Maui News

A Hawai‘i state court on Tuesday temporarily blocked part of the Midwifery Restriction Law, which prevents pregnant people in Hawai‘i from using traditional midwives for their pregnancies and births. The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and the law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of nine plaintiffs, including six midwives and student midwives, as well as three women who wish to access care from traditional midwives.

The Maui Planning Commission heard more than seven hours of often impassioned testimony Tuesday, then deliberated nearly three hours before recommending that the Maui County Council approve a bill to phase-out of thousands of short-term rentals in apartment districts, mostly in South and West Maui.

County of Maui officials announced today, July 24, 2024, that Crater Road is scheduled to reopen at noon; however, if conditions become unsafe, the road will again be closed.  Portions of Crater Road have been closed since July 10 due to the ongoing Crater Road fire in Upper Kula, which remains at 80% containment and 574 acres.

The project includes the installation of 52 weather stations on four islands. The weather stations, mounted on Hawaiian Electric utility poles, will provide meteorological data that will help the company to decide whether to activate and deactivate a public safety power shutoff, or PSPS. Under the PSPS program launched July 1, Hawaiian Electric may preemptively shut off power in areas that are at high risk of wildfires during periods of forecast high winds and dry conditions.

The sign-waving initiative aims to unite the community in raising awareness about human trafficking and exploitation.

The Coast Guard and good Samaritans rescued three men from the water approximately 2 miles south of the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu Monday.  Two passengers aboard the French-flagged Spirit of Pontapreta, a 42-foot sailing vessel, had reportedly been swept away while swimming near the vessel. The vessel’s operator jumped in to assist them but was also swept away. 

The Coast Guard and Hawaiʻi Life Flight medically transported an ailing 58-year-old man from the Maui Memorial Medical Center to the Straub Medical Center on Oʻahu, Monday. The man had suffered cardiac arrest while on Maui and was in need of transport with advanced critical care.

US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) is pressing OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — to respond to whistle-blower claims that the company “rushed” through safety tests and barred employees from warning the public about alleged risks of its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, GPT-4 Omni, which released on May 13.

“My dad, Guy Croydon, was a husband, father, and soon-to-be grandfather,” Alex Croydon wrote on GoFundMe.

Maui United Way has partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to bring free grant workshops to Maui. The series kicks off with a virtual “Grant Basics” workshop on Wednesday, July 24 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Workshops continue through Aug. 22, 2024.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who is serving as Acting Governor, joined the state’s Department of Human Services to announce that the preschool tuition subsidy program, Preschool Open Doors, is now accepting applications on a year-round basis. A

La‘ikū will provide 16 two-bedroom, one-bath units at 560 sq. ft. each. The homes are being built on approximately two acres of land that was previously acquired by the HDOT as part of the Lahaina Bypass project. Monthly rent for homes in La‘ikū will be $1,750, which tenants can pay via personal funds, rental assistance from FEMA, or insurance proceeds. The $3.9 million project is funded by HCF and the state of Hawai‘i and developed by CNHA, which has a five-year revocable permit to use the HDOT parcel at no cost. Completion is scheduled for September 2024.

A strong international field of world class male and female paddlers are set to challenge the 32-mile course that will cross the Kaiwi Channel from the island of Moloka’i to O’ahu.

The meeting will include information on shoring up and bracing of damaged structures, information on cesspool inspections, an update on interim housing from the State Department of Human Services, and a review of input received from neighborhood planning workshops conducted by the Office of Recoveryʻs community planning team. The US Army Corps of Engineers will report on the status of debris clearing.

At approximately 8:20 a.m., SRT personnel and an MPD Bomb Technician performed an X-ray of the device before rendering the device safe via a water disruption shot.  Upon further investigation, it was determined the contents were more likely an improvised pyrotechnic device rather than an IED.

For more than a decade, land managers, scientists, and pathologists have been fighting and looking for ways to protect trees from a fungal disease, called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death or ROD, that has killed over a million lehua ʻōhiʻa, considered the most ecologically and cultural significant native tree in Hawai‘i.

Maui County Council Chair Alice L. Lee announced that committee meetings will be held in alternate locations—including the Kalana Pākuʻi Conference Room—over the next several weeks to accommodate the 2024 election schedule.

For the Mathers, homeownership seemed unattainable. The constant threat of displacement from their beloved ‘āina loomed over them. Jen Mather, alongside her husband Richard and their children Kūmoanaākea, 15, and Keolaonākai’elua, 14, expressed profound gratitude: “Nā Hale O Maui has made it possible not only for myself and my keiki to continue living here in Maui Komohana but also for the seven generations to come after us. We commit, along with Nā Hale, to keep this house affordable in perpetuity.”

Earthquake and ground deformation rates in Kīlauea’s upper East Rift Zone decreased significantly following a “burst of intense activity” at approximately 3:30 a.m. HST on July 23, 2024. Accordingly, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has lowered the Volcano Alert Level for ground-based hazards from WATCH to ADVISORY and the Aviation Color Code from ORANGE to YELLOW.     

The Maui boys play a quarterfinal game today (Tuesday, July 23) at 5 p.m. (2 p.m. HST), against Arizona—the same team they defeated 13-3 on Sunday at the regional tournament in Nogales, Arizona.