Grassroot Institute Calls on OHA Trustees to Own Up for CEO Comments
UH Manoa Profs Petition OHA: Stop ‘Nation Building’ Until John Kerry Answers Letter
VIDEO: OHA Roll Commission Secret Budget $2.3M Wasted for 18,000 names
Hawaii's Top Marginal Tax Rate: 367100%
Settlement Brings Free Speech Victory for MAUIWatch
Oahu, Maui, Kona, Hilo: ‘Irreplaceable’ Returns May 15
To Err Is Human – And Then We Can Really Mess Things Up
Fitch Downgrade: Kauai County Spending Out of Control
'Bipolar, Egotistical, Boorish' Hee plans to run for lieutenant governor
PDF: Handy Clayton Hee Reference Guide (must read)
SA: Hee's late entry into the primary poses danger for Tsutsui, who is still unknown to many voters. The move could also unsettle Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a friend and ally of Hee's, who has his own primary race against state Sen. David Ige but will likely feel obligated to help Tsutsui....
Hee, who has scheduled an announcement Sunday morning at Iolani Palace, can use money from his Senate campaign account for a lieutenant governor's bid. The senator had raised $518,000 and had about $460,650 in cash on hand at the end of December, money he stockpiled over the past few years.
Tsutsui had brought in $425,000 through December and had about $357,000 in cash on hand.
A Hawaii Poll taken in February found that 20 percent of those interviewed had a favorable view of Tsutsui, while 71 percent had not heard of the lieutenant governor or did not know enough about him to form an opinion....
Abercrombie reiterated his support for Tsutsui. "Since accepting the appointment as Lt. Governor, Shan Tsutsui has been a solid partner in my administration's policies and initiatives. From the time he assumed office in December 2012, I expressed my support for his election efforts for Lt. Governor," the governor said in a statement....
Elwin Ahu, a former state judge and senior pastor at New Hope Metro, is the leading Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
Hee has at times been a disruptive force in the Senate's factional politics.
The senator has interrogated judicial nominees and Cabinet appointees to a degree some of his colleagues thought crossed the line. He has also had confrontations with fellow senators, on the Senate floor and in private, where he was perceived as brusque and overbearing.
Then-Senate President Colleen Hanabusa replaced Hee as Judiciary chairman in 2007, but he reclaimed the post — and took over a large fourth-floor office suite — after Hanabusa left for Congress and Tsutsui became Senate president in 2010....
After Hee's Windward Senate district was redrawn after the Census to include all of the North Shore, he had a tight re-election campaign in 2012, defeating former Rep. Colleen Meyer, a conservative Republican, by less than 1,000 votes.
Rep. Richard Fale (R, Waialua-Kahuku-Waiahole), a Mormon who opposes gay marriage, has announced that he will run in the Republican primary in Hee's district, hoping to tap into the disappointment in the Mormon-dominated Laie region about the special session last year. Meyer also plans to run in the GOP primary.
CB: Rolls Royce at Hee's LG Announcement
PDF: Handy Clayton Hee Reference Guide (must read)
read ... Hee for Governor in 2018?
Hee Endorses Gil Riviere for Senate
SA: Hee also endorsed former Rep. Gil Riviere to replace him in his Windward and North Shore Senate District. Riviere switched parties last year and became a Democrat, intending to seek his former House seat, which he lost to Rep. Richard Fale in the Republican primary in 2012.
Fale has announced that he will run for Senate. Former Rep. Colleen Meyer, who lost a close campaign to Hee in 2012, will also run in the GOP primary.
ILind: Hee Triggers Falling Dominoes
read ... Oh what a tangled web we weave ....
"OHA Should not be in the Nation Building Business"
SA: Citing recent presentations by pro-independence advocates that characterized federal and Hawaii state governments as "illegal regimes," Crabbe wrote that he would ask the trustees to delay further nationhood projects until OHA gets a reading from the U.S. State Department on the legal status.
It's anything but clear that he will get a delay: There was vigorous pushback from angry trustees, who quickly moved to rescind the letter....
Post-roll, the action timetable is indefinite, but the plan is to convene what's being called an 'aha, or assembly, to discuss ways to organize a Native Hawaiian government.
Whomever is chosen as the delegates (and that selection process is unclear, too)....
"What the state really wants to do is negotiate with somebody over those ceded lands" -- Jon Osorio....
"OHA and the state of Hawaii should not be in the nation-building business," Kelii Akina said, adding that the roll "fails to represent the will of the people as it excludes more than 70 percent of all Hawaiians and 100 percent of non-Hawaiians."
The Grassroot Institute has opposed the Akaka Bill and other Hawaiian sovereignty campaigns. For example, Akina cited comments made by several sources last year that an alternative route to federal recognition was being pursued, one that could be initiated by President Barack Obama or within the U.S. Department of the Interior, under his administration. The fact that a Hawaii-born president is in the White House has brightened hopes among many supporters for federal recognition.
However, Akina pointed to a letter to Obama signed by four of the eight members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, asserting that executive action of this kind would be unconstitutional.
He added that, because he wants this point of view better represented in Hawaii, he plans to run for a seat on the OHA Board of Trustees.
"A trustee can bring positive influence to resolving these issues," Akina said, "meeting the needs of Hawaiians within the context of being citizens of the United States."
More recent pursuits of an administrative alternative to the Akaka Bill are being kept under wraps, if they do exist. A spokeswoman would say only that the Department of the Interior is "closely monitoring the developments at the state level."
...more than 88,000 of the signatures came from the decade-old Kau Inoa initiative....
read ... OHA Devolves into Chaos
$40.6M per Year Giveaway to Insurance Companies: Ghost Patients to be Exorcised from Quest just this once
SA: For the first time, the state Medicaid program is requiring most members to respond to renewal notices or risk losing their health insurance coverage.
The state has begun sending out forms to at least 200,000 of the 320,000 Hawaii residents who are insured through Quest, Hawaii's version of Medicaid, which provides health insurance to those with low incomes.
Until now, Quest members were automatically renewed each year, leaving open the possibility that the state was paying for health insurance for people who no longer lived in Hawaii, no longer qualified based on income, or had obtained insurance from another source.
The state pays insurance companies more than $1,500 a year per beneficiary.... (Ca-Ching!)
The mailing of renewal notices in Hawaii was prompted by the federal Affordable Care Act, which requires Medicaid programs in all states to collect additional information on income and tax status....
The Hawaii DHS sent about 17,000 renewal letters last month and will send 17,000 each month until all Quest participants — except those who are aged, blind or disabled — have received notices.
"Those who do not return their forms will have their eligibility terminated, except for households with children," Rosenfeld said.
The state has used "passive renewal," where all those covered by Medicaid were automatically renewed each year, since 2004 because officials wanted "to eliminate barriers to continued coverage and to promote access to medical coverage for families with children," Rosenfeld said.
The state will require renewal forms be sent in only this year and then will return to passive renewals.
"After this catch-up period is completed, the (Medicaid program) will return to its previous process of passive renewal," Rosenfeld said.
2011: DHS: Thousands of ghost names on Hawaii Medicare, Medicaid Rolls (DHS says 27,100 ineligible x $1500 = $40.6M per year)
read ... About time!
Shapiro: Self-Righteous Dogmatists Hijack UH
Shapiro: Each week seems to bring a new example in Hawaii of civil public discourse being hijacked by self-righteous dogmatists waving placards with trite slogans.
It was at the University of Hawaii this time, where retired Lt. Gen. Frank Wiercinski was picketed, booed and hissed as he made his first appearance on campus as one of two final candidates for UH president along with interim President David Lassner.
Without bothering to give Wiercinski a chance to make a case for himself at the first of several Q&A sessions with the candidates around the state, protesting graduate students deemed him unfit for the job solely because of his career in the military.
Their signs said "Demilitarize" and "Hawaiian Values?" The rude nature of the protest was a sorry example of the latter — and of the intellectual immaturity of some at our state university.
The UH protesters were kissing cousins of those at the Capitol a few weeks ago who tried unsuccessfully to block Don Horner from serving on the Board of Education because they didn't approve of the Christian church he belonged to.
Since when did military duty and church membership become disqualifications for public service? It's the most ignorant kind of guilt by association.
KL: UH should be "model indigenous university," Lassner says (pandering to Hawaiian Studies Profs, yawn)
read ... Protesters of UH candidate didn't bother to listen first
Suuurrrprise! Malama Solomon is First to Score Lucrative Property Deal after DHHL Lifts Moratorium
WHT: The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is recommending approval of its first subdivision application on the Big Island since it lifted a moratorium for agriculture land last year.
The Hawaiian Homes Commission approved a moratorium for agricultural subdivisions in December 1999 until a plan could be developed for the properties. The commission lifted it in January 2013 when new subdivision rules were adopted....
When the moratorium was put into effect, she said her parents had already received county building permits. (But that is a lie, as you will discover in the 2nd paragraph down.) Malama Solomon said DHHL told them it was OK to proceed with construction in anticipation the moratorium would be lifted. (uh-huh.)
“We’re not hiding anything,” she said. (Know them by what they deny.)
According to county records, building permits were approved in August 1998, December 1999, February 2000 and August 2003. (ooops!) The last one appears to be for a commercial kitchen, said Noelani Whittington, county Public Works spokeswoman. The structures were completed between 1999 and 2007 (ooops again!).
Flora Solomon received the 99-year land lease in 1994, the senator said....
The subdivision application includes a request for a water variance. The property is served by county water, but the line, by rules, can only serve one lot, county Planning Director Duane Kanuha said.
Chee said DHHL might find water issues with other subdivision proposals. (Translation: You peasants will not be getting Malama Solomon's deal.)
“We have been able to identify two areas that need to be addressed,” he said. “One is water waivers; the other would be recordation with the Bureau of Conveyances. We’ll probably find other streamline issues as we move forward.” (Now that Malama Solomon has got hers, we'll crack down on the rest.)
read ... What Political Influence Will do
Rate Hikes Will Line Tesla's Pockets as Hawaii confronts 'green' energy's bugaboo: batteries
CSM: Storage is the behind-the-scenes bugaboo for “green” energy. Ideally, it would allow wind and solar developers to grow their markets, make grids more efficient, and eliminate the need to expand power production to cover peak loads. But it’s expensive. Until the price of batteries comes down dramatically, progress will be slow. (How will it end up? See Sopogy article below.)
Some green energy advocates say the only problem is scale. (Translation: Everything they have built so far is a failure, but they want us to believe they will get it right this time.) Once advanced batteries are produced in sufficient quantities, they argue, the cost of manufacturing them will fall. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, for example, said this past week that his $5 billion “gigafactory” could bring down the costs of advanced batteries by more than 30 percent. (And if you buy that line of bs, you will be giving him billions of ratepayer dollars.) However, the plant at capacity would produce enough batteries for 500,000 electric cars a year, more than 10 times what Tesla sold in 2013. So, until Tesla sales skyrocket, one of the plans would be to use the excess batteries for green-energy storage. (And his campaign contributions ensure that PUC policy forces utilities to pay for his useless batteries.)
In the case of Hawaii Electric, which issued its requests for proposals last week, the storage needs are short term. It’s looking for 60 to 200 MW of storage capacity that would store electricity for 30 minutes, releasing the power during peak periods to ease congestion on the grid – or when the sky gets cloudy.
IM: The New Energy Frontier: Storage
read ... Rate Hikes Coming
Star-Adv Postmortem on Sopogy Failure
SA: Sopogy was one of several Hawaii startups that benefited from a now-defunct state program known as Act 221 that provided tax breaks to investors who put money into local tech companies. An official at the Hawaii Department of Taxation said the office does not compile data linking the amount of credit claimed to individual qualified companies. However, Kimura said many of Sopogy's larger investors, companies such as Mitsui & Co., SunEdison, Sempra Energy and 3M, did not have a Hawaii tax liability and therefore were not eligible to claim the credit.
Kimura also said that while Sopogy was authorized by the state Legislature to issue up to $45 million in special-purpose revenue bonds, it never exercised that option.
Reality: Panos: Sopogy's Demise is a Huge Victory for Honest Engineering and the Taxpayer
Comment: ...this coverage (is) 'sugar coating' the failure of two companies, Hoku and Sopogy, who, like Sandwich Isles, was taking advantage of Government money? Al Hee of Sandwich Isles is the brother of Senator Clayton Hee, who is now considering running for Lieutenant Governor. Imagine that. Broken Trust rises to the top....
Comment: Just one more shining example of how the "tech industry" in Hawaii is a nest of failed businesses that fed at the tax credit trough. Outgrowth of Act 221/215, the richest tax credit scam in the country. Note the Star Ad fails to follow the money trail, again.
read ... Failure of Crony Capitalism
Failed Obamacare Exchanges Cost Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars
PJ: Fourteen states set up their own Obamacare insurance exchanges instead of participating in the healthcare.gov national exchange. Of those 14 exchanges, 4 are being scrapped, and 2 more might be.
The cost of these failed exchanges is reaching nearly $500 million dollars — with the promise of more good taxpayer money thrown after the bad.
read ... Failed Obamacare
Hanabusa, Schatz differ on Pre-K
SA: The constitutional amendment is critical to Gov. Neil Abercrombie's plan to eventually provide preschool for all of the state's 17,200 4-year-olds at a cost of about $125 million a year. The state wants to give parents access to public and private preschool options, but the state Constitution now prohibits public money from going to private education.
"I'm supporting the amendment," Schatz said in a phone interview....
Hanabusa, who is challenging Schatz in the Democratic primary, opposes the amendment. The congresswoman said there are unanswered questions about whether the shift would lead to a private voucher program and how it would affect the separation of church and state.
PR: Contrasts
read ... A Dime's worth of difference?
VFW Not Ready to Dump Shinseki
SA: Hawaii-born Eric Shinseki, a retired four-star general and since 2009 the secretary of the VA, has been subpoenaed to address the allegations in testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Although he has avoided media interviews, Shinseki must be forthcoming with details for the committee on what he knows about the reports of veterans secretly placed on a waiting list for care, resulting in the deaths of at least 40 veterans. The manipulation appears to be a strategy for hiding the reality of how long veterans must wait when what is desperately needed are reforms to improve responsiveness and efficiency.
However, it's premature to insist on his resignation from office, something that the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans organization, has called for him to do, along with two of his top administrators.
Instead, the best course is to demand action. President Barack Obama has said he will stand behind Shinseki with the expectation that he follow through with the findings of the VA inspector general. The Veterans of Foreign Wars seems to agree.
As the VFW's national commander, William A. Thien, rightly observed: "It is paramount that Secretary Shinseki get publicly in front of this immediately to address the valid concerns of veterans and their families, and to re-establish the credibility of the entire VA health and benefits systems, and that of his own office."
Belatedly, Shinseki has responded to calls by the VFW and others charging the VA for failure to monitor or audit processes at its Phoenix facility, where the most egregious allegations have been unearthed. On Thursday, the secretary ordered a "face-to-face" audit at all VA clinics.
read ... Star-Adv Editorial
Glenn Greenwald: the explosive day we revealed Edward Snowden's identity to the world
UKGuardian: (The most notable thing about this article is that Greenwald is back at the Guardian. Apparently Omidyar's journalism scheme produced exactly nothing--except that it took Snowden's interlocutor out of the picture and made him mark time while the Arch of Hysteria passed him by. After having his time wasted by Omidyar, Greenwald now reemerges at the Guardian and nobody cares about his Snowden stories. Great job Pierre!)
read ... Glenn Greenwald Reemerges from Omidyar's Gilded Cage
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