Hawaii

Public housing dispute over $1B redevelopment raises accusations of lavish spending

Published

3 years ago

May 28, 2022

Public housing dispute over B redevelopment raises accusations of lavish spending

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The nasty monetary divorce over the $1 billion redevelopment of the Mayor Wright Housing mission is flaring up with accusations of lavish spending.

The dispute comes because the state is shifting forward with a brand new plan to rebuild the getting older, crime-ridden public housing mission.

In studies introduced at board conferences, the Hawaii Public Housing Authority mentioned that after it terminated its settlement with Hunt Firms in 2020, it discovered quite a lot of questionable expenditures that Hunt tried to go off to the company — and in the end to taxpayers.

Based on the HPHA, it included:

$800 in prime rib dinners for workers, full with high quality wines and whiskey
Almost $500,000 in disputed charges paid to a building agency;
and improper mileage reimbursements of $2 for workers’ journey from Hunt’s downtown workplaces to the HPHA’s Kalihi headquarters.

Inexpensive housing advocates are outraged.

“When once we say that reasonably priced housing is the highest precedence in our group, however we see this bickering and nickel and diming? It actually doesn’t serve the general public,” mentioned HI Good Neighbor member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam.

The HPHA has employed an outdoor legislation agency to resolve the dispute. It declined remark.

Hunt mentioned they spent greater than $4 million of its personal cash on the mission and that the contract was unjustly terminated.

“We disagree with the gross mischaracterizations and false narratives superior by HPHA management,” the corporate mentioned.

With the demise of the take care of Hunt, the state is now seeking to construct reasonably priced leases and leasehold residences.

S. Sen. Stanley Chang, D-Hawaii Kai mentioned the state legislature this 12 months appropriated $10 million in the direction of the event of 300 leasehold condos and 300 mixed-income leases at Mayor Wright.

He additionally mentioned costs and rents will largely be based mostly on the price of building and solely native owner-occupants should buy or hire.

“What persons are actually involved about is that they don’t need rich abroad buyers or speculators to be utilizing Hawaii housing as automobiles to park their cash and to revenue off of individuals,” Chang mentioned.

The HPHA is now within the means of finalizing bid request for potential builders.

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Hawaii

Hawaii Supreme Court rejects county council candidate’s election lawsuit

Published

2 hours ago

December 27, 2024

Press Room

Hawaii Supreme Court rejects county council candidate’s election lawsuit

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The state Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit by Maui County Council candidate Kelly King to overturn the general election results.

King lost her race last month to incumbent Tom Cook by 97 votes.

She argued the county rejected too many ballots because of missing or invalid signatures, and that voters weren’t offered enough help to fix the problems.

In Maui County, there were nearly 1,100 deficient ballots compared to the national average. King says Maui County’s rejection rate was nearly double the state average in 2022.

But the high court ruled Tuesday that the County Clerk’s Office followed state law and all administrative rules to cure the deficient ballots.

View the full decision here.

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Hawaii

Unticketed passenger removed from Delta flight bound for Hawaii

Published

10 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Press Room

Unticketed passenger removed from Delta flight bound for Hawaii

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Authorities are investigating how a passenger without a ticket got onto a Delta Airlines flight bound for Honolulu Christmas Eve.

According to Delta Airlines, the traveler boarded flight 487 from Seattle to Honolulu, on an Airbus A321neo aircraft.

The traveler has not been identified, but the airlines confirmed the person was discovered during the taxi out at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday.

The flight returned to the gate, where the person was removed and arrested. The Transportation Security Administration conducted additional security checks, including customer rescreening.

The flight was delayed 2 hours and 15 minutes and continued on to Honolulu, the airline said.

Delta Airlines said in a statement: “As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation.”

Delta said early indications are the unticketed passenger boarded the flight at the gate without presenting a boarding pass.

TSA says the passenger made it through the standard screening, and did not possess any prohibited items.

The investigation is ongoing.

This happened on the same day that a body was discovered in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that arrived in Kahului from Chicago.

That incident also remains under investigation.

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Hawaii

Lava fountain roars from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii

Published

18 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Press Room

Lava fountain roars from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii

A towering lava fountain roared from the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii. Footage shows the hot molten rocks spewing out of fissures from the crater on December 24. The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said they were closely monitoring the recent eruption from the caldera rim, where they recorded the fountain reaching a height of 246ft (75m). Lava continues to surge from the western part of the caldera, feeding flows moving eastward at a pace of tens of meters per hour.

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