Righteous refund: The Sunshine Blog has been following the public plight of one local mom, Lucita Ani-Nihoa, whose daughter was gunned down in broad daylight at the Pearlridge Center just days before Christmas in 2023.

Like Ani-Nihoa, The Blog has been interested in the fact that Jason Cachuela used a so-called ghost gun to shoot and kill his wife, Theresa, and then himself. Doesn’t Hawaiʻi have super strong gun laws? Ani-Nihoa even paid the Honolulu Police Department more than $600 for the police reports on her daughter’s murder in order to get some answers more than a year after the killing.

But wait. That was after the Legislature passed and Gov. Josh Green signed a bill specifying that immediate family members are not supposed to be charged for police reports when someone dies. Senate Bill 112 allows family to get the reports pretty much without hassle, recognizing that they’ve been traumatized enough without having to fight with bureaucrats over a police report.

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And yet, as Civil Beat’s Madeleine Valera reported last week, not only was Ani-Nihoa charged hundreds of dollars but an HPD spokeswoman insisted that police still get to charge for the time it takes them to review, process and redact information.

“In this case, the fee reflected the administrative time needed to prepare the report for release while ensuring that confidential information was protected,” HPD said in a statement.

Exactly what the Legislature said they can’t do anymore.

But now the good news. After Valera’s story published and some public records experts reached out to HPD, the department has decided to give Ani-Nihoa her money back.

Ani-Nihoa shared the pertinent part of an email she received from HPD with Valera, which said:

“I would like to apologize for our invoice error regarding your request. I have learned that we should have only charged you for the supply and mailing costs for the reports that we provided you. The total cost should have been $14.71 instead of $651.25.”

So Ani-Nihoa will be getting a check for $636.54, thanks to that, uh, “invoice error.”

“I am overwhelmed and at peace with this information,” Ani-Nihoa says.

Political about face: And in another publicly significant change of heart, the Maui Board of Ethics says it is backing away from a new rule it issued just days ago that would have effectively blocked anyone who filed an ethics complaint against a county employee or elected official from talking about it. If they blabbed, they’d risk the wrath of the board or perhaps the board’s recently installed new staff attorney/executive director who might just decide not to pursue the case.

The news of that rule was met with overwhelming cries of foul by the public who called it a gag order. To be clear, the rule isn’t really a gag order but it certainly does feel like a threat.

It’s one thing to preclude ethics board members or staff from releasing information about a pending case — the Hawaiʻi State Ethics Commission does it that way — but it’s quite another to tell a citizen they can’t tell their side of the story or their case will disappear. Even people appearing before a grand jury can talk about it; it’s just the lawyers and the grand jurors who can’t.

For those with short memories, including The Blog and apparently the Maui Board of Ethics, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court already addressed this issue in 2019 when the state Commission on Judicial Conduct tried to tell people who filed a misconduct complaint against a member of the bar that they couldn’t talk about it.

“Complainants should not be forced to choose between their First Amendment rights and filing a complaint,” attorneys for the ACLU and the (then) Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest wrote in a letter to (then) Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald.

Suffice it to say, those rules were then changed.

In its own back pedal announced Friday, the Maui ethics board said it had decided not to enforce the new rule “given public testimony.” And it might even retract the rule altogether.

This according to a statement from the board’s new executive director and legal counsel, Lauren Akitake, who The Blog would like to note is also a member of the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents, not the most forthcoming group of folks either.

Well isn’t that special: Hawaiʻi Democrats are urging state officials to hold a special session next month to protect families from immigration raids and to ensure access to reproductive and transgender health care. The State Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, which includes nearly 100 party leaders from across the state, voted Oct. 11 in favor of the resolution.

“This resolution represents the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi’s commitment to openness, fairness, and compassion,” according to a press release. “Every person from immigrant families to those seeking essential medical care should feel safe, and supported by our communities.”

The reso comes as the shutdown of the federal government is in its fourth week with little end in sight. It notes that states such as Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico have already mobilized to address concerns to keep clinics open and help with federal Medicaid reimbursements.

The party’s central committee also wants Hawaiʻi to implement what it calls “No Secret Police” protections — safeguards designed to ensure that law enforcement officers and agencies operate with transparency, accountability and respect for the public’s trust.

“These protections affirm that no one in Hawaiʻi should live in fear of unaccountable policing or intimidation by government actors, including ICE.”

Copies of the resolution (the full text can be viewed here) were sent to the four members of Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation, the governor, state House and Senate leaders, and the mayors, councils and police chiefs of all four counties. No word yet on whether the governor or the Legislature will actually call for a special session.

Minority priority: The Hawaiʻi House of Representatives has nine Republicans out of a 51-member chamber, the largest minority caucus in years. And it wants to hold on to those seats.

To that end, eight of the nine (Rep. Kanani Souza is not part of the gang; it’s a long story) raised campaign cash together Wednesday evening at the Hawaii Okinawa Center in Waipahu, some asking for contributions of as little as $25. On hand were Reps. Lauren Matsumoto, Diamond Garcia, Garner Shimizu, Julie Reyes Oda, Joe Gedeon, David Alcos, Elijah Pierick and Chris Muraoka.

Meanwhile, Kurt Fevella, one of three Republicans in the 25-member Senate, held a fundraiser in mid-September at the ʻEwa Pointe Chinese Restaurant. He’s the only GOP member up for reelection next year.

Taking DD for a spin: Nearly 100 people turned out at Civil Beat’s Kaimukī headquarters Friday to kick the tires of our latest enhancement, the Digital Democracy database. CB’s Chad Blair and Matthew Leonard gave attendees the first test drive of the new platform, developed in conjunction with CalMatters which has been using it for a couple years.

The custom-built AI tool tracks every word spoken in public hearings at the Hawaiʻi Legislature, every dollar donated to politicians, every bill introduced and every vote cast. And while it’s already loaded with information about the 2025 session, it’ll really kick into gear during the 2026 legislative session.

In some cases, as Blair showed folks, the database can do in seconds what might have taken hours in the past. He cited the example of trying to find out how often legislators ask leadership for a determination of whether they have a conflict of interest on a particular issue, and how leadership responds.

Explore detailed legislator profiles, voting records and what happens in hearings on Digital Democracy.

Visit Digital Democracy

There’ll be no cutback in traditional reporting, he assured people. Instead, “this is a complement.”

It’s also complimentary, because while Digital Democracy is a boon to journalists, it can be used by everyone. This prompted questions from the audience.

How often will the database be updated during session? Daily.

Will this help us catch legislators if they propose something unconstitutional or improper. It might.

What about the typical glut of housing bills? The database will help with sorting through them and call “quick attention” to how they’re moving through the legislative process, Blair said.

Can we track bills ourselves? Yes, and at the end of the event some folks tried out the database on two work stations set up for that purpose. But you don’t have to come to our office, just click on civilbeat.digitaldemocracy.org and fire it up.

The Blog foresees exciting times ahead, digitally speaking.