September 14, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Monday, September 14, 2026

September 14, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 9:41 AM :: 101 Views

PUC Hearings Set: HECO Pushing 5.3% Rate Hike

Indigenous Groups Are Exempt From Medicaid Work Rules, but Native Hawaiians Aren’t

Mokulele Airlines Awarded $19.4 Million Essential Air Service Contract for Lanaʻi

Rail Bribe: HCDA gives Lawmakers $300K For TOD Travel, Destination Unknown

CB: … A state agency has gotten what amounts to a $300,000 blank check for government workers and lawmakers to travel the globe and study policies to promote development around train stations.

(CLUE: Fall colors tour of the Front Range.)

Hawaiʻi policymakers have been studying ways to encourage development along the Honolulu Skyline for more than a decade. Proponents of the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority’s “Mobile Travel Study Workshop” now have taxpayers footing the bill so lawmakers and government staffers can see transit-oriented development in person to understand it better.

No trips were planned when the HCDA board earlier this month unanimously approved transferring $300,000 from the agency to the Department of Health to run the travel program: no destinations, no attendee list and only a general date of late October, which HCDA’s executive director, Craig Nakamoto, said will likely get pushed back, given that nothing’s been planned so far….

Among those supporting the travel workshop is Mark Garrity, executive director of the Oʻahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, a federally funded planning entity….“This is not a boondoggle,” he said.

(CLUE: Know them by what they deny.)

SA: “OahuMPO has its own mobile workshop planned this October in Denver with a TOD focus.”

Read … 'Not A Boondoggle': Lawmakers Get $300K For Travel, Destination Unknown - Honolulu Civil Beat

Mayor advises tourists to reconsider travel to Kauaʻi until island recovers more from Hurricane Lowell

KN: … Kaua‘i County Mayor Derek Kawakami said now isn't the time to visit the Garden Island ….

HPR: Hawaiʻi is still 'open for business’ during hurricane season, HTA says | Hawai'i Public Radio

Read … Mayor advises tourists to reconsider travel to Kauaʻi until island recovers more from Hurricane Lowell : Kauai Now

Enviros have a Plan to exploit Lowell Damage to make Home Construction even More Expensive and Difficult

CB: … Damage assessments from Lowell are still taking place, but the changes that came about after ʻIniki — which had seven fatalities and cost the state over $3 billion — may have helped many residents stay safe.

(CLUE: This is a sales pitch. Buy this and you will have to leave Hawaii. Will you be fooled into forcing yourself out of the state?)

Then-Mayor JoAnn Yukimura took a hard line in favor of stricter building standards, including hurricane clips, which secure roofs to the foundations of homes to prevent them from moving through the air like frisbees during storms.

The county staffed a dedicated office with enough people to speed up the permitting process and enforce the change. Hurricane clips were incorporated into the state-level building codes soon after.

Hanalei Valley resident Mina Morita remembers being told at the time by people who visited the construction site for her home that she couldn’t rebuild without hurricane clips. On Tuesday, Morita was thankful for the law as 74 mph gusts roared down Hanalei Valley, breaking branches, toppling trees and making a mess of her yard. Her roof stayed put.

“I’m just so relieved that we don’t have to file an insurance claim,” Morita said.

Newer upgrades aimed at protecting homeowners from wind and rain will not make it into state building codes any time soon, however. Gov. Josh Green has allowed for a suspension of the State Building Code Council, which has traditionally set and updated the codes, as part of his 21st emergency proclamation related to affordable housing, first declared in 2023.

Because the council has not met, the state is currently using an unamended version of the International Code Council’s 2021 building, residential and electrical codes. The counties, which Green’s resolution says do not have to abide by state code developments, are still on the 2018 building codes.

That could be a serious concern, because it’s often stipulated in federal disaster relief that up-to-date codes are needed for states to obtain disaster relief funding. That raises the question of what standard disaster victims rebuild their homes to, said Melanie Islam, president of the Hawaiʻi arm of the American Institute of Architects.

“We’re getting very close to an almost 10-year lapse of building codes,” Islam said. “It’s very concerning.” …

(IQ TEST: Are you fooled?)

Read … Hawaiʻi Can't Catch A Break From Storms. It Has To Adapt - Honolulu Civil Beat

845 Homeless Chronics Dead Since 2020

SA: … From 2020 through mid-July, 845 people experiencing homelessness died, according to the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office. More than half — 446 deaths, or 53% — were attributed to substance abuse, while 185, or 22%, were attributed to disease or sickness. The average age at death was 53.1 years.

Deaths reached a high of 156 in 2025, including 91 attributed to substance abuse and 67 to acute drug intoxication. By mid-July, 78 deaths had been recorded.

Heart disease was the most common medical condition documented in the records, appearing in 322 deaths, or 38.1%. Infections and sepsis were documented in 83 deaths, or 9.8%, while respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and emphysema appeared in 61, or 7.2%. Diabetes was documented in 53 deaths, or 6.3%....

SA: For roughly seven years while she was using drugs, Pacheco lived in Kakaako, across from the John A. Burns School of Medicine

Read … Care on the streets: Medical students bring help to the homeless | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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