Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawaii Daily News Read

Current Articles | Archives

Monday, August 17, 2009
August 17, 2009 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 11:36 AM :: 8513 Views

Fukino nails SB: ObamaCare pay cuts for MDs, $563B Medicare cuts

As the senior public health official in the state of Hawaii, I must take exception to your editorial last week about budget cuts in Medicare ("End Medicare Myths," Star-Bulletin, Aug. 12). You incorrectly accused Gov. Linda Lingle of making "unfounded allegations."

The governor pointed out that the plans pending in Washington, D.C., would result in "hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to spending on Medicare." Your own editorial reaffirms this by stating that the bills pending in Congress would "trim Medicare's anticipated growth over the next ten years by $563 billion."

Your editorial said that federal health care legislation will "affect providers, not beneficiaries." Reducing payments to providers can have a substantial effect on beneficiaries, especially when insufficient revenues result in the closing or out-of-state relocation of a medical practice.

RELATED: MDs pay to be cut: Star-Bulletin attacks Lingle, spreads Obamacare myths

read more

Inmates prefer Kentucky, some say

"The majority want to remain," said Public Safety Deputy Director Tommy Johnson, who was part of a team sent to Kentucky to investigate the rape claims.

When he visited Otter Creek Correctional Complex in Wheelwright, Ky., the week of July 5, many of the 22 Hawaii inmates who asked to speak to him individually, as well as those he spoke to in groups, asked whether they could stay.

Also, the Star-Bulletin received letters and a petition, purportedly signed by 109 of 168 Hawaii inmates at Otter Creek, saying they do not want to be transferred to a Hawaii prison.

(Would YOU want to be in a prison run by a Hawaii government employees' union?)

read more

State's math scores still lag

But Hawaii DoE is tops in excuses.

"Many high schools have already eliminated Pre-Algebra from their course offerings, meaning students are expected to have taken the class in middle school, something that doesn't always occur."

Geeee.  Maybe the DoE should adopt a "curriculum"?   Or better yet, we should adopt vouchers, dump the DoE and put Hawaii's elite private schools to work for everybody.

read more

DLNR's 'Plan B' needed to keep up facilities

Plan B would promote volunteerism, from basic cleanups to ambitious efforts like rebuilding of Polihale State Park bridge.

To encourage park use — and raise more revenues — DLNR wants to develop one-stop permit shopping and billing, with a single Web site that accepts credit cards. This basic improvement is long overdue.

So are DLNR's plans to adopt model repair and maintenance standards, and software to manage its work more efficiently.

read more

UPW 'Bumping' plans under way

More than 100 UPW members who received layoff notices attended the union's meeting on Friday, the first for potentially laid off employees on Oahu since the notices went out. UPW also held meetings for those on the layoff list on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.

(Should've taken those furlough days.)

read more

Boards overseeing water, tourism and rural hospitals spent $1 million since 2005

About $381,000 was spent by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. Another $355,000 was spent on an outside lobbying firm hired by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, which runs the state's rural hospitals, spent more than $254,000 lobbying the Legislature through 2008, according to state and city lobbying disclosures.

HHSC doesn't have much to show for its lobbying expenses... Hawaii Hospitals: Not Quite Catching Up To Africa

read more

Kaawa Elementary School $2.3M repairs could stave off closing--or not

"The flooding issue is being mitigated, and the waste-water treatment system is being mitigated."

Those issues, however, were not the only cited as reasons to close the rural school that opened in 1904 and has 141 students this year. Administrators are also concerned it is in a tsunami inundation zone and that only one of its buildings is a permanent structure. The rest are portable classrooms and trailers.

(So why is the DoE spending $2.3 M to fix a school slated for closure?  Who is the contractor?)

read more

SB: Happy you live Hawaii, despite shortcomings

Regarded in some circles as "tax hell," bad for business, priced out of affordability and jarred by a hurricane every decade or so, people who live in Hawaii know better. Part of the unflattering reputation may be deserved, but Hawaii residents are the happiest in the country, according to an index based on interviews conducted in the first six months of this year by Gallup-Healthways Well-Being....

When chief executive officers from across the country responded to a poll taken earlier this year, they ranked Hawaii last in the quality of its work force. The Hawaii work force's opinion of its bosses placed 50th in last year's Gallup-Healthways poll, replaced at the very bottom this year by Delaware.

...

"Psychological problems ...turn into political problems: private disorder reflects more directly than before the disorder of the whole, and the cure of personal disorder depends more directly than before on the cure of the general disorder."  Herbert Marcuse

And in the post-Marcusian State of Hawaii?  Feel-good psychological "solutions" turn into political problems?

The Age of Aquarius is enshrined in a mural at the Big Square Building.  Do the math.... 

read more


Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT