Honolulu's city council is pushing ahead with a law that would punish people for taking shopping carts off store property, a move that splits lawmakers between protecting retailers and not criminalizing homelessness.

• The council voted 7-2 to advance a bill making it a petty misdemeanor to possess or use a store's shopping cart without permission, with penalties up to $2,000 or 30 days in jail.
• Critics point out that most people taking carts are homeless and using them to carry their belongings, and that steep fines make no sense for people with no income.
• Retailers say they lose real money when carts disappear, since replacement carts can cost anywhere from about $100 to $1,000 each.
• Separately, the council also installed new leadership, with a new chair taking over next month, after backlash over five members allegedly meeting privately at a restaurant to arrange committee positions, raising questions about whether that broke the state's open-meetings law.

Outlook: The shopping cart bill is expected to keep advancing despite pushback, while the city has yet to clarify whether the leadership meeting followed proper public-notice rules.