Latest news with #MazieHirono
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Kokua Line: Is online vote kept private?
Question : To vote in Honolulu's neighborhood board elections, the voter goes to a website, inputs a unique password and PIN they received in the mail, makes their selections and submits their online ballot. Does this system ensure voter privacy, so that no one knows who a specific voter voted for ? If yes, how ? I did not cast my ballot this time around because I could not find an explanation of how the online voting system works to ensure a secret ballot. Answer : Voting for Oahu's 2025 neighborhood board elections ran from April 25 through May 16. Election results are expected today after paper mail-in ballots postmarked by May 16 are counted (voters unable to vote online could request a paper ballot ). Results will be posted on the website of the municipal government's Neighborhood Commission Office, . As for your questions, here's how the online voting system works, according to emails from Jackson Coley, an NCO spokesperson, who said he based the responses on information from the city's Department of Information Technology : 'Yes, the system ensures voter privacy by design. Here's how : 'Unique Credentials : Each voter receives a private, unique passcode and PIN via USPS mail, ensuring only authorized individuals can access the voting portal. 'No Public Access : There is no public website or database to query or identify who voted for whom, preserving ballot secrecy. 'Restricted Database : Ballot data is stored in a secure, restricted database with limited access, and Neighborhood Commission Office employees cannot retrieve individual voting records through their admin tools. 'Legal Safeguards : The only way to identify a specific voter's choices would require a court-ordered subpoena, which is a formal and highly controlled process. 'This structure prevents unauthorized access to individual votes, ensuring that no one (including the Neighborhood Commission Office ) can determine how a specific voter cast their ballot.' Oahu has 36 neighborhood boards, according to the NCO website, which are meant to assure citizens' participation in government decisions. Social Security town hall Social Security will be the topic as AARP Hawai 'i hosts a telephone town hall Saturday at 9 a.m. with U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Chad Mullen, AARP's director of financial security. People who have participated in past AARP telephone town halls will get a call to join, while others can call in toll-free at 833-305-0175 when the forum begins, according to an AARP news release. Participants will be able to ask questions, it said. More than 1 in 5 Hawaii residents receive Social Security payments, according to AARP, a nonprofit group representing the interests of older Americans. Mahalo On May 16 I had an incident with my car in the Alii Place parking garage. I was going to park in this man's stall after he left. Well, my car decided to stop in his path. Dead. I approached him and another young man, Arthur, who were so helpful pushing my car into the vacant stall. Arthur then jumped into my car and fiddled with the gear shift and buttons. Voila, it started. It seems I have a Sport function on the gear shift, and I tripped it. I was so blessed to have had two guardian angels helping me with this weird situation.—Linda (Editor's note : Activating Sport mode shouldn't have caused your car to die, according to our quick review of the power-boosting option, but regardless of the cause, we're glad help was on hand. This feature is not limited to sports cars—it's common on sedans and SUVs—and generally is activated with the touch of a button or the flip of the switch, allowing a vehicle to accelerate faster while merging onto a highway, for example.)------------Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813 ; call 808-529-4773 ; or email.------------
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fear grips Hawaii's Filipino teaching community after ICE home raid
[Source] A federal immigration raid at a Maui residence housing Filipino teachers has heightened anxiety among educators and drawn sharp criticism from Hawaii lawmakers. What went down: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly executed a federal search warrant at a multi-family residence in Kahului on May 6, detaining approximately 10 to 12 teachers and family members for roughly 45 minutes during their search. Among those detained were Filipino nationals working legally on J-1 visas. The operation is said to have targeted a Hispanic man who had previously lived at the address. The warrant, however, was shown to the landlord allegedly only after agents completed their search. Lawmakers speak out: Sen. Brian Schatz first denounced the operation in a statement, characterizing it as 'racial profiling and a shameful abuse of power' designed to create fear. Sen. Mazie Hirono also criticized the administration's approach to immigration on social media, writing, 'Rather than making our communities safer, Trump is focused solely on sowing chaos and instilling fear in vulnerable communities.' ICE responds: ICE, for its part, defended the operation, saying Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents conduct themselves professionally and do not target specific ethnic or professional groups. 'Making unsubstantiated comments to suggest otherwise places our agents and our communities at risk and erodes public faith in law enforcement for no reason,' it stated. 'HSI will aggressively push back on false accusations to ensure the public has access to the truth and is informed on our mission to support public safety.' Trending on NextShark: The big picture: The home search was part of a broader four-day enforcement operation from May 5 to 8 that led to 50 arrests across Hawaii's three main islands, targeting individuals with various immigration violations and criminal histories. Earlier this week, Filipino officials confirmed that no Filipino nationals were arrested in the Kahului raid and that all affected teachers remain safe. This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Trending on NextShark: Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Subscribe here now! Trending on NextShark: Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Education Shake-Up: Hawaii braces for federal DOE dismantle
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii's public schools have relied on federal support for everything from special education to school lunches. With the Department of Education now being dismantled, state officials are preparing for what could be major changes. Interested in early childhood education? UH Manoa posts new degree option 'We know for our state, $300 million comes from the federal government year over year so that accounts for 11% of the total budget. That is too much for us to absorb that cost, so we're doing things like holding funds back seeing in ways we can fill those gaps,' said state Rep. Justin Woodson, chair of House Committee on Education. Ironically, it's Education Week at the state capitol and today, the State Superintendent was speaking with Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono about what needs to be done to protect Hawaii's education budget. State Superintendent Keith Hayashi said while no programs have been impacted yet, they'll stay focused on the needs in the classrooms as they monitor developments. 'We'll continue to do that work together with our schools, with our communities, to be sure that we're able to provide the best education possible. That's definitely a commitment from the Hawaii State Department of Education as we move forward together,' said Keith the federal level, all four Hawaii congressional members condemned the Trump administration's actions against the education department and they've vowed to push back. 'Well the first thing is that we can do our best to stop him from preventing these funds to come to our state, and that requires a lawsuit. And that is happening. But at the same time, we need to establish some priorities and I hope the legislature will come back into special session if they have to, to shore up the gaps in education support,' said Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono. According to a news release from Congressman Ed Case, it is estimated $193.8 million in federal funding that provides services to Hawaii schools including Title 1, after-school programs and programs to support military families would be impacted, while another $22.3 million would be cut to services supporting state DOE workers. Check out more news from around Hawaii In a statement, Case called President Trump's effort to abolish the USDOE as 'one of the broadest and deepest and outright shortsighted and heartless of many attacks on the foundation of our society to date.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democratic senators want more details on costs and impact of border mission
After senior U.S. military officials told Congress they do not know yet how much the surge of active-duty military forces to the southern border with Mexico and the buildup of infrastructure to house thousands of migrants at Guantanamo might end up costing, two Democratic senators on Friday requested more details from the Pentagon. Following a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday with the commanders of U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command, Sens. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting specific details by Feb. 27 regarding the costs, impact on readiness and impact on morale that would result from the new missions along the border and at Guantanamo. "We are concerned about the Department of Defense's (DoD) immigration-related operations at the southern border and at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay -- including the implications of these operations for the military's budget, readiness, and morale," the senators said in the lengthy letter requesting specific details from the Pentagon. MORE: US military's mission on border moving quickly "DoD's support for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been expensive for American taxpayers, with some DoD expenses costing over three times more than when DHS performs the same function, while also posing "an unacceptable risk" to units' readiness," they wrote. "In all, the Trump administration is militarizing the country's immigration enforcement system in an apparent attempt to signal toughness," they added. " But this political stunt will come at a high cost; it risks diverting DoD's resources away from its vital mission in ways that compromise our national security." At Thursday's hearing, Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of NORTHCOM, and Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander of SOUTHCOM, were asked about the potential impact on training and readiness for the forces sent to the border and what the financial costs were for the surge as well as the construction of migrant housing at the naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba. MORE: 1st migrant flight at Guantanamo Bay arrives, carrying 'worst of the worst' Guillot told the committee that the number of active-duty forces now on the Southern border with Mexico had risen to 5,000 and said he expected the number to continue to rise. Included in the 5,000 are the additional troops deployed to join the 2,500 federalized National Guardsmen and reservists who had been serving as part of a border mission established by the Trump administration in 2018. Meanwhile, the most recent deployment to the border took place this week as 500 Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, New York, arrived at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to establish a coordinating headquarters for the border mission. An additional 1,000 troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, are awaiting orders to deploy to the border in support of that unit, according to a U.S. official. Asked about potential costs for the operation on the border, Guillot explained that his command has "not appropriated funds for the Southwest border, and we've never had reprogramming or pass through funding. This is all done through the Department Comptroller and the services." The NORTHCOM commander also told the committee that he did not believe that the cycling of troops to the southern border would impact any scheduled training exercises being held by his command though he noted there might be a reduction in the one day of weekly training provided to deployed forces conducting jobs outside of their normal specialized roles. "I think that specifically in the helicopters and in our intel specialties that are conducting missions on the southern border, those are exactly in line with their trained specialty," said Guillot. "However, there are, I certainly recognize there are areas where they are cross-trained and they are not getting immediate benefit to their primary specialty in about half of those roles." At the naval base at Guantanamo, 500 Marines have been deployed to erect tents and facilities that could potentially house as many as 30,000 migrants while they await processing to be returned to their home countries. Adm. Holsey described the new construction at Guantanamo as a "phased" approach currently targeting housing for up to 2,500 migrants and said the potential expansion to 30,000 migrants would depend on the Department of Homeland Security's flow of migrants to the base. "We're going to build it up and as we understand how large we'll get, we'll have a better focus on the price," said Holey when asked how much those operations could end up costing. He added that the Department of Homeland Security is providing security for the detained migrants and noted that any current military costs in expanding facilities at the base are coming from the military services' existing budgets. According to Holsey, there are currently 93 deported migrants currently housed at Guantanamo, with 63 of them being housed at the main prison facility that used to house hundreds of enemy combatants seized during the War on Terror. The remainder are all being housed in the newly expanded housing that falls under the base's Migrant Operations Center. Democratic senators want more details on costs and impact of border mission originally appeared on
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senators sound alarm over parks' staffing shortage
JANICE WEI / NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE / 2019 Top, park visitors enjoy the views of Kilauea Volcano's summit eruption from the Jaggar Museum Overlook. 1 /3 JANICE WEI / NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE / 2019 Top, park visitors enjoy the views of Kilauea Volcano's summit eruption from the Jaggar Museum Overlook. M. PATRICK / USGS / JAN. 15 A panorama of the north and south vents in the west portion of Kilauea's caldera erupting lava fountains. 2 /3 M. PATRICK / USGS / JAN. 15 A panorama of the north and south vents in the west portion of Kilauea's caldera erupting lava fountains. ELIZABETH FRANTZ / REUTERS / JAN. 15 U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, above, is calling for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to address staffing shortages at the National Park Service, including Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park. 3 /3 ELIZABETH FRANTZ / REUTERS / JAN. 15 U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, above, is calling for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to address staffing shortages at the National Park Service, including Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park. JANICE WEI / NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE / 2019 Top, park visitors enjoy the views of Kilauea Volcano's summit eruption from the Jaggar Museum Overlook. M. PATRICK / USGS / JAN. 15 A panorama of the north and south vents in the west portion of Kilauea's caldera erupting lava fountains. ELIZABETH FRANTZ / REUTERS / JAN. 15 U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, above, is calling for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to address staffing shortages at the National Park Service, including Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park. U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and 21 of her Senate colleagues are calling on newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to address critical staffing shortages at the National Park Service. In a letter sent to Burgum, the senators outlined concerns over the impact of recent staffing cuts and hiring freezes, warning that the situation could severely affect national parks across the country, including those in Hawaii. Hawaii is home to eight NPS-managed sites, including Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii island, which is known for its active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa. The park has drawn more than a million visitors annually from 1972 to 2023, except for four years, including one affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 'President Trump's attacks on federal agencies and millions of federal workers across the country, including those who staff our national parks, endanger critical programs Americans rely on, ' Hirono told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email. 'Hawaii's national parks are enjoyed by people from all over the world, and park staff play crucial roles in ensuring visitor safety, educating people about our local ecosystems, protecting valuable natural resources and biodiversity, and more. The threats posed by Trump not only impact the livelihoods of National Park Service employees, they also risk the parks as well. Shuttering agency doors, gutting funding, and scaling back federal personnel does not help our communities, and I'll do everything in my power to ensure our federal workers receive the support they deserve.' The letter highlights a series of workforce reductions following President Donald Trump's federal hiring freeze, which led to the cancellation of thousands of seasonal job offers. Additionally, the administration's buyout offers and deferred-resignation plans have raised fears of further staff losses. These decisions, the senators argue, could leave national parks drastically understaffed during peak visitation months, when additional personnel are essential to maintaining services and ensuring visitor safety. Elizabeth Fien, president and CEO of Friends of Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park, a nonprofit that assists the NPS in preserving and interpreting the park's natural and cultural resources, said several positions that were in the hiring process were rescinded. 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. 'These rangers do more with less, and they're the most dedicated group in Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park today I've ever seen. The morale in our park is very low. This has been devastating, ' Fien said. She shared that her organization had an employee on its payroll assisting the park with the opening of the new Pahoe land, working on trail-cutting, visitor information and public meetings. The employee, a Native Hawaiian, had been guided through the federal hiring process and successfully secured a position with the park service. 'He was just onboarding and then they rescinded his job. He was already hired on the receipt of his job. It was devastating. It was two Thursdays ago, ' Fien said Tuesday. Fien received a message from her employee at 7 :38 a.m. Jan. 23, informing her that his job offer had been revoked. He expressed confusion over the situation and sought her advice. She noted that other positions had also been rescinded, including a trail supervisor and an engineer, leaving critical roles unfilled. 'There was a trail supervisor position that was hired, and it was rescinded, so there's no trail supervisor. We've been without an engineer for a couple of months, and then they had an engineer hired. The job was rescinded, too, ' she said. 'We have all these construction projects going on. We need to have an engineer on-site. We have visitation. We have an eruption going on right now, and all of us are hands on deck. We all volunteer.' Fien said the hiring freeze is having an immediate and significant impact, emphasizing that staffing shortages are especially concerning during volcanic eruptions when park services are crucial for visitor safety and maintaining infrastructure. As of 2023, Hawai 'i Volcanoes National Park had 79 full-time permanent staff members. Fien said the park was already struggling with staffing shortages amid high visitation numbers. 'We have some of the highest visitations to the roof. … The park was already severely short-staffed before this all happened. … It's terrifying, I've never seen this level of fear and sadness here, ' Fien said. Hirono and her colleagues stressed the need to reinstate seasonal employment offers that were revoked. 'We urge you to immediately reissue seasonal employment offers for the National Park Service, officially rescind damaging and short-sighted deferred resignation and early retirement offers, and to instead work to safeguard, grow, and shape the National Park Serv ice workforce to meet the needs of our national parks and their visitors, ' the senators wrote. The National Park Service depends on over 6, 000 seasonal workers to handle the increased number of visitors during the summer. Without these employees, the letter highlights potential consequences, including the closure of visitor centers, dirty bathrooms, campground closures, reductions or cancellations of guided tours, slower emergency response times and a lack of essential services such as safety advice, trail recommendations and interpretation. The senators also raised concerns about the long-term impact of staffing cuts, pointing out that the NPS has already lost 15 % of its workforce over the past decade due to budget constraints, even as park visitation has increased by the same percentage. They cautioned that if additional employees accept early retirement or resign due to uncertainty over job security, 'park staffing will be in chaos. Not only does this threaten the full suite of visitor services, but could close entire parks altogether.' Beyond the effects on park operations, the lawmakers underscored the economic consequences of reduced staffing. National parks generate billions of dollars for surrounding communities, supporting businesses such as hotels, restaurants and outdoor -recreation outfitters. According to the letter, in 2023 an estimated 325 million park visitors spent $26.4 billion in gateway communities, supporting 415, 000 jobs and contributing $55.6 billion in total economic output. 'Gutting staffing at national park units will devastate local 'gateway' communities where parks generate significant economic activity, ' the senators wrote, warning that local economies 'don't deserve to have their livelihoods destroyed for political gain.' The lawmakers urged Burgum to work quickly to restore and protect the NPS workforce to ensure national parks remain accessible and properly maintained. 'Americans showing up to national parks this summer and for years to come don't deserve to have their vacations ruined by a completely preventable—and completely irresponsible—staffing shortage, ' they stated. 'We urge your cooperation in protecting national parks for the enjoyment of everyone by ensuring National Park Service staffing meets the needs of the 433 national park units in all 50 states.'
