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July 9, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 10:01 AM :: 214 Views

CNBC: With Sylvia Luke Under Investigation, Hawaii becomes Worst State for Business in 2026

Shipping Thrived After Trump Waived the Jones Act

AG Nabs Three Sex Offenders

Auditor Gives Up: Homeless CORE Program too Chaotic to Audit

Under Federal Investigation, 8a Still Landing Fat Federal Contracts

PBN: … Hawaiian Native Corp. will remain as the organization’s parent company. The new name became effective on July 1.

Dawson was under federal investigation into potential financial crimes when Christopher Dawson, the company’s founder and former chairman, died by suicide in December 2024.

Prior to that, Dawson had ranked among Hawaii’s largest federal defense contractors. It hasn’t made the list since 2023, when it ranked as Hawaii’s ninth-largest.

But the company is still landing federal contracts despite the federal investigation.

In 2024, two entities tied to the company pulled in a combined total of $85.9 million in federal contract awards, according to federal contracting data.

That total is slightly less than the previous year’s haul of $100.3 million, but the two entities were able to increase their awards in 2025 to $154.5 million in total.

The two entities are the two largest recipients of contracts associated with the Dawson name over the past year. But they do not encompass other entities and joint ventures that have received smaller amounts, therefore, the figures could be larger.

Laukoa’s rebrand is the second major change to come in recent weeks within the Native Hawaiian Organization space.

On May 31, the Alakaina Foundation Family of Cos. sold all nine of its for-profit entities to Alaska Native corporation Bering Straits Native Corp. to focus more on its charitable arm….

Read … Defense contractor Dawson becomes Laukoa in rebrand - Pacific Business News

Luke-campaign-violations-referred-to AG for-possible-prosecution

CB: … The Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission on Wednesday voted to refer a set of alleged campaign finance violations by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke’s campaign to the Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution.

The commission’s executive director, Kristin Izumi-Nitao, filed the complaint with the commission in May accusing the campaign, Friends of Sylvia Luke, of mishandling funds in 2021 and 2022….

BACKGROUND: Top Officials from HPH, HMSA, PUC, Matson charged in 39-page CSC complaint against Sylvia Luke

KHON: Sylvia Luke faces second criminal investigation

HPR: Campaign finance watchdog sends Luke allegations to prosecutors | Hawai'i Public Radio

Read … Luke-campaign-violations-referred-to AG for-possible-prosecution

Honolulu Council Slashes Useless Economic Recovery Office Over Mayor's Objections

CB: … The Honolulu City Council voted Wednesday to drastically downsize the countyʻs pandemic-era Office of Economic Revitalization over the strong objections of Mayor Rick Blangiardi who called the move “reckless and shortsighted.”

The decision will result in 15 of the current 21 staff losing their jobs and the agency winding down operations by Sept. 30.

The office was set up in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic as a mechanism for distributing $324 million in federal stimulus funds meant to alleviate local economic impacts and support workforce recovery. Since then it has expanded its role to supporting local startups and entrepreneurs and running workforce development, digital technology, food system and agricultural programs.

But its performance was heavily criticized in a city audit in January that found it had achieved only three out of its eight performance indicators in its nearly six-year history. While the audit didnʻt call for the closure of the agency, it provided ammunition for Oʻahu lawmakers who had begun questioning its effectiveness and voted to cut the agency budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Blangiardi vetoed the cuts last month, but council members on Wednesday voted 6-2 to override the veto and restore the cuts….

Mayor Blangiardi: Council vote guts Office of Economic Revitalization | Office of the Mayor

Illegal? Mayor vetoes budget cuts to Office of Economic Revitalization

Read … Honolulu Slashes Economic Recovery Office Over Mayor's Objections

Frippery: Google Co-Founder Funds Push to make Hawaii 100% Solar

CB: … Amid Gov. Josh Green’s push to bring liquefied natural gas to Hawaiʻi, one critic has risen to the forefront: a policy research leader who has repeatedly attacked Green’s arguments that LNG belongs in the state’s energy future.

On the surface, Matthias Fripp appears to have no agenda. His employer, Energy Innovation Policy & Solutions LLC, describes itself as a “non-partisan energy and climate policy think tank” providing “customized research and policy analysis to decision-makers to support policy design that enhances security and access to affordable energy.”

What Fripp didn’t disclose — in legislative testimony blasting a Hawai‘i State Energy Office report or in a paper published by the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization extolling the benefits of solar energy that was withdrawn Tuesday by its main author — are deep ties between his employer and the Climate Imperative Foundation, a powerful, well-funded environmental NGO that has given tens of millions of dollars to groups leading the fight against Green’s LNG proposal….

The think tank Fripp works for, Energy Innovation, is a private LLC whose finances are largely private. But public records show it is closely intertwined with the Climate Imperative Foundation, which, according to its website, supports “rapid scaling of renewable energy” and “stopping the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure,” among other initiatives.

For example, the Climate Imperative Foundation’s most recent available tax return shows the foundation’s president through December of 2024, Hal Harvey, was also the think tank’s sole owner. The foundation’s highest-paid employees were think tank staff, earning salaries as high as $405,000 annually in the case of then-vice president Sonia Aggarwal.

In total, the foundation paid the think tank $23.3 million in 2024 for management services, including finance, grants administration, research and strategic communications….

The foundation reported $271.7 million in revenue in 2024, including $268.1 million in grants, making it one of the nation’s largest environmental nonprofits. By contrast, the Sierra Club that year reported revenue of $169 million and Earthjustice $139.6 million, according to ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.

Where Climate Imperative’s money came from isn’t clear from the return, which does not disclose the identities of some major donors as allowed under IRS rules. However, considerable sums come from Silicon Valley. For instance, Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s family foundation alone poured just under $49 million into the foundation in 2024, the Brin foundation’s tax return says.

(TRANSLATION: Hawaii is being exploited as a lab experiment to try to make California pipe-dreams real. Our Green Energy Initiative is a billionaire’s frippery.)

Also in 2024, the return shows, the Climate Imperative Foundation donated $23.1 million to the Sierra Club and $2.7 million to Earthjustice, both of which have amplified Fripp’s work in press releases and interviews opposing Green’s LNG proposal. …

a January 2025 report by the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office that found LNG merited analysis as a bridge fuel to replace oil while the state transitions to 100% renewables by 2045.

In testimony before the Hawaiʻi House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, Fripp said he had found significant errors in that report’s modeling that “artificially inflate the benefit of LNG by at least $1.2 billion.”

Earthjustice quickly issued a press release with the heading: “Billion-Dollar Math Error Blows Up Green Administration’s Fossil Gas Import Plan.” …

Rep. Nicole Lowen is chair of the Energy and Environmental Protection Committee and presided over the informational briefing where Fripp disclosed his findings. Contacted by Civil Beat, Lowen declined to say whether she was aware of the ties between Fripp’s think tank and the environmental group when he testified, whether the information would have been relevant to how the committee weighed his testimony and whether the public should know about the ties.

“The questions you sent in this email seem very loaded and intended to discredit Dr. Fripp,” Lowen wrote back in an email reply. “When you have genuine questions asked in good faith I would be happy to answer them.” …

(TRANSLATION: Global warming is my religion. I don’t care what our priests do.)

Read … Influential Energy Researcher Quietly Backed By Big Money Climate Group - Honolulu Civil Beat

DEA moves to ban ‘gas station heroin’ sold openly in Hawaii

HNN: … “MGM-15 and 16, you’re talking about a drug that is 240 times stronger than morphine. So you’re talking about something that’s in the fentanyl category. People are dying from this,” Yabuta said.

Honolulu has recorded deaths where MGM was found in the patient’s system during an autopsy.

Some states have exacted age restrictions to purchase the products, but not Hawaii….

Read … DEA moves to ban ‘gas station heroin’ sold openly in Hawaii | HNN Investigates | Hawaii News Now

Red Hill Plaintiff Went Scuba Diving After Allegedly Drinking Jet Fuel

SA: … Kobayashi said in court the fast-track plaintiffs, including Jones, had to prove their injuries were caused by the jet-fuel contamination and not some other factor. Jones’ case is particularly unique because she was visiting and staying with a friend who lived in Radford Terrace, one of the impacted neighborhoods, from Nov. 22 to Nov. 29, when rumors of a fuel leak began taking over neighborhood Facebook pages and one day before the Hawaii Department of Health confirmed there was a high level of petroleum in the water.

While staying with her friend, Kaitlyn Rocheleau, she used ice from the refrigerator, which comes from the tap, to fill her cup or water bottle up before using water from a purified- jug delivery system Rocheleau had at her house. Jones said she would fill her cup or water bottle to the top with ice cubes before adding the purified water, but drank the water as the cubes melted completely.

Jones also drinks a lot of water, she said, with a goal of drinking at least 64 ounces per day.

Midway through the trip — the night before Thanksgiving — Jones began experiencing intense abdominal pain and bowel movements, she testified. She did not believe it was food poisoning because she had eaten the same food as other people who did not fall ill and she hadn’t experienced abdominal pain when she has experienced food poisoning in the past.

No one else in the house experienced symptoms except Rocheleau’s 2-year-old son who also may have used ice in his drinks, Jones said. She added that she spent two full days inside because of the illness, stopped using ice because she suspected Hawaii’s water quality may not be clean, and ultimately still attended a four- to -six-hour scuba excursion the day before she left. The trip was nonrefundable, she said, so she pushed through even though she did not feel 100%.

By the time she returned home, the most intense symptoms subsided ….

Read … First of at least 8 additional Red Hill trials gets underway | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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