July 11, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Saturday, July 11, 2026

July 11, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 6:59 AM :: 144 Views

Disqualify Dentons, Alston from OHA Litigation?

Act 11 won’t stop wealthy individuals from financing campaigns

Act 220: State to buy up Medical Debt

Maui’s Next Mayor not Missen: “Things are looking extremely good for Suginuma”

HNN: … The biggest surprise in the reports comes from Maui, where incumbent Mayor Richard “Missen” Bissen — who oversaw the (non-)response to the Maui wildfires and (teamed up with a meth gang for) a contentious fight over short-term vacation rentals — is being outraised by veteran council woman Yuki Lei Sugimura.

Bissen has raised $292,000. Sugimura has raised more than $40,000 beyond that and holds a cash-on-hand advantage more than two and a half times greater than Bissen’s heading into a race that runs through the November general election.

“That’s an extremely unusual set of circumstances,” Moore said. “I would say things are looking extremely good for her candidacy.”…

Read … Green overwhelms, Bissen lags in campaign spending reports | Hawaii News Now

OHA Dissenters Won't Recant Retaliation Claims

CB: … Four trustees from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are bucking orders to withdraw a court document filed as part of a lawsuit that alleges the office, other members of the board and Chair Kai Kahele unfairly retaliated against CEO Stacy Ferreira.

A faction of trustees led by Kahele on Monday had voted to require the four dissenting trustees to withdraw that document that largely sides with Ferreira, who was put on paid leave in September. She sued OHA alleging whistleblower retaliation for reporting Kahele to state authorities over his handling of the office’s budget in 2025. Ferreira’s lawsuit also makes claims of sunshine law violations.

In a letter to Kahele on Friday, the dissenting trustees’ attorney, John Mackey, wrote that the vote to withdraw the document was itself retaliatory, and sought to “coerce and punish the Four Trustees in their exercise of their First Amendment rights.”

Those four trustees are Keliʻi Akina, Luana Alapa, Kalei Akaka and Carmen Hulu Lindsey.

Mackey wrote that the court document gets to questions about the powers and duties of an OHA trustee. A state judge is set to rule in August on whether that document should be allowed to remain in the court record. Withdrawing it now “would deprive all parties and the public of the court’s impartial ruling on these important questions,” Mackey wrote….

Read … OHA Dissenters Won't Recant Retaliation Claims - Honolulu Civil Beat

HPD changes its stance on medical marijuana cards and guns

HTH: … The chief of the Hawaii Police Department confirmed in a recent letter that people who possess a medical marijuana permit will no longer be categorically disqualified from legally possessing firearms.

The June 29 letter from Chief Reed Mahuna to Dr. James Berg said the Hawaii Police Department has reviewed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in the U.S. vs. Hemani case and “will ensure that our firearm permitting policies conform to the court’s ruling.”

The justices, in a 9-0 ruling on June 18, upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss an illegal gun possession charge brought under the federal Gun Control Act against Ali Hemani, a U.S.-Pakistani dual citizen and Texas resident who told authorities he was a regular marijuana user.

The Gun Control Act, passed in 1968, outlawed the possession of firearms by anyone who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” …

Read … HPD changes its stance on medical marijuana cards and guns - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

‘Every aspect’ of Pacific island damaged or destroyed by Super Typhoon Bavi

SAS: … Super Typhoon Bavi battered the small Pacific island of Rota, leaving its 2,000 residents without power or running water, according to the island’s mayor on Tuesday.

Bavi made a direct hit as a Category 5-equivalent storm Monday morning on the 33-square-mile island in the Northern Marianas, bringing heavy downpours and devastating 180 mph winds…..

MN: Port of Guam reopens after Super Typhoon Bavi suspends port operations : Maui Now
VIDEO: CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE IN ROTA - Super Typhoon Bavi - Category 5 Northern Mariana Islands
Read … ‘Every aspect’ of Pacific island damaged or destroyed by Super Typhoon Bavi | Stars and Stripes

EPA worker fired after requiring microplastics monitoring on Hawaii firm’s project

NYT: … Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency was preparing to green light the first-ever fish farm in federal waters, one that would supply a fish popular in Cajun and Creole restaurants. But the agency had a novel requirement.

It wanted to require the Hawaii-based company, Ocean Era, to monitor the farm for microplastics, the tiny particles that have become a rising environmental and health concern.

However, some top EPA officials balked. They said that mandating any company to track microplastics could set a cumbersome precedent for other industries, according to interviews and documents examined by The New York Times. So the agency ordered the requirement struck from the permit, and when an EPA official filed a memo laying out his objections to that, the agency fired him….

Read … EPA worker fired after requiring microplastics monitoring on Hawaii firm’s project | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

ELECTION NEWS:

QUICK HITS: