Hawaii Daily News Read

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

September 29 2026 News Read

By Andrew Walden @ 10:47 AM :: 173 Views

Hawaii First-Ever 'A' Grade in Digital States Survey

OHA’s 14-Year Kakaako Makai Pipe Dream

SA: … OHA — while knowing of the history of the importance to the larger community that Kakaako Makai must remain open public land for cultural, recreational, health and educational purposes with no residential development — accepted the land in 2012 “as is, where is,” together with the residential restriction, as payment to settle the state’s $200 million debt. That, then and now, remains an ill-advised decision. It means OHA assumed responsibility for protection of the public health and safety within Kakaako Makai, including assurances of retaining the encapsulated toxic landfill.

For more than 20 years CPAC has continued to steward Kakaako Makai, seeking its long-term sustainable cultural public use. It is unfortunate that OHA continues pursuing the pipe dream of “highest and best use” residential housing in Kakaako Makai. If OHA were to pay the extreme cost needed to excavate, remove and safely relocate the toxic materials, build the infrastructure currently nonexistent on its nine parcels, and design structures to withstand groundwater inundation and sea level rise, the only way it could recover these costs would be by selling “highest and best use” luxury housing to the wealthy mostly outside Hawaii.

Instead, OHA should ask the state to find other more readily available shovel-ready land so that more affordable housing can be built for Native Hawaiians in the next few years rather than in the indefinite future.

OHA should engage in realistic planning rather than wasting its public beneficiary money on campaigning for housing that will serve the wealthy….

read … Column: Let Kakaako Makai serve public good | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Rising fuel costs prompt spike in Hawaii grocery prices

HNN: … About 90% of items in a Hawaiʻi shopping cart are shipped in. Containers being unloaded at the warehouse cost about $760 more to bring in than in January, an increase of about 7.5%. Multiplied by 2,000 containers a week, that amounts to $80 million a year out of consumers’ pockets.

“It increased fuel costs that go directly into your grocery receipt or your restaurant,” Buck said.

Buck said diesel that fuels delivery trucks is up 77%, adding to his company’s costs.

“Just to get the same groceries and the same routes, to the same stores, but $100,000 more a month to do it,” Buck said.

Pallets of produce arriving in the morning reach stores by the afternoon but must travel by air, which Buck said has had the biggest impact on food prices. Air cargo costs are up 217%, more than doubling.

“Some of the healthiest foods on the shelf, berries and salad and fresh vegetables. Those are up between a dollar and $1.46 for 16 ounces per pound,” Buck said.

read … Rising fuel costs prompt spike in Hawaii grocery prices | Hawaii News Now

Kailua Shooting: Son Of Miske Associate ID'd As Victim–female arrested as alleged shooter

CB: … On Monday, the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the victim was 30-year-old Thomas Malone, who is the son of Michael Buntenbah, a former associate of crime boss Mike Miske.

According to police, an argument between two groups of people at the Kailua Fall Festival on Saturday spilled into the nearby Target parking lot, where someone pulled out a firearm. Video on social media shows first responders performing chest compressions on a person behind some parked vehicles.

Malone was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the neck, according to the medical examiner’s office….

Police described the suspect as a male in his late 20s wearing a black sweater with his hair in two braids. Information put out by the Honolulu Police Department on Sunday indicated that a suspect was in custody, (uh huh) but a department spokesperson said Monday afternoon that a suspect was not in custody (oh ok). An HPD bulletin was later updated to say that no arrest had been made (right)….

After pleading guilty, Michael Buntenbah was released into the custody of his son, Thomas Malone. Buntenbah was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison but records show he was released in March.

In early 2024, Malone, Buntenbah and another of his sons, along with other men, were caught on tape assaulting a restaurateur at the International Marketplace in Waikīkī. Malone was never charged in the incident; in fact, he had no criminal charges besides traffic violations, according to court records.

In an application for a restraining order filed in January, Malone’s ex-wife accused him of beating and threatening her, including with firearms, in multiple instances dating back to 2019. Malone denied those allegations in court. Still, a state judge issued a two-year restraining order against him which was set to expire in 2028.

Records in his divorce proceedings show he lived with his father for a time and did not have a consistent source of income. He wrote to the court that he worked construction jobs for cash.

Court records also indicate he ‘struggled’ with drug addiction….

SA: Woman, 24, arrested in connection with fatal Kailua shooting | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

read … Kailua Shooting: Son Of Miske Associate ID'd As Victim - Honolulu Civil Beat

FBI finds 2 more alleged victims of former Moanalua coach

SA: … Two more alleged victims of a former Moanalua High School girls wrestling coach who was arrested last week for sexually exploiting one of his players have come forward to tell their stories to the FBI.

Sean S. Sakaida, 44, dressed in a white, prison-issued jump suit with his ankles shackled, made his initial appearance Monday on charges of receipt and possession of child pornography before U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter.

Federal prosecutors filed a motion Friday to hold Sakaida, who is the father of three young children, at the Federal Detention Center, Honolulu until trial. Sakaida allegedly threatened the mother of his three children and produced and stored child pornography with a 17-year-old victim in the last six months, according to federal court records….

read … FBI finds 2 more alleged victims of former Moanalua coach | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

13 Tons of Electric Vehicle Batteries Cleared from Olowalu Area before Fire

HNN: … County officials say there were many similarities between the recent brush fire in Olowalu during Hurricane Nolo and the 2023 fire disaster during Hurricane Dora, yet the outcome was drastically different.

From 2024 to today, the Maui Emergency Operations Center has been activated 137 times.

Officials say work done over the years was instrumental in saving lives and homes over the weekend.

County officials say wind gusts reached 80 mph in Olowalu during the fire, which could have been catastrophic….

Officials say the Olowalu fire could have been disastrous if the area had been left unmanaged… From August to December, the county and state partnered on a wildfire risk reduction project. They cleared the area’s fields and backroads of about 176 tons of solid waste and 13 tons of electric vehicle batteries….

read … County: Work done last year helped with Olowalu fire success | Hawaii News Now

KIUC Addresses $40-50M Price Tag from Hurricanes

IM: … The hurricane caused severe damage across KIUC’s approximately 1,500 miles of transmission and distribution system (damaging utility poles, power lines, substations and associated equipment) and disrupted electric service throughout the island. At the time the hurricane moved away from the island of Kauai in the morning of September 8, approximately 91% of KIUC’s 36,000 customers were left without electric power….

KIUC’s preliminary cost estimate to address the devastation caused by Hurricane Lowell is $40-50 million. KIUC is hopeful that some of its costs may ultimately be offset by insurance proceeds and potential grants/reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)….

read … KIUC Addresses $40-50M Price Tag from Hurricanes

Oahu industrial land prices surge as Kapolei supply tightens

PBN: … Oahu’s industrial supply has been shifting west for years after Kakaako’s warehouses began transforming into residential skyscrapers and the rest of Honolulu’s supply continued aging. As a result prices in Kapolei are shifting upward as well.

As one example, a contractor paid $5.2 million for 1.9 acres with a 1,222-square-foot structure built there in 1974 in James Campbell Industrial Park earlier this year. The seller paid $413,800 in 1990 for the same property….

PBN: New Kapalama Container Terminal nears completion as $2.5B Sand Island redevelopment plans advance

read … Oahu industrial land prices surge as Kapolei supply tightens - Pacific Business News

Enviros Plan: Destroy Every Oceanfront House on North Shore

YC: … One by one, Antolini pointed out the multi-million-dollar oceanfront homes that had collapsed, been demolished, or moved back. Nearly three-quarters, or 73%, of North Shore beaches suffer from chronic erosion – a figure expected to reach nearly 90% within 30 years as sea levels rise to just 10 inches, according to 2020 data. Additionally, 28% of beachfront homes along this key 2.5-mile stretch currently sit within 20 feet of water. With about two feet of sea level rise, that number climbs to roughly 40%. Desperate to protect these investments, landowners have been pushing for temporary fixes like seawalls or sand burritos to delay the inevitable.

There was a time when the government “was handing out seawall permits like Halloween candy,” said Charles Fletcher, a climate scientist and the dean of the School of Ocean Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa….

read … Buying on the brink in Hawaii » Yale Climate Connections

Judges Crackdown On Virtual Hearings

CB: … in July and August, 87% of immigrants from neighbor islands with immigration court proceedings had to travel to Oʻahu for at least one in-person hearing, compared to just under a third in the same period last year.

For those farther afield, the contrast was even starker. Honolulu judges required 18 people with out-of-state addresses to appear in person this July and August, compared to just one during the same months last year — a rise from 14% to 82%. Whether a hearing was in person or virtual was determined according to the Department of Justice’s explanation of its own data….

read … Judges' Crackdown On Virtual Hearings Adds Hurdles For Immigrants In Court - Honolulu Civil Beat

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