June 16, 2026 . Civil Beat

Opportunity Zone projects are intended to benefit economically distressed communities but are often found in the wealthiest parts of the island.

The plans a California-based development group announced for the first new hotel construction on Kaua‘i in more than three decades called for a resort and wellness center featuring 85 rooms, a spa and 115 residential units. The Ohia would be set on a former sugar plantation in the growing tourist hub of Poʻipū.

May 22, 2026 . Civil Beat

Housing, food and utilities should not be out of reach for someone who gets up every morning and goes to work – sometimes multiple jobs.

Every day, someone in Hawaiʻi picks up the phone and dials 2-1-1. They’re not sure what else to do. They’re working. They’ve been trying to keep up. But somewhere between the rent, the groceries, and the electric bill, the math stopped adding up.

These are not people who fell through the cracks. They are the people the system was never designed to catch. Aloha United Way calls them ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. They earn too much to qualify for most assistance programs. They earn too little to save anything.

July 15, 2024 . Civil Beat - Let the Sunshine In

For change to come from those who work within the system, it must be accompanied by pressure from those on the outside.

Several weeks ago, Keith Kaneshiro and members of the Dennis Mitsunaga engineering and architectural firm were found not guilty of bribery charges under the Federal Dishonest Services statute. Due to a series of federal court rulings and a pending U.S. Supreme Court case, the government in the Kaneshiro/Mitsunaga case was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt there was “clear and unambiguous” evidence of a bribe.

This is a very high and difficult standard to meet. It is, to my knowledge, the only federal statute that requires such proof.

May 10, 2026 . Civil Beat

Hawaiʻi lawmakers still can’t bring themselves to do anything that changes how they do business or makes it easier for other people to run for office.

By the time the 2026 legislative session wrapped up on Friday, lawmakers had passed a bold initiative to restrict corporate money in Hawaiʻi elections.

The innovative legal effort, the first of its kind in the country to make it this far, would sidestep the politically unpopular Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court ruling that in 2010 allowed unlimited amounts of money to flow to political action committees…

May 10, 2026 . Civil Beat

Short takes, outtakes, our takes and other stuff you should know about public information, government accountability and ethical leadership in Hawai‘i.

The $64,000 question: Lawmakers last week dropped a political bombshell when they passed a bill that would ban corporations — and maybe unions — from, essentially, contributing to political action committees that support and oppose candidates and ballot measures, the so-called super PACs. They worked on the bill for months, consulted numerous learned legal experts and tweaked and re-tweaked the bill until, literally, the minute before they would have run out of time and it would have died.

May 8, 2026 . Civil Beat

The provisional account would be used for covering disaster relief and routine operations.

The Honolulu City Council already controls the purse strings for the $5 billion city budget, but now key members of the council want greater control over a $41 million slice of the pie. 

Council Chair Tommy Waters and Budget Chair Val Okimoto are proposing the formation of a new fund through which the city administration would have to ask the council’s permission to spend money. 

May 8, 2026 . Civil Beat

The ruling for America’s most-used herbicide could reshape pesticide regulation.

Since 2018, when it bought the chemical manufacturer Monsanto, the German conglomerate Bayer has set aside billions to settle legal claims that the active ingredient in the company’s weedkiller Roundup has caused cancer and other health issues among its users. More than 100,000 plaintiffs across the U.S. have filed lawsuits alleging a cancer link, and in February, the company agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $7.25 billion.

May 8, 2026 . Civil Beat

The latest housing report from the University of Hawaiʻi notes some improvements in the market but authors say they are small and slow.

The first sentence of the 2026 Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook lands with a distressing thud familiar to readers of last year’s Factbook: “Hawai‘i residents face the highest housing costs in the nation.”

That and a lack of options confront residents with impossible choices, the latest report said, of “leaving the state, making do with substandard or overcrowded homes, or, in some cases, falling into homelessness.”

May 6, 2026 . Civil Beat

The legislation would make Hawaiʻi one of the first states to sidestep the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court case that allows unlimited corporate spending in local elections. 

One of the most innovative and far-reaching bills at the State Capitol this year is poised for a final vote later this week thanks to last-minute amendments agreed on during floor sessions Wednesday.

April 23, 2026 . Civil Beat

Her decision not to run for reelection doesn’t address the bigger problem — how inept the state is when it comes to corruption investigations.

Well, Sylvia Luke up and did it. Facing the inevitable — family pressures and bad polling — she pulled out of the lieutenant governor’s race.

April 22, 2026 . Civil Beat

Bribery charges are being considered, Luke’s attorney confirmed.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke has received notice she is a target in the Hawaiʻi attorney general’s investigation of $35,000 given to an influential state lawmaker in 2022, Luke’s attorney confirmed late Wednesday.

April 22, 2026 . Star Advertiser

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke has received a letter from the Hawaii Attorney General’s office informing her that she is the target of a bribery investigation into allegations that an “influential state legislator” accepted $35,000 in a paper bag at a dinner in 2022, her lawyer confirmed. 

March 20, 2026 . Civil Beat

Hawaiʻi’s proposal to acquire the dam, and have taxpayers foot the bill for repairs, let the company off the hook.

The Dole Food Co. has known for nearly five decades that the Wahiawā Dam could flood in heavy rainfall, putting 2,500 lives at risk. 

April 17, 2024 . Civil Beat, New York Times, Stanford University’s Joint Article on corruption in Hawaii:

Inside the Late-Night Parties Where Hawaii Politicians Raked In Money

After the state passed a law barring government contractors from donating to politicians, fund-raising parties showed just how completely the reform effort failed.

May 5, 2024 . Civil Beat

Experts say regulating contractor donations along with publicly financed elections could go a long way to taming corruption.

Hawaii will need to do more than ban officers and family members of contracted businesses from contributing to political campaigns if it wants to rein in pay-to-play practices, a review of other states’ policies shows.

May 15, 2024 . Civil Beat

The commission acknowledged that it's tough to oversee lawmakers who resist most accountability measures.

The Hawaii State Ethics Commission is trying to figure out how to wrangle two groups of people who are proving particularly challenging: high-level state employees who are politically active and legislators who have outside jobs with companies that have government business.  

May 27, 2024 . Civil Beat

Businesses they're tied to have won contracts in construction, consulting and trash collection.

An examination of current state legislators’ business interests found that at least a dozen sitting lawmakers are paid by or even own entities that have won more than $56 million in government contracts since 2006.

June 14, 2024 . Civil Beat

Hirono called the effort to create a new drinking water source important to help protect Hawaii against climate change.

Hawaii is getting nearly $19 million in federal funding to help design and build a desalination facility in Kalaeloa that would convert seawater into drinking water, Sen. Mazie Hirono announced in a press release Friday.

February 9, 2023 . Civil Beat - Legislature 2023

State contractors contributed about $360,000 to campaigns in 2022.

The Legislature is setting its sights on campaign donations from state and county contractors that have been the subject of public corruption cases in recent decades.

Right now, a law banning donations from government contractors only applies to the contracted business, not the owners, officers or employees of those companies as the result of a loophole written more than a decade ago.

March 19, 2023 . Civil Beat - Let the Sunshine In

Short takes, outtakes, observations and other stuff you should know about public information, government accountability and ethical leadership in Hawaii.

Marathon man: House Judiciary Chair David Tarnas is continuing to move forward government reform bills efficiently and with the graciousness that has come to be a hallmark of his new leadership of the committee.