Free Republic

Hawaii’s governor has signed a bill to make his state the first to raise the legal smoking age to 21. The measure aims to prevent adolescents from smoking, buying or possessing both traditional and electronic cigarettes. Gov. David Ige signed it into law Friday. Dozens of local governments have similar bans, including Hawaii County and New York City. “Raising the minimum age as part of our comprehensive tobacco control efforts will help reduce tobacco use among our youth and increase the likelihood that our keiki will grow up tobacco-free,” said Ige, using the Hawaiian word for children. In Hawaii, 86...

Now that we know that race is a state of mind, rather than a genetic inheritance, the question must be asked: is Barack Obama secretly a white man? Perhaps, like Rachel Dolezal, he tells people that he is black, but he is actually white. Again, black is an attitude, a state of mind. Sure, it helps if you braid your hair into long ropes and tie it on top of your head like Dolezal did, or have an afro during your pot- and cocaine-using days like Obama. But what really counts is what is going on inside your mind. And...

Wailuku, Maui (HawaiiNewsNow) - One man is dead after an officer-involved shooting in Wailuku Saturday afternoon. Police say a traffic stop was conducted by a patrol officer on an SUV along Lower Main St. and Hookahi St. at approximately 4:30 p.m. One witness who lives near the incident said he saw everything. "They got pulled over by two cops, and one of the guys walked away from his car…and then the cops started telling him to stop, and then he pulled out a gun and he shot at them," said Alfred Ayers. The investigation revealed that the passenger got out...

Republicans in Congress are worried the Supreme Court will hand them a major headache this month if it rules against the federal health insurance exchanges in more than 30 states, ending subsidies for millions of people. While the Affordable Care Act remains broadly unpopular, two new polls show a majority of Americans don’t want to do away with its subsidies, a core component of the law. This poses a conundrum for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner. They are under pressure from colleagues up for reelection in swing states and districts to extend the subsidies, at...

As the Supreme Court decision in the Burwell case nears, the collapsing beast known as Obamacare is already expiring: Hawaii is taking its troubled ObamaCare insurance exchange off life support, the governor’s office announced Friday, the latest addition to a growing number of state exchanges forced to close after operations became unsustainable. The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a statement.The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) informed the exchange last week that federal funds were no longer available to support long-term operations....

Cue up the Queen soundtrack… another one bites the dust. Hawaii is throwing in the towel and shutting down its state Obamacare exchange. $200M in federal taxpayer cash has essentially disappeared down a rat hole. Customers will instead be directed to the federal system. Hawaii is taking its troubled ObamaCare insurance exchange off life support, the governor’s office announced Friday, the latest addition to a growing number of state exchanges forced to close after operations became unsustainable.The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a...

HONOLULU – State Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito today issued the following statement regarding HMSA’s request filed with the Insurance Division to raise premiums for individual Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans for 2016: “This is the highest premium increase ever requested by HMSA. The requested increase for an average of 49.1 percent for the ACA individual plan will be closely scrutinized. “The Insurance Division will actively seek reductions to the proposed request, where possible, to ensure fairness to all parties involved. “If medical expenditures paid out for healthcare services under the ACA individual plan are too high, the division’s ability...

HONOLULU, Aug. 28 — Researchers said Wednesday they found a Japanese midget submarine sunk more than an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Discovery of the 78-foot vessel could provide the first physical evidence to back U.S. military assertions that it fired first against Japan in World War II and inflicted the first casualties.>p> THE SUB was sunk by a Navy destroyer on Dec. 7, 1941. Two Japanese crewmen are believed still inside the submarine. “It’s the shot that started World War II between the Americans and the Japanese,” said John Wiltshire, associate director of the Hawaii Undersea Research...

Hawaii Island police report that a 47-year-old fisherman died Friday in Kailua-Kona during a fishing accident. Responding to a 10:48 a.m. call, police learned that a swordfish had been observed in Honokohau Harbor and that fisherman Randy Llanes of Kailua-Kona had jumped into the water with a spear gun. The fish was then seen thrashing about, leaving a puncture wound to the man’s upper chest. Hawaii County Fire Department personnel responded to the scene and attempted CPR. They took Llanes to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m. Acting Sgt. David Matsushima of the Kona patrol...

The National Park Service says tours on the USS Arizona Memorial are suspended after a vessel struck and damaged the memorial's dock. Spokeswoman Abby Wines said Wednesday that boats are taking visitors to a spot near the memorial where they may view it from a distance, but visitors are not being taken on it. Wines says the ramp and handrails connecting the dock to the memorial are mangled. Park service and Navy divers are expected to assess the damage from underwater Wednesday. The incident occurred when the hospital ship USNS Mercy and a civilian tugboat contracted by the Navy were...

One Marine was killed and 21 others were hospitalized Sunday after an Osprey... had a "hard-landing mishap" at approximately 11:40 a.m. local time. Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the Osprey program was nearly scrapped after a history of mechanical failures and two test crashes that killed 23 Marines in 2000.

Despite fury from lawmakers the day before, Colorado’s health exchange board voted on Thursday to collect millions of additional dollars from all Colorado health insurance customers, even those who have nothing to do with the exchange. On top of that “broad market assessment,” the board also voted to more than double the user fees levied on people who buy insurance through Colorado’s exchange. .. The higher broad market fee is projected to allow Connect for Health Colorado to scoop up about about $20 million in 2016. It has been set at $1.25 per member per month on all health insurance...

HONOLULU – Federal taxpayers dumped more than $205 million into Hawaii's ObamaCare insurance exchange, but after a steady downward spiral the once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector is on life support. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has already restricted grant funds to the Hawaii Health Connector, after telling officials in March it was out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act because of fiscal instability and ongoing IT issues. With state lawmakers also blocking additional funds, the system is struggling to stay afloat. The governor's office said it is doing what it can to salvage the situation, including...

One of the toughest critics of President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who represents his home state of Hawaii. Gabbard has taken the administration to task for refusing to use the term “radical Islam” and called for the White House to be more aggressive.

Hawaii’s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down because it is not financially viable, Americans for Tax Reform reports. The exchange website will be shutdown despite $205 million in federal taxpayer funds. The migration to a federal exchange will cost taxpayers another $30 million. [Snip] According to ATR, with only 8,592 enrollees, the state spent $23,899 on each individual.

(CNSNews.com) -- President Barack Obama’s home state of Hawaii is shutting down its state-based health care exchange, the Hawaii Health Connector (HHC), due to incurring debts and the unwillingness of state legislators to put more taxpayer money into the struggling operation, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Saturday.Established in 2011, the non-profit organization is Hawaii’s state-based health exchange for the President’s Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. There are currently about 37,000 Hawaiians enrolled in health care plans through the exchange, far short of the roughly 70,000 needed to raise enough money to sustain it, the article reports.Officials with the exchange released a report to its...

Hawaii state insurance exchange to shut down Hawaii Health Connector never achieved financial sustainability May 11, 2015 | By Brian Eastwood The Hawaii Health Connector will shut down operations on Sept. 30, InsuranceNewsNet reported. The exchange site will cease new enrollment this week, discontinue its outreach programs at the end of May and transfer its technology assets to the state by Sept. 30, the article said. The exchange's 37,000 enrollees can re-enroll on the federal Healthcare.gov exchange for the 2016 plan year. Hawaii Health Connector has faced financial problems from its inception. A report issued earlier this year found that...

Twenty-seven senators want President Obama to block federal agencies and contractors from asking job applicants about prior criminal convictions. The senators, including 26 Democrats and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), want Obama to take executive action to "ban the box," referring to a question on job applications that asks if an applicant has any convictions. "We ask you to require federal contractors and agencies to refrain from asking job applicants about prior convictions until later in the hiring process," they said in a letter to Obama on Monday. "This policy would eliminate unnecessary barriers to employment for all job...

The Hawaii Legislature has passed a bill that could make it a lot easier for transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificates. Right now, people in Hawaii are required to undergo gender reassignment surgery if they want to make that change. But the state House and Senate approved a bill Tuesday that removes the surgical requirement, sending the bill to Gov. David Ige. …

Molten lava, rocks and gas went flying through the air on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano after an explosion was caused by the partial collapse of a crater wall. The collapse triggered a small explosion, spreading lava and debris around the rim of Kilauea's Halemaumau Crater, the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory says. Janet Babb, a geologist with the USGS, compared the blast on Sunday to taking a hammer to the top of a bottle of champagne.