State lawmakers are considering boosting Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers in an effort to improve access to care for low-income residents who often struggle to find doctors willing to take their insurance. Read more
The Navy, which disclosed the spill this week to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said that at the time of the release, it was not required to report the incident to regulatory agencies or internally within the U.S. Department of Defense. Read more
The Navy said the release did not impact a drinking water source. Read more
The EPA has grown so concerned about PFAS that this week it proposed the first federal limits on the chemicals in drinking water, limiting them to the lowest possible level that tests can detect. Read more
While the contract with the two firms will focus on collecting ideas from local residents, the Navy is in the process of awarding a separate contract to a private-sector partner to determine a range of possible Department of Defense uses for the fuel storage facility. Read more
The project has attracted pushback from community members concerned about the environmental impacts of mining large amounts of sand from offshore to counter the erosion erasing the beach and threatening high-end resorts. Read more
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State coastal officials say owner Matthew Tang was given multiple warnings over the past year and a half, which he largely dismissed as he continued to harden the shoreline to protect his home. Read more
The stretch of powdery, white beach that looks out on sparkling blue waters on the west side of the island has suffered extensive damage in recent years, with erosion pinching the beach where hotels were built too close to the shoreline. Read more
The Pentagon announced last year that it was permanently closing Red Hill after a fuel leak from the facility contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system serving areas in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, sickening military families. Read more
More than 80,000 low- income households in Hawaii are poised to see a reduction in their food stamp benefits as a pandemic-era program aimed at preventing Americans from going hungry comes to an end. Read more
Coastal property owners would be required to locate large homes and buildings farther back from the shoreline to protect public beaches and sensitive coastal ecosystems under a bill that unanimously passed the Honolulu City Council in February and is awaiting a decision by Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi. Read more
The company awarded a half-million-dollar, no-bid “public outreach” contract to solicit ideas from the community about possible alternative uses of the Navy’s Red Hill facility once it’s closed for fueling operations is being tight-lipped about how it plans to conduct community outreach. Read more
If enacted, residential property owners would be required to disclose all permitted and unpermitted “erosion control structures,” which can include sandbags, seawalls, boulders and other hardening structures meant to safeguard private property from the ocean. Read more
Blake Oshiro, a senior adviser to Green, said the governor remained supportive of allowing adults to use cannabis but he wants to make sure that any legislation protects public safety and consumers. Read more
If ratified by union members, it will end a nearly six-month strike that the union says is the longest work stoppage by mental health care workers in U.S. history. Read more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will grant the Navy’s request for more time to turn over information about spills of toxic fire suppression chemicals at its Red Hill underground fuel facility, but only if military officials agree to speed up release of some of the requested material. Read more
The percentage of Hawaii children not vaccinated for illnesses such as mumps and measles, or not receiving the full roster of shots required for school, has jumped since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data released by the state Department of Health, augmenting concerns that there will be new outbreaks of long-controlled diseases. Read more
The Navy has blown a Monday deadline to provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with details about its cleanup of a Nov. 29 spill of toxic fire suppression chemicals at Red Hill and any past spills of the aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF, at the underground fuel facility, telling federal regulators that it would need another five weeks to provide that information. Read more
Nearly two dozen oceanfront properties along Sunset Beach on Oahu’s famed North Shore would be condemned under a bill proposed this year by state Sen. Chris Lee that seeks to save the beach from being lost to erosion. Read more
The products are derived from hemp rather than marijuana and produced by manufacturers who have taken advantage of a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, federal legislation that authorized the production of hemp. Read more
Top officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Navy weathered a barrage of criticism from residents who crowded a town hall meeting Wednesday evening to discuss a proposed regulatory agreement relating to the defueling of the military’s Red Hill fuel facility. Read more
