As the contested case hearing over a permit to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea drew to a close, one of the last witnesses to testify was Mililani Trask, a practicing attorney well known for her involvement in … Continued
Testimony in the protracted second contested case hearing on the Conservation District Use Application (CDUA) for the Thirty Meter Telescope concluded on March 2, after 44 days of hearings over nearly six months and 71 witnesses. The next stages in … Continued
As the evidentiary portion of the contested case hearing for the Thirty Meter Telescope wound down last month, a witness whose testimony seemed to threaten the very foundation of the Conservation District Use Permit for the observatory near the Mauna … Continued
Not much has been happening on the land proposed for the Villages of `Aina Le`a, consisting of about 1,100 acres lying between Waikoloa town and the Mauna Lani resort in the South Kohala district of the Big Island. In the … Continued
About a year ago, architect Robert Iopa rebuilt a crumbling seawall in front of property he owns in the Keaukaha area of Hilo. He did not ask for, nor did he receive, permission from either the state Department of Land … Continued
The Thirty Meter Telescope contested case hearing continued its no wake-dead slow progress into uncharted waters last month. While retired judge Riki May Amano was nominally at the helm, it was the band of protesters who seemed to have control … Continued
On January 10, Marti Townsend, executive director of the Hawai`i Chapter of the Sierra Club, took the witness stand in the contested case hearing on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). She testified for the better part of five hours, with … Continued
January began with the TIO (the TMT International Observatory, LLC) wrapping up its case in support of the Conservation District Use Permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope. Witnesses included two native Hawaiians with doctoral degrees in astronomy or astrophysics: Paul … Continued
As the case involving the challenge to the application to build the Thirty Meter Telescope enters its fifth month of testimony and evidence, some government procedure wonks have raised the question: Are contested cases still appropriate for disputes coming before … Continued
Robin W. Baird. The Lives of Hawai`i’s Dolphins and Whales: Natural History and Conservation. University of Hawai`i Press, 2016. 342 pages (including bibliography and index). Less than two decades ago, knowledge of and research into Hawai`i’s cetaceans was pretty much … Continued