Matt Levi Investigates
Emmy-nomiated Matt Levi Investigates is an investigative television series exploring the stories, people, and issues shaping Hawaiʻi through in-depth reporting, exclusive interviews, and compelling storytelling that goes beyond the headlines.
Worker's comp fraud and unregistered sex offenders. - Aired 12/10/11
Investigative journalism. Matt Levi explores the issues of Worker’s comp fraud and unregistered sex offenders in the state of Hawaii. We interview experts in the worker’s comp field and we expose several people who have failed to register as sex offenders in our community.
Part 2
Sex trafficking in Hawaii - Aired 4/24/12
Matt Levi looks into the world of sex trafficking in Hawaii. We meet a former victim and speak with experts in the field.
Children of the homeless - Aired 2012
The Colt Brennan Story - Aired 11/20/12
Matt Levi in an exclusive interview with Colt Brennan. Colt talks openly about his rise to iconic football hero and his fall in the wake of injuries, arrests and substance abuse.
The High Core Story - Aired 2013
Matt Levi takes us to High Core, an alternative learning school in Wahiawa that has turned hundreds of students lives around. From near dropouts to graduates. Matt interviews students past and present as well as the staff to hear their inspiring stories.
The Innocence Project - Aired 2013
Alvin Jardine spent over 21 years in jail for a rape he maintained he did not commit. The University of Hawaii’s Innocence Project then came to his aid and helped to free him through the use of DNA testing. Matt Levi investigates the story of Hawaii’s Innocence project and the Alvin Jardine case.
Inside HPD - Aired 2014
Hawaii's Foster Families - Aired 11/29/14
Domestic Violence - Aired 2011
Guns In Hawaii - Aired 2016
Drugs and the Unborn Child - Aired 2017
Immigrant Success Stories - Aired 12/5/16
Matt Levi shares three stories of immigrants who have realized the American Dream through hard work, determination, and resiliency.
Family First - Aired 7/7/17
There are 154,000 family caregivers in Hawaii, taking care of an elderly or dependent relative. If you paid them, they work would be worth $2.1 billion dollars a year, but as hard as this work is, it is not only unpaid, it can also put tremendous financial and emotional stress on the person doing it. As AARP Hawaii CEO Barbara Kim Stanton says, “family caregivers are the unsung heroes in our state.” Lance and Iris Yafuso are siblings forced to close the family business, Larry’s Bakery named for their father, care for their mother Irene living with Alzeheimer’s disease. After 57 years in business, we chronicle their final days in the kitchen, and hear about their sacrifice for the mother who devoted her lives to them. We’ll also give viewers insight on how to tackle some of the challenges of being a caregiver, and take you to a community on West Side, where kupuna are thriving thanks to something only in Hawaii: local music.
EMS State of Emergency - Aired 10/20/17
More than 900,000 people live on island of Oahu, along with millions of tourists who pour into the state each year. Every one of them expects that if they call 9-11, an ambulance will be there within minutes, with a trained team of paramedics ready to act. But Honolulu EMS is operating on a shoestring, and a threadbare one at that. The agency has 20 ambulances to service the entire island – and two of them are only on the clock part time. There simply aren’t enough ambulances to cover all the calls they get, so often the agency is engaged in a chess game of sending ambulances from outlying areas to cover town, leaving their home bases dangerously bare. Because of the shortage, the paramedics who are working are forced to answer a much higher call volume. In a 12-hour shift, it’s not unusual to respond to 15 – 20 calls. That’s exhausting and burnout is a serious issue. EMS Chief Dean Nakano says EMS needs another five ambulances just to have adequate coverage. Year after year, they go to the legislature for more funding, and year after year they have been denied. In this show we will take viewers for a ride along in the trenches, to show what paramedics face every day. We’ll speak with the head of the agency, an administrator at the Department of Health, which oversees EMS, along with lawmakers about why the money isn’t there. And we’ll get the perspective of an emergency room doctor at Queens about the difference paramedics can make for a patient long before they land in the ER – and how this shortage is affecting them as well.
Fentanyl : Killer Drug - Aired 1/20/18
The United States is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. Last year alone, more than 63,000 Americans died from drug overdose, up 21% from the year before. At the heart of this crisis is fentanyl, a medication used to treat cancer patients and people in severe pain, that is now being mixed with illegal street drugs like heroin and cocaine to increase potency and lower costs. Fentanyl is so powerful just two milligrams, the size of four grains of salt, is enough to kill an adult. Its potency also poses a danger to first responders, who risk exposure as they respond to people overdosing. It has wreaked havoc in communities on the East Coast and is making its way West. It’s starting to arrive in Hawaii, but its not too late to stop it. In this half hour, we examine what fentanyl is, how it’s entering the illegal drug market, where it has been found in Hawaii and what is being done to keep it out of our community. Hear from law enforcement, first responders, doctors and former drug users about their experiences with fentanyl, and find out what they say we must do now to keep out this killer drug.