Ethics

...media outlets and opposing politicians in other states have a tendency to start jumping up and down, hollering and pointing fingers when an incumbent’s contributor receives an earmark. Strange, but true....

Federal prosecutors Tuesday charged Ayman Joumaa, an accused Lebanese drug kingpin and Hezbollah financier, of smuggling tons of U.S.-bound cocaine and laundering hundreds of millions of dollars with the Zetas cartel of Mexico....

When it comes to solar power, Hawaiians are in a race. And for a small but growing number, the competition is already over....

This proves that Inouye has been grooming Hirono to look like she’s actually doing something by letting her co-sponsor his earmarks for an entire year now.

Attempts to solve drug shortages with more regulations could actually worsen the problem ... the only way to alleviate the drug shortage is to make generic drugs more profitable.

Last week, President Obama announced his intention to veto the bill when he warned, "Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll tax cut I will reject."

The documentary showed a former Iran senior official accepting a plan to launch from Mexico a cyber war on the United States, one that would cripple U.S. computer systems, including the White House, the FBI, the CIA and several nuclear plants....

•  Senate: Cloture on the Nomination of Richard Cordray to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
• Senate: Motion to Proceed; Middle Class Tax Cut Act of 2011
• Senate: Motion to Proceed; Temporary Tax Holiday and Government Reduction Act
• House: Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2011
• House: Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011

Today was the day we were to have found out whether the Supreme Court would review Corboy v. Louie....

“I’ve been to events that have already raised in excess of six figures for her,” Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks said. “This is going to be a real priority race for the organization.”

… and yet, oddly, Inouye & the AFL-CIO have been dead set against switching to a closed Democratic Primary ….

Hawaii homebuyers average a 13.37% mortgage downpayment.

The federal renewable energy production tax credit, which allows wind producers to take a 30 percent investment tax credit or receive a 2.2-cents-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit, has been around since 1992. The tax credit expires at the end of 2012 ....

“It’s just unfortunate, and unworthy of the people of Hawaii, that Ed Case lets those frustrations with his own candidacy get the better of him,” Nielsen said.

If U.S. history is a painting on giant canvas, President Barack Obama's speech this week in Osawatomie, Kansas, is a thick coat of whitewash layered all over it, and the failure of the last three years lies underneath.

Any program in which 60 percent of the graduates failed to find work for two consecutive years would face funding reductions ....

Thirty seven states will be affected by these reductions with the majority of personnel cuts occurring in those states with the largest military and Army civilian populations.

The assessments were levied after the Campaign Spending Commission investigators uncovered thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions, contributed to Hirono as a part of Hawaii's extensive "Pay to Play" scandal....

Case fired back. "While Mazie's been selling her candidacy to the DC insiders, I've taken mine straight to Hawaii's voters, who aren't too interested in Washington telling them how to fix Washington."

"Waihee was instrumental in planning, facilitating, and effectuating the misappropriation of funds from the trusts...."

Two women claim Hawaii unconstitutionally denies them the right to marry, in violation of Attorney General Eric Holder's February letter to Congress stating that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act "is unconstitutional as applied to same-sex couples married under state law".

On this day 70 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and requested a declaration of war against Japan following the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor the day before.

We have now filed a Freedom of Information Act request ... and will update this story as appropriate.

...President Obama is not vacationing in Hawaii with his wife and children while the extension of the payroll tax holiday remains in limbo....

To many people, the term “Progressive Era” evokes fond caricatures of Teddy Roosevelt and such reforms as safe food, the elimination of child labor and the eight-hour work day. Yet real progressivism was far more sinister....

If there was any doubt where President Barack Obama's ideological heart lies, yesterday he let it be known loud and clear in a wide-ranging speech in Osawatomie, Kansas....

These cuts have been put forth with little consideration for their long-term impact....

Mr. Yost expressed the plaintiffs’ concern that an "irrevocable commitment" of resources may occur if construction takes place, with significant impacts and no prudent alternatives, before the case is heard on the merits ....

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... the Battleship Missouri Memorial will proudly host a mass band performance featuring more than 650 performers from a dozen high school, college and community bands ....

Americans opposed to the growth of the administrative state should embark on a multi-pronged offensive against it, taking discrete steps to reduce its power and restore accountability to elected officials, whether many of those elected officials want it or not.

...state colleges and universities are prohibited from providing in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens "on the basis of residence within the State" unless the same in-state rates are offered to all citizens of the United States....

...root cause analysis undertaken by Clipper regarding the blade skin crack, an update of the resolution relating to gearbox timing, structural blade remediation, as well as other data regarding Clipper's Liberty turbine....

This is what happens when you let the government tell you how to live every tiny detail of your life.

For state governments, the coming Supreme Court ruling on health reform isn't an abstract argument about the U.S. Constitution. It's a highly practical question about whether, when and how to proceed with one of the health law's most important and complicated pieces: setting up health insurance exchanges....

Ready to trade in your car for a bike, or maybe a subway instead? Interested in fewer choices for your home, paying more for housing, and being crammed into a denser neighborhood? You can have all this and more ....

On November 28, 2011, CAlifornians for Renewable Energy (CARE) and Michael Boyd filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge more than two dozen federal loan guarantees illegally issued by the U.S. Department of Energy....

Cain said he would endorse a Republican candidate soon, and announced his own “plan B” for public service, a policy web site called “The Cain Solutions.”

NOAA's extensive and overly aggressive rulemaking effort will effectively kill ocean-based clean energy initiatives in Hawaii....

...no public events are scheduled during the trip.... (But will AG Holder survive to the New Year?)

...today's jobs report from the Department of Labor. The report suggests the month of November saw 120,000 net new jobs created and the unemployment rate drop to 8.6 percent--driven in part by the 315,000 people who have given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed....

MISSION MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM
6:00-8:30 P.M.
DECEMBER 6, 2011

Full analysis from Shared Hope International....

We calculated suicide rates and unemployment rates. Then we tapped SimplyMap for the percentage of households that use antidepressants....

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...the mandate requires religious employers to provide coverage for birth control methods that could result in abortion....

The project, called SolarStrong, aims to install these projects over five years. SolarCity has already begun installations at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii....

Honolulu (29) and San Francisco (30) are the highest-ranking US cities....  

Republicans have landed prominent women candidates too, with former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and former New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson best positioned for victory next year....

This judgment is repeated so often and so forcefully that you will almost never see it questioned. And yet it may not be true....