How to Use Anti-GMO Ordinances to Seize Marijuana Plants: A Guide for Police Departments
Koko Head rifle range temporarily closed after new reports of stray bullets
Robotic teams to compete at VEX State Championship
27 Service Members Reenlist on 72nd Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack
Turning The Tide of Anti-Business Attitudes in Government
Pearl Harbor Day
BoR Nomination Forces Portnoy to leave judicial panel so Crook can be put on Abercrombie's Supreme Court Pick List
SA: The newest member of the University of Hawaii's Board of Regents has given up his position on the influential state commission that screens candidates for judgeships.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie named Honolulu attorney Jeffrey Portnoy to the university's 15-member governing board last month.
But because state law prohibits a person from serving on more than one state commission or board, Portnoy had to resign from the Judicial Selection Commission....
The commissioners are now reviewing the applications to fill Acoba's (Supreme Court) vacancy. It will disclose the number of applications when it releases the list of candidates.
Because the commission operates in secrecy, it is not clear when the panel will send the names to Abercrombie.
But it could be in January or February for the governor to nominate the new justice and the Senate to approve the appointment before Acoba resigns.
(Question: Which crook was Portnoy blocking from the list? Answer: We'll find out when Abercrombie makes his appointment.)
read ... Portnoy
Borreca: Supreme Court needs A Crook (Flashback Nov 22, 2013)
Borreca: Hawaii has had just two Native Hawaiians on the top court. The most influential justice on the court was the late Chief Justice William S. Richardson, whose name now graces the University of Hawaii law school. Richardson's water rights and beach access decisions have absolutely shaped how we live in Hawaii.
Others will argue also that Native Hawaiian Robert Klein's decision redefining customary and traditional rights of access also was a landmark.
It is too soon to know whether the nominees for Acoba's seat include any Native Hawaiian judges or lawyers. If they do, it would be for the better....
Jackie Young is a newly appointed member of the Judicial Selection Commission, which is charged with selecting four to six possible appointees for Gov. Neil Abercrombie to pick from. She declined to say if there are any Native Hawaiian candidates being considered.
Young, the former state affirmative action officer, does say that, "We have a very good list of applicants."
read ... State's top court could use more Crooks
Ige: Don't Sacrifice Pensions for Abercrombie's Pre-K Pipedream
Borreca: unfunded liability is not a sexy issue, but ignore it and you wind up like Detroit or Illinois.
The mostly unnoticed but startling answer from the Legislature was the state's largest new expenditure program.
The money went not for mandatory early education, not laptops for all school kids, not even the ever-roiling University of Hawaii construction program.
It is a $500 million fix to pay the health care costs for state retirees. As state money goes, $500 million may give you pause, but it is not unheard of.
This program, however, is like a line of elephants marching trunk to tail down the calendar. Every year, we must spend another $500 million until you have walked for 30 years.
That is about $15 billion, which is about what it is needed to pay for the public workers unfunded liabilities for health care.
Sen. David Ige, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, who came up with the bill, compares it to a 30-year mortgage that we are paying off one year at a time....
"Before we make a commitment to early childhood education, we want to remember that we owe $500 million in already accrued benefits," Ige said....
SA: Another sales pitch for Abercrombie's preschool scheme
read ... Abercrombie Wants to Spend it
Advertising on city buses a slippery slope leading to Tax Increases
SA: "Hawaii is unique for having a long history of banning billboards. Let's keep it that way. The City Council's decision to not allow advertising on the outside of city buses was a vote in support of Honolulu's and Hawaii's cutting-edge laws banning billboards from our state."
So began a commentary published in The Honolulu Advertiser on Oct. 3, 2003, that rightly commended the Council for rejecting a bill the author went on to assert "would have threatened the constitutionality of Hono-lulu's billboard ordinance. For those of us who enjoy an uncluttered view of Hawaii's world-class scenery every working day, it was a risk too big to take."
Who wrote it? Kirk Caldwell, then a member of the state House representing Manoa. But now, as Honolulu mayor trying to deal with a budget shortfall, Caldwell proposes selling ads on the outside of city buses. We believe he got it right the first time.
The City Council will hear his Bill 69 in first reading this week; it proposes selling fixed-size ads on the exterior sides and tail end of city buses and paratransit vehicles to generate revenues for TheBus and TheHandi-Van.
The bill has galvanized the same opposition from The Outdoor Circle and others as the similar measure did a decade ago. Caldwell knows he will have some explaining to do, given his earlier, very public opposition.
(Bottom Line: Caldwell intends the predictable opposition to bus ads to be used as an excuse to push for tax hikes.)
read ... Advertising on city buses a slippery slope
Star-Adv Runs Another Sales Pitch for Gay Sex Education
SA: Youth today are more sexually active than in the past.
Hawaii statistics show that more than 10 percent of middle-school students have had sexual intercourse; only nine states have higher rates of teen pregnancy; and many sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are contracted between the ages of 15-24.
In addition, sexually active youth in Hawaii are less likely than youth nationally to use pregnancy and STI prevention methods such as condoms.
These startling facts testify to the need to educate our youth about (boys kissing boys so they will be more receptive) blablabla ...
read ... Gay Sex Education
Overnight guests not welcome in Hawaiian town, board says
CNN: Every year, thousands of Hawaiian tourists choose the small residential town of Kailua over the hustle and bustle of larger resort towns.
Even President Barack Obama and his family have made it their yearly holiday vacation destination.
Located off the southeast coast of Hawaii, Kailua boasts beachfront properties overlooking pristine white sand beaches. But residents are now asking Hawaii's Tourism Authority to stop promoting the town as an overnight destination.
"We have a city ordinance that does not permit these short terms tourist rentals in residential areas," said Kailua Neighborhood Board Chairman, Chuck Prentiss. He cited a Honolulu County land use ordinance approved in the 1980s.
"We are not against having tourists in the community. It is a nice community for them to come and see. It has a nice beach and everything, but it is not proper to have a residential community used for overnight accommodations," Prentiss said.
(These are Rep Wooley's supporters organizing the Haoles to give the Democrats control of Kailua just as they have done in Kona and on Maui and Kauai.)
read ... Best Git Out Before Sundown
Hawaii Co DPW 'Ripe for Misappropriation and Malfeasance'
HTH: Kenoi’s 2008 campaign promise “People can choose to be either an employee of the county or a vendor of the county, but not both,” failed after the county Board of Ethics and the County Council bowed to pressure and refused to endorse it. Kenoi said Friday he will reintroduce the measure with the new council, perhaps as early as Monday.
Kenoi has said the ethics reform is not targeted at a single county employee as much as it is just good public policy.
But one county worker, Randy Riley, a Department of Public Works division chief, is owner of a company that since 1996 has had a contract for drywell pumping that pays up to $1.3 million annually. Riley is in charge of the county’s Automotive Division and had no input into how the request for bids was written by a colleague heading the Highway Maintenance Division, according to DPW Director Warren Lee.
A 2009 audit of Public Works says taxpayers would save even more if the entire operation were brought in-house. The audit, conducted by former Legislative Auditor Colleen Schrandt, says a new pumping truck could be purchased and two full-time employees assigned to do the work for about $500,000 a year. The 115-page report warned Public Works is ripe for misappropriation and malfeasance because of inadequate controls over its $27.5 million highway fund. The county ethics code allows county employees to contract with the county, as long as the contract is awarded by closed bid. The code forbids employees from using their position to secure advantages or contracts over others.
HTH: Kenoi’s report card
read ... Ripe
1984: Manufacture of Solar Panels 'Energy Intensive and Costly'
SA: "Pure silicon, referred to as single-crystal silicon, is the most commonly used material in the manufacture of solar cells today," the guidebook says. It continues, "Unfortunately, single-crystal silicon does not exist in nature. It is man-made. The manufacturing process is energy intensive and costly."
Background:
read ... Energy Intensive
$17.7M Wasted on 'Inefficient, Ineffective' Species Eradication Programs
SA: As the helicopter descended beneath a thick band of clouds, conservation worker Michael Ade scanned the horizon of a dense native Hawaiian forest, looking for an old base camp where he and another worker would spend several days eradicating the latest alien plant invader — a pampas grass called Cortaderia jubata.
The flights and campouts are familiar to conservationists like Ade who work for the Maui Invasive Species Committee. In the past decade, workers have taken dozens of helicopter rides and spent millions of dollars to reduce the presence of Miconia...
environmentalists and scientists here and elsewhere are beginning to criticize the U.S. Department of Agriculture's system of protecting the country from destructive alien plants.
Critics say the system of screening for noxious weeds used by the department's plant inspectors is inefficient and ineffective, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually. It also threatens native vegetation and agriculture and lacks a balanced approach to conservation, they maintain....
here in Hawaii in the past five years, about $17.7 million has been spent to fight invasive plants alone, according to the National Resource Conservation Service....
SA: Waterway threat certified as biofuel source
read ... Helicopter Camping for Enviros
HCDA Outlines Means for developers to pretend to be Concerned about Kakaako Sea-level Rise
SA: The one area on Oahu's south shore that's still in flux, where adaptations are on the drawing board, is Kakaako. Anthony Ching is executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which oversees the redevelopment of the largely industrial area to a more upscale mix of commercial and residential properties.
"Buildings have always had to cope with issues of water tables and flooding," Ching said. "If you're in a flood zone, you're already making choices. You don't stop building because of the fear of a rising water table or inundation; you design accordingly."
One project in Kakaako is the Howard Hughes Corp.'s Ward Village, and two of its condo towers won HCDA approval in August. Ching said the plans would make the projects more resilient to flooding by raising the base floor level by four feet. Making that accommodation, either with the addition of a concrete slab or adding fill material to the grade of the site, will be a common choice in Kakaako development, he said.
Other considerations building planners could incorporate, Ching said, include:
- » Leaving the bottom floor dominated by open space with minimal assets to be damaged by a flood.
- » Using columns both as design elements and to bolster the structural integrity during storm events.
- » Incorporating modular building systems, such as boilers, that can be replaced without an entire redesign.
- » Placing electrical panels, backup generators and other storm-vulnerable project components on an upper floor.
- » Opting for lower-level and subterranean parking to minimize the worst of the flood damage.
SA: One foot at a time: Taking measures of rising seas
read ... Just Pretending
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