Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint in Honolulu May 8
Statewide Hearings on Hawaii ‘Clean’ Energy Set for May
Task force: Unshackle Hawaii from archaic shipping regulation
DoE: Hawaii public school students continue to increase readiness for college and careers
Legislative Changes Aren't Slowing the Pace of Kakaako Development
CB: A new law aimed at reforming the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that manages development in Kakaako, is a victory for Kakaako residents who spent months protesting the approval of new high rises in their neighborhood last year.
But despite their legislative success, development in Kakaako is likely to equal or exceed last year's pace, when the agency approved six new projects in the 600-acre district.
Developers seem unfazed by new rules and HCDA has already considered three project applications related to the district this year, including a residential building by MJF Development Corp., a mixed-use project by Keauhou Lane LP and Gerding Edlen LLC, and another mixed-use project by Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii and Kamehameha Schools. HCDA Executive Director Anthony Ching said he is expecting four more applications this year.
read ... Legislative Changes Aren't Slowing the Pace of Kakaako Development
Cox Attacked While Investigating DHHL/Aiwohi Bros Trucking
SA: Cox... said he had bruises on his arm and knees and required nine staples to close a wound to the left side of his head.
In a Tuesday email to DHHL Director Jobie Masagatani, Cox charged that the modular home was put on Hawaiian Homes land in Kalaeloa without proper authorization.
Cox, interviewed Wednesday, said illegal dumping of calcium hydroxide used for paving roads has also occurred on nearby Hawaiian Homes lands.
Hawaiian Homes spokesman Punialoha Chee said the department is looking into the charges.
"Mr. Cox has made a number of allegations, which we are looking into," Chee said. "We take all these very seriously."
Chee said the modular house was removed Tuesday because it wasn't authorized by the Hawaiian Homes Commission.
Chee said his understanding was that transportation trucking official Mark Aiwohi planned to seek a revocable permit for the modular house to be on the Hawaiian Homes land and that the modular house was put there temporarily.
But Aiwohi was unable to get the revocable permit because the commission has been reviewing the permit process, Chee said.
read ... Aiwohi?
HEI faces questions about a push for it to support renewable energy
SA: At HEI's annual meeting Wednesday several shareholders questioned Lau about a recent flurry of rulings from the state Public Utilities Commission directing HECO to move more aggressively in accommodating greater amounts of renewable energy, particularly rooftop photovoltaic systems.
A representative from the Oahu chapter of the Sierra Club, who attended the meeting, presented HEI executives a petition with 6,000 signatures asking HECO to improve its system for allowing owners of PV systems to connect with the utility's power grids.
Several dozen HECO customers picketed on the sidewalk along Alakea Street outside one of the entrances to the HEI headquarters.
"Hawaiian Electric has stalled too long on planning for customer demand for rooftop solar," said Nancy Robberson, a solar customer from Maui. "I have friends and neighbors who have been waiting for months and years to get their solar turned on. It's time for transparency and real action on grid upgrades and approval process overhauls."
Lau told shareholders HECO officials "feel the same urgency" as the PUC in modernizing the utility's grids to accept more solar power.
read ... Company faces questions about a push for it to support renewable energy
Neal Milner: Getting Serious About Voter Turnout in Hawaii
CB: With campaign season in full swing, we’ll soon be hearing the usual well-meaning but ineffective admonishments and pleas about low voter turnout in Hawaii.
And low it is, last in the nation for every presidential election since at least 2000. In the last 50 or so years Hawaii has moved from first to last.
The trouble is that the business-as-usual ways of trying to raise turnout here don’t work and for good reason.
These methods don’t work anywhere else either.
read ... Getting Serious About Voter Turnout in Hawaii
Democratic Party alters rules for filling legislative vacancies
HTH: The new rules, unanimously approved by delegates at the Hawaii County Democratic Party convention Saturday in Hilo, set forth clear guidelines to replace a state rule that currently leaves the process open to the district councils.
“The selection process for a state House or Senate vacancy shall be conducted in a public place, accessible to district party members,” the new rule states.
“All party members, the public and media shall be allowed to observe the process.”
The state Democratic Party will take up the issue at the state convention May 24-25 in Honolulu. If approved, the rule changes will apply statewide....
Lei Kihoi, an attorney for Native Hawaiian issues and member of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, one of the nine candidates who submitted applications, appealed the election to Carpenter, saying she was barred from the meeting even though she was president of a precinct in the district and thus eligible to vote.
Kihoi also accused the district council of requiring those in attendance to sign confidentiality agreements, according to party emails and documents obtained by Stephens Media Hawaii. Kihoi asked the election be redone.
Carpenter and Hawaii Island Democratic Party officials looked into the allegations and determined they were without merit, several party officials said. (Translation: Without Merit = Totally Accurate)
The House election process was in marked contrast to two recent procedures filling Big Island democratic seats in the state Senate.
In those two cases in 2011, the meeting where the party election was hosted was open to the public, and the press reported on the finalists immediately after the election.
Creagan said he also questioned the process because of his concerns it could be more transparent. Names of the finalists were initially withheld by the governor, the state party and Hawaii Island Democrats.
John Buckstead, West Hawaii vice chairman for the local party, ultimately released the names of the finalists four days after Creagan was appointed by Abercrombie....
read ... Vacancies
Measure on bus ads faces delay
SA: Honolulu City Council members will likely defer until next year a final decision on Mayor Kirk Caldwell's controversial plan to raise money for bus routes by selling advertising on the sides of city buses.
The Council voted 8-1 to advance Bill 69 (2013) on second reading and to send the bill back to the Budget Committee, but not before Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi made it clear that she intended to hold the bill until the Council deliberates on the fiscal 2016 budget in spring 2015. Council Chairman Ernie Martin was the sole "no" vote.
Caldwell officials lobbied hard for passage of the bill for the fiscal 2015 year amid strong opposition from the Outdoor Circle of Hawaii.
CB: Honolulu Bus Advertising Bill Moves Forward
read ... 2015
Star-Adv: Evict the Professors!
SA: The University of Hawaii's faculty housing program has ventured so far afield from its mission of providing short-term lodging for professors new to the islands that the overdue refocus on that goal is sure to be financially painful for long-time tenants who have benefited from the Board of Regents' lax enforcement of its own policies. Some of the tenants have grown so dependent on the taxpayer-subsidized, below-market rent in desirable Honolulu neighborhoods that they feel entitled to a perk that eludes the vast majority of their university colleagues — not to mention public employees in general or the everyday working resident.
read ... Enforce UH rules on faculty housing
Musings: On Human Wastage
KE: Remember Lance Collins, the Maui attorney who challenged the county's attempt to obtain pro bono legal services to defend the pesticide/GMO regulation bill in federal court? And when finance director Steve Hunt denied his protest, he still pressed on, demanding a hearing before a state agency, threatening legal action?
What ever happened with that? I wondered.
Turns out it was a big “nevah mind,” with Lance agreeing before the hearing to drop his protest as moot. This is just one example of how people who don't even live here waste our county's time and money to pursue their own ideological, political and publicity-seeking purposes.
Another example is Bob Yuhnke, the Colorado-based attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund who drafted the anti-ag charter amendment that folks are now trying to get on the ballot. The document, which is is actually an ordinance disguised as a charter amendment, creates an omnipotent environmental czar. Its language basically tells the county to ignore state and federal law, violates the commerce clauses of the U.S. Constitution and runs roughshod over due process:
Strict liability. Any action, activity or conduct, or failure to act, that violates this Charter Amendment is an offense without requiring proof that the defendant knew or intended that such action, activities or conduct, or failure to act, would cause or contribute to the violation.
read ... Musings: On Human Wastage
Kauai County hits the jackpot
KGI: More than $80 million in capitol improvement project funding was secured for the island on the final day of the legislative session Wednesday at the state capitol, Kauai lawmakers said.
Kauai Bill 2541: Open space cuts move ahead
read ... County hits the jackpot
Publisher says charges violate rights
MN: Citing his First Amendment right to take photographs and videos in public places, the publisher of a weekly tabloid is seeking to have charges dismissed in connection with his arrest while using his cellphone to videotape a police traffic enforcement operation.
"This case cannot keep going under the First Amendment," said attorney Sam MacRoberts, who is representing Thomas Russo, publisher of Maui Time Weekly. "Maybe he was obnoxious . . . that doesn't mean he can be arrested for being obnoxious. He was filming as he's allowed to do as a member of the media."
read ... Maui Time
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