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Uncivil disobedience: GOP Sen. Kurt Fevella drew a big laugh from the crowd sitting in on a Senate hearing last week on theft and poaching on agricultural lands. Fevella wants farmers and ranchers to be able to dole out their own justice and not go to jail for it which, in The Blog’s opinion, is no laughing matter.

The Feb.17 shooting of the 39-year-old Makaha rancher Cranston Pia prompted an informational briefing on Thursday before the Senate Energy, Economic Development and Tourism and the Senate Agriculture and Energy committees. Pia was killed as he tried to stop a hunting dog that was attacking one of his calves. Pia was allegedly shot and killed by the dog’s owner, a 17-year-old hunter who police say was trespassing on Pia’s property.

Farmers and others who testified argued that poaching, theft and trespassing are a persistent but underreported issue, while state law enforcement lamented that it is hard to enforce those crimes and the agency is short-staffed.

Fevella wants farmers and ranchers to be more like his rancher grandfather, someone he said no poacher or thief would dare to mess with.

“They would get lickin’s – busted up – and the police would come and take them to jail,” Fevella said. “Now we’re playing ‘Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker’s man.’ Why do you think the crime’s gotten out of hand? We’ve got to stop babying the criminals and take care of the law-abiding citizens.”

Fevella said he understood law enforcement had its limitations, so asked the Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement to “figure out a way so we can break legs.”

“OK. Strike that comment,” replied Sen. Lynn DeCoite.

No sunshine on Friday: Transparency and accountability took a hit on Friday, the Legislature’s self-imposed deadline for bills to clear all committees in their originating chamber.

Two bills proposed — again — by the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission failed to even get a hearing this year in the Senate and House Judiciary committees.

One proposal would have to elected officials during legislative sessions. They’re already prohibited from holding fundraising events and taking money from lobbyists during session, but they still bring in plenty of dough while deciding on legislation important to the people giving them money.

Senate Judiciary Chair Karl Rhoads has said banning all in-session contributions would be unfair to incumbents in election years, and this just happens to be one.

No hearing means no written testimony, but was proposed last year by the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct, which said it “would reduce the negative perception of legislators soliciting or accepting contributions from individuals or organizations that have an interest in matters pending before the legislature during session.”

would have prohibited political contributions by state and county contractors and grantees — as well as their officers and immediate family members.

Again, no hearing means no testimony. But this one should have been a slam dunk for passage in the interest of transparency.

“If your business is receiving a contract and getting state or county money or a grant, then you should not be then giving money,” Kristin Izumi-Nitao, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, told Civil Beat in January.

Kupuna power: The Hawaii Legislature has debated over the years whether age 70 is too young for a state judge or justice to be required to retire. The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, has no age limits.

On Thursday the House that would let voters decide whether to increase the mandatory retirement age to 75. The current age was set in 1959, the year Hawaii became a state.

“Judges and justices are able to perform their judicial duties past the age of 70, and many judges and justices that were forced to retire as a result of the mandatory retirement age for state judges and justices continue to be very active in the legal community and other community-based endeavors,” testified Rod Maile, administrative director of the courts for the Judiciary.

House Bill 2509 now crosses over to the Senate for its consideration. If passed, it’s unclear when it would be put before voters. A ConAm to was overwhelming rejected by voters in 2014.

It’s your money: The Blog is always on the lookout for how taxpayers’ money is being spent and has found lots of interesting material in the latest . Lawmakers are being presented with the legal tab for cases that the Attorney General’s Office has decided to settle, for various reasons.

Here’s one that will cost We The People $3.9 million because of a faulty guardrail on the H-3 freeway on Oahu.

Joshua Banks, 21, was heading northeast toward Marine Corps Base Hawaii and drove off the freeway and into the guardrail. He at the scene, on the H-3 freeway beyond Exit 11 in Kaneohe, according to a statement of the case given to legislators.

That was in August 2020. Eighteen months before that, there was another accident in the same location. But at that time there was an ET-Plus terminal system on the guardrail designed to absorb the impact of a crash. It complies with Federal Highway Administration crash-test criteria.

It turns out that a Hawaii Department of Transportation crew had cut away the damaged guardrail and terminal and installed a temporary fix known as a “boxing glove” — a curved or rounded guardrail end but not approved as “crashworthy.”

The Blog is wondering why it hadn’t been permanently fixed a year and a half later and the only clue, according to the AG’s writeup, is that DOT never asked the company that has the contract to fix guardrails to fix it.

Super Wednesday: There’s lots of talk that presidential primary season will have pretty much wrapped by Tuesday, when 15 states and American Samoa hold their presidential primaries and caucuses. Elections on will be held in such delegate-rich states as California, Texas, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Virginia.

Nonetheless, the very next day — Wednesday, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. — the Democratic Party of Hawaii will hold . Candidates include President Joe Biden but also Dean Phillips and several others along with the option of “uncommitted.” That’s an option that freaks out some Biden supporters because of the this week, where anger over Biden’s support for Israel’s war with Gaza upset many voters, especially Arab Americans.

Not a Democrat or registered to vote? All locations will have voting and membership information. Click here for in-person . The party will also hold internal biennial elections beginning at 7 p.m.

Is Friel for real?: Dropping into The Blog’s email inbox this week was the news that someone named Harry J. Friel Jr. is running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Hawaii this year.

“Hawaii is dysfunctional under the highest tax rate in the nation,” an email explained. “High cost of consumer goods. Skyrocketing poor and homeless rates. It is URGENT to contact friends and family to bring about change from elected officials who are not responsible for their job.” 

His motto: “A vote for Friel is a vote for real.”

We’ll have to see about that. It appears that someone with the name of Harry Friel sought a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2020. (It seems he .)

Friel’s email to The Blog lists a Pennsylvania mailing address. And he’s a business executive born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

This we do know: Republican Adriel Lam of Kaneohe has formally filed to run against Democratic incumbent Mazie Hirono this year. Lam narrowly lost a state Senate race in 2022 … but at least it was in Hawaii.