Latest news with #JAQUINO
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hawaii borrowers in default are among millions nationwide affected by end of payment pause
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Current and former students in default of their federal loans will soon start getting billed by the U.S. government as the Trump administration ends a COVID-19-era loan payment pause. At top, people made their way along the McCarthy Mall at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on Friday. 1 /3 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Current and former students in default of their federal loans will soon start getting billed by the U.S. government as the Trump administration ends a COVID-19-era loan payment pause. At top, people made their way along the McCarthy Mall at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on Friday. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A woman walked out of the Student Services Building at UH Manoa on Friday. 2 /3 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A woman walked out of the Student Services Building at UH Manoa on Friday. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Above is the Financial Aid Services office. 3 /3 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Above is the Financial Aid Services office. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Current and former students in default of their federal loans will soon start getting billed by the U.S. government as the Trump administration ends a COVID-19-era loan payment pause. At top, people made their way along the McCarthy Mall at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on Friday. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A woman walked out of the Student Services Building at UH Manoa on Friday. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Above is the Financial Aid Services office. A pandemic-era pause for federal loan borrowers in default is set to end Monday, and millions of former and current students nationwide are bracing for renewed loan collections. The U.S. Department of Education's decision to resume collections is a significant step in winding down COVID-19 relief efforts that have been in place since March 2020. The pending change is causing anxiety for Hawaii residents not only in default on their student loans, but also those who are relying on them now for their education. Monthly loan payments and interest resumed in October 2023 for most federal student loan borrowers. But those in default—meaning they had already missed payments for an extended period—were given more time before aggressive collection measures restarted. That protection is now ending, and borrowers who have not taken action to address delinquencies could face wage garnishments, tax refund seizures and other enforcement actions. The change means that residents in Hawaii and throughout the nation who relied on federal loans to fund their education no longer have the safety net of the collection pause. During the 2024 academic year, 6, 382 undergraduate students across the University of Hawaii System alone received federal student loans, with the majority—3, 988 students—enrolled at UH Manoa. The average loan amount for UH Manoa undergraduates was $6, 404. Additionally, 1, 707 graduate students were awarded federal loans, averaging $19, 143 per borrower. The end of the loan pause is a deep source of anxiety for Jen Kim, a Makiki resident and single mother of three. Her eldest son graduated from UH Manoa for his undergraduate studies, then completed dental school at the University of Washington. He is finishing his dental residency in Nevada. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. Between his undergraduate and dental school loans, Kim said her son still owes nearly $200, 000 in federal student debt and has paid back about $12, 000. With interest on those loans resuming at a rate of 6.5 %, she worries that the balance will balloon. 'He's done everything right. He went to school here, got into dental school, and now he's training to serve our people back home, ' Kim said. 'But the interest is brutal. For every payment he makes, it feels like the total barely changes.' Nationally, dental school graduates carry some of the highest student loan debt in the country. The American Dental Education Association estimates that the average debt for the class of 2024 was about $312, 700. While Kim's son's balance is technically below the national average, it still feels staggering to the Kim family—especially with the high cost of living in Hawaii and limited affordable housing options. 'We've already helped him cover basic costs like groceries and rent, ' she said. 'Now we're helping with interest, too, and I'm pulling from my own savings. I just keep thinking : He wants to be a dentist in Hawaii, not in Vegas, but the system makes it hard for him to come home.' The family had hoped the federal payment pause would last until he finished residency, but with the pause ending in 2023 and defaulted loan collections now restarting in May, the pressure is back. 'It's not just the money. It's the stress, the sense that no matter how hard he works, he'll always be behind, ' she said. For Harvey Tagalicud, 23, a junior at UH Manoa's Shidler College of Business, the financial pressure of loans has been a constant companion throughout his academic journey. Tagalicud, a first-generation college student, said his total debt could land anywhere between $18, 000 and $35, 000, depending on how much financial hardship arises during emergencies. His experience with loans has included federal PLUS loans, a short-term 'shell loan ' for emergencies. Taga licud said he has carefully avoided unsubsidized loans thanks to financial literacy support from programs like Upward Bound. 'Loans might be the most valuable way for me to, in the short term, jump through my final semesters in college, ' he said. 'It's kind of a necessary evil—and I believe that's a sentiment for a lot of us in academia right now.' He said choosing the right loan type was just one part of a steep learning curve. 'We're making one of the biggest financial decisions, the first big financial decision in our lives, and something that we can't even comprehend sometimes, Tagalicud said. The psychological toll, he added, is just as real as the financial one. 'We learn in consumer psychology that if scarcity exists for a person, that becomes an overarching thing that always limits in the back of your head, ' Taga licud said. He emphasized that students are not trying to avoid responsibility, and said the current system discourages genuine learning. 'We're not trying to dodge loan repayments. We're trying to learn with genuine passion and curiosity, without being burdened by the financial weight that becomes one of the biggest decisions in our lives, ' he said. 'It's important we create policies that encourage us to become lifelong learners, not just lifelong debt payers.' For Ava Song, a third-year medical student from New York who plans to transfer to UH Manoa's John A. Burns School of Medicine, managing her education means juggling three part-time jobs while taking on more than $180, 000 in student loan debt. Song, who plans to return to Hawaii to serve the community and take advantage of in-state tuition, hopes that JABSOM's unique opportunities and financial aid packages will ease her financial burdens. In New York she's worked as a high school tutor, a clinic assistant sterilizing instruments and a weekend bartender—often logging 14-hour days split between work, classes and clinic rotations. 'It's exhausting, but I don't have much of a choice, ' Song said. 'Every dollar I earn is a dollar I don't have to borrow and a dollar that doesn't rack up interest later.' Alicia Malia, a 37-year-old physical therapist who graduated from UH Hilo in 2011, pointed out that student loan debt does not always end with graduation or even after establishing a career. 'The system told us to get a good education so we could get good jobs and live a good life, ' Malia said 'But the reality is that to get that education, most of us had to borrow a ton of money. We worked our asses off during school just to afford living, and then we graduate into jobs where we still have to work just as hard—not just to live, but to pay back what we borrowed.' Malia said she still owes around $28, 000 in student loans, despite working full time in her field for over a decade. The pandemic-era pause in payments, she said, helped her finally get ahead on other bills and build up some savings. 'That break gave me room to breathe. I could help my parents, fix my car, even take a short trip for the first time in years, ' she said. But now, with payments resumed and collections restarting for those in default, Malia said she's deeply worried about younger generations—including her niece, who just started at UH Manoa. 'They say it's the American dream, but it's just a dream—it's so hard to attain, ' she said. 'We're all chasing this version of success that's tied to college, but the truth is, we were set up. If you don't go to college, it's hard to make a living. If you do, you're buried in debt. By the time we finally pay everything off, our lives have already passed us by.' Students and graduates who are unsure of their loan status can check their accounts at
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Yahoo
Deportation of German teens raises concern
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Two German teens traveling to Hawaii made international headlines when they were handcuffed and deported. The international arrivals lobby at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport is shown Friday. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Two German teens traveling to Hawaii made international headlines when they were handcuffed and deported. The international arrivals lobby at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport is shown Friday. Two German teens who planned to visit Ha-waii in March as part of a months-long world adventure recently told a German newspaper that they were instead handcuffed, imprisoned and deported—an account making headlines worldwide and raising concerns about the impact on tourism if some international visitors are facing heightened risks at U.S. borders. Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, told the major daily German newspaper Ostee-Zeitung in a story published April 10, , that they were turned away because they were unable to present lodging confirmation for their entire stay in Hawaii, which was one of the stops on a world trip to celebrate graduating high school. 'They found it suspicious that we hadn't fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii, ' Pohl told the Ostsee-Zeitung. 'We wanted to travel spontaneously, just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.' But Customs and Border Protection Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said in an emailed statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the teens were denied entry after attempting to enter the U.S. under false pretenses. 'One used a visitor visa, the other the visa waiver program, ' Beckham said. 'Both claimed they were touring California but later admitted they intended to work—something strictly prohibited under U.S. immigration laws for these visas.' Lepere told the German online publication , in an April 22 story that 'some of the answers were truly falsified ' in transcripts from their Hawaii ordeal. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. For example, Lepere said she told officials that she wanted to visit the U.S. 'to travel and visit my family in California.' But she said that 'the final answer on the paper was, 'Work for housing and extra spending money.' It reads as if we wanted to work illegally in the U.S., which we never said because it was never our intention.' The two teens told the Ostee-Zeitung that they spent a night in prison in Honolulu and then returned to their home in Rostock, Germany, via Tokyo, Qatar and Frankfurt three days after their arrest. They told that officials booked them on a flight to Tokyo because they did not want to return to New Zealand, the country that they had visited before Hawaii. Denis Salle, honorary German consul in Honolulu, provided this statement : 'The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in San Francisco is aware of the case and has been in contact with the relevant U.S. authorities. We kindly ask for your understanding that for reasons of privacy and data protection laws, we cannot provide further details on the case. Considering the procedures of the Customs and Border authorities, please refer to the relevant U.S. authorities.' Customs and Border Protection did not respond to the Star-Advertiser's query on how often visitors have been denied entry under similar circumstances in Hawaii and elsewhere and whether there have been any changes to the volume of visitors who are deported or to the policies around visitor deportations under the Trump administration. Still, the Star-Advertiser is aware of at least one other international visitor who was detained and deported from Hawaii since the German teens, and there have been recent media reports of other states deporting international visitors. The New York Times reported about a recent flurry in late March of international visitors attempting to enter the United States from other countries who were denied entry at border checkpoints, leading to either deportations to their home countries or days or weeks of detention. A 28-year-old British woman arrived in Britain the week of March 20 after she was held at an immigration detention center in Washington state for three weeks, according to The New York Times. She had attempted to enter the United States from Canada, and questions arose at the land-border crossing whether she had the correct visa. Her ordeal came shortly after two German tourists in separate incidents were deported after trying to enter the United States from Mexico. The Times said both had spent weeks in a detention center in San Diego, and both said they were unclear as to why they had been detained and deported. International tourism The purported stories from international visitors refused entry are sparking concerns about what travelers can expect at U.S. border crossings, which could further weaken international visitor demand. International arrivals to Hawaii are still far below the 2019 pre-COVID-19 level, and recovery already was sluggish even before the Trump Administration's tariffs, stricter border policies and geopolitical issues like talk of turning Canada and Greenland into states, or the administration's stance on NATO and the war between Russia and the Ukraine. In 2024 some 1.66 million visitors came to Hawaii on international flights, according to data from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. International arrivals were up 6.8 % from 2024 but down more than 45 % from the 2o19 pre-pandemic level. Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawai 'i Hotel Alliance, said Canadian travel to Hawaii already is only about half of what it was in 2019 and that travel from Japan to Hawaii still hasn't rallied despite a more favorable yen-to-dollar exchange rate. 'Next year from Japan I think we'll see 4 % or 5 % improvement, not the 10 % to 15 % that some people are talking about, ' Gibson said. 'Obviously, (European travelers ) aren't thrilled with us, so intuitively, you would think that we would get less, but we haven't been able to prove that yet because we don't get a lot of them.' In January and February, DBEDT reported that only 289, 719 visitors came to Hawaii on international flights, down 6.6 % from the start of 2024 ; and in February only 133, 960 visitors came to Hawaii on international flights, a 13 % drop from February 2024. Gibson said, 'I really hope that nothing like (the deportation of the German teens ) sets any kind of precedent. We are viewed as a very friendly state, and I hope that we can keep that feeling throughout the world.' But on Friday, posters on the Kauai, Hawaii Facebook site brought up the story of the German teens as a cautionary tale when responding to two 22-year-old New Zealanders who said they 'were looking to work on Kauai in exchange for food and accommodation in June and possibly July as a way to explore and immerse ourselves in the Hawaiian culture.' One poster said, 'Don't tell the immigration folks or you may find yourself sent back before you see a beach.' Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO for the Hawai 'i Lodging and Tourism Association and a board member of the Hawai 'i Tourism Authority, said, 'Any negative publicity about policies and procedures, whether it's on the federal or state level, is not good.' Hannemann, who represents HLTA on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, said the group was reappointed under the Trump administration and is awaiting its first meeting. The board is the advisory body to the U.S. Commerce Department on issues and concerns affecting the nation's travel and tourism industry. 'I'm sure that this will be a part of it because we are always talking about issues dealing with entry into our country, dealing with homeland security and Department of State, ' he said. 'That's a priority, especially as we are gearing up for what's going to happen in Los Angeles in a few years, whether it's the Olympics or the World Cup.' Gibson said he hopes there will be some official attempt to find alternative accommodations for travelers who are not criminals and have simply made mistakes at the border. 'We want to treat everyone with respect and aloha. It's tough to hear that (the German teens ) had to stay in detention, and we wish that there was another way that we could have done it, ' he said. Border controls Even before the incident with the German teens in Hawaii, the Trump administration's stringent border policies were garnering worldwide attention. It was just April 4, during a news conference in Brussels, that a journalist asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio what message that he would give to 'foreign citizens who may be afraid to come to the United States because they're concerned about potentially being detained over some minor administrative error or because they might have something on their phone—like criticism of the president or of the Israel-Gaza conflict.' Rubio said, 'I would say that if you're not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is or to tell us about—stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our street and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about.' But the German teens arrived in Honolulu on March 18, and a day later Reuters reported that Germany's foreign ministry updated its travel advice website for the U.S. to clarify that neither approval through the U.S. ESTA system nor a U.S. visa entitles entry in every case. Germany's foreign ministry told Reuters that the update did not constitute a travel warning but said it was monitoring whether there had been a change in U.S. immigration policy after three nationals had been detained by the U.S. The three nationals referred to by the German foreign ministry did not try to enter Hawaii and did not include Pohl and Lepere, who alleged that the consequences for their seemingly minor entry oversight was severe. Pohl told the Ostsee-Zeitung, 'We were searched with metal detectors, our entire bodies were scanned and we had to stand naked in front of the police officers and were looked through. Then we were given green prison clothes and put in a prison cell with serious criminals.' Lepere also told the Ostsee-Zeitung that the experience 'was all like a fever dream. We had already noticed a little bit of what was going on in the U.S. But at the time we didn't think it was happening to Germans. That was perhaps very naive. We felt so small and powerless.' Jeff Joseph, an immigration lawyer in Denver, told The New York Times that those entering the United States with an ESTA are not allowed to study or work a permanent job. In this process, visitors 'waive ' a lot of rights, including the right to contest deportation. Because of that, people using this program can be subject to mandatory detention. U.S. federal law gives government agents the right to search people's property, including their phones and laptops, at border entry points. They do not need to be suspected of wrongdoing in order to be searched, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State fund eyed for workforce housing subsidies
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. 1 /3 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. Monthly rents for studios and one-bedroom units range from $662 for households earning no more than 30 % of Honolulu's median income to $1, 483 for households earning no more than 60 % of the median income. 2 /3 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. Monthly rents for studios and one-bedroom units range from $662 for households earning no more than 30 % of Honolulu's median income to $1, 483 for households earning no more than 60 % of the median income. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. Prospective tenants will be chosen by lottery, and applications are being taken until April 30 by EAH Housing, which expects to finish construction soon and welcome initial tenants in August. 3 /3 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. Prospective tenants will be chosen by lottery, and applications are being taken until April 30 by EAH Housing, which expects to finish construction soon and welcome initial tenants in August. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. Monthly rents for studios and one-bedroom units range from $662 for households earning no more than 30 % of Honolulu's median income to $1, 483 for households earning no more than 60 % of the median income. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The 140-unit Aloha Ia Halewiliko rental apartment complex in Aiea is being built to serve seniors with low incomes and was financed in part by the state's rental housing revolving fund. Prospective tenants will be chosen by lottery, and applications are being taken until April 30 by EAH Housing, which expects to finish construction soon and welcome initial tenants in August. State lawmakers are considering diverting a state fund used almost exclusively to develop low-income rental housing to build apartments for residents with higher incomes—topping out well above what most people earn. A bill to authorize the change, which was proposed by the state agency administering the fund, is in its final stretch at the Legislature. The shift is intended to produce more subsidized rental housing for residents with a wider range of incomes. Proponents tout it as a way to keep more of Hawaii's workforce from leaving the state due to the high cost of housing. But the change could reduce funding for low-income housing construction. would allow part of the state's rental housing revolving fund to go toward financing development of apartments for households earning between 60 % and 140 % of a county's annual median income. At the high end on Oahu, this equates to $136, 500 for a single person and $194, 250 for a family of four. Monthly rent at those income levels could reach $3, 412 for a studio and $5, 060 for a three-bedroom unit. Current regulations for the fund prioritize projects that serve households earning up to 60 % of the median income, which equates to $58, 500 for a single person and $83, 250 for a family of four. Monthly rent at those income levels could reach $1, 462 for a studio and $2, 169 for a three-bedroom unit. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. A variety of other state and city programs provide financial incentives for developers to build housing for moderate-income residents, and in some cases such housing is a requirement for a portion of large projects. Yet affordable-housing advocates say more subsidized housing is needed for people who, despite moderate incomes, still can't afford market-priced homes. Susan Le, senior afford able-housing policy analyst for the nonprofit Hawai 'i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, told the House Finance Committee during a Feb. 25 hearing on HB 432 that someone in Hawaii has to earn 200 % of the median income to afford a median-priced home. 'Our workforce is struggling, ' she said. 'That includes firefighters, teachers, health care workers. And without subsidies, these projects don't work out because we have the highest land costs, construction costs and regulatory process in the nation.' Subsidy split The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., the state agency administering the rental housing fund, sought the change proposed via the bill. Dean Minakami, HHFDC executive director, said in written testimony that the fund is typically used up by top-priority 'Tier I ' projects, which are for households earning under 60 % of the median income and also obtain federal and state low-income housing tax credits, often in addition to bond financing awarded by HHFDC to make the projects viable. 'This bill is needed so that funding can be available for mixed-income rental projects, or 'Tier II, ' without the need for legislation to finance projects outside the first priority, ' he said. 'These are our working families who earn too much to qualify for low-income housing tax credit units but cannot afford to buy their own homes, such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, and nurses.' Tier II projects are for households earning 60 % to 140 % of the median income. HHFDC's rental housing fund is supplied with 50 % of real estate conveyance tax revenue up to $38 million annually and legislative appropriations. Fund proceeds are awarded as very-low-interest loans that get paid back decades later, which also contribute to the fund's balance. Only in recent years has the Legislature infused the fund with annual appropriations of $100 million or more in an effort to better address Hawaii's long-standing affordable-housing crisis. Those appropriations totaled about $1 billion between 2018 and 2024. And demand for fund awards by low-income housing developers has been high. In 2022, HHFDC awarded $320 million from the fund to 13 projects, followed by $145 million for nine projects in 2023 and $64 million for four projects in 2024. One of the projects funded in 2022 was the 95-unit Koa Vista I apartment building in Waipio that opened in March for seniors earning 30 % to 60 % of the median income. The $39 million project was financed in part with $17.5 million from HHFDC's fund. High demand This year, developers are seeking about $1.1 billion from the fund, which has a roughly $570 million balance, to help finance 28 projects comprising about 4, 000 low-income rental units. The biggest request is from the developer of a 344-unit initial phase of the 900-unit Leiwili Kapolei project on HHFDC land. The developer is seeking either $123 million or $140 million from the fund to develop the first phase for households earning up to 60 % of the median income. Leiwili's developer also explored developing the first phase for households earning 80 % to 100 % of the median income as a Tier II project competing for rental fund financing. Leiwili's second phase with 484 rental apartments is planned for households earning 80 % to 100 % of the median income. A 72-unit third phase is slated to be homes for sale to households earning 110 % to 140 % of the median income. Through HB 432, HHFDC has requested that Tier II projects receive $150 million over the next two fiscal years. Gov. Josh Green's proposed budget included the same amount for Tier II projects plus $100 million for the fund generally. HB 432 also would allow transfers within the rental housing fund to a 'mixed-income subaccount ' reserved for Tier II projects, meaning money in the fund could be moved away from Tier I priority projects to Tier II projects. Balancing challenge Some proponents of the bill say subsidies are needed for both low-and moderate-income housing. But whether future funding for Tier I projects will suffer due to Tier II project funding is hard to discern. Representatives of the organization Hawai 'i YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard ) said in written testimony, 'It is important for us to continue to fund homes for our lower income residents, but we must target additional funds to our middle-income, working-class families who struggle to compete for market-rate homes.' Kevin Auger, executive director of the City and County of Honolulu Office of Housing, said in written testimony that development of low-income housing must continue, but that very limited programs exist to help the moderate-income workforce afford housing. 'The creation of a mixed-income subaccount would help to bridge the gap that currently exists and allow more of our workforce—including our teachers, police officers, and medical staff—to remain here in Hawaii, ' he said. Other proponents of the bill include the Hawai 'i Community Foundation, Holomua Collaborative and Michaels Development, which is a partner in the Leiwili project. Makana Hicks-Goo, representing Hawai'i LIMBY (Locals In My Backyard ), expressed concern to lawmakers in written testimony that maximum rents for affordable housing under HHFDC regulations can be higher than market prices, which is something the agency acknowledges. 'We concede that affordable housing is hard, but it seems a fair criticism that a program claiming to be affordable ought at the very least to be priced below the market, ' Hicks-Goo wrote. 'It is damning that we neither do so nor build the sort of units needed by locals.' Because the House and Senate passed different amended drafts of HB 432 earlier this year, House and Senate conferees have been appointed to work on a mutually agreeable version that, if produced, could receive final approval before the legislative session ends Friday. It's also possible the change sought by HHFDC gets enacted through, which initially proposed something different for the rental housing fund but was amended by a House committee to mirror HB 432.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
World War II newsman Ernie Pyle remembered at Punchbowl
COURTESY U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES Ernie Pyle and sailors listen to war reports aboard USS Charles Carroll while en route to Okinawa. 1 /5 COURTESY U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES Ernie Pyle and sailors listen to war reports aboard USS Charles Carroll while en route to Okinawa. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Chaplin Hurst of the Pacific Air Forces paused in front of Ernie Pyle's grave site. The Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation put on the service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. 2 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Chaplin Hurst of the Pacific Air Forces paused in front of Ernie Pyle's grave site. The Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation put on the service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The Color Guard posted the colors during the Ernie Pyle 80th Anniversary Memorial. 3 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The Color Guard posted the colors during the Ernie Pyle 80th Anniversary Memorial. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Jerry Maschino, right, executive director of the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation, spoke Friday with Suzanne Vares-Lum, director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and City Council member Tyler Dos-Santos Tam during the cemetery. The memorial takes place every five years. 4 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Jerry Maschino, right, executive director of the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation, spoke Friday with Suzanne Vares-Lum, director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and City Council member Tyler Dos-Santos Tam during the cemetery. The memorial takes place every five years. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Anne Harpham, former senior editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, paused Friday in front of the Ernie Pyle Memorial Rock. 5 /5 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Anne Harpham, former senior editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, paused Friday in front of the Ernie Pyle Memorial Rock. COURTESY U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES Ernie Pyle and sailors listen to war reports aboard USS Charles Carroll while en route to Okinawa. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Chaplin Hurst of the Pacific Air Forces paused in front of Ernie Pyle's grave site. The Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation put on the service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ The Color Guard posted the colors during the Ernie Pyle 80th Anniversary Memorial. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Jerry Maschino, right, executive director of the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation, spoke Friday with Suzanne Vares-Lum, director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, and City Council member Tyler Dos-Santos Tam during the cemetery. The memorial takes place every five years. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ Anne Harpham, former senior editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, paused Friday in front of the Ernie Pyle Memorial Rock. RELATED PHOTO GALLERY The legendary life and career of newsman Ernie Pyle was celebrated Friday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl Crater, the famed war correspondent's final resting place. The Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation put on the ceremony, which marked the 80th anniversary of his death during the Battle of Okinawa. Another ceremony was held on the island of Iejima, where a single bullet fired by a Japanese soldier struck Pyle in the head and killed him. The ceremony brought together members of Pyle's extended family, veterans, educators, former war correspondents and community members who wanted to pay tribute to Pyle, who was best known for his human-interest reporting during the Great Depression and the intimate accounts of common service members during World War II. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Suzanne Vares-Lum, an alum of University of Hawaii's journalism and ROTC programs, said she first encountered Pyle's writing as a student at UH, where some of her instructors were former war correspondents as well. She said Pyle's work left a profound impact on her. 'He was never the loudest man in the room, but he spoke with a voice that carried across oceans, across battlefields and across generations, ' Vares-Lum said. 'He chose to stand alongside the average soldier, the quiet heroes, rather than chasing the spotlight of generals and war rooms. He wrote from foxholes, not balconies. From bombed-out towns, not press briefings. His style was simple and spare, but it cut deep. It wasn't about grandeur ; it was about truth.' The tradition of commemorating Pyle's death at Punchbowl began in 1949, the year his remains were repatriated from Okinawa and interred at the cemetery. Buck Buchwach, then-editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, wrote and delivered the eulogy. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA. Every five years, people would gather again at the ceremony, and Buchwach would read from that first eulogy until his own death in 1989. Buchwach's wife, Margaret, tried to keep the tradition alive, but by the end of the 1990s, it had faded. But in 2013, members of Pyle's extended family established the Ernie Pyle Legacy Foundation, and in 2015 the foundation helped revive the tradition. Steve Maschino, a cousin of Pyle who sits on the foundation's board, told attendees that the foundation hopes to 'promote Ernie's style of writing with that human exercise story, versus the raw news today that sometimes can seem void of the human side.' Marine veteran Jason Seal, senior vice commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Hawaii, read Buchwach's eulogy, which proclaimed that Pyle 'was a little guy who loved the little guy, and he brought the front to the front door of every American home. His fame lies above all in the integrity of what he wrote. His byline meant truth.' Beverly Keever, who worked as a correspondent in Vietnam covering the war for seven years and later became a UH journalism instructor, said remembering Pyle's work is important today. 'The press today is under such unprecedented attacks of a new kind, new kind of bullets, ' Keever said. 'This is a really special occasion, 80 years after his death.' Pyle was an only child raised on a farm in Indiana, and soon decided farming wasn't for him. He enlisted in the Navy during World War I, but the fighting ended before he finished training. He pursued journalism and enjoyed a long career with stints as a beat reporter, columnist and editor. In the 1930s, feeling trapped behind a desk, he hit the road with his wife and wrote stories about the places they went and people they met. His travels took him from the heart of the Great Plains Dust Bowl to Alaska, South America and even to Hawaii, where he wrote about the Hansen's disease colony at Kalaupapa. When war broke out in Europe, he traveled to London to write about Germany's relentless bombing of the British Isles. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he began reporting on the front lines with U.S. troops, taking him to North Africa, Europe and eventually bringing him back to Hawaii and the Pacific. His last assignment was with the 77th Infantry Division on Iejima. 'His words brought the islands to the Main Street America, ' Vares-Lum said. 'Americans in Kansas, New York and Georgia could feel the breeze of a Waikiki, could understand the struggles on Guam, Tarawa, Okinawa, and we here in Hawaii remember him as one who walked among us, who listened, who cared and who understood. … He walked into danger with a notepad. He reminds us to speak the truth, even when it's hard.'
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Stormy weather douses Hawaiian islands
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A flash flood warning was in effect for Oahu and Maui County through much of Friday afternoon, with some areas seeing as much as 1 to 3 inches of rainfall an hour. Above, a vehicle traversed floodwater along Young Street. 1 /2 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A flash flood warning was in effect for Oahu and Maui County through much of Friday afternoon, with some areas seeing as much as 1 to 3 inches of rainfall an hour. Above, a vehicle traversed floodwater along Young Street. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A pedestrian crosses Punahou Street in heavy rain Friday. 2 /2 JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A pedestrian crosses Punahou Street in heavy rain Friday. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A flash flood warning was in effect for Oahu and Maui County through much of Friday afternoon, with some areas seeing as much as 1 to 3 inches of rainfall an hour. Above, a vehicle traversed floodwater along Young Street. JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO @ A pedestrian crosses Punahou Street in heavy rain Friday. Heavy rain, flooding, lightning and thunder pounded the Hawaiian islands on Friday before letting up in the early evening. Moderate tradewinds are forecast to return today and through the weekend with lingering showers throughout the state. However, the National Weather Service said another storm system is expected to hit the islands early next week, disrupting tradewinds and bringing 'another chance for heavy rainfall and thunderstorms to the islands Tuesday through Thursday.' A winter weather advisory for Hawaii island summits remained in effect until 6 a.m. today, with up to 2 inches of snow expected. For the 24-hour period ending at 3 :45 p.m. Friday, weather service rain gauges recorded 10.6 inches of rain on Kauai's Mount Waialeale, 6.7 inches at Poamoho near Wahiawa on Oahu and nearly 3 inches in Haiku, Maui. The City & County of Honolulu said the intersection of Kameha meha Highway and Waikane Valley Road was reopened at about 3 :40 p.m. Friday after being closed earlier in the afternoon due to flooding. Don 't miss out on what 's happening ! Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE ! Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA.
