Child molester back at work at Hawaii Legislature (Again)
House Security Announces Rules for Friday's Gay Marriage Rallies
Heritage: Hawaiian Citizens Testify in Support of Marriage
Chang: Democrats Disrespect People, Republicans are Listening
Judge: 1998 Voters May Have Thought they were Banning Gay Marriage
Hawaii: Where agendized people go to live out their dreams
Hawaii tax department under scrutiny for waste, mismanagement
Res 13-216: Stop Unfair Water Billing
Ige's campaign to succeed Abercrombie not so quixotic Borreca: "I tell them ‘I am the pebble,' like the pebble in David vs. Goliath," said Tassill, who supported Abercrombie in his 2010 victory and was named a Hawaiian Homes commissioner by Abercrombie in 2011, but has since become disenchanted with the controversial Democrat.
It is a story being told over and over as a portion of Hawaii's Democratic bedrock cracks under Abercrombie....
Ige held his first fund-raiser this week. The crowd of about 150-200 was made up of, as one political consultant at the gathering said, "a lot of loyal Democrats who are looking for a change."
Many were from the Gov. George Ariyoshi wing of the party — old-timers who had supported the three-term governor — although also attending was former Gov. Ben Cayetano, who declined to discuss whom he was supporting....
"We can't compete with Abercrombie's money ($2.3 million) so we are going back to the old '70s-style campaigning," Ishii said. "You know: just organizing the campaign, recruiting supporters, going out in the community finding supporters, is a type of campaigning."
The campaign, Ige said, can win with a budget of just $1 million....
"When you talk to people throughout the state, the current administration is tone deaf. They are dividing communities. They are imposing their vision on people," Ige said in an interview. "I'm running to give people a choice about what sort of leadership will best serve and that is resonating."
Poll: Only 39% of Dems Approve of Abercrombie
read ... Quixotic?
Cabanilla to be Fined for Campaign Spending Violations
HR: The investigation stemmed from a March 25 campaign fundraiser that Cabanilla's campaign held, which brought in $5,800 in revenues and expended $2,900. However, Cabanilla filed a campaign spending report that said she had no income and no expenditures.
Awana’s campaign had committed the same violation.
"If we see that a candidate filed a notice of a fundraiser, we will always check their records afterward to see if they reported the income and expenditures," said Gary Kam, attorney for the state Campaign Spending Commission.
Cabanilla’s campaign will be sanctioned at next Wednesday’s state Campaign Spending Commission meeting, most likely with a $500 fine.
read ... Campaign Spending
Hawaii Least Politically Engaged State, but Some Believe Gay Marriage Debate Could Turn the Tide
HR: ... some Hawaii lawmakers believe this may change in the 2014 election, depending on the sustainability of the momentum from the same sex marriage debate, which continues to rage at the Hawaii state capitol.
There were more than 1,032 people who testified in person before the Hawaii State House Finance and Judiciary Committee, with 895 in opposition and 137 in support. In the Senate, more than 400 people testified in person.
Many said they had never voted before, but would do so now that they had experienced the legislative process firsthand.
VIDEO: Big Island Reps Speak on House Floor
read ... Hawaii Least Politically Engaged State, but Some Believe Gay Marriage Debate Could Turn the Tide
Lawsuit: Disabled Girl Raped in Same-Sex bathrooms at Waianae School
HNN: Attorney Michael Green sued the Department of Education and Waianae High School's principal on behalf of the 16-year-old girl, who is autistic and has the learning abilities of a second grader.
"They fooled the mother into believing that her daughter would be in a safe environment after there were concerns about sexual inappropriateness before. Then we have four straight days of it," Green said.
Among the key charges is that the school allowed male and female special education students to use the same bathroom. That's where the boy allegedly assaulted the 16-year-old, the suit said.
"You set up a situation where there's co-ed bathrooms after there are concerns about inappropriate touching. That's the definition of insanity," Green said.
read ... About the Future
House Vote to be Livestreamed on Olelo
HCC: Hawaii House officials say the chamber's final vote on a bill to legalize gay marriage will be broadcast live on television across the state.
The special session vote scheduled for Friday will be broadcast on Olelo Channel 54 on Oahu and community stations on Kauai, the Big Island and Maui.
The Oahu broadcaster also plans to stream the final debate and vote through a live webcast at http://www.olelo.org.
The live coverage comes after several lawmakers complained on the House floor Wednesday night that their debate was only carried on closed-circuit TV at the Hawaii Capitol.
HTH: Governor: I’m ready to sign gay marriage bill
PR: Voices carry
read ... Olelo
Senators: Conference Committee Debate May 'Spiral out of Control'
SA: Senators said Thursday that although they prefer their version of the bill, which contains a narrower religious exemption, they are inclined to take the House version, provided it is not amended further. If the Senate agrees to the House version Tuesday, it would go directly to Gov. Neil Abercrombie for his signature.
"That seems like the prevailing mood of the members I spoke to," said Sen. Clayton Hee (D, Heeia-Laie-Waialua), chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee.
Hee said he is not pleased with the broader religious exemption in the House bill.
"However, having said that, it doesn't detract from making second-class citizens first-class citizens," he said. "It doesn't detract from bringing a class of people that have been discriminated against and treating them like everybody else."
Senate Democrats met in private caucus Thursday and heard from state Attorney General David Louie and William Hoshijo, executive director of the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, about the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill....
Senate Majority Leader Brickwood Galuteria (D, Kakaako-McCully-Waikiki) said some senators have pointed questions about the House version but also appreciate the larger context.
"We do know that it's about where we want it to be if we're going to do anything," he said.
Many lawmakers who favor marriage equality privately fear that if the bill were to go to conference committee, the debate may spiral out of control, and the chances that a bill would pass in special session would diminish.
"We can't let the good fall victim to the perfect," said Sen. Clarence Nishihara (D, Waipahu-Pearl City).
read ... Hee, Louie, Hoshijo
Hawaii DOE to Charter Schools: Figure Out Your Own Food
CB: If Earl’s Snack Shop hadn’t stepped in at the 11th hour, Kanu o ka Aina Public Charter School on the Big Island might not have been able to feed its neediest students this school year.
It wasn’t until a few weeks before the school year kicked off that Taffi Wise, Kanu o ka Aina’s business manager, was notified that the school could no longer get its meals from the Hawaii Department of Education.
The DOE was trying to address a scathing internal audit, published a few months earlier, that found that the department was wasting millions of dollars on its food services program, whose budget last year was about $92 million
read ... Figure it out
DoE Anti-Bullying Policy in the News
Elder abuse squad getting slammed with cases
KHON: ...police say, thieves see the golden years as golden opportunities.
Scams against the elderly are on the rise. And there are so many different scams, police have a hard time keeping up.
Since 2008, elder abuse cases have risen almost 300%.
Honolulu Police and prosecutors teamed up that year to form an Elder Abuse Justice Squad. The size of the squad has since doubled in 2010, then expanded again last year.
The unit does not just handle scams against seniors but also physical abuse and neglect....
read ... Elder Abuse
Modern-day slavery alleged in fishing fleet
KHON: for the workers on board some ships, this is no luxury cruise.
"When we started hearing her story we felt it had all the hallmarks of human trafficking," said Soo Sun Choe, of immigrant-rights advocates Pacific Gateway Center, referring allegations brought forth to them by the relative of some of the crew.
From her and others, there are allegations of hunger, thirst, untreated illness and injury, unpaid or low paid wages, abuse and even suspicious death.
"There are bed bugs, workers are often not fed on time, when they pull into the harbor they may be asking others for food," Choe said. "This is actually the second or third case coming to us within the past year."
read ... Slavery?
Ethics agency needs more autonomy
SA: Ethical oversight is one of those good-government functions that benefits from having some distance placed between the overseer and the behavior under scrutiny. The position of the Honolulu Ethics Commission within city government seems far less than ideal, and some of the consequences of that structure may be coming to light now.
The executive director of the city Ethics Commission has sounded some alarm bells about a budget clash that's erupted between his office and the Department of Corporation Counsel Donna Leong's office.
Under the City Charter, the commission is attached to Corporation Counsel "for administrative purposes only." Presumably the administration of the budget is part of that purpose, but Chuck Totto, the ethics commission's executive director and legal counsel, has been chafing under that supervision.
This is a difficult, land-mine-ridden territory to navigate, given that budgetary constraints can help define what jobs the office takes on. The commission and its staff should be accountable for rational budget practices and ought to be able to justify requests for funds.
It does seem likely, however, that the commission's burdens will ramp up with the advent of development associated with construction of the city's rail project
Background: $381K in Prohibited Gifts: Ethics Commission Compares Kirk Caldwell to Rod Tam -- Then Lets him off Hook
read ... Ethics?
Civil Beat Files Lawsuit In Effort to Free Up Police Misconduct Records
CB: Civil Beat on Thursday filed suit against the Honolulu Police Department over the agency's refusal to release the names of police officers who have been disciplined for serious misconduct.
As a follow-up to Civil Beat's investigative series published earlier this year, "In The Name Of The Law," Civil Beat asked to see records relating to 12 officers who the police department says were found to have engaged in serious misconduct, including assaults on citizens, drunken driving, lying to investigators and beating up a co-worker. At least one had been convicted of a crime.
None of the officers were fired, and HPD has refused to release any information contained in their disciplinary files except for a short summary of the incidents along with the number of days the officers were suspended
read ... Lawsuit
No Sleeping on Sidewalk Bill Coming Back for Another Try
CB: Bill 59 met stiff resistance when it was heard by a Honolulu City Council committee last week. So its sponsor pulled it back and promised to introduce a rewritten version...
Carol Fukunaga, who chairs the Council's Public Safety and Economic Development Committee, says that the language will be changed so that the measure covers only Chinatown, the State Capitol and Waikiki areas. The bill would also only impose restrictions between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
read ... Sleep at night
Many People Move to Hawaii and Many Others Leave
CB: Hawaii ranks third among all states when it came to adding new residents from the mainland or from overseas, according to the Census Bureau's recently released results of the 2012 American Community Survey, but that doesn't mean that our population is exploding.
The explanation? Nearly as many Hawaii residents bid the islands farewell during that time. The numbers: 61,509 residents of Hawaii left and moved to a new state, while 55,145 came in from other states. Others came from overseas.
The net result: the state’s actual population grew by 14,184 between 2011 and 2012
read ... Migration
Obama 'Sorry' He Cost You Your Insurance
NBC: President Obama said Thursday that he is "sorry" that some Americans are losing their current health insurance plans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, despite his promise that no one would have to give up a health plan they liked.
"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," he told NBC News in an exclusive interview at the White House.
"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."
read ... Sorry
Kauai Council to consider overriding mayor's veto of pesticide, GMO bill
SA: The Kauai County Council has scheduled a meeting to consider whether to accept or override Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.'s veto of Bill 2491, which would put in place various requirements tied to disclosures about large-scale pesticide use and farming of genetically modified crops.
The meeting will be held on Nov. 14. The bill will become county ordinance if five of the council's six members vote in favor of an override.
KHON: Testifiers voice concerns on GMO bill on Kauai
read ... November 14
Farmers Vilified by Organic Activists
CB: farmers look at the current state of agriculture where there is a divisiveness caused by consumers demanding the kind of agricultural systems to be used. If you grow anything other than organic, these farmers are being vilified for their choice of tools. We don't eat like we do 50 years ago and it should be no wonder that we don't farm the same way either.
read ... Organic Vilification
Energy Excelerator Gives Away $5M to Phony Tech Companies
VB: A new startup program, called Energy Exceletor, recently raised $30 million from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research to help the state achieve that goal. A portion of the funds — about $5 million — have already been invested in 15 innovative companies, the founders exclusively revealed to VentureBeat.
The program typically invests between $100,000 and $1 million per startup, which should be a boon for cleantech companies during a prolonged funding dry spell.
read ... Corporate Welfare
Lifelong Criminal Out on Parole Gets 15 new Felony Charges
SA: At the time of the home invasion, Kahale-Sugimura was free on $40,000 bail awaiting a Nov. 27 trial in an auto theft case after a similar altercation with police in September, allegedly involving the theft of a motorcycle.
Last week police spotted Kahale-Sugimura at a Heleconia Place house in Aiea at 3:31 p.m. He fled on a stolen motorcycle, crashed it at Alvah Scott Elementary School and then ran to a nearby house on Moanalua Road, police said.
Kahale-Sugimura hit a resident of the house in the head, police said. As officers surrounded the house, Kahale-Sugimura jumped into the resident's pickup truck.
He quickly reversed, accelerating, and drove toward several officers. He hit two, who were not seriously injured, police said.
Four officers fired several shots, and Kahale-Sugimura was wounded multiple times, police said.
He was taken in serious but stable condition to a hospital where he remained briefly.
He initially was arrested on suspicion of five counts of first-degree attempted murder but was never charged with those counts.
Kahale-Sugimura has an extensive juvenile record that has been sealed by Family Court. As an adult he has been convicted of 14 felonies, mostly robbery and property crimes. His latest conviction was in 1997, for robbery. He was paroled, but following parole violations was returned to custody in 2008. He was paroled again a year later, then discharged in 2012.
read .. Soft on Crime
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