Full Text: Hawaiian Roll Commission Releases Financial Records
Feds Will Decide on Hawaii Offshore Wind Projects
Study: Hawaii Is the 2nd Worst State to Be Poor from a Tax Perspective
Before the Common Core Debacle: HSA Test Scores up 11% Math, 5% Reading
Hawaii Insurers' Profit Drive: Propaganda Video Talks Patients into a Cheap Death 'In Every Hospital'
AP: ...For example, one video explains that if CPR is attempted, you also may be put on a ventilator — a tube down your throat that pushes air into your lungs, preventing eating or talking. In a matter-of-fact manner, it shows health workers inserting that tube in a mannequin and, briefly, a real patient lying sedated and intubated.
In carefully controlled studies, Volandes found patients were less likely to opt for aggressive end-of-life care after seeing the videos than if someone just described their choices.
About 200 hospitals and other health facilities around the country use the videos. The biggest real-world test is going on now in Hawaii: The state's largest insurer has licensed the videos for use in every hospital and in other health facilities including primary care offices. Researchers are tracking the impact.
"If one of our members makes a conscious decision that, 'I want to fight until my last dying breath,' we're supportive of that," said Hilton Raethel, chief health officer of HMSA, the not-for-profit Hawaii Medical Service Association. "But we want that to be a choice you make as opposed to it's something that's imposed on you."....
LINK: Watch Video
HPR: Videos On End-Of-Life Choices Ease End
As Explained: Meet the Insurance Executive Behind Assisted Suicide in Hawaii
read ... Insurance Company Saving Money
Online Travel Stocks Soar After Big Win Before Hawaii Supreme Court
TW: Hawaii's supreme court last week ruled that the state cannot hold online travel agencies (OTAs) responsible for paying occupancy taxes for booked rooms, but to cover general excise taxes the state will keep a portion of the $247 million the OTAs paid in a 2013 lower court ruling....
The court ruled that the OTAs owed excise taxes on the revenue they had generated since 2000, even though the companies had no physical presence on the islands. Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin estimated the amount the state will keep in back taxes at "up to tens of millions of dollars," while local reports are pegging the amount the state will keep from the OTAs at about $70 million....
Investors appeared to view the Hawaii decision as favorable to the OTAs. Shares of Expedia, the OTA that books the most U.S. travel, rose almost 2% on March 18, the first trading day after the ruling, while Priceline shares were up 2.4%. Expedia acquired Travelocity in January and reached an agreement to acquire Orbitz last month.
read ... Hawaii high court says OTAs not liable for occupancy taxes
Raceway Bill: Evicted Deadbeat Racks up $715K in Fines, Debts so Legislators Consider $100M Loan
SA: Several nonprofit companies involving former racetrack operator George Grace III would be able to use state revenue bond authority to sell $100 million in bonds to investors for a motor sports complex under a bill that has cleared the state House.
House Bill 1329 now awaits consideration from two Senate committees....
The new initiative, however, faces major obstacles.
For one, the state Department of the Attorney General said the racing-related facilities proposed in the bill don't appear to qualify as industrial enterprises eligible for Hawaii special-purpose revenue bonds....
Another obstacle to the raceway project is finding a site for the complex....
Dhevhan Keith Marcelino, also affiliated with the Grace nonprofits, included an image of proposed raceway facilities on a few hundred acres in Kalaeloa that includes land controlled by Hunt Cos., the Federal Aviation Administration and the Navy, which intends to give its portion to the city.
Sato said the image was prepared to show how much land the tracks and buildings might occupy, and that there are no plans to use the Kalaeloa site.
The most immediate obstacle is getting the bond bill approved....
On March 5 public notice on the bill's hearing before the House Finance Committee was given less than an hour, rather than the required 48 hours, before the hearing began....
The bond bill is at the midpoint of this year's legislative session, but the measure did not pass the House cleanly. The House Finance Committee removed all dollar amounts for the bonds and changed the bill's effective date to July 1, 2030. That guarantees that the bill, which was passed by the full House March 10, will have to be decided in a joint House-Senate conference committee if the Senate passes the bill.
There is some question as to whether Grace's former troubles with the city and state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands might negatively influence the bond bill.
Grace established Kalaeloa Raceway Park in 2010 through Save Oahu's Race Tracks LLC on 38 acres of DHHL land in an attempt to replace the 69-acre Hawaii Raceway Park. But the operation, which included a dirt drag strip and oval track, was evicted after DHHL claimed that Grace was about $40,000 behind on utility and rent payments and had engaged in unauthorized construction and mining....
The city issued citations to Save Oahu's Race Tracks for those activities. Though Grace corrected three violations, he accrued $340,000 in fines that remain unpaid. A fourth, unresolved violation continues to earn Save Oahu's Race Tracks a penalty of $1,000 a day and was up to about $335,000 as of last week.
Grace sued DHHL but lost and was evicted from the site, which is adjacent to the site identified in Marcelino's testimony.
Despite his difficulties with DHHL and the city, Grace has garnered support from some government officials, including state Sen. Maile Shimabukuro and City Council Chairman Ernie Martin.... (and House Speaker Joseph Souki....)
Most Intelligent Comment: "That's another $100,000,000 we'll never get back.Just look at the history of Mr. Grace.The kala will just disappear."
Background: Will Legislators Co-Sign $660M Loan for Evicted Racetrack Owner?
read ... Grace Less
HB124 Vote by Mail With Romy Cachola
CB: House Bill 124 (hearing 3-24 at 9am) and Senate Bill 287 would phase in voting by mail, introducing the practice first in counties with fewer than 100,000 residents in 2016 and extending it statewide by 2020. Ballots would be mailed directly to voters, who would then complete and return them by mail.
Reality: Vote by Mail Fraud: Romy Cachola Barged In, Wanted Ballots
read ... Voting By Mail In Hawaii
$28M More to be Wasted on Health Connector?
AP: One proposal seeks to help the Hawaii Health Connector maintain its operations by allowing the organization to issue $28 million in debentures, a type of bond backed by the state. A similar proposal died in the House, because of concerns about the funding mechanism and the dollar amount.
Now, the Senate-backed proposal, SB 1028, is in the House. A joint panel of House committee members will hear the proposal on Monday afternoon.
read ... good money after bad
Hawaii solar boom excuse for new type of Rate Hike--'Time of Use Pricing'
AM: The growth of rooftop solar in Hawaii and the excess power it produces in the middle of the day might eventually force the state to change its retail electricity pricing to better reflect real-time prices, a state utility regulator said.
The state will need to switch to time-of-use pricing in response to an overabundance of solar generation on parts of the grid, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission member Michael Champley said. That form of pricing uses different rates at set times of the day so customers have an incentive to use more electricity when supply is abundant or less when it is scarce.
"We need to shift use from evening to midday," Champley said last week in Washington, DC, at a conference hosted by the Edison Foundation, an affiliate of the electric utility trade group Edison Electric Institute.
read ... Rate Hike
Clean Sweep of HCDA Board
SA: The Hawaii Community Development Authority has a new board in place, allowing the state agency overseeing development in Kakaako to once again decide permit applications and policy decisions.
The state Senate recently voted 22-0 with three senators excused to confirm all nominees offered by Gov. David Ige.
An almost entirely new slate of HCDA directors was needed because of a state law enacted last year that terminated seven of the agency's nine core board positions at the end of February as part of an effort to reduce the power for a governor to shape the HCDA board.
Ige nominated five people to fill core board seats. Two other directors were automatically installed earlier given their positions in Ige's Cabinet. The governor has yet to nominate anyone for the two remaining empty seats, which need to be filled by a cultural specialist and an at-large representative.
The new directors for HCDA's core board, which makes decisions for Kakaako matters, are John Whalen, Tom McLaughlin, Jason Okuhama, William Oh and Steven Scott.
Six other board members were nominated and confirmed to help govern HCDA land-use affairs in two other parts of Oahu: Heeia and Kalaeloa.
Directors for Heeia are Donna Camvel, Amy Luersen and Brett Nakoa Prejean. Directors for Kalaeloa are Michael Golojuch Sr., Shirley Swinney and Dean Capelouto.
read ... New Broom?
Anti-GMO Activists Look for Pesticide Hit List
CB: Even as legislators consider more stringent regulations, the state Department of Agriculture hasn’t complied with a law passed in 2013 that requires it to post sales records for restricted-use pesticides on its website.
State officials say they’re worried that they will be sued if the information is released. And they contend that the information can be kept confidential because its release would make agricultural companies less likely to accurately report pesticide use.
Thomas Matsuda, who leads the agency’s pesticide branch, said the agency hasn’t implemented the law because of legal issues related to confidential business information and privacy.
“We wanted to release something but we can’t do that, we can’t be reckless,” Matsuda said, adding he hoped the information could be posted within the next three months. “I don’t want the state being sued.”
When the Legislature passed Act 105 in 2013, it was a watered-down measure of a bill that had been strongly opposed by the local seed industry. Rep. Dee Morikawa from Kauai sponsored the measure in response to concerns about pesticide spraying by large agricultural companies such as Syngenta in her district.
State regulation of pesticide use has become an even more pressing issue after a federal judge ruled last fall that Kauai County and Hawaii County don’t have the authority to regulate agriculture. Earlier this month, the state Senate passed Senate Bill 1037 to require farms to submit monthly pesticide disclosure reports....
read ... Target Pioneer
Turtle Bay Conservation Easement At Risk After Brower Defers Financing Bill
CB: Last year, the Turtle Bay Resort conservation easement seemed like a done deal.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced the $48.5 million agreement to preserve 665 acres on the North Shore in perpetuity to much fanfare. It was a victory for environmentalists after decades of efforts to curb development in the rural area.
But now that agreement is at risk, according to Doug Cole, executive director of the North Shore Community Land Trust, who has been part of the negotiations to secure the easement.
House Tourism Committee Chairman Tom Brower deferred a bill last week that sought to extend the funding for the easement for another year.
SB284: Text, status
read ... Turtle Bay Conservation Easement At Risk
Hiking website bloggers claim free speech to write about illegal trail
KHON: Crystal Evans of HikingHawaii808.com responded that “even if these websites stopped putting pictures up, if they weren’t around, you’re going to have someone posting a picture, posting a hike, no matter what.”
She added, however, that “I definitely see both sides of it. If it was my private property, I wouldn’t want someone getting hurt and suing me.
“It’s hard, because you have real hikers like myself, and then you have hikers who aren’t prepared and giving the rest of us a bad name, and that’s where the problem is.”
Coty Gonzales of the website Exploration: Hawaii received a letter as well, and said he’s happy to work with groups on improving hiking safety in Hawaii. While he took down directions to the illegal hike from his site on his own months ago, the photos remain.
He says, along with other bloggers, that this is an issue concerning free speech.
“I believe we should be able to take a picture of what we want and be able to post it on our websites and that is our freedom and right,” said Evans.
read ... Free Speech
Coppa Lobbies for Payday Lenders: Hawaii’s ‘Outrageous’ Rates Prompt Reform Efforts
CB: ...Hawaii has regulated usury since 1859, long before the islands became a state. The current usury law caps the annual percentage interest rate for loans at 12 percent or 24 percent, depending on what kind of institution is giving out the loan.
But lawmakers passed a bill in 1999 that created a loophole for “deferred deposits,” opening the door for the payday lending industry to thrive.
Lenders can give loans up to $600 with a 15 percent fee. Borrowers must pay the money back within 32 days. A typical loan lasts two weeks, or until your next paycheck....
But so far, reform efforts in Hawaii have failed. The Senate passed a bill in 2013 to impose stricter regulations on the industry, but Rep. Clift Tsuji, who chaired the economic development committee, didn’t call a hearing for it. Rep. Mark Nakashima introduced a measure last year to limit the annual percentage rate to 36 percent, but House Consumer Protection Committee Chairman Angus McKelvey killed it.
That’s something that Sen. Rosalyn Baker from Maui wants to change.
The influential senator who chairs the consumer protection committee introduced Senate Bill 737, which would cap the annual percentage rate at 36 percent.
“If it’s good for the military, it should be good for the civilian population,” Baker said.
The measure passed the Senate almost unanimously, with Sen. Sam Slom, the chamber’s sole Republican, voting no....
Baker’s is the last payday lending measure still alive, and its prospects don’t look good in the House.
One of the company’s lobbyists is Bruce Coppa, former Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s chief of staff. Coppa said the problem with payday loans is the lack of enforcement of the state’s existing law, which prohibits companies from rolling over loans.
read ... Payday
NFL considers foreign sites for Pro Bowl
HNN: Next year's game will be played in Honolulu, the frequent site for the all-star matchup, and will be held Jan. 31, the Sunday before the Super Bowl. Beyond that, just about anywhere seems to be in play.
"The 2016 Pro Bowl will be played in Hawaii ... and we are very excited about that," NFL spokesman Michael Signora said Monday. "For 2017 and beyond, we are studying the future of the Pro Bowl.
"Brazil, an area with a growing number of NFL fans, as a possible host is one of the ideas that seems to hold a lot of appeal for additional analysis."
read ... Thanks, Neil
Star-Adv: Spend Millions for Smaller Stadium
SA: As to the specific recommendations of the consultant's report, it seems that proper due diligence, including discussions with more than 35 different stakeholders, has landed on the best option: Building a new, smaller stadium on the lower portion of the current site. The consensus was that it would cost $134 million to $300 million to build a stadium seating 30,000 to 35,000 people, with possible expansion to 42,000 seats, depending upon the materials used and what amenities are included.
As expensive as that is, it is a better alternative than paying upwards of $200 million over the next 30 years simply to repair the existing 50,000-seat stadium to meet health and safety standards — no upgrades, just maintenance for the 40-year-old facility. The consultant cautioned, too, that those repair costs will rise significantly the longer the work is postponed.
Moving to a new site was considered, but rebuilding on the current, centrally located site was deemed best, according to the consensus view that both a new stadium and ancillary transit-oriented development, including residential and commercial construction, could fit on the site.
Although the main obstacle to building a new stadium is money, there are other challenges as well, including resolving deed restrictions on the site and obtaining necessary military, environmental and other government approvals.
The bottom line is that Aloha Stadium is too old and too large to meet the future needs of Warrior football, its main customer.
read ... Small Enough for a Gay Marriage Fashion Show?
Mainland Homosexuals Thrilled as Legislature Eases Process to Feminize Hawaii Boys
HRC: The Senate Committee on Health in Hawaii passed HB 631, the Transgender Birth Certificate Bill. In addition to making it easier to change a name on a birth certificate, the bill also ensures that such birth certificates are reissued instead of being marked as amended, which will help ensure the privacy of transgender people.
“HB 631 would instead allow a transgender person to produce a sworn statement from a licensed medical or mental health provider, verifying that the person’s birth certificate does not align with their gender identity and that, in their professional opinion, the registrant’s sex designation should be changed,” HRC Senior Legislative Counsel Alison Gill explained in her testimony. “This procedure would simplify the process of updating records and comply with the best understanding of transgender healthcare. Moreover, the bill would allow transgender individuals to receive newly issued birth certificates that do not indicate that their name or gender marker has been amended, which will help ensure their privacy.”
HB 631 has already passed the Hawaii House.
read ... Trannies
QUICK HITS: