Good evening, Hawaii. Here are the main stories we've been following today:
Your Weather Planner
Rain chances will increase the next few days, courtesy of a weather system moving east across the islands. Breezy trades will keep wet weather and clouds over the windward mauka slopes and higher terrain. A front will approach the area late week, weakening the winds and increasing shower chances for the western part of the state early next week.
Watch the latest news from across the country.
Today's Big Stories
1. Blangiardi eyes further department reorganizations
Taking his landslide re-election as a mandate for ongoing transformation, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi delivered the first state-of-the-city address of his second term Tuesday with sights set on new alignments, infrastructure and systems to address housing, homelessness, public safety and other tenacious challenges.
Blangiardi said solving the city’s ongoing shortage of affordable housing will be key to stemming the tide of rising outmigration from state. To that end, the mayor highlighted last week’s introduction of a resolution in the Honolulu City Council to merge the Office of Housing and Department of Land Management into a single, unified operation to be led by current Office of Housing executive director Kevin Auger, with current DLM director Cat Tashner serving as deputy director.
The combined department will include a new development division to lead collaborative efforts with private developers, potentially to transform 10 underused, city-owned properties into affordable housing.
Among Blangiardi’s other announcements on Tuesday:
- The second segment of the Skyline rail transit system will open for service on Oct. 1, extending the current system eastward to Middle Street, with new stops at Pearl Harbor and Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
- The Crisis, Outreach, Response and Engagement team will establish a second base of operations in Waipahu this year, improving their ability to provide services to homeless individuals across West and Central Oahu
- The Honolulu Emergency Services Department is collaborating with Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and Kapiolani Community College to create a new training program on the Waianae Coast for residents interested in careers as paramedics or emergency medical technicians
- The Department of Customer Service’s plans to make it possible for Oahu residents to renew driver’s licenses via online appointments, which is expected to further cut wait times for important appointments at Satellite City Hall locations on Oahu
2. Federal judge blocks DOGE from accessing Social Security personal information for now
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service from Social Security Administration systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland also requires the team to delete any personally identifiable data they may have. It comes after labor unions and retirees asked for an emergency order limiting DOGE access to the agency and its vast troves of personal data.
The administration has said DOGE is targeting waste and fraud in the federal government.
Hollander, though, found that the ends may not justify the means.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” she wrote.
At SSA, DOGE staffers swept into the agency days after Trump’s inauguration and pressed for a software engineer to quickly get access to data systems that are normally carefully restricted even within the government, a former official said in court documents.
3. DOH issues violation to Marine Corps Base Hawaii in treating effluent
The Hawaii Department of Health on Wednesday issued a Notice of Violation and Order to Marine Corps Base Hawaii for failing the Whole Effluent Toxicity test and failing to disclose the addition of sodium hypochlorite into the treatment process at the facility.
Commonly referred to as bleach, sodium hypochlorite is used to disinfect effluent, however, it is toxic to aquatic life in excess amounts. The Environmental Working Group also lists skin irritation, allergies or damage and respiratory reactions as some other effects of exposure to sodium hypochlorite.
Therefore, before being discharged into the ocean, effluent must be properly dechlorinated and monitored.
The NOVO now requires MCBH to pay a $95,000 penalty and orders actions be taken to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future.
4. Hirono decries firing of Democratic FTC commissioners
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono accused President Donald Trump of clearing the way for large corporations to operate without legal reigns after the only two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission were fired on Tuesday.
Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter confirmed they received notice of their firing. Both called the action illegal and said they intended to go to court to retain their positions on the five-member commission.
The FTC operates as an independent regulator that upholds consumer protection standards and antitrust laws. Commissioners serve staggered, seven-year terms. Slaughter was a year into her second term. Alvaro had four years remaining in her term.
By law, only three commissioners from the same party can serve on the commission at the same time. The FTC website currently lists only two commissioners: chair Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak. Trump nominee Mark Meador has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
“Yesterday, President Trump claimed to fire two Commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission,” Hirono said in a statement released on Wednesday. “The FTC is an independent agency, and Trump’s action is illegal under a unanimous 1935 Supreme Court decision.”
5. Honolulu Civil Beat: Big Island committee punts approval of police MOUs with feds to full council
By a razor-thin margin, a Hawaiʻi County Council committee on Tuesday voted to leave it up to the full council whether to allow the mayor to sign agreements between the Big Island’s police department and federal law enforcement agencies after its top cop insisted he had no interest in enforcing immigration law.
“We don’t want to to be involved in immigration. That’s not our role,” Police Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz told the Council Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs. He said his officers had become “tangentially” involved with two recent ICE enforcement operations only for “humanitarian” reasons.
Because two committee members were absent, the resolution was sent on for a full council vote April 2 with an “unfavorable” recommendation, which appears to be largely a technicality in this instance.
The resolution involves longstanding Memorandums of Agreement between the department, the FBI’s Honolulu Safe Streets Task Force and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit that drew attention for the first time this year.
The MOUs with ICE call for embedding two Homeland Security Investigations agents in the police department and designating some police officers as customs officers. Moszkowicz said language remains in the MOUs that they are not conveying to police officers “the authority to enforce administrative violations of immigration law.”
Your Notes for Tomorrow
Friday, March 21
- S&P Dow Jones Indices Quarterly Rebalance effective after markets close
- 15th anniversary of House passing President Obama's landmark health reform bill
- NOAA National Weather Service announces U.S. Spring Outlook, with predictions for temperature, precipitation, drought, and flood risk across the country.
- European Council meeting of European Union heads of state and government, chaired by Council President António Costa
- World Poetry Day
In Case You Missed It
Pearl Harbor celebrates ‘Rosie the Riveter Day’ with special talk on Friday
Two women will make a special appearance at the Pearl Harbor National Monument in celebration of “Rosie the Riveter Day,” annually observed on March 21 in recognition of the contributions made by American women during the nation’s war effort throughout World War II.
From 10 a.m. to noon March 21, Ginger Price, 92, and Barbara Snyder, 86 — who have dedicated years to educating the public about the role of “Rosie the Riveter” and the millions of women who stepped up to support the war effort — will be at the Pacific Historic Parks Bookstore continuing to educate others while sharing their own personal accounts.
This event is open to the public allowing for a unique opportunity to connect with living history.
)