Religious Liberty: Federal Court Blocks Abortion Mandate
Obama: Churches Will not be Required to Conduct Gay Marriages
Premature Action: 9th Circuit Illegally Allows Gay Marriages to Begin
In Sudden Reversal, HIRA Comes out Against Gay Marriage
Abercrombie Signs Four More Bills, Defends Shark Fin Ban
Guam: Legislators, Media Protest Jones Act 'Monster of the Pacific Rim'
The People Don't Want This: Fearing Angry Voter Backlash, Legislators Consider Special Session to Force Gay Marriage on Hawaii
HNN: "My position has evolved as well and I would support same sex marriage as long as there was the religious exemption for churches," said State Senator Will Espero, (D) Senate Majority Floor Leader....
A special session can happen one of two ways, at least two thirds of the house and senate members would have to agree to convene or the Governor can call for a session. His office says they're focused on signing bills into law right now but it's unknown what the future holds.
(The impetus for this comes from mainland gay activists hoping to create the illusion of a landslide of states enacting gay marriage.)
"As to be expected everyone has a different opinion on what should be done," said Rep. Saiki....
"This could be a controversial and contentious issue and vote and getting it out of the way so we're not distracted with the issues during session would probably be beneficial for the legislature," said Sen. Espero.
And if it's done earlier there would be more time for angry voters to forget by the 2014 elections.
"Never underestimate the cowardice of a legislator up for reelection," said Dan Boylan, Political Analyst. "I think in this instance everybody recognizes that they've got to deal with it now that the Supreme Court has so they're either going to do it now or they're going to do it in the next session."
Are the votes there? There appears to be a majority in both chambers for same sex marriage, but perhaps not a supermajority. So if a special session happens it may have to be called by the governor. If not it is almost sure to pass next regular session which starts January 2014.
read ... Lawmakers talking special session for same sex marriage
Matson: Workers Must Take Pay Cut so we can Pay for Overpriced Jones Act Ships
KHON: The unions representing 1,600 sailors and Marine firemen at Matson Navigation Company met again on Friday.
Matson wants workers to take a pay cut so it can buy two new ships, but workers say no.
If a deal is not reached on Friday, another round of negotiations will take place in Oakland, Calif.
If a deal is not reached then, workers say they will walk the picket line on Monday, shutting down shipping to Hawaii.
read ... One More Reason to Dump the US-Build Requirement
Zunin: Health Care Reform Causing More Problems than it is Solving
SA: Kiplinger recently highlighted several biomedical breakthroughs that are likely to affect the medical industry: radio frequency applications to the kidney that can lower blood pressure; dissolving metal stents for the heart that leave behind a healed blood vessel; an external, artificial pancreas that reads blood sugar levels and delivers insulin; an artificial retina for the eye; and vaccines to treat cancer.
Undoubtedly, some of these new technologies will result in new cost benefits, but most will add to the price of health care even as they improve quality of life. The unstoppable force of advances in biomedical technology faces the immovable mountain of health care reform. As access to care unfolds for millions of underserved citizens, despite best efforts at creating efficiencies, American health care must resort to rationing. This is only exacerbated during an economic downturn.
...advances in biomedical technology are also sensitive to funding. According to one former investment banker who moved to Hawaii to start a medical business, "if you start taking dollars away, people aren't going to want to do the research, and you are going to start getting inferior technology. Future entrepreneurs won't focus in the health care space."
For the moment, health care reform seems to be causing more problems than it is solving....
read ... Gains in health technology cause pain in the short term
Star-Adv: DHHL needs fed oversight
SA: Long in coming, the federal government has decided to create new rules intended to put eligible Native Hawaiians onto homestead lots, prompted by a Star-Advertiser series revealing mismanagement of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. In two to three months, the Interior Department plans to put before the public its proposal, which needs to consist of a clear and open process for the program.
Assistant Interior Secretary Rhea Suh notified DHHL Director Jobie Masagatani in a letter Monday of that intention, citing a "most concerning" three-story series by Star-Advertiser reporter Rob Perez. Credit also belongs to Robin Danner of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, who urged President Barack Obama at the White House in May for authorization of the federal rule-making, and U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, who has been meeting with Suh to encourage her department to provide aggressive oversight and assistance to DHHL. "We are off to a good start," Schatz said....
In her letter, Suh has asked Masagatani for "a detailed summary of the interventions you have put into place or begun," especially "actions the state is taking on the issuance and subsequent administration of revocable permits involving Hawaiian home lands."
Suh said the rule-making will intend to "clarify the documents required and the responsibilities of the department" under the commissions act and the Admission Act.
"The only real question has been to identify the best tool to clarify the process," said an Interior spokeswoman, "and at this point the department believes the best tool is rule-making." She said the process will likely begin in the next couple of months.
Fortunately, the Interior Department has been working with the state and the Native Hawaiian community for nearly five years — early in Obama's first term — to clarify how the 1920 act can be amended and how to pursue property exchanges involving Hawaiian homelands, according to the spokeswoman.
(Not one word about the Akaka Tribe, but its got to be in there somewhere.)
read ... DHHL needs fed oversight
Obama Causes Hawaii personal income to fall for first time in nearly 4 years
SA: Personal income, which includes salaries and wages, investment income and federal government payments, fell by 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared with the last three months of 2012, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. It was the first quarterly drop in personal income since the third quarter of 2009 when the economy was slogging through a recession.
Workers in Hawaii and the rest of the country saw their payroll taxes go up by 2 percentage points at the start of the year as part of the “fiscal cliff” deal approved by Obama....
In addition to the restoration of the payroll tax, the decline in first quarter personal income reflected the acceleration of stock dividends and salary bonuses into the fourth quarter of 2012 in anticipation of higher individual tax rates in 2013, according to BEA.
read ... 4 Years
City to enforce new homeless law
HNN: The sidewalk nuisance law, or Bill 7, allows the city to confiscate the tents and personal belongings of people living on the city's walkways.
The city is not saying which homeless camps it plans to target first but it says it will take multiple enforcement runs early in the week.
"There are numerous places where we received complaints -- sometimes hundreds of complaints -- and we're going to these areas in no particular order and starting to use it to make sure everyone has access to sidewalks," said Mayor Kirk Caldwell....
Meanwhile, the city says it working closely with homeless shelters to provide space for those affected by the crackdown.
"I think we're trying to collaborate with the city to offer services to anyone who wants to come off of the street," said Connie Mitchell, executive director of the Institute for Human Services.
read ... City to enforce new homeless law
Lunatics, Criminals to be Barred from Employment as Security Guards, Deadline Monday
SA: Anticipating a rush of last-minute filers, the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs announced Friday it will remain open this weekend to accommodate security guards who need to register with the state or receive training to continue working next week.
Effective Monday, security guards and others who work in a security capacity must be registered with the state Board of Private Detectives and Guards and meet instruction and training requirements. The new requirements were established in Act 208 of 2010, which established minimum standards for security guards.
About 10,000 workers in Hawaii are affected by the new requirements, according to state labor statistics. As of yesterday, only about 4,000 had met the requirements, according to DCCA communications officer Brent Suyama.
The newly established minimum requirements say guards must be at least 18 years old and possess a high school diploma or equivalent. Guards cannot be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder than could directly affect their performance and may not have been convicted of a crime “which reflects unfavorably on the fitness of the individual to act as a guard.”
read ... 6000 Ineligible?
HPD Sickout Caused by Demand Officers Show up for Work on Time
HNN: East Honolulu police officers who were warned they could be disciplined for not coming to work on time staged a sickout Monday night, in an incident that highlights the Honolulu Police Department's parking shortage.
Half the patrol officers on third watch, from 2:30 to 11 p.m. covering Manoa to Makapuu called in sick Monday night, in part because of the discipline warning and because a captain asked supervisors to start checking officers' odometers in their vehicles to make sure there were going on patrol.
There's not enough room for all of the police vehicles inside HPD's garage at its Beretania Street headquarters, particularly at shift change around 2:30 p.m. every afternoon.
"There is a huge problem, because it's not just officers. We have civilian employees as well. So parking is very very difficult," said Tenari Maafala, president of the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, the union that represents about 1,900 Honolulu police officers.
The police garage is already full of cars of personnel from a half dozen divisions parking there during the day. Then at 2:30 in the afternoon, the problem is compounded when patrol officers from three districts come to work, while some of the officers from the previous shift are returning to headquarters.
"Even within the station itself, you got officers double parking. So officers are being disciplined for that as well, parking out of stall within the structure of which they are allowed to park," Maafala said.
read ... Parking
HB998 on Veto List: Bird Recue Seeks to Tap Bankrupt Barrel tax Fund
KITV: Open for a year, the Hawaii Wildlife Center in North Kohala on the Big Island is the only top-tier rescue and rehabilitation center for Hawaii's native birds....
House Bill 988, which would have opened the door for state funding, sailed through the House and Senate. (But its on the Veto List)
Bill 988 asked for a cut of the Department of Health's Barrel Tax Fund, which is a 5-cent tax on barrels of petroleum shipped to the state.
Gill estimates, at the going rate, that fund could be bankrupt by December. (Just in time to provide an excuse for tax hikes next year.)
VIDEO ... Check out the expensive new bird building they built themselves
Obsession: Thousands Testify, DLNR Then Bans Spear Fishing
SA: The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted Friday to prohibit spearfishing in waters off West Hawaii by people diving with the aid of scuba gear.
The board also decided to limit the collection of aquarium fish in the area to a list of 40 species, and redraw the boundaries of a fishery management area off Puako using updated information on the reef.
The scuba spearfishing ban was the most contentious measure considered.
The board voted 4-2 to approve it after hearing more than six hours of testimony, much of it from fishermen opposing the ban. Board Chairman William Aila and member David Goode were the two voting against the measure. Robert Pacheco, a member from Hawaii island, and three other members voted in favor.
The fishermen testified the science doesn't call for a ban on the practice. They're also worried banning spearfishing off West Hawaii would set a precedent and lead to other spearfishing bans around the state....
Nearly 90 percent of the 565 people in West Hawaii who submitted public testimony on the topic last year supported the scuba ban. Similar percentages around the state and outside Hawaii supported the prohibition.
read ... Obsessive-Compulsive Testifiers
Commission shoots down plan to burn trees for energy
SA: A plan to burn locally grown trees on Kauai to generate electricity was dealt a setback Friday when the Hawaiian Homes Commission rejected a proposal to lease 2,134 acres of Hawaiian homelands to the developer of the renewable-energy project.
The 5-3 vote came after two days of public meetings on the project in which 80 percent of testimony opposed granting a lease to Green Energy Team LLC, according to a news release from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
Green Energy Team sought a 20-year lease for the DHHL parcel in Anahola that would be cleared of invasive albizia trees and used to establish a tree plantation. The albizia and cultivated trees were to be used as fuel for Green Energy's $90 million biomass-to-energy facility under construction near Koloa.
In addition to clearing the land and paying lease rent to DHHL, Green Energy agreed to a community benefits package that included setting aside acreage for subsistence agriculture and creating a community picnic area near Kaneha Reservoir.
The rejection of the lease means Green Energy will have to find another source of trees for the project, said Eric Knutzen, the developer's co-founder.
read ... DHHL
Data a sign that hotel, food and other prices are too high
SA: Visitor arrivals totaled 645,711 in May, up 3.7 percent from a very healthy May 2012, according to data released Friday by the HTA. But spending dropped 0.6 percent to about $1.05 billion. The average length of stay, meanwhile, fell to 8.68 days from 8.88 days.
"The second quarter is a little slower than the first quarter, but we are still beating last year and it was a very good year," said Jerry Westenhaver, general manager of the Hyatt Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa. "A little slowdown was expected because we can't continue to grow at those rates and revenue streams."
Still, while the changes in spending and length of stay were scant, others say it could be a sign that Hawaii travel buyers are feeling more sticker shock. After all, the market made news during the first quarter when it took the dubious honor of having the most expensive nightly hotel prices in the country. During the first quarter, Hawaii hotel guests spent $233.33 a night on the average hotel room, or 13 percent more than in 2012 when the average rate was $206.22, according to Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research. On average, guests paid about $10 a night less for hotel rooms in Miami/Hialeah, Fla., and about $23 a night less in New York. Prices for airfare, food and beverage, and entertainment also have grown, said Mike McCartney, HTA president and chief executive officer.
"Consumers have become more cautious of their spending as the price of a Hawaii vacation continues to increase, resulting in a shorter length of stay and reductions in daily visitor spending," McCartney said.
read ... too high
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