Obama seeks Pacific Ocean protections, UH gets $40M oceanic research grant, Kauai ex-police commissioner pleads guilty to gambling ring, Aiona offers homeless plan, Hawaii teens improve health habits, Maui mayor trims budget, more news from all the Hawaiian Islands

Kilo Moana, courtesy NOAA

The University of Hawaii will take the lead on a global oceanographic research project that comes with $40 million in funding — representing the largest-ever philanthropic gift to the university. David Karl and Edward DeLong, professors in UH-Manoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, were awarded the funds by the Simons Foundation to lead the newly launched Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology, or SCOPE. Star-Advertiser.

A private foundation is awarding two University of Hawaii scientists $40 million to research microscopic organisms in the ocean. The award from the Simons Foundation is the largest private foundation gift ever received by the university. Associated Press.

Kilo Moana

President Obama on Tuesday will announce his intent to make a broad swath of the central Pacific Ocean off-limits to fishing, energy exploration and other activities, according to senior White House officials. Washington Post.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce his intent to make a broad swath of the central Pacific Ocean off limits to fishing, energy exploration and other activities, according to senior White House officials. Associated Press.

With a congresswoman out for his head and a U.S. senator calling for an investigation, the new director of the Hawaii VA vowed Monday to stay on the job and, within three months, dramatically reduce the time it takes military veterans to see their doctors. Star-Advertiser.

The Veterans Affairs director in Hawai’i wants to assure veterans and the public that he is working hard to provide better access to primary care. Hawaii Public Radio.

Republican candidate Duke Aiona placed homelessness at center stage in Hawaii gubernatorial campaign Monday by proposing two novel ideas. Civil Beat.

The Hawaii National Guard would reach out to homeless veterans and guide them toward counseling and services under a proposal by Republican gubernatorial candidate James "Duke" Aiona to reduce homelessness in the state. Star-Advertiser.

Today, at Kaka‘ako Makai Gateway Park, Duke Aiona outlined a plan to address the houseless crisis in Hawai‘i. Hawaii Independent.

Hawaii tea party leaders are outraged over the news the Internal Revenue Service has lost emails of its former director, Lois Lerner, during a critical time when the agency admitted to targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny. Hawaii Reporter.

During an interview with Keahi Tucker on Hawaii News Now, Honolulu City Councilman Ikaika Anderson, a Democrat, said his No. 1 priority representing the First Congressional District of Hawaii will be to focus on middle-class families.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie is appointing two Oahu executives to state boards. Kailua resident Wesley Furtado is being appointed to serve on the Board of Land and Natural Resources.The governor is appointing Sean Dee of Honolulu to the Hawaii Tourism Authority board of directors. Associated Press.

Hawaii's newest medical insurer is ramping up to gain more market share as the bulk of small businesses renew health plans in July. Family Health Hawaii, which launched Oct. 1 as a nonprofit mutual benefit society, has roughly 4,000 employees so far on its rolls, or about half of its annual enrollment goal, said former state Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt, who is heading the startup insurance firm. Star-Advertiser.

Teenagers are smoking less, fighting less and having less sex than a decade ago, a Hawaii Department of Health report indicates. Civil Beat.

Innovate Hawaii, a program of the High Technology Development Corp., has given a total of $248,310 to four local companies as part of the Hawaii Small Business Innovation Research matching-grant program. Pacific Business News.

Oahu

An Obama presidential library located in Hawaii would generate $556 million in economic activity and create 2,130 new jobs, in the construction phase alone, according to officials who submitted a bid by Monday's deadline. Star-Advertiser.

Two escapes in one week from the Oahu Community Correctional Center. Hawaii News Now.

Daniel Skelton, the inmate who escaped from the Oahu Community Correctional Center on Monday morning, is still on the loose. That’s two escapees for OCCC in as many weeks. KHON2.

Some Ewa Beach residents are fed up with the plane noise from Honolulu International Airport. That's because a construction project is diverting planes from one runway to another that's in line with homes. Hawaii News Now.

Hawaii

Hawaii County middle school students were more likely to try smoking cigarettes last year than students anywhere else in the state, according to new findings reported Monday. Tribune-Herald.

The Biotechnology Industry Organization spent nearly $8 million last year lobbying federal officials, making it one of the top 50 spenders on national lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Now the influential global trade group that includes more than 1,000 biotechnology companies has turned its sights on Hawaii. The organization joined nine local groups and individuals from the Big Island last week to challenge Hawaii County’s ban on genetically modified farming. Civil Beat.

Produce thefts have some isle farmers on edge. West Hawaii Today.

Surrounded by chain link fence is a little pond fringed by greenery. The pond is fed by a white pipeline, from which water gushes out at a rate of about 1.5 million gallons daily. This site, not far from the Kealakehe Police Station, is the destination of the sewage treated at the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant in Kona and one West Hawaii resident is hoping to see it closed down sooner rather than later. West Hawaii Today.

Maui

Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa on Monday issued eight line-item vetoes, cutting $29.7 million in capital improvement projects proposed by the County Council. Star-Advertiser.

No state has a worse voter turn out than Hawai'i, and no districts have more apathetic voters than South and West Maui. Recent reports rank them right at the very bottom of the list, but this year both areas have become a hotbed of political activism. Maui Weekly.

The county Public Works Department submitted a final environmental assessment for the final phase of the North Shore Greenway . Maui Now.

A final environmental assessment has been submitted for the final phase of the proposed North Shore Greenway, a pedestrian and bike path that would connect Kahului to Paia. Maui News.

The county Department of Housing and Human Concerns submitted a Final Environmental Assessment for the 64-unit Kulamalu affordable housing project in Pukalani. Maui Now.

Kauai

A Department of Corrections program manager and former Kauai Police Commissioner pleaded guilty to federal gambling charges on Monday in U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii. Garden Island.

A Kauai police commissioner who resigned in the midst of an FBI gambling investigation admitted in U.S. District Court on Monday that he ran a sports betting operation from his home and lied on his taxes. Bradley Chiba, 37, pleaded guilty to owning and running an illegal gambling business with eight others and to failing to report to the Internal Revenue Service that he earned $39,779 in 2012 from the business. Star-Advertiser.

Tiger sharks come to Hawaii to give birth, House Democrats meeting on gay marriage, school superintendent to get raise, OHA slammed in audit, Honolulu solar reaching limits, judge dissolves Maui Main Street association, more news from all the Hawaiian Islands

University of Hawaii tiger shark study

A new study has found female tiger sharks migrate from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to the main Hawaiian islands during fall pupping season — a period that historically coincides with a higher frequency of shark bites in Hawaii. Star-Advertiser.

A recent University of Hawaii and University of Florida study backs up what Hawaiians knew for centuries about sharks. Hawaiian oral tradition held that the number of sharks in waters around the main Hawaiian Islands increased in late summer and early fall. The study, which will be published in the November issue of Ecological Society of America’s journal Ecology, tracked tiger sharks for seven years, noting where the animals moved between the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the main islands. West Hawaii Today.

A quarter of the mature female tiger sharks near the remote coral atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands leave for the Main Hawaiian Islands in the late summer and fall, swimming as far as 1,500 miles, according to new research from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the University of Florida. Associated Press.

A new study shows that female tiger sharks depart from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands toward the main Hawaiian islands in the late summer and fall, during pupping season, researchers said. Maui Now.

Matayoshi

The Board of Education plans to ask lawmakers to lift the salary cap that has kept schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi's annual pay at $150,000 since her hiring three years ago. Star-Advertiser.

Democrats in the state House plan to meet with Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the attorney general today to discuss a draft of gay marriage legislation as Abercrombie considers whether to call a special session on the issue. Associated Press.

Governor Neil Abercrombie can call a special session on gay marriage and expect to pass it, according to a detailed Civil Beat analysis of conversations with legislators and a look at secondary sources. But it will be a close call. Civil Beat.

Economic growth in the current fiscal year is expected to remain steady but could slow down due to uncertainties over looming military action in Syria, a potential federal government shutdown and impact of the Affordable Care Act on small businesses, state economists said Thursday. Although a specific numerical forecast from the state Council on Revenues was awaiting final calculations, the panel's new chairman said the overall tenor of discussions indicated a conservative approach for the coming year. Star-Advertiser.

An audit of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs says the agency needs to improve management of real estate holdings and do a better job of monitoring grants it awards. Associated Press.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs' vote in favor of buying the Gentry Center violated the agency's own investment policy, the State Auditor says. The audit, released Wednesday, hits the agency pretty hard for its inability to manage its own land holdings to make money and to ensure oversight of its grant program. Civil Beat.

The state auditor is looking into Hawaii’s 13th largest landowner, the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The land management infrastructure of the agency charged with serving native Hawaiians is “inadequate, unable to support the office’s growing portfolio nor any future land involvements,”acting State Auditor Jan Yamane said in a 64-page report to the Legislature. Hawaii Reporter.

As President Barack Obama continues to press his case for punitive U.S. military action in Syria, at least two of Hawaii's four-member, all-Democratic congressional delegation say they are opposed to such intervention, while the others are skeptical that the move would accomplish its intended goals or advance U.S. interests. U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz have gone on record this week opposing U.S. action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which the U.S. has blamed for an alleged Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus. Star-Advertiser.

The introduction of an Oahu-based president for Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc.’s interisland subsidiary airline go! may be a sign the airline is solidifying its Hawaii operations. Pacific Business News.

State roundup for September 6. Associated Press.

Oahu

Hawaii's solar energy boom has grown to the point where rooftop photo­voltaic panels are providing all of the electricity consumed during some daylight hours in about 13 percent of Oahu neighborhoods, the Hawaiian Electric Co. said. While HECO is taking steps to integrate more solar energy, that could result in added costs for some new solar customers. Star-Advertiser.

The nonprofit Hawaii Agriculture Research Center in Kunia on Oahu plans to build a 500-kilowatt solar photovoltaic facility on two acres of land owned by the center and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., according to a City and County of Honolulu Planning Commission public hearing notice. Pacific Business News.

Honolulu motorists will no longer be able to phone in payments when parking at stalls equipped with the city's "smart" meters. Star-Advertiser.

Disturbing surveillance video of babies falling onto train tracks greeted board members of the Honolulu Authority of Rapid Transportation today. Civil Beat.

An exasperated crowd of more than 200 North Shore residents crammed into a school cafeteria Thursday night in hopes of hearing immediate answers to the growing Laniakea Beach traffic woes. But with no state Department of Transportation officials in attendance and no clear way forward presented to fix the problem, the community meeting, organized by state Rep. Richard Fale, quickly devolved into a chaotic series of outbursts from frustrated residents. Star-Advertiser.

The city's biggest ever sewer tunneling project will soon cut an underground hole from Kaneohe to Kailua. The ten-foot-wide pipe meets the mandate ordered by federal agencies to upgrade Oahu's wastewater collection. Hawaii News Now.

Anyone passing through the Ala Moana area can’t miss the rumble of demolition at what used to be the Sears wing. We wanted to know where the large piles of rubble end up, and what’s the plan for an even bigger building boom ahead? KHON2.

A Waipahu High School track coach never sexually assaulted a member of his team, but became the target of "teenage revenge" by a girl upset that he stopped coaching her, a defense attorney said Thursday in the opening of the coach's trial. The prosecutor, however, told the jury that Erik Tamura violated the girl's trust and the teenager testified that Tamura molested her at school and once at her home during her sophomore and junior years in 2010 and 2011. Star-Advertiser.

Hawaii

The Hawaii County Council passed a bill Thursday expected to help increase housing in downtown Hilo. The bill allows apartment buildings with a unit density higher than 1,000 square feet per unit to get away with fewer parking spaces. Tribune-Herald.

The state Department of Transportation is anticipating construction of a new cargo yard for Hilo Harbor to resume later this month. Work on the $10 million cargo yard, to support a new 602-foot-long pier, was suspended last spring after petroleum-based contaminates were found in the soil. Tribune-Herald.

Generous public support and an untiring effort by the Daniel R. Sayre Memorial Foundation has led to more than $100,000 for the Hawaii County Fire Department. West Hawaii Today.

A long day of testimony on two proposed laws prohibiting Genetically Modified Organisms on Hawaii Island was held on Wednesday. A crowd filled the chamber at the Hawaii County Council’s Public Safety & Mass Transit Committee meeting. Hours of passionate discussion stretched the hearing into the evening hours; some of the most interesting discussion happened outside, after the meeting was over. Big Island Video News.

Maui

The embattled nonprofit Wailuku Main Street Association Inc./Tri-Isle Main Street Resource Center was dissolved Wednesday morning by a 2nd Circuit judge. Maui News.

Although plans for two controversial South Maui malls have been scrapped, developers of former ranch property in north Kihei still want some retail development on the site, including national clothing stores and restaurants currently not found on the island. Maui News.

Similar to what is occurring on other islands, gains in Maui's visitor industry are now filtering through the rest of the island's economy, a top local economist said Thursday. Star-Advertiser.

While tourism remains the driving factor in Maui County’s economy, continued growth in commercial construction, real estate and jobs will further assist the county in its economic recovery. Maui News.

The business outlook for Maui is positive in the next year, according to economists who spoke at the 39th Annual Maui County Business Outlook Form, held Thursday, Sept. 5, at the Maui Beach Hotel in Kahului. Maui Now.

Kauai

The Kauai County Council met with county attorneys Thursday morning behind closed doors to discuss legal aspects of Bill 2491. The bill requires disclosure of pesticide use and genetically modified organisms, creates 500-foot buffer zones for large ag operations and imposes a temporary halt to the expansion of fields of GMO crops. Garden Island.

The big news to report in our first column of the school year is that Kauai Community College has been honored with a ranking of 16th in the country among 700 community and junior colleges by Washington Monthly, a prestigious journal of public policy based in the nation’s capital. Garden Island.