The Supreme Court’s Marriage Decisions by the Numbers
Abercrombie: Supreme Court Ruling Supports My Position in Hawaii Gay Marriage Lawsuit
NRDC: Hawaii Ranked 4th in Beachwater Quality
Abercrombie Signs Seven Ag Bills
Animal Cruelty: Abercrombie Signs Six Bills
Mizuno Capitulates as Gay Democrats Threaten 11 Legislators With Expulsion
PR: State House Vice Speaker John Mizuno (D, Kamehameha Heights-Kalihi Valley), a Christian who has opposed gay marriage, had wanted voters to decide the issue through a constitutional amendment. But he said Wednesday that in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that legally married gay couples are entitled to federal benefits, the dynamics have shifted and he now believes the Legislature should decide.
“I know it’s a complete change of my position in the past,” he said.
Mizuno is among 11 House and Senate Democrats facing complaints by gay activists that the lawmakers worked against the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s platform last session by suggesting a constitutional amendment on gay marriage. The party’s platform supports marriage equality.
The complaints, which are pending before the party, were a sign of frustration from gay and civil rights activists who were not only disappointed in the Democrats who broke from the party line, but that majority Democrats would not even hear a gay marriage bill last session.
read ... Bow Before Your Gay Lords--or Join the GOP
Gay Advertiser Dreams of Hawaii Case Being Used to Mandate Gay Marriage Nationwide
SA: A federal lawsuit challenging Hawaii laws reserving marriage for heterosexual couples could provide the U.S. Supreme Court a chance to definitively rule on whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage. (Well then, Hawaii better not enact gay marriage because if the legislature acts, the cases will be dismissed. Ahem....)
Gay marriage advocates hailed the two Supreme Court decisions Wednesday as a significant step toward marriage equality, but the justices did not rule on the fundamental issue of whether gay and lesbian couples can marry.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the Hawaii case say some of the language in one of the rulings bolsters their chances of persuading federal appeals judges to overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriages.
The federal lawsuit maintains that Hawaii marriage laws violate gay couples' rights under the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit was thrown out by Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Kay last year, but the Hawaii case and a similar Nevada lawsuit are pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They will be heard at the same time, but were suspended pending the high court rulings, according to John D'Amato, lawyer for the three plaintiffs in the Hawaii lawsuit: Natasha Jackson, Janin Kleid and Gary Bradley.
Opening briefs are due later this year and an appeals court ruling isn't expected until next year at the earliest.
read ... Legal Activism
Dems, Gays, Media Plan Gay Marriage Agenda
Danger: Honolulu Officials Planning Massive Property Tax Hikes
SA: Koyanagi said the administration is already looking at dividing the residential classification that, for the upcoming 2014 budget year, taxes all residential property owners at a rate of $3.50 for every $1,000 of assessed tax value....
The administration also wants to take a hard look at gathering all properties that offer visitor accommodations and assessing them at a uniform rate, Kurokawa said....
The administration is also re-evaluating a slew of exemptions given to property owners from senior citizens and historical residences to nonprofits and credit unions.
A 2011-12 Real Property Tax Advisory Commission urged the city to conduct a review of tax exemptions, some of which have been on the books since before 1978, when the state collected property taxes.
It also recommended that the city repeal all exemptions given to owner-occupants and instead offer higher tax credits for those who truly cannot pay. The commission also recommended that the city clamp down on the number of nonprofits eligible for tax exemption and the size of the exemption.
Kobayashi said the city has wrestled for years to find a means of taxing owners of investment properties more than owner-occupants without hurting renters.
One idea is to create a new category for owners of properties worth $1 million or more who don’t have a homeowner’s exemption.
Council Vice Chairman Ikaika Anderson said he’s willing to look at measures the administration suggests to raise revenue as long as Council members are consulted first.
In March, Council members summarily squelched a Caldwell proposal to increase the city’s fuel tax by 5 cents per gallon after they first learned about it from media accounts, he said.
Anderson said he wants the Council to consider creating a new real property tax category for out-of-state investors.
read ... Danger
Loss of services drives up mental illness costs
SA: Hospital visits and costs associated with mental illness soared between 2009 and 2012 after the state substantially cut mental health services.
New statistics released Wednesday by Hawaii Health Information Corp. showed overall increases in emergency room visits, hospital admissions and charges statewide.
Total ER visits jumped 20 percent to 13,666 last year from 11,312 in 2009. What's more, hospital admissions rose 14.3 percent to 4,040 from 3,535 in the same period, resulting in a significant growth in costs.
In 2012, emergency room charges and inpatient admissions related to mental illness totaled $98.3 million — 30 percent more than the $76.1 million spent in 2009. The data reflect only patients with a behavioral health problem as a primary diagnosis.
Related: A New Moral Treatment: Humane institutionalization can help the mentally ill and protect society
read ... Mental Illness
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Sugar a Big Loser in Secret Trade Negotiations
NBC: Few have closely followed the talks negotiating the possible deal between the U.S. and other Pacific Rim countries. Not even members of Congress can get their hands on all the details, as several have had to formally request the specifics. That's after five years of trade negotiations.
Despite—or perhaps because of—the stealthy atmosphere around the talks, there is plenty of controversy surrounding the deal, referred to simply as TPP.
"Some information has come out, but this is politically charged and there's been more secrecy around the TPP than in past agreements," said Maria Toyoda, a professor of political science and a trade expert at Villanova University.
"Because it's so consequential and would have such a major impact, many of the parties want to keep the details a secret," Toyoda said. "People remember the riots in Seattle in 1999 over the WTO and how that deal came under scrutiny afterward. There's fear something like that could happen again."....
Another loser is American sugar, said Hauskrecht. "The industry is heavily subsidized by the government and protected by tariffs. If those get removed in the deal, which is what Australia wants, the sugar cane growers, as small as they are, would take a big hit," he said....
read ... Sugar is a Loser
GMOs: 600 Intelligent People face off with Morons, Luddites
KGI: There were also hundreds of supporters or employees from Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, BASF and Kauai Coffee. Yoshida said she estimated about 600 people in support of the seed companies attended the meeting.
“We are ag,” about 120 Pioneer employees chanted loudly as they posed for a group shot in front of the Historic Annex Building....
read ... Outnumbered
6,700 Hawaii security guards Ignore Criminal Background Check deadline
HNN: Thousands of Hawaii's security guards and nightclub bouncers will likely be breaking the law soon.
The deadline to complete new training and apply for a special license is July 1. There are an estimated 10,700 security workers in Hawaii, according to a 2010 report being used by the state. Only about 4,000 applications, however, have been turned in.
Members of the board that regulates Hawaii's security guards have been busy reviewing applications, but they know that many of the workers impacted by the new law probably won't meet Monday's deadline. The requirements include eight hours of instruction and criminal background checks....
Former Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue trains guards using the new curriculum. He believes smaller companies may be waiting to see if there is any enforcement.
"I ask them how come your boss is not out here signing you guys up. They found me by themselves, and they say they don't care about us. They don't think anything is gonna happen," said Lee Donohue of Magnum Investigations.
With liability a major concern, the state hopes that employers, clients, and competitors will help with enforcement.
"They probably won't be employed if they don't have that qualification," said Douglas Inouye, chair of the Board of Private Detectives and Guards. "Or if someone, a competitor calls them out on it, I think that would be the bigger fear for the employer."
If a complaint is filed, the state could take away the license of a guard agency. The board doesn't have jurisdiction over hotels, banks, stores, and nightclubs that hire guards. In that case, the employee could be fined for unlicensed activity.
For more information about the guard application, click here.
read ... Deadline
Deaf community to get service center after lobbying nearly 50 years
KHON: For close to half a century local advocates for the deaf community have lobbied to create a center for Hawaii’s silent residents. On Thursday, that dream will be one step closer to becoming a reality.
It’s believed that Hawaii is home to an estimated 100,000 people who are deaf or severely hard of hearing....
on Thursday Governor Abercrombie will sign into law a bill creating a career readiness service community center for deaf individuals.
“Not only educational services but employment opportunities and referrals it will be a standalone service center that will exclusively help them,” Human Service committee chair representative Rep. John Mizuno said.
“We really need access into the hearing world because you know deaf people don’t have that access,” 17-year-old Lena Merrill said.
Using $400,000 a year in state funds, the comprehensive center is designed to help with education, employment, leadership development and communication skills.
Related: $5M Settlement in Homosexual Rape Gang case at DoE Blind-Deaf School
read ... 50 Years
Waikiki Homosexual Murder Ends in Conviction
AP: A Hawaii man (former gay prostitute) who confessed to killing a (gay) visiting University of Pittsburgh professor in 1996 was found guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday.
Judge Richard Perkins convicted Jason Lee McCormick of killing Robert Henderson, a 51-year-old guest lecturer at the University of Hawaii.
Henderson's nude, decomposed body was found in his Waikiki condo five days after he was last seen leaving campus. He had been strangled, prosecutors said....
The case remained unsolved until 2008 when McCormick confessed while he was being treated at a psychiatric facility. He later went to police and confessed again, Green said....
McCormick wasn't charged with second-degree murder until two years after his confession.
In closing arguments, Green said McCormick was drunk and went into a rage because he was sexually abused as a child (which is how he became gay) and believed Henderson made sexual advances toward him. There was a message scrawled on Henderson's body accusing him of molesting children....
(Notice the gay censorship which left out all the details necessary to determine what really happened?)
read ... Gay Murder
SA: Chief of staff returning to her job at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center
Conservationists asking for transparency over Hanauma Bay money
KHON: There’s no question there’s money being generated by thousands of tourists who pay to park and then visit Hanauma Bay. But exactly how much cash is not easily discovered.
The Friends of Hanauma Bay is a group of volunteers that run one of Honolulu’s busiest tourist attractions — it’s falling apart.
“The touchscreen computers used mostly by keiki for learning purposes were down. It took a year-and-a-half to fix them. Only now is new video system being put in after a year-and-a-half. We don’t really know why it took so long,” said Bob Kern with Friends of Hanauma Bay.
Rusty guard rails, broken roofs — the list goes on. But where is the money to fix it?
“No, we collect the money and turn it into the city. It goes into a special Hanauma Bay account and the general fund.
read ... Haunauma Bay Money
Mililani top ‘booming’ suburb in Hawaii
PBN: While no Hawaii suburb made the Coldwell Banker Real Estate list of the “Top 10 Booming Suburbs in America,” one Central Oahu town came out on top in the state rankings.
Mililani Town, which was developed by Castle & Cooke Inc., was No. 1 in Hawaii and ranked 167th in the nation.
East Honolulu finished in a close second in Hawaii and was ranked 212th in the country, followed by Mililani Mauka (221st), Pearl City (288th) and Ewa Gentry (312th).
read ... Booming
$100M in State Bonds to Back Solar Scammers
PBN: An initiative to help Hawaii homeowners install even more solar photovoltaic energy through either $100 million in state bond financing or through payments on a utility bill called “on-bill financing,” could begin to take shape this week.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie plans to sign Senate Bill 1087 into law on Thursday, and the program is expected to launch in 2014.
read ... Default
Maui Low Income Housing Project Owes $8M
MN: Maui County Council members began to untangle Wednesday financing arrangements that enabled Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center to provide low-income housing but also left taxpayers with millions of dollars in unpaid loans.
The principal on those loans is more than $8 million, and, with interest, the amount owed Maui County rises to more than $10 million - which the county is unlikely to recover soon, if ever, members of the council's Housing, Human Services and Transportation Committee learned Wednesday.
The panel was conducting a review of the management of Ka Hale A Ke Ola's Hale Makana O Waiale project in Wailuku.
The remote possibility of loan repayment was underscored when Rebecca Woods, Ka Hale A Ke Ola's chief executive officer, said the Hale Makana low-income rental project is running a $20,000 monthly deficit.
read ... Unpaid Loans
WMSA: Death of a Profitable NonProfit
MN: The court has been asked to judicially dissolve the organization and to appoint a receiver to marshal and distribute all remaining assets according to WMSA's bylaws. The deputy state attorney general handling the case said that it was hoped that the remaining assets would be returned to the County of Maui, which funded WMSA with grants totaling at least $2.2 million through the years.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled July 31 before 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza.
The court filing is the culmination of the attorney general's investigation of WMSA, a more than 20-year-old nonprofit whose mission includes revitalization of Maui's small towns. Through the years, many of Maui County's top governmental, community and business leaders sat on the WMSA board.
In a preliminary report released in September, the attorney general said that WMSA may have violated federal tax requirements and that its board failed to follow its bylaws and did not keep close tabs on its longtime executive director, Jocelyn Perreira, whom the report said should be fired....
On Oct. 26, the county notified WMSA that it would be terminating its current $243,000 grant, which was the agency's main source of funding. WMSA had received about $60,000 of that grant.
In December, its former landlord sought legal action over nearly $10,000 in unpaid rent and other fees.
In May, the county filed suit claiming the organization violated its county grant agreement and should return more than $11,000 worth of personal property bought with county funds and any remaining funds obtained under the grant. Since 2002, WMSA had received more than $2.2 million in grants from Maui County, the vast majority of the organization's funding during those years....
It is the attorney general's hope that any remaining cash and tangible assets of WMSA can be returned to the taxpayers of Maui County, who funded the operations of WMSA and paid its staff for the last several years, Jones said.
read ... Decades Long Scam
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