In the States, COVID Spending Heads Off to the (Robo-Dog) Races
Forty all-terrain vehicles, five utility terrain vehicles, and 18 utility trailers: $626,000.
Using public funds earmarked for coronavirus relief to buy these items: priceless.
That’s just a fraction of supposedly COVID-related spending by a single police department, in Honolulu, Hawaii. But it hints at what authorities will find as they begin to comb through the receipts from the emergency spending binge of public offices across the country during the pandemic.
In March 2020, Congress passed the roughly $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.
Government watchdogs, critics and the media have so far focused on federal loans to businesses and unemployment scams, finding hundreds of millions of squandered dollars. Less scrutinized is how state and local offices themselves deployed the money. Also tapped were the emergency funds of some states, again opening the door to misspendin
Murder, Kidnapping, Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering: Here’s How Hawai‘i’s Crime Scene is Changing
Since the 1970s, organized crime in Hawai‘i has rippled through the community, from gangland-style slayings, gambling and drugs to diverse global operations. But things seemed quieter lately, until a July federal indictment portrayed a Honolulu businessman as a crime boss, who ran an extensive enterprise sustained by a reputation for violence and intimidation. As stories surface of murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and money laundering, we take a closer look at how organized crime has changed over the decades.
January 15, 2021
D
ozens of federal agents swarmed a modest suburban Kailua house before dawn in mid-July, armed with search warrants aimed at a local businessman with a decadeslong reputation for trouble. The operation ended with Michael Miske Jr. behind bars and the U.S. Attorney’s office unveiling an indictment detailing 22 charges against Miske and 10 of