Hawaiian Telescope

The Hawaiian telescope saga continues. Note that the Hawaii economy is highly dependent on tourism - an industry severely adversely affected by the coronavirus crisis. Turning away the dollars that would flow from the telescope/TMT would be a lot more painful now than it would have been a month or two ago.

From the Hawaii Tribune-Herald:

The Hawaii County Council passed on first reading a bill that would allow the county to claim more than $5 million from the state to reimburse police overtime costs incurred during the Thirty Meter Telescope protests in 2019. The bill had been postponed since December, when the county rejected a $10 million reimbursement deal with the state because of that arrangement’s overly broad terms. Now amended, the bill seeks $5,342,262, the exact amount of police overtime accrued between July 15 and the end of December while enforcing the TMT protests on Daniel K. Inouye Highway. However, the issue is not yet completely settled...

Full story at https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2020/04/11/hawaii-news/council-passes-on-first-reading-of-tmt-bill/