E.R. Costs for Mentally Ill Soar, and Hospitals Seek Better Way
Panos: The Public and Private Versions of Solar Power, in Brief
DLNR Clamps Down on 'Illegal Vendors'
Flood Insurance: Sharpening the Government's Blurry Maps
Customers Pay Double, Risk Being Cut off as Solar Scammers Install 100s of 'Rogue Systems'
KHON: People in the solar power industry refer to them as rogue systems and say they've been popping up everywhere in just three months.
"We estimate hundreds of these rogue systems being installed and operating out there in the community right now," Hawaii Energy Connection managing partner Chris Debone said.
Debone says there are solar energy companies out there selling photovoltaic systems with one big lie.
"Lets them know that they can energize their system right away as their process is going through Hawaiian Electric, which is not true at all," Debone said....
Because of the slow down in business some companies are tricking their customers into a sale.
"Some contractors are already going out there and having people sign waiver forms saying that how about if you sign this form and just don't put us at any risk and you take all the risk yourself," Debone said.
...once discovered, Hawaiian Electric can turn them off....
As Explained: No Blackout: RevoluSun Exposed
read ... Hundreds of Scam Victims
Feinstein to Obama: Move without Congress on GMOs
TH: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is urging President Obama to use the power of his office to require labels on food containing genetically engineered ingredients.
Legislation pending in both the House and Senate would force companies to tell consumers which products contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs), though there is no clear path forward in the divided Congress.
Major agriculture and biotechnology firms oppose the effort which is designed to pander to herds of ignorant fools infused with mindless fears ginned up by the multi-billion dollar dietary supplements and 'organic' industries....
After the narrow defeats of mandatory labeling laws in California and Washington state, major food industry groups are floating bill language calling for voluntary labeling standards....
read ... Federal Regulation, not State
Pesticide and GMO rules will take time, says Kauai mayor
SA: More time is needed than the allotted nine months to implement a new law that regulates pesticide use and growth of genetically modified organisms by large farm operations on Kauai, according to Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.
Carvalho recently presented a tentative timeline to the Kauai County Council of the administration's efforts to implement Ordinance 960, formerly Bill 2491, by mid-August. The new law gives the administration nine months to establish rules to regulate pesticides and GMOs....
Deputy County Attorney Mauna Kea Trask said he has met with various community members so far, including Fern Rosenstiel of ‘Ohana o Kauai and Jerry Ornellas, president of the Kauai County Farm Bureau, to familiarize them with the rule-making process....
The first draft of the administrative rules is expected to be completed by Feb. 28 and finalized in April. Officials plan to submit a small-business impact statement to the Small Business Regulatory Review Board and hold a public hearing on the draft rules June 19.
The Office of Economic Development will have 30 days to either recommend approval or changes in the rules to the mayor.
read ... More Time for Morons' Concerns
Who is the University of Hawaii?
ILind: ...Carbone’s appointment as director of the Cancer Center in 2009 was controversial from the very beginning, and allegedly resulted from a flawed and biased selection process. The problems in the process were detailed in a strongly-worded resolution adopted by the UH Manoa Faculty Senate in January 2010.
According to the resolution, the selection process was tightly controlled by then-Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw and biased towards Carbone. (Translation: Inouye wanted Carbone)
The faculty senate said Carbone did not meet the minimum requirement that candidates have five years administrative experience, and was added to the list of finalists to be interviewed even though the members of the selection committee did not vote to include him.
The resolution concluded that “both the perception and the reality of a biased and pre-ordained search process have done irreparable damage to the reputation and the integrity of the University of Hawaii.”
Given this history, it’s no surprise that cancer center faculty are not encouraged by a “trial balloon,” floated recently, that aimed to have Hinshaw serve as an administrator to work with Carbone. That’s likely to just compound the current problems.
In the wake of the Wonder Blunder scandal, the university was criticized for allowing lines of authority on the Manoa campus to be bypassed or blurred, and for its lack of both administrative transparency and accountability. UH officials—up to and including the Board of Regents—have repeatedly vowed to make improvements on all these fronts.
To date, the handling of the Cancer Center controversy once again calls those commitments into question....
read ... Who is the University of Hawaii?
Legislators Haggle with UH over Pharmacy School Building
SA: Initial plans for the facility called for a $66 million, three-story building with 880,000 square feet of lab space. Straney said the price tag was reduced last year to $38 million by cutting out some of the lab space.
Now, he said, the designs call for a two-story "simple building."
Choy said afterward that he plans to introduce legislation that would require the pharmacy college be self-sustaining -- using tuition, fees, donations and grants for operations -- on a trial basis.
The college gets about 10 percent of its budget from state general funds.
"If it works, maybe we can look at applying it to the university's other professional schools,"Choy said.
read ... $28M
Rail Will Drag More Buildings, Growth to Oahu
Oi: Invitations to boost population and tax revenues come wrapped in gilded structures of ultra-luxury urban palaces where an excess of ultra-luxury goods and services can be easily delivered to the doorstep from the ultra-luxury shopping mall further inland.
A rail system that — depending on whom you believe — will carry more or fewer passengers on two-car or four-car sets of trains that may or may not cost taxpayers extra millions will track across the skyline from West Oahu to town. Someday.
When it does, it will drag more building along its path, for better or worse.
read ... TOD
Kaupoa: Visiting Molokai's Haunting 'Place of Thieves' on Molokai (Slideshow)
CB: ...when Molokai Ranch closed down the company’s tourism operations they had the tops of the trees cut off for insurance reasons; they didn't want coconuts or branches falling on people who might pass through.
Some locals interpret that action as an ancient Polynesian declaration of war. In this case, they saw it as Molokai Ranch's parting shot at the island community after it voted to reject plans to develop 200 luxury homes at La'au Point.
Kaupoa’s most recent life was as a beach hotel, consisting of luxury "tentalows" — like bungalows made of canvas tents — owned and operated by Molokai Ranch from 1997 until 2001 before operations were handed off to Sheraton Hotels, which ran it from 2001 until 2008.
But Molokai Ranch still owns the area....
read ... Ritte's Handiwork
A Model for Civic Engagement: Let hunters catch Hoomaluhia pigs
SA: The hunters would be paid in pig, meaning they'd get to keep the animals they catch. That's a sustainable solution that costs the taxpayers nothing and ends the wasteful practice of throwing away perfectly good meat....
...The City Council passed a resolution earlier this month authorizing a new contract with the USDA to cull the animals at a cost of $53,009 a year, but acceded to Mayor Kirk Caldwell's request to hold off until the city could review the pig-hunting association's offer.
The city's main concern is about liability, an apprehension expressed by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which operates Hoomaluhia. But that issue should not be insurmountable, especially since the hunting association already does similar work for private landowners and government agencies elsewhere on Oahu.
The hunters have a legitimate role here, providing an important public service — for free — and making good use of a food resource that was previously wasted. It's not primarily about the money — the amount saved is a pittance against the city's potential $156 million budget shortfall. It's about civic engagement, and involving regular citizens in outside-the-box solutions that serve the common good. Truly a model to root for.
read ... Civic Engagement
Retaliation: Couple settles lawsuit against Molokai condo association for $1.2M
SA: A Molokai couple who accused their condo association and individual directors of harassing and intimidating them for trying to get new leaders elected to the board have settled their lawsuit against the association for about $1.2 million.
A jury previously had awarded the Ke Nani Kai Condominium homeowners nearly $4 million in damages to compensate them for what they said were six years of retaliation for seeking to oust the directors and an unlicensed contractor who has a criminal record but did work around the complex.
The verdict, believed to be the largest in Hawaii involving a nonconstruction condo dispute, captured the attention of condo boards throughout the state, particularly because three Ke Nani Kai directors -- despite serving as volunteers -- each were ordered to pay damages of $200,000 to $300,000....
The case was closely watched here in part because Hawaii has the largest concentration of condominiums of any state in the country and because condo representatives say governance and neighbor-to-neighbor disputes have been on the rise....
read ... Molokai
Repaving has been completed on 392 lane-miles this year
SA: ...many of the street repair projects done this year were relatively easy fixes. The city anticipates tougher projects next year that will require digging up asphalt at greater depths and using cement to restore streets up on ridges.
Any gains beyond 300 lane-miles this year could prove key to help keep pace with the five-year goal, especially if fewer lane-miles are repaved in the coming calendar year.
Caldwell asked for $150 million for road repairs this fiscal year, and the City Council appropriated $120 million. His administration plans to ask for $150 million again for the coming fiscal year....
read ... Record Miles
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