1998 Admissions: ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Gays Didn't Want 'Marriage' -- Constitutional Amendment Language 'Misleading'
Experts say Hawaii’s gay marriage bill worst at protecting religious freedom
How They Voted: Senate Passes Gay Marriage Bill 20-4
DoE Admits Graduation Rates Exaggerated--Disabled Students Revised Down 13%
NCTQ: Hawaii one of Five States to tie Teacher Compensation, Evaluations
Schofield 65th Engineer Battalion assumes vital mission in Afghanistan
Panos 2050: Solutions for a Sustainable Hawaii
Ken Schoolland Talks to Grassroot Institute
PDF: Numbering System for House Testimony on Gay Marriage
KITV: 77% Say Let the Voters Decide on Gay Marriage
HHSC Loses $55M Thanks to Obamacare
CB: Young said there has to be structural changes made in the system, but it could take years to formulate a plan. There’s not enough time in a special session, he said, to have that discussion so the administration is asking for an emergency appropriation.
"The current status of HHSC is not financially tolerable,” Young said.
Gegen acknowledged that HHSC waited too long to come to lawmakers for financial help this year for the Kauai hospitals.
Hall said federal reimbursements are part of the problem, including millions of dollars in cuts to Medicare alone.
"We’re just losing more and more money," she said, noting $55 million lost over five years because of the Affordable Care Act.
Morikawa said there has to be better oversight in the future. Gegen assured her there would be and that some improvements have already been made.
Hall said the state should explore a public-private partnership as a possible solution.
Belatti said she didn’t understand how they could even have a conversation about fixing the system until the governor nominates people to fill six vacant seats on HHSC’s 13-member board.
KGI: Kauai hospitals triple aid request
read … Thanks, Obama!
House Votes: Committees to Hear Testimony on Senate Gay Marriage Bill
HNN: Senators passed SB 1, the "Hawaii Marriage Equality Act of 2013", on their third reading Wednesday afternoon and sent it over the House where it passed it's first reading, but not without a fight and a lot of political posturing.
Representatives who plan to vote no on same-sex marriage made several attempts to kill the bill, but motion after motion was rejected. After numerous recesses were called followed by Caucus breaks, House legislators finally voted to move the bill along.
It now advances to both the Judiciary and Finance committees for a public hearing, which has been scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. in the State Capitol auditorium.
Thousands are anticipated to show up, which is why officials are encouraging folks to sign up in advance online, though they will also be allowed to sign up in person.
"We want to be sure everyone who wants to talk, gets to talk -- and we'll do the best we can to make sure that happens," explained Representative Karl Rhoads, who chairs the House Judiciary committee.
Each person will get two minutes to testify. Rhoads says they expect the hearing to run 'til midnight.
"Anybody who signs up by the end of the hearing or by midnight will get to talk," Rep. Rhoads said.
Rhoads says if only a few people are still waiting to testify after midnight, lawmakers may decide to power through-- but if there are several more, then they'll likely recess and reconvene the following day. Rhoads says they'll have to make that decision on Thursday based on how things are going, but reiterated they plan to hear from everyone.
read ... Pushing Through SB1
House to Amend Religious Freedom Clauses, Set Up Showdown With Hee
AP: House Majority Leader Scott Saiki has said it’s likely the chamber will amend the bill to change religious exemptions. The Senate bill exempts ministers and other clergy — but not for-profit businesses — from having to perform gay wedding ceremonies.
“The House committees recognize that there is still a lot of public concern about the scope of the exemptions,” Saiki said.
Hee said after the Senate vote that he has spoken with leadership in the House and told them senators may not support expanded religious exemptions if they allow gay couples to be discriminated against as a separate class of people from others.
“Those are efforts that I would caution against,” Hee told reporters after the Senate vote.
read ... Showdown
A statement in response to questions about OHA's stance on same-sex marriage HONOLULU (Oct. 28, 2013) -- The Office of Hawaiian Affairs today issued a statement in response to questions about OHA's stance on same-sex marriage.
"The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has not taken any position on same-sex marriage. OHA has not funded any campaign or advertisements forwarding a particular viewpoint on the issue. In addition, any OHA official who has conveyed a position on same-sex marriage has done so in his or her personal capacity independently of OHA."
SA: Gay Atheists Trot out more Hawaiians
read ... OHA Website
Gay-Atheist Steals IRS Records of Marriage Defenders, Protected by Law He Broke
NRO: A House committee investigating the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of right-leaning groups has identified the IRS agent who leaked the confidential donor list of the National Organization for Marriage, a conservative organization that opposes gay marriage. NOM’s donor list, contained in a Form 990 Schedule B, which it is required by law to file with the IRS, was obtained in March 2012 by its chief political opponent, the Human Rights Campaign, and subsequently became the subject of several national news stories that centered on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s donation to the group.
read ... Repressive Tolerance
Hawaii County Officials Score Big Pay Hikes
HTH: The police chief and fire chief salaries as of Friday are $130,818 each, a 14 percent increase from their current $109,296 salaries. That compares to police chief salaries on Kauai of $114,490, Maui of $135,000 and City and County of Honolulu of $151,000, according to Commissioner Marcella Stroh.
The deputy police chief and deputy fire chief will get 16 percent raises, from $109,296 to $126,894. The first deputy county prosecutor will get an $8,904 raise to $107,904.
Corporation Counsel and the directors of Finance, Environmental Management and Public Works will see their salaries rise 11.4 percent, from $99,000 to $110,244. Their top assistants will see 11 percent increases, from $94,284 to $104,502.
The original plan had the raises start Oct. 1, but commissioners delayed them a month so the county wouldn’t have to pay retroactively.
read ... Commission OKs pay raises for 12 county officials
$200K: Donovan’s Fake Marketing job at UH remains unfilled since his 2012 departure
SA: The position is vacant and school officials don’t expect to fill it any time soon, according to UH-Manoa Chancellor Tom Apple.
“We still believe in the need for someone to lead the important job of branding and communicating the evolving land-grant mission of the university. However, due to severe budgetary restraints, we will not be filling this position in the foreseeable future,” Apple said in a statement to the Star-Advertiser....
As part of a compromise agreement, Donovan was reassigned in August 2012 to a newly created marketing position in the chancellor’s office, after university officials said he had been cleared of wrongdoing in the concert debacle.
The university approved a three-year deal that would have paid Donovan more than $200,000 annually for “designing, creating, articulating, marketing and communicating to the community, including assisting with the evolving land grant mission of the university,” UH said at the time. (His salary as athletic director was $240,000.)
read ... Just Waiting to Provide a Sinecure for the Next UH Admin Washout
Honolulu Employment Numbers 'Overly Positive, Based on 1000s Quitting Job Search
SA: Hawaii's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in August. The rate was 7.3 percent nationally.
Hawaii's unemployment rate has been falling since it peaked at 7.1 percent in the summer of 2009. It is down nearly a percentage point since the start of the year. In its latest economic forecast, issued last week, the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization forecast the jobless rate to average 4.6 percent in 2013 before falling to 4 percent in 2014.
However, the report's authors said the decline in Hawaii's jobless rate "presents an overly positive assessment of recent labor market performance." Although there have been incremental gains in employment, a significant number of people have left the labor force altogether, contributing to the decline in the rate, they wrote.
read ... Drop Out
Governor’s Land Board Appointment Withdraws Over ‘Challenging Process’ CB: Gov. Neil Abercrombie has withdrawn his appointment of Kauai developer Shawn Smith to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources.
Sen. Malama Solomon made the announcement at the beginning of a Senate Water and Land Committee hearing Wednesday.
William Aila, chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said after the meeting that Smith withdrew himself midday Wednesday. When asked why, he said Smith “referred to the process as being challenging.” (Translation: He was rejected by the Sierra Club.)
SA: Tapped for state Land Board, developer withdraws name
read … Another One Bites the Dust
The Big Stink in Kakaako Won't Go Away Soon
CB: Frustrated locals aired their complaints and questions at a Honolulu City Council hearing on Wednesday, but city officials didn't offer satisfying answers on when and how the city will eliminate the noxious odors.
The City Council’s Committee on Public Works and Sustainability heard testimony related to a resolution that would ask Honolulu’s Department of Environmental Services to figure out what’s wrong with sewer lines in Kakaako and solve the problem.
But members of the council decided to postpone voting on the resolution until next month because city officials and the Hawaii Construction Alliance, a grouping of construction-related unions, disagreed on its wording.
Kakaako residents have been dealing with bad smells for years but the chronic problem is gaining urgency as proposals advance to build new high-rise developments — including a 46-story residential building on South Street — in the area.
“It’s a lingering sewage smell created by sewer lingering in the pipes,” said John Horvath, the residential manager of One Waterfront Towers in Kakaako where residents are complaining. “There seems to be a flow problem that you're not going to get to go away unless you do something about the flow.”
SA: Kakaako sewage odors a problem, city says
read ... Stink
Senators Call for DOE to Quickly Wrap Up Investigation into East Oahu School Principal
HR: Kaiser High School’s Principal John Sosa was put on leave by the state Department of Education on September 21, just one day after receiving two prestigious awards for his leadership at the East Oahu school.
The Department of Education hasn’t commented on the allegations or status of the investigation into Sosa for more than a month, but his removal has caused a chain reaction in east Oahu public schools that concerns two state Senators representing the district.
In a letter to State DOE School Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi hand delivered on Tuesday, October 29, Sens. Laura Thielen, D-Kailua-Hawaii Kai, and Sam Slom, R-Hawaii Kai-Diamond Head, the Senate minority leader, noted since Sosa was removed, Justin Mew, principal of Niu Valley, was transferred temporarily to cover for Sosa and Brendan Burns of Aina Haina Elementary temporarily took Mew’s position at Nui Valley.
“It has been over one month, and the investigation has not been resolved. Meanwhile the domino effect has impacted three schools tremendously,” Thielen and Slom wrote.
read … DoE Investigation
Star-Adv Lashes out at Random Against Water Bottles
SA: Beverage Marketing Corporation, which reports that sales of bottled water are quickly overtaking those of carbonated soft drinks in the United States. In 1976, the average American drank 1.6 gallons of bottled water a year, in 2001 that figure reached 18.2 gallons and in 2011 consumption soared to 29.2 gallons.
While this may be good news on the health front -- overconsumption of sugary sodas has been linked to obesity and its many related ills -- the fact that so much of an otherwise healthy drink is consumed from single-serving plastic bottles is bad news for the environment, and for the pocketbooks of consumers who could drink fresh, tasty water from the municipal tap at a tiny fraction of what they're paying for the bottled variety.
read ... Probably Planning a Push to Tax Something
Navy contract scandal
HNN: A civilian procurement official for the Navy is facing criminal charges for allegedly steering federal work to government contractors that hired his wife.
Federal prosecutors have charged 56-year-old William Nesmith of Ewa Beach with two counts of conflict of financial interest involving the awards of more than $15 million in naval contracts.
Criminal charges against government contracting officials for conflicts of interests are rare but watchdog groups say that problem is pervasive in Hawaii.
"Unfortunately, we live in a culture in which there is a huge amount of conflict of interest in which people are not watching out for the taxpayer. They're watching out for themselves and their friends," said Kelii Akina, CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
"That's one of the reasons prices are so high, costs are so high in contracting because of the level of conflict of interests that takes place."
read … Navy contract scandal
City Dumps Chicken Control Contract After 'Wrong Guy' Wins Bid
SA: In a move to reduce spending, Managing Director Ember Shinn decided in late August or early September to not award an $80,000 contract for crowing rooster and feral chicken control services, city Customer Services Director Sheri Kajiwara told the City Council Budget Committee on Wednesday. Controlling crowing roosters and feral chickens is not a core function of the city, Kajiwara said.
The contract with Kaneohe-based Animal Haven expired on Sept. 30.
The Department of Budget and Fiscal Services, apparently unaware of Shinn's decision, continued with the procurement process, receiving four bids by mid-September and even declaring Animal Haven as the low bidder when bids were opened on Sept. 17....
Frank DeGiacomo, Animal Haven president, contends the city chose not award the contract because he had the lowest bid and would have been awarded the contract again.
"Because the bid did not go to the people the city wanted the bid to go to, the city canceled the contract," he said....
2011: Honolulu Cockfighter paid by City: $480K to ‘Investigate Rooster Complaints’
read ... Noisy
Politicize Academia Even More by Counting Citations in Popular Media
CB: This is where the Faculty Media Impact Project comes in. The Project assesses the degree to which faculty in various universities and departments are cited in the public media — paralleling with public media what ISI does with academic journals. It involves more than 6,000 news sources relating to 12,777 professors at 94 universities in the social sciences.
The Faculty Media Impact Project provides schools and departments with a straightforward means to assess who is, and is not, being cited in the popular media and, hence, who is, and is not, helping to bridge the public-academic divide. It allows faculty to be rewarded -- during the tenure and promotion process -- for their popular media citations just as they are now being rewarded for their academic citations.
read ... Who needs Science? I'm Popular!
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