February 28, 2010 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, February 28, 2010

February 28, 2010 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 1:13 PM :: 14117 Views

LINK>>>Photos: Tsunami surge in Hilo, Kahului

LINK>>>Koller: State’s “horse-and-buggy” system is labor-intensive, costly and slow

Star-Bulletin to close if no buyer found

Star-Bulletin owner David Black has announced plans to buy the rival—but more-profitable—Honolulu Advertiser from mainland media chain Gannett Co. To satisfy antitrust rules, Black is putting his 64,000-circulation daily up for sale. If no credible buyer emerges, the Star-Bulletin and the Advertiser will be merged by Oahu Publications Inc., the Star-Bulletin's parent company, to create Hawaii's lone daily newspaper.

(OHA and KSBE in bidding war?)

Former cocaine dealer J Kalani English: Bought and paid for by Hawaii Air Ambulance

Former cocaine dealer J Kalani English admitted that he has been a passenger on Hawaii Air Ambulance Flights between Honolulu and Maui. Also English acknowledges that he was a guest in a Honolulu condo owned by Andrew Kluger, chief executive officer of the air ambulance firm, and also acknowledged driving in a car owned by Kluger.

The settlement said only that English agrees to pay a settlement and "agrees to fully comply with all the provisions of HRS 84 (state ethics law) on an ongoing basis."

English (D, East Maui, Lanai, Molokai) did not reimburse the state Senate, which paid for flight coupons in 2002, nor did he report the free flights on state ethics gift disclosure forms.

In 2002 English accepted state flight coupons for flights between Oahu and Maui, but actually took free trips on the air ambulance.

In 2002, when English flew on Hawaii Air Ambulance, the Legislature was considering changes in air ambulance regulations.

(Another Maui Senator willing to compromise the health care of his constituents for a few bucks)

2 bills on school time still alive

Several bills were introduced this legislative session to mandate minimum instructional days and/or hours. Two are still alive, one in the House and one in the Senate. Both were approved by money committees last week and are headed for floor votes so they can cross over to the other chamber. But legislators gave each bill a defective date, a technique to ensure further discussion and action before passage.

House Bill 2486 mandates at least 1,080 instructional hours per year in elementary school and 1,260 in high school. That translates into 180 school days with six hours of instruction each day in elementary and seven hours in high school. Senate Bill 2470 calls for a minimum of 200 days of classroom instruction or "equivalent instructional hours."

Hawaii agency agrees to $316M deal to renovate public housing

Housing officials foresee the redevelopment at KPT becoming a template for addressing dilapidated public housing projects statewide. The work is set to include the renovation of the twin towers at Kuhio Park Terrace and the 14 low-rise buildings that make up Kuhio Homes.

The developer will also add 276 market-level and affordable rentals.

Adding a mix of incomes to the property is designed to deconcentrate poverty while increasing revenues so maintenance needs don't back up. The state says the redevelopment will require little in the way of state funds, since Michaels will seek other financing options for the work.

Michaels will lease the land at the public housing project, in part to keep costs down. It will buy the existing public housing buildings, however, including the towers.

Oahu's 'wild west' garbage piles gone

Something of a historic moment may have occurred at 9:01 a.m. Friday when John Tabangcura with the Parks and Recreations Department pulled his city refuse truck up to a hardscrabble homeless area variously known as "the wild west" on the Wai'anae Coast and began loading piles of rubbish off state-owned Farrington Highway.

Hawaii's rural development fight rekindled in valley on Oahu

Under conservation district regulations at the time, golf courses were permitted, and the Land Use Commission granted SFM's request in 1992.

SFM, however, ran into serious problems.

While the developer was seeking the land-use change, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which administers conservation land rules, was revising those rules, according to Sam Lemmo, administrator of DLNR's Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands. Lemmo said DLNR ended up prohibiting golf courses on conservation land in a move that stunned SFM.

ADV: Hopeful but elusive signs of recovery

Closed schools, half-empty hotels and a gnawing sense of helplessness and disenfranchisement can be as chilling to the soul as a foot of snow can be to the bone. (Corporatist State hits bottom?)

Tsunami Warning center learns from miscalculation

DART gauges spread across the sea floor to detect the size of tsunami waves are a fairly new technology, Fryer said. The initial wave reading from the DART gauge showed 25 centimeters, huge for the deep water, he said.

"At that point, we went to full Pacific-wide warning," he said. "Part of the reason we had to do that was because although it was huge, we didn't quite know what it meant because we haven't much experience with those. As we get more under our belts, we'll get better."

He added: "Fifty percent error, that's OK. That's about the level of accuracy in this game. It will get better."

Waves couldn't catch rhythm of the Slinky

"We've always been a little nervous about Hilo (Bay), because Hilo gets into resonance so easily," said Fryer. "In this particular case, the waves were 20 minutes apart and the natural resonant period for Hilo is 30 minutes, and that is why the waves didn't grow bigger there."

The 1960 tsunami from an earthquake near Chile, by contrast, sent in waves at perfect 30-minute intervals, so they built up in the bay rather than canceling each other out, he said.

UH regent hopefuls named

The terms of Maui regent James Haynes II, Honolulu regent Chuck Gee and student regent Grant Teichman expire this year.

The council screened candidates for the positions and forwarded the names of accountant Terri Fujii and Gee, a former Travel Industry Management School dean, for the Honolulu seat.

Fujii was a member of the advisory committee that helped choose M.R.C. Greenwood to become UH president. Gee is seeking re-nomination to the board.

Graphic artist Saedene Ota and former Silicon Valley businessman Ronald Montgomery are the candidates for the Maui seat; and UH wide receiver Jett Jasper, sociology Ph.D. candidate Hannah Miyamoto and nursing and business master's student Matthew Williams are candidates for the student regent seat.

Aiea firm to build $200M biorefinery

Aiea-based ClearFuels Technology Inc. has joined with Hughes Hardwood of Collinwood, Tenn., to build a $200 million biorefinery in Wayne County.

The biorefinery will convert wood products into renewable jet fuel and diesel.

The company’s objective is to locate its biorefineries at wood waste mills or sugar mills in Hawaii and internationally.

Timeshares Imploding

#1 Hotel Wailea tied up in foreclosure

#2 The Point at Poipu Timeshare owners still disgruntled