Latest news with #Hawaiians
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Mark Zuckerberg's $65 million Kauai land grab is ruffling feathers in Hawaii. Here's why
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have quietly continued expanding their massive estate on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, and neighbours are not particularly happy about it. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have quietly expanded their Kauai estate. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo(REUTERS) The couple recently purchased an additional 962 acres of ranch land for more than $65 million, bringing their total holdings on the island to over 2,300 acres. The property's estimated value is now around $75 million, per the New York Post. Zuckerberg's relationship with Kauai began back in 2014 when he started acquiring land on the lush island. ALSO READ| OpenAI hit hard? Zuckerberg reportedly poaches top AI experts from ChatGPT maker Zuckerberg's Hawaiian project hits a nerve with many locals Notably, in 2016, Zuckerberg filed a lawsuit against hundreds of Hawaiians to gain full control of small plots of land, known as kuleana lands, tucked within a 700-acre property he had purchased for $100 million. These kuleana lands, granted to Native Hawaiians in the 1800s, are often held in shared ownership by extended families, some of whom are unaware of their inheritance. Zuckerberg's companies filed eight 'quiet title' lawsuits. 'For most of these folks, they will now receive money for something they never even knew they had. No one will be forced off the land,' Zuckerberg said at the time, per CNBC. 'It is common in Hawaii to have small parcels of land within the boundaries of a larger tract, and for the title to these smaller parcels to have become broken or clouded over time,' his lawyer told CNBC, defending the move. 'Quiet title actions are the standard and prescribed process to identify all potential co-owners, determine ownership, and ensure that, if there are other co-owners, each receives appropriate value for their ownership share.' Some locals fear the expansion could limit access to ancestral burial sites. Julian Ako, a Native Hawaiian, told Wired, 'If they uncover iwi — or bones — it's going to be a challenge for that to ever become public knowledge.' Today, Zuckerberg's Koʻolau Ranch estate features two mansions, guest houses, treehouses, a gym, tennis court, agricultural areas, and even an underground storm shelter. Plans are in place for three more large buildings, totaling 16 bedrooms and bathrooms. ALSO READ| What is Larry Ellison's net worth? Oracle co-founder beats Bezos and Zuckerberg as world's second-richest person Spokesperson Brandi Hoffine Barr detailed that these new structures will serve as short-term housing for guests, friends, and staff. She added that much of the land is being used for agriculture and conservation, and that plans for luxury housing were scrapped.
USA Today
7 days ago
- General
- USA Today
Hawaii is notoriously expensive: How one Native Hawaiian family fought to keep their land
Sara Kehaulani Goo's family has owned land in Hana, Maui, for nearly 200 years. It was a gift from a Hawaiian king in 1848, but several years ago, they almost lost it all. For generations, the Goos' land remained wild and untouched, yet historically significant. Hidden beneath the land's jungle overgrowth was the Pi'ilanihale Heiau, the largest heiau (temple) in Polynesia, spanning roughly two football fields. In 2019, while working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., Goo received an email from her father saying the property taxes on the 10 undeveloped acres had skyrocketed over 566% from $300 to $2,000 in a year due to the government's satellite imaging revealing the land not being used for agriculture, a type of zoning with lower tax amounts. Although her grandparents had created a trust and set aside funds specifically to keep the land in the family, it would only cover a decade. Thus began a four-year-long journey for her family – spread across the United States and multiple generations – to come together to find a way to keep their ancestral lands, chronicled by Goo in her newly released memoir "Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawaii." Listen up, tourists: Hawaii locals share what they wish visitors would stop doing According to the County Department of Finance, aerial imagery taken every three years is used by Maui County to inspect properties for compliance with land zoning and reassessment of property taxes to fair market value. Some local families have said tax hikes within the past decade have made their long-time properties nearly unaffordable. In Hawaiian, the word kuleana broadly translates to "responsibility" and "privilege," encompassing the idea that everyone has a role within the larger community. For Goo, it meant not only keeping the land in her family as a promise to her grandparents but also shedding light on the current displacement of Native Hawaiians who struggle to afford living in the notoriously expensive island chain – despite this being their homeland. Meanwhile, the islands grapple with the development of more luxury condos and continued land grabs by the ultra-wealthy, with 37 billionaires owning 11% of Hawaii's private land, compared to 0.003% by locals, according to Forbes. Housing is a complicated issue in Hawaii. Any real estate in the islands' finite amount of land can feel precious to the average local family as they contend with an influx of out-of-state buyers who purchase second homes or rental properties. "My family's story was the story of land and what had happened to a lot of Native Hawaiians, and I would be kind of telling their story through our story, and that would be perhaps a story that would resonate with the bigger audience, and that was my goal," Goo told USA TODAY. The price of paradise Through the lens of her personal experience, Goo traces how the introduction of private land ownership and colonization by Europeans changed the course of history for Hawaiians. "My goal was to really tell a new, truer, more authentic story about Hawaii, because I felt that all the stories that I saw were written by Hollywood or they were written for tourists, and then neither of those quite felt accurate," she said. Goo followed the paper trail starting from when King Kamehameha III gifted the original 990 acres to her royal ancestors, the Kahanus, up to when her father's generation is forced to navigate the modern legal system. On this journey, they face multiple rejections for reducing the taxes by what Goo called the "faceless bureaucrat." This type of story, of local families trying to afford Hawaii or Native Hawaiians being displaced, is a familiar one. While most view Hawaii as paradise, for many locals, living in the islands is a much more difficult reality. In Honolulu and Maui, the median sales price for a regular single-family home topped over $1 million, according to the 2023 Hawaii Housing Factbook by the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaii. Less than one-third of local households can afford just an average house, with multiple generations often living under one roof. As a result, locals are pushed out of the islands. In 2020, for the first time ever, more Native Hawaiians were found by the U.S. Census to be living outside of Hawaii. A 2019 report by Kamehameha Schools found the high cost of living to be why 61% of Native Hawaiians have said they've considered moving from Hawaii. Goo, who is of the Native Hawaiian diaspora, having grown up in California, also explores what it means to connect with her Hawaiian identity in the book. Hawaii's future Over the decades, Goo's ancestral lands reduced from 990 to just 10 acres as members sold off parcels to sugar plantations or as they moved from Hana. "It's kind of a miracle that this little piece of land has been in our family, managed to survive all these years," she said. The land where the heiau sits is now stewarded by the National Tropical Botanical Garden's Kahanu Garden, with the heiau now restored following pressure from the family. For many locals, the road ahead feels uncertain as Hawaii's cost of living only continues to rise, but Goo sees some glimmers of hope. "If more Native Hawaiians are behind that kind of government, that have those values and understand the value of Hawaiian land and Hawaiian hands, that does give me some measure of comfort," she said. In 2021, Maui County passed the landmark Aina Kupuna law, introduced by Native Hawaiian Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, which gave tax relief to certain lineal descendants who were passed down ancestral Maui land at least three generations ago. Still, the fight is far from over, with the next generation likely set to face another "version of modern-day control of land," Goo said. "Unfortunately, that I will have to deal with, or my children, or their children will have to deal with," she said. "That's why it's important for us to keep our promise and keep the kuleana, what our commitment is and understand the context and the history, because we have to be ready."
New York Post
11-07-2025
- New York Post
Native Hawaii man to be resentenced in hate crime against a white man he beat with a shovel
A native Hawaiian man serving time for brutally beating a white man with a shovel over a decade ago will be resentenced and could be hit with additional years in prison after his appeal of his hate crime conviction was rejected. Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi, 35, was originally sentenced to six-and-a-half years by a Honolulu judge alongside Levi Aki Jr, another Native Hawaiian man, after a jury found them both guilty of the hate-fueled violence in 2023. The court determined that the duo were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman's race when they repeatedly beat him with a shovel in 2014 when he and his wife tried to move into their remote village in Maui. 4 Levi Aki Jr. and Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi were both found guilty of a hate crime, agreeing with prosecutors that the two men were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman's race when they punched, kicked, and used a shovel to beat him in 2014. AP Kunzelman was left with severe brain damage following the assault that placed such stress on his marriage that it catalyzed a divorce, his wife Lori said. Alo-Kaonohi tried to appeal the conviction, taking issue with the federal hate crime enhancement, but the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction Thursday. During the original trial, Alo-Kaonohi's attorneys asserted that the attack on Kunzelman was fueled more by his entitled attitude. It's still not clear how much more time he could get. Considering the judge's previous sentence, though, retired federal defender Alexander Silvert, who is not involved in the retrial, suggested three extra years could feasibly be tacked on. Lori Kunzelman said she'd welcome the extended sentence after she and her husband were essentially run out of their dream home before even moving in. 4 Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi, 35, was originally sentenced to six-and-a-half years by a Honolulu judge. AP 4 The court determined that the duo were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman's race when they repeatedly beat him with a shovel in 2014. Christopher Kunzelman The Kunzelmans still own the trodden-down house they originally purchased on the ocean for $175,000 while they were seeking an escape from Arizona after Lori was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. 'We had vacationed on Maui year after year — loved, loved, loved Maui,' she said. It's been impossible to sell the home, Lori said, as locals just 'won't allow anybody to step foot' on the property. 4 Christopher Kunzelman was beaten when he and his wife tried to move into a remote village in Maui. Christopher Kunzelman 'It was obviously a hate crime from the very beginning. The whole time they're saying things like, 'You have the wrong skin color. No 'haole' is ever going to live in our neighborhood,'' Lori said after the 2023 trial wrapped. Haole, a Hawaiian word that was central to the first trial, can mean 'foreigner' and 'white person.' Much of the struggles between native Hawaiians and white tourists stems from the lack of education surrounding the islands' forced inclusion as a US state and its native history. The Hawaii Innocence Project plans on contesting the retrial to prove that 'haole' is not a derogatory term, the organization's co-director Kenneth Lawson said. With Post wires
USA Today
10-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Nate Landwehr excited to fight 'perfect opponent' Morgan Charriere at UFC on ESPN 70
Nate Landwehr promises violence at UFC on ESPN 70. Landwehr (18-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) meets Morgan Charriere (20-11-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) in a featherweight bout on Saturday's main card (ESPN, ESPN+) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. With both fighters earning several bonuses for their exciting fighting style, Landwehr is looking to put on a show in his home state. "It's a perfect opponent for the UFC," Landwehr told MMA Junkie of Charriere. "He's an ex-champion, I'm an ex-champion with my promotion, too, major promotions battling it out. He's young, hungry. He's about that life. It ain't going to be no running in there. We're going to be battling it out. "It wouldn't matter what his name is, where he's from. I mean, I've been all over the world fighting the Russians, the Ukrainians, the Africans, the Hawaiians, what's a Frenchman? We're going to fight it out, we're going to bleed, we're going to feel it in the morning, and it's all going to be left in the octagon, and I'm going to whoop his ass." Based on his strength of schedule, Landwehr feels he's on the cusp of breaking into the UFC's featherweight rankings. "We right there, I've been right there," Landwehr said. "Two of the guys I already fought are in the top 15, everybody I fight is good. I mean, think about it, (Dan) Ige's been ranked high, (Doo Ho) Choi's been ranked high, even (Darren) Elkins has been ranked high, (David) Onama is now ranked. I don't fight any slouches. So, at any point I can get that call and be right back in the mix."
The Age
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
As a first-time visitor to Hawaii, one thing surprised me most
If my preconceptions of visiting Hawaii for the first time could be compared to the Hawaiian surf, they'd be the shoreline ripples at Oʻahu's child-friendly Waikiki Beach, rather than the massive breaks of Banzai Pipeline on the island's North Shore. I should know better than to underestimate a place. I blame The Brady Bunch, my childhood TV viewing where an episode featured a family visit to Waikiki. Teenager Peter Brady was plagued by a tarantula for picking up a cursed tiki. These were dreadful production blunders: tarantulas are not endemic to Hawaii, tikis represent gods and deities. I admit that I, too, got it wrong: my five-day trip blows me away. Culture is as embedded as the island's Le'ahi volcano (Diamond Head) that forms the stunning backdrop to Honolulu. Stick your head up from behind a Mai Tai cocktail at a Waikiki Beach bar, and you'll uncover – as I do – rich traditions. My arrival onto Oʻahu, the third-largest and most populated of Hawaii's eight major islands, coincides with the annual Lei Day, which celebrates the spirit and meaning of the lei, the necklace of flowers (or shells, nuts or feathers) placed over my head on arrival by my host, Noelani. 'Lei is truly about aloha in its purest form,' she says. I'm about to discover what she means. The first stop is Kapiʻolani Park, site of the 97th Oʻahu Lei Day Festival, where hundreds of locals and Native Hawaiians mingle at the craft stalls and lei-making tables that are surrounded by Indian banyan and monkeypod trees. Most attendees wear beautiful lei or lei po'o, a floral crown, that remain vibrant and fresh despite the humid breeze. Many are milling around a mature-aged gentleman, Master Lei Maker Bill Char. I'm privileged to meet this festival star, a talented ambassador of the ancient cultural practice. Suddenly, officials start scurrying (usually, locals are delightfully calm and leisurely) and cry 'The queen is coming!' I'm temporarily confused; the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown in 1893 and the islands were annexed by the US in 1898 as part of its expansion into the Pacific. Instead, this is royalty of another kind: it is the Lei queen, Ku'uleialoha Llanos, the year's elected 'monarch' who organises the event to keep traditions alive. This custom is far from contrived. Surprisingly, nor is our next stop: Ala Moana Centre, known as the largest open-air shopping centre in the world. Amid the chain stores, the centre's best shops are owned and run by Native and local Hawaiian designers (Native Hawaiians are indigenous, with Filipino, Japanese and other backgrounds, while local Hawaiians are generally those who live, but are not born of Hawaiian ancestry. Both will distinguish themselves as such). Malie Organics offers an array of beauty products; Noho Home is crammed with a gorgeous range of homeware items, and Big Island Candies, makes shortbreads and the likes of chocolate-dipped dried cuttlefish (the latter, a popular Hawaiian snack). I'm smitten with Manaola, where contemporary fashions feature geometric tribal motifs and Hawaiian flora. Our next stop, 'Iolani Palace, takes us into the past.
