Memos: Hanabusa has Failed -- Schatz is a White Ideologue with a Superior Campaign
Abercrombie Issues Statement Upon Conclusion of his French Vacation
Survey: Hawaii Health Exchange Worst in Nation
Rail: Judge Tashima Must Rule on Beretania Street Tunnel
DoH Proposes Restaurant Inspection Fee Increases to Fund 13 New Positions
‘Get on Board’ DoE Adds Bus Routes at Four Schools
Poelman Appointed Maui Judge
Abercrombie’s Communications Director Quitting, Fleeing State
CB: Louise Kim McCoy, communications director and press secretary for Gov. Neil Abercrombie, is resigning at the end of this year.
She and her husband, Jim McCoy, are moving to the Pacific Northwest.... Kim McCoy is the one of several top communications personnel to depart the Abercrombie administration in just three years.
read ... Another one bites the dust
Blabbercrombie Hijacks Own News Conference
SA: Neil Abercrombie came dangerously close this week to hijacking his own press conference, like the governor did two years ago when a little grip-and-grin about early childhood education somehow turned into a tirade against the state continuing to give the NFL $4 million a year for the rights to host the Pro Bowl.
This time it was the opposite — a sports-related presser misdirected by real-world events, the same-gender marriage vote and the federal government shutdown. Egged on just a bit by a reporter, Abercrombie went off on the Tea Party just as hard as he blitzed the NFL in 2011.
But this time he reined himself in after about 10 minutes. "Back to sports," the governor said, generating laughter....
Totally Unrelated: Liberal Yale Prof Discovers TEA Party members have better understanding of Science
read ... Further Review
Schatz: White People are Taking over Hawaii
SA: But the most delicate issue raised by the memo is the Schatz campaign's assessment of the Hawaii electorate. Schatz, who is 40 and white, and Hanabusa, who is 62 and Japanese-American, both have to navigate the state's history of identity politics. Race, ethnicity and localism have a role in island campaigns, but that role is often subtle, and candidates who have tried to exploit such differences have seen the strategy backfire.
The memo portrays the Hawaii electorate as more progressive and more Democratic-leaning since 2002, mostly because of the influx of progressives who migrated to Hawaii in the 1990s and the impact of Hawaii-born President Barack Obama. The Schatz campaign points out that progressive Democrats, regardless of ethnicity, have won the major contested primaries over the past decade.
Boylan said he does not think most Hawaii voters define themselves with a "progressive politics" label. "They know what concerns them, they know what's important to them, and they vote accordingly," he said. "They're not going to vote for you just because you say, ‘I'm a progressive.' They'll vote for you if you really listen to them… and demonstrate real leadership in providing what they need to make their lives better."
NOTE: The so-called “influx of progressives in the 1990s” is actually the same Californication experienced by all western states as millions of (white) people from California abandoned the Golden State. The defining characteristic of these people is anti-development sentiment, not ‘progressivism’. Their final political act in California was to vote for anti-immigrant Prop 187 in 1994—the peak year of the first wave of the exodus. Everywhere they have gone, they have imposed themselves on the locals. Now they are doing it in Hawaii and Schatz has anointed himself their leader.
White Power Maui News: You Have no Right to Vote on Gay Marriage
White Power Maui News: Limits have fishing community worried about ‘cultural rights’
White Power Kauai: Hoosier "This started 11 mos ago with meeting at home of male model Sol Kahn"
read ... White Minority Regime
NYT: Limits Approved for Genetically Modified Crops in Kauai, Hawaii
NYT: The ordinance requires the seed companies to disclose which pesticides they use and establishes no-spray zones around schools, medical facilities, homes, public roads and waterways.
The original bill would also have limited the planting of genetically modified crops, but those provisions were removed during deliberations.
The companies had said the original bill might have forced them off the island, and they had threatened to challenge it in court.
It is not clear how disruptive the bill as passed will be. There were signs the companies, under pressure, were moving toward voluntarily disclosure and buffer zones anyway.
read ... A sabot thrown in Luddite Plan?
Idiots on Hawaii Co Council OK ban on Non-Existent Geothermal fracking
HTH: The council let introducer Brenda Ford, South Kona-Ka‘u, make the lone comment before approving the bill’s final reading.
“We have to protect our land, we have to protect our people, we have to protect our aquifers,” Ford said. “Let’s move on with other protections we need to provide for our residents (from illusory problems).”
More than a dozen people blithering morons testified in support of the measure, listing concerns ranging from pollution to the possibility of increased earthquake activity that fracking could cause.
Other testifiers noted the importance of the county tackling the (imaginary) issue, claiming that the state will not (yet chase after their hallucinations).
read ... Anything the mob wants it gets
Developers Use CD1 Campaign to Buy Anderson?
CB: Chang raised $309,000 in campaign donations, including $125,000 during the quarter that ended Sept. 30....
While Anderson only entered the race Aug. 8, he pulled in an impressive $163,000 in the third quarter, a lot of it from big name developers, engineers, real estate interests and contractors who may wish to curry favor with the man who chairs the city's Zoning and Planning Committee....
Another Democrat in the race, state House Rep. Mark Takai, also did well, raising $120,000, although he's only been running since Aug. 7.
The big loser so far in the CD1 money race is state Sen. Will Espero, who entered the race in late July but has pulled in a mere $36,000.
A fifth Democrat, Kathryn Xian, who jumped into the race on the last day of the third quarter, reported raising just $1,100 and had $614 in cash on hand.
read ... Money Chase
Hey, guess who set up Hawaii’s failure of an Obamacare exchange website
Twitchy: Who could’ve seen that coming? Oh … right … when Hawaii’s online health insurance marketplace debuted, it was an even bigger failure than HealthCare.gov....
Hawaii’s miserable flop-fest was finally “open for business” on Oct. 15, much to the surprise of shoppers trying to access the Hawaii Health Connector website. As one person observed, “We must have vastly different ideas of ‘open for business’ and ‘functioning when open for business’.”
Background: Hawaii Health Connector Built by Same Contractor Responsible for Federal ACA Failure
read ... Ding Ding Ding
Officials Jack Up Charges to Keep Public Records From Being Released
CB: ...Duane Bosworth, a media attorney based in Portland, Ore. “But I have no question that there are definitely situations in which a structure is created so that the costs will be prohibitively high.”
Bosworth has represented many of Oregon’s largest media outlets, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Oregonian. He’s also on the board of directors for Open Oregon, a freedom of information coalition that helps the public and media get access to government information.
He’s seen several cases over the years of governments using fees as a deterrent to releasing information. In one recent example, a media outlet was charged $45 an hour to pay for a government official to sit in a room with a reporter who was reviewing documents.
The need for supervision appeared to be a form of retaliation....
CB: Hawaii's Public Records: What Can Hawaii Learn From Other States?
read ... Officials Jack Up Charges
Teachers still not settled on student surveys
HNN: Hawaii's public school teachers agreed to student evaluation of their classroom performance as part of the four-year contract they ratified in April. Many opposed the surveys back then and many still do.
"The evaluation is not a 'gotcha.' It's really a process that's geared towards improving practice," Department of Education deputy school superintendent Ronn Nozoe said.
He said The Tripod Student Survey will account for ten percent of a teacher's evaluation.
Mililani High School teacher Amy Perusso worries kids who race through it will skew results.
"They're treated as kind of a faceless part of a larger aggregate. They don't take the survey seriously because they don't feel connected to what's happening," she said.
Next year the survey will help determine pay raises.
read ... Evaluation
State Prepares for ‘Ripple Effects’ of Junior-Kindergarten Elimination
CB: As state officials and early education advocates continue to seek legislative support for their efforts to develop a public preschool system, they’re also bracing themselves for an upcoming change to kindergarten eligibility that could have wide-ranging — and perhaps unexpected — implications in Hawaii education.
Last year, state lawmakers passed Act 178, which is set to eliminate the junior kindergarten program starting with the 2014-15 school year. From then on, children must turn five by July 31 of the year they start kindergarten. (In the junior kindergarten program, which is being axed after this school year, the cutoff was December 31.)
Seeing that so many children would be left needing another year of preschool, the decision to eliminate junior kindergarten was in large part intended to galvanize support around the preschool expansion initiative. But there’s no guarantee the preschool vision will come to fruition, and that would mean thousands of children — 5,000 of them, conservative estimates suggest — will have to stay in preschool a third year or not attend school at all.
SA: Preschool subsidies to fall short
read ... First Create a Crisis, then 'solve' it
Former Lanikai Elementary PTSA president charged with stealing $50,574
SA: The former president of the Lanikai Elementary Charter School PTSA (Parent, Student, Teacher Association) is charged with theft of $50,574 from association funds.
In a press release this afternoon, Attorney General David M. Louie announced that a two-count complaint was filed today in Circuit Court charging Tonya Taylor, 43, with first-degree theft and money laundering.
read ... Another One
Danger: Property tax task force to begin work Monday
HTH: A task force formed to evaluate the fairness of property taxes across the county plans to finally start its business next week, more than 18 months after its formation was recommended by an outside assessment.
The task force, one of 40 recommendations in a 99-page March 2012 report by the International Association of Assessing Officers, plans to meet at 9 a.m. Oct. 25 in Hilo council chambers.
An attempt in August to hold a meeting dissolved into controversy, after Finance Department staff said they couldn’t be on the task force because of Sunshine Law concerns.
Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille had inherited the project from her predecessor, Pete Hoffmann, who had convinced the council to pay $40,000 for the study.
read ... Property tax task force to begin work Monday
DHHL accused of being unfair to Hawaiian businesses
HNN: Hawaiian Homes Commissioner Joe Tassill said he's heard similar complaints from other native Hawaiian businesses.
"Out of towners are reaping the harvest while downtowners are not getting into the game ... Not even allowed to get in the game," Tassill said....
The Department manages over 100 commercial leases and revocable permits to businesses. Unlike homestead properties, the DHHL is not required to lease these properties to native Hawaiians.
But Alana said she's not looking for special treatment. She only wants her application to be considered for what it's worth and is willing to pay market rents.
The DHHL denied that it treated Alana's company unfairly.
The department says Alana's latest application, like all requests for revocable permits, have been on hold since May because it is reviewing its existing agreements with commercial tenants.
"To say that Hawaiian businesses are being discriminated against ... would be inaccurate," said department spokesman Punialoha Chee.
"We have Hawaiian businesses that have revocable permits."
read ... DHHL
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