Taking Effect Today: Honolulu Property Tax Hikes Target Elderly
Hawaii GOP: Schatz, Hirono Vote for Government Shutdown
Nominations invited for UH Task Force in support of student veterans
Global Warming: Abercrombie Signs Majuro Declaration
Outdoor Circle Questions Plan for Trails Ringing Kawainui Marsh
Gallup: Less than half of Uninsured say they will use the state or federal exchanges
Hawaii Obamacare Exchange Fails on First day, May be Down for Month
SA: The state’s health insurance exchange, a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, will not be ready for consumers to shop and compare health plans at the start of open enrollment today.
The online marketplace known as the Hawaii Health Connector is having software problems that will prevent consumers from comparing the various plans.
But officials hope to solve those problems by Friday, sources involved with the Connector told the Star-Advertiser.... (They told AP it would be 'within the month'-- see below)
“Over the coming months, consumers should continue to come back for additional information on their options to enroll in affordable coverage,” Andrews said. “Improvements will be made along the way...."
The Connector has received $205 million in federal grants to market and build its state-based exchange, with an ambitious goal to enroll as many as 300,000 residents, including an estimated 100,000 uninsured.
But the Connector has already had a rough start. The nonprofit organization that the state Legislature established in 2011 came under fire early on for having health insurance company executives as board members helping to design the system.
In recent months small-business groups and AARP Hawaii have criticized the slow marketing campaign and the delayed contracting of so-called "marketplace assisters," assigned to seek out the uninsured and underinsured and enroll them on the exchange.
As today’s deadline approached, the bulk of consumers and small businesses still were confused about the new health plan options, with 77 percent, or 1,723 online readers of the Star-Advertiser not knowing the purpose of the Connector in an unscientific poll last month.
The exchange is the only place where consumers earning up to 400 percent of the Hawaii poverty level ($54,000 for individuals, $108,000 for a family of four) and small groups can apply for tax credits to reduce the cost of health insurance.
The Connector is allegedly set to offer 95 plans varying in coverage, premiums and out-of-pocket co-payments and deductibles by the dominant carriers in the state, the Hawaii Medical Service Association and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.....
read ... Democrats Shut Down the Federal Government to save THIS?
"People don't want to Buy Plans Right Now"
AP: Chief Marketing Officer Rick Budar of the Hawaii Health Connector told The Associated Press on Tuesday that consumers will be able to apply for coverage, but insurers are still testing and reviewing rates in part to make sure they're shown correctly within the system.
Budar says he expects actual plans and prices to be up within the month, once they're approved by insurers. ...
Budar says he doesn't expect many people to purchase plans until December, with coverage starting Jan. 1. He says people don't want to buy plans right now.
read ... Don't Want to Buy Plans Right Now
Hawaii Congressional Delegation Unanimous in Favor of Government Shutdown to Save Obamacare
Star-Adv: Homosexual Rape Gang at Blind-Deaf School Can Be Used to Impose Gay Agenda Thru Anti-Bullying Programs
SA: Girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 16 reported being raped, sodomized, robbed, coerced into sexual activity and otherwise abused at the public boarding school in Kapahulu, including in dorms and on school buses. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2011, claimed that DOE officials had known about the abuse for years, but did not act forcefully enough to stop it.....
Which brings us to a new phase: the first criminal charges filed against an adult who worked at the school. An Oahu grand jury returned an indictment last week against a former teacher's aide accused of sexually assaulting a student in 2005, when the girl was 14.
The suspect, 29 at the time, faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault. These charges are the exception, given that student-on-student crime was the more typical accusation. Still, parents and educators throughout the state should pay attention. This case, if it goes to trial, will play out in public, because the suspect was an adult at the time. New information about institutional culture and educational practices may come to light....
There is much to learn from the toxic environment that was allowed to fester at Hawaii's only public school for deaf and blind students. But the case was so extreme — in the large number of alleged victims, the severity of the alleged abuse and the fact that it occurred within a unique population at an insular institution — that it was easy to dismiss as an outlier, something that couldn't happen anywhere else. That is a mistaken assumption.
Essentially, the terrorized students were victims of extreme bullying, dominated by students older, stronger and more popular and traumatized by the fear that going public with the mistreatment could shutter their school and ostracize them from their community.
Bullies can exist at practically every school — public, private, regular-ed, special-ed — but they can only grow strong when the adults who should be in charge fail to act. There's a lesson in that for all of us.
What's Coming: The transsexual agenda for Hawaii schools
read ... Gay Blackmail Drives Gay Agenda
'Wild West Shootout' for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District Seat
CB: Likely contenders include Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who initially told colleagues she would not run but now says she is considering a campaign after all.
Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who has run for Congress three times, is said to still be a possible contender. Hannemann did not respond to a phone message Monday.
And Daniel Dae Kim, the Hawaii Five-0 star, is rumored to also be thinking about switching to politics....
Reached via a spokeswoman, Kim said in a statement to Civil Beat Monday, "Though I've always followed politics and am flattered by the suggestion, right now my focus and commitment is to Hawaii Five-0."...
"You could be looking at a Wild West shootout where 20 percent might win this race," said sate Sen. Will Espero, one of the five announced candidates. "There could be two or three others, and the more that get in the race, the lower the number of voters are going to be needed to win this."
State Rep. Mark Takai and Honolulu City Council members Ikaika Anderson and Stanley Chang are also running for CD1. All are Democrats, as is Kathryn Xian, who formally launched her campaign Monday.
Borreca: "For Kim to succeed further in politics, she will have to keep the Senate on track during both the 2013 special session and the 2014 regular session" (Translation: The Gays Want Her to Think that Gay Marriage Owns Her Future.)
SA: Xian--Candidate for Congress pushes income equality (Yawn)
read ... Wild West
Legislative Salaries: 380 People Siphon $22M Per Year
CB: Hawaii lawmakers started seeing fatter paychecks July 1 thanks to the Salary Commission’s recommendation and the end of the voluntary cuts they took during the recession.
Fifty House reps and 24 senators will each earn $55,896 this fiscal year, $9,600 more than 2012. House Speaker Joe Souki and Senate President Donna Mercado Kim will have annual salaries of $63,396, a $10,000 bump.
The Salary Commission, which voters created in 2006, decided in 2007 that lawmakers’ salaries should be significantly higher because (insert excuse here)....
Counting the 76 lawmakers and the House and Senate staffs, there are 380 employees under the Legislature’s payroll system earning combined salaries totaling $22.38 million.
In 2012, there were 384 employees earning a combined $20.14 million, not including health or fringe benefits.
The House and Senate staff members who do everything from legislative analysis and office management to research and legal advice also received raises this year.
The 124 House staff members will earn an average salary of $57,394 in 2013, up from $52,980 last year when there were 121 people on staff.
In 2012, Patricia Mau-Shimizu, chief clerk, was the highest paid House employee at $118,896. The new chief clerk, Brian Takeshita, makes $111,240 a year. He isn’t the highest paid House staffer in 2013 though. Joan Yamaguchi, director of research, makes the most at $112,404.
Takeshita told Civil Beat Monday that the House pay increases definitely help with recruitment, retention and morale on the staff level.
reada ... Morale is High
HPD officer fired in Las Vegas pot incident reinstated, Assigned to Train New Officers
HNN: In August 2009, the two police officers in Las Vegas for a softball tournament were arrested in Desert Breeze Park, a few miles away from the Vegas strip.
Shayne Souza and Kevin Fujioka were charged with marijuana possession and other violations.
Vegas police said when they approached the men's van that smelled of marijuana, they drove away and then ran away on foot.
Police chased them down and detectives said Souza resisted arrest and had to be pepper sprayed.
In the spring of 2010, Fujioka was found guilty of misdemeanor driving under the influence and marijuana charges. Souza pleaded guilty to obstructing a police officer.
HPD fired them both.
The police union SHOPO appealed Souza's termination to an arbitrator who ruled in favor of HPD, so Souza did not get his job back. He had been fired once before by HPD and had already been reinstated once.
But police union officials said Fujioka successfully appealed his firing to a different arbitrator, who reinstated him.
So Fujioka went back to work. He's now assigned to the training division at the police academy in Waipahu, an HPD spokeswoman said.
read ... Now in Division of Training
UH Doesn't Pay
SA: A four-year degree from the University of Hawaii at Manoa is likely to yield a starting salary almost three times the state's minimum wage, new figures in a national salaries report show.
Manoa graduates entering the workforce with a bachelor's degree typically earn $41,000 a year within five years, according to a report by Seattle-based PayScale, an online salary and compensation information service. After 10 years in their field, Manoa graduates generally make $73,000 a year.
By comparison, Honolulu's median household income is $71,263, according to the U.S. Census. Just fewer than a third of Honolulu's population over 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher.
PayScale said it surveyed 1.4 million college graduates — bachelor's degree holders without advanced degrees who are full-time workers in the U.S. — to determine the potential financial return of attending a school based on its tuition and the payoff in lifetime earnings of alumni.
The report ranked more than 1,000 public and private universities
SA: #1 Harvey Mudd College
DN: Don’t jump to conclusions about UH rankings in earnings survey
read ... UH Doesn't Pay
State Attempts to Rebut Hawaii Democrats Closed Primary Lawsuit
PR: The core issue is whether the open primary places a "severe burden" on the party's right to free association.
From Luning and Marie-Iha:
...the party has failed to come forth with any facts to support its claim that Hawaii's open primary laws have "severely burdened" its association rights. As a result, this court would have to engage in conjecture and guesswork in order to conclude that the party's associational rights have been severely burdened. Because the party has failed to demonstrate -- factually -- a severe burden on its associational rights, Defendant is entitled to summary judgment.
A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for next Monday before Judge J. Michael Seabright in U.S. District Court.
read ... `Conjecture and guesswork'
HCDA holding public hearing on 801 South St. Phase II
KHON: The hearing is set for Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 9:00 a.m. to allow the applicant to present the proposed project to the HCDA and to provide the public with the opportunity to present testimony.
Downtown Capitol LLC plans to develop a second residential tower and an accompanying parking garage on the former Honolulu Advertiser property....
The first phase of the 801 South Street project started construction on Aug. 1, 2013 with a 46-story, 635 unit residential tower on the corner of South Street and Kawaihao Street. The initial phase was approved by the HCDA on Dec. 5, 2012.
The project is being built as a “workforce housing project” and certain variances are being requested in the permit. These variances are included on the second page of the public hearing notice at this link (PDF).
This public hearing will be followed by a decision-making meeting on Dec. 4, 2013 at 9:00 a.m.
ILind: Marketing overdevelopment
read ... Public Hearing
Hawaii personal income rebounded in the 2nd quarter
SA: Among the three major components of personal income the biggest increase for Hawaii residents was in dividends, interest and rent, which grew by 2.5 percent from the second quarter. Transfer receipts, a category that includes government payments such as Medicare and foot stamps, rose by 1.2 percent. Net earnings, which consists mainly of wages and salaries, increased by 0.8 percent.
The figures are not adjusted for inflation, which erodes the value of personal income. The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is forecasting that personal income in Hawaii will grow by 4.5 percent in 2013 but by only 2.6 percent after inflation is taken into account.
read ... Income
Telescope hearing set for December
HTH: Oral arguments are scheduled to begin Dec. 13 for a legal case challenging Hawaii’s decision to grant a permit for the construction of the world’s largest optical telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea.
Opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope appealed a Board of Land and Natural Resources decision to the Third Circuit Court in Hilo in May.
The petitioners say they want to force the board to uphold its public trust duties to protect Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources as traditional and customary Hawaiian practices depend on these resources. (Or they'll take $50M as a compromise.)
Read ... Telescope hearing set for December
Hawaiian Airlines Profit Based Entirely on Baggage Fees
SA: Hawaiian Airlines differentiates itself among U.S.-based carriers by offering free meals in coach class.
But when it comes to baggage fees, the largest air carrier in Hawaii is just as dependent upon them as other airlines.
Hawaiian averted a third straight quarterly earnings loss by collecting $17.8 million in baggage fees during the April-to-June period, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The fees helped Hawaiian make a previously reported $11.3 million in profit.
Meanwhile, Island Air's $851,000 in baggage fees helped it narrow its quarterly loss to $1.8 million.
SA: Island Air loses $1.8M under firm's new owner
read ... In The Bag
Warming: Usual Suspects Claim We Are All Going to Drown
SA: Rising sea levels mostly caused by man-made climate change will likely leave the edges of Waikiki — and possibly more of the densely developed tourist district — underwater by the year 2100, University of Hawaii climate researchers say.
Also, in the next 100 years, Oahu's Windward coast could become much wetter and the Leeward coast much drier, depending on how hard global leaders work to curb greenhouse gas emissions (much you pay in taxes and higher electric bills) said Axel Timmermann, a UH oceanography professor.
"It all depends," said Timmermann. "It's our choice." (Al Gore made his choice. Now we must make ours.)
His comments came during a standing-room-only lecture Monday at UH on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), which was released this week. (Did they turn off the AC to heighten the sensation?)
read ... About some sad, delusional people
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