HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A $100 million COVID testing program organized by a central figure in an ongoing donations scandal is facing new scrutiny with critics calling the effort a wasteful use of taxpayer money.

Tobi Solidum organized a plan for the National Kidney Foundation Hawaii to become a city contractor for testing with subcontractors including his own company and H2O Process Systems, owned by his friend, Milton Choy.

Choy was later convicted of bribing former state Sen. Kalani English and Ty Cullen for other favors.

In November 2021, the city paid nearly $20 million to bring in a customized testing lab inside a shipping container and start running a rapid test service at the airport with tests costing $120 each.

Testing program called unnecessary

Former mayor Kirk Caldwell said the program was designed for island residents who wanted to “come down here, park, get swabbed, wait three hours.”

At the time, the city and Kidney Foundation said they were responding to a lack of rapid testing capability.

But Dr. Scott Miscovich, who led many other testing programs, said by the time the portable lab was delivered, there was plenty of testing available at lower costs.

The city program, which would eventually cost taxpayers and customers over $100 million, was a boondoggle, he said.

“It was just greed and the whole concept of easy money was being floated around, and everybody just said, ‘I’ll stick out my hand and just put in as much into my hand as you can as you go,’ and grab the big amount,” Miscovich said.

Company files bankruptcy, cites problems

The mainland company that stood to gain the most, Contact Diagnostics, filed for bankruptcy last year.

The company called the program “chaotic” and said Hawaii officials urged the company to buy way too much testing supplies, which mostly went unused as vaccination increased and home testing became available.

The company said Solidum overbilled $7 million and left the country. He also caused trouble with his donation to Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, which was recorded by Cullen and cited in a federal sentencing document. He also allegedly bribed Cullen.

The Kidney Foundation later produced a video that described the testing program as heroic and featured reviews from politicians and former adjutant general Kenneth Hara.

“They organized, and they resourced themselves, and they brought this capability to Hawaii,” Hara said in the video.

Foundation attorneys offered a link to the video when asked for comment.

Miscovich said the effort was a tremendous waste compared to how local companies like his performed.

“I lost $1.2 million doing testing in the state of Hawaii. I did not make money in the state of Hawaii doing testing. We just put ourselves out there to help, and we relied on the insurances to pay,” Miscovich said.

Milton Choy died in prison. Attempts to reach Tobi Solidum through a company he may have set up in the Philippines were unsuccessful.

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When Andy Chiang lost his wife on a trip to Hawaii, he says it was a pain like no other.

But the thought of not continuing the legacy of her passion was one reality he would not be able to handle.

“The unspeakable thing happened to my wife when visiting our daughter,” said Chiang, who lives in Fort Lee. “Each day, I carry that. But also, the legacy of my wife’s dance production that is so beloved.”

Now, the dance company that has had over 20 years of success is continuing its tradition of bringing Chinese culture across the United States.

The Fort Lee-based Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will celebrate the Lunar New Year with its annual production, “Year of the Horse,” set for 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

Founded in the late 1980s by Taiwanese-born choreographer Nai-Ni Chen, the company grew out of Chen’s early success in New York’s downtown dance scene, where a critically acclaimed commission at La MaMa helped launch her career. At a time when opportunities for Asian American dancers on Broadway were limited, Chen established her own troupe, which has since become one of the few Asian American dance companies to tour extensively across the United States.

A longtime winter tradition at NJPAC that started in the late 1990s, the family-friendly matinees blend traditional Chinese dance with contemporary choreography, featuring colorful costumes, lion and dragon dances, ribbon work, acrobatics and live music, according to Chiang. The performances honor the spirit of renewal associated with the Lunar New Year while showcasing the company’s cross-cultural approach.

This year’s program includes three premieres. The first is a duet choreographed by residency artist Ying Shi that highlights the folk traditions of China’s Yunnan Province, known for fluid hip sways and soft shoulder movements.

The second, “Mongolian Harvest,” by Inner Mongolia native Lawrence Jin, draws on the region’s nomadic horse culture with bold, athletic choreography.

The company will also debut “Vira of the Red Horse,” a collaboration with Newark’s Rancho Camponeses do Minho, blending Portuguese Minho folk dance with Chinese movement in a tribute to the city’s immigrant history and its Ironbound community.

In addition, the program will feature a work-in-progress, “Mythical Echos,” inspired by the art of the Dunhuang caves along the Silk Road.

Live music will be performed by LiangXing Tang, a National Heritage Fellow, on the pipa, or Chinese lute, and by Yi Yang, a 2026 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Heritage fellow, on the guzheng, a 21-to-27-stringed instrument akin to a zither.

Festivities begin at 12 p.m. on Saturday with a dragon parade from NJPAC to the Newark Museum of Art three blocks away, followed by a marketplace in the theater lobby before the 2 p.m. performance. Tickets are on sale now at NJPAC.org.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Honolulu-born star actor Jason Momoa prepares for his next project.

Just two weeks after the release of his latest movie “The Wrecking Crew,” he’s landed another role.

Reports say Momoa will star in the action-adventure movie “Helldivers.”

The movie will be an adaptation of a shooter style video game. The soldiers known as helldivers will battle alien creatures threatening to destroy the fictional planet of super earth.

The film is set to be directed by Justin Lin and backed by Sony Pictures and PlayStation.

Helldivers is slated for release in November 2027.

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