City Negligent - Again - On Hanauma Bay
Kelii Akina Wins Endorsements from Malama Solomon, Kealii Makekau and Paul Mossman
List of Neighborhood Board Vacancies
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted September 26, 2016
Wakai and Belatti named UH Manoa 2016 Legislators in Residence
State Senator Gil Riviere Endorses Djou for Mayor
Fed Wreck: The Federal Push for a Hawaiian Government
VA Inspector General Report on VA Pacific Islands Health Care System Honolulu
The Jones Act Does Not Keep America Safe
Getting out of Gridlock: Should UH Start Later?
Hawaii Roads: $78K Administrative Cost Per Mile
SA: The results rely mainly on 2013 data and they reflect separate, earlier conclusions from a pavement consultant, which showed that state transportation officials went for years without the proper tools and training to keep Hawaii’s main roads and highways in decent shape.
The latest Reason report found that Hawaii, with the nation’s smallest state-run road network at 1,016 miles, in 2013 spent about 2-1/2 times the national average in total costs per mile: $405,269.
Despite that heavy spending, the report further found Hawaii’s roads to be the worst in the U.S. for urban pavement conditions….
As part of Hawaii’s total costs, the Reason report found that the state spent nearly $78,000 per mile in administrative costs on its roads, while the national average for those costs was $10,051. Only Connecticut spent more per mile on administration than Hawaii.
Sakahara said most of Hawaii’s 2013 administrative total actually went toward debt service on DOT projects, and if stripped away the administrative costs per mile were closer to $18,000, which would “boost us significantly in the ranking.” (Do you believe him?)
UPDATE: HIDOT Fails to Answer -- $78K Administrative Cost Per Mile
read … A Desk in Every Mile
Hawaiians are individuals in thought, like any people
Cataluna: If there was one step we could take, one shift in perception, that would move every discussion about Native Hawaiian issues forward, it would be this:
Not every Native Hawaiian thinks or feels the same way.
It sounds stupid to say it — I mean, of course! Why would any one group of people, especially a group as diverse and heterogeneous as people of Native Hawaiian ancestry living in the new millennium, be in total agreement on everything all the time?
Yet that ridiculous expectation colors so much of what is said about Native Hawaiians, including discussions of Native Hawaiian issues by Native Hawaiians.
One hallmark of White Privilege is the allowance for and the celebration of independent thought. People of color, though, are expected to think and act as a group. Hawaiians are lumped together in one category, particularly in political circles, media coverage and academic papers….
The idea that there is one correct way to do things is something imposed on the culture….
read … Hawaiians are individuals in thought, like any people
Obama’s Act of Desperation
FH: …Obama approved a "rule change" to allow the US Department of the Interior to grant federal recognition (we call it fed-wreck) to a yet-to-be-concocted "Native Hawaiian-American Indian tribe"...
It’s mostly hype. It is a last-ditch attempt by Fed-wreck backers…an act of desperation. They had tried everything else. So now they're resorting to manipulating Obama to bypass Congress' authority to give the DOI the power to “recognize” Hawaiians as a tribe. But even if the president gets away with this sneaky maneuver, federal recognition through the DOI is not a done deal.
Fed-wreck does not have the support of native Hawaiians, definitely not Hawaiian nationals nor any other stakeholder. I would dismiss it altogether, except that, knowing the way the powers-that-be operate, danger still lurks. I wouldn't put it past the US and its collaborators to manufacture a fake nation and manufacture fake consent….
the recent Obama action is a “Hail Mary!” pass. The football is just flung out to the end zone hoping someone is there to catch it for a touchdown. It’s an act of desperation that usually fails… Usually… But, there is a chance that it could succeed! Especially if the one who tossed the ball is also making up the rules, or even more the case, is not following the rules….
Related: Fake Tribe Denounced: “This change is intended to circumvent legal, congressional processes, and Hawaiian community input”
read … Free Hawai’i
Annelle Amaral overjoyed by the Fake Indian Tribe announcement
RNZ: …The president of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Annelle Amaral, said she is overjoyed by the announcement, which has been decades in the making.
"It means that finally the indigenous people of Hawaii are recognised by the federal government," she said.
"They have never formally recognised us as the people. And the other thing it means as that we will finally have sovereignty, we will finally have a full-throated voice."
Ms Amaral said the community is already working to establish a unified government.
She said the community was looking at a constitution and working hard to meet the other requirements for recognition.
"I think there's a threshold of 150,000 have to participate in the ratification of the governing document and the election of their people, and we have in in total 300,000 - so that's a participation rate of half.
"The indigenous people are being held to a pretty high standard but that's OK, we can do this."….
read … Annelle Amaral, said she is overjoyed by the announcement
Not One Word About Nai Aupuni Constitution from Its Chief Drafter
Zuri Aki: The U.S. Department of the Interior laid a pathway for Native Hawaiians to acquire greater political power over our internal affairs by way of establishing a formal government-to-government relationship with the U.S. government (a.k.a. federal recognition)….
(Aki is the self-described “chief drafter of the…group responsible for putting together the Constitution” at the February Nai Aupuni federal recognition ‘Aha held at John Waihee’s Moanalua Valley golf course.)
Background: Two Arrests: Corruption Bust Strikes at Heart of Drive for Fake Indian Tribe
read … Nai Aupuni Constitution is Dead
DHHL asks for over $500M over 2 years
HNN: …"I think it's over inflated. I think there's a lot of padding going on. I'm not sure why," said Robin Danner, chair of the Statewide Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations. "If I were a legislator I would be stunned."
The two-year request includes more than $112 million for administrative and operating costs, $153.1 million for loans and $244.2 million for lot developments and rehabilitation projects.
"They just has a bad track record of spending down the money for native Hawaiian beneficiaries," said House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke "We have to wonder if they have the ability to spend this kind of money, when they couldn't spend $60 million."
Luke is referring to $60 million in federal money that the department has been accused of hoarding and not spending on Hawaiian programs.
One federal agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is withholding any new grants to DHHL for the first time in 15 years….
read … $500M
World Conservation Congress: Against all Industries – Except Tourism
CB: Like thousands of others, I flew to Oahu for the World Conservation Congress this month….
“We have basically run out of time,” said economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. The debate is no longer about the importance of nature or whether there are planetary limits, it’s now about “what to do — globally and locally.”
This message was pervasive throughout every session. Except one.
The panel discussion on “Economic Growth and Environmental Stewardship” was focused around one simple message: We need more tourism.
“The expansion of tourism is essential for a healthy economy in Hawaii,” said Mark Dunkerley, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines. Because tourism and environmental stewardship go hand in hand, he said he is an “unabashed advocate of expanding the growth of tourism in our state.”
It felt like that final act in a magic show. I knew exactly what I’d see when the sheet was lifted, but I still couldn’t really believe it. Something, somewhere, didn’t add up. After four days of workshops on the collapsing biosphere, mass extinction, climate change and limits to growth, here we were talking about the need for more tourism.
read … Tourism
Plea change canceled in UH Stevie Wonder concert blunder
AP: A man accused of scamming the University of Hawaii of $200,000 for a Stevie Wonder concert that never happened is no longer planning to change his plea.
Marc Hubbard was scheduled to change his plea Tuesday. But court records show there will instead be a pretrial conference scheduled for next week.
He pleaded not guilty in 2013 to a wire fraud charge….
Court records say Hubbard pleaded guilty in South Carolina and New York to wire fraud and conspiracy charges. He’s also facing sentencing in Pennsylvania.
SA: ‘Wonder Blunder’ prosecutor wants to cite mainland plea
read … Wonder Blunder
Offshore Windfarms: “The Technology just isn’t quite ready”
Q. But what about a place like Hawaii? They also have good wind and a strong need for clean energy.
A.The turbines at Block Island are 90 feet deep. If you go fifteen miles off the Pacific coast you are thousands of feet deep. Hawaii is basically the tip of a mountaintop.
So the solution you would need to go to the Pacific is a structure that floats. There are no commercial floating wind farms in the world today – just a handful of R&D projects. The technology just isn’t quite ready.
But there’s a big difference between the East Coast and the West Coast. On the east coast you have a continental shelf that keeps water a few hundred feet deep for miles and miles. We could have farms from Maine down the Atlantic coast.
read … Not Ready
Hawaii Property Crime up 18%—Agg Assault up 31%
KHON: …The FBI reports that Hawaii saw a rise in aggravated assaults and property crimes, according to crime statistics from 2015.
Compared to 2014, robbery, assault, property crime and theft are up. Aggravated assault went up 31 percent and property crime went up 18 percent.
Burglary, however, went down by 12 percent, and crimes involving murder were down as well. Click here to view the full data (.xlsx)….
read … Rise in property crimes has Hawaii homeowners taking action
Corrupt UPW-Controlled Prison: 4 corrections officers accused of sexually assaulting female inmates
HNN: Four are now under investigation. And while two have already been arrested, all four are still getting their state paychecks (thanks, UPW).
A half dozen inmates at the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua have reported being assaulted this year.
In some cases, they kept clothing with DNA evidence….
"Predatory guards feasting on a population of women who absolutely have to bow to their demands. If they don't, they get write-ups," he said….
Corrections officers Chavon Freitas and Taofi Magalei were both arrested in July and are expected to be fired next month.
A third is also on paid leave pending an investigation, and the fourth has been reassigned. …
(And the soft on crime morons want to close down the Arizona prison to bring more of their beloved convicts back to these conditions?)
UH News: Criminals are all innocent
read … 4 corrections officers accused of sexually assaulting female inmates
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