September 24, 2009 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Thursday, September 24, 2009

September 24, 2009 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 10:47 AM :: 10759 Views

SB: Apply school days off wisely

When the first Furlough Friday rolls around on Oct. 23, teachers will be absent and students won't be welcome. But HGEA and UPW members could be on campus as usual.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association represents school principals, vice principals, athletic directors, secretaries, clerk-typists and other employees, while the United Public Workers represent custodians and cafeteria workers. The HSTA furloughs do not cover any of those workers.

The HGEA and UPW are negotiating with Gov. Linda Lingle's administration over how to cut labor costs amid the state's financial crisis; an arbitration panel is not scheduled to meet again until Oct. 1.

RELATED: Dash begins to find room at child care providers , Plan to trim school year attacked (RE: Special ed, Seitz threatens litigation. Remember what happened after the teachers approved drug testing? Redux???)

Manoa Faculty Grills UH On Budget

Faculty members asked why the school has so many highly paid administrators at a time when professors and faculty members face cuts.

Many of them are upset because while UH administrators who are paid $100,000 and higher have taken 6 percent to 10 percent pay cuts, professors are facing pay cuts of about 14 percent.

Executive compensation at UC: MRC Greenwood and the $871 million dollar secret

Anti-Superferry protester Hooser: Across-the-board layoffs do not create savings (Raise taxes and risk default to save my precious HGEA)

(We picked out each line which suggests an actual solution.)

The answer is to paddle together, not simply toss people out of the canoe. (Then why did Hooser and the protesters throw the Superferry out of Kauai????)

Early retirement, attrition, deferred payments, special funds and user fees are just a few of the tools at hand. Technology to modernize the delivery of services must also be utilized. (Raid Hurricane fund, risk bankruptcy by not paying vendors, increase borrowing costs by lowering bond ratings.)

Our community must decide what services we believe are essential and face up to the responsibility of paying for them. (Raise Taxes. But Hooser's company didn't pay its taxes for years.)

Would businesses rather pay the cost of higher unemployment rates or would they prefer a tax increase shared by everyone? (Raise Taxes)

The big fallacy about layoffs is that they create savings. In almost all situations they do not create savings; they merely shift and often increase costs. (Which is why the Gov proposed furloughs.)

This clown wants to be Lt Gov: Sen. Gary Hooser campaign website linked to Holocaust deniers

Office of Hawaiian Affairs downsizing, shifting strategy

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs will eliminate 28 of its 178 positions as part of a new strategic plan outlined yesterday. (150 to go)

OHA plans to set specific goals, such as raising the level of Native Hawaiian incomes to meet or exceed non-Hawaiian incomes in the Islands. (OHA has done the opposite for 31 years)

The plan also calls for turning over OHA assets to a new Hawaiian government that could result from passage of the so-called Akaka bill in Congress, which would grant federal recognition to Native Hawaiians. (Which is stalled in Committee on both the House and Senate sides because of OHA's demands)

"That's fairly controversial," OHA administrator Clyde Namu'o said yesterday. OHA's trustees "see OHA as eventually going out of existence (great idea, lets stop there) and being taken over, if you will, by this Native Hawaiian entity. ... That is a strong statement about how the trustees view the future for Native Hawaiians."

Gay & Robinson era ends

"It is with a great deal of regret that Gay & Robinson Inc. announced today that subject to favorable weather, the last sugar cane grown by the company will be processed by the mill in late October," said President E. Alan Kennett in a released statement.

A total of 167 full-time employees work at Gay & Robinson, and 137 are to be laid off between Nov. 25 and Dec. 14, according to a notice filed with the state Department of Labor.

In April, the company leased 3,400 acres to Dow AgroSciences. Kennett said some Gay & Robinson employees are being hired by Dow AgroSciences, and that he hopes more will be after the sugar plant's closure.

KGI: G&R shuts down

Kauai: Attorney halts plastic bag ban bill

The Kaua‘i County Council deferred Bill 2321 for two weeks after County Attorney Al Castillo and County Engineer Donald Fujimoto raised concerns about how the administration will implement and enforce the law.
“I looked at it personally and I found that there are flaws,” Castillo said when called in front of the council to respond to a written communication his office received last week from Council Chair Kaipo Asing. “My final review didn’t pass muster. ... This bill is really not ready.”

Before Castillo and Fujimoto revealed their discomfort with the bill, seven community members took the stand in support of the bag ban.
Gordon LaBedz of Surfrider warned, “There is no business on a dead planet.” (And they are working day and night to make sure the planet dies because no business is allowed)
John Harder of Zero Waste Kaua‘i said, “It’s time for the people of Kaua‘i to join the 21st (sic) Century.”

Bill marks start of solution to B&B dispute

While critics contend that neighborhoods should comprise only long-term dwellings, some reasonable mix of residents and visitors could boost the local economy without destroying the neighborhood.

There's clearly a demand for accommodations that provide a more authentic Isle experience than what a conventional hotel provides.

The solution — as always in land-use debates — is to find the right balance. Communities worldwide have managed to find it, and there's no good reason why Hawai'i, despite concerns about the shortage of land and housing space, couldn't do the same.

Bill 7 needs work. But it is a promising starting point toward settling this issue at last.

Hoku's Idaho plant ~~gets back on track~~ survives for 2 more months

ACT 215/221 at work: Hoku said it has entered into a change order agreement, under which it will pay $5 million of past amount due to privately held JH Kelly, of about $12 million owed to the contractor.

Kelly agreed to delay foreclosing on the $12 million lien until after Dec. 1, Hoku said, adding that if it makes the payment by that date, Hoku will have until Jan. 14 to pay the balance. (THAT is "back on track"???)

Guam measure sets up conflict

WASHINGTON — Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and Rep. Neil Abercrombie appear headed for a clash over Pentagon plans to move thousands of Marines from Japan to Guam, an issue that could surface in Abercrombie's run for Hawai'i governor.

Follow the money: $10B Guam pork project benefits Abercrombie contributor

Abercrombie's nervous communist Czar: Cap and Trade, and the cost to Hawaii

Court suspends Hilo lawyer Curtis Narimatsu

The ODC said that Narimatsu agreed to represent clients, accepted money, failed to deposit funds into a client trust account, and failed to communicate with the clients or complete the legal services for which he was hired.