Hawaii
The Packed Hawaii State Hospital May Soon See A Surge In Patients From A Private Facility
Health officials are seeking $14 million in emergency funding to try to improve security and reduce the patient population at the Hawaii State Hospital, but the psychiatric facility may soon have to make room for an influx of even more patients from the privately run Kahi Mohala facility.
The hospital has contracted for years with the nonprofit Kahi Moha to house 40 of its patients there, and most or all of those patients are “forensic” patients. That means they were committed to Hawaii State Hospital by the courts after being arrested.
Sutter Health network is now pursuing a deal to sell Kahi Mohala to The Queen’s Health System, and “Queen’s has indicated that the forensic patients will no longer be serviced at that campus,” said Marian Tsuji, deputy director for behavioral health for the state Department of Health.
Tsuji told lawmakers Wednesday that the department is trying to reduce the number of patients at Kahi Mohala to prepare for the movement of patients from that facility back to Hawaii State Hospital. But the loss of the Kahi Mohala beds seems likely to aggravate already severe crowding at the hospital.
Kahi Mohala referred questions to a public relations firm, which said it didn’t have any information. Queen’s didn’t respond to a request for comment.
‘A Very Challenging Time’
Dr. Kenneth Luke, administrator of Hawaii State Hospital, told members of the House Health and Homelessness Committee on Wednesday the hospital is licensed for 297 beds, but as of Wednesday morning had 345 patients. That does not include the patients now at Kahi Mohala.
Public attention has focused on problems at Hawaii State Hospital since Nov. 13, when a patient stabbed to death 29-year-old nurse Justin Bautista with what hospital staff have described as a pocket knife.
The attack occurred on the hospital grounds in an unsecured cottage used for a state-operated specialized residential program, which functions much like a halfway house. Tommy Kekoa Carvalho has been charged with second-degree murder in the case and is being held at the Oahu Community Correctional Center.
The case was the first killing of a staff member on the hospital campus, but the hospital has long been the subject of complaints about abuse of patients and threats and violence against staff.
Luke said after the attack on Bautista that the hospital has been urgently trying to reduce the patient count, but the census numbers he announced Wednesday suggest the facility has made little progress on that front in recent months.
“Hawaii State Hospital is going through a very challenging time right now,” Luke told lawmakers.
“The types of patients that we’re getting are much sicker than we got maybe a decade ago. These are patients that have not only a chronic and severe mental illness, but they also have co-occurring conditions, oftentimes a substance abuse disorder, primarily methamphetamine,” Luke said.
“This really complicates their conditions, makes them much more acute, much more difficult to treat,” he said. Luke said 70% of the patients were “houseless” on the street, and are therefore less stable than patients of past years.
He described the hospital staff as “the best staff that any hospital could ask for … but I feel that we owe them what we can to make the place safer.”
Backlog In Evaluations
One problem has been the long delays in processing people sent by the courts to Hawaii State Hospital for evaluations to determine if they are mentally fit to proceed with their criminal cases, Tsuji said.
Those patients sometimes remain at the hospital for many months because of a backlog in the evaluations, which contributes to the high patient counts.
“We need to process people a whole lot quicker than what we’ve been doing,” Tsuji said. “We’re short forensic psychologists, evaluators at the courts as well as at the hospital, and so if we can get those evaluations done quicker, we can process them quicker.”
Crisis Shelters And Metal Detectors
House Health and Homelessness Committee Chairwoman Della Au Belatti questioned Luke and Tsuji about the request for an emergency appropriation to finance improvements to Hawaii State Hospital.
The original funding request in House Bill 1941 was for $5.975 million, but Gov. Josh Green is about to submit a governor’s message that will increase that request to $14.2 million, Luke said.
A consultant’s report last month recommended changes in hospital operations, and the money would be used to finance a reorganization, according to hospital staff. It would also pay for an expansion of the hospital’s existing network of community-based treatment facilities, Tsuji said.
Those facilities are used to transition patients back into the community after they have completed treatment at the hospital. But some patients cannot be placed in group homes because they are full, which contributes to overcrowding as patients remain at the hospital until a community slot opens, Tsuji said.
She said the governor’s message will ask lawmakers to fund two licensed crisis shelters for patients, and two additional houses with 24-hour supervision. The state plans to award contracts to operate those facilities, Tsuji said.
Additional money is also being requested to increase the rates the state pays for existing group homes because in some cases those payments have not been increased in a decade, she said. Tsuji said she expects those rates will go up by 20% to 25%.
The hospital reorganization would involve creating a new “safety and security team” at the facility, and improving information technology, according to Naomi Yanagishita, associate administrator for administrative and support services at the hospital.
Another $650,000 would be committed to upgrading communications and information technology within the hospital, including fixing video cameras that no longer function, Yanagishita said.
Tsuji said some of the new funding would also be used to buy wand-type metal detectors to screen patients such as Carvalho who are allowed to come and go from the hospital campus. The hospital is also requesting money for drug testing, Tsuji said.
Tsuiji said the governor’s message will request $700,000 in construction funding to relocate the hospital’s guard shack to better control access to the facility.
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A hiker was rescued after suffering a medical emergency on the Diamond Head Crater Trail Saturday morning.
The Honolulu Fire Department said crews responded at about 10:30 a.m. after a woman in her 30s became unable to descend from the top of the trail.
Firefighters climbed the trail on foot while another crew prepared a nearby landing zone for air operations.
HFD’s Air 1 helicopter inserted rescue personnel to the woman’s location, where they assessed her condition and provided basic life support.
The hiker was then airlifted to the landing zone and transferred to Honolulu Emergency Medical Services shortly after 11 a.m.
No firefighter injuries were reported.
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
Hawaii
Filipino dignitaries embrace RIMPAC hospitality amid outside protests – Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Aboard the Philippine navy ship BRP Miguel Malvar on Wednesday night, prominent members of Honolulu’s Filipino community rubbed shoulders with military personnel and diplomats as they wined and dined on its deck in Pearl Harbor before the ship set sail to join other warships participating in the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise.
“This warm atmosphere, the smiles, enthusiastic conversations truly echo the spirit of Filipino hospitality, or bayanihan … central to Filipino psychology, which means we see ourselves in others,” said Vice Admiral Jose Ezpeleta, the Philippine navy’s top officer, as he addressed attendees at Filipino Community Night reception.
“These cherished Filipino values and rich heritage are primarily reflected and carried out by you, our Filipino community,” Ezpeleta said. “Serving as a final bridge that links the Philippines to the United States cultures and peoples, and beyond defense and security, these vibrant people-to-people ties clearly form part of the foundational cornerstone of the Philippines and the United States of America.”
But outside the base’s gates on Kamehameha Highway, about 20 protesters carried signs and shouted slogans condemning the Philippine military’s participation in RIMPAC. During the protest, part of the group went to the base’s Halawa Gate and stood outside it until base security officials asked that they step back and return to the road.
The group included members of the Ho‘opae Pono Peace Project, Anakbayan Hawaii, Democratic Socialist of Oahu, Hawaii Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Social Medicine Hawaii, and the Filipino Artist Movement.
“Everyone here is here because they love someone and they know someone that’s been impacted by U.S. militarism across the world” said Silayan Camson, a member of Filipino Artists Movement. “We’re all united in that struggle. U.S. militarism is one of the number one polluters in the world, and it has also spread across not only in the Asia-Pacific, but also in the Middle East, and that impacts day-to-day working people here, not only here in Hawaii, but across the oceans into the Philippines.”
In a statement preced-ing the protest, the HICHRP said that “while mainstream media views RIMPAC as providing valuable opportunities for the Philippine Navy to enhance interoperability with its allies and partners, the Philippines continues to enter into military agreements with the U.S. at the expense of its people.
“Filipino citizens risk becoming collateral damage amidst increasing U.S. tensions with China,” the group said. “Recent events, including the massacre of 19 individuals, including two Filipino-Americans in Negros Occidental, highlight the dire human rights situation in the Philippines.”
The American citizens in question were Lyle Prijoles, 40, and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, 26. Both had friends in Hawaii, who gathered with local activists to hold vigils after their deaths. They were among a group of activists and researchers taking part in a program put together by leftist organizers taking them into the countryside.
They were killed in a controversial operation by Philippine army troops hunting down members of the New People’s Army — the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines — in the town of Toboso.
The Philippine military described it as an hours-long gun battle with rebels that wounded one soldier before they ultimately called in air support, while activists say indiscriminate strafing fire from the sky rained down on helpless civilians below. The NPA has confirmed that 10 of those killed in the incident were armed members of the group, but maintains the other nine were unarmed civilians.
“The U.S. has been assisting and aiding the Philippine military and its human rights abuses,” argued Camson, who told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Prijoles and Sorem were “learning about Filipino struggles in the Philippines, they were unjustly murdered by the Philippines military, and the Philippines military has continually neglected its people.”
Manila has sought to deepen military ties with countries around the region as it has been locked in a bitter dispute with Beijing over maritime territorial and navigation rights in the South China Sea, a busy waterway that nearly one-third of all global trade travels through.
Beijing claims nearly the entire sea as its exclusive territory over the objections of most neighboring countries and many others around the world who depend on goods flowing through it. In 2016 an international court ruled in favor of the Philippines and found that China’s claims have “no legal” basis.
China rejected the ruling and has built bases on disputed islands and reefs. The Chinese military also has harassed and sometimes attacked fishermen and other marine workers from the Philippines, including scientists trying to study the ecological impacts of operations in the area.
“The officers and sailors aboard this ship are more than members of our Armed Forces of the Philippines,” said Consul General Arman Talbo, the Philippines’ top diplomat in Hawaii. “They are our fellow Filipinos, our sons, our daughters, our brothers, our sisters, who have chosen a life of service. Their dedication helps safeguard our nation’s sovereignty, protect our people, and contribute to regional peace”
“The presence of this remarkable ship in Honolulu is the source of great pride for the Filipino community here in Hawaii,” Talbo said. “As one of the Philippine navy’s newest and most capable vessels, BRP Miguel Malvar reflects our nation’s steadfast commitment to modernizing its armed forces and strengthening its ability to secure peace, security, and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
The U.S. military, for its part, has conducted frequent “freedom of navigation” operations through the region, increasingly in partnership with other countries, and frequently makes use of Subic Bay and other ports in the Philippines to support its operations.
While U.S. troops left permanent bases in the country in the 1990s after nationalist protests led to their eviction, training rotations by American forces and now those from other countries have increased amid tensions with China along with port calls by warships. Last year, President Donald Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced plans for Subic Bay to become a new arms manufacturing hub.
Camson argued that “Filipinos and the Philippine budget should be going toward people’s rights and education … The working conditions and working-class people of the Philippines are struggling while their leaders are busy participating in RIMPAC when they should be focusing on how to help Filipinos both in the U.S. and back in the Philippines.”
The Philippines is also among the most likely staging areas U.S. troops would use to respond to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The Philippine military’s top commander, Gen. Romeo Brawner, told his troops in the northern tip of the country last year to “start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan.”
Brawner, an alumnus of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Waikiki, asserted in his remarks that “if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved. There are 250,000 (overseas Filipino workers) working in Taiwan, and we will have to rescue them.”
The Philippine navy also has sent ships, including the Malvar, to train as far away as India and Australia. Talbo said that he sees it as a source of pride that the Philippine navy can now regularly sail its ships across the vastness of the Pacific, arguing that years ago that would have been unthinkable.
Star-Advertiser photo editor George Lee contributed to this report.
Hawaii
Evacuations ordered for Buildings 4 and 5 of the Lofts in Waikōloa as firefighters continue response to brush fire | Big Island Now
July 10, 2026, 6:19 PM HST
* Updated July 10, 6:20 PM
This story was updated at 6:19 p.m. July 10, 2026.
Hawai‘i Fire Department issued a wildfire warning and is responding to a brush fire in the Waikōloa area of South Kohala, with evacuations ordered for Buildings 4 and 5 of the Lofts in Waikōloa Village.
An evacuation shelter is open at Waikōloa Elementary School cafeteria, located at 68-1730 Hoʻokō St.
Waikōloa Road from Paniolo Avenue to Highway 190 is closed. Hawai’i Police Department advises motorists to avoid the area for at least the next 4 hours.
Only local traffic will be allowed on Waikōloa Road from Paniolo Avenue to Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway.
More information will be provided as it becomes available. Hawai’i County Civil Defense is providing updates as conditions change.
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