Links to: Rep. Gates, Rep. Eli, Waianae HS, SB2862.

By Jack Truesdale
Star-Advertiser 10/10/22

[Note: Senator Maile Shimabukuro sponsored the bill, SB1412 (2021), that allocated $95m in special purpose revenue bonds for this project.]

By Andrew Gomes
Investors wanted for Oahu surf park project, Star-Advertiser, 24 Sep. 2022

Developers of a planned surf park on state land at Kalaeloa are trying to interest the general public in the venture as investors through an unusual offering.

An Ohio-based company is seeking to raise about $100,000 for the $155 million project called Hono­kea Surf Villages and Resort by selling shares of stock in an affiliated company.

Honokea’s developers, local big-wave surfer Brian Keaulana and Kenan “Keno” Knieriem Jr. of HK Management, partnered with Columbus, Ohio-based real estate fundraising firm Rhove to help finance the surf park project, which Rhove describes as being in a pre-development phase with high loss risk.

By Star-Advertiser Staff 19 Aug. 2022

Hawaii households in food-insecure areas now are eligible for grants up to $5,000 for small-scale gardening, herding and livestock operations.

The Micro-Grants for Food Security Program is now in its second year and is accepting grant applications, the state Department of Agriculture announced today.

By Kyle Galdeira, Special to the Star-Advertiser, 10 July 2022

While school is still out for summer, the “old school” approach of Na Keiki O Ka Mo‘i Canoe Club was in full force on Saturday.

Overnight park closures considered to curb illegal camping
by Max Rodriguez, KHON2, 11 July 2022

The Kailua Neighborhood Board Chair Bill Hicks said they are putting a motion forward to close the rest of the park overnight with the intent to help enforce overnight camping violations.

Hicks said, “Because the park itself is not closed overnight HPD did not feel there was anything they could cite.”

The City’s Parks and Recreation Department spokesperson Nate Serota said they are hearing from neighbors before adjusting hours of operation. He said access to the beach will remain uninterrupted.

By Blaze Lovell & Kevin Dayton, Honolulu Civil Beat, 5 May 2022

Lawmakers gaveled out of the 2022 session having tucked away billions of dollars for Native Hawaiian causes, housing projects and other initiatives.

The Legislature just ended what may be one of the most significant sessions in state history that saw billions of dollars allocated to Native Hawaiian causes, housing projects and a slew of other initiatives that could put some money back in the pockets of taxpayers.

If the session had to get a letter grade, Senate President Ron Kouchi said his fellow lawmakers deserve an “A.”

“I’ve never achieved every single bill I’ve talked about before,” Kouchi said, adding that almost every session lawmakers lose priority measures as problems crop up.

By Rob Perez, Star-Advertiser, 6 May 2022

The Hawaii Legislature on Thursday unanimously passed landmark legislation appropriating $600 million for the state’s Native Hawaiian homesteading program, a chronically underfunded initiative that has long fallen short of its promise to return Native people to their ancestral land.

The amount represents the largest one-time infusion of money in the program’s 101-year history, and it’s more than seven times the record amount that state lawmakers approved in 2021. The majority of the funds will go toward the development of nearly 3,000 lots, most of them residential, on Hawaii’s main islands.

By Kristy Tamashiro & Gina Mangieri, KHON2, 26 Apr. 2022

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A monumental settlement in a decades-long fight will give native Hawaiians hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Kalima case, a lawsuit filed 23 years ago, took the state to court for failing to award homestead from the Hawaiian Homelands waitlist in a timely manner.