Environment

Visitor industries on Oahu and the Big Island will suffer a setback from the drop in Japanese visitors in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, while Maui and Kauai will benefit from their stronger specialization in US and Canadian markets.

"I wish Mazie well in her effort to seek higher elective office. It was my pleasure to have served with her in Congress and to have represented her as a congressman and city councilmember."

 PHOTO: Mazie Hirono Campaigns for Congress at Aug, 2006 rally at Larry Mehau's Honokaa home.

All nine federal judges in Hawaii have recused themselves from hearing the latest complaint, of a long string, that challenges a major transportation project in Honolulu.  With each judge stepping back from the case, 9th Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima will step in, according to an order filed Friday....

As HMSA and the Abercrombie administration push forward with electronic medical records in Hawaii—a key requirement for any medical rationing system—the Obama Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General has today released two audits of electronic medical records security systems….

The Late Harold B. Estes' letter to Obama: "One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes....

"You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like: "We're no longer a Christian nation" "America is arrogant" -- (Your wife even announced to the world, "America is mean- spirited." Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)"

The head of the Alaska Family Council -- a Christian pro-family, anti-abortion group -- urged Palin to pick Smith, not Christen. The group objected to Christen's membership on the board of Planned Parenthood in the mid-1990s. The organization, which didn't provide abortions in Alaska until 2003, opposed a Palin-backed bill to require girls under 17 to get parental consent for an abortion.

DBEDT expects total visitor arrivals to increase 3.8 percent....

So here is a look at what Hawaii would be suffering under if Liu makes it onto the 9th Circuit.

The Kauai County Republican Party conducted a Presidential straw poll during the 2011 Hawaii Republican Party State Convention.

Herman Cain was the winner followed by Mitt Romney in second and Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Sara Palin tied for third.

In April, the Obama administration lost $1.5 billion of $2 billion budgeted to improve America's antiquated transportation systems, with high-speed rail projects. Though the funds will now likely go toward deficit reduction, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a defendant in the Hawaii rail lawsuit, has asked for $53 billion over the next six years.

"I look at the ACOs coming out as almost fluff and distraction on the side.... We're way past it."

Through this initiative, we are seeing government agencies and organizations strategically collaborate to find important opportunities to bring in new money....

If agreement is not reached in the current round of negotiations, the team will make a decision on whether to proceed to arbitration. The timetable for arbitration is contained in a March 23, 2011 Memorandum of Agreement, which allows for either the Union or the Employer to request the Hawaii Labor Relations Board (HLRB) implement impasse procedures.

Identify and assess people who are chronically homeless for immediate services in Waikiki and the urban core of Honolulu.

During the Republican candidates’ debate on May 5, Johnson stated firmly in response to a question, “I advocate legalizing marijuana – control it, regulate, tax it.”

... the President's strategy isn't about empowering teachers and communities. It's about increasing the federal government's authority over schools....

Moody's justified the downgrade based on the state's forecast depletion of reserve funds by the end of the 2011 fiscal year, sustained budget shortfalls relieved by one-time solutions and low pension-funded ratios relative to other states. Hawaii's audited financial results have also come in late since fiscal 2007....

A pattern of earthen berms, spread across a northern peninsula of the big island of Hawaii, is providing archeologists with clues to exactly how residents farmed in paradise long before Europeans arrived at the islands.

Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: Cloture Motion; James M. Cole to be Deputy Attorney General
• House: Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act
• House: Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act
• House: Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011

 The opportunity to directly vote on the Republican nominee is expected to bring out thousands of Hawaii Republican voters who have never before had a chance to directly participate in choosing the Republican Presidential nominee.

Town Hall Meeting, Hawaii Kai, with Representative Gene Ward, Minority Leader; and Senator Sam Slom, Minority Leader May 2011

Hundreds of Hawaii Republicans will meet Saturday and Sunday at the Kauai Beach Resort for the GOP state convention. But the top of the agenda—selecting new Party leadership--is a foregone conclusion....

It is not clear why HMSA could not “anticipate” such impacts. Millions of Americans have been protesting against Obamacare for over a year now.  The bureaucratic interference, bungling, and rationing described in the HMSA letter reads like a caricature of what these “TEA Party” protesters have warned of.

The state is contributing $1.5 million for the project, and Kyoya and HTA will provide $500,000 each.

Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to ensure that Defendants do not implement the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project...before complying fully with federal environmental laws.

In a speech in Boston, Mr. Tutu directly attacked the Jewish supporters of Israel as being in effect traitors to America, controlling U.S. foreign policy for the benefit of Israel and to the detriment of America. In that speech he compared American Jewish supporters of Israel to Hitler, Mussolini, Idi Amin, Milosevich, Stalin, and Pinochet.

Transit coverage is highest in Western metro areas such as Honolulu and Los Angeles, and lowest in Southern metro areas such as Chattanooga and Greenville....

Ms. Takaki is active in the Hawaii Chapter of The ESOP Association has served on the Executive Committee's State & Regional Chapter Council. From 2007 – 2009, Ms. Takaki served as Chair of The ESOP Association.

Representative Gene Ward, Minority Leader, Sine Die Announcement May 2011, Hawaii State House of Representatives ....

Recent Congressional Votes

• Senate: Confirmation John J. McConnell, Jr. of Rhode Island, to be U.S. District Judge
• House: To repeal mandatory funding provided to establish American Health Benefit Exchanges
• House: To repeal mandatory funding for school-based health center construction
• House: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
• House: Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act

The real savings Medical Homes could give to HHSC do not come in the emergency room but in elder care and neo-natal care....

...unnoticed in the public summary of the report are a couple of paragraphs which point out some serious risks to the corporatist State of Hawaii. The cut-off of Earmarks and other Federal pork is having an impact and the full effect is only just beginning to be felt....

Says Washington’s Gregoire: “(Change in marijuana laws) must first come at the federal level."

...a shift towards whole-person health rather than focusing primarily on the treatment of illness....

S. 52 would make it a criminal offense to..."import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce" any fish or fish product taken in violation of any treaty or agreement to which the United States is a party; or make or submit a false record, account, label for, or identification of any fish that passes in interstate or foreign commerce. 

In Senate Bill 120, it states that there are many special funds “in excess of the requirements” of those funds. The director of finance has up until June 30, 2011, to raid all of that “excess” money, amounting to more than $17 million, and put it into the general fund. 

We have found that support for the political status quo, abetted by private interests, remains strongly in place. It will take time and action by the executive to change this culture.

the Mortgage Foreclosure Dispute Resolution Program, seeks to provide the owner-occupants of residential property in Hawai'i who are facing foreclosure the opportunity to meet face-to-face with the mortgagees to possibly resolve their differences....

The 2011 New Starts funds for the whole nation is $1.59 Billion and Honolulu is asking for $1.55 Billion.

Even when wind is present, the turbines are doing nothing.

Appropriates funds for the operating and capital improvement budget of the Executive Branch for fiscal years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

This fee increase will only help perpetuate the program. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned this year, it’s that once you put money into a program and personnel, it’s very hard to get it back out. It’s harder still to shut down the program entirely. In a word, if we provide more money, the program will become dependent - even addicted - upon that money.

I have initiated establishment of a 501(c)4 nonprofit educational organization called "Foundation 1776,"the mission of which will be advocate for the application of the foundational principles on which our nation and our families were built....  We will also build a separate Political Action Committee designed to help recruit, train and fund the campaigns of like-minded candidates seeking to serve in the 76 legislative seats in the Hawaii House of Representatives and Senate.  

Several businesses have already announced hiring freezes, and possible layoffs because of the legislative action. Several local non-profits are even harder hit and several may cease operations.

The best that can be said about this session is what bills did NOT survive, such as: a 1 percent increase in the general excise tax; a 10-cent fee for a plastic or paper bag to carry consumer purchases; tax-free pensions that will now remain untaxed; Lanai and Molokai will not be covered with windmills to produce power for Oahu, saving Hawaii taxpayers an estimated $3 billion on an intra-island, under-water cable; and competition for shipping services that did not get eliminated as was included in a Public Utilities Commission clarification bill.

“All during this session I received a steady stream of letters, phone calls and e mails. I was stopped several times in neighborhood markets and shopping centers. None of the communications were form letters, but individual pleas reminding me that retirees could not afford to lose more income to taxes."

For five and a half years, the US has hunted for Ahmed Hashim Abed--code-named "Objective Amber." Abed is the alleged ring-leader of an Islamist mob which murdered four US military contractors--including Pa`auilo resident Wesley Batalona--in Fallujah, Iraq on March 31, 2004.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed spent most of 1994 plotting to blow up or hijack 12 airplanes carrying about 4,000 passengers bound for Honolulu and 11 other locations as part of Operation Bojinka, based in Manila, Philippines.  He would later use operational experienced gained from his Bojinka failure to mastermind 9-11.

Now Hawaii's two Senators have voted to help spring Mohammed from detention at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba.