by Let Hawaii Work | Jun 17, 2020 | Let Hawaii Work
How has Hawaii’s statewide coronavirus lockdown affected me? Well, I am retired and live on the Big Island. I have an aneurysm and am way overdue for tests on my damaged carotid artery. There is no vascular specialist on the Big Island. I need to go to Honolulu for...
by Let Hawaii Work | Jun 17, 2020 | Let Hawaii Work
I am president of the Ocean Tourism Coalition, which represents over 300 charter boat companies in Hawaii. Because of the shutdown, many of us laid off most — if not all — of our workers. In the industry, easily two to three thousand people have been laid off. If we...
by Let Hawaii Work | Jun 17, 2020 | Let Hawaii Work
OttoCake these past 30 years has been my passion and my sole source of survival. I’m desperately trying to stay in business during the shutdown, and I’ve stayed open seven days a week. Nobody from the state Health Department has ever told us we had to change anything....
by Let Hawaii Work | Jun 17, 2020 | Let Hawaii Work
I have a small barbershop in Kailua, The Regulation. For over 28 years, I served Marine Corps Base Hawaii marines, with 12 part-time employees. But now, my business is shutdown, since March 23, 2020. Zero income. Burning through savings. No unemployment benefits from...
by Let Hawaii Work | Jun 17, 2020 | Let Hawaii Work
I’ve been with Maui Divers Jewelry since 1962. We’ve gone through occasional hard times, but we’ve never had anything like this, where everything is out of our hands. Hawaii made the decision to shut down on March 19th, and the next day, all 30 of our retail stores...
by Let Hawaii Work | Jun 17, 2020 | Let Hawaii Work
Since its beginning in 1985, Hawaiian Brian’s has always been a gathering place and entertainment venue. My father and I own and operate it together. On May 21, Honolulu’s mayor released the initial restaurant reopening guidelines. The order allowed restaurants to...
by Melissa Newsham | Jun 17, 2020 | Multimedia
The Waimea-based attorney says it was a mistake to let government control the response to COVID-19 Robert “Bill” Hastings II, a Grassroot Institute of Hawaii board member for the past six years, describes himself as a “small-town boy.” Born and raised in...
by Joe Kent | Jun 17, 2020 | Economy
Some of our ideas might be considered unrealistic in normal times, but these are not normal times Those of you who have been supporting us at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii know we have been warning for six years that the state was spending too much during the good...
by Grassroot Institute of Hawaii | Jun 17, 2020 | Jones Act
June 5, 2020, was the 100th birthday of the protectionist federal maritime law known as the Jones Act, which restricts cargo shipping competition between U.S. ports and adds to Hawaii’s high cost of living. A week earlier, one of the nation’s top experts...
by Melissa Newsham | Jun 17, 2020 | Economy
After over two months of compulsory lockdowns, Hawaii’s state and county governments in May finally started reopening the economy. At the time, Hawaii had among the lowest number of total coronavirus infections and fatalities nationwide, and it still does. The state’s...
