Auditor: Legislators 100% 'Fail to Meet Criteria' for New Special Funds
Legislators Help Stripper Busted for Workers Comp Fraud
CB: … fraud is common in the workers’ comp world, but admits his view may be influenced by the fact that many cases come to him because the insurance company sees red flags.
He’s had slam-dunk cases, like the exotic dancer who’d supposedly injured her back while working at a store.
“It was a little tricky because obviously in those types of places, they don’t want camera and video,” he recalls.
But the footage proved useful to the insurance company. “Her dancing around obviously showed her back was just fine,” he said….
Then there was the roofer who really had been injured, but ended up staying off work long enough to arouse suspicions. It turned out he had started his own roofing company and was going after some of his former employer’s business.
Copeland videotaped him on the roof, humping shingles in the hot sun. He interviewed the homeowner and put it all together in a package for the prosecutor….
Then there are the injured workers who’ve gotten hooked on opioids. The workers’ comp claim is a way to keep the drugs flowing.
CB: SB2364: Lets Make Fraud More Common
read … Lots of Fraud
Allowing physician-assisted suicides could lead to abuse and coercion of patients
SA: …While advocates of assisted suicide often describe it as a means of allowing patients to avoid physical pain and suffering, data indicate that many turn to assisted suicide over financial concerns or fears of becoming dependent and a burden on their caretakers. In these cases, the patient’s distress is emotional rather than physical, and should be regarded and treated as such.
Allowing physician-assisted suicide could also lead to circumstances in which patients are coerced or even forced to undergo it. Supporters of legalizing assisted suicide often point to the lack of evidence of any abuse under Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act as a means of allaying this concern, however, estimates indicate that instances of elder abuse are actually around 10 percent, which suggests there is instead a lack of documentation. The drugs and their distribution are not sufficiently regulated to shield their recipients from abuse.
Despite the fact that there is often a link between a stated desire to die and depression, data from the most recent report about Oregon’s law indicate that less than 4 percent of patients seeking a prescription for lethal drugs were referred for a mental health evaluation. Typically, when a patient says they want to die, resources are directed to reversing this stated wish. The data however indicates these terminally ill patients are given a lower standard of care than the general population….
Research has shown, after controlling for demographics and other factors, physician-assisted suicide is associated with an increase in both assisted and non-assisted suicide rates….
read … Allowing physician-assisted suicides could lead to abuse and coercion of patients
Taniguchi: OIP Can Take as Long as it Wants
SA: …Senator Taniguchi shelves bill for timely action on state records requests….
read … Slow Walk it
HB2113 would pay tuition for state workers
SA: …House Bill 2113 (Idiot author: Rep Chris Lee) would provide free tuition for state workers to attend college within the University of Hawaii system, with the cost picked up by the state Department of Human Resources Development. Recipients of free tuition would (pretend to) commit to 10 years of public service with the state if they use the program to obtain a bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree.
A five year commitment of public service would be required for an associate’s degree….
Really Obvious Problems:
- The State will never recover the lost tuition money from workers who quit early.
- State employees already illegally do their classwork during work hours and use State resources to complete school projects. Now we’re going to cover their tuition too?
- This should be negotiated in exchange for something valuable like eliminating Royal State pseudo-insurance from all State contracts.
Background:
read … Bill would pay tuition for state workers
UH Professors Help Legislators Find Ways to Make Housing Even More Unaffordable
SA: …State researchers addressing issues faced by people with disabilities want every new home in Hawaii built with six basic features they say will benefit a disadvantaged group that includes an approaching “silver tsunami” of seniors.
Yet one recent effort seen as a major start toward the goal isn’t going well at the state Legislature.
The University of Hawaii Center on Disability Studies crafted bills that would require several of the six standards — including doorways wide enough for wheelchairs, light switches within comfortable reach and no steps for at least one entryway — for new or renovated homes developed through two state agencies that help produce affordable housing….
House Bill 1919, along with companion Senate Bill 2594, would mandate basic accessibility features for new or renovated homes produced through the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., agencies with several thousand new homes planned.
“These are very modest things,” said Patricia Morrissey, director of the UH center. “They’re not overwhelming.” ….
(Know them by what they deny)
SA: Plan now on units for disabled, aged
read … State bills aim to make homes for disabled user-friendly
Restaurants Maybe Saved from Minimum Wage Hike Aimed at Them
CB: …Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, a Democrat who leads the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the committee amended Senate Bill 3023 on Wednesday to add a section asking the state to study the best way to increase the minimum wage to limit harm to small businesses….
House Bill 1727 gives employers the choice of offering minimum wage workers paid sick leave or raising their pay. Johanson says he’s already heard from some employers who would rather do the latter….
The bill also proposed getting rid of the tip credit, which would impact the restaurant industry in particular.
Michael Miller, the head of Tiki’s Bar and Grill, wrote in testimony that his business might be forced to reduce employee hours if that proposal passed.
Dirk Koeppenkastrop, the founder of IL Gelato, wrote that wages higher than $10 per hour threaten the existence of his company, which relies on entry-level, part-time jobs….
read … Loot the Restaurants
Special town meeting on possible Hawaii Co GET increase
WHT: Waimea Community Association (WCA) has agreed to hold a second March town meeting — from 6 to 8 p.m. March 12 in Waimea School Cafeteria — at the request of Mayor Harry Kim to discuss a possible .5 percent increase in the general excise tax (GET)….
read … Special town meeting on possible GET increase
Hee says he is running for governor
ILind: …Back in mid-January, a political “hit” piece was quietly making the email rounds. Among other things, it accused a cabal of Governor David Ige’s campaign insiders of soliciting former senator Clayton Hee to enter the governor’s race in order to “siphon off Hawaiian Votes from Colleen Hanabusa.”
It was the kind of anonymous hit piece that throws out all manner of allegations without a shred of backup or evidence of any kind.
But in late February, Hee did indeed announce he is running for governor. The announcement was posted on his Facebook Page.
As of Friday, March 2, he was not among the six people who had taken out nomination papers for governor from the State Office of Elections, according to the weekly Candidate Filing Report.
However, his campaign committee did file an updated organizational report with the Campaign Spending Commission on February 27. It lists Hee himself as the campaign chairman, and his wife, Lynne T. Waters, as treasurer. There are no other campaign officers.
Hee’s campaign website says Waters current “commutes back and forth between Hawai’i and Texas where she is also the Vice President of Communications at the University of Texas at Arlington.”….
2015: Clayton Hee's Wife Quits Cush Job at UH, Leaves State
(Question: Is it legal for a campaign treasurer to live out of state?)
read … Hee says he is running for governor
Star-Adv: Waianae Tweekers Should Team up with Bumpy Kanahele
SA: …there is some merit to the idea that “Pu‘uhonua o Waianae” could adapt some attributes found at another organically founded community. There are distinct differences that must be noted, though, between the Waianae residents led by resident Twinkle Borge, and the community founded by Native Hawaiian sovereignty leader Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele nearly a quarter-century ago in Waimanalo.
Pu‘uhonua o Waimanalo grew up 24 years ago on a parcel of land the state leased to Kanahele’s group for a 55-year term. It was a deal struck by the state after about 300 sovereignty activists had occupied Makapuu Beach Park….
In Waianae, by contrast, many of the residents share a Native Hawaiian affinity but are driven together by socio-economic forces, (meth) by their homelessness through various circumstances (using all their money to buy meth). Like many encampments, this begins with a safety-in-numbers impulse to stick together.
Borge has been working with Kanahele, with the objective of replicating his sociopolitical experiment in Waianae….
State lawmakers had contemplated simply exempting this community from criminal trespass prosecution, through House Bill 2754. That, fortunately, was shelved.
Bumpy: $4M Lawsuit Claims Bumpy Kanahele Defrauds Am. Samoa of Tsunami Recovery Funds
read … Waianae camp needs to move
Punahou Brainwashing: Men are the Problem, not mental illness
SA: As passionate as I am about banishing the weapons of mass murder that have infested our country over the past few decades, I believe it’s equally important that the violent potential of young men be actively dealt with in our schools, where boys have the greatest potential to develop a healthy concept of masculinity, to learn to face their emotions, and to practice communicating with others.
The “mental health” approach cannot be limited to diagnosing, medicating and sequestering individuals deemed threatening, like the troubled architect of the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The noxious tentacles of a culture that conflates destruction with manliness suffocate us all. When little boys are told not to cry, that compassion and self-doubt are weaknesses, and that strength means vanquishing an opponent, we all suffer the consequences.
One of the greatest strengths of the school where I teach is its Psychosocial Education program, which makes emotional learning and positive communication a centerpiece of the curriculum. In one deceptively simple exercise, students take turns sharing a personal struggle with a classmate, and then listening while the other person does the same.
(Struggle: My teacher tried to turn me into a girl, but I….)
read … Male is mentally ill
Hooser Picks Low-Hanging Fruit
KGI: …Gary Hooser again picks the low hanging fruit in his Feb. 28 TGI opinion piece. His targets include global corporations causing environmental harm. Is anyone in favor of environmental harm?….
His criticism includes large landowners circumventing public process to “fast track” development. Consider, that same public process is one of the significant causes of the current lack of any housing in the state of Hawaii. And, affordable housing is a stated goal of government action at every level. Why not “fast track” more housing? We need it now….
read … All or none? No compromise?
Many little piggies went to market (on ships to Hawaii), but not anymore
SA: …the practice of shipping live pigs to Hawaii for slaughter ended.
Pig imports ceased with a shipment of 220 hogs on the Matson container ship Mokihana that arrived in Honolulu Sept. 27, according to state records.
Industry players said a combination of economic forces, including a long decline in locally raised pigs sent to Oahu’s only slaughterhouse, led importers to quit the business that arose decades ago to supplement the fresh “hot pork” supply…..
Animal rights supporters touted the cessation of imports as a victory in a campaign they had waged for over a decade, though people in the business and a University of Hawaii researcher said the change was unrelated to the opposition.
Hawaii Food Products Inc., a major pig importer and producer of kalua pig, roast pork, char siu and lau lau under the Ono Ono brand, got out of the business late last year because of factors that included rising costs for feed, shipping and processing, according to company CEO Norman Oshiro.
“It was many small factors here and there,” he said.
Oshiro said a slide in local pig farming put upward pressure on slaughterhouse fees, and that operating hours for processing imported hogs became less convenient. “They have to do what they have to do,” he said of slaughterhouse operators. “We understand. It was a very hard business (to sustain).”….
read … Many little piggies went to market (on ships to Hawaii), but not anymore
Energy Green Cranks up Water Rates
WHT: …The Hawaii County Water Board is proposing an increase to its power cost charge and will hold a public hearing on the matter later this month.
Board members and DWS officials will meet March 27 at the Department of Water Supply on Leilani Street in Hilo. Though the official meeting isn’t scheduled to begin until 10 a.m., the board will open the floor at 9:45 a.m. for public comment on the price hike.
The increase would drive the current power charge cost up 26 cents from $1.62 per 1,000 gallons of water to $1.88 per 1,000 gallons. If approved, the change will take effect on April 1.
Based on West Hawaii Today research, the average family in Hawaii using a 5/8-inch meter consumed around 9,500 gallons monthly in 2015….
read … Another Rate Hike
Hawaii Tax Credits Pay for doubled share of ‘green’ vehicles
CS: …If you want to see a state charging forward with electric cars, look to Hawaii. Since 2014, the state increased its share of green vehicles by 117%. Of the fleet now on the islands’ roads, a whopping 60% were plug-in hybrids or all-electric cars. No other state can top that percentage.
To explain the phenomenon, iSeeCars.com CEO Phong Ly pointed out Hawaii’s “aggressive sustainability plan, which includes incentives for green car buyers such as free parking and exemption from high-occupancy vehicle lane restrictions.”
read … Hawaii more than doubled its share of green vehicles since 2014.
6 vie for 3 KIUC board seats
KGI: …Six qualified candidates are vying for three positions on the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative board. The nonprofit co-op, Hawaii’s only member-owned electric utility, is making progress towards its goal of using renewable resources to generate 70 percent of Kauai’s power by 2030.
There is no public forum scheduled to meet the candidates.
Election deadline to vote is Saturday at noon. Look for ballots in the mail; members can vote by paper, phone or online.
Here are the candidates, listed in alphabetical order….
read … 6 vie for 3 KIUC board seats
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