Forgotten Honouliuli: Jack Burns, Police Spy
Coordinated Action Needed to Address Homelessness
Irksome Nuisance: DLNR Pushing Non-Commercial Fishing Licenses Statewide
After a Few Years of Success, DoE Reverts to Type
SA: …After years of hewing fairly closely to federal guidelines and protocols — observing mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act, hitting marks in competition for a “Race to the Top” grant — the DOE is adjusting to a greater measure of independence given to school districts across the country Governor bought n paid for by the HSTA.
One of the first signs of its exercise of that freedom control is a revised strategic plan, a document meant to guide abolish education policy and practice for the next three academic years.
The vehicle for change was the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) HSTA and HGEA….
SA: Ige: By getting rid of the DoE’s only successful Superintendent, my union supporters will stop feeling stressed out
read … Back to the Bad old Days
KKK David Duke Endorses Tulsi Gabbard for Secretary of State
DD: “Tulsi Gabbard … is probably the very best candidate from the ranks of the Washington establishment….”
MC: David Duke Has Endorsed Tulsi Gabbard: Will Gabbard disavow OR normalize the KKK Grand Wizard?
read … Tulsi Gabbard for Secretary of State!
Progressives: Gabbard is Helping Normalize Trump
Borreca: “The Trump transition source said that their sit-down was a ‘terrific meeting’ and that the Trump team sees her as very impressive,” the report added….
Later, a Gabbard spokeswoman denied that a job offer was on the table….
Others viewed the denial as hardly credible.
“I’m calling ‘shibai’ on that one,” said Maui Democratic state Rep. Angus McKelvey. “You don’t walk into a meeting with the new president to talk policy, you talk about positions to be filled.”
“I don’t think for a minute they were talking policy.”
Indeed, the job rumors last week were not only persisting, they were escalating.
Conservative news website Breitbart News last week was rerunning an opinion piece from the Washington insider newspaper, The Hill, headlined, “Tulsi Gabbard Is the Best Pick for Secretary of State, Not Mitt Romney.”
Attorney Maxwell Anderson, in the commentary from last week, said: “Gabbard embodies the very essence of the president-elect’s ideological departure from the interventionist policies that have plagued this nation for the past two decades.”
McKelvey said getting a well-known progressive rising star such as Gabbard into the Trump Cabinet in any form, would be a political gold mine, both because it shows Trump is reaching across the aisle and also that he is looking for diversity….
Bart Dame, a longtime Democratic Party activist, said that Gabbard, with her Trump meeting, “is helping to normalize Trump.”
“She is a strikebreaker in this,” Dame said in an interview last week.
read … Strikebreaker
Democrats Submit Three Names to Ige for HD2 Legislative Appointment
HTH: Hawaii County Democrats met Saturday to select final candidates to fill the late Clift Tsuji’s seat in the state House of Representatives.
Three candidates — Moana Kelii, Stacy Higa and Christopher Todd — were chosen by party members during a Saturday morning voting session at Keaukaha Elementary School.
The names will be submitted to Gov. David Ige, who will appoint one of the three to Tsuji’s District 2 seat. The same process took place in January after the death of state Sen. Gil Kahele.
State law requires Ige to fill the seat within 60 days of Tsuji’s passing. The appointee will serve a full two-year term….
The legislative session begins Jan. 18.
read … Plum
Office of Election to Propose all-mail-in voting system (again)
KHON: The Office of Elections plans to introduce a bill next legislative session to transition elections to mail-in in phases by county.
During its regular meeting Friday, the Hawaii Elections Commission discussed the proposal.
…some concerns, such as voter fraud, came up….
If approved, all-mail-in voting would start on Kauai, then roll to the other counties — with Oahu last — over three election periods.
CB: A Possible Solution To Dwindling Voter Turnout
read … Elections commission discusses all-mail-in voting system
The thing about ‘sacred’ spots is that we can’t all be there
Cataluna: And here it is again: a part of Hawaii unlike any other place in the world being loved to death.
The National Park Service announced this week — some would say FINALLY announced — that action will be taken to try to manage the insanity of the sunrise crowds at Haleakala Crater.
Like Hanauma Bay, like Hanakapiai Trail and Kalalau Valley, like Maunawili Falls and Lanikai and the entire North Shore of Oahu when the winter swell is pumping, like Diamond Head Trail and Stairway to Heaven and Manoa Falls … (the list is longer than that but I’m getting sadder and sadder coming up with examples so I’m just gonna go with the ellipses to indicate an incomplete accounting) the best parts of these precious islands are being trampled by visitors eager to have a special, almost spiritual experience, and who, in their ardor, ruin anything reverent or pristine….
We all have that one Facebook friend who declares that the volcano or Poipu or Hanalei or wherever is THEIR spiritual base, which may be true, for who can judge another’s heartsong, but when that “all mine” belief is shared by hundreds of people a day, what you get is Ala Moana Center parking lot on Black Friday, which is alive and exciting but not exactly a spiritual renewal….
Yes, dear eco-faddists. By making these places ‘sacred’ you have defiled them. Learn.
Yogi Berra: “Nobody goes there anymore. Its too crowded.”
Reality: Crichton: Environmentalism is a religion
read … The thing about sacred spots is that we can’t all be there
Anti-GMO Whackjob: Convicted Criminal Elle Cochran Announces Candidacy for Maui Mayor
MW: Councilmember Elle Cochran (West Maui) revealed in public statements made at an event on Oahu that she intends on running for Mayor of Maui County in 2018.
Cochran was speaking as part of a panel organized by The (misnamed) People’s Congress….
In this past election, Cochran was the top vote getter on the Council with 31,970, followed by Don Guzman with 30,764. Despite the appetite for change across the entire council, the new majority known as the “Ohana Coalition” was not a winner in the reorganization….
read … Typical Anti-GMO Activist
Cochran took part in armed robbery of 4 tourists
MN: “Cochran, then 28 and known under her maiden name of Eleanora Kellett, was originally charged with first-degree robbery and using a firearm in the commission of a felony for the incident that occurred Nov. 27, 1993…. Cochran was with Marco Antonio DeCiaccione when he accosted four tourists in the parking lot of the Lahaina Cannery Mall. DeCiaccione pointed a .38-caliber handgun at them and demanded money. Cochran tried to help DeCiaccione after he was apprehended by mall security and "attempted to wrestle the gun away from the security guard" before she could be subdued, according to the documents. DeCiaccione was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. Court records also indicated Cochran had previously pleaded no contest in 1993 to two counts of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree.”
read … Cochran took part in armed robbery of 4 tourists
Keeping Housing Unaffordable: Rent Control on Maui
MN: …Ask any economist who studies this problem and they will tell you that the main problem is basic supply and demand. State economists, using models created by Harvard University, tell us that to keep up with demand by our local population, Maui County needs to be building 1,400 housing units a year. For the last decade, we have built more like 200-300 units annually. That’s a big reason for our affordable housing problems.
One solution that the TIG suggested, and we concur with, is to encourage existing homeowners to build additional units on their properties. Unfortunately, the council immediately opted for a regulatory approach to this initial proposal — the “affordable accessory dwelling” bill. The bill would allow ohana dwellings on properties smaller than 7,500 square feet and greater than 5,000, but requires that the owner place a permanent deed restriction on the property that says the owner will follow a strict rent control formula that would limit who the owner can rent to and how much they can charge, based on the renter’s income. The bill also would require the owner to issue annual compliance reports to the county, forever.
The county Planning Department has stated on the record that these overreaching restrictions would greatly limit how many owners would actually make use of this opportunity. They also said the restrictions are not enforceable….
read … Rent Control
Arson up 800% on Kauai
KITV: The report said arson cases on Kaua'i increased by more than 800 percent.
On Maui, by more than 85 percent, Big Island by 70 percent.
Violent crimes also increased in Hawaii which includes crimes like rape, aggravated assault, murder, and robbery.
Murder cases on the Big Island rose by 160 percent.
The report also shows of the $85 million in property value stolen statewide just 30 percent was recovered….
read … Crime Up
Caldwell’s Incompetence Allows Overflowing stream to flood Hauula Elementary
KHON: Heavy rain flooded a Windward Oahu school and forced students to go home early Friday.
Residents tell us it could have been prevented if a nearby stream had been cleaned out. So who’s responsible and why wasn’t it done? ….
Residents say flooding happens all too often. The stream is right by the school and the mouth of it gets clogged with sand and debris….
Part of the problem, is it the city’s responsibility or the state’s?
“The state says no, that’s the city. This is the state. They go back and forth and, you know what? Let’s go and do it,” she said.
So we checked and learned that it’s actually both. The area under the bridge and highway is state but the mouth of the stream is city. Crews from the city and the state wound up digging the whole area so the water can flow toward the ocean….
A city spokesman sent a statement saying the last time the city performed an emergency mouth opening was during Tropical Storm Darby (the election campaign) on July 24….
read … Overflowing stream floods Hauula Elementary
Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary
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