Hawaii Health Connector Built by Same Contractor Responsible for Federal ACA Failure
Obamacare: Hawaii Only State Which Still Has Not Launched
Gay Marriage Debate Cancelled After Attempt to Stack Meeting Fails
Report: Hawaii Ranks 30th in Business Tax Climate
Grading character in school
Rail: Let Them Eat Cake
Hickam: Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command held 'phony' ceremonies for MIAs, using planes that can't fly
Liver Let Die
Health Connector Can't Say When they'll Be Open
HNN: The Hawaii Health Connector was slated to go online on October 1, and allow consumers the ability to shop for different health care plans.
That still hasn't happened.
The site, troubled by multiple issues, is not yet offering plan and price comparisons.
Wednesday, Executive Director Coral Andrews along with other health care professionals, took part in an informational briefing at the state capitol to give an update on the status of the Connector.
"The date we are working off now is the 15th of October. That doesn't mean we will be going out to the 15th—it's a very fluid situation where every hour, every day, we're getting more information about the functionality" Andrews told the panel.
read ... No Promise
Clean Elections Activists Nailed by Campaign Spending Commission
PR: The state Campaign Spending Commission agreed Wednesday to assess a $1,000 fine on Progressive Hawaii Now for failing to keep records, bringing the total fine imposed on the group for campaign-finance violations to $3,300.
The commission had voted in September to assess $2,300 in fines for failure to timely file campaign-finance reports, an excess contribution, a false report, unauthorized campaign spending, and failure to amend an organizational report.
Payne said he and other advocates believe money in politics is the biggest problem. He said lawmakers had not responded to citizens, so he thought lawmakers might respond to a political action committee....
June 2008: ‘Clean Elections’ activist nailed by Campaign Spending Commission (History repeats)
read ... About a Bunch of Hypocrites
Furlough foul-up: 20,000 Hawaii workers Illegally Laid Off
HNN: It's the furloughs that should not have happened.
Some 20,000 civilian Department of Defense employees in Hawaii -- and more than 350,000 workers nationwide --- shouldn't have been ordered off the job last week due to a new law that provided for funding for their pay... the Pay Our Military Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on Sept. 30 -- the day before the furloughs went into effect.
The legislation specifically provides for "pay and allowance to the civilian personnel of the Department of Defense."
The new law was cited by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel when he ordered the workers back on the job Saturday.
"For the past several days, we've been looking at the Pay Our Military Act and it's clear. It's clear that civilians should not have been furloughed. We should have been at work getting paid," said Don Bongo, president of the Hawaii Federal Employees Metal Trades Council, which represents about 4,000 workers at the Pearl Harbor Shipyard.
Added Jamie Hiranaka, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers: "The DOD employees should never have been furloughed because the Pay Our Military Act had been signed on Sept. 30 before the shutdown."
The IFPTE represents about 2,000 DOD white-collar workers in Hawaii.
Calls to a Defense Department spokesman in Washington, D.C. were not return calls.
In his remarks on Saturday, Hagel said the Pay Our Military Act does not permit a "blanket recall" of civilians.
But he did say that attorneys for the DOD and the Department of Justice concluded that the law does allow the department to recall workers that "contribute to the morale, well-being, capabilities and readiness of service members."
read ... Anything to save Obamacare
11 groups added to city grants list by Council
SA: Eleven Oahu nonprofit agencies learned Wednesday they will get a slice of the city’s $5.1 million grants-in-aid pie because of a City Council decision to increase the number of organizations selected to benefit from the new fund.
Forty-one other nonprofits that had already been awaiting grants found out their slices of the pie will be considerably smaller than expected under the plan proffered by City Council Chairman Ernie Martin and approved Wednesday with a 7-1 vote. Councilman Breene Harimoto cast the lone
no vote while Councilman Ikaika Anderson abstained, citing a potential conflict because a relative had applied for a grant.
The new draft raised concerns from Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration about the process used to expand the list and the effects of reducing the amounts earmarked for each agency by 25 percent without any analysis. A member of the advisory commission told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser she has similar concerns.
read ... 11 Groups
Campaign Spending Commission Cracks Down on Rep. Awana's Illegal Campaign Practices
HR: Hawaii Campaign Spending Commissioners sanctioned Rep. Karen Awana on Wednesday, issuing the maximum fine of $8,590 against her for 54 violations of the state’s campaign spending law.
Awana resigned Friday as Democrat House Majority Leader after the Commission staff notified her she’d likely face steep fines for nine counts of filing false or inaccurate reports, 24 counts for untimely campaign donation deposits and failure to keep records.
In 2012, the Commission fined Awana twice in the amounts of $6,800 and $400 for the exactly the same types of violations. She paid of the final $800 in fines this week for violations dating back to 2008.
Three of the four commissioners told Awana they agreed with recommendations by commission General Counsel Gary Kam to fine Awana the maximum, because she has had a history of violating the campaign spending law, she’s had previous fines, and poor communication with the commission staff. She has been slow to provide the staff members with information they requested, such as receipts to back up expenditures. All four commissioners present voted unanimously for the fine.
read ... Awana
Hawaii County employees plead guilty to fuel theft
HTH: Two former Department of Environmental Management employees charged with stealing diesel fuel while working at the Waimea baseyard have pleaded guilty and been sentenced for their crimes.
Both Donald Wayne Wilbur, 40, and Billy Joseph Colliado, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree felony theft. In return for the guilty plea, three counts of first-degree unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle and three counts of criminal trespass in the second-degree were dropped against Wilbur, according to court records.
Wilbur was sentenced to one year in jail with all but 30 days waived. He also is jointly liable with Colliado to repay $3,500 in restitution to the county, along with court costs. And, he is required to write a letter apologizing to county residents and society for stealing county resources.
read ... County employees plead guilty to fuel theft
Some Hawaii Teachers Aren't Allowed to Fail Kids Over Frequent Truancy
CB: Teachers, in many cases, can't do much about frequently truant students. That is because few schools have a mandatory attendance requirement and teachers are expressly prohibited from grading students based on attendance.
It might seem surprising, but the Hawaii Department of Education doesn’t specify a minimum number of instructional days that middle and high school students must be present in order to be eligible to pass their courses.
Some teachers say that they end up feeling obliged to make a special effort to ensure students who miss a lot of classes are keeping up with the material, too.
The result, Rosenlee said, is an atmosphere in which students "don’t have to attend school to pass" and they "don’t gain the skills to do anything else."
The school district has a policy based on a state law that mandates school enrollment for all children, but it doesn’t specify penalties for students who miss too many classes.
read ... Truancy
Panel hears Campaign finance law challenge
SA: A three-judge federal appeals panel on Wednesday heard a challenge to Hawaii's campaign-finance law, questioning lawyers about the ban on political contributions by state and county contractors and the spending threshold for triggering disclosure requirements.
Legal experts caution against reading too much into the judges' questions at such hearings. But the judges did appear skeptical about claims that the contribution ban on contractors, passed by the state Legislature in 2005 in response to the "pay to play" scandals, is unconstitutional.
Randy Elf, an attorney for A-1 A-Lectrician Inc., a local electrical firm challenging the state's campaign-finance law, told the panel that A-1 does not contribute to state lawmakers who supervise contracts, such as lawmakers who serve on appropriations committees, and argued that the prohibition on political contributions by contractors is overly broad.
read ... Citizens United
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