Audit not Random: Feds Target UH Manoa in Sexual Violence Investigation
Feds Release Profile of Hawaii Health Connector Signups
Hyatt Waikiki Employees Hit Union with Federal Labor Charges
Property Tax Exemptions Reduce Honolulu Tax Revenue $100M
HTA: Visitor Spending and Arrivals Decline for Month and Quarter
Hawaii Teen Pregnancy Rate Down 43% since 1988
Commonwealth Fund: Hawaii State Health System Performance, 2014
Waimanalo Gulch Flooding: Federal Indictments Handed Down
Candidate Djou says Congress needs more centrists
AP: In heavily Democratic Hawaii, Republican candidates often face an uphill battle in elections. But Republican Charles Djou, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Congress, said his political affiliation could be an asset for the state.
Djou is positioning himself as a centrist who can build bridges between parties in Washington and give Hawaii a voice in the Republican House majority.
Heading into midterm elections where Republicans are preparing to fight for a majority in the U.S. Senate, Djou said in an interview that thinks the time is right to send more than just Democrats to Washington.
"If you have a congressional delegation that only speaks to one side, you're missing out," he said.
read ... Djou
Dems Barely Avoid A Messy Convention
Boylan: Basic politics mandates that the challenger of a party’s incumbent governor be kept from the convention microphone. Right?
Not in this case. Ige’s smart. He possesses a ton of integrity. He’s a good man. But he wouldn’t know a sound bite if it bit him in the behind. Abercrombie, on the other hand, has built a career on them. (Lower expectations beforehand.)
He’s owned oratory at state Democratic conventions for the past quarter century. Neither Dan Inouye’s sonorous voice nor the liberal fire of Patsy Mink could match Abercrombie with a microphone in front of him. He plays a room full of Democrats like no one this state has ever seen. Ige just isn’t in the governor’s rhetorical league.
So the initial decision to keep Ige off the podium, by any measure, was ham-handed – so ham-handed that last week convention planners reversed their decision and allotted Ige five minutes of podium time. (And then knock it out of the park.)
HNN: Local Connection: Democratic Party Convention
read ... Dems Barely Avoid A Messy Convention
Profitable Nonprofit: Cabanilla Tricks Legislators into Giving Her Group $100K
SA: But many of her fellow lawmakers who approved the $100,000 grant on Tuesday were not aware that Cabanilla essentially controls the Ewa Historical Society. Cabanilla's son — who is also her office manager — was listed as the nonprofit's vice president in the grant application, and Cabanilla and two of her legislative aides were listed as serving on the four-member board of directors.
Cabanilla explained on Wednesday that she put her name and those of her staff on the application when it was filed after she could not find enough people in the community to volunteer. The representative has been involved with the Ewa Historical Society for several years.
She was, for example, the one who signed the nonprofit's latest publicly available tax filing — for 2009 — as chairwoman of the board of directors.
read ... Legislators give $100,000 grant to group run by fellow lawmaker
House Votes on Ige's Turtle Bay Funds Today
SA: Abercrombie personally called several state House lawmakers Wednesday and urged them to approve the financing for land preservation at Turtle Bay Resort, while House leaders said a vote count was still fluid.
The House will decide Thursday — the last day of the session — on a bill that would authorize $40 million in state revenue bonds to help acquire a conservation easement and protect 665 acres at Turtle Bay from future development.
The bill would restructure debt on the Hawai‘i Convention Center and devote hotel-room tax money to cover annual debt service on the revenue bonds. Abercrombie, the city, a private land trust and the resort's developers reached a $48.5 million agreement last month on the conservation easement.
Abercrombie said state Attorney General David Louie and state Budget Director Kalbert Young have vetted the financing bill, which was crafted by state Sen. David Ige (D, Pearl Harbor-Pearl City-Aiea), the governor's opponent in the Democratic primary.
Star Adv: Don't postpone Turtle Bay bill
read ... Gov lobbies for Turtle Bay funds
Retaliation as Policy: Kim Asks House Not to Kill Dole Land Swap in Retaliation Against DelaCruz
PR: State Senate President Donna Mercado Kim on Wednesday asked House leaders not to kill a state land exchange bill in retaliation for the undoing of a manufacturing tax credit bill on Monday.
House and Senate negotiators were unable to complete a conference draft of the manufacturing tax credit bill because Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, the lead Senate negotiator, declined to attend.
House Majority Leader Scott Saiki had informed Dela Cruz that his land exchange bill could die in the House if he did not show up to the conference committee. The House on Tuesday postponed action on the land exchange bill until Thursday, the last day of session.
read ... Retaliation as Policy
HCDA Kakaako Reform Bill Signed
PBN: House Bill 1866, which was introduced by state Rep. Scott Saiki, D-McCully-Downtown, who lives in Kakaako, changes requirements for notices, hearings, approvals and rights for development permits, as well as creates height limits for the Honolulu neighborhood.
“This measure will now allow HCDA to refocus on its mission, provide for greater transparency in its approval process, and allow for greater community input on decisions of importance to all of the residents of Kakaako,” Saiki said in a statement. “More importantly, it will allow the community to move forward confidently in planning for its own future and in the manner that it believes is in its best interest.”
PBN: 43-story Kakaako tower OK'd
SA: Keawe Street midrise praised in its first public hearing
read ... Kakaako Hearings
Helping Hands Hawaii, Catholic Charities Hawaii start 'housing first" model to tackle homelessness
PBN: “This hasn’t been tried in Hawaii before, and so why not give it a shot and see if it works? It is working elsewhere in other states using this model,” said Jan Harada, president and CEO of Helping Hands Hawaii. “It is specifically targeted for folks who are struggling — chronically homeless and diagnosed as having trouble with substance abuse, mental illness. We went to get them into housing first, and then provide all of the wrap-around services needed in an intensive model to get them to the point where they can live.”
The Hawaii Pathways Project is backed by a two-year grant totaling $1.1 million allocated from the state Department of Health as part of a larger federal grant the state secured from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Helping Hands Hawaii will focus on providing health services, as covered by the grant, while Catholic Charities Hawaii will focus on the housing element, which is not covered by the grant.
read ... Housing First
HGEA/UPW to Blame in State Hospital Mess
CB: Public sector collective bargaining is at least partly to blame for unsafe conditions at the Hawaii State Hospital, according to the tearful testimony of a top nurse who works at the facility.
On Wednesday, Associate Chief Nurse Emma Evans told a state Senate panel investigating violence at the hospital that she’s been handcuffed by the unions when it comes to controlling how many hours her staff works, particularly as it relates to overtime.
She said putting in too many hours can lead to fatigue, and even admitted that employees who work too much overtime have fallen asleep on the job, putting both hospital staff and their patients in danger....
...He focused on three hospital employees who worked more than 1,000 hours of overtime each in fiscal year 2013. Those employees, Hee said, earned anywhere from $32,000 to $48,000 more than their base salaries.
Total staffing costs at the hospital in FY 2013 were $35 million, with about $2 million spent on overtime.
Hee also asked Evans about sick time use in which employees would take four days off — the threshold before having to provide a doctor’s note — and then work a double shift on their fifth day, giving them eight hours of overtime.
read ... State Hospital Employees ‘Gaming the System?’
County airs draft rules on GMO, pesticide law
SA: Draft administrative rules pertaining to a new law regulating pesticide use and the growth of genetically modified organisms by large-scale commercial agricultural operations on Kauai are posted on the county's website for review and public comment.
Draft rules for Ordinance 960 (formerly Bill 2491) must be approved by the state Small Business Regulatory Review Board. The board is slated to consider the matter at its June meeting, according to a Kauai County news release. If approved, a public hearing will be held about 30 days later.
The county requests that public comments about the draft rules be submitted no later than May 12. Comments may be emailed to Deputy County Attorney Mona Clark at mclark@kauai.gov.
read ... County airs draft rules on GMO, pesticide law
11 testify at hearing on hot topic: property taxes
MN: With a battle brewing over how to handle the county's fiscal 2015 budget, only 11 individuals showed up to testify on property tax rates during a public hearing Wednesday night before the Maui County Council.
In March, Mayor Alan Arakawa called for an approximately 6.5 percent, across-the-board increase in property tax rates, if state lawmakers did not remove a $93 million cap on the counties' share of transient accommodations taxes. Legislators kept the cap in place, but added only $10 million to it.
Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Mike White has proposed a 3 percent across-the-board property tax rate reduction, with Arakawa now seeking no property tax hike. And Arakawa has responded, saying property tax rates should remain flat while budget adjustments could be done to eliminate the need for increases.
read ... Property Taxes
Teacher Evaluation Results Due at End of May
WHT: By the end of May, Hawaii teachers should know how they fared under a new evaluation system that has administrators sitting in on classrooms and students filling out assessments of how well teachers are meeting their needs.
The Educator Effectiveness System — in full effect this year following a phase-in period over the past two years— links teacher pay and advancement to their performance, but some teachers worry the evaluations are subjective. Others don’t understand the multifaceted requirements and question the value of paperwork, conferences and reporting mandates they say overload their already busy schedules.
Kealakehe Elementary School teacher Diane Aoki said the requirements are so burdensome and futile they’ve prompted her to retire early.
read ... A bunch of complaints
UH Among Fastest Rate of Tuition Increases,
R: Colleges have been passing more costs to students. Annual tuition at four-year public colleges has risen by $1,936, or 28 percent, since the 2007-2008 academic year, adjusted for inflation, according to the report. Arizona posted the biggest jump, of 80 percent, while tuition in five other states -- Florida, Georgia, California, Hawaii and Washington -- climbed by more than 60 percent.
(Between 2008-2014 State support for UH was cut $4648 per student. This is the 2nd largest cut in the USA. Source)
Full Text: Study
read ... Over 60%
Hawaii Child Care Can Cost More Than College
CB: After teacher Mai Hall realized that child care for her two children — an 18-month-old boy and a 10-year-old girl — would cost nearly as much as she would earn after taxes, she left the workforce to become a stay-at-home mom.
Full-time care on Oahu for a toddler like hers can cost as much as $1,300 a month, Hall discovered. Add on the $120 monthly bill that she and her husband, a car salesman, pay for their daughter's after-school care. Throw in the daily meals and other miscellaneous expenses for the kids. In all, the family would be paying about $18,000 a year on care for the two children.
When Hall worked, her family's annual income was about $86,000 before taxes, meaning that child care would have consumed a quarter of the family's net earnings.
So, after having her son, Hall didn't look for a new job. She decided to spend her days caring for the infant herself. Not paying for child care clearly saved the family money and she was able to be more present in the baby's life, but it means the family of four is entirely dependent on her husband’s salary of $51,000.
read ... Child Care Can Cost More Than College
Google to Stop Mining Univ. of Hawaii Student Emails for Ad Ideas
AP: Google's habitual scanning of Gmail had become the focal point of a federal lawsuit alleging the practice violated users' privacy. The case included claims by students at the University of Hawaii and the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. that they were required to use Apps for Education as part of their enrollment in schools.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh dealt the lawsuit a setback last month when she denied a request to certify it as a class action representing tens of millions of Gmail users.
Google's scanning of Gmail in schools also had been facing questions about whether it violated the 40-year-old Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which is meant to protect student privacy.
Google: Protecting Students with Google Apps for Education
read ... Privacy at UH?
Interior Department rule would set aside 'Indian country' lands in Alaska
ADN: The Interior Department announced Wednesday it will consider taking Alaska tribal land into trust, a move that could lead to pockets of "Indian country" in the state where tribal governments and courts would have authority to create their own laws and justice systems.
The move is opposed by the state, which has said that Indian country exists only on the state's sole reservation, Metlakatla, in Southeast. Alaska Native tribes, supported by nonprofit law firms, said the Interior Department should have been taking land into trust years ago and had sued in federal court to affirm that belief.
A judge in Washington, D.C., agreed last year. The state has appealed to the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, but the Interior Department acted on the ruling by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras.
The Interior Department is opening a 60-day comment period on the proposal.
read ... Indian Country Executive Order?
Obama: Overthrow of Hawaiian Kingdom Part of America's History of Injustice
WH: Obama said. Noting that May month marks 145 years since the final spike was hammered into the transcontinental railroad, an achievement made possible by Chinese laborers, who did the majority of this backbreaking and dangerous work, Obama said this May, they will receive long-overdue recognition as they are inducted into the Labor Hall of Honor. "Generations of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have helped make this country what it is today," he said. "Yet they have also faced a long history of injustice - from the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and its devastating impact on the history, language and culture of Native Hawaiians; to opportunity-limiting laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924; to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II," he said.
Ignore This: June 14, 1900: The Abolition of Slavery in Hawaii
Related: Hot Movie Trailer: Dinesh D’Souza’s America
read ... What Obama Thinks
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