August 20, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Thursday, August 20, 2026

August 20, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 10:18 AM :: 132 Views

Invest-90E--Another-Storm-Coming to Hawaii?

Environmentalists sue to halt American Samoa deep-sea mining sale

US Flag Cargo Ship Abandoned in West Pacific, Taking on Water

WSJ—Hawaii Tourism is Dying: “the state shouldn’t try to predict which industries or businesses will succeed”

WSJ: … The flow of inflation-adjusted tourism dollars into Hawaii’s economy peaked decades ago. Hawaii, once a premier destination for American and international visitors, has lost traffic to newly popular vacation spots. The number of visitors hasn’t rebounded to prepandemic levels, and no industry has replaced tourism, much less with higher-paying work.

Overall arrivals to the state in June were down 9% compared with the same month in 2019, diminished by a roughly 50% drop in international tourism during that period. Food and housing prices have climbed while incomes, adjusted for the cost of living, are among the lowest in the U.S. Only California has a higher median home price.

Economists say Hawaii needs to shift away from the service-based industry that propelled its explosive growth in the late 20th century. “If we don’t fix the problem, we’re going to face many more years of anemic growth and people voting with their feet,” said Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii’s economic-research division….

Hawaii lost a greater share of its population last year than any state except Vermont. Young adults make up roughly a fifth of Hawaii’s population but account for more than 40% of the residents who leave. More than half of Hawaii-born college graduates now live on the mainland….

State officials have been in talks with Fenix Space, an orbital launch company based in California that has expressed interest in establishing a launch site on the island. That would be a significant step to building an aerospace industry, according to Nunes. “We miss this opportunity, and in two years it’s going to be too late,” he said….

(CLUE: ‘Doomed.’)

One past effort failed. In 2001, the state began offering 100% tax credits to investors in technology businesses. An audit after the program ended a decade later found the state had afforded nearly $1 billion in tax credits with little to show for it. …

Patrick Sullivan, chief executive of Oceanit, an industrial research and engineering company, has overseen plenty of marine-technology projects. His business, based in Honolulu, is one of the state’s largest tech companies. On a recent Friday, scientists cultivated living tissue, engineers tested new flavors for an 80-gram protein bar for the U.S. military and interns modeled coastal erosion on Maui.

Sullivan’s company has trained 800 interns over the years and most leave for the mainland, he said—a sign Hawaii needs to change. But he is skeptical the state can establish an ocean-tech industry on its own. “People think we’re in the middle of the sea, so let’s focus on seawater,” he said. But the state shouldn’t try to predict which industries or businesses will succeed, he said. …

BACKGROUND: Audit: State Gave Away $1B Act 221 Tax Credits Without Verification of Eligibility

BACKGROUND: 35 Years of Stagnation: Tourism Income Flat Since 1988

Read … Hawaii’s Young People Are Fleeing Paradise. Can Tech Startups Keep Them? - WSJ

From a Wall Map to a Weather Model -- Why Oʻahu's Grid Got So Complicated

IM: … The single biggest complexity shift in Hawaii's grid has nothing to do with computers and everything to do with rooftops. As of the end of 2025, Oʻahu has 82,475 grid-connected rooftop solar systems — nearly half of all single-family homes on the island — out of more than 120,000 systems across Hawaiian Electric's five-island service territory.

That turns the grid's basic physics inside out. Distribution circuits and substation transformers were engineered on the assumption that power flows one way: down from a big plant, out to customers.

Thousands of rooftop systems pushing power back onto the same circuits during sunny midday hours reverses that flow — which can overheat transformers built for one-way service and cause voltage swings that trip breakers or damage neighboring equipment.

HECO has had to respond with real, costly hardware: bi-directional transformers, electronic smart reclosers that can isolate a problem street without blacking out the whole neighborhood, and, on circuits with especially high solar penetration, physically thicker cable to handle the added thermal load.

These are treated by the Commission as system-wide capital costs — meaning they get recovered through rates paid by all customers, including those without solar, which is precisely the kind of cost-allocation question that shows up as a live equity dispute in HECO rate cases: customers who can't afford solar (or don't own their roof) still help pay for grid upgrades driven by their neighbors' panels.

The software side of that shift is still under construction…

Read … From a Wall Map to a Weather Model -- Why Oʻahu's Grid Got So Complicated | Ililani Media

There are no real rules for development: Everything is a game (that’s why new housing costs so much)

CB: … As proposed, 1588 Ala Moana’s construction would flout current zoning standards.

Despite being built on land zoned for a maximum height of 100 feet, one of its towers would be 200 feet tall and the other would be 400 feet. It would have more than twice the maximum density allowed by city law. (Clue: Bribes paid here.) And rather than gradually leaning away from the street the higher it gets, a requirement intended to let natural light reach the street and prevent an urban canyon effect, it would rise relatively straight up. (Clue: Bribes paid here.)

The rules are negotiable though. (Clue: Bribes paid here.) City officials’ long term vision is for Ala Moana to be a dense urban neighborhood with a Skyline rail station, and the plan is to rezone the area accordingly.

But completing the required meetings, plans and ordinance changes for rezoning can take years. In the meantime, the city allows developers to (Clue: Bribes paid here.) apply for permits that mimic the denser standards they envision for the area, and the deal is that developers repay the public by providing community benefits (and bribes).

Read … Developers Want City's OK To Build Big. Here's How They Sweeten The Deal - Honolulu Civil Beat

Lala Hurricane victims 93-year-old May Doi and retired physicist John Hylas found by neighbors in pastures

BIN: … May Doi lived on Maia Street, walking distance to Nāʻālehu Elementary School where she taught young kids for years.

On Saturday night, when Hurricane Lala struck, the 93-year-old was home alone as the winds howled and raging floodwaters rushed through the small, rural town of about 820 people.

Nobody knows exactly what happened before she was found deceased on Monday morning about a mile south from her house. On Wednesday, two vehicles were seen under her carport and a couch was in her yard, surrounded by mud.

Nobody also knows what happened to the Big Island’s second known victim of Lala: a man in his 60s identified by community members on social media and in Doi’s neighborhood as John Hylas, a retired physicist from Cornell University and a regular at Honua Coffee Shop.

Doi was not found by the police, as Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green said Monday afternoon, or by the National Guard’s “specialized rescue” teams or by local fire department search crews. Her body was discovered Monday morning by her neighbors and by former students who did not give up looking for their beloved teacher, Mrs. Doi.

Hylas also was found by residents, on Tuesday, in a pasture off Highway 11 near the 63-mile marker in Ka‘ū, the Hawaiʻi Island police said in a news release.

In both cases, official searches for them by first responders had turned up empty….

read … Lala Hurricane victims 93-year-old May Doi and retired physicist John Hylas found by neighbors in pastures : Big Island Now

‘Nobody taking responsibility’: Oahu residents say some Lala storm damage was preventable

HNN: … Neighbors at the end of Waiawa Road were cleaning up for the fourth time this year. Saturday into Sunday, the bike path in front of their homes turned into a river.

“Went right down a bike path, and once again, for the fourth time, we came right through my house, right over the door. And again, the walls, the water in the house is this high,” said Albert Kim, a Waiawa Road resident….

Monday morning, the bikeway bridge was jammed with debris from upstream and from the neighboring ABC junkyard. The state was calling in an excavator, but because the stream passes many properties on its way there, it may not be clear for long.

“Nobody taking responsibility,” Kim said.

The neighbors say they have never had a year like this, and say the stream doesn’t clear out the way it used to.

One of the reasons neighbors believe the flooding has come more often is that the junkyard has built up the berm it uses to protect the rubbish, and that berm is not allowing the water to escape to the ocean….

Read … ‘Nobody taking responsibility’: Oahu residents say some Lala storm damage was preventable | Hawaii News Now

Lack of investment in infrastructure taking a toll

ASD: … This state has never had a money problem, it's had a problem setting priorities to deliver the basics and we pay the price every time a storm strains the system….

SA: Hawaii must ‘harden infrastructure’ against natural disasters, Rep. Tokuda says | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Read … Hamada: Lack of investment in infrastructure taking a toll

“$900 per 15 minutes”: Hawaii House panel considers more regulation of towing industry run by former Chop-shop theives

SA: … Reps. Darius Kila and Scot Matayoshi also would like the state Office of Consumer Protection, which investigates a high volume of consumer complaints over towing, to explore pursuing tow companies in small claims court as a more efficient way to adjudicate suspected state law violations….

Mana Moriarty, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection, told Kila, Matayoshi and about 10 other members of the two committees that towing has been one of the top four subjects of complaints to the office in each of the past three fiscal years — a unique feat.

In fiscal year 2024, 64 complaints ranked second-highest behind 96 for data security and privacy. Towing in fiscal year 2025 had the most complaints at 108 over vehicle rentals at 91. Then in the 2026 fiscal year that ended June 30, towing ranked fourth with 90 complaints behind refunds, vehicle rentals and travel or vacation business.

Moriarty also said that 43% to 60% of towing industry complaints in those three years involved four (actually two) companies — VIP (“owner Toan Nguyen” and “Agent Frances Freitas”), PM Autoworks, All Island Towing and All Island Wreckers… (CLUE: ‘PM’ and both ‘All Island’ companies are owned by Paul and Kanoelehua Perry.)

Michael Nuss, an OCP field investigator, told the legislative panel that one major issue is tow companies sometimes excessively boosting what they earn from various tow fees limited by statute through add- on fees that can include $300 for hazardous materials cleanup, a fee to open a tow yard gate, a fee for extra equipment and a fee for waiting at a scene that can be $900 per 15 minutes. Adding on the state General Excise Tax, which is prohibited, also is an issue, he said….

VIP 2025 Reddit: ”My car was towed to their yard after an accident, their employee used my car as his personal vehicle, it was totaled on his property and they lied about it, committed insurance fraud and tried to extort 2 teenage girls for $500.”

VIP 2010: 7 indicted in long-running motorcycle theft operation -- “Five of the suspects — brothers Toan and Thang Nguyen, both 26; Frances-Nicolette Freitas, 25; Tiffany Nakata, 24; and Freddie Woods-Vierra, 22 — were arrested and released Tuesday on a total of $650,000 bail. A bench warrant was issued for two other suspects, Micah Reichman and Ali Nguyen, who had not been arrested by yesterday afternoon.”

VIP 2010: 4 charged in theft and conspiracy “Police arrested 26-year-old brothers Thang and Toan Nguyen yesterday morning. Thang Nguyen was arrested with Tiffany Nakata, 24, at her Bachelot Street home, and Toan Nguyen was arrested with Frances-Nicolette Freitas, 25, at Marin Tower, where Freitas lives with the brothers.”

VIP 2009: Victim helps police uncover suspected chop shop operation “Thang and Toan Nguyen”

PM/All Island 2023: Honolulu Tells Tow Company To Stop Charging $900 Fees

Read … Hawaii House panel considers more regulation of towing industry | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Ban Taxpayer-Funded Mailers within 60 days of Elections, Ethics Chief Says

CB: … Honolulu City Council members are allowed to spend taxpayer dollars touting their accomplishments in mass mailers, even close to election time when name recognition is a valuable commodity.

But the Honolulu Ethics Commission’s new director wants to make that practice illegal. A proposal introduced on Wednesday by Honolulu Ethics Executive Director Sandy Ma would ban taxpayer-funded mass mailers within 60 days of elections. …

To reduce confusion, other jurisdictions such as Congress and the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives ban all mass mailers in the runup to election days.

Ma led a brief discussion during Wednesday’s commission meeting about codifying the same ban in Honolulu.

Details remain to be determined. If the restriction is for 60 days before election days, Commissioner David Monk said at the meeting, that would mean incumbents have a roughly one-month period to send mailers between primary and general elections.

The House – which is only in session between January and May – maintains a blackout period between June and November…

Read … Ban Taxpayer-Funded Mailers During Elections, Ethics Chief Says - Honolulu Civil Beat

Snouts at Trough: Green Fee application deadline extended following Hurricane Lala

HNN: … Hawaii Green Growth has launched a Green Fee RFP Tracker to help organizations identify and keep track of available funding opportunities.

Community organizations, nonprofits, Native Hawaiian organizations, and conservation groups are encouraged to apply.

The Green Fee provides dedicated funding for environmental stewardship (paid to go hiking), climate resilience (paid to go diving), hazard mitigation (paid to go hiking), and sustainable tourism projects statewide (paid to chat up chicks).

“The Green Fee is a transformational investment in Hawaii’s future,” said Kalani Kaanaana, CEO of Hawaii Green Growth. “We encourage every eligible organization with a project that supports stewardship, climate resilience, or sustainability to explore these opportunities and apply.”

Officials said additional Green Fee opportunities will be posted through the Hawaii Awards and Notices Data System….

Read … Green Fee application deadline extended following Hurricane Lala | Hawaii News Now

Almost Half Of Hawaiʻi Schools Have Unreliable Fire Alarms

CB: … Nearly half of Hawaiʻi schools have aging fire alarms that are in poor condition and becoming unreliable, according to a recent report from the state education department.

Only three of schools’ alarms are in critical condition, meaning they’re broken or significantly impaired: Hilo Intermediate, Waikele Elementary and Pāhoa High and Intermediate School. That’s a significant improvement from 2023, when the education department estimated alarms were in critical condition at more than two dozen schools.

Five schools – including the three in critical condition – are currently on fire watch, meaning their systems aren’t fully working and staff need to regularly patrol their campuses for signs of fire, Deputy Superintendent Jesse Souki said during a Board of Education meeting last week. All five schools, which include Lanakila Elementary and ʻAiea High School, have construction projects underway or are in the midst of troubleshooting ….

Read … Almost Half Of Hawaiʻi Schools Have Unreliable Fire Alarms - Honolulu Civil Beat

HURRICANE LALA:

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