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Three Years After The Fuel Spill, Community Members Continue To Demand Accountability

Today, November 20, 2024, marks the third anniversary of the catastrophic 2021 Red Hill fuel spill, which contaminated the drinking water for thousands of our families and exposed deep flaws in the Navy’s management of its fuel storage facilities. On this solemn occasion, the Community Representation Initiative (CRI) reflects on the ongoing harm caused by the spill and calls for decisive action in light of recent Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that confirm widespread mismanagement by the Navy and Department of Defense.

Honolulu City Council Passes Resolution To Protect Water From Navy Pollution

The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi is deeply grateful to the Honolulu City Council for Wednesday's passage of Resolution 24-216, FD1, urging the Navy to heed the calls of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Red Hill Community Representation Initiative for data needed to help keep our drinking water system safe from potentially catastrophic contamination. To be clear: the City Councilʻs no-nonsense call for more frequent and reliable data gathering and sharing by the U.S. Navy will be absolutely critical to tracking a contamination plume of approximately 200,000 to 2 million gallons of fuel, forever chemicals, and other hazardous substances that the Red Hill Facility has released since World War II.

Hawaiian Electric Reaches Tentative $4 Billion Maui Wildfire Settlement

In a lawsuit over the Maui wildfires of August 2023, Hawaiian Electric and other defendants have tentatively agreed to a settlement of more than $4 billion. The proposed deal, which has not yet received final approval, would settle the lawsuits of thousands of businesses and homeowners against the island’s utility, Hawaiian Electric, said people familiar with the agreement who were not authorized to speak about it publicly, Bloomberg reported. The devastating wildfires killed 102 people, damaged or demolished 2,207 structures — most of them residential — and caused approximately $5.5 billion in damages.

US War Games In Pacific Seek Global Participation In Imperialist Maneuvers

Every two years, the Indo-Pacific Command Center of the United States convenes the largest maritime war exercises on the planet. With over 35,000 troops participating, 29 nations, 46 naval surface ships, 4 nuclear submarines, and a multitude of air and ground forces, the Rim of the Pacific military exercises, or RIMPAC, is one of the most destructive training events globally. Through these exercises, the US consolidates its control of the Pacific. RIMPAC began as an annual training exercise in 1971 and became bi-annual in 1974. Since it began, some of the historically worst human rights abusers like the US, Australia, Canada, and Israel have participated in the exercise.

Anti-War Organizers On The Pacific Coast Protest US Military Exercises

Anti-war activists with the international Cancel RIMPAC Campaign and the Resist NATO Coalition are organizing to protest the RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Exercise), the largest international maritime warfare exercise, taking place in Hawai’i, which is hosted by the United States Navy‘s Indo-Pacific Command, set to begin on June 27. Organizers are also opposing the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington, DC, which will take place from July 9 to 11. These two groups held a joint press conference to quick off future actions on June 26. Cancel RIMPAC is holding a week of action culminating in a People’s Summit and mobilizations in San Diego on June 29 and 30.

Hawaii To Decarbonize Transportation In Youth Climate Change Settlement

On Thursday, Hawaii agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by 13 young people alleging the state had violated their constitutional rights with infrastructure that adds to greenhouse (GHG) emissions, exacerbating climate change. In the settlement, the state agreed to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045. At a news conference, Governor of Hawaii Josh Green, a Democrat, called the settlement “groundbreaking,” reported Reuters. “We’re addressing the impacts of climate change today, and needless to say, this is a priority because we know now that climate change is here,” Green said, as Reuters reported. “It is not something that we’re considering in an abstract way in the future.”

Justice Department Admits Navy Jet Fuel Leak Caused Thousands To Suffer

The U.S. government, in what an attorney says is a "monumental admission," said last year that it caused injury to thousands of people on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when jet fuel from its storage facility leaked into the drinking water system. On Monday, thousands of military family members and locals are headed to trial seeking financial compensation. Kristina Baehr, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said her firm has 7,500 clients suing over the leak. Monday's proceedings kick off a bellwether trial, meaning it's a smaller consolidation of lawsuits taken from a larger group.

Dozens Of Organizations Urge Legislators To Pass Red Hill Remediation, Water Bill

Honolulu, HI - A bill seeking to facilitate the cleanup of contamination from the Red Hill Fuel Facility, and further insulate the Hawaiʻi Commission on Water Resource Management from political favoritism and undue influence, has received another wave of widespread community support, as 46 community organizations urged Hawaiʻi legislators to ensure its passage before the end of the 2024 legislative session. Representing medical, public health, labor, religious, agricultural, cultural, and environmental stakeholders, among others, the organizations submitted a joint letter to conference committee members on HB2690 HD2 SD1, emphasizing the importance of the bill.

Navy Whistleblower Pursued Fraud Case Against Red Hill Contractors

Newly unsealed court documents show that federal authorities spent the past two years investigating but ultimately declined to pursue a Navy whistleblower’s claim that private contractors helped cause the dire fuel leaks at the military’s Red Hill fuel storage facility by fraudulently cutting corners on their work there.

No Aloha In Governor Of Hawaii’s ‘Strategic Partnership’ With Israel

On February 29, 2024, fifteen organizations in Hawaii at a press conference at the Hawaii State Capitol called for Hawaii governor Josh Green to terminate any relationship the State of Hawaii has with Israel citing the Israeli genocide being conducted in Gaza. On the day of the press conference, Israeli military killed 107 and wounded over 700 starving Palestinians that were attempting to get food for their families from food relief trucks. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and 70,000 wounded in the 145 day Israeli attack and siege of Gaza.

Hawaii School Employees To Get Up To 25% In Pandemic Hazard Pay

An arbitration decision has determined public school employees in five bargaining units of the state’s largest union are entitled to back pay of up to 25% of their total salaries for as much as two years, according to the state’s largest union. The Hawaii Government Employees Association said the decision covers up to 7,800 Department of Education employees, including school nurses, office employees, and classroom educational assistants. “Those working in the DOE were some of the most exposed among public service employees, putting their own health – as well as that of their loved ones – at substantial risk to keep services running in Hawaii’s schools,” HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira said Tuesday in a written statement.

China, Iran and And North Korea Have Warned The US On Their Red Lines

On Tuesday, January 3, 204, a small group waved signs on Honolulu’s busy Beretania Street in front of the Hawaii State Capitol to commemorate the sixth year since the citizens of Hawaii were informed by text messages that there was an incoming nuclear missile. The phone alert said, “This is not a practice.”  People in Hawaii dived into man-holes on the street, headed into their homes or into other places like caves.  20 minutes later, the State of Hawaii Emergency Management System issued an apology for a systems operator pushing the wrong button.   But the drill made real to the people of Hawaii how close our world is to a nuclear attack. 

While Lahaina Is Destroyed, Honolulu To Construct $60 Million Bridge

While the island of Maui faces the rebuilding of over 2200 structures in Lahaina and 18 structures in upcountry Kula, on the neighboring island of Oahu, the City and County of Honolulu is going ahead to spend $25 million in federal funds for an unnecessary and controversial pedestrian bridge across the Ala Wai canal.  The canal seperates the hotels and condos of Waikiki from the residential area across the canal. In the spirit of Aloha, I suggest that our Honolulu elected officials give the $25 million in Federal funds allocated for the non-essential Ala Wai bridge to Maui for the reconstruction of Lahaina.

Environmental Racism Links Lahaina And Katrina

August 29 will mark the 18th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history, which devastated much of the Gulf Coast (specifically Louisiana and Mississippi) and disproportionately struck New Orleans. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states that this Category 4 hurricane caused at least $108 billion in structural damage, leading to more than one million people being displaced, many permanently, especially the poor and people of color. According to livescience.com, an estimated 1,833 people died in the hurricane and the flooding that followed. (Aug. 27, 2015) That flooding, mainly caused by broken levees, overwhelmed the Ninth Ward, a predominant working-class Black neighborhood in New Orleans.

Maui’s Deadly Wildfires Burn Through Lahaina

Wildfires, pushed by powerful winds, raced through Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 8 and 9, 2023, leaving a charred and smoldering landscape across the tourist town of about 13,000 residents that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. At least 36 people died, Maui County officials said. Others were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after going into the ocean to escape the flames. Fires were still burning on Aug. 10, both in Maui’s tourist-filled west coast and farther inland, as well as on the Big Island of Hawaii. Dry grasses and strong winds, influenced by Hurricane Dora passing far to the south, heightened the fire risk.

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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