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Sunday, September 1, 2013
September 1, 2013 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:42 PM :: 3842 Views

New Research on Children of Same-Sex Parents Suggests Differences Matter

Questionable Tax Breaks to Help Certain Industries

VIDEO: Jay Fidell Talks to Grassroot Institute

An American Satyricon

Boylan: Locals Should Have More Abortions because Outsiders Keep Moving Here

Boylan: The yearly rate of world population growth has dropped from 2.2 percent per year in the early 1960s to 1.1 percent today. But it remains above 2 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. And it’s estimated that Hawaii’s population growth rate has been 2.35 percent since the 2010 census. (Clue: Unlike Africa, Hawaii population growth is driven by migration, not birthrate.)

Which explains my colleague’s ... complaint about West Oahu’s traffic. Or environmentalists’ denunciations of urban sprawl. Or Kauaians demanding the regulation of products made with genetically modified organisms, not to mention a fix for Kapaa traffic. Or the opposition of some Big Island residents to expansion of geothermal energy. (The outsiders protest a lot, but wait til you see what the solution is.) 

Usually corporate interests are vilified in these controversies, sometimes justifiably. But the ultimate villain is ourselves. People, at home and around the world, demand more energy, more food, more water.

Yet conservative religionists and politicians have muted the discussion of family planning, the old ZPG – Zero Population Growth – of the 1960s and ’70s. Anti-abortion terrorists have taken away a woman’s right to choose in many parts of our enlightened nation, forcing Planned Parenthood clinics to close.

Overpopulation, however, remains the core problem.

read ... What they really think about you

Homeless Mentally Ill to Be Focus of Community Care Services

SA: ...the state is rolling out its new Community Care Services program today. The program gives the state Department of Human Services oversight of behavioral health services for Medicaid beneficiaries with severe mental illness and serious persistent mental illness.

Since some of the services were once split between DHS and the state Department of Health, both say the streamlining is expected to ease implementation of the Affordable Care Act, produce greater state efficiency, optimize federal funds, increase continuity for health care providers and beneficiaries, and broaden the range of mental illnesses that are eligible for services.

The Assisted Community Treatment Law, which the state Legislature passed last session and takes effect in January, provides a legal way to encourage people to receive treatment if they are unable to consent because of their illness. The new law allows authorities to get a court order urging a mentally ill person to take their medication.

The Health Department also expects to find out this month if it will get funding from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. One grant would provide $10 million over four years for screening and brief interventions in community health centers. The other would pay $700,000 a year for three years to provide housing with services for chronic homeless people with substance abuse.

When combined with a commitment from the HPD Psychological Services and Jail Diversion Program to divert more mentally ill people from the criminal justice system into the mental health system, supporters say that these changes could vastly improve life for Hawaii's mentally ill homeless people.

It could be welcome relief for a population who typically show high levels of arrest and poor access to health care....

Background: Mental Health: Can Reform Solve Hawaii’s Homeless, Prison and Unfunded Liability Problems?

Price: Homeless Need Some Discipline

read ... Some Good News for a Change

Housing First Places 71 Homeless in Apartments

SA: Turner, who received medical care and housing assistance from the Waikiki Health Center.

She said health center providers helped her transition from the Next Step Shelter to her own apartment, which since January has helped her healing....

Homeless service providers and advocates say coming health care improvements will help the state's homeless people who suffer from mental illness. But, they say, the community won't see real progress until stable housing is part of the mix....

Kippen said he's stepping up Housing First, which seeks to house and provide care to the most vulnerable homeless, many of whom have mental health or substance abuse issues. Through June, the program had housed 71 Oahu residents.

State legislators approved $1.5 million this year to expand the supportive-housing program to the neighbor islands.

Next year, Kippen said he will ask legislators to permanently fund the program, which is expected to cost up to $1.5 million annually. By the end of 2015, Mayor Kirk Caldwell's Housing First pilot plan to help 100 of Oahu's chronically homeless should supplement state efforts.

read ... Actually Getting Homeless off the Streets, what a concept!

Defense bar, Advocates Hope to See More Drug Dealers Get off Easy

SA: That's why when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last month announced a policy change aimed at keeping low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no gang or drug- cartel ties out of federal prisons, it signaled a sea change from a decades-long "war on drugs" mentality....

Honolulu private defense attorney Bill Harrison said he has "two clients that probably would be poster clients for the Eric Holder memo and we'll see what happens" when the Hawaii U.S. Attorney's Office files charges against them....

Kat Brady of the Community Alliance on Prisons said state judges in cases involving methamphetamine "have no discretion" in sentencing....

Hawaii's U.S. Attorney Florence T. Nakakuni, however, foresees little if any change in Hawaii federal drug charges and sentences, where most cases consist of big-time dealing of large amounts of methamphetamine.

"We're doing what the AG (Holder) has suggested," Nakakuni said. "We do not prosecute low-level, small-time drug dealers, and we certainly don't prosecute people who are merely drug users and not dealing. Those cases don't come to us. I have limited resources and we don't do that."

Instead, she said, all the drug-offense cases that have been filed for years in Hawaii have concentrated on organizations that bring in pounds of meth to the islands. While she briefed her staff attorneys recently about the Holder memo sent to all U.S. attorneys, Nakakuni said, "a lot of the things he says just don't apply to us."

More than 100 drug cases a year are sent to federal court in Honolulu, amounting to more than half of the entire criminal agenda, Nakakuni explained. Up to 95 percent of those cases involve meth. In mainland districts, she said, no more than 30 percent of drug cases involve meth. Nationally, meth accounts for only 18 percent of drug cases because the "drug of choice" on the East Coast is crack cocaine.

read ... More Drug Dealers needed because we may run out

Perreira to Renew Push for People who Pretend to Make Minimum Wage

SA: Perreira claims: "...most tipped workers make well below $10 an hour and, according to the National Employment Law Project, waitresses and waiters — the largest group of tipped workers — have three times the poverty rate of the workforce as a whole...." 

(Quick IQ Test: When I was a waiter, I (did/didn't) report tips to the IRS.)

Reality: How Hawaii Minimum Wage Workers Earn $24.24 per hour

read ... Plan for Next Legislative Session

Insurers, State Say Obamacare is Going Great in Hawaii

KGI: Thomas Matsuda, ACA implementation manager for Gov. Neil Abercrombie. “In Hawaii, we are above that standard and we are trying to prevent it from coming down.”

Reg Baker, executive vice president of Hawaii Medical Assurance Association, said there is a lot of confusion when it comes to the ACA.

“On the Mainland it is a serious change,” he said. “But here we’ve got most of it already implemented.”...

Matsuda said the next  year is a “big year,” and that Jan. 1, 2014 is a “major deadline.”

“But there are actually many other things under the act that are going to roll out the next two to three years,” he said. “So you’re going to continue to hear about this for some time to come.”

Antonio Saguibo Jr., vice president of account management and sales at HMSA/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Hawaii, said 2014 will be a “milestone” in the ACA, but that the Prepaid Health Care Act has advanced Hawaii to a place “largely in front of the wave,” in terms of compliance.

“The key is to know that if you are meeting the requirements of the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act, you’re likely already in compliance with the Affordable Care Act,” he said.

(No doctors or patients in this article.  But that's OK, we can have health care without them.)

SA: It's time to get on with it.

read ... Hawaii remains ahead of the pack for Obamacare

Sierra Club unanimous in backing Schatz

SA: The Sierra Club pointed to the Hawaii Democrat's commitment to alternative energy...

Schatz has previously been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, Ocean Champions, the Council for a Livable World and former Vice President Al Gore, a massage enthusiast.

John Hart, a communication professor at Hawaii Pacific University, said given Schatz's policy background, it would have been more newsworthy had the Sierra Club not endorsed him.

"I think the question will be how much traction does this really have in terms of changing any votes?" he said. "I would think that the people that the Sierra Club endorsement mattered to are already in his camp."...

"Are Hanabusa's people losing any sleep over this one?" Hart said of the Sierra Club endorsement. "Probably not."

Link: Full Text

read ... No Surprise Here

Progressives See Syria Debate as Opportunity to Deepen their Control Over Schatz, Hanabusa

Borreca: With the American military now aiming its weapons at a new target in the Middle East, there are differences in the carefully phrased statements reflecting the thinking of U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz.

The opinions of members of Congress may be of guidance to President Barack Obama, but in a closer-to-home dimension, it is a big political deal.

Schatz and Hanabusa are both liberal Democrats wanting to represent Hawaii in the U.S. Senate after next year's election to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye's term.

As the nation hovers near a new military adventure, this time blowing up unspecified portions of Syria, voters will judge now — and remember next fall — where the pair stood.

read ... Yeah, and there's a war, too, but who cares about that?

Farmer's Electric Bill: $11K/mo

HTH: Ha said his energy bill tops around $11,000 a month, partly due to the large refrigerators used to ripen his produce.

Installing the hydro system cost north of $1 million, he said, but he got some grant aid to help make it happen.

Ha doesn’t expect it to take too long to get a return on the investment.

read ... Got Grants?

Funerals: Hawaii Consumer Protection Laws Weakest in Nation

MW: “Hawaii’s prepaid funeral and cemetery laws are tied with Alabama and Florida as the weakest in the country. They let industry keep a 30 percent commission from your prepaid deposit and consider you in default if you miss a payment. FCA-Hawaii President Sarah Robinson and others have been doggedly trying to get the legislature to fix these problems, but each time a bill comes up the committees defer it (wonder why?).”

Related: State Sues to Get Back $39M Looted from Graves by John Waihee

read ... Funerals

Mandatory Helmet Law Proposed by Honolulu City Council

CB: Among the hoped-for laws in the coming session — which begins in January —are those that would require helmets for anyone driving a motorcycle or moped.

There’s also proposed legislation that would allow residents to register to vote on the day of an election.

The council included drafts of the proposed bills in a resolution related to 2012 Hawaii State Association of Counties legislative package.

See the rest of the proposed legislation here.

read ... Mandatory Helmet Law Proposed by Honolulu City Council

Council Not Consulted on Closure of Kailua City Hall

SA: Windward Councilman Ikaika Anderson and Kailua Neighborhood Chairman Chuck Prentiss weren't happy about the announcement.

"We would've liked to have been consulted on it," Prentiss said after being told by the Star-Advertiser about the closure date. "We still feel it should be kept open. It's a big asset to the community here."

Bill Hicks, another Kailua Neighborhood Board member, said the city should have held public hearings on the plan before making a final decision.

Hicks said he found records showing that the Kailua Satellite City Hall handled 53,599 vehicle transactions, more than any other satellite city hall on the island.

read ... Caldwell Style

Dress code spurs petition at Kahuku High and Intermediate

KITV: The petition states girls at the school would like to wear yoga and workout pants, as long as they aren't see-through. They're also requesting a change to the way hemlines of skirts, dresses and shorts are measured when arms are at rest.

"We're not saying that to get rid of the dress code completely, we just really think that we should be allowed to wear workout pants to school, as well as shorts that go to our thumbs instead of our middle fingers," said Walker.

Since the petition began Monday, the girls have gathered more than 600 signatures, both online and on paper. However, not all of the signatures come from the 1,600 students who attend Kahuku.

read ... Dress code spurs petition at Kahuku High and Intermediate

U.S. may remove humpbacks from endangered list

JT: NOAA Fisheries is responding to a petition filed by a group of Hawaii fishermen saying the whale should no longer be classified as endangered because its population has steadily grown since the international community banned commercial whaling nearly 50 years ago.

There are now more than 21,000 humpback whales in the North Pacific, compared with about 1,400 in the mid-1960s.

The Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition Inc. filed the petition in April. It seeks to have NOAA Fisheries first classify humpback whales in the northern Pacific Ocean as a distinct population, and then declare the population is no longer endangered.

The agency, in a notice published in the Federal Register last week, said the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating the population is distinct and that a delisting may be warranted. It will study the issue for the next year.

read ... Humpbacks

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