The Legislature passed a bill in 2021 requiring that Leahi Hospital and Maluhia nursing home be transferred from the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. to DOH by the end of 2022, a deadline that was later extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more
Armed with a long-awaited task force report, state lawmakers are expected to take up measures this year that would add protections and expand access to medical cannabis, including a bill that would require health care providers to allow terminally ill patients to smoke or ingest the drug at their facilities and a bill that would give registered medical cannabis users job protections. Read more
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency will be holding two public meetings on its proposed settlement agreement with the military Read more
In recent years, the transfer of three Maui County hospitals to Kaiser Permanente raised expectations that more state-run facilities could be privatized. Read more
The military says it’s pushed the deadline to the end of this week for an officer to complete his investigation into what caused an estimated 1,300 gallons of toxic fire suppressant to spill from a pipe at Red Hill on Nov. 29, though won’t say when that report might be released to the public. Read more
More than two years after beginning work on a rapid COVID-19 test, Hawaii’s Oceanit Laboratories has been granted approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its home nasal swab test and hopes to have it in local stores within the next couple of months, according to the company’s founder and CEO, Patrick Sullivan. Read more
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Military families had been told by the Defense Health Agency Region Indo-Pacific that they could begin booking appointments Tuesday by calling the TRICARE Nurse Advice Line and that appointments would be scheduled starting Jan. 3. Read more
Out-of-state aircraft and crew have been standing in after a local air transport plane crashed off Maui. Read more
Hawaii Sierra Club Director Wayne Tanaka said he was confused as to why it would take the Navy so long to fix its video cameras. Read more
A cheaper and safer alternative would be to leave the tanks in the ground and not try to fill them in, according to the report. Read more
The letter is signed by Hirono, and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Chris Coons (D-DE). Read more
The funding is expected to cover major repairs to the facility’s pipelines and other infrastructure that will facilitate the safe draining of approximately 104 million gallons of fuel from aging underground tanks. Read more
On Nov. 29, about 1,300 gallons of concentrated aqueous film-forming foam, which is used to contain fuel fires, leaked from a pipeline at Red Hill. Read more
The number of Hawaii residents on Medicaid has jumped 40% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of the state’s children and about one-third of the total population are now covered by the government health insurance program for people with low income. Read more
The neighbors proposed a side deal: If the owners were willing to assist with an ambitious project to restore the beach in front of their homes, they would support the seawall exemption. Read more
Patients can begin scheduling appointments on Dec. 27. Read more
Water board members said they were disappointed that EPA and Health Department officials hadn’t allowed for more time to answer questions or listen to testimony from the community. Read more
The board overseeing the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, which administers health benefits, voted unanimously Tuesday to allow Kaiser members to change their plans through June 30 or the end of the strike, whichever comes first. Read more
The state agency that provides health insurance benefits to government workers in Hawaii is considering offering employees a special open enrollment period to allow them to switch their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente to the Hawaii Medical Service Association due to the protracted strike by Kaiser’s mental health clinicians. Read more
The Navy says it will turn over footage to environmental regulators, but releasing it publicly could compromise its investigation into the release of a toxic fire suppressant. Read more
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser had asked a top Navy official during a Wednesday news conference, two days after the spill, whether there was video footage and was told there was none. Read more
