Sen Sam Slom: List of 27 ‘No’ Votes
Campaign Season: Abercrombie Hands Out Taxpayer Cash to Taxpayers
Foreign-Built Jones Act Ship Launches New Domestic Puerto Rico Service
Pacquiao Takes Fight in Macau, U.S. Federal Income Tax Rate Proves Too High
Akaka Tribe: Schatz, Danner Conspire to Federalize DHHL
SA: U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz met with a high-level federal official this week to discuss mismanagement and oversight problems at the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands that were exposed in a just-published Star-Advertiser series.
"I am deeply concerned about a system that is clearly falling short in helping (Native Hawaiian) beneficiaries," Schatz said in a statement to the newspaper. "The rules, procedures and processes of (DHHL) must be transparent, accountable, understandable and consistent."
According to Schatz's office, the senator arranged the meeting with Rhea Suh, assistant secretary for policy, management and budget at the Department of the Interior, specifically to discuss the findings of the newspaper's series....
"Earlier this week, I met with (the assistant secretary) to request her personal involvement in ensuring that the Department of the Interior exercises its oversight authority with the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust," Schatz said.
DHHL administers a federally established trust of more than 200,000 acres, and its main mission is to get beneficiaries — those at least 50 percent Native Hawaiian — onto homestead lots to promote self-sufficiency. The Interior Department is the federal agency with oversight responsibility. (REALLY? DHHL is a State program, not Federal since Statehood.)....
Schatz said in his statement that he spoke to Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who told Schatz that the Abercrombie administration would be taking immediate action to address the problems outlined in the series.
"Both Assistant Secretary Suh and Gov. Abercrombie assured me of their commitment to solve these problems, and I will stay personally engaged on the critical issue through the relevant committee structure of Congress," Schatz said.
Abercrombie, in a statement to the newspaper, said the "new DHHL administration is committed to reviewing and, where applicable, altering its existing policies."
He said the points raised in the series are "legacy issues, which are already being addressed by DHHL. I appointed DHHL chairperson Jobie Masagatani to improve the department, and I'm confident that she and the DHHL staff will bring any necessary changes by managing DHHL properly, setting guidance and providing leadership support."
Jessica Kershaw, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that her agency "takes our obligations to the Native Hawaiian community very seriously. We appreciate the opportunity to work with the state of Hawaii and the Native Hawaiian community to ensure the health of the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust."....
U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said in a statement to the newspaper that she didn't think Interior "has ever shown that it believes it has oversight responsibility over the day-to-day operations" of DHHL.
But as new laws have been enacted and funding provided, the Interior Department has recognized it has a role to play, especially with the creation of its Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, Hanabusa wrote.
She added that the federal government's relationship with Native Hawaiians is being developed, including recognition to assist beneficiaries in accessing programs and achieving greater success on their homesteads.
"This may result in Interior taking a different view with regard to its obligations to the beneficiaries," Hanabusa said. (Translation: Schatz' Federalization scheme may work.)
Asked whether she believed federal oversight is sufficient, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono noted the tremendous responsibility DHHL has in managing its trust relationship with Native Hawaiians.
"The Star-Advertiser's recent series on the department's programs and practices raised some concerns which I hope the department will address appropriately," Hirono said in her statement to the newspaper. (Translation: No Federalization here.)
February 20, 2013: Schatz: Obama Administration May Recognize Akaka Tribe via Dep’t of Interior Without Congress
read ... Akaka Gang Game
Shapiro: Race Card is Hanabusa's Only Hope
Shapiro: Hanabusa's hopes come down to Hawaii's political demographics breaking in her favor — getting a wall of support from the unions, business interests and older and non-Caucasian voters who backed Inouye.
read ... Hanabusa's only hope?
Caldwell: Labor Agreements Give Me New Excuse for Gas Tax Hike
KITV: Recent collective bargaining agreements reached with United Public Workers and the Hawaii Government Employees Association appear to be budget busters for the city, and that's even before arbitration awards for police officers and firefighters become part of the equation.
In an April 23 letter, Managing Director Ember Shinn asked members of the City Council to reconsider Mayor Kirk Caldwell's 5-cent per gallon fuel tax increase, which was originally meant to fund the repaving of roads. In the letter, Shinn notes that the mayor's proposed operating budget did not include increases for collective bargaining agreements, and revenue enhancers are needed.
"I ask that you reconsider a fuel tax increase or if not, that you consider increasing other rates to generate the needed revenue to allow enactment of a balanced budget," wrote Shinn.
When asked about Shinn's letter Tuesday, Caldwell said it was in direct response to his gas tax proposal being defeated by the City Council back in March.
"That letter was sent down saying we had proposed a fuel tax increase, (and) it was shot down without even a hearing in a committee," the mayor told KITV4. "Now we're saying what are their proposals to enhance revenue?"
CB: One funding option that’s being floated is using money from vacant positions
Read ... New Excuse for Tax Hike
Caldwell Claims 'Chief of Staff' Position Vacant
CB: The city had initially refused to give up the names, saying it was trying to protect the privacy of employees.
But the names of public employees are required to be released under the state’s Uniform Information Practices Act.
The issue came up in connection with a story about large salary increases in the Mayor’s Office. Caldwell is paying most of his executive staff more than his predecessor, Peter Carlisle, paid his people. Overall, it's about 40 percent more.
The biggest boost in pay, it turns out, has gone to a position that has yet to be filled. According to Broder Van Dyke, the executive assistant to the mayor is a vacant funded position in the budget. The salary is $121,896 — up from $39,192 in Carlisle's administration.
For the record, the new employees making more than in the previous administration are Broder Van Dyke, executive assistant Nalani Parry and research analyst Jason Parasco. Maureen Tamashiro, a private secretary, actually is making less then her predecessor.
Caldwell, too, is making more than Carlisle.
As for the highly paid executive assistant — who is also the chief of staff — Caldwell intends to hire someone as soon as he can.
read ... Vacant?
Dang Quietly pays $1,000 to resolve potential conflict of interest charge
ILind: When the attempt to get the exemption bill through the legislature finally ran out of steam, Dang apparently agreed to make a $1,000 payment “to resolve any further action by the Commission” stemming from his lobbying on the mortgage foreclosure bill.
The $1,000 payment was disclosed in footnote #1 to the commission’s Advisory Opinion 2012-2. The summary does not name Dang, but it clearly describes his case.
What remains unclear is why Dang refused to appear before the commission to discuss the case, since he was evidently very active at the legislature telling his story in official testimony and in private lobbying.
LINK: Ethics Commission AO 2012-2
Background: SB893, the Marvin Dang Bill: Mollway Demands Kondo’s Head
read ... Dang Payment
Hawaiian Roll Commission Fails Transparency Test
AP: ...groups like Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, along with more critical legislators, say a lot more needs to be done to make Hawaii's legislative process clearer and more accessible to the public.
The Legislature passed eight of 18 bills specifically criticized by watchdog groups after being passed with unrelated amendments or with largely new language compared with how the measures were introduced.
Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and other organizations say the public wasn't given enough time to testify on the measures because of the way lawmakers changed the bills
...a proposal was intended to clarify the process of giving legal notice to someone about court proceedings. But the final draft expands the requirements for people on the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission.
Janet Mason of the League of Women Voters says the group objects to the process by which the bills were crafted, not their contents. She said in some cases, lawmakers deleted a bill's contents entirely and added completely new information. In other instances, legislators tacked on unrelated amendments.
Mason says the tactics confuse the public and allow lawmakers to sneak in proposals without adequate public scrutiny.
read ... Transparency
Who Will Replace Greenwood?
HNN: The names most commonly mentioned as interim replacements by current and former UH regents and executives include:
- -- UH Provost Linda Johnsrud, who is the next highest ranking executive behind Greenwood;
- -- Rockne Freitas, who recently was named chancellor of the UH West Oahu campus;
- -- Sylvia Yuen, special assistant to the UH president, and;
- -- Former UH President David McClain, who also served as interim president when former President Evan Dobelle was ousted from his post.
"I would think they would be seriously asking whether David McClain were available to do an interim," said former UH President Kenneth Mortimer.
read ... Rockne 'Broken Trust' Freitas in Line for Top Job?
Abercrombie, Legislators' Power Play Doomed Greenwood
SA: Was it lingering malaise over the "Wonder blunder" mishandling of the Stevie Wonder bogus-concert swindle? There were certainly a lot of hands contributing to that debacle. (Just a handy excuse.)
Was it the accusation that contracts for construction projects in the UH system are being steered toward well-connected contractors? (Abercrombie Crony Mitsunaga grabs for contracts given to Inouye Crony Kobayashi)
Or could it have been the latest bruise taken by the UH administration: the failure of $22 million in negotiated faculty raises to be funded in the just-approved state biennium budget? Perhaps more than anything, that punctuates the disconnect between Greenwood and the powerbrokers (Abercrombie, legislators) at the state Capitol.
As Explained: MRC Greenwood Quits After Abercrombie Shortchanges University $22M
read ... Abercrombie Power Play
Will Hawaii Schools Ever Become the Equal of Micronesian Schools?
CB: In Palau — a Micronesian archipelago home to coral reefs and scores of marine animal species — locals didn’t always pursue jobs in the marine or environmental sciences.
Instead, those high-paying position went to people from overseas who worked on short-term contracts, says Robert Richmond, a professor and principal investigator at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory who’s been involved in conservation efforts throughout Micronesia.
“There was never really any capacity development that was occurring at the local level,” Richmond said.
But things have changed over the past decade. Thanks in part to a public, multi-use coral reef center that offers facilities ranging from a rentable classroom to a research library, local children are getting engaged in science from a young age, Richmond said.
Richmond points to a local man who now serves as director of that very center: Yimnang Golbuu. Once a young boy who was merely interested in coral reefs, Golbuu went on to get bachelor’s and master’s degrees and become the first Palauan to get a Ph.D. in the marine sciences.
Hawaii, Richmond said, has a lot to learn from Palau.
read ... Looking up to the third world
Education Chairs To Participate In Nat’l Early Ed Fellows Program
CB: House and Senate Education Committee Chairs Roy Takumi and Jill Tokuda have been selected to participate in a National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) early learning initiative.
The initiative — dubbed the Early Learning Fellows Program — is aiming to prime “emerging legislative leaders” on a range early education issues and topics. Participants will be able to meet with fellow legislators, researchers and policy experts.
Takumi and Tokuda are credited with stewarding Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s three early education bills this year, two of which the governor recently signed into law.
Link: NCSL Early Learning Fellows Page
read ... Education Chairs To Participate In Nat’l Early Ed Fellows Program
Obamacare: Hawaii nursing Glut and Shortage Coexist
KITV: Increase in nursing graduates adding to glut of applicants in field ... Shortage of high paying nursing jobs ....
read ... Obamacare Bringing Opposites Together
Lunatics, Criminals to be Banned as Security Guards: Half Still Eligible
HNN: Under Act 208, "all guards, and all agents, operatives, and assistants employed by a guard agency, private business entity, or government agency who act in a guard capacity shall apply to register with the Board, and meet the following registration, instruction, and training requirements prior to acting as a guard:
- Be not less than 18 years of age;
- Possess a high school education or its equivalent
- Not be presently suffering from any psychiatric or psychological disorder which is directly related and detrimental to a person's performance in the profession;
- Not have been convicted in any jurisdiction of a crime which reflects unfavorably on the fitness of the individual to act as a guard, unless the conviction has been annulled or expunged by court order; provided that the individual shall submit to a national criminal history record check as authorized by federal law, including but not limited to the Private Security Officer Employment Authorization Act of 2004, and specified in the rules of the Board;
- Successfully complete 8 hours of classroom instruction given by a Board approved instructor on a Board approved curriculum before the first day of service; and
- 4 hours of classroom instruction annually thereafter."
Star Protection Agency has 800 officers and half already meet the state's new requirements....
For more information, go to: www.hawaii.gov/dcca/pvl and select "Private Detectives and Guards" then click on "Important Announcements"....
read ... Watch for Unemployed Security Guards seeking Political Office
Elder Abuse Justice Unit doubled in size, working with finance industry
KITV: The Honolulu city prosecutor's office is aggressively attacking elder abuse. Its Elder Abuse Justice Unit has doubled in size and is working with the finance industry to stop abuse in its tracks.
"We just recently had a case where a caretaker sold an elderly woman's home and took the proceeds from the house and put it in her and her children's account," said Kaneshiro.
That woman, Susan Chin, was found guilty last month of theft and money laundering. That case alone involved more than $600,000.
A bill sitting on the governor's desk right now would get things rolling faster.
"It's important, in a sense. It will bring to the attention of law enforcement suspected crimes, so we can investigate the case sooner. We can get involved sooner. We can get involved with banks sooner and protect the assets. It's an important step," said Kaneshiro.
read ... Elder Abuse
Another inmate dies in Hawaii prisons
KITV: Mark Davis Jr. was found dead in his cell at the Oahu Community Correctional Center just after 5 p.m.
The 25-year-old was alone at the time and not with the general population because of his past criminal history, according to the Department of Public Safety.
As a teenager Davis was committed to the Hawaii State Hospital, by reason of insanity, for raping and killing a 6-year-old Puna girl. While at the hospital he also assaulted a staff member -- that last attack landed him in jail.
His death comes just over a week after authorities said Ikaika Andrade committed suicide, while being held at OCCC.
A month ago, Darius Puni-Mau also killed himself, while at Halawa Correctional Facility.
"I've never seen two prison suicides and an unattended death happen so close together. It is disturbing," said Kat Brady, with Community Alliance on Prisons.
Read ... Three dead in one month
Now That Rail is Being built, City, State Act to Relieve Traffic
KHON: adding a contraflow lane in the Ewabound direction. The $82 million project will be completed next fall....
the state hopes widening the H-1 Freeway in the Ewabound direction, will help. This time, the Department of Transportation will add an exit only lane into Waipahu. It’s part of the PM contraflow project, which will also create an extra Ewabound lane near Radford to the H-1/H-2 split....
Next year, it will restripe the H-1, and add another exit lane into the Pearl City/Waimalu area. So there will be two, exit only lanes....
this entire $82 million project will shave about 20 minutes off the evening commute.
read ... DOT to widen, restripe H-1 near Pearl City
Hawaiian Electric Pays out $120M/year Dividends
HNN: Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. says it spent twice as much on power grid improvements than it paid in dividends in the winter quarter.
The electric utility (NYSE: HE) Wednesday posted a $34 million first quarter profit, down about $4 million from the same period last year, and said it spent about $60 million during the quarter on upgrades to the power grids on Oahu, the Big Island and in Maui County.
($60M/2 x 4= $120M dividends per year)
Hawaiian Electric also owns American Savings Bank, whose steady profit contributed to the bottom line for the parent company. The Q1 net worked out to 40 cents per share.
"We're off to a solid start," said CEO Connie Lau
read ... More Rate Hikes Coming
NYT: Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?
NYT: ...there used to be zero monk seals living around the main Hawaiian islands; there are now between 150 and 200. And I heard story after story from fishermen about seals stealing fish from their nets or hooks, or lurking at favorite fishing spots and scaring away everything else. A lot of fishing in Hawaii is done for subsistence — a way for working-class people to eat better food than they can afford to buy. The monk seals are perceived as direct competition, or at least an unnecessary inconvenience. “They’re troublemakers,” a young spear fisherman told me one morning at Kauai’s Port Allen pier.
Also, as often happens with endangered species, many of the people asked to coexist with the monk seal see the animal less as an autonomous wild creature than as an extension of the government working to save it. There has been frustration with the federal government among fishermen and other “ocean users” in Hawaii since at least 2006, when President George W. Bush turned the water around the Leewards into the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, barring a small number of fishermen who had permits to work there from 140,000 square miles of the Pacific, an area larger than all of America’s national parks combined. Now various agencies are bandying about so many other proposals — to protect corals, humpback whales, sea turtles — that several people I met on Kauai seemed to be making second careers of attending the government’s informational meetings to keep watch over their rights. It’s unclear if these proposals might lead to new fishing regulations, but the sheer volume of environmental strategizing, and the bureaucrats’ sometimes inelegant ways of communicating their plans, have led some people to presume that it’s all one big, aquatic land grab. A commercial fisherman named John Hurd told me that he believed the feds wanted to make the ocean “a fishbowl.” “Divers can’t go in there, fishermen can’t go in there,” he said. “It’s going to be an aquarium.”
That skepticism is compounded for native Hawaiians. After all, they now walk beaches that their families have used for centuries and find tracts of sand literally roped off by NOAA monk-seal responders — men and women who, on Kauai, are almost exclusively white, wealthy retirees from the mainland. (It’s these haole, as Hawaiians call white outsiders, who have the luxury of standing watch over a sleeping monk seal all day.) Even the idea that a wild animal needs such coddling strikes some locals as absurd. “The seal needs to rest!” one man, Kekane Pa, told me sarcastically. “The seal needs to rest because it’s been swimming in the water.”
War on Fishing: Environment Hawaii: Kohala Resort Meeting Costs Public $250k
read ... Who Would Kill a Monk Seal?
Tom Brower Praises Cult Church of Scientology
ILind: Every once in a while the Legislature produces something really ugly.
For example, in one of the low points of the recent legislative session, the House of Representatives passed HR196, “Commending the Church of Scientology for its humanitarian work and community service around the globe.”
“Commending” and “Scientology” are not words that belong together, in my humble opinion. There’s just far too much evidence to the contrary.
Primary sponsors of the reso were Rida Cabanilla and Mele Carrol, with Reps Cachola, Choy, Luke, and Ward signing on as co-introducers. It apparently passed without comment or a negative vote from any member of the House....
According to the House Journal for March 14, 2013:
Representative Brower lauded the eight dynamics and principles of the Church of Scientology and reaffirmed his belief that we are spiritual beings.
Representative Say commended the Church of Scientology on their booklet, The Way to Happiness, containing 21 precepts about how to live a happy life, which has helped bring peace to areas of turmoil.
Representative Ward thanked and commended the Church of Scientology for their work in providing disaster relief to devastated areas around the world.
As Explained: Scientology: Hawaii House Resolution Honors Group Tied to 'Torture', 'Concentration Camps'
read ... House resolution praises the “Church” of Scientology
Luddite Proposes GMO Ban on Big Island
WHT: Hawaii County Councilwoman Margaret Wille has introduced a bill that would ban most genetically modified crops from the Big Island.
The ban would apply to any agricultural products with altered genes that don’t already exist on the island. Rainbow papaya, a modified crop widely used in Puna to combat the ringspot virus, and other transgenic produce already grown here would be grandfathered.
Research at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and other educational institutions would be exempt.
Food products containing transgenic ingredients, such as modified corn and soy, would still be allowed.
Violations would be penalized with a $1,000 fine.
Wille said she introduced the bill partly to keep the large biotech companies that grow transgenic seed for corn and a few other crops on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Molokai, from moving to the Big Island....
In 2008, the county passed a ban on GMO coffee and taro.
read ... Luddite Schemes
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