Off the News: Navy provides coronavirus quarantine

Since first diagnosed in December, the pneumonia-like coronavirus has killed more than 500 people and infected more than 28,000, health officials said Wednesday. With suspected cases in at least three dozen U.S. states, Hawaii Health Director Bruce Anderson said that Hawaii will “probably get a case sooner or later.”

In the meantime, it’s a bit of a relief that the Navy is providing a Pearl Harbor site to quarantine U.S. citizens returning from China’s Hubei province — the outbreak’s epicenter. Other cities are opting for quarantine in hotel rooms, which Anderson convincingly described as a “very bad idea” in that there seems to be greater risk of exposing the public, potentially.

Trying to restrict Hawaii AG

The nonprofit Kahea, a Thirty Meter Telescope opponent, has objected to an Attorney General’s Office subpoena of its records as intimidation after a financial filing deadline was missed. The AG counters that it has the duty to see that nonprofits comply with the law.

Now there’s Senate Bill 42 to bar investigations of persons “in which it’s clear that the person is exercising rights by nonviolent civil disobedience.”

What’s unclear is how any bill can be worded to avoid wrongly tying the AG’s hands.