Taking Minimum Wage out of Context
Only 25 Sign Up: Caldwell Helps Recruit Gay Couples for Political demonstration Marriages
SA: Legalizing gay marriage here is expected to boost tourism by $217 million over the next three years, according to a University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization study. The bulk of the spending would be on marriage ceremonies and honeymoons.
Twenty-five other couples had signed up as of Friday to apply for marriage licenses or get married at tonight's event, said Tambry Young of Citizens for Equal Rights. Marriage license agents and officiants will be available to couples following the initial six nuptials.
Young said couples who are interested in participating need to visit a registration booth at the Marriage Equality Family Day and Celebration being held today from noon to 4 p.m. at Thomas Square. She said the event will act as a wedding rehearsal lunch for those getting married after midnight.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell is scheduled to speak at the event, which will include performances by the Royal Hawaiian Band (another insult to Hawaiians), keiki activities and food trucks.
Act of God: Pouring Rain cancels Caldwell's Gay Family day
AP: In Some States, Gays Fight for Right to Divorce
read ... $217M / 25 = $8.68M per wedding
Abercrombie, Kahele to Celebrate 'wedding' of Honolulu Unitarian Minister to Mainland Homosexual
SA: Flanked by 140 friends from a broad range of faiths and Gov. Neil Abercrombie, the Rev. Jonipher Kupono Kwong, a minister and gay rights activist, will wed fiancé Chris Nelson moments after the clock strikes midnight tonight, when marriage equality becomes legal in Hawaii.
Kwong, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, said he and his (sort-of) partner of 15 years (insert convenient number here) decided to celebrate the passage of the law on Nov. 12 by getting married. (In other words, this is a political demonstration) They proposed to each other as they sat together through hours of testimony during the marathon third reading of the marriage equality bill Nov. 8 at the Legislature....
Abercrombie will speak briefly before the ceremony at First Unitarian, along with Sen. Gil Kahele of Hilo, who spoke movingly in favor of same-sex marriage during debate, Kwong said.
Rabbi Peter Schaktman, a close friend of the couple, will perform the ceremony.
Kwong said none of his Roman Catholic friends, besides Maryknoll Sister Joan Chatfield, accepted his invitation to attend. But priests Jack Isbell and Nick Eyre, leaders of Sts. Francis & Clare Ecumenical Catholic Church, a much smaller and more liberal Catholic denomination not under Rome, said they will be there.
Todd Takahashi and Edna Yano of the Shinto Konkokyo churches of Honolulu and Wahiawa, respectively, will perform a traditional sake blessing ceremony.
Nelson, who works as a stevedore in California, plans to move to Hawaii once the selling of his fantasy novel is completed. (i.e. never) Over 15 years, they have managed to live together in Hawaii or California for only a few years at a time. (Translation: This is all fake.)
December 1: World AIDS Day in Hawaii
read ... Top Down Planning
IHS Helps Transsexual Recover from Effects of Homosexual Child Molestation
SA: "I started prostituting (Translation: homosexuals were molesting this underage boy regularly) and eventually got heavy into drugs when I turned 17. Things were spiraling down for me as I didn't finish school; I was on the streets high on drugs. Eventually I got into trouble and was incarcerated and sent to jail. I was in jail for 18 months -- and I was battling depression and hearing voices due to the constant drug use.
"It was hard, but it was during that time that I could reflect about my life. It was then that I decided that I would have to do things on my own to get my life back.
"Doing my time in prison, I met a friend who told me that transgenders were allowed to stay at the IHS women's shelter. This really made an impact and gave me hope because no other shelter would allow someone like me to live with the women. I would usually have to live with men at other shelters...."
read ... Christian Group Helps Tranny Recover from Gay Agenda
Shapiro, Milner: Haoles are Stigmatized Like Jews
Shaprio: Retired political science professor Neal Milner and I were discussing his new book, "The Gift of Underpants," about his experiences growing up Jewish in Milwaukee and living his adult life as a Jew in Hawaii.
He wanted to know what it was like for me as a Jew to be transplanted from Los Angeles to Hilo at 15.
I said, "I went from being a #$@&%*! Jew to being a #$@&%*! haole."....
As a teen in Hilo, I was subjected to many unfriendly remarks about my haoleness and threatened with a number of lickings that I managed to talk my way out of, but I can't remember a single anti-Semitic insult.
Most people I grew up with in Hilo didn't seem quite sure what a Jew was. A haole was a haole, and it was just fine with me to be lumped in with the larger stigmatized group.
(Reality: This is part of an effort to convince haoles they are an oppressed nationality so they will bloc-vote for Schatz just like they bloc-voted for Gabbard. It is aimed at newcomers because the kamaaina know better.)
read ... White Power Movement Emerging Before Your Eyes
Earthjustice (sic): Counties can legally regulate ag practices
SA: The rumor that the state already has sole power to regulate anything agricultural is false, despite contrary legal-sounding assertions. HRS S46-1.5(13) gives the counties the power to protect health, life and property "on any subject or matter" not conflicting with state law. (ooops) And regardless of any state law, counties can restrict "noise, smoke, dust, vibration, or odors" (HRS S 46-17). (Odors? Does than mean counties can force anti-GMO protesters to take a shower?)
read ... Earthjustice (sic)
1966: 1000 Patients at Hawaii State Hospital
SA: HSH has been on Oahu more than 100 years. The original "Territorial Insane Asylum" was in Kalihi. Around 1930, it was moved to Kaneohe. In the 1960s the facility, renamed the Hawaii State Hospital, housed more than 1,000 people. It was designed to treat those with severe mental illness; good hygiene was the mainstay of treatment. Psychiatric medications were new and limited in their effectiveness.
John F. Kennedy's 1963 Community Mental Health Care Act resulted in the de-institutionalization of state hospitals. (By 1968 the freed lunatics were organized as the counter-culture.) His death and the subsequent change of national priorities did not finish his vision of expansion of community mental health services to offset the reductions of inpatient beds. HSH's population shrank from more than 1,000 in 1966 to around 200 in 1986. Hospital buildings built in the 1950s became outdated. New medications and treatments came. The movement to de-institutionalize individuals and help them re-enter the community grew. It seemed possible that state hospitals would no longer be needed.
In the late 1980s, the old buildings were razed. The current facility, opened in 1992, was built for a patient census of 178. After opening, the rate of admissions began to exceed the rate of discharges. Previously, individuals committed had "only" mental illness.
Unexpectedly, three new trends emerged that increased admissions and discharges. First, individuals in the legal system began to be committed in increasing numbers; second, crystal methamphetamine became a scourge that caused criminal actions, violence and brain damage for users; and, third, the population of Hawaii grew significantly....
Today, virtually all admissions are by a judge's order. Each person has been charged with a crime and been considered dangerous and/or not penally responsible due to mental disease, disorder or defect. One-third of those committed also have methamphetamine abuse or dependence....
read ... State Hospital
DWS Claims Glitch caused water billing errors
SA: At a presentation to board members on Monday, Nuuhiwa said a thorough root cause analysis done by his staff identified four primary causes for the spike in estimated bills. All apparently could be traced back to a glitch that occurred when the agency tried to upload information into newly installed customer service software, which spits out monthly water bills, from the data collected through its older meter-reading software.
Bills based on estimated usage are generally issued when the billing system fails to see actual meter readings.
The agency's information technology staff determined in April that batches of actual meter readings were not recognized by the new water-billing software, forcing it to come up with thousands of estimated bills based on previous usage and the usage of neighbors, Nuuhiwa said.
The staff traced the problem to an unknown number of compound meters, typically used by commercial customers with multiple users, Nuuhiwa said.
read ... The Latest Excuse
OHA Kakaako Makai Development Scheme to be on Legislative Agenda
Borreca: OHA just got a detailed first report on planning for development.
The plan prepared by Group 70 International and Stanford Murata, Inc., says "OHA has the opportunity to plan and create a model urban waterfront community in Kakaako Makai that will serve as a beacon for Native Hawaiian values, practices, and deep knowledge."
The land now produces about $1 million a year in ground lease rent, but if developed, the OHA plan says, the land could return $14 million to $16 million a year....
the Group 70 plan explores ways to serve both cultural needs of the Native Hawaiian community and also the financial needs of OHA.
Bottom line: More buildings, not just office buildings, but apartments, some as high as 400 feet, and possibly a hotel....
Briefly addressed, but not fully discussed, is the fact that the state in 2006 wrote a new law that forbids the Hawaii Community Development Authority from approving any plans for any residential development in the area.
Planners note that the report "does not delve into detail how OHA would pursue a residential option with said rules in place."
State law also says that a broadly based community group is supposed to come up with plans for Kakaako Makai and that HCDA would then move to implement them. That planning is finished and the plan does not call for residential units; instead, there is a discussion of community marketplaces, open access and walking trails....
Next year, the Legislature, which both stopped residential development on the parcels and then gave them to OHA to settle past bills, will have to answer a new, more complex dilemma.
read ... OHA's Kakaako Makai land is development conundrum
Star-Adv: Revamp goals for athletics at 2 campuses
SA: The Athletics Department at UH-Manoa must balance its books within three years -- without exceeding a $1 million debt ceiling in any of the intervening fiscal years. That's the deal Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple imposed last May in exchange for forgiving Athletics' accumulated budget deficit of $13 million. The $30 million department has run at a deficit for 10 of the past 12 years, clearly an unsustainable trend that requires a firm termination point. Regent Benjamin Kudo, chairman of the BOR's Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, says that cutting one or more of UH-Manoa's 21 athletic teams will be the "last resort" if Athletics fails to balance its budget on time.
That UH officials are even broaching the worst-case scenario three years out reflects this reality: A Warrior football team that should be driving revenue for the whole department instead is foundering, with ticket revenue running about $1 million short of projections. A winning college football team provides more than a rallying point for the community or an exciting event for a Saturday night; it brings in money that funds other, lower-profile sports. This needed revenue stream goes beyond the money paid to attend games or to watch them on pay-per-view, and includes charitable gifts to the university from alumni, boosters and others who take pride in the team, and by extension, the entire UH system.
Since the football team is not currently up to that task, Athletic Director Ben Jay looks to save cash where he can, with immediate cuts in capital-equipment and administrative expenses. Another area ripe for overhaul: coaches' contracts. UH must drive a harder bargain when contracts come up for renewal, lest taxpayers again be left holding the bag -- especially when coaches are bought out of their expensive deals after too many losing seasons.
But along with the cuts, Athletics must boost revenues. One clear path is by forging a better deal with the Aloha Stadium Authority. UH pays to use the stadium, but receives no revenue cut from concessions, merchandise sales or promotional signage; its football team is the only one in the Mountain West Conference with such a raw deal. The Legislature and governor can rectify this, and should.
read ... UH Athletics
Desperate for More Tax Credits, Act221 Scammers' Conference to tout Hawaii as 'startup paradise'
SA: Local venture capital veteran Chenoa Farnsworth said the adoption of Startup Paradise to represent Hawaii's entrepreneurial scene evolved organically, helped along by social media. The moniker will be used in a collective branding and promotional effort with the support of major players in Hawaii's innovation sector.
Farnsworth said she noticed that the term began appearing on Twitter about the time AOL founder Steve Case addressed a startup conference here in the summer of 2012.
"Bloggers started using that hashtag and it just grew from there. We saw people we didn't even know starting to use it. It seems like it just kind of stuck," said Farnsworth, who manages Blue Startups, a Honolulu-based venture accelerator....
Local seed funds, trade groups, foundations and government entities have signed on to promote Startup Paradise, including Blue Startups, Energy Excelerator, mBloom, Nalukai Foundation, Entrepreneurs Foundation, Startup Capital Ventures, Box Jelly, Sultan Ventures, Hawaii Venture Capital Association, Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship, Startup Hawaii, Hawaii Angels, HI Growth Initiative and Hawaii Technology Development Corp.
Among the stated goals of Startup Paradise is "increasing awareness of Hawaii as a place to do innovative startups, improving our collective ability to recruit talent and capital to the state."
The agenda for Wednesday's Venture Capital Summit includes a "demo day," when companies participating in both the Blue Startups and Energy Excelerator programs will pitch to investors.
read ... Conference to tout Hawaii as a startup paradise
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