On May 26, 1959, representatives of the Hawai`i Land Hui, a group of three Honolulu businessmen, met with Hiroshi Kasamoto, director of the Hawai`i County Planning and Traffic Commission. As their attorney, Masanori Kushi, later described the encounter, the investors … Continued
The photos are hard to view. Adult albatrosses with bloodied heads. Gray, night-time shots of mice preying on birds that can’t or won’t leave their nests. Beautiful, dead birds, killed by the “vampire” mice of Midway National Wildlife Refuge. The … Continued
In March, a jury in Honolulu federal court decided that Bridge ‘Aina Le‘a, LLC, had suffered damages when the Hawai‘i Land Use Commission voted in 2011 to put land the company owned on the Big Island back into the Agricultural … Continued
The land at issue in the Bridge ‘Aina Le‘a litigation was placed into the Urban district in 1989. A succession of owners failed to develop it, and in 1999, a subsidiary of Bridge Capital, a company now headquartered in the … Continued
Recently, it seems as though there’s a boom market in books about endangered species that have gone or are well on their way to extinction. And Hawai‘i, unfortunately, offers no shortage of candidate subjects. Two years ago, there was Mark … Continued
Red Hill Rebuke: On February 21, Judge Jeffrey Crabtree of the 1st Circuit delivered a knockout blow to the state Department of Health. In granting a motion for summary judgment filed by the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, Crabtree found that … Continued
One of the most exclusive enclaves in Hawai‘i is the gated community of Kuki‘o, adjoining the Four Seasons Hualalai resort on the western coast of the Big Island. Although homes in the area have a property-tax valuation as high as … Continued
Kahului Questions: A company that wants to use energy crops from 500 acres of Alexander & Baldwin land on Maui, produce biogas, and use the fuel to run a power plant that will provide electricity to Maui County’s Kahului wastewater … Continued
The Public Utilities Commission has ruled on the matter of who should pay the costs incurred by Hawaiian Electric utilities when they service loans made from the Green Energy Market Securitization fund, or GEMS. Hint: It’s not the utilities. Another … Continued
The Hawai‘i Green Infrastructure Authority has recommended that the Legislature consider allowing at least part of the balance of Green Energy Market Securitization funds to be used as “a revolving credit facility for any state agency to access low-cost financing … Continued