Mayor Kirk Caldwell reflective, hopeful in final mayoral media event tribuneledgernews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tribuneledgernews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Caldwell reflects on ‘eroded’ public trust during pandemic Mahealani Richardson
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Kirk Caldwell is preparing to leave the mayor’s office Saturday.
In an interview with Hawaii News Now, he looked back at his eight-year tenure, the city’s handling of the pandemic and what he’s looking forward to in the year ahead.
Caldwell said the COVID-19 vaccine rollout needs to move faster.
He also said he wishes he had pushed the state Health Department harder earlier in the pandemic.
“I wanted to overreact but Department of Health leadership at that time said don’t worry. We’ve got it covered. It’s not necessary. I stepped back,” he said.
Updated 12/30/20, 11:59 a.m.
It s official: any furloughs of state workers will not begin until July 1 at the earliest. Governor David Ige says that s because of the latest federal COVID-19 relief measure just signed by President Donald Trump.
Earlier this month, Ige said he expected to start twice a month furlough days in January.
While the latest federal relief package does not contain direct aid to the state, there will be funding for testing and contact tracing. That should help free up other state funding to delay the furloughs, which would have amounted to a pay cut of about 9%.
Where we stand
City taps River of Life Mission to run part of new homeless resource center
City taps River of Life Mission to run part of new homeless resource center By Ben Gutierrez | December 30, 2020 at 8:52 PM HST - Updated December 30 at 9:38 PM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu’s mayor said Wednesday that the River of Life Mission will operate a new resource center for the homeless in Iwilei.
Residents and businesses in Chinatown, where the mission is currently located, are hoping that it will mean that a large homeless population in their area will move on.
Merchants have said that River of Life has good intentions, giving free meals to the homeless from its Chinatown location for decades.
Officials Let Hawaii’s Waterfront Homeowners Damage Public Beaches Again and Again ProPublica 12/31/2020
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This story was co-published with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.
In the winter of 2013, 45-foot waves barreled toward Oahu’s North Shore. The storm surge sent water gushing up a public walkway between Dean Hanzawa’s two beachfront homes. The ocean sucked sand and soil away from the yards and pulled a wall fronting one of the homes into a 45-degree angle toward the ocean, causing the property’s yard to split in half.