HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Hawaii nonprofits that provide critical social safety nets are facing economic hardship of their own.

President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is expected to slash federal appropriations, government contracts and grant awards, and heavily impact social services across the state.

Melissa Pavlicek, Hawaii True Cost Coalition, explained, “The community-based organizations that are providing key government services are already struggling to provide those services. Some of their contract prices have not increased in over 10 years. The cost to provide those services is significantly greater. The transportation costs, rent, employees, food, everything has gone up. And to serve the community costs more. So we’re looking to our state policy leaders to help ensure those services are continued.”

To mitigate the potential fallout or disruption of services, nonprofit leaders are working to fill the gaps with the help of lawmakers, private donors, philanthropy, corporate foundations and residents themselves.

Suzanne Skjold, Aloha United Way COO, said, “Whether that’s helping your neighbor, maybe donating to a charity that is losing a program, even getting involved politically, locally, you know, voting matters. Being involved in our legislature matters.”

“The slack really has to be picked up by the state and county governments as well as the private sector,” warned U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, “and so these are gonna be tough times and I’m telling everybody, hey, let’s, not sugarcoat this. We have to be prepared for the unexpected.”

Another concern is legislation that some believe if passed could be used to target progressive nonprofits opposed by the Trump administration.

For now, community advocates are urged to keep calm.

Case said, “The first thing I would advise everybody is not to freak out. That we have been through changes in administration before. That these are core federal programs that within Congress, even a divided and polarized Congress, many, many people from both parties support these programs.”

“We want to make sure Hawaii doesn’t become the kind of place where we lead in a way that’s hateful to others,” Skjold said.

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

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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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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