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 At stake is whether our children will find good jobs, whether our families will be able to stay in Hawai‘i, whether we will have the resources to protect our environment and provide the social services we pledged to provide.

The 22nd annual KIDS COUNT Data Book profiles the status of children on a national and state-by-state basis and ranks states on 10 measures of well-being.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta held a joint press event in Washington in which they cautioned that U.S. debt is jeopardizing America's ability to ensure national security and preserve its interests abroad.

Djou: “Hawaii, in particular, has become exceptionally isolated and vulnerable in Washington D.C because of the lack of a bipartisan congressional delegation...."

I will not run for Congress in 2012.... When the time is right, I will decide whether to run for Governor in 2014.

Speaker Gingrich will be on Maui this Saturday, August 20th. The event begins at 5:30pm at the Door of Faith Church, 432 Waiehu Beach Rd, Wailuku....

• Where: Midway Street between Hangars 110 & 111 on Kalaeloa Airport, Kapolei, Hawaii
• When: Saturday, September 10, 10 am-6 pm and Sunday, Sept. 11, 10 am-4 pm
• Special: 10th Anniversary 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at 10 am on Sunday, Sept. 11 

The President's tour began yesterday in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, where in one breath he pointed his finger at Washington's broken politics and in the next he blamed "a string of bad luck ... "

Financial issues with a new Walt Disney Co. resort scheduled to open this month in Hawaii prompted the company to suspend all time-share sales for the project and force out three executives, including the president of its Celebration-based time-share business...

Featuring dinner and a solo performance by the country music icon known best for “God Bless the U.S.A,” the event is set for Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. in the Koolau Ballrooms at the Koolau Golf Course, 45-550 Kionaole Road, Kaneohe, Oahu.

Honolulu – Governor Neil Abercrombie today announced Deputy Public Defender Karen Tooko Nakasone as his nomination to the judicial seat on the First Circuit Court.

The mother, Jane Doe, claims that the "defendants had actual or constructive knowledge of what was going on."

Every year, Americans for Tax Reform Foundation publishes its Cost of Government Day report, which calculates the day on the calendar year until which the average American must work to pay for the full costs of government spending and regulation....

Governor Neil Abercrombie and his Coordinator on Homelessness, Marc Alexander, today concluded the 90-Day Plan on Homelessness....

With its ruling, the court affirmed the principle that the Constitution means what it says—Congress does not have unfettered power to force the American people to comply with any and all dictates it creates.

Busted, named, and shamed by the Honolulu Ethics Commission, Honolulu Planning Commissioner Andrew Jamila has turned State’s Evidence and fingered others involved in a conspiracy to keep Waimanalo Gulch open....

Neil Abercrombie says Hawaii can’t afford Micronesians.

All four members of Hawaii’s Congressional delegation say Micronesians are “unsustainable.”

Arkansas disagrees.

While we may benefit from those generous federal dollars and programs, if spending is not reined in now, the situation will get even worse. If political leaders don’t have the courage to rein in spending, then perhaps voters should find elected officials who will make those tough decisions.

Michele Bachmann has been named the winner of the Iowa straw poll, taking 4,823 votes out of nearly 17,000 cast. Ron Paul was a close runner-up, taking 4,671 votes and trailing Bachmann by less than 200 ballots. In a distant third place was former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who took 2,293 votes after investing heavily in the event.

Widely panned by local political commentators, the DSCC screed bizarrely tagged Lingle as a “hyper partisan…Republican bomb thrower.”

But there is a ticking time-bomb buried at the bottom of their rambling diatribe.....

What I learned in my 20’s traveling the globe as an Air Force pilot, our current president has yet to acknowledge in his 50’s – that we are the most exceptional nation on the face of the earth.

Obama approval has dropped by 12%.  A year ago Obama’s approval was 68% in Hawaii....

In the 1993 comedy Dave, a small-town presidential impersonator is called on to pretend to be the actual President of the United States when the commander in chief takes ill. Dave steps into the White House, takes his new role too far, and with wide-eyed innocence promises America, "I'm initiating a program to try to find a decent job for every American who wants one."

This afternoon, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), more commonly known as Obamacare, is unconstitutional.

In 2010, seat belt use in the United States ranged from 72.2 percent in New Hampshire to 97.6 percent in Hawaii and Washington....

The entire press staff of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is in Maui, even though a field hearing there won’t happen until next Wednesday....

Faleomavaega long has prided himself on being the voice of the Pacific in Washington (when he's there) and an influential senior policymaker. Apparently Hawaii's two House members bought this load of baloney because when the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to abolish the Hawaii-based East West Center, they turned to their Samoan colleague, a member of the committee, to save the day.

The Board examines, recommends and records applicants for admission to the Hawaii State Bar and gives written examinations to test the legal and educational qualifications and knowledge of legal ethics of each applicant.

On January 25, 2011, Winnipeg priest Father Bohdan Borowec arrived in Hawaii for the first time in his life....

First, the electromagnetic shock can disrupt electrical devices. The second effect is similar to lightning—a power surge that would burn circuits and immobilize electronic components and systems. The third is a pulse effect that flows through electricity trans­mission lines, damaging distribution centers and fusing power lines.

Hawaii shows the largest advantage for the Democratic Party over the Republican Party among U.S. states, along with the District of Columbia, in the first half of 2011. The most Republican state is Utah.

Building the Interstate Highway System created many construction jobs, but it would be a huge mistake to interpret that employment as the system’s contribution to the economy. Workers who drew salaries from the construction program benefitted, but far less than the travelers and shippers of goods who have used those facilities every day for six decades.

“Some years back a Greek finance minister, fed up with his country's waste and extravagance claimed that he could save money by shutting down the national railway and driving around its passengers in taxis.”

Yesterday in Wisconsin, Democrats tried to recall six GOP senators in an attempt to gain a foothold in the state's legislature—they lost in four of the races, failing to regain a majority in the state senate. Those losses came despite a $14 million effort waged by unions and liberal groups from across the country, including the AFL-CIO, UAW, AFSCME, MoveOn.org, Teamsters, UFCW, NEA, SEIU, and People for the American Way.

These results are consistent with recent research on managed care among the privately insured, which finds that HMOs and other forms of managed care achieve their savings largely through reduced prices rather than lower quantities....

“Negotiations via the media are not productive."  -- In other words, Abercrombie should have kept his mouth shut in Hilo....

"Unless students limit their debt burdens, choose fields of study that are in demand, and successfully complete their degrees on time, they will find themselves in worse financial positions and unable to earn the projected income that justified taking out their loans in the first place."

"With the new school year fast approaching and still no bill to reform the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind, the Obama administration will provide a process for states to seek relief from key provisions of the law, provided that they are willing to embrace education reform."

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...I have requested the deadline period for submitting comments be extended from August 13, to September 30 of this year....

Fox News and the Washington Examiner will sponsor a GOP debate this Thursday night. On Saturday, the Iowa State Fair straw poll will be held....

...the spending reductions in the deal negotiated by President Obama to raise the debt ceiling were inadequate, and S&P reacted as we predicted....

How could federal prosecutors “accidentally” debase their entire prosecution of crimes alleged to have occurred in 2004 by telling a Federal Grand Jury that the defendants’ collection of “recruitment fees” was a violation of a law which did not take effect until 2008?

A loud drinking party on county property brought to a halt by the police early May 1 included Mayor Billy Kenoi, state Rep. Jerry Chang and a host of other bigwigs celebrating the end of the Merrie Monarch Festival....

...the fact that the energy utilities and, to some degree the communications utilities, have to pay these additional taxes is not very widely known....

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The outlook on the long-term rating is negative....On Monday, we will issue separate releases concerning affected ratings in the funds, government-related entities, financial institutions, insurance, public finance, and structured finance sectors.

Click to view video....

To put an end to budget shenanigans the Institute has developed a budgeting system called “Full Accrual Calculations and Techniques”. FACT based budgeting would require governors and legislatures to recognize expenses when incurred regardless of when they are paid. This improved method of accounting is discussed in detail in this report.