Hawaiʻi Attorney General

Senators advanced a measure Tuesday that would allow elected officials to be charged with a misdemeanor if they're found to have failed to report bribery.

HPR talked to Gov. Josh Green soon after a U.S. Supreme Court decision on tariffs, plus his thoughts about the recent headlines involving Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke.

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez reaffirmed her position Friday that there is no conflict of interest in her department’s investigation into an “influential lawmaker” who allegedly accepted $35,000 in a paper bag during a January 2022 meeting.

This schedule change comes after Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke became the center of a story this week, involving allegations that an “influential lawmaker” accepted $35,000 in a paper bag during a January 2022 meeting.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke has become the center of a story involving allegations that an “influential lawmaker” accepted $35,000 in a paper bag during a January 2022 meeting. “I'm not saying I am the 'influential lawmaker' in question,” Luke told HPR on Tuesday.

House Speaker Nadine Nakamura spoke to The Conversation's Catherine Cruz about a resolution to expedite the investigation into an alleged $35,000 payment involving a Hawaiʻi lawmaker.

Allegations of a lawmaker accepting $35,000 in a bag in 2022 continue to loom over this legislative session.

The announcement was a reversal from what Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez said earlier this month, declining to investigate the matter because of concerns it would interfere with an ongoing federal investigation.

The Supreme Court seems likely to strike down Hawaiʻi's restrictions on carrying guns in stores in the justices’ latest firearm case since their landmark decision expanding Second Amendment rights.

The department has been able to claw back close to a billion dollars in funds from the federal government and has only spent about $12,000 on those cases.