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Tuesday, July 7, 2026

July 7, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 6:31 AM :: 168 Views

July 7, 1935: Moscow orders first Communists to Hawaii

Tax Credits: Green Signs $60M give away to Movie Moguls

Trump admin can't duck blue states' suit over canceled clean energy grants

Official ballot drop boxes begin arriving across O‘ahu

OHA Trustee Divisions Spill out into Open After Chair Illegally Deposes CEO

CB: … Bitter divisions at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs over how to handle a lawsuit from the office’s ousted CEO are weakening OHA’s ability to defend itself, destabilizing the office’s Board of Trustees and threatening to imperil ~~projects years in the making~~ (the usual useless stuff OHA does like buying dying TV stations), trustees and a lawyer for the organization said Monday.

In a series of court filings and a rare public legal discussion, trustees have accused each other of retaliation, violating the public meetings laws, stifling dissent and making unauthorized legal filings, one of which became the focus of a contentious meeting Monday morning.

On one side of the divide is OHA Chair Kai Kahele and four fellow trustees who hold board leadership positions and have thus far steered the office’s legal strategy. On the other are four trustees who took the unusual step of filing legal documents that supported Stacy Ferreira, the deposed CEO, in her claims that Kahele overstepped his authority last year to take control of the office’s budget process and then retaliated against her for reporting him to state authorities alleging violations of the state ethics code and breaches of his duty as a trustee.

The trustees sparring with Kahele have said they are being silenced and that the court filing was their way of speaking out, but one of OHA’s lawyers said Monday that their legal move has kneecapped the agency’s defense.

“It has impaired my ability to defend OHA in this case,” attorney Joe Adams said ….

July 2026: Flip-Flop: KITV Buy Back on OHA Agenda
Sept 2025: More Kai Kahele Chaos: OHA Trustees Remove CEO
July 2025: After Much Gnashing of Teeth, OHA Trustees Approve Amended Budget

Read … 'We Can't Screw It Up': Infighting Rankles OHA - Honolulu Civil Beat

With Third Telescope Closing, UH calls on Maunakea oversight authority to extend leases

HTH: … The University of Hawaii is urging the Maunakea Oversight and Stewardship Authority to consider extending leases for observatories located on Maunakea.

(CLUE: UH knows MKSOA won’t extend any leases.)

UH recently sent a letter to MKSOA leadership proposing to initiate the transfer of the master lease for the over 11,000-acre summit area. This, along with a recent state bill signed into law in May, would allow MKSOA to extend subleases for observatories on the mountain before officially taking over management responsibilities from UH on Dec. 1, 2029.

(REALITY: HB2592: Maunakea authority has 2 years to fail—then telescope area goes back to UH control)

UH Chancellor Bonnie Irwin, who is a nonvoting member of the MKSOA Board, said the legislation prompted the letter, which she signed along with UH Manoa Chancellor Vassilis Syrmos and UH President Wendy Hensel.

(CLUE: UH knows MKSOA won’t extend any leases.)

“The way we (UH) see it is we need to transfer the master lease, and then the authority could extend or not – their choice – the subleases,” she said. “UH can’t really do anything in that space now. If we were to try to extend a sublease, which I don’t think we can, but even if we were to try, it would be invalid as soon as everything else moves.” …

(REALITY: HB2592: Maunakea authority has 2 years to fail—then telescope area goes back to UH control)

The current master lease for the summit, which has been held by UH since 1968, is set to expire in 2033, at which point all of the observatories would be legally required to be removed if new terms are not in place allowing them to remain.

While MKSOA Board Chair John Komeiji has previously said he does not believe lease extensions are necessary because the agency intends to have a new management plan established by that date, there has been concern about the tight timeline.

(TRANSLATION: UH knows MKSOA won’t extend any leases.)

Irwin said observatories will need to know soon whether or not they will be required to decommission — which she said takes time and planning.

“The observatories are all funded by national and international organizations, and if an observatory is going to decide to decommission, even that process takes about five years. So if you look at 2033 and back it out … that doesn’t give them much time to turn around and give the observatories guidance,” she said….

(REALITY: HB2592: Maunakea authority has 2 years to fail—then telescope area goes back to UH control)

The UH letter is on the agenda to be discussed at MKSOA’s next board meeting, which will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday at 640 N. A‘ohoku Place, Hilo, HI. The agenda and more information can be viewed at dlnr.hawaii.gov/maunakea-authority/….

(PREDICTION: MKSOA will replace the telescopes with a shiny new toll booth.)

May 20, 2026: HB2592: Maunakea authority has 2 years to fail—then telescope area goes back to UH control

REALITY: UH to tear down 3rd Perfectly Good Maunakea Telescope

REALITY: The dangerous influence of ‘woke’ post-modernism in science

Read … UH seeks to transfer Maunakea master lease to oversight authority - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

Ex-city worker in food bank case is ‘not a thief,’ attorney says

SA: … “These charges stem from Mr. Kishida trying to do his job to the best of his ability. In the 2021 through 2023 period, Mr. Kishida successfully directed $800,000 in CARES Act funds to the Hawai‘i Foodbank. Those funds allowed the Foodbank to feed many in need during a very trying time for the community,” Bonner said.

After Kishida got the foodbank $800,000, he became aware of a second tranche of $800,000 in CARES Act funds that were available to further the foodbank’s mission, Bonner said. As the availability of such funds is often time- sensitive, Kishida “acted quickly,” he said.

“He dutifully informed the Foodbank of the funds and worked hard to secure the second disbursement. Unfortunately, for reasons unrelated to anything Mr. Kishida did, the government later decided to withdraw this second round of funding, a decision entirely outside of Mr. Kishida’s control,” Bonner said. “Mr. Kishida was caught in the middle, despite his best efforts. At the end of the day, the Foodbank did expend an additional $800,000 to feed Hawaii’s hungry. Mr. Kishida did not receive a single dollar or any benefit from the Foodbank’s expenditure. Mr. Kishida is not a thief, instead he has been caught up in a situation arising out of complex government bureaucracy and red tape.”

Bonner said Kishida looks forward to presenting the facts in court.

“Mr. Kishida acted in good faith. While we understand the Foodbank has not yet been reimbursed for the second $800K it spent, Mr. Kishida did his best to do what he was hired to do and help the community. Unfortunately his reward is having his name smeared and having to deal with these charges in court,” his attorney said….

June 22, 2026: AG: Foodbank Defrauded by Program Manager for Honolulu’s Useless 'Office of Economic Revitalization'

Read … Ex-city worker in food bank case is ‘not a thief,’ attorney says | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

DoE Strangling Robotics Programs

CB: … In VEX Robotics — a popular competition for students of all grade levels — the total number of Hawaiʻi teams fell by more than 130 over the past seven years. A different robotics competition for elementary and middle schools saw the number of local teams fall from 147 to just under 70 in the past decade. …

The drop in robotics teams comes as national research predicts that Hawaiʻi will see an increase in STEM jobs in the coming years and agencies like the state education department and the City and County of Honolulu are trying to entice more engineers with higher pay.

Teachers say offering robotics to kids from a young age not only strengthens the pipeline of teens joining teams in high school, but also helps students understand the value of science and math outside of the classroom…

aside from travel, a team’s costs can run between $2,500 and $25,000, (less than the cost of a single vacant ‘position’) he said, including tournament fees, software and equipment, shirts and other expenses….

Last year, Waiheʻe Elementary School was one of the few teams on Maui participating in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge, a type of competition for elementary and middle school students, teacher Kari Park Toyama said. When the school first started its program a decade ago, Park Toyama said, Maui had over 10 teams, enough to run its own competitions under the FIRST LEGO League….

Now, Waiheʻe needs to travel to Oʻahu to compete in any competitions. The school limits the team size to five students to keep travel costs manageable, Park Toyama said, but she would like to accommodate more kids, since 25 to 40 students express interest in joining robotics each year.

Funding hasn’t always been such a barrier.

In the early 2000s, the state heavily invested in robotics under former Gov. Linda Lingle, who argued that Hawaiʻi students needed a robust education in science and technology. In 2007, the state set aside more than $2.8 million (the cost of one useless ‘Complex’ office) to develop STEM teacher training and programs for students, including robotics. Teams at all levels expanded rapidly, with the assistant dean of the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa’s College of Engineering estimating that at least 1,700 students were participating in robotics in 2009. …

(Don’t worry. DoE will fill the STEM void with expanded gender diversity studies.)

Read … Robotics Teams Are Shrinking. Students Say They're More Important Than Ever - Honolulu Civil Beat

Oahu home sales jump 10.4%: Median price hit record $1,242,500 in June

SA: … According to a Honolulu Board of Realtors report released Monday, single-family houses on Oahu sold for a median $1,242,500 last month, up from $1,125,000 a year earlier.

The 10.4% gain was the biggest year-over-year increase for any month since July 2022 when the median price surged 11.6% to $1,107,944. However, the June median sale price was just a tad above the prior monthly high of $1,205,000 reached in February….

Read … Oahu home sales: Median price hit record $1,242,500 in June | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Windfarms Can’t Handle the Wind

IM: … The Kamaoa Wind Farm at South Point on Hawaiʻi Island was installed in the 1980s at one of the windiest sites in the Pacific. The facility's turbines were routinely forced offline because wind speeds exceeded safe operating thresholds — the machines were, in effect, overwhelmed by the very resource they were designed to harness. High repair costs driven by constant mechanical stress combined with salt-laden marine corrosion progressively degraded the turbines, and the farm was ultimately decommissioned in 2006. The rusting collapsed turbines remained as a visible monument to engineering mismatch with natural forces for years.

The Hawi Wind Farm on Hawaiʻi Island has faced similar automatic shutdown protocols triggered when regional wind speeds surpass safe operating thresholds. These shutdowns — while necessary to prevent catastrophic mechanical failure — create real-time grid management challenges, since wind generation can drop to zero across a region with little warning during the same extreme weather events that increase demand for air conditioning and emergency services ….

BACKGROUND: Wind Energy's Ghosts

Read … Climate Paradox -- Renewable Energy's Vulnerability to the Crisis It's Meant to Solve | Ililani Media

Bill 170: Nobody Proposing a Data Center in Hawaiʻi County, but Council wants to ban them (whatever they are) just in case

BIVN: … The bill explains the term “data center” means a “facility used for the industrial-scale operation of computer systems and associated equipment for the processing, computing, transmission, or dissemination of digital data, and that requires supporting infrastructure beyond that typically accessory or incidental to office, commercial, or public institutional uses.”…

(IQ Test: Do you now know what a data center is according to Bill 170? Hint: Wisdom begins by recognizing what you don’t know.)

(CLUE: Nobody is likely to propose a data center for Hawaii County because of the high cost of electricity and distance from internet cables, which land on Oahu. The Council is just pandering to the hysteria of the moment.)

Read … Data Centers on Hawaiʻi County Council Agenda This Week – Big Island Video News

Bissen Fails: Four Years Later, Still no parking for Maui Safe Parking project; no overall homeless plan

MN: … The safe parking project history stretches back to April 2022, when the County Council voted to add $200,000 to the fiscal year 2023 budget for what was then described as a “safe zone or sleeping space” for houseless residents. Months later, in August 2022, the Council passed Bill 108 amending Maui County Code to authorize a pilot program allowing people experiencing houselessness to temporarily use their vehicles for overnight shelter in designated county-managed parking lots.

That was under former Mayor Michael Victorino. Bissen took office as mayor in January 2023 and has been in office for more than three-and-a-half years.

A request for safe parking proposals wasn’t issued until late March 2025, and closed in May 2025. A contractor was selected in August 2025, with a contract signed and notice to proceed issued in December 2025. The administration also sought a $162,500 budget amendment to cover additional site costs, which the Council approved — but the money went unspent and will now lapse back into the County’s general fund because the project hasn’t moved forward, and the site situation has changed….

Read … Still no parking for Safe Parking project; no overall homeless plan : Maui Now

Which Incumbents Get to Send Taxpayer-Funded Mailers Right up to Election Day?

CB: … As Honolulu Council Chair Tommy Waters geared up for what has become a competitive race for reelection, his constituents received a multi-page promotional pamphlet of the ways he is “working for you.”

Covered by a full-page image of Waters laughing with a police officer in Waikīkī, the mailer highlights some of his greatest hits from the past few years, noting legislation as far back as 2020, and says Waters is “serving with integrity, effectiveness and compassion.” The mailer is typical of the kind of political flyers that hit mailboxes this time of year.

But Waters’ campaign donors didn’t foot the bill. Taxpayers did. …

The Hawaiʻi House of Representatives has a similar rule, prohibiting the use of legislative allowances for mass mailings after the candidate filing deadline. The Hawaiʻi Senate has no such rule.

And no prohibition exists for the City and County of Honolulu. However, Ma said the Ethics Commission could consider it.

Camron Hurt, executive director of Common Cause Hawaiʻi, said Honolulu should institute a blackout period for mass communication to constituents during election time….

Read … Self-Promotion Or Communication? Taxpayer-Funded Mailers Blur Lines - Honolulu Civil Beat

Fox/Henhouse: Mayor appoints former HART executive Richard Keene to board

SA: … Mayor Rick Blangiardi has appointed a former Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation executive to serve on the rail agency’s all-volunteer board of directors, city officials say.

(CLUE: He can be counted upon to not investigate his former self.)

Richard “Rick” Keene, HART’s former deputy executive director and chief operating officer who retired last year from the more than $10 billion Skyline project, will begin his duties on the governing body “effective immediately.”

In a July 1 letter to Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters, the mayor announced Keene’s appointment to a five-year term through June 30, 2031….

Before joining HART’s executive leadership, Keene served as a senior adviser in the city’s Managing Director’s Office during former Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration. At the time, Keene acted as the city’s liaison to HART and worked on rail-related financial and policy issues….

Read … Mayor appoints former HART executive Richard Keene to board | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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