US Civil Rights Commissioners: Akaka Tribe Executive Order would be Unconstitutional
Accused Child Molester Ran Mortgage Scam from Restaurant Row Office
NY Bank Collects Royalties on Hawaii Windfarms
Public Comment Open on Maui District Court Nominees
Matson Claims Customer Rates Will not be Affected by Molasses Spill
HPU is Named Hawaii's "Military Friendly" University
Hawaii Health Connector: State-Contracted Telemarketers Now Selling Subsidized HMSA, Kaiser Policies
Hawaii.gov Ranked Among Top 10 State Government Websites
Full Text: Kapolei-Makakilo Neighborhood Board Passes Resolutions Against Ho'opili, Ewa Development Plan
GOP: Make Your Voice Heard in Special Session
HIRA: Illinois Defeated Gay Marriage, We Can Too
Bribery, Jones Act: FBI Investigated Inouye, Matson
CB: In August 1989, the FBI heard from an anonymous caller saying he had heard for years from Honolulu maritime officials that Matson Navigation had made cash payments to Inouye to prevent competition. The caller is described as a fifth-generation Hawaiian who was related to a former Republican congressman representing Hawaii.
In October of that year, the bureau was advised that Inouye attended a 1987 meeting at the Pacific Club and was overheard stating, "APL (American Pacific Lines) will come in over my dead body."
The FBI office in Honolulu took the allegations seriously enough that it asked the national headquarters for permission to conduct an investigation, including looking at Inouye's bank account records. FBI bosses rejected the idea but did authorize a "discreet" investigation of public source documents to assess the "competitive nature" of the Honolulu maritime industry. Inouye's name was not to be mentioned.
The file on the Matson allegation is one of the longest, numbering 120 pages. It includes financial statements from companies like Alexander & Baldwin, Matson's parent company. It is not clear from the files what the investigation concluded, but at one point a U.S. attorney was said willing to prosecute if the allegations could be substantiated.
LINK: http://vault.fbi.gov/daniel-inouye/ (Matson is in files 12 & 16)
read ... FBI Files: A Window Opens on the Life and Times of Dan Inouye
UHWO Deals give Atheists Chance to Hit Catholics, Jews
Borreca: Ben Jay, University of Hawaii athletic director, thinks UH sports can be great with just $8 million more....but before fans start waving their checkbooks like pompoms, some notice should be paid to the UH in general and West Oahu in particular.
UH's own financial projections for the newest campus show that by fiscal year 2019-20, West Oahu will have an operational deficit of $30 million.
Much of it is caused by an $18 million loan the UH took out in May 2012. The money was loaned to UH from a Hawaii limited partnership associated with CanAm Enterprises. UH is paying $270,000 a year in interest for five years and then it must pay back the loan. (Yep. $270K is too big of a burden. LOL!)
According to the loan agreement, which was signed by former UH President M.R.C. Greenwood, state Attorney General David Louie and state Budget Director Kalbert Young, the $18 million is to build the UH-West Oahu administration building....
Here comes the second cliff-hanger. In November 2012, UH regents happily announced a $32 million sale of some of the West Oahu land to the Catholic Church to build a church and private school.
The sale still hasn't happened. All the regents have is a letter of intent.
In a letter to state Rep. Isaac Choy, the House Higher Education Committee chairman, UH-West Oahu Vice Chancellor for Administration Donna Kiyosaki said the "agreement was never fully negotiated and with the appointment of our new chancellor, we are looking at changing the location of the potential church/school site."
So no big problem, real estate deals go south all the time. The problem is that UH's financial projections already list payments from the Catholic Church of $3 million in this fiscal year and $9 million in the year after.
ILind: Ties Deal to Orthodox Rabbi
read ... Borreca Identifies targets for Atheists
Rail construction restarts after year delay
HNN: After more than a year sitting idle Kiewit Construction crews started up the equipment and began rail work again. A moment later the first scoop of dirt came out of the ground. Sixteen columns have already been built and 800 more need to go up. All while many city officials have stood by the project....
To make up lost ground construction workers will have to work in multiple areas at the same time, including Pearl City, Waipahu and Kapolei. They will drill shafts, pour concrete and next year they plan to start connecting the columns with the actual train guide way.
"Some of the work will be stacked up more than we wanted it to be," said Lance Wilhelm, Kiewit Infrastructure Senior VP.
The delay cost the city more than $30 million in direct costs. It is however still on time expecting to have the first 10 miles from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium running in just four years and have the last leg to Ala Moana done by 2019.
SA: More rail columns to rise as work resumes on city's transit project
read ... Railroaded
Grabauskas: "Setting a new standard for urban development."
E&E: "I think it's a revolution that's happening here; this is an awakening," said Dan Grabauskas, HART's executive director. "People should be keeping an eye on what's happening here, because I think we'll be setting a new standard for urban development."
read ... Will a $5B rail system save paradise or destroy it?
NEA, Abercrombie weigh in on Convention Center art controversy
KITV: The covering up of a piece of art at the Hawaii Convention Center is now attracting national attention....
The governor has stated his stern position to censoring art. It may not legally be allowed as the piece by Hans Ladislaus is federally protected.
"It is actually a fact that it is," said State Foundation Executive Director Eva Laird Smith. "Once an art comes into being, this was covered by a federal law back in 1990 and you understand this work was created in 1997."
"Art is an appeal to the universal and an appeal to our sense of humanity," said Gov. Neil Abercrombie. "Anyone who thinks they can restrict that is operating on the basis of being a culture cop."
Representatives from the National Endowment of the Arts are urging the State Foundation to protect the artist's rights. But, Paulette Kaleikini, a cultural descendant, said she was not asked to remove the cloth and has no plans to take it down.
Related: Bones at the Convention Center: Mark Twain vs Mike McCartney
read ... Pushing Back Against Censorship
Hawaiian Fishermen Push for De-Listing of Previously Endangered Species
SA: ...today more than 21,000 whales ply the waters between Alaska and Hawaii. They have become not only an ecological treasure but an integral part of the tourist economy, generating tens of millions of dollars each year for tour boat companies.
Now a group of Hawaii fishermen has raised a delicate question: Are the North Pacific humpback whales still endangered? The group, the Hawaii Fishermen's Alliance for Conservation and Tradition, says no, and has petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to designate the North Pacific whales as a distinct population, and then remove it from the federal endangered species list.
The alliance's reasons have little to do with humpback whales, and should be taken with a grain of salt. It wants to raise a larger point: That the growing number of species on the endangered list — and the subsequent regulatory burdens on state and federal agencies — has diverted resources from the study and management of fisheries that actually feed people.
Commercial fishermen need more and better data about the ocean resources they harvest, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) gets in the way, the alliance says.
"There are food species that need to be managed," says Philip Fernandez, the alliance's president.
Link: http://hfact.wordpress.com/
read ... Avoid politics in delisting whales
OCCC guards face criminal charges
HNN: Both Castro and Ignacio have pleaded not guilty to the third degree assault charges, which are a misdemeanor....
The Attorney General's office cited a criminal investigation by the Department of Public Safety, which stated that several fellow ACOs testified that they saw Ignacio striking Diaz.
Castro's alleged kick was caught on video by prison cameras, the AG's office said.
Legal experts say that its unusual to find this kind of corroboration in a prison beating case.
"It's rare that you have a case where prison staff is alleged to have assaulted or have physically attacked somebody and apparently you have photographic corroboration," said attorney Eric Seitz.
read ... OCCC guards face criminal charges
Prisoner Accused of Lesbian Rape
HNN: A female inmate is accused of sexually assaulting another inmate at the Women's Community Correctional Center, according to Honolulu Police records.
The alleged assault happened on August 16 while the victim was taking a shower.
The 29-year-old suspect faces charges of third degree sexual assault.
read ... Female inmate accused of sexually assaulting another inmate
Obamacare will question your sex life
NYP: ‘Are you sexually active? If so, with one partner, multiple partners or same-sex partners?”
Be ready to answer those questions and more the next time you go to the doctor, whether it’s the dermatologist or the cardiologist and no matter if the questions are unrelated to why you’re seeking medical help. And you can thank the Obama health law.
read ... Obamacare will question your sex life
'Manoa Rapist' denied parole -- Lawsuit Threatened
KHON: John Freudenberg was 23 years old when he pleaded guilty in 1983 to raping or trying to rape 15 women in the Manoa neighborhood where he lived with his family.
A UH Manoa honors student and president of his fraternity he admitted to pleaded to 36 crimes, including rape, sodomy, sex abuse and burglary that were committed over a 14-month period in the Manoa neighborhood where he lived with his family. ...
"It was, grant you, 32 years ago," said Lynn Costales, head of the city prosecutor's office sex assault unit."But I don't think we can forget what happened to these victims, including these women who were raped, one woman with her daughter in the room next to her. Many women by knife point and he threatened to kill them."
The inmate's criminal defense attorney, Myles Breiner, told the board, "the prosecutor's office seems insistent on treating this as though we had the death penalty and in lieu of the death penalty, we will keep Mr. Freudenberg locked up indefinitely, forever and ever and ever."
The parole board recommended he be sent to a work furlough program but denied him parole, prompting Breiner to threaten to file a federal law civil rights lawsuit, saying that he's being kept in prison much longer than other sex offenders.
read ... Not offered a job by Soft on Crime Crowd
State starts up language learning initiative
KITV: To prepare students for the workplace, Hawaii's Language Roadmap Initiative calls for a shift from simply learning a wide range of foreign vocabulary words to focusing on a work-ready vocabulary.
LINK: Hawaii Language Roadmap
read ... Multi-Lingual
More Federal Spending Cuts Coming?
CB: Congress has just a few voting days left to pass a budget plan that will avert a government shutdown before it faces another major hurdle — the looming debt ceiling — in mid-October.
This double-whammy could have major implications for Hawaii, including for local schools and universities that are highly dependent on federal funding.
Hawaii is already feeling the broadening effects of the budget sequester. A growing array of cuts is triggered by a pre-specified timetable that continues to chip away at federally funded Hawaii Department of Education and University of Hawaii programs. But the state’s education funding also risks cuts as a result of a fierce, politically charged battle in Congress over the federal budget and additional pressure as federal spending approaches the $16.4 trillion government debt limit.
read ... Federal Budget Crisis Likely to Squeeze Hawaii Schools and Universities
Navy Yard Shooting: Failure of Mental Health Care System
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. law enforcement officials are telling The Associated Press that the Navy contractor identified as the gunman in the mass shootings at the Washington Navy Yard had been suffering a host of serious mental issues, including paranoia and a sleep disorder. He also had been hearing voices in his head, the officials said.
Related: Connecticut Shooting: Failure of Mental Health System
Schatz: Thrilled at another opportunity to attack 2nd Amendment
read ... Re-institutionalization Needed
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