Kevin Dayton

Honolulu

Senior Reporter at Honolulu Civil Beat

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Articles

State Must Fork Over $124.4 Million In Pandemic Hazard Pay For Prisons

1 week ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

Guards and thousands of other state workers still haven’t been paid, and interest has started accruing. Hawaiʻi corrections officers will receive hazard pay worth 25% of their wages, including thousands of hours of overtime they worked during the pandemic, under a series of arbitration decisions that will cost the state an estimated $124.4 million. Arbitrator John Mukai also imposed interest charges of 10% per year on the back pay beginning May 16 to prod the state into paying promptly.
An Embarrassing Housing Scam Triggers Big Island Reforms

1 week ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

A dishonest public worker and his partners slurped up millions of dollars by illegally manipulating a complex system of affordable housing credits. Former Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth calls it “this ball of mixed up twine,” a tangled mess uncovered by an FBI investigation of a corrupt employee who worked for a dozen years in the Hawaiʻi County housing office.
Will Cuts To Pension Benefits Hurt Efforts to Recruit New Hawaiʻi Judges?

2 weeks ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

The Hawaiʻi Salary Commission approved hefty pay raises for judges to help attract more applications for the bench. Then lawmakers voted to cut judges’ pension benefits. Just weeks after the state Salary Commission proposed substantial pay increases for state judges to try to attract the most talented lawyers to those jobs, Hawaiʻi lawmakers approved a bill to dramatically reduce pensions for future judges.
Hawaiʻi Governor Targets Tax Credits, Asset Forfeiture Bills For Possible Veto

3 weeks ago | civilbeat.org | Chad Blair |Kevin Dayton

Also making the list are bills stipulating the labeling of Māmaki tea and making as yet unidentified line-item reductions to the state budget. Measures that would end tax credits for film production and amend the state law that allows law enforcement to seize property such as houses and cars in criminal investigations are under veto consideration by Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green.
Prison Meth Smuggling Case Raises Questions About Hiring

3 weeks ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

In a bid to get a lesser sentence, a former staffer in an Arizona prison where hundreds of Hawaiʻi inmates are held claims she was hired despite her history of mental illness. A former prison staffer caught smuggling methamphetamine into the privately run Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona says she was hired as a corrections officer there even after she told prison officials she had been hospitalized for serious mental illnesses.
Hawaiʻi Astronomy Stares Into The Abyss Of Federal Cuts

3 weeks ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

In addition to the TMT, proposed federal funding cuts threaten the world-class Keck and Gemini observatories, the solar telescope on Maui and UH’s Institute for Astronomy. Deep budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration would deal a major blow to several important observatories in Hawaiʻi, beyond pulling support for a future Thirty Meter Telescope, threatening the state’s status as a world-class hub for ground-based astronomy research and education.
Funding Cuts May Doom The Long-Stalled Thirty Meter Telescope

4 weeks ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

The National Science Foundation, which was supposed to provide much of the funding for TMT, opts to fund the Giant Magellan Telescope instead. The controversial Thirty Meter Telescope planned for the summit area of Mauna Kea has lost the critically important support of the National Science Foundation, which plans to direct major funding to the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile instead of TMT.
Thirty Meter Telescope Archives

4 weeks ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton |Cassie Ordonio |Blaze Lovell |Tom Hasslinger

The 2019 protests helped convince Hawaii’s leaders they needed a new approach to managing Mauna Kea, which would be the site of the TMT. The National Science Foundation also said it plans to host four meetings on the Big Island in August as it decides on whether to fund the project.
Failed ‘Assault Rifle’ Ban Was The Victim Of Convoluted Politics

1 month ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

Hawaiʻi has some of the most restrictive firearms laws in the nation, but senators balked in the 11th hour at a ban on semiautomatic rifles and large-capacity magazines. Hawaiʻi lawmakers have passed an array of bills over the years to tighten the state’s firearms laws, considered among the strictest in the nation. In 1992, they banned sales of semiautomatic “assault pistols” such as the civilian version of the MAC-10.
Republican Named To Represent East Oʻahu After Rep. Gene Ward's Death

1 month ago | civilbeat.org | Kevin Dayton

Ward’s seat has been vacant since the longtime East Honolulu lawmaker retired on March 31 due to illness. Gov. Josh Green on Wednesday appointed marketing and advertising executive Joe Gedeon to succeed longtime Republican Rep. Gene Ward to represent House District 18, which includes Portlock, Hawai‘i Kai and Kalama Valley. That House seat has been vacant since Ward retired on March 31. He died on April 4 at age 82.