Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, October 11, 2026

October 11, 2026 News Read

By Andrew Walden @ 10:21 AM :: 234 Views

Financial and infrastructure troubles plague Hawaii Convention Center

Data Book: Hawaii incomes, housing prices up while population shrinks, grows older

Data from ongoing Jones Act waiver shatters China fearmongering

Can fixing our zoning laws make a dent in poverty?

Financial Red Flags

Councilmembers caught illegally meeting at Zippys to Pick Tyler Dos Santos as Next Chair

CB: … The state Office of Information Practices is on the case, thanks to a tipster who sent in a complaint (and, happily, copied The Blog on it.) …

This past Monday, five council members — Esther Kiaʻāina, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Matt Weyer, Radiant Cordero and Augie Tulba – got together at Zippy’s in Waipahu to plan who would be the next council chair.

Word on the street — which was ferreted out via some good old-fashioned shoe leather reporting by Civil Beat city government reporter Ben Angarone — says the new leader will be Tyler Dos Santos-Tam.….

The Sunshine Law says no more than two council members can meet privately to discuss official business. There is an exception, as it turns out, if members are choosing officers and then more of them can gather. But the law still limits that gathering to fewer than a quorum. In the nine-member City Council’s case that would be five… (ooops!)

Last year, Waters (who thought he was running for reelection this year and then possibly for mayor in 2028) upended leadership after a particularly troublesome vote on sewer rates didn’t go his way. Dos Santos-Tam and Weyer were booted from their plum positions, among other changes….

Andria Tupola was not invited to the Zippy’s hang and neither was Val Okimoto, the current budget chair, they confirmed to Angarone. Council member Scott Nishimoto was not there….

read … The Sunshine Blog: Game Of Thrones At The Honolulu City Council - Honolulu Civil Beat

Awa is an Independent Candidate for Congress

CB: … Awa is an unconventional kind of candidate who does not fit well within either party and really doesn’t give a damn about that.

In a Civil Beat election forum last week, Awa called himself an independent. He said that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He supports abortion and says that humans play a big role in climate change….

Read … Neal Milner: Independents Are Rising. Do They Have A Future In Hawaiʻi? - Honolulu Civil Beat

RCV is Illegal in Hawaii: Will Activists Finally Con Voters Anyway?

CB: … Question No. 5 on Oʻahu ballots in the Nov. 3 election asks if the city should switch to a ranked choice voting system for mayor, City Council and prosecuting attorney. It would allow voters to consider as many as five candidates for each office in a single November election, (thus giving the advantage to activist-types with lots of time on their hands to game out the system and vote accordingly)…

Ranked choice voting has been controversial in many states, partly because of the uncertainty it poses for (crazy people being elected by freak results)…

Commissioners were told by the city’s Corporation Counsel that a switch to ranked choice voting conflicts with state law … Some commissioners wanted to shelve the idea altogether …. (but it is ‘trendy’ and you know how very very important it is to follow every stupid trend that comes along)

2020: Ranked Choice Voting: Who Gets Disenfranchised?

2011: Instant Runoff? Low-income voters struggle with ranked-choice voting

2011: Instant Runoff Voting debunked

Read … Ranked Choice Voting Could Shake Up Honolulu Elections - Honolulu Civil Beat

Shapiro: ConAm bonds aim to RISE, but deserve deep skepticism

Shapiro: …Misleading ads suggest the bonds, dubbed RISE (resilient infrastructure for shelter and equity), will pay to fix aging and storm-ravaged existing infrastructure. In fact, they’ll mostly fund infrastructure for new development, which developers now pay themselves.

Advocates say bond subsidies for development could cut housing costs 30% without tapping county general fund revenues. But that’s dependent on developers using the savings to lower prices on the housing rather than increase their profits.

Exact rules are unknown, pending the Legislature’s passage of more specific enabling legislation — the details where the devil often lies — if the ConAm passes….

Read … David Shapiro: ConAm bonds aim to RISE, but deserve deep skepticism | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii Campaign Contributions Become Open Secrets

CB: … OpenSecrets, the Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying, has launched a major expansion so folks can follow the money in their home states. And just in time for the midterms.

The Blog checked out the Hawaiʻi overview page and found that $4.6 million had already been spent in our congressional races during the 2025-2026 election cycle. At the state level, the numbers for the current cycle have not been posted yet, but the 2023-2024 data is up. Example: $11.1 million was spent in Hawaiʻi state races, with 13.4% coming from out of state….

Read … The Sunshine Blog: Game Of Thrones At The Honolulu City Council - Honolulu Civil Beat

It Begins: HMSA Steers 16,000 Customers Away from Queens

SA: … Hawaii’s largest insurer is rolling out a new, lower-cost plan for its Medicare Advantage patients, but The Queen’s Health Systems is not participating in it.

The Hawaii Medical Service Association’s new Select Plus HMO plan, for Oahu members only, is part of a revamp of its Akamai Advantage plans to take effect next year.

HMSA began sending notification letters this month to about 16,000 members, informing them their current Akamai Advantage Complete Plus and Standard Plus PPO plans would be closing Dec. 31 and that they would lose prescription coverage unless they choose a new plan….

Read … Queen’s shuns HMSA’s new Medicare HMO plan | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Green: Kauhale Program Costs only $41,000 per bum per year, a 50% improvement over previous system

SA: … Before we took action, an unhoused person was costing taxpayers an average of $82,000 annually in healthcare and safety costs, and that cost has now dropped by more than half for a kauhale resident….

REALLY OBVIOUS QUESTION: “Normally when an executive becomes a distraction, he gets pushed out and replaced. Why isn't that happening here???”

Read … Column: Kauhale work, making valuable inroads | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii’s recent ‘disasters’ will be a money-spinner for years to come

SA: … Gov. Josh Green on Sept. 23 announced a patchwork plan for the state to front an estimated $686 million in spending to repair public buildings and infrastructure damaged by Kona-low storms in March, a magnitude-6.0 earthquake in May, Hurricane Lala in August and Hurricane Lowell in September.

The governor’s funding strategy included scraping close to $175 million from accounts of nearly every state department under an emergency proclamation he issued following the Kona lows and using $121 million of it on recovery efforts for the March storms that affected multiple islands and the May earthquake on Hawaii island.

Green subsequently drew nearly $50 million more from the state’s major disaster fund, which received the $54 million balance from his emergency shifting of departmental funds plus $100 million the Legislature appropriated in May. The disaster fund now has a $105 million balance.

To cover more anticipated recovery expenses, much of which are expected to be reimbursed to a high degree by the federal government, the governor has proposed withdrawing $300 million from the state’s emergency budget and reserve fund, also known as the Rainy Day fund.

Still, it could be many months or even years for a lot of major damage to be fixed in cases where funding from state and federal sources is slow to be approved and released, including expected aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“A lot of assistance comes but sometimes takes months or years,” Green said during his Sept. 23 disaster recovery briefing….

Read … Multiple funding sources are needed to tackle repairs from Hawaii’s recent disasters | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

‘A Hawaiian son’: Honolulu honours Sun Yat-sen as his landmarks vanish

SCMP: … Eddie Flores pressed the button at a pedestrian crossing on King Street, then pointed across the road.

In the spring of 1910, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen lodged over there, on the second floor of a shop owned by a friend and fellow party member.

“It’s no longer there,” said Flores, chairman of the restaurant chain L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. “But we can more or less point out where the building is.”

Much of Sun’s Honolulu has to be found this way. The church where he worshipped as a boy was pulled down in 1909. The basement where his followers met in secret was lost in a renovation. The theatre where he called for the overthrow of the Qing dynasty’s autocratic rule is now a market. And the place where China’s first revolutionary party was founded is a car park.

On November 24, 1894, about 20 men gathered there, on Emma Lane, first in the house of a bank clerk named Ho Fon and then in the house next door. They formed the Hsing Chung Hui, or Revive China Society, and pledged to bring down the Qing dynasty. Their leader was a 28-year-old doctor who had gone to school a short walk away. Both houses were demolished in the 1960s….

Read … ‘A Hawaiian son’: Honolulu honours Sun Yat-sen as his landmarks vanish | South China Morning Post

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