Duke Aiona: Great News for the Campaign
Clinton’s chief economist supports Jones Act reform for Puerto Rico and Hawaii
Looks Like Hawaii Won't Need To Count All Those Soldiers, Sailors, And Marines In The Next Reapportionment Anyway
BLS: Hawaii Union Membership Rate 22.1%
VIDEO: Aloha Obamacare Wipeout
Honolulu tops list of America’s Most Overpriced Cities
Hawaii's Choice: Let the Fleecing Continue or Bring on the Competition?
Full Text: State of the City Address
Rep Fale to Challenge Clayton Hee for Senate
SA: State Rep. Richard Fale said Tuesday that he intends to challenge state Sen. Clayton Hee ...
LINK: Donate to Richard Fale Campaign Here
Fale, a Mormon, was one of the most vocal opponents of gay marriage during the special session last fall. The Republican believes lawmakers should have let voters decide the issue through a state constitutional amendment. Hee, chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee, helped craft the gay marriage bill.
"There's been a groundswell of community support asking me to run against Clayton Hee," said Fale (R, Waialua-Kahuku-Waiahole).
"There's been outrage within the community in regards to the way he has represented our community, especially recently, during the special session."
Fale said gay marriage would not be the only issue in the campaign — which depends on both Fale and Hee winning their party primaries — but would likely be a dominant issue.
"People generally are not happy with the way the state of Hawaii is going, the direction with education, the direction with the budget, the direction with overall leadership," he said. "They're looking for something new, something different."
Fale said that since voters were not given the opportunity of a constitutional amendment on gay marriage, "the only way people can effectively make their voices heard is going to be through this next election."
(Star-Adv strategy to help gay marriage legislators: Make the race about gay marriage. Since gay marriage is unpopular Fale might think this is a winner for him vs Hee. It isn't. The election will not be about gay marriage but rather about the subsidiary question of whether Hee should be thrown out for backing gay marriage. That is a minority position, therefore a loser. Now you know why the Gay-Atheist Advertiser is hyping this race as a referendum on gay marriage.)
read ... Bye Bye Clayton?
Tranny Supports 'Racist' Hanohano
KITV: ...One of her supporters is asking that the public not rush to judgment over allegations that Hanohano was disrespectful to the public that she is supposed to serve.
"I believe Rep. Hanaohano is being true to who she is true to her personal convictions," said Hinaleimoana Wong Kalu.
Wong Kalu was in a Senate hearing just minutes before, witnessing a rare (common) move by Judiciary chairman Clayton Hee ousting a testifier for not sticking to the issue at hand.
"You are invited to testify about this bill before us, you are not invited to testify about Kanaiolowalu. I say this respectfully and very firmly I will ask you one last time to please proceed,” said Hee.
When Lela Hubbard diverted from her testimony, Hee ordered staff to turn off the microphones and call in the sergeant-of-arms to escort Hubbard out of the room.
"It would be contradictory to our culture when an elder is removed out of a room when she wants to express what she was thinking. Where does the line get drawn and through what lens are we analyzing the culture of a legislature and their professional and political culture and who they are?" Wong Kalu said.
"In the Hawaiian way, I don’t think he was appropriate, but in the western and political way he was very appropriate," Wong Kalu said.
(And so the tranny says Hanohano and Hee are acting 'western', not Hawaiian? But Hanohano says her critics need lessons in Hawaiian culture. Which is it? But then how consistent could a dude be if he thinks he is female?)
Jim Shon: Public input increasingly scorned at 'public' hearings
Read ... Tranny Supports Racist
Progressives Mock Sovereignty Activists
ILind: Suddenly it seems we’ve got a bumper crop of Wannabe Royals staking their claims, however questionable, to wield power on behalf of what each says is a sovereign Hawaiian government tracing its roots back prior to the 1983 “overthrow” of the kingdom.
It seems like everywhere you turn, there’s another cult-like group formed around a charismatic central figure claiming sovereign rights and asserting that they and their followers are above the laws that apply to the rest of us. Pretenders, some might call them.
Their claims, of course, are conflicting and overlapping, leading to repeated attempts by certain sovereigns to undercut the claims of others, and vice versa.
Timid news coverage and a reluctance among many Hawaiians to publicly criticize these royal claimants for fear of hurting other more mainstream sovereignty initiatives that are also underway has resulted in the Wannabe Royals getting more respect and deference than they would otherwise merit.
Although far from politically correct, especially in an island state where the sovereignty narrative has been gathering steam, there’s a wonderfully instructive scene at the beginning of the classic 1975 British comedy, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” that says a lot about claims to royal status....
Reasserting our ability to laugh at them when they so clearly deserve it would be a welcome bonus.
Yesterday: 13 Security Breaches in 7 years at Unprotected Iolani Palace
read ... Some Laughable Royalty Claims
Trench Warfare: Schatz vs Hanabusa
KITV: "It has to worry him, even though he's the incumbent, he was appointed. He didn't win it outright. said Civil Beat's Chad Blair....
"I think the Hanabusa-Schatz thing is still very fluid," said political analyst Neal Milner.
Milner said a recent study of 50 years of Senate races found that when it comes to getting re-elected, an appointed incumbent gets almost no bump for the next race.
"What you're really seeing is that these two candidates start even," Milner said.
Civil Beat found 51 percent of likely Democratic voters see Schatz in a positive light.
A bit more, 58 percent, think positively about Hanabusa.
Even so, Schatz has some big-money backers. He's leading Hanabusa some 2-1 one in fundraising.
"My guess is he's going to start spending some of that money that he's got," Blair said.
But at her local headquarters earlier this month, Hanabusa said her grassroots efforts will turn the tide. If so, that will make the race a tough call, analysts said.
"Once you decide it's not all about ethnicity and it's not all about the hidden hand of the late Sen. Inouye, you see this is gonna be a kind of trench race in lots of ways," Milner said.
Read ... Trench Warfare
Poll: Kim, Takai Lead Race for Dem Nomination in CD1
CB: But two of the seven candidates — Donna Mercado Kim and Mark Takai — lead the pack with 25 percent and 20 percent of the vote, respectively.
All other candidates we surveyed are in single digits, and over one-third of those polled are unsure of who'll they vote for.
read ... Dem Primary Race
AARP: Health Connector needs a sustainability plan
SA: Jan. 1, 2015. That's when federal funds for the Health Connector will likely dry up, requiring the Connector to pay for its operations from other sources of revenue. The best estimate for the amount of funding needed to sustain Connector operations beyond this year is $15 million annually.
Whether state taxpayers will be on the hook to cover Connector expenses beyond the current year, and how future revenues may be generated, are topics of heated debate in the current Legislature. Potential solutions range from making the Health Connector a state agency to assessing fees on all health insurance plans sold both in and outside the exchange.
AARP Hawaii holds firm to the position that taxpayers must not be held responsible for footing the bill until the Connector provides the Legislature with an acceptable and detailed sustainability plan. This plan is critical to lawmakers' ability to make an informed decision. The plan should focus on three critical elements: 1) What the Connector's expenses are; 2) How it plans to generate revenue going forward; and 3) How it intends to increase enrollment in health plans.
Without a detailed accounting of expenses and revenues, making the Connector a state agency would be like writing a blank check.
The sustainability challenge facing the Hawaii Health Connector — and state legislators themselves — stems from the Connector's establishment as a private, nonprofit organization. It is the only exchange in the nation structured this way. As such, it has not been subject to Hawaii sunshine laws, and has permitted Connector board members, including representatives of the health insurers themselves, to conduct business beyond the public view....
Related: LA Times: Hawaii Health Connector Refused to Cough up Secret Budget
read ... Sustainable?
HSTA can learn from students
SA: The Hawaii State Teachers Association should have more faith in the public-school students its members are charged with educating.
The union, which represents 13,500 public and charter school teachers statewide, has criticized a new teacher evaluation system that rightly includes feedback from students as a small element of the assessment.
The HSTA went so far as to poll its members — and of the 1,340 teachers who replied, 87 percent said they did not believe their students could understand the questions on the Tripod Project Student Survey.
But now the preliminary findings of that legitimate student survey are in, and the results are largely favorable, with Hawaii's public high-school teachers exceeding the national average in all seven areas assessed by students, and upper elementary teachers exceeding the national average in four and scoring about average in the other three.
Now does the union think the students can understand the questions?
Although dismayed that some teachers had so little faith in their students' ability to accurately fill out the Tripod questionnaire, it is important to note that only a fraction of HSTA members expressed that doubt — after all, only a fraction of them answered the HSTA's question.
read ... HSTA can learn from students
Hawaii Lawmakers May Give Counties Millions of Dollars in Extra Hotel Tax Money
CB: The House Finance Committee passed a bill that would lift the cap on the counties’ share of the Transient Accommodations Tax, which the Legislature imposed in 2011.
The cap is currently $93 million, split among the four counties. If lifted, estimates show Kauai could get an extra $10 million, Big Island would have an extra $13 million, Maui would see another $16 million and Honolulu could have an additional $31 million.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Kauai County Council members said the money would help them address multi-million-dollar shortfalls they’re facing next year due to collective bargaining increases.
House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke asked Caldwell and Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa if they’d be comfortable letting go of their push to have the Legislature give the counties new general excise taxing authority for at least another year if the state was willing to lift the TAT cap. They said they ultimately just want a stable funding source and are tired of the annual fight over hotel tax money.
read ... No GE Tax Hike
Kauai Gives Anti-GMO Whackos the Test Case they Need to Uphold GMO Bans
FSN: If a majority of voters in either California or Washington state had supported labeling foods containing genetically modified ingredients, agribusinesses would likely have responded with a federal lawsuit against one or the other state.
Now that lawsuit – or much of it – is coming together in the U.S. Court for the District of Hawaii, but it’s been filed only against the County of Kauai over local Ordinance 960 scheduled to take effect on Aug. 16, 2014.
As Explained: Hooser: It doesn't matter if Kauai GMO Law is never Enforced--All That Mattered was Getting it Passed
read ... Test Case
SB2777 May Face Amendments to Satisfy Anti-GMO Activists
WHT: Green, owner of Green World coffee farm, said he wasn’t thinking of genetically modified crops when he wrote the legislation, introduced by Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz and Rep. Lauren Matsumoto.
“It wasn’t part of the plan,” he said. “It was only intended to deal with the limited question of farmers being able to sell agriculture products.”
Green said the legislation is aimed at eliminating hurdles at the county level for farmers selling their products directly to customers.
In 2012, lawmakers adopted Act 113 to make it easier for farmers to conduct retail activities on their property, he said. Such efforts can still be limited by county-level regulations on the size of retail operations on farms (a problem Green said he ran into on Oahu), and he offered the bill to allow farmers to get around those local ordinances.
While arguably still a home rule issue, Green said the bill has been interpreted to have far wider implications than intended.
“I didn’t think about those additional issues,” he said, while acknowledging the legislation may not be specific enough.
“I didn’t know about them. I’m not involved in them.”
The Senate committees on Agriculture, Water and Land, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs will each consider SB 2777 on Thursday.
If the committees vote in favor of the measure, Green said he expects it to be amended to clarify its intent.
“Some of the senators have looked at it,” he said. “(They said), ‘We have a way of writing this law to be more narrow. There wouldn’t be any misunderstanding.’”
read ... Paranoia May Destroy Ya
Kauai Idiots: Proposed Dairy Farm is 'Mind-boggling Environmental Disaster'
KGI: The grass-fed dairy will be located on 582 acres in Mahaulepu, about 2.5 miles inland of the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa in Poipu, and leased from Grove Farm. It will be modeled after the New Zealand pastoral dairy system....
Bridget Hammerquist, a retired attorney in Koloa with a background in biology, said she is very concerned about the large amount of waste that will be produced by the 1,800 head of Kiwi-cross cattle.
“It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” she said.
A single dairy cow produces about 120 pounds of wet manure each day, equivalent to the waste of 20 to 40 humans, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
With 1,800 head of cattle, that’s about 216,000 pounds of manure per day, or 371 pounds per acre per day. In one year, those cows could produce about 78.8 million pounds of fecal waste.
(No kidding. They sell manure to other farmers who use it to improve their land. Duh. They even sell this valuable manure to landscapers who use it to keep up the hobby farms of professional protesters. And don't forget that cow manure is used to grow bumper crops of genetically modified marijuana which then causes the paranoia underlying protests against both GMOs and manure. This is the cycle of life.)
“It’s mind boggling,” Hammerquist said of the numbers. “The issue is the ability of that property to handle all that waste. And that doesn’t include urine.” (What's mind-boggling is the stupidity of these protesters. Where do they think food comes from? A restaurant?)....
Carl Berg, vice-chairman of the Surfrider Foundation Kauai Chapter, said Surfrider has major concerns that the manure could add nutrients to, and negatively impact, stream and ocean water quality. (Yes. The stupidity and ignorance go right to the top.)
“We see it as a potential environmental disaster,” he said.
Berg also questions what water quality monitoring, if any, will be done by the dairy and what would be the dairy’s back-up plan should something go wrong.
“It’s not enough to say you’re going to use best management practices and you’re going to monitor the environmental effects, if there’s no recourse if you do pollute the nearshore waters,” he said....
(Another leading idiot,) Beryl Blaich, coordinator of Malama Mahaulepu, voiced similar concerns as Berg and said her main priority is protecting the groundwater, air quality, stream and ocean waters of Mahaulepu for future generations. (By making sure that the current generation doesn't do any actual farming.)
read ... Enviros Against Agriculture
Ag Board to End State Milk Price Fixing Scheme?
KITV: The state's Board of Agriculture tentatively approved a measure that would allow local milk producers and processors to negotiate their own prices for milk. Right now, the prices are fixed and regulated by the state.
Local producers say more flexibility in the prices will make it easier for them to compete against mainland milk producers and further saturate the local milk market.
The proposal will go through a public hearing before the board takes a final vote.
read ... Competition
Former prosecutor can’t prevent Undisclosed Bynum settlement
KGI: A federal judge on Monday granted a Kauai councilman’s request to dismiss a civil suit that claimed he was the target of illegal prosecution by the county over zoning law violations.
With an undisclosed settlement already reached in a civil suit against the county in January, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled against one defendant who refused to sign the agreement in hopes the suit would go to trial. Monday’s ruling is the final step that allows Councilman Tim Bynum to withdrawn his suit from U.S. District Court.
Bynum filed the suit on Sept. 19, 2012. Along with the county, former county prosecuting attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, and Sheilah Miyake, a county supervising planning inspector, were named as defendants both individually and in their professional capacities.
Six weeks before trial, the county agreed to an undisclosed settlement offer from Bynum. Miyake also agreed but Iseri-Carvalho refused in her personal capacity and requested a jury trial.
On Monday, the judge said there wasn’t any exceptional circumstances to show that Bynum’s claims against Iseri-Carvalho were “frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless.”
read ... More News from Kauai
Don't Destroy Police Disciplinary Files Just Yet, Hawaii Lawmakers Say
CB: The original version of the bill — introduced by Rep. Karl Rhaods, who chairs the Judiciary Committee — only called on departments to keep a fired cop’s file for six months.
“We wanted to extend it to 18 months,” Rhoads said. “We were concerned that if it were only six months long that when the reports come to us we would not be able to review anything.”
House Bill 1812 seeks to shed more light on the misconduct that takes place inside Hawaii’s four county police departments for forcing those agencies to disclose more information about bad cops.
read ... Don't Destroy Police Disciplinary Files Just Yet, Hawaii Lawmakers Say
Back pay on the way for Hawaii substitute teachers
SA: Checks are on the horizon for an estimated 10,000 Hawaii substitute teachers who are owed a share of a $14 million settlement for back-pay claims from more than a decade ago.
A state judge Tuesday agreed to amend the settlement terms to put the Honolulu law firm that brought the class-action lawsuit against the state 12 years ago in charge of disbursing the funds.
Once the judge's order is finalized, likely on Wednesday, the state will hand over the money to Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, according to attorney Paul Alston. He said his law firm has hired an independent payroll company to cut the checks.
"They can do that in a week, so checks should be going out shortly after the end of the month," Alston said Tuesday.
read ... Substitute
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