Newest shelter targets homeless trauma, mental health
The first of 24 homeless patients are scheduled to move into the newest joint state-city homeless shelter of its kind focused on treating mental health, memory and brain injuries. Read more
The first of 24 homeless patients are scheduled to move into the newest joint state-city homeless shelter of its kind focused on treating mental health, memory and brain injuries. Read more
Legislators in both the House and Senate are working to move out bills ahead of the March 6 deadline to send bills that originate in the House or Senate to the opposite chamber . Read more
Trump’s attack on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility places a target directly on UH, according to political analyst Neal Milner. Read more
The University of Hawaii has joined other Hawaii institutions forced to respond to President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders to eliminate diversity and race-based programs and practices — while also putting at risk over $386 million in federal funding used to pay thousands of UH employees, UH President Wendy Hensel told the 10-campus system Tuesday. Read more
University of Hawaii regent Neil Abercrombie is pressing for answers on how much UH employees would receive in back pay for putting themselves at risk while working during the COVID-19 era. Read more
A handful of House Republican bills have passed out of their initial committee hearings for the first time in a decade, giving Republicans hope that all of the talk this year of cooperation between majority Democrats and minority Republicans in both the House and Senate may be real — and that their ideas could become reality as new state laws. Read more
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Gabbard’s meteoric rise from local politics in Hawaii to a Cabinet-level position in the second Trump administration was on the minds of island politicians of all stripes. Read more
Popular and successful efforts that have returned over 800 homeless people to the mainland since 2015 would become permanent if either of two bills in the state Legislature becomes law this session. Read more
A Senate bill remains alive that would require University of Hawaii medical school students to remain in Hawaii for two years after they complete their residencies, but the House version has died. Read more
Hawaii’s first water safety plan has been released in an effort to reduce drownings in an island state with America’s highest rate of visitor drownings and second highest for residents. Read more
The University of Hawaii Cancer Center would receive a welcomed funding boost if the Legislature increases the state’s cigarette tax by another 2 cents, while a separate Senate bill would have forced the center to merge with the UH medical school, which UH previously said would jeopardize the center’s accreditation. Read more
On the same day that a sixth victim died following the Aliamanu New Year’s fireworks blast, various state Senate committees passed bills Wednesday that would increase fines and penalties for people who fire off illegal pyrotechnics and also make it easier for law enforcement to cite and arrest them and for prosecutors to win convictions. Read more
Gov. Josh Green’s bills to fund Hawaii’s climate change response by increasing the state’s hotel room tax and dedicating all of the interest from the $1.5 billion rainy day fund were unanimously passed out of a House committee Tuesday, but with concerns that they need “a lot of work.” Read more
Immigration detention centers would be banned on state and county lands, and other bills in the Legislature also would ensure due process for any detainees. Read more
Third-year pediatric resident Arlene Parubrub Kiyohara appreciates the state’s ongoing efforts to keep home local health care workers like her but believes two bills moving through the Legislature would limit educational and career options for University of Hawaii medical students like her and her classmates. Read more
President Donald Trump’s directive to immediately eliminate any efforts to diversify federal offices and the people they serve — and require all federal employees to stop working from home — led some federal employees in Hawaii to apply for new jobs last week while they talked among one another about whether to quit. Read more
President Donald Trump’s first days in office sent a clear message that he wants to turn the federal government into a political operation run by political appointees, according to U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda. Read more
President Donald Trump’s orders to cut federal funding for a wide range of programs and nonprofit organizations has set off chaos and confusion in Hawaii and around the country. Read more
A flurry of bills introduced last week would lower the blood alcohol content to be found guilty of driving while intoxicated, ask voters whether they want to allow adults to use and possess recreational marijuana, ban cellphones in public schools, impose term limits for state legislators and also bar them from nepotism, among other possible changes. Read more
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up 27% of Hawaii’s population but about 36% of resident drowning deaths, according to the Hawai‘i Water Safety Coalition. Read more
Hensel says UH has begun to organize a search committee and hire a search firm to find a new athletic director after then-UH President David Lassner fired Craig Angelos in November. Read more