SNAP benefit payment errors, elevating a risk of future penalties that could cost Hawaii taxpayers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday published state payment error rates for the food stamp program helping lower-income households, and Hawaii’s ~~error~~ (fraud) rate rose to 10.92% in the 2025 federal fiscal year from 6.68% the year before after falling from around 21% in each of the two preceding years.

Hawaii’s most recent rate was 17th highest among states, and a tad above the weighted national average of 10.62%....

Error rates include overpayments and underpayments, though (shockingly) the large majority of errors are overpayments, (LOL!) ....

For most of the last two decades, Hawaii’s SNAP payment error rate was under 6%.

From 2005 to 2018, the state’s rate ranged from 3.04% in 2010 to 5.84% in 2017, according to USDA data that didn’t include figures for 2015 and 2016.

In 2019, Hawaii’s rate was 6.21%. No data was available for the next two years, but then the state’s rate ballooned to 21.78% in 2022, ranking fifth highest in the country. In 2023, Hawaii’s error rate was 20.94%....

SA: Kokua Line: Will SNAP ban on soda take effect Aug. 1? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Read … Hawaii among worst states with SNAP payment errors | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Shakedown: How to extract money from Defense Budget via Lease Negotiations

SA: … the NDAA directive for cooperative dialogue, important as it is, simply sets the table for gritty negotiations to come between the Army and Hawaii. In August 2029, the Army’s 65-year leases are set to expire: for 22,971 acres of state lands at Hawaii island’s Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) and for 6,322 acres at three Oahu sites — Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area, Makua Military Reservation and Kahuku Training Area.

All parties have readily acknowledged that the Army will pay more, a lot more, for renewing the leases, currently set at a mere $1. Training for national security is crucial, but it’s clear the military has enjoyed a bargain for decades at Hawaii’s expense — and the governor’s office has sketched a preliminary package valued at $10 billion, to cover such projects as environmental cleanup, support for housing and infrastructure investments.

In addition to the directive to negotiate toward mutually agreeable lease terms, the proposed NDAA includes other encouraging aspects that require vigilant monitoring through passage:

>> Downsizing of the leased land parcels, to about 19,700 acres at PTA, and at Kahuku, to 450 acres from 1,150.

>> Requiring the Army to submit a new environmental impact statement (EIS) within 30 days of the NDAA’s enactment to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), that directly responds to deficiencies identified by the state. Last year, the DLNR’s board properly and firmly rejected the Army’s two EISes (approval is needed to move forward on lease renewals): the Pohakuloa EIS was flagged for inadequate inventory of unexploded ordnance and insufficient survey of ancient burials and artifacts; the EIS for the three Oahu leases was rejected for inadequate accounting of archaeological sites and lacking recent data on biological and aquatic resources.

>> Within 60 days after NDAA enactment, a report to Congress is expected about the steps and proposals to advance the Pohakuloa and Kahuku lease renewals.

With so much to iron out and potentially gain over these precious land leases, August 2029 no longer seems far away….

Read … Editorial: Keep eye on Army lease directive | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Waipahu HS: FBI Comes Knocking

HB: … Keith Hayashi had barely settled into his new role when there was a knock on his office door.

It was the FBI.

It was the fall of 2009, and Hayashi had just become principal of Waipahu High School — a school that, at the time, was more known for gang activity and juvenile offenders than academic promise.

“During my first year at Waipahu, I had the FBI come to see me,” he told Hawaii Business Magazine. FBI Special Agent Arnold Laanui warned him, “Waipahu High School is No. 1 in juvenile status offenders per capita in the United States.”

“I said, ‘what?'” recalled Hayashi, who is now Hawaiʻi Department of Education superintendent. “In fact, we’re in the FBI Yearbook.”…

What followed was more than a decade of methodical, almost evangelical work.

Waipahu High School underwent a significant academic gut renovation, notably through the implementation of the “wall-to-wall” academy model and the Early College program.

“It’s not because kids do not want to be successful,” Hayashi said. “It’s because they haven’t made a connection to school. They haven’t figured out why school is important. They don’t see how school is relevant.”

Waipahu is now making a splash in national educational circles.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Waipahu High School ranks in the top 32% of approximately 17,900 public high schools nationwide, and in the top 35% of all public high schools in Hawaiʻi — a remarkable achievement for a school where 97% of students are minorities and nearly half come from economically disadvantaged households.

On one part of Waipahu’s campus, students help run a credit union. In another, they assist in a fully functioning health clinic with real patients, while others prepare tax returns, operate a student-run restaurant or grow produce that ends up in the school cafeteria.

It’s all part of the wall-to-wall academy model that turns a traditional high school into what Principal Zachary Sheets calls “six schools in one,” a system designed to connect students to careers starting from their freshman year….

Read … From Black Sheep to Model of Success, Waipahu High School’s Amazing Transformation - Hawaii Business Magazine

Bill 88: Half of Maui Vacation Rentals Get Pathway to a Potential Reprieve With New Zoning Bill's Approval

CB: … Roughly 7,000 apartment-zoned units were set to be phased out by 2031 to create more long-term housing. More than half of those may now keep operating as short-term rentals.

Read … Maui Vacation Rentals Get A Reprieve With New Zoning Bill's Approval - Honolulu Civil Beat

Turtle Bay Resort vs. a bee: Why the rules keep choosing luxury

ASD: … A developer who must survive years of delay needs enough margin to justify the risk. The modest project cannot carry those costs. The luxury project can. So a system meant to restrain development does not stop the mansions — it selects for them. It clears the field of everyone else.

A few miles down the coast from Turtle Bay, another developer is already building homes that start at $5.9 million each. That project is not affected by the lawsuit. The activist fighting the resort and the seller of the luxury home are working the same machine from opposite ends, and it rewards them both.

The same pattern is visible from the stalled rebuilding of Lahaina to the Neighbor Islands. There, the only people still willing to build are the ones who can afford to wait. It is the same machinery that strangles the affordable housing everyone claims to want, though that is an argument for another day….

read … Turtle Bay Resort vs. a bee: Why the rules keep choosing luxury

Snouts at Trough: Hawaii Green Fee workshop targets $120M funding access

PBN: … The Care for Aina Now Coalition has scheduled a statewide virtual workshop on Wednesday to educate local businesses and community organizations about more than $120 million in funding opportunities available through Hawaii's Green Fee.

The Green Fee, a 0.75% increase in the state transient accommodations tax applied to hotels and other visitor lodging, establishes a dedicated ~~funding source~~ (slush fund) for (any scam that can be vaguely connected to) Hawaii’s environmental priorities, such as ocean conservation, climate change and sea level rise….

read … Hawaii Green Fee workshop targets $120M funding access - Pacific Business News

50% Sewer rate hike is proposed for Hawaii County

HTH: … county officials’ proposed wastewater rate increases that would spike a typical single-family residential monthly sewer bill by 20% come November — and more than double it over the next five years.

Representatives of FG Solutions — a New York City-based financial and management consulting firm — presented to commissioners the findings of its “Wastewater Rate Study” published this month. The study is a multi-year revenue requirement analysis ensuring that sewer rates will be financially sustainable over the next half-decade to pay for ballooning utility infrastructure operation and maintenance costs that have left many county officials feeling nervous….

read … Sewer rate hike is proposed - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

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