December 14, 2009 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Monday, December 14, 2009

December 14, 2009 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 11:41 AM :: 17466 Views

LINK>>>Sovereignty activists protest Akaka Bill "Sneak Attack" -- Bill could be inserted into "must pass" legislation

10 Most Shocking Revelations About Hawaii's Public Education System

"There is an 88,000 person payroll with only 170,000 students in the Hawaii Public School System. Just over 10,000 of those employees are classroom teachers."

ADV: If the election to replace Neil Abercrombie's congressional seat were held tomorrow, who would get your vote?

1,826 votes (results not scientific)

(They actually included Djou in THIS poll....)

VOTE: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/

read more

Musubigate Scandal ensnares Calvin Say

...One instance involved House Speaker Calvin Say, who according to Pacific Business News sponsored the House version of a bill that essentially requires Massachusetts-based HRPT Properties Trust to provide more favorable leases to tenants of a Mapunapuna building HRPT acquired from the Damon Estate.

Among the tenants benefiting is Warabeya U.S.A., Inc., which uses the property for its musubi-manufacturing subsidiary Tokyo Bento Nichiyo. Say is an officer of Warabeya and is paid $1,000 a month.

He didn't disclose his conflict when he introduced the House bill or voted for a similar Senate version that eventually became law, telling PBN it wasn't a conflict because “I’m just an officer in title. I’m not there for any daily operations.”

(So the $1000/mo is for "protection"? How many other elected officials are kept on retainer by companies seeking "protection"?)

Great News! Abercrombie resignation to occur within weeks (But won't set date for withdrawal)

During a press conference in Honolulu Sunday, Abercrombie did not set a firm date for his resignation. (But he always wants us to set a firm date for withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.)

He says he wants to finish several pressing issues in Congress. Those include health care reform, economic stimulus and legislation to give Native Hawaiians the chance to establish their own government.

Burris: Neil's high stakes poker game

ADV: Hawaii's Rep. Abercrombie says he'll resign seat after key votes

SB: No resignation timetable, but Abercrombie says he will finish work

Isles to gain $387M in funding

The isle-bound appropriations were part of a $1.1 trillion spending bill with increased budgets for vast areas of the federal government, including health, education and veterans' programs. The weekend action on the more-than-1,000-page package underlined the legislative crush faced by Congress as it tries to wind up the year.

Rod Tam announces candidacy for mayor

Tam, citing his more than 25 years of public service as a state legislator and City Council member, pledged a "positive, innovative, grassroots campaign" that would address the everyday concerns of everyday people. He made his announcement at the Sun Yat-sen statue on the mall by River Street in Chinatown.

Council must clear way for transit agency so Mufi can run for Governor

The City Council has another chance to do what it failed to do more than a year ago: Take the first step toward placing the management of the city's rail project in the hands of the best equipped professionals. That would be the creation of a transit authority, part of city governance but insulated from the politics of those in elective office. (So Mufi can run for governor)

(Next question. Whose cronies will be packed onto the transit authority?)

Attacking Hawaii's second Saint: Secular humanists exploit Yagi case to put issue of doctor "assisted" "suicide" back in spotlight

(But remember there are no death panels, repeat after me, there are no death panels....)

ADV: State House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro, D-33rd ('Aiea, Halawa Valley, 'Aiea Heights), introduced the physician-assisted suicide bill in 2007 and in previous years, and said he would like the Legislature to again discuss "death with dignity."

State Sen. Josh Green said the Yagi case could instead spur discussion on hospice and end-of-life issues, including on the requirements to be eligible for hospice. Currently, only those with a prognosis from a doctor that they have six months to live can receive hospice care.

Dennis Arakaki, a former legislator who serves as executive director of the Hawai'i Family Forum and the Hawai'i Catholic Conference, said ... the case should spur discussion about end-of-life education and resources, not about physician-assisted suicide.

But Andi van der Voort, board member of the national Final Exit Network and a longtime local advocate of physician-assisted suicide, said Yagi may not have resorted to violence if his wife had the option of taking a prescribed lethal dose of medication.

MORE: Body could be Yagi's (He was sent home alone, even though suicidal???)

March, 2009 "Final Exit Network" raided by FBI: Key Players In "Right-To-Die" Movement Distance Themselves From Group That Shuns Doctors

The hospice movement is founded in part on the teachings of Blessed Mother Marianne Cope, whose work at Kalaupapa--continuing for Fr. Damien upon his death--makes her Hawaii's second candidate for sainthood.

Water commission calls for sugar firm to restore one stream

An attorney for the ~~taro farmers~~ OHA cronies seeking to have the stream water ~~restored~~ placed under their control called the recommendation "ludicrous."

"My first reaction was, 'This is the result of eight years of work?' " said Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorney Alan Murakami. (Who is NOT a farmer)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA After being stiffed by the Superferry--which for some reason didn't want to pay Murakami for destroying it--now he has worked 8 years trying to destroy Hawaii's last cane plantation for nothing. Beautiful justice!

KGI: Time to move on (OHA vs Kauai over beach bike path)

The proposed boardwalk across Wailua Beach can be constructed in a way that respects the cultural concerns while fulfilling these other objectives. If the posts to anchor the path down are only every 60 feet or so, steps can be taken to ensure each does not impact burials in the area.
The boardwalk itself over the sand would seemingly fail to disturb remains any more than the multitude of people who walk across the beach on a daily basis.
Either move forward with the makai route or not at all. Pursuing the mauka route would only bring us back in a few years to where we are now.
Let’s stop squandering resources by allowing this debate to run in circles. Ultimately, there are much bigger projects that the county needs to focus its attention on and we’d like to see them choose that path.

(For OHA, the concern is that they continue to have the ability to control land use decisions at every level. The rest doesn't matter to them.)

Run-down Coco Palms resort in wait-and-see mode

Since 1992, a monument to the leadership of failed former mayor and latter-day anti-Superferry protester Joanne Yukimura.

Hawaii starts e-waste recycling on Jan. 1

"Ultimately, in any kind of program, there could be an increase in the cost of products."

Honolulu residents discard an average of 14.4 million pounds of electronic waste annually , according to a 2006 estimate by the City and County of Honolulu. That equates to an average of about 16 pounds of e-waste per O'ahu resident each year. (The horror!)

RELATED: Hawaii 42nd in Small Business Survival (How did we ever get up to 42nd?)

Hawai'i will join the ranks of about a dozen states that have e-waste recycling programs. (That's how. The other states have gotten worse.)

AP: Climate crisis is for real, says top scientist (Liberal arrogance on display as Climategate scam implodes)

This is what they think about YOU:

...if a curious high school halfback is tempted by the title "Science as a Contact Sport," he may find himself blocked by a line of climatological reasoning and terms such as "ecology" and "anthropogenic" ....

Yep, as far as AP is concerned, you're tooo stooopid to understand their "enlightened, conscious, and progressive" "reasoning". And if you do not obey, they have another idea--dictatorship:

Using plainer language, Schneider raises a broader problem than climate change. "Can democracy survive complexity?" he asks....scientific judgments, reached as a consensus of career-long study, should overwhelm national rivalries and partisan politics when governments have great decisions to make. He questions the news principle of balance: that is, a controversial statement should be followed by a statement from the other side.

No free speech for those who challenge Lord Gore. Can democracy survive Stephen H Schneider and his AP flacks? Yes, this is the sound of Climategate imploding.)

REALITY: Climategate, Greenhouse Gas Observatories Downwind from Erupting Volcanoes

Blagojevich's lawyers seek transcript of FBI interview with Obama

Rod Blagojevich's lawyers want the FBI to give up details of interviews conducted last year of President Obama, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and others as part of the investigation into the former governor.

EXPLAINED: The Blago Code , Obama's Iraqi Oil for Food connection, Iraqi Billionaire threatens reporters investigating Obama-Rezko affair, Obama's War on Black America, Obama’s Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac connection