Monday Memo: OHA Must Stop Wasting Money On Internal Legal Spats
Oh, OHA. The sad soap opera that is the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees has an ever-evolving story line that incorporates the best plot points of the old daytime melodramas. Money!...
View ArticleHawaii Renters Need A Voice Now
What does Hawaii have against renters? Nearly half of the residents of Honolulu fall within that category, and they pay among the highest average rents in the United States. Statewide, Hawaii renters...
View ArticleAre We Willing To Accept A D+ In Public Integrity?
Was anyone really cheering when news came out this week that Hawaii ranks among the nation’s top four states with regard to anti-corruption laws? Probably not. Our overall grade was a lousy D+, and...
View ArticleMonday Memo: Stop Unfair Sale Of Seized Property By Police
No Conviction, All Profit. Any enterprise able to get merchandise for free and sell it for 100 percent profit is an enterprise you might want to invest in. Exactly such an enterprise exists in Hawaii,...
View ArticleCrazy? No, Council Members Are Right To Demand Rail Details
Kirk Caldwell has a strange definition of crazy. Honolulu’s mayor says the city risks looking “lolo” if it jeopardizes its federal funding for the rail project. He wants the City Council to immediately...
View ArticleThe People Of The Harbor Deserve A Dignified Way Forward
There are places in Hawaii where the homeless crisis deserves the emergency declaration put in place recently by Gov. David Ige. The Harbor isn’t one of them. As Civil Beat readers have learned this...
View ArticleMonday Memo: Pointless Roadblocks In The Paths Of Innocents
Roadblock In The Path To Freedom. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii was among 289 House members last week who sadly, shamefully passed the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015, despite...
View ArticleLucky — And Thankful — We Live Hawaii
As a public affairs news outlet with a focus on investigative and watchdog journalism, Civil Beat is often concerned with the more problematic parts of Hawaii, its governments and its communities. On...
View ArticleArming Terrorists Through Congressional Inaction
Don’t let Syrian or Iraqi refugees into our country, goes the argument, because terrorists might sneak in with them. But as Friday’s shooting at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood offices proved...
View ArticleCity Must Reform How Planning Department Works With Developers
Hawaii has a reputation for its byzantine, paper-pushing approach to government regulation of business and development. Our state typically shows up near the bottom of lists of best places to do...
View ArticleSupreme Court Rightly Rejects Hawaii Campaign Law Challenge
In an era when the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United v. FEC decision has given big businesses carte blanche to throw endless sums of money at U.S. elections, Monday’s SCOTUS rejection...
View ArticleGovernor’s Half-Ask Budget Won’t Move The Needle On Hawaii Public Housing
Just in time for the holiday season, good news: We’re getting a bit better, a little less heartless about how we remove the homeless and their belongings from our sidewalks. We don’t mean to belittle...
View ArticleSupreme Court Rulings Leave Hawaiian Concerns In Limbo
Dec. 2 was something of a mixed bag for Native Hawaiians, whose interests were simultaneously addressed that day by the supreme courts of both the United States and the State of Hawaii. But that’s...
View ArticleTeachers Union’s Bold Reform Plan Deserves Our Attention
It would be hard to dispute Corey Rosenlee’s argument, even if we were disposed to do so. As the president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association declared recently, “For too long, we have ignored...
View ArticleFour Key Proposals For Police Reform In 2016
If 2015 has been notable for one issue that has consistently dominated our public discourse and media coverage, that issue has been the conduct and oversight of police departments across America. From...
View ArticleThere’s Still Time — And The Need — To Refine The Medical Marijuana Law
First, kudos to the Hawaii Department of Health for publishing interim administrative rules for the state’s new medical marijuana industry weeks earlier than anticipated. The Dec. 15 rollout gave...
View ArticleClearing The Path To Graduation With New Program Makes Sense
Time was, college students registering for an academic term formed long lines in gymnasiums, waiting to be manually enrolled in specific courses. If a particular course section was full, the...
View ArticleHawaii Needs Political Heroes To Step Up In 2016
With the opening ceremony of the 2016 legislative session just 16 days away, the once-each-decade consideration of potential amendments to the Honolulu City Charter in full swing and countless other...
View ArticleGun Control: The President Charts A Welcome Path Forward
There are two realities that perhaps even those most deeply entrenched on the opposite sides of the gun control conversation might agree on. One, far too many Americans die from gun violence each year....
View ArticleHawaii Lottery? It’s Time To Reconsider The Question
Hawaii’s status as one of only a handful of states that has no lottery becomes a point of frustration for some on weeks like this, when the mainland Powerball prize is huge. For those folks, today’s...
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