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Disaster prevention: Maui County still hasn’t released the long-awaited federal investigative report on the cause and origin of the deadly Aug. 8 Lahaina fire.

Why?

It needs “additional formatting,” the county said last week.

We’re sure you’re wondering, as we are, just what the heck that means. Margins added? Double spaced instead of single?

You’re probably thinking, as The Sunshine Blog is, that this is really just good old-fashioned stalling.

Could it, The Blog wonders, have anything to do with a rumored about-to-break multibillion-dollar settlement in the zillion lawsuits against Maui County, Hawaiian Electric Co. and a bunch of other defendants? Hmmmm …

Civil Beat reported on June 28 that federal officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had finished up work on the report that is supposed to finally reveal the cause and origin of the worst wildfire in America in more than a century. ATF investigators were on Maui in June to deliver the agency’s findings and answer any questions county officials might have.

But, as ATF spokesman Jason Chudy helpfully told Civil Beat reporter Stewart Yerton at the time, it was up to Maui County to release the federal report. When that happened, Chudy assured Yerton, ATF would post the full report on its own website.

Maui County fire officials told Yerton at the time that the county did not know when it would make the report public.

That caused quite a number of people to raise quite a number of eyebrows and question why Maui was sitting on a report that the public has been waiting months for.

Two weeks passed after Yerton’s story. Not a peep.

And then last week, Maui County sent around a press release saying the report actually isn’t quite done. “Once ATF formats its report, the finalized report will be sent to MFD and we will add it as an appendix to the MFD cause and origin report,” a statement attributed to Fire Chief Brad Ventura said.

ATF’s Chudy, who has now disappeared from the face of the earth and is no longer returning phone calls or emails, allegedly did his own bit of backpedaling, too, in the press release. While acknowledging he told Yerton what he thought to be the case at the time, oops, now it seems after meeting with Maui County “there was additional formatting required by ATF to complete our report.”

And now, the officials are officially saying in the official press release no one knows when the report will be “done” or when it will be released.

Read the press release here:

It’s not lost on The Blog that Maui County is trying to dodge the fact that it is stalling in the face of rising public demand for the report by blaming Civil Beat for getting the story wrong. Normal professional public officials would have contacted the news outlet when the story was published, pointed out any error and asked for a correction. Or a clarification, if, as Chudy is possibly now saying (who really knows since he’s not the one actually saying it) he didn’t have all the info. We do that all the time.

For the record, no one from Mayor Richard Bissen’s communications team or the Maui fire department has ever reached out to tell us they think the story is wrong. That press statement is the first we’d heard of it. And of course, trying to get Maui County’s staff on the phone has proved fruitless since the release was released.

Anyone want to take bets on which will come first? The ATF report or a big fat settlement for the fire victims? Or will Civil Beat finally get a call back from someone, anyone, in the mayor’s office? Stay tuned.

Money makes the world go around: And speaking of big fat checks, the latest campaign finance reports are in with less than a month to go before the Aug. 10 primary election.

The has an easy-to-use site where you can look up all your favorite candidate committees and see who is giving money to who. Find your way to and follow the instructions.

Here are a couple highlights from this reporting period, which depending on which office you’re running for covers from either Jan. 1 or late April through June 30. Civil Beat reporters are including details about most candidates in the race stories they are doing:

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who pulled in about $400,000 from late April through June, according to posted late last week. Donors included Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm, architect Francis Oda, several executives with Nan Inc., several employees of the City and County of Honolulu, several tourism industry bigwigs and unions and political action committees.

In other words, just another day in Hawaii Nei.

Blangiardi is not taking his race for granted. He spent more than $400,000 on campaign expenses like food and beverages, events and activities and especially advertising. And he’s still got another $400,000 or so in cash on hand.

The mayor’s best-known challenger, community activist Choon James, reported no contributions and no expenditures except for $500 that she gave herself. James had a surplus as of June 30.

Alm, who ended up with no challenger and is thus assured of another four-year-term, must have had some inkling of his easy ride. He collected only about $18,000 since the beginning of the year. Although he is sitting on about $163,000 in .

Gabbard’s VP run may be over: Former President Donald Trump is keeping people in suspense by withholding his pick for vice president as the GOP gears up for the Republican National Convention this week. But if the headliners and guest speakers list by the RNC is any indication, it doesn’t look like Tulsi Gabbard will make the cut.

The former Hawaii Democrat had been named in a number of news reports as a possible running mate. But it’s seeming more and more likely that U.S. Sens. JD Vance, Marco Rubio or Tim Scott might instead get the nod, or Govs. Doug Burghum or Glenn Youngkin. All are expected in Milwaukee when the convention begins Monday.

But Trump likes surprises. And the 2024 contest has moved to a new and uncertain level with the shocking assassination attempt of Trump on Saturday.

Who are we to judge?: There have been several unsuccessful attempts to raise the retirement age for Hawaii judges and justices from the current limit of 70 years. And The Blog has heard some grumbling that their salaries are lower than what can be earned in the private sector.

Whatever the reason, the Hawaii State Judiciary appears to be struggling to attract fresh applicants. On Thursday that it had extended a deadline for a Maui family court judge vacancy, issued a second deadline extension for a vacancy on the Intermediate Court of Appeals and issued a third extension for a Circuit Court judge for Hawaii island.

Three more judicial vacancies also just opened: for a District Court judge and two Family Court judges on Oahu.

Saying farewell to a four-legged TV star: The Blog joins the many fans of “Sunrise” on Hawaii News Now in mourning of Sunny, a beloved fixture on the show and loyal friend to host Grace Lee.

Sunny lived — nay, reigned — for 16 years.

Click here to see from Sunny’s time on the show.