FCC Closes in on Sandwich Isles Scam as Abercrombie Prepares to Give Al Hee $100M

‘Cause It Is Only a Quarter of a Percent

New Lingle Ad Focuses on STEM Education

Perriera: HGEA has 30-year Plan to Screw Retirees, Maintain Control over Hawaii

SA: Union leaders in labor-strong Hawaii…remain confident of the ability to withstand the forces of change, and observers agree they have no reason to worry in the near future.

Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, said he believes problems with the state's largest pension fund and health system can be worked out minus drama over the next three decades without voter interference. Other than that, he said dispassionately, "There may be other factors that are controllable or are beyond control."

Still, noted political commentator Dan Boylan, a retired University of Hawaii professor: "The resentment against public employees is growing. There's no question about it, and I think it may be an issue in the minds of some people in this (year's political) campaign."

Boylan points out, though, that Hawaii's system makes challenges on issues difficult, unlike in the California system. "You can't get an issue on the ballot just by petition in the state of Hawaii," he said.

In contrast, it was precisely the voters in San Jose and San Diego who chose to cut city employees' pensions on June 5.

"I don't think it's going to change here," said Neal Milner, retired University of Hawaii political science professor. "There's no indication that people are going to want to take on the unions. We got through the most extensive budget crisis last time. You don't see any politicians here coming forward. The Republicans have enough trouble finding anybody to come forward, much less come forward on that."

Colbert Matsumoto, chairman of the Employees Retirement System for Hawaii's public workers, attributes the relatively calm treatment of the issues here on a system in which the system's trustees are chosen by the unions.

..."Spiking accounts for $40 million out of $8 billion," he said, "so we're talking about a freckle on an elephant's rump, frankly. But I think it's symbolic and people have made a symbol out of this, what they characterize as potential abuse. If anything, I would anticipate perhaps another run to address the spiking issue."

Other than that, Perreira said he expects no significant issue in the Legislature in next year's session regarding public employee pensions.

Instead, he said he expects the state Employees Retirement System will make "adjustments to the retirement plan, change the benefit level, increase the retirement age, increase the vesting period, reducing the anticipated rate of return, among other things.

"With all of those changes, and just plugging everything into the actuarial formula," Perreira said, "it would reduce to zero, in theory, the unfunded liability that's facing the ERS, over this 30-year amortization period. Again, a lot of things can be out of your control."

Ignore This: Act 100: How Hanabusa and Cayetano launched Hawaii Pension crisis

read … How They Maintain Control

DoE to Dump Standardized Testing, Get NCLB Waiver in Bold Plan to Mask Failure

SA: Schools will move away from traditional notions of courses and credit hours, adopting a proficiency-based model, and will ensure students are actually meeting key standards before they're advanced to the next grade, pledges a new strategic plan intended to guide the Department of Education through the next six years.

The plan also broadens the tools that will be used to determine how students are progressing. Rather than a single statewide assessment, the DOE will set targets for a variety of measures, including several tests, the percentage of ninth-graders who aren't held back, on-time high school graduation rates and student personal transition plans….

Lupenui said a proficiency-based approach to credits and standards will allow students to learn at their own pace and will break commonly held concepts — like "classrooms and grades and instructional hours" —of how learning happens.

The department's new strategic plan comes amid a push locally and nationally to rethink how schools and students are evaluated. Under NCLB, a single test measuring the math and reading proficiency of students has taken center stage in rating schools. NCLB calls for increased sanctions against schools that fall below proficiency targets.

But 26 states have now received waivers from the law, provided they continue to measure student growth and push schools toward rigorous goals. Hawaii plans to apply for such a waiver in August, and hopes it will be approved for the coming school year.

Revamping the strategic plan was among the BOE's year-one goals, in part to help reflect the state's transition to using multiple measures to rate schools and determine if students are being adequately prepared.

Reality:

·       DoE Boosts Test Scores by Giving Answers to Students

·       Hawaii DoE Cheating Scandal: Teachers blocked from Prompting Answers, Proficiency drops from 62% to 4%

·       Coverup: DoE changes tests, surveys to create illusion of progress

·       22% Proficient: Hawaii DoE Test Scores Reach Level of Alabama, Mississippi

Full Text: DoE Strategic Plan

HSTA Response: We Need our Summer Vacation so we can go to NEA Convention

At NEA Convention: HSTA Operatives Win Support for International Day of Surrender

read … Vorsino Continuing to Embarrass Herself as DoE Cheerleader

Star-Adv: HDR-Infraconsult Rail Deal Incestuous, Troublesome

SA: In the cozy world of rail transit, instances of conflict of interest among convivial engineers and other experts present risks, and the incestuous attachment of new companies at mid-stream can be troublesome, to say the least.

A host of uneasy questions has arisen about last week's purchase of InfraConsult LLC — an infrastructure management company helping the city oversee Oahu's $5.2 billion rail project — by HDR Engineering Inc., a company that will be building three stations along the 20-mile route.

InfraConsult is under a $33.4 million contract with the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to manage the project and oversee other contractors to assure proper design and construction. That includes the first three rail stations — at West Loch, Waipahu and Leeward Community College campus — to be designed by HDR Engineering Inc., which announced Tuesday that it had purchased InfraConsult. HDR's design contract is for $5.5 million.

Dan Grabauskas, HART's executive director, issued a statement that he has "put a system in place where no InfraConsult employee will have direct oversight over HDR or this contract" for the designs. Instead, a HART spokesman said, city employees who have expertise in the area will do the oversight, and InfraConsult will sign statements that they will not engage in the oversight.

Asked whether the transfer of work to city employees would be reflected in InfraConsult's contract, the spokesman said the contract specifies that the company will be paid for "billable hours," and InfraConsult employees are to sign statements that "they are not to bill for it" — overseeing the three rail stations to be designed by HDR.

In addition, Grabauskas said HDR informed HART "that it will not compete for any future contracts associated with the rail project."

In theory, that might help to mitigate the labor cost issue. In practice, however, with InfraConsult staff essentially embedded with HART and sharing office space, HDR's new ownership of InfraConsult raises deeper questions when it comes to other contractors' propriety information as well as insider knowledge of HART's dealings that might benefit HDR when it comes to business negotiations — future change orders, for example.

Conflicts of interest, or the potential for such, are not to be taken lightly, especially with billions of taxpayer money at stake and the current split public support for rail.

Just this past week, the city Ethics Commission fined City Councilman Nestor Garcia $6,500….

Related: Sweetener: Did InfraConsult Push $1.9M Change Order for HDR?

read … Rail-related companies a bit too cozy

Caldwell, Carlisle need big idea; Cayetano, big turnout

Borreca: Absentee ballots start going in the mail on July 23, so we are just about two weeks away from the start of voting in the 2012 primary, with the actual election on Aug. 11….

"The big question about going negative against Cayetano and not saying anything positive about Kirk and Peter is: Is it going to win the election for one of them?" said another political operative.

"It looks like they think the only way to keep Cayetano below 50 percent is to run negative," he added.

Finally, another consultant said that the pro-rail campaign has not answered the opposition, which essentially is saying, "I'm not going to ride rail and I don't want to pay for it."

Also at issue is who has a political base that can be relied on to turn out. The experts I surveyed agreed that neither Carlisle nor Caldwell have much of an identifiable group of supporters.

The same can't be said for Cayetano, who has long had both AJA and Filipino-American supporters in the Kalihi and Waipahu neighborhoods and parts of Pearl City.

"There is no question he will take the majority of the Filipino voters — but Carlisle's natural constituency is East Honolulu and Hawaii Kai, but this year Cayetano has made big inroads there," one of the experts said.

Carlisle's inability to win in Hawaii Kai would be the "only thing that is keeping Caldwell alive in the race," said another political expert.

For the first time in his political career, Democrat Cayetano is getting strong support from Republicans. While the race is nonpartisan and the GOP hasn't endorsed Cayetano's anti-rail campaign, a good number of GOP areas have already held impressive rallies for him. And in the just-concluded Fourth of July festivities, Cayetano's Kailua parade marchers included a number of GOP volunteers.

The best way for either Caldwell or Carlisle to make it into a general election race against Cayetano is for them to suppress the voter turnout, say the experts. Cayetano, they figure, is likely to be helped by a large turnout.

"The opinions are already set, nothing one candidate says is going to convince voters to switch their vote, so a big turnout will help Ben," one adviser concluded, explaining that Cayetano will need to add voters to the tally….

read … Big Turnout Helps Cayetano

Queen's set to purchase HMC-West

SA: Without the HMC emergency room, ambulances have been forced to drive farther, and the island's remaining emergency rooms have been overloaded with patients.

While Queen's said it expects to complete the purchase of the former St. Francis West soon, it did not say when it would be able to reopen the hospital.

"Queen's recognizes the importance of reopening the St. Francis West hospital campus as soon as possible," said Cedric Yamanaka, Queen's director of corporate communications. "However, it is also important to underscore that this (the pre-purchase phase) is only the first of many steps before a smooth, timely ownership transfer and reopening can be accomplished."

Queen's beat out at least two potential suitors -- Hawaii Pacific Health and Hampton Health Ltd. Hawaii LLC -- that publicly expressed interest in acquiring the HMC hospitals.

The attempt by Hampton Health was led by Eugene Tiwanak, a former president and chief executive officer of the St. Francis Healthcare Foundation and St. Francis Residential Care Community.

"There was no response to my offer; they said the facilities are not for sale at this time," Tiwanak said Friday. "I don't know what's happening now."

Hawaii Pacific Health -- which operates Pali Momi, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, Straub Clinic & Hospital and Wilcox Memorial Hospital -- said it also never got a chance to negotiate with St. Francis.

Related: Will State Bureaucracy Drive Away HMC Buyers?

read … No Timeline

Hawaii Rejects Obamcare in Two Surveys

PBN: Did the Supreme Court make the right decision in upholding the Affordable Care Act?

·       Yes 46%

·       No 49%

·       Not sure 4%

·       No opinion 1%

·       Votes Cast: 813

MN: The Supreme Court's ruling on President Obama's health care reform measure was:

·       Very Good 34%

·       Quite Good 11%

·       Neither Good nor Bad 7%

·       Quite Bad 9%

·       Very Bad 39%

Pro-rail blogger under fire for critical posts

SA: A longtime Honolulu public relations executive who writes a sometimes biting blog in support of the Honolulu rail project has moved to Sacramento, Calif., but is continuing to advocate for the rail project from the mainland under a two-year subconsulting contract.

Doug Carlson of Carlson Communications produces daily pro-rail posts on the site yes2rail.blogspot.com, and uses emails to issue daily teasers promoting the blog to a range of business, media and other potential readers.

Carlson, a former news reporter and spokes­man for Hawaiian Electric Co., is working under a two-year, $351,538 contract with Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.

Parsons Brinckerhoff was hired by the city under a $300 million contract to provide engineering, planning and other services related to rail….

Council members, including Budget Committee Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, have questioned whether Carlson's taxpayer-funded blog posts have sometimes been inappropriate.

Kobayashi said she has asked to see a copy of Carlson's contract with Parsons because she wants to know exactly what he is being paid to do.

Carlson's blog "got more into politics. It wasn't just rail or no rail; it was into the mayor's race, actually, and I didn't know whether that was what his contract actually says he should do," Koba­ya­shi said.

She said she has received calls from constituents wondering whether taxpayer funding was financing Carlson's blog, "because taxpayers' money shouldn't be used to lobby; it should be used just to educate. But it certainly shouldn't be used to get into the mayor's race," she said.

Y2R: “Special note: As candidates remark on Honolulu's elevated rail system or their proposed alternative transit plans during the 2012 election season, we'll cover their remarks without taking a position on their candidacies.”

read … Your Tax Dollars at Work

OHA Works on Plan to Let Criminals Out, Boost Sovereignty Movement

WHT: Costa was just one of about 20 people who took part in a half-day public meeting held by the Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force to gather community input on concerns covered in a 2010 Office of Hawaiian Affairs report titled: “The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians in the Criminal Justice System.”

According to the report, which was written at the request of the 2009 state Legislature, Native Hawaiians make up 24 percent of the general population of Hawaii, however, as of 2009, the group made up 39 percent of the incarcerated population. The report also found Native Hawaiians more likely to receive prison sentences, longer terms of incarceration and probation, and parole revocation, among other concerns.

Four representatives of the nine-member task force, which was convened by the 2011 state Legislature to identify and support solutions to address the concerns outlined in the report, were present in Kona.

Others who provided testimony during the meeting touched on education, sovereignty, bringing inmates back to the islands, creating a sanctuary, mandatory sentencing and creating a forgiveness system.

read … More Sovereignty Activists

Honolulu is given $1.05M to create detailed road database

SA: The system will employ 3-D mapping technology that gathers data to aid maintenance and repair….

read … Potholes

Isle visitors lift sales figures

SA: Card sales at businesses open at least a year rose 8.1 percent in the second quarter, according to a business activity report released today by First Hawaiian Bank, the state's largest local card processor of merchant services. Hawaii merchants working with First Hawaiian rang up $717.7 million in card sales during the period compared with $664.2 million in the year-earlier quarter.

"It's certainly way better than last year," ABC Stores President and CEO Paul Kosasa said. "Last year we were still feeling the aftereffects of the earthquake in Japan."

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan sent visitor arrivals and spending from Japan down 17.6 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, in the second quarter of 2011 compared with the second quarter of 2010.

read … Sales Up

Kauai Council pulls plug on free power for electric vehicles

KGI: After hearing public concerns regarding a bill to “encourage the use” of county-owned charging stations for electric vehicles, Kaua‘i County Council members on Thursday changed language in the bill to no longer offer free charges to electric vehicles for the next six months….

“The proposed fee waiver is  not an incentive, it’s a free gift,” said Imparato, adding that it’s wrong to give away taxpayers’ money for no legitimate purpose.

“There is no reason to give it away, it’s like putting the county’s money in a paper bag and lighting it on fire,” he said.

Imparato’s concerns were echoed by Kapa‘a residents Glenn Mickens and Ken Taylor.

Mickens said he didn’t think the county should be giving free electricity to anyone, and Taylor said it’s “ridiculous” to think that buying consumers a couple hours of electricity would be an incentive to buy a $36,000 car.

Read … But, but, but we are Gods, only gas-guzzling mortals must pay

Plan to Rehab 200 Vacant Units Starts With Creating 50 New Position

SA: Currently, the housing authority has about 500 of 6,200 public housing units out of order for repairs. Ouansafi said the state has been losing $3.8 million a year in federal money because the units are sitting vacant.

But now the authority has a plan to renovate those units in the next 18 months — with 200 of them back in service by the end of this year.

read … A plan

Some Coffee Farmers Back HB280

SA: Ironically, only unroasted green coffee beans that leave the growing origin are currently inspected by HDOA. These are typically sold to knowledgeable roasters who employ their own accredited cuppers. Roasted coffee that is sold within the growing district or roasted before it leaves is not inspected at all. The idea that HDOA is currently regulating the quality of all Hawaiian coffee offered to consumers is false.

Another important part of the bill is a "false labeling" provision that gives our valuable Hawaiian origins better protection than they've ever had before. It makes false labeling of green coffee a felony, and extends the protections to coffee cherry and parchment. This moves enforcement responsibilities to our law enforcement professionals rather than an overburdened and underfunded Department. New penalties of up to $10,000 and five years in prison are a strong deterrent to those that would rip off our origins.

The status quo is unacceptable. A Band-Aid on a broken system will just not do. We're all in the same canoe. We just need to start paddling in the same direction.

read … Coffee Farmers Still Divided

NYT Celebrates Beginnings of Community Organizing of Marshallese in Arkansas

NYT: Her uncle is a tribal king who owns much of the land in Majuro, the capital. But Ms. Laelan herself has no riches to share. Her only power is a meager one: persuasion….

Still, a clinic that caters to the Marshallese opened in November. Ms. Laelan enlisted some friends to form an advocacy group, the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese.

A few days later, Ms. Laelan was out working on another cause: persuading state officials to offer a Marshallese-language driver’s test. Few can pass the English test, but many must drive to work or to the doctor’s office. As a court translator, she sees Marshallese incur fines and jail time. Some lose their jobs.

Ms. Laelan and lawyers from Legal Aid of Arkansas have petitioned the State Police, which administers the test, and are considering filing complaints with the federal Transportation Department. “We tried asking nicely, and that didn’t work,” Casey Bryant, a Legal Aid lawyer, said. “The lack of language access can be seen as a violation of the Civil Rights Act.”

The Marshallese around the table in the Legal Aid office were silent and seemed worried about the idea of taking on the United States government.

The princess made a plea to her people. “Please hang in there,” she said. “If we don’t do it, who is going to?”

Related: Micronesians: “Its just better in Arkansas”

read … This is how good people become Democrats

Hurricane Daniel expected to strengthen, but poses no threat

SA: The National Hurricane Center said early today that Daniel had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph and was moving westward at 12 mph. It was located 785 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja, California.

Daniel was a Category 1 hurricane but posed no threat to land. It is expected to weaken Sunday as is moves over cooler waters.

The remnants of Daniel could bring some rain to the Hawaiian islands late next week,

read … Daniel

50-Years Ago Today: US H-Bomb Test

SA: The "great star" that lit up the night sky over Honolulu 50 years ago today had no roots in the Bible.

But its effects rivaled the dramatic imagery of Revelation.

A hydrogen bomb test above Johnston Atoll called Starfish Prime turned night to day on Oahu, 860 miles to the northeast….

The electromagnetic pulse generated by the 1.45-megaton blast — about 110 Hiroshimas — also shorted out part of the Hawaiian Electric utility grid, plunging several streets into darkness, and triggered an untold number of burglar alarms.

Watching from a Waikiki hotel courtyard, Life magazine correspondent Thomas Thompson reported, "The blue-black tropical night suddenly turned into a hot lime green. It was brighter than noon. The green changed into a lemonade pink and finally, terribly, blood red. It was as if someone had poured a bucket of blood on the sky."

Ignore: Soviet H-Bomb Tests, it blows the meme and we worked so hard

read … Anti-Nuclear Agit-Prop