Man, 76, arrested in Honolulu on suspicion of attempted murder
A 76-year-old man was arrested in Honolulu early today on suspicion of attempted murder after he allegedly assaulted a 41-year-old man, police said. Read more
Rob Perez
Rob Perez has retired as an investigative journalist at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He was a journalist for more than 40 years, the last 20 or so focused on enterprise or investigative stories. He had been writing about Hawaii issues since the late 1980s. He retired in 2023.
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Latest Stories by Rob Perez
Social worker proposal moves
House and Senate negotiators Wednesday agreed to a bill that would authorize the hiring of four extra social workers to help address a crisis in the child-welfare system on the east side of Hawaii island. Read more
Starvation case reveals gap in safety net for abused children
By simply submitting a one-page form, the family of a 9-year-old Hilo girl who starved to death in 2016 was able to remove the child from the public school system to educate her at home despite a long and troubled history with the state’s child welfare system. Read more
Hawaii cases of home-schooling and abuse
These four Hawaii cases are included in a national database compiled by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education that tracks severe abuse, including fatalities, of children who are home-schooled. Read more
#MeToo movement prompts man to share story of alleged abuse as Oahu teen
David Marich has lived with shame and anger for years. The shame, he said, dates to 1984 when he delivered newspapers in Mililani. Read more
Lawmakers accused of sexual harassment remain under wraps
Rep. Joe Souki’s resignation to resolve sex harassment complaints has focused renewed attention on the behavior of state legislators, especially in light of the #MeToo movement nationally. Read more
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Crime victim restitution up 70%
The state over the past several years has dramatically increased its collection of funds that inmates and parolees owe to their crime victims, forging a path that national experts say is a model for other states. Read more
Cartoonist Dick Adair remembered for dry sense of humor
Dick Adair, an editorial cartoonist who amused and sometimes outraged Hawaii newspaper readers for more than three decades, died at his Hawaii Kai home Monday from cancer. He was 82. Read more
State Senate panel advances $2.5M child welfare bill
A Senate committee Monday advanced a grass-roots bill that would appropriate about $2.5 million to establish a pilot program to add staff to the state’s beleaguered East Hawaii child welfare system and limit the number of children assigned to each social worker there. Read more
East Hawaii in the midst of a child welfare crisis
State social workers in Hilo oversee so many cases of abused and neglected children spread over a huge swath of Hawaii island that the situation has become a crisis, with workers unable to devote adequate time to cases even as the numbers continue to grow, according to social workers, foster parents, service providers and others familiar with the child welfare system there. Read more
Child welfare agency shows no improvement in latest federal review
The federal government recently evaluated the state’s Child Welfare Services system and found no improvement from the last time the system was evaluated in 2009. Read more
Former Queen’s nurse awarded nearly $4M
A jury on Wednesday unanimously awarded a former Queen’s Medical Center nurse nearly $4 million in damages in a whistleblower case in which the African-American woman found an image of a noose taped to her workplace locker and an unsigned racist note left in her hospital mailbox. Read more
Lawmakers move child pornography bills forward
A House committee Thursday advanced three bills designed to remove legal loopholes so that prosecutors will be able to more easily pursue cases against adults who show pornographic material to minors. Read more
Son of man arrested in child porn case allowed to finish semester at Punahou
Punahou Schools and a mother who sued the private institution over the expulsion of her first-grade son have settled the litigation, agreeing that her child would be able to finish the semester there, attorneys for both sides said Wednesday. Read more
Man’s troubles with law affect sons’ school enrollment
The case of a man accused of sexually molesting a girl and showing a pornographic video to another while they were at sleepovers at his home is sparking spirited debate about just how far Hawaii’s private schools can go to penalize a child for the alleged sins of a parent. Read more
Court violates rules in sealing records, media attorney says
The mother of a Punahou School first-grader has sued the private institution over its attempt to expel her son because of the disruption stemming from his father’s troubles with the law. Read more
Sex abuse settlement brings more accountability, plaintiffs say
The $80 million proposed settlement of a lawsuit involving 32 plaintiffs who were sexually abused by a Kamehameha Schools psychiatric consultant decades ago is being heralded for its transparency and the added accountability measures it will bring to help prevent future abuses. Read more
Kamehameha Schools agrees to pay $80M to 32 sex abuse victims
Kamehameha Schools has agreed to pay $80 million to more than 30 plaintiffs who were sexually abused decades ago by a psychiatric consultant who had been working for the school, and also will implement systemic changes to assist other victims and enhance protections against future abuses, lawyers for the plaintiffs confirmed Thursday. Read more
Kamehameha Schools agrees to pay $80M to sex abuse victims
Kamehameha Schools has agreed to pay $80 million to 32 plaintiffs who were sexually abused by a psychiatrist decades ago while they were students at the private school or were treated by him, according to terms of a tentative agreement reached between the two sides. Read more
City cites major flaws in construction of transportation center
A $54 million traffic management center under construction for the state and city is plagued by numerous deficiencies, including leakage problems and incorrect installation of the roof, access flooring, lobby glass walls and fire escape stairways, the city said Tuesday. Read more
Racial harassment alleged in workplace lawsuits at Hawaiian Airlines, Queen’s
Two nooses. Two African-American employees at two major Hawaii employers. Two discrimination lawsuits. Though the cases started several years apart, they share similar characteristics. Read more
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