A new Hawai‘i County Council was seated and got to work in December 2024 with a few new faces at the table, including one who represents Kohala.

Opening day of the 2025 session of the Hawai‘i Legislature is next week on Jan. 15.

Waimea Community Association invites residents of the Kohala and Hāmākua communities to come learn about the priorities of their elected local and state government officials directly from them during its next town meeting.

The meeting is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Jerry Nelson Conference Room of the W.M. Keck Observatory headquarters, located at 65-1120 Māmalahoa Highway, in Waimea.

State Sen. Tim Richards, who represents Senate District 4 (North Hilo, Hāmākua, Kohala, Waimea, Waikoloa, North Kona), and state Rep. David Tarnas, who represents House District 8 (Hāwī, Hala‘ula, Waimea, Makahalau, Waiki‘i, Waikōloa, Kawaihae, Māhukona), will speak about policy issues and priorities, their committee assignments and how the community can participate in the state legislative process.

Two members of the Hawai’i County Council are presenting as well — Hāmākua Councilwoman Heather Kimball and newly elected Kohala Councilman James Hustace.

Hustace will speak in person. Kimball, chairwoman of the Hawai‘i State Association of Counties, will attend via Zoom from Washington, D.C., where she is participating in briefings with presidential and congressional leadership.

There will be time for questions and answers.

Community members are urged to submit questions prior to the meeting by email at waimeacommunityassociation@gmail.com.

Questions can also be shared in person or on chat by those watching the livestream on Waimea Community Association’s Facebook page and will be be addressed as time permits.

The spotlighted nonprofit organization for January will be Hawai‘i County 4-H Equine Council represented by Kohala educator and horsewoman Fern White.

Also participating in the meeting will be South Kohala police Capt. Roy Valera and Community Policing Officer Justin Cabanting with an update about public safety news and events.

Community members can attend in person or watch the meeting livestream on the Waimea Community Association Facebook page or YouTube channel.

A recording of the meeting also will be available on Facebook and YouTube for later viewing.

2025 Waimea Community Association leadership

Waimea Community Association recently elected new leadership for 2025.

Former vice president Mary Beth Laychak was elected president and former president Nancy Carr Smith was selected as vice president.

Mary Beth Laychak was recently elected president of Waimea Community Association. (Photo Courtesy: Waimea Community Association)

Other officers for the new year include newly elected secretary Makela Bruno and re-elected treasurer Victor Tom.

Board members are Patti Cook, David Greenwell, Lani Olsen-Chong, Riley Smith, Ryan Ushijima and Chris Wong.

Email Waimea Community Association President Mary Beth Laychak at waimeacommunityassociation@gmail.com or click here for additional information about the upcoming town meeting or the association.

A report submitted to the Hawaiʻi Legislature Friday concludes that illegal fireworks are being smuggled into the state by sea and air on a year-round and possibly daily basis.

It’s sustained by a flourishing and well-established black market that local law enforcement has found difficult to disrupt and dismantle.

The report from the state’s Illegal Fireworks Task Force urges the Legislature to consider creating a full-time criminal investigation unit within the Department of Law Enforcement to confront the problem on a permanent basis.

“Only a full-time approach can bring the necessary cultural changes to confront the fireworks problem at-large in Hawaii,” the report states.

The Salt Lake area viewed after midnight from a Honolulu Airport parking structure showed only a small portion of the many aerial fireworks ignited this New Year’s Eve. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2025)

While specific funding, staffing and equipment for the unit are not suggested in the report, it also recommends a new firearms and explosives laboratory — estimated to cost $2 million — within the law enforcement agency. Hawaiʻi has only one forensic lab, housed in the Honolulu Police Department.

Sen. Karl Rhoads, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, welcomed the recommendation for a new criminal unit.

“I think it’s the only really viable idea because, as they point out, there’s a lot of similarities between narcotics and fireworks,” Rhoads said. “And they’ve been using the narcotics investigators to investigate fireworks cases. That’s great in the short term, but it’s not going to work in the long term.”

An ‘Alluring Attraction’ To Make Money Illegally

The task force’s work was ordered by lawmakers in 2023, long before the massive fireworks explosion on New Year’s Eve in a Salt Lake neighborhood on Oʻahu. As of Monday, four people have been reported dead and around two dozen injured from that explosion, while another person was killed in a separate fireworks-related incident on Oʻahu.

Now, leaders including Hawaiʻi’s governor, Honolulu’s mayor and several state senators and representatives are stepping up their demands for action.

In addition to the Department of Law Enforcement, agencies taking part in the task force include the Honolulu Police Department, the Department of the Attorney General, the Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Customs and Border Control.

Their recommendations are likely to be considered by the Legislature, which convenes Jan. 15.

The Illegal Fireworks Task Force, which will conclude its work in June unless the Legislature extends its mission, was required to submit a final report this month. It previously reported that 227,000 pounds of illegal fireworks have been seized.

The Friday report says that two people have pleaded no contest to felony indictments and 20 others were issued misdemeanor citations. The report says there are ongoing criminal investigations, so public discussion of tactics, techniques and procedures “would frustrate legitimate government interests.”

The report, though only eight pages long, offers several insights into why the illegal enterprise is so popular. It calls the marketplace “an alluring attraction” for those looking to make money illegally.

Street sources, according to the report, say that the return on investment for those who smuggle illegal fireworks into Hawaii is at a rate of 5 to 1. That means that if a typical smuggling organization purchases a shipping container of fireworks for $200,000 at wholesale, that same container has a street value of about $1 million once it arrives in the islands.

‘Kingpins, Conspirators’ Run Illicit Networks

During the 2023 holiday season the task force found that street prices for illegal fireworks were already “astronomically high.” The Department of Law Enforcement said prices had been expected to be higher during the 2024 holiday season because there was “heat” from law enforcement and risk of loss of investment due to bulk seizures.

In short, the task force aims “to price offenders out of the marketplace,” leading to reduced demand.

But it will take long-term, comprehensive investigations to not only seize prohibited explosive material but also to find and prosecute the people running the illicit networks — “kingpins, conspirators, and their associated criminal finances and assets.”

To do that, a new crime unit is necessary because the task force is only part time. While claiming success from its work, the task force concept in the long term “is not sustainable” the report states.

It does not call for increased penalties for possession of contraband. Nor does it accomplish two of its primary purposes: to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to stop illegal fireworks, and to ensure the safety and security of airports, harbors and other facilities from explosive discharges.

The first goal requires more work, the report states, which will begin “in earnest” this year. And, while the task force says it has increased awareness and surveillance at Hawaii’s ports of entry and mail distribution systems, “a sustained full-time effort” is needed.

A number of new laws took effect starting Jan. 1.

At least four of those laws are related to medicine — with two intended to facilitate the licensing of physicians and nurses, which are in short supply in Hawaii.

Act 112, from a bill introduced in 2023 by state Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, a Puna Democrat, makes Hawaii a part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. That affiliation will make it easier for licensed physicians coming to Hawaii from other states.

The IMLC currently includes 40 states, including Hawaii, plus the District of Columbia and Guam, and three additional states have introduced legislation to join.

“The interstate compact is one of the bills that (Hawaii Medical Service Association), Kaiser, and the military were all hoping would pass, because it will help them recruit more medical providers to Hawaii,” San Buenaventura told the Tribune-Herald while the Legislature was in session last year. “We also know there are doctors here in Hawaii that are retirees who would be more than willing to work part time, but don’t want to go through the effort of having to get re-licensed and re-credentialed.”

The state estimates Hawaii has a shortage of 768 physicians statewide, a 21% deficit. Hawaii Island’s physician shortfall is estimated at 40%.

Act 95, another new law, allows out-of-state licensed registered nurses and practical nurses who hold a multi-state license issued by another state, territory or country to apply for a temporary work permit simultaneously with an application for a license to practice in Hawaii.

The act was one of 22 health care measures signed into law by Gov. Josh Green, a physician, on June 27 last year.

Using federal Health Resources and Service Administration methodology, Hawaii this year is estimated to face a deficit of around 3,311 registered nurses alone, representing a 28% shortfall in the nursing workforce statewide. Big Island hospitals, including Hilo Benioff Medical Center, have turned to travel nurses to close the gap.

Act 91 authorizes minors who are at least 14 years old to consent to medical care and services for sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and family planning services, including the prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It requires confidentiality policies and practices for insurers and health care providers.

The law, part of governor’s legislative package introduced by Sen. President Ron Kouchi, closes what’s been described as a critical gap in minor access to medical services related to STIs, including HIV. For decades, Hawaii law has permitted minors aged 14 to 17 to independently consent to medical care for the treatment of STIs but not for prevention.

Act 91 will permit minors 14 to 17 who are at risk for exposure to STIs to consent to medical care for the prevention of STIs. There is now medication that can be taken by an individual at risk for HIV in order to prevent infection.

On Facebook, the state Department of Health said it “encourages minors to involve a parent or guardian in seeking medical care to prevent STIs.”

“However, often minors who could benefit from this medical care do not involve parents or guardians out of fear of disclosing their sexual behavior or sexual orientation,” the post continues. “Act 91 will allow more teens to access medical care to help keep them safe.”

And Act 104 allows licensed pharmacists to administer vaccines to persons 3 years of age or older without a prescription from a doctor, if certain requirements are met.

Also taking effect on New Year’s Day are laws that: establishes kalo, the Hawaiian word for taro, as the state plant; expands the definition of “beer” to include alcoholic seltzers; requires lobbyists’ expenditures statements to include the identity of the legislative or administrative action that was commented on, supported by, or opposed by the person filing the statement; requires state legislators to include the names of lobbyists with whom the legislator has a relationship; requires public meeting notices to inform testifiers how to provide remote oral testimony allowing the testifier, upon request, to be visible to board members and other meeting participants; establishes judicial procedures to prevent and remedy abusive litigation; requires motion picture and other media productions to provide evidence of reasonable efforts to comply with all applicable requirements to qualify for the income tax credit; and expands the transient accommodations tax law to include certain shelters and vehicles with sleeping accommodations.