ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

Mr. Ito goes to Washington: Gordon Ito has been a fixture for decades when it comes to insurance regulation. He has served as state insurance commissioner under four Hawaii governors and has been in the news a lot lately because of issues raised following the 2023 Maui fires and rising condominium premiums.

Ito may now be taking his expertise to Washington, D.C. This summer President Joe Biden to be the independent insurance expert on the . The council was established in 2010 under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to monitor the stability of America’s financial system.

Judging from Ito’s appearance in July before U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, he seems primed for confirmation.

“As Hawaii’s insurance commissioner, Mr. Ito has been a strong proponent for a fair and competitive insurance marketplace and for consumer protection,” Brown .

If Ito gets the six-year appointment, he will leave a big pair of slippers to fill. The Blog hears that our soon-to-be ex-House Speaker Scott Saiki is on the short list to get the gig. If Saiki were to take the job, it could be elevated to a Cabinet-level position to help work on the state’s growing insurance crises.

And yes, it’s Saiki’s sign-waving friend Gov. Josh Green who will make the pick.

Tokuda vs. Tulsi: Now, USA Today is the latest media outlet finding our former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be a legitimate news subject.

The national news outlet cranked out a story on our current Hawaii congresswoman Jill Tokuda posting her and that Gabbard was being asked to join Donald Trump’s presidential transition team.

“Trump and Tulsi do not represent Hawaii values and fail to fight for our freedoms. We will reject their extremism this November,” Tokuda vowed. “This is not pono.”

USA Today helpfully explained that “pono” is a term in Hawaiian culture “that signifies righteousness, integrity, and moral responsibility. By saying Gabbard’s endorsement of Trump is ‘not pono,’ Tokuda argues it goes against the ethical balance Hawaiians hold dear.”

Thanks for the translation, USA Today!

As a current Congresswoman from Hawaii, it is disheartening to see a predecessor of mine join Donald Trump's transition team.

Trump and Tulsi do not represent Hawaii values and fail to fight for our freedoms. We will reject their extremism this November.

This is not pono.

— Jill N. Tokuda (@jilltokuda)

Tokuda, a Democrat, holds the 2nd Congressional District seat once held by Gabbard (2013-2021), who left the Democratic Party in 2022. The Blog finds it difficult to believe these two politicians represented the same seat in Congress just two years apart.

Spreading sunshine all over the place: Score another win — a big one — for The Public First Law Center and its executive director Brian Black. Last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Black that just because they’re part of a court case.

The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit overruled a bunch of obviously unenlightened lower court judges when it found that the press and the public have a “presumed right of access to court proceedings and documents.” But the courts had for years been automatically sealing medical and health records without considering whether they should be. In fact, even if, say The Sunshine Blog, had wanted its own medical records to be publicly accessible the courts still said nope.

In 2020, when the law center still shared a name with Civil Beat, Black filed to unseal the competency evaluations of a guy named Ramoncito Abion, who was ultimately convicted of assault for hitting a gas station employee with a hammer and then telling police he heard voices. The state courts including the Hawaii Supreme Court refused to unseal the records so Black took the state court administration to federal court where he lost the first round.

But thankfully Black is a persistent champion of the public’s right to know and he pursued this case in the federal appellate court.

The case is part of an initiative Black started years ago to challenge the sealing of records for no discernible good reason. Part of that effort, which continues as time permits, involves cracking open “confidential” lawsuits that are completely hidden from the public. As Civil Beat reporter Christina Jedra wrote in this story, there are at least 600 of those to be unearthed.

Postscript: The law center went to bat for the public to unseal a number of documents that had been off limits during the recent criminal trial of former Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro, businessman Dennis Mitsunaga and others. The trial ended with acquittals for all the defendants and the records, which provide a small window into what federal prosecutors thought they had as evidence,