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There’s always something interesting going on at Honolulu Hale.

Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

3:01 p.m. Fifty Years Of Friendship With The French

The city this week will celebrate 50 years of friendship with the city of Bruyères, France, liberated during World War II by the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, many of whom were Hawaii Nisei.

From a city press release:

Two men who were present during the hellish battle for Bruyères later initiated the sister-city relationship after a chance meeting. Wilbert S. “Sandy” Holck, a 442nd veteran from Honolulu, visited Bruyères with his wife Chisato, and their six young children in the late 1950s. Communication was very difficult until Gerard Deschaseaux, a Bruyèran who understood some English, was summoned to meet with the Americans. Holck and Deschaseaux hit it off immediately and they and their families would become lifelong friends.

Read the .

2:42 p.m. ACLU Scolds HPD

The American Civil Liberties Union today took a bit of a victory lap regarding the dismissal of charges against the couple who had been cited by the Honolulu Police Department for failing to obtain a permit before holding a topless protest on a Waikiki sidewalk.

“We are happy that the Meiers will not have to face another day in criminal court for their recent demonstration. However, this dismissal is just the first step to ensure that City and County of Honolulu government employees understand that individuals have the constitutional right to peacefully protest,” Matthew Winter, an attorney with Davis Levin Livingston who represented the couple, said in a press release.

The ACLU said it expects HPD to fulfill the oath to uphold the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment, and that it will ask city attorneys “to conduct thorough training about the law in advance of APEC to ensure that HPD does not violate the rights of protesters during that event.”

See previous Civil Beat coverage of the ACLU and APEC here:

• ‘Big Brother’? Honolulu Police Want to Double Surveillance for APEC
• Honolulu Police Load Up on Taser Ammo, Pepper Spray, Bean Bags for APEC
• Video Monitoring in Honolulu — “Safety” at What Price?
• Looking To Balance APEC Safety, First Amendment

9:25 a.m. FACE Rail Rally Today

The Faith Action for Community Equity organization just announced it’s holding a rally this morning at the Sun Yat Sen statue in Chinatown “to demand job creation through infrastructure investments.”

“FACE members will demonstrate the importance of Honolulu rail project and will urge the state and city to begin construction immediately. Members will also speak about the need to create jobs for Hawaii’s workers by investing in infrastructure,” a press release states.

The event starts at 11 a.m. Check out for more information about the organization.

8:12 a.m. Station to Station

The latest in our series of stories about who owns land around the proposed rail route is up today. This one explores the ownership near the first three stations — East Kapolei, University of Hawaii West Oahu Campus, and Hoopili.

There are some interesting takeaways: Aloun Farms is a major landowner, not just a lessee from D.R. Horton. The vast majority of the land — more than 97 percent within about a half-mile of the future Hoopili station, for example — is currently in agriculture. Transit-oriented development could change all that.

Read the full story here and look out for future installments in the series.

Public Hearing, No Public

Last night was the first of three public hearings for the Honolulu Council Reapportionment Commission, and nobody showed. Literally, zero public testimony in a meeting that lasted all of one minute.

Read our account here.

There’s a second public hearing tonight at Kapolei High School at 6:30 p.m.. Also tonight is the fourth of five rail “town hall” meetings — at Castle High School at 6 p.m.

Where’s Carlisle?

At 5:30 p.m., Mayor Peter Carlisle will be a guest at the 2011 Parade of Homes Award Gala at the Monarch Room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

October 3: Carlisle Responds, Others Attending; Carlisle Attending “Upscale” Condo Groundbreaking; Former DLNR Chair Thielen New City Ag Liaison; HART On Rail Costs; Archaeological Work Begins; Overcharging at Landfill; Carlisle Eats Local; HART Meetings Thursday; Where’s Carlisle?