UPDATE: OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna Recinds Recission
Hawaii’s Schatz among U.S. senators hogging federal earmarks, report says
Molokai Ranch Achieving Success with … Ranching
State Ethics Commission Attacks Free Speech, Right of Assembly
CB: Kondo said the commission is still talking with several organizations to figure out if they are required to file reports, while others have said that they don’t meet the $750 threshold.
“There's a handful that are a little more challenging for us,” said Kondo, who declined to name the groups. “At this point we're still talking to them.”
Kakaako United is one of the organizations that has yet to submit a disclosure form. The group has been advocating against building taller high-rises in Kakaako before officials address infrastructure problems in the area.
Through online petitions and email blasts, protests in Kakaako and at the State Capitol, and testifying at hearings wearing identical red shirts, the group successfully convinced state lawmakers to pass House Bill 1866 this year, changing the make-up of the Hawaii Community Development Authority as well as imposing other new rules.
Bernard Nunies, vice president of the organization, said that the ethics commission had contacted the group near the end of March about filing a disclosure form, but the organization responded that it’s entirely volunteer-based and has no paid employees.
Still, state law requires any organization that lobbies for more than five hours within six months to reveal its donors and expenses. Nunies acknowledged that the group has advocated for more than five hours.
The organization's president, Sharon Moriwaki, said in an email that she has discussed the disclosure requirements with the ethics commission and is waiting to hear back from them about whether or not the group must submit a report.
read ... Hawaii Grassroots Groups Grab Attention of State Ethics Commission
Health Insurance Rate Hikes: Hawaii is a 'Consensus Pick' Thanks to Obamacare Failure
NJ: Premiums will go up, on average, across the board—premiums go up every year. But a range of factors could drive higher-than-average increases in certain places. States that fell short of their overall enrollment goals, and where the people who did enroll are mostly older and sicker, are more at risk for large premium hikes. So are states that don't have much competition among insurers.
"If you lose on all of those, then you're really looking bad," Pearson said....
Hawaii is a consensus pick, and some experts say the state might never be able to support its Obamacare exchange. Hawaii was near the bottom for total enrollment, signing up just 15 percent of its eligible population, and had the second-worst mix of young adults. The state's exchange also suffers from the fact that Hawaii had a low uninsurance rate to begin with—meaning there's a smaller pool of potential customers there, which makes the state less attractive to insurers.
"Hawaii looks problematic. They could have viability problems," said Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
read ... Consensus Pick
Watson: Crabbe Firing Would Start 'Exodus'
CB: It appears the letter was intentionally sent to force the Trustees to reveal any hidden agendas in the nation-building process.
The letter certainly caught OHA Board of Trustees by surprise, as they quickly sent a second letter to Kerry, signed by nine Trustees, attempting to rescind the letter.
Kauai and Niihau Trustee Dan Ahuna appeared to have a change of heart, as he would send a letter removing his name and support from the letter rescinding the CEO’s letter the next day.
Some believe the Trustees may attempt to remove Crabbe from his position for sending the letter, but for the last few years, Crabbe has used his hiring authority within the Office to strategically hire friends and allies. Trustees must consider whether or not they would face a crippling exodus by Crabbe’s staff if they make any further moves to censure or remove him.
The CEO's bold move has certainly created one of the most interesting threats to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in recent memory.
read ... Trisha K Watson
SD23 Riviere Filp-Flop: Now Supports gay marriage
SA: Riviere said he would have voted against gay marriage had he still been in the Legislature during the special session. He said he would have preferred that gay marriage be put before voters in a constitutional amendment, the same position as Fale and Meyer.
"However, now that it is the law, I fully support it. There's no turning back," Riviere said. "I cherish everybody's relationship and respect it and honor that."
Fale said Riviere's moves have been politically calculated to help himself, not the House or Senate districts.
"It's the same old stuff," he said. "It's what people don't like about politics. It's what people don't like about their leaders in state government.
"They want someone who just wants to do the right thing and who's willing to do the heavy lifting and the hard work to make that happen."
Meyer, a conservative Republican, served for 14 years in the House before losing a tight race to Rep. Jessica Wooley (D, Kahaluu-Ahuimanu-Kaneohe) in 2008. Meyer did the best of any Republican Senate challenger when she ran against Hee in 2012, losing by fewer than 1,000 votes.
Meyer was a consistent opponent of higher taxes and fees and an advocate for small businesses in the House.
"I have far more experience than Rep. Fale," she said. "He's just come off his freshman term. His No. 1 issue was the same-sex marriage issue, which is moot now."
read ... Cherish
Anti-GMO Show Timed to Match Pesticide Number Release?
KE: It's election season, which means it's time for another round of fear-mongering. And Hawaii SEED/GMO Free Kauai is only too happy to oblige, this time hosting a statewide tour of anti-atrazine researcher Dr. Tyrone Hayes.
In an amazing stroke of coincidence — if you believe in such things — the tour is being held this week, when the state Department of Health is due to release the results of its statewide samplings for pesticides. I've heard that atrazine was found in Kekaha and glyphosate in Hanalei, though the exact locations and quantities have not yet been publicly disclosed.
Still, the discovery of any amount is bound to illicit fear, especially when Hayes so expertly fans the flames. I can still recall the Facebook response of a peroxided, chain-smoking “A'ole GMO” activist when I pointed out the atrazine found at Waimea Canyon School was in the parts per trillion, well below federal standards:
“There shouldn't be any amount allowed,” she snarled.
Reality: Gawker: Hawaii Anti-GMO Speaker a "Cock-Fixated Megalomaniac Email Addict"
KGI: The philosophy at Syngenta Hawaii
read ... Musings: Squandered Momentum
Personnel details should accompany city settlements
SA: This year the tab reached $3.67 million, as the Honolulu City Council last week unanimously approved settlements of four major legal claims, including $1.4 million for the survivors of a man who was suffocated by the Honolulu police who were trying to arrest him; $1.25 million for a woman whose right foot was amputated after she was hit by a city garbage truck; $950,000 for a pedestrian permanently injured when she was struck in a crosswalk by an off-duty police sergeant driving a city-subsidized vehicle; and $70,000 for a man whose Kaneohe home was violently raided by Honolulu police who mistook his bamboo trees for marijuana plants....
All of the employees involved still work for the city. Other than that, the taxpayers who paid for their misdeeds know very little, including whether any were disciplined at all. This extreme shield of the employees' privacy serves also to guard their employers from accountability.
Absent details of the internal investigations, the public is left to wonder whether flaws in workplace culture, procedures and training that may have contributed to these costly mistakes have actually been corrected.
Once again, the settlements highlight how important it is for state lawmakers to impose more stringent disclosure requirements when government employees commit misconduct on the job. As it stands now, state law requires disciplinary action to be disclosed only if the employee is suspended or fired. Moreover, the suspension-disclosure mandate is not being applied to police officers, despite a legal ruling that it should be; lawmakers wrongly killed a bill this past session that would have delet-ed special treatment for police.
read ... Personnel details should accompany city settlements
Hawaii farmland swelled recently, feds say
SA: The census, published every five years, showed that Hawaii farmers put 8,000 more acres into production between 2007 and 2012, increasing total land used to grow food and other products to 1,129,000 acres from about 1,121,000 acres.
While the gain was relatively small, it is significant given that 180,000 acres was lost during the prior five-year period. Since 1982, farming had ceased on roughly 800,000 acres statewide.
The new growth occurred largely on Oahu, where about 8,700 additional acres were farmed. There also were increases on Maui and Hawaii island, which each gained about 3,000 acres of farmed land. Kauai suffered a loss of 7,400 acres.
Ranching appeared to be the primary factor behind the overall gain, although not on Oahu. The amount of pasture and range land rose by about 30,000 acres, largely offset by a decline in land that has farm-related buildings, roads and other facilities but no crops.
The amount of land farmed in crops decreased by about 3,000 acres.
read ... Thanks to Ranching
Battery Cash: Green Energy Scammers Line up for "Investments"
GI: ...electricity prices to its residents that are three to four times the national average.
Enter the Energy Excelerator, a startup accelerator that provides funding, connections with Hawaiian organizations, and advice to some of the most promising energy-focused startups out there. In an exclusive interview Energy Excelerator Director Dawn Lippert tells me that the group will open up applications for its 2015 program on June 1, and for this upcoming class they’re looking for companies focused on innovations around the edge of the power grid, from energy storage companies to smart grid developers to distributed clean energy innovators.
ILind: Proposed IRS rules could provide another boost for rooftop solar
IM: The Failure of Competitive Bidding
read ... Rate Hikes Coming
Honolulu Rail Takes Shape, City Prepares for Development Boom
CB: To prepare for the rail line, which is supposed to be fully operational by 2019, city planners are busy coming up with designs to revamp neighborhoods that hug many of the planned 21 rail stations.
read ... Honolulu Rail Takes Shape, City Prepares for Development Boom
Crime crackdown sweeps through Waikiki
SA: Louise Jane Brown cries on the sidewalk of Kalakaua Avenue as she recounts a recent assault and other horrors that she has experienced living homeless in Waikiki.
"Shut it," yells a nearby homeless man, whose waste-covered feet are swarmed by flies.
While others in the group of homeless people whom Brown calls "family" are more respectful of her plight, none offers any comfort.
"No one wants to live in this situation," said Brown. "It's horrible. Someone stole my clothes. They've taken my ID. I've lost everything."
Brown didn't report the crimes to the police, but city officials say they are well aware that Waikiki is becoming a hot spot for criminal activity, including violent crimes committed by and against the homeless.
read ... Crime crackdown sweeps through Waikiki
Hawaii Mortality Rate Among Lowest in USA
PEW: Mortality rates – in this case, the number of deaths per 100,000 adults between the ages of 20 and 64 that occur in a given year – vary widely among states. Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Louisiana have the highest age-adjusted rates (which recognize that some states have older or younger populations). Hawaii, California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New York and Massachusetts have the lowest mortality rates, according to 2010 data (the most recent available) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
read ... PEW Foundation
Schatz Defends East-West Center From Pigs
RC: “For years, the State Department tried to eliminate the center by not requesting funding in the department’s annual budget requests,” the group Citizens Against Government Waste said in the “Pig Book.”
Of course, attempting to zero out funding for a center in the home state of a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee was never likely to succeed. That was true for years under the watchful eye of the late Democratic Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, and the center has continued past his death.
Schatz has defended its funding since then, and in a Saturday statement, he particularly seized on the presence of Texas Republican Ted Cruz at the Citizens Against Government Waste 2014 unveil event, along with live pigs and a costumed pig character.
read ... Schatz Defends East-West Center From Pigs
Hawaii could end life sentences for minors
WaPo: Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) is considering whether to sign legislation ending life sentences without the possibility of parole for minors convicted of certain heinous crimes.
The state legislature passed the measure by wide margins in the last week of April; it passed the Senate unanimously, and only one member of the House voted no. Abercrombie has not said whether he would sign the bill, though even some prosecuting attorneys’ offices said they support it.
Hawaii would be just the eighth state to end the practice of sentencing minors to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In recent years, Texas, Wyoming, Delaware and West Virginia have eliminated that punishment, according to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth. Florida lawmakers passed a measure last week to significantly limit the number of crimes for which minors can be sentenced to life without parole.
read ... Hawaii could end life sentences for minors
Kauai Anti-GMO Thug Running for Mayor
CB: Professional surfer, environmental activist and mixed-martial arts fighter Dustin Barca says he is running for the office of Kauai County mayor.
read ... Surfer, Activist Dustin Barca Running for Kauai Mayor
Dispute over Kapolei landfill 'in limbo'
SA: The fate of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill remains uncertain 15 months after the city endeavored to reach a resolution with the community group that's fought the hardest to shutter Oahu's only municipal dump.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the city is looking at "eliminating the need for an everyday landfill," suggesting that the complete shutdown long sought by Leeward area residents is not likely to happen any time soon.
"We're doing everything possible to minimize use of the landfill," Caldwell said. "Almost 90 percent of the trash on this island is either burned or recycled, and I think that is something we can all be proud about."
The other largest portion still going to the landfill is ash residue from what cannot be burned at HPOWER....
"We're looking at technologies to use that ash in a way that serves all of us," he said.
"The end result is that the landfill would be kept open for minimum use — for emergency uses only — until we have a viable option to shut it down altogether," Caldwell said. "I believe that's an attainable goal."
read ... Dispute over Kapolei landfill 'in limbo'
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