Civil Rights: What’s Worse than Being ‘Forced’ to Conduct Gay Marriages?
Reasons to be Concerned About Obamacare - Taxes
State Pay Hike Spending Spree
Shapiro: The state ... has unleashed a spree of pay raises for public officials that would make you think we're back in the Roaring '20s.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie gave unionized public workers raises in the 10 percent range to erase the 5 percent cuts they took during the recession.
That was chicken feed compared to what some higher up the food chain got.
State legislators took 33 percent raises for themselves in 2009 at the height of the recession, then grudgingly froze the rest of their 56 percent raises through 2013 recommended by a state salary commission appointed mostly by the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate.
The freeze ended July 1 and lawmakers received raises that elevated pay for their part-time jobs to $55,896 from $46,272. On Jan. 1, it rises to $57,852, 25 percent more than they made last year.
Also on July 1, state judges got previously frozen raises ranging from $46,736 to $57,113....
read ... Shapiro
Election Day: July 9, 2014?--No, August 9
BORRECA: Calendar time. Barring the entry of a significant Republican candidate in either race, we are nine months away from selecting the next U.S. senator and governor for Hawaii.
The primary election is July 9, 2014, (actually it is August 9) and mail-in ballots are expected to go out about three weeks before, so voters are already closing in on what will be a state-shaping Democratic primary.
The caveat is that there is still time for one or two popular GOP candidates to surface and push the decision to the November general election, but as of today, nada.
Democrats running for the U.S. Senate and the 1st Congressional District do not lack for competition. There are plenty of races, but the campaign for governor is still a question mark.
read ... Nine Months From Now the Absentee Ballots Drop
Fundrace: Hanabusa Still a Big Loser, Looking for Excuses
SA: U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz has expanded his fundraising edge over U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa in their Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, as Hanabusa struggled through a subpar quarter.
Schatz raised more than $677,900 from July through September, according to a draft of his campaign finance report, and has brought in $2.7 million overall. Hanabusa raised more than $440,800 for the quarter and has brought in $1.1 million, her campaign announced, including money transferred from her House account.
The third quarter in a non-election year often presents a fundraising challenge for Hawaii political candidates, who have to compete for donors during summer months when politics is not top-of-mind and the primary is a year away. Neither Schatz nor Hanabusa has ever had to raise the $3 million to $5 million necessary for a premier statewide campaign, so they are not accustomed to the constant pressure to raise money and meet expectations every quarter.
Schatz's mark was down significantly from the $911,000 the appointed senator posted in July and the $1 million he opened with in April.
But Hanabusa is in a more complicated position. Her campaign advisers said earlier this year that there was a pent-up demand of financial support for the congresswoman that would be revealed once she formally announced her campaign. In July, after raising $500,000, campaign advisers said Hanabusa did not really have a full quarter since she had only declared in May.
In September, the Hanabusa campaign warned supporters that if the congresswoman did not meet her fundraising target the campaign may have to scale back field operations, a message campaign insiders acknowledge was a public-relations mistake.
read ... Schatz widens fundraising lead over Hanabusa
New DHHL Home Sits Empty lacking Buyer
SA: A new Kauai home that was completed two years ago through a self-help program sits empty and boarded up, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has yet to get a buyer into the four-bedroom dwelling.
Even as thousands of beneficiaries on Kauai remain on a wait list for residential homesteads, the vacant Anahola house with cherry-stained cabinetry, tiled floors and sweeping ocean views has become a testament to the flaws plaguing the agency's system for placing families in available homes, according to some beneficiaries.
Many of the vacant homes are old and often need considerable repair work.
This one, however, was built two years ago by beneficiary families participating in a DHHL-funded, self-help affordable housing program run by the nonprofit Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.
SA: Older DHHL homes sit vacant for decade
read ... DHHL Reality
Private Attorney General: Activist Score Megabucks for Litigation
SA: A nonprofit preservation group that helped save Irwin Park from becoming a parking garage more than a decade ago will receive more than $135,000 in attorney fees and costs from the state.
The Hawaii Supreme Court upheld an award for legal expenses to Scenic Hawaii earlier this year for successfully opposing a court bid by Aloha Tower Development Corp. to allow the construction of the two-level garage at the downtown park near Aloha Tower.
The high court granted the award under the private attorney general doctrine that allows groups to recoup their legal expenses for prevailing in litigation....
Isaac Hall is the Maui lawyer who represented the Sierra Club and two other groups that successfully challenged the state's attempt to permit the Superferry operations.
He was the first to obtain a court award for legal expenses under the doctrine.
The high court awarded about $147,000 in fees and costs, he said.
Hall said he was "grateful" the Hawaii courts adopted the doctrine and are now willing to apply it "on a more regular basis."
read ... Profitable Business
Anti-GMO law would Allow Luddites to Sue Farmers
WHT: Bill 113, as it stands now, does prescribe penalties and allows residents to sue possible violators.
But beyond a registry required for exempted GMO crops, the legislation says little about how the county would ensure the law is being followed or investigate farms that may be ignoring it.
Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, who introduced the bill, said she is more concerned about getting a law passed than sorting out all those details now. A GMO ad hoc committee, if formed, could later make recommendations for changes to the law, if needed, she said.
read ... Questions surround possible adoption, enforcement of GMO law
Smart Meters: Kauai Conspiracy Nuts Demand Free Ride
KGI: In late August, KIUC announced that after Sept. 30, co-op members would be charged a one-time service fee for requesting their smart meter be replaced with an old, non-standard meter.
The charges were expected to range from $81 for a residential meter to $290 for a commercial one. In a press release last week, the proposed fee was reduced to $50.64 for residential meters, and between $65.64 and $138.80 for commercial.
The co-op is also proposing to charge an additional $10.27 monthly fee to customers who don’t use smart meters.
Until KIUC receives approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, switching back to an old meter costs nothing.
The PUC could reject KIUC’s filing, change the effective date of Nov. 4 or raise or lower the proposed amount, he said.
Out of the utility’s 30,000 customers, about 3,000 — up from 2,700 one month ago — have opted not to have smart meters, which use wireless technology to transmit data on electrical use back to KIUC.
“In the last month we’ve had hundreds of people calling up,” Kelly said.
Co-op member Kathleen Viernes, of Kapaa, said one of her main concerns is that smart meters are capable of gathering data about what is going on inside the home.
read ... Conspiracy Nuts Want Free Ride
Matson to Order LNG-Powered Containerships – Sources
GC: There are a few yards under consideration and it seems BAE Systems, NASSCO and Aker Philadelphia are the front runners for the bid. Rumors that VT Halter is in the running are apparently nothing more than rumors.
Our sources indicate the order will likely be for two ships, plus options for three additional ~4,000 TEU containerships.
read ... LNG Power?
Evan Dobelle came to Westfield State with record of excess
BG: Westfield State University trustees knew about Evan Dobelle’s spectacular flame-out as president of the University of Hawaii on the day they hired him in December 2007. They even hosted a campus meeting where 100 people discussed whether Westfield should hire someone who had left another school amid public charges of reckless spending and broken promises.
Dobelle, a former White House chief of protocol, had a dazzling resume and an answer for everything, including why Hawaii fired him: The decision was political, he said, and eventually withdrawn when he threatened to sue. The consultant who recruited Dobelle to Westfield said Dobelle was so impressive he was “almost out of our league,” recalled a member of the hiring committee.
And, for anyone at the campus meeting who was nervous about Dobelle’s past, then-trustee chairman Thomas J. Foley was soothing. “We assure you, if we hire Evan, we will be paying attention,” he told people at the campus meeting, according to someone who was there.
Six years later, Westfield State trustees face a nightmare jarringly similar to the one faced by University of Hawaii Regents in 2004 when they fired Dobelle.
read ... They're Just Now Figuring this out?
Isle economy's growth slowing
SA: Local card transactions have increased, but at a lower rate than previous years, a First Hawaiian Bank study finds....
read ... Tourism
Star-Adv: Honolulu Harbor will Drown so we must have some more Conferences or Something
Star-Adv: If prevailing temperatures are going to rise as projected, the prospect of rising sea levels will be a major part of the fallout. Planners are giving thought to this anticipated repercussion. For instance, in 2011, the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization published a comprehensive assessment of risks climate change present to the transportation infrastructure.
To cite one element: Harbors are prey to storm surge but there is also the risk that high waters could overwhelm the banks of piers. The study used sea-level-rise modeling showing that by the end of the century, the level may overtop the banks of Piers 1-42.
And now it appears that the year 2100 may be projecting the problem too far out in the future. Whether the climate change within our lifetimes is as radical as these new reports suggest, it seems plain that preparing for the worst is the rational response. There should be more wide-ranging conferences on the subject and planning that goes beyond the conceptual stage. After the talking and the planning, all of that will need to translate into more action, and sooner than we thought.
read ... Global Worming
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